that Pope's asperity might betray his pain and lessen his dignity.
He should therefore have suffered the pamphlet to flutter and die,
without confessing that it stung him. The dishonour of being shown
as Cibber's antagonist could never be compensated by the victory.
Cibber had nothing to lose. When Pope had exhausted all his
malignity upon him, he would rise in the esteem both of his friends
and his enemies. Silence only could have made him despicable; the
blow which did not appear to be felt would have been struck in vain.
But Pope's irascibility prevailed, and he resolved to tell the whole
English world that he was at war with Cibber; and, to show that he
thought him to common adversary, he prepared no common vengeance.
He published a new edition of the "Dunciad," in which he degraded
Theobald from his painful pre-eminence, and enthroned Cibber in his
stead. Unhappily the two heroes were of opposite characters, and
Pope was unwilling to lose what he had already written. He has
therefore depraved his poem by giving to Cibber the old books, the
old pedantry, and the sluggish pertinacity of Theobald.

Pope was ignorant enough of his own interest to make another change,
and introduced Osborne contending for a prize among the booksellers.
Osborne was a man entirely destitute of shame, without sense of any
disgrace but that of poverty. He told me, when he was doing that
which raised Pope's resentment, that he should be put into the
"Dunciad;" but he had the fate of Cassandra. I gave no credit to
his prediction, till in time I saw it accomplished. The shafts of
satire were directed equally in vain against Cibber and Osborne;
being repelled by the impenetrable impudence of one, and deadened by
the impassive dulness of the other. Pope confessed his own pain by
his anger; but he gave no pain to those who had provoked him. He
was able to hurt none but himself; by transferring the same ridicule