' I beg you, sir, to pardon my speaking well of myself in this one thing, since I doubt not but Mr. Wycherley speaks ill enough of me in some others. But I pardon his jealousy, which is become of his nature, and shall never be his enemy whatsoever he says of me.' Pope to H. Cromwell, October 28, 1710.
Johnson's character of Wycherley is not just. Offence does not seem to have been taken at Pope's corrections, but at his satirising his friend Wycherley at the very time when he professed so much affection for him. Johnson's admiration of Pope's genius made him perhaps a little inclined to side with him in his quarrels more than justice would warrant.