In his Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot, first published in January 1735, Alexander Pope drew the portrait of a literary rival. Such a man would “Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,” and was “Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike.”
In his Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot, first published in January 1735, Alexander Pope drew the portrait of a literary rival. Such a man would “Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,” and was “Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike.”