ssay. The subject might be
made curious by a good Greek scholar, if Pope has really erred
in the degree Cooke asserts. Theobald, who seems to have been
a more classical scholar than has been allowed, besides some
versions from the Greek tragic bards, commenced a translation
of the _Odyssey_ as soon as Pope's _Iliad_ appeared.

[201] In one of these situations, Pope issued a very grave, but very
ludicrous, advertisement. They had the impudence to publish an
account of Pope having been flagellated by two gentlemen in
Ham Walks, during his evening promenade. This was avenging
Dennis for what he had undergone from the narrative of his
madness. In "The Memoirs of Grub-street," vol. i. p. 96, this
tingling narrative appears to have been the ingenious forgery
of Lady Mary! On this occasion, Pope thought it necessary to
publish the following advertisement in the _Daily Post_, June
14, 1728:--

"Whereas, there has been a scandalous paper cried aloud about
the streets, under the title of 'A Pop upon Pope,' insinuating
that I was whipped in Ham Walks on Thursday last:--This is to
give notice, that I did not stir out of my house at Twickenham
on that day; and the same is a malicious and ill-founded
report.--A. P."

[Spence, on the authority of Pope's half-sister, says: "When
some of the people that he had put into the _Dunciad_ were so
enraged against him, and threatened him so highly, he loved to
walk alone to Richmond, only he would take a large faithful
dog with him, and pistols in his pocket. He used to say to us
when we talked to him about it, that 'with pistols the least
man in England was above a match for the largest.'"]

It seems that Phillips hung up a birchen-rod at Button's.
Pope, in one of his letters, congratulates himself that he
never attempted to use it. [His half-sister, Mrs. Rackett,
testifies to Pope's courage; she says, "My brother never knew
what fear was."]

[202] According to the scandalous chronicle of the day, Pope, shortly
after the publication of the _Dunciad_, had a tall Irishman to
attend him. Colonel Duckett threatened to cane him, for a
licentious stroke aimed at him, which Pope recanted. Thomas
Bentley, nep