English Satire E-Book

anonymous

• Herausgeber: Full Well Ventures
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

This article, "English Satire," from the January 1863 issue of The Knickerbocker magazine, provides an in-depth look at the role of satire in classic English literature. 

Leseprobe

English Satire

© 2020 Full Well Ventures

On the cover: Pieter Bruegel’s 1568 satirical painting, “The Blind Leading the Blind”

Originally published in the January 1863 issue of The Knickerbocker

KNICKERBOCKER

English Satire

THERE IS nothing so varied in literature as that branch of it known under the title satire. It has been said by Dryden, ‘that it assumes as multifarious forms as Nature itself,’ and this is true. At one time it appears like the lurid lightning, darting with menace in its gleam from the bosom of some angry storm cloud; at another it plays as harmless as that sheet-lightning, one sees so often disporting itself at the close of a sultry summer afternoon, in the glad summer-time. It has its uses in literature, in whatever form it may appear, and is active for good or evil, in proportion as its influence may be felt or unheeded. As to whether satire derives its descent from Greece or Rome, which once gave rise to quite a Battle of the Books, is of little moment to us at present.

Our English satirists borrow largely from the Roman. Donne, the quiet canon of St. Paul’s; Sir Thomas More, with his gentle satire, carried even to the edge of the dreadful block, and jesting with the very headsman, like Raleigh; Skelton, Erasmus, Pope, Swift, Churchill; and even Sydney Smith, in our day, seem to have been thoroughly imbued with the very spirit of the Horatian or else the Juvenalian satire. Who familiar with the works of the Venusian bard does not recognize Horatian humor, and the rare pungency of sly Horatian wit, in the following, from the writings of the great satirist of our day? ‘These over-zealous religious people hate pleasure and amusement — no theatre, no cards, no dancing, no Punchinello, no dancing-dogs, no blind fiddlers. All the amusements of the rich and the poor must vanish, whenever these gloomy people get a footing. It is not the abuse of pleasure they attack, however much it is guarded by good sense and morality. It is not only wicked to hear the licentious plays of Congreve, but wicked to hear ‘Henry the Fifth,’ and the ‘School for Scandal.’ It is not only dissipated to run about to parties in Edinburgh and London, but dancing in its most innocent form is not fit for a being preparing himself for eternity. Ennui, melancholy, groans, sighs, and epileptic fits are thank-offerings which these unhappy men make to the good God, who has covered the earth with gay colors, scented it with rich perfumes, and told us there was a time to dance and a time to mourn.’

Or how full of the nettle-sting of the Horatian satire is the following, in reply to the Rev. Mr. Styles, who had complained of the humor and irony the ‘Critic’ had brought to bear upon him:

‘We are really amused with the disrelish which Mr. John Styles exhibits to the humor and pleasantry with which we have attacked him; but Styles should remember, that it is not the practice with destroyers of vermin to let the little creatures have a veto upon ‘the weapons used against them. If this were otherwise, we should have one set of vermin banishing small tooth-combs, another set protesting against mousetraps, a third prohibiting the finger and thumb, the fourth exclaiming against the intolerable use of soap and water. They must all be caught, killed, and cracked by such instruments as are found most efficacious against them.’