Note 151 — POPE. (continued 3)

In one of these poems is a couplet, to which belongs a story that I once heard the reverend Dr. Ridley relate: “Slander or poison dread from Delia’s rage; Hard words, or hanging, if your judge be ****,”

Sir Francis Page, a judge well known in his time, conceiving that his name was meant to fill up the blank, sent his clerk to Mr. Pope, to complain of the insult. Pope told the young man that the blank might be supplied by many monosyllables, other than the judge’s name:—“but, sir,” said the clerk, “the judge says that no other word will make sense of the passage.”—“So then it seems,” says Pope “your master is not only a judge but a poet; as that is the case, the odds are against me. Give my respects to the judge, and tell him, I will not contend with one that has the advantage of me, and he may fill up the blank as he pleases.” H.