Throughout his life, Budgell was embroiled in a number of costly, complicated legal problems, including a financial scandal regarding Matthew Tindal's will. He also claimed to have been targeted by Sir Robert Walpole, to whom he attributed his troubles and whom he satirized in some of his poetic and prose works. Pope attacked Budgell, a Whig, for his dependence on Addison, paranoia, and legal issues in The Dunciad as well as other poems. These issues presumably contributed to Budgell's eventual suicide, which he justified on the basis of Addison's Cato.