He said afterwards--though, considering the relations of the men, some misunderstanding is probable--that Pope had indirectly instigated this attack through the bookseller, Lintot.

If so, Pope must have deliberately contrived the trap for the unlucky Dennis; and, at any rate, he fell upon Dennis as soon as the trap was sprung.

Though Dennis was a hot-headed Whig, he had quarrelled with Addison and Steele, and was probably jealous, as the author of tragedies intended, like _Cato_, to propagate Whig principles, perhaps to turn Whig prejudices to account.

He writes with the bitterness of a disappointed and unlucky man, but he makes some very fair points against his enemy.

Pope's retaliation took the form of an anonymous "Narrative of the Frenzy of John Dennis."[5] It is written in that style of coarse personal satire of which Swift was a master, but for which Pope was very ill fitted.