dreading a surreptitious edition, was forced to publish it.

The event is said to have been such as was desired, the pacification
and diversion of all to whom it related, except Sir George Brown,
who complained with some bitterness that, in the character of Sir
Plume, he was made to talk nonsense. Whether all this be true I
have some doubt; for at Paris, a few years ago, a niece of Mrs.
Fermor, who presided in an English convent, mentioned Pope's work
with very little gratitude, rather as an insult than an honour; and
she may be supposed to have inherited the opinion of her family. At
its first appearance at was termed by Addison "merum sal." Pope,
however, saw that it was capable of improvement; and, having luckily
contrived to borrow his machinery from the Rosicrucians, imparted
the scheme with which his head was teeming to Addison, who told him
that his work, as it stood, was "a delicious little thing," and gave
him no encouragement to retouch it.

This has been too hastily considered as an instance of Addison's
jealousy, for, as he could not guess the conduct of the new design,
or the possibilities of pleasure comprised in a fiction of which
there had been no examples, he might very reasonably and kindly
persuade the author to acquiesce in his own prosperity, and forbear
an attempt which he considered as an unnecessary hazard. Addison's
counsel was happily rejected. Pope foresaw the future efflorescence
of imagery then budding in his mind, and resolved to spare no art or
industry of cultivation. The soft luxuriance of his fancy was
already shooting, and all the gay varieties of diction were ready at
his hand to colour and embellish it. His attempt was justified by
its success. The "Rape of the Lock" stands forward, in the classes
of literature, as the most exquisite example of ludicrous poetry.