Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“I wish'd the man a dinner, and sat still.”
- Source
- Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot
- Date
- 1735
Meaning of “I wish'd the man a dinner, and sat…”
The satirical speaker portrays restraint as refusing to escalate a literary attack, answering hostility with a comic wish that the critic’s need might be relieved.
Where does it come from?
An Epistle from Mr. Pope to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735 first-edition scan), printed page 8 / scan leaf 14, around lines 148–150. After saying Gildon drew his “venal quill,” Pope says he wished him a dinner and did not answer the attack. The first edition reads “sate still,” while the later/normalized Gutenberg #9800 witness underlying the frozen catalog reads “sat still”; this collection wording is retained and the witness variation is disclosed rather than silently rewritten.
