TRI. (to VADIUS). Go, go, and make restitution to the Greeks and Romans for all your shameful thefts.
VAD. Go and do penance on Parnassus for having murdered Horace in your verses.
TRI. Remember your book, and the little noise it made.
VAD. And you, remember your bookseller, reduced to the workhouse.
TRI. My glory is established; in vain would you endeavour to shake it.
VAD. Yes, yes; I send you to the author of the 'Satires.' [Footnote:
Boileau.]
TRI. I, too, send you to him.
VAD. I have the satisfaction of having been honourably treated by him; he gives me a passing thrust, and includes me among several authors well known at the Palais; but he never leaves you in peace, and in all his verses you are exposed to his attacks.
TRI: By that we see the honourable rank I hold. He leaves you in the crowd, and esteems one blow enough to crush you. He has never done you the honour of repeating his attacks, whereas he assails me separately, as a noble adversary against whom all his efforts are necessary; and his blows, repeated against me on all occasions, show that he never thinks himself victorious.
VAD. My pen will teach you what sort of man I am.