 Paulson suggests that the real "villain" of "The Distrest Poet" may be Pope, unseen but representing the successful "Great Poet" whom the deluded aspiring artist hopes to emulate, rather than the distressed poet himself.Hogarth had featured Pope picking John Gay's pocket in the foreground of "Emblematical Print on the South Sea Scheme", an early print he had produced on the theme of the South Sea Bubble (both Pope and Gay had invested money in the scheme).At the same time, within the satire of the painting, the poet who is distressed is going to be one of Pope's dunces.