 Alternatively, his fantasy of earning a fortune from his art may require that he keeps his gentlemanly accoutrements around him, as they will be required when his fantasies are realized.The scene shown in "The Distrest Poet" was probably inspired by Alexander Pope's satirical poem "The Dunciad", most likely by the prefatory matter of the second version, the "Dunciad Variorum", which had been published in 1735 and in which Pope confirmed his authorship of the original.The painting and early states of the print included a quotation from Pope's work