Satire

Satire, one of the capital divisions of literature, is in its essence criticism of man and his works, whom it holds up either to ridicule or to scorn. One of the greatest masters in the art (Dryden) describes it as—

The boldest way, if not the best,
To tell men freely of their foulest faults,
To laugh at their vain deeds and vainer thoughts.

The chief instruments of the satirist's equipment are irony, sarcasm, invective, wit, and humour, this last generally in its lower or inferior grades. The satiric denunciation of a writer burning with indignation at some social wrong or abuse is capable of reaching to the very highest level of literature. The writings of a satirist of this type, and to some extent of every satirist who touches on the social aspects of life, present a picture, more or less vivid, though not of course complete or impartial, of the age to which he belongs—of the men, their manners, fashions, tastes, and prevalent opinions; thus they have a historical as well as a literary and an ethical (or philosophical) value. All types of satirist, except the philosophical and the social, tend to be personal in their criticism. Their invective too often slips into scurrilous abuse, or verbal insolence and the calling of opprobrious names; and their ridicule is either light badinage, or playful irony, or sarcastic mockery, or caricature, or rollicking fun, or jeering laughter. How powerful an instrument satire is for influencing men's actions, especially in the sphere of politics, has been abundantly manifested from the day when Elijah taunted the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel to the latest cartoon of Punch or Kladderadatsch or Puck. Satiric writers have made use of many different forms of literature: Dryden and Pope, for instance, adopted the mock-heroic epic, Ulrich von Hutten chose epistles, Langland (Piers Plowman) and Quevedo imaginary visions, Cervantes and Swift the mock romance, Marnix and the writers of Reynard the Fox the beast-fable, Voltaire fictitious travels, Molière and Gay plays, John Barclay the allegory, James and Horace Smith the parody. Pictorial illustration was turned to splendid purpose as a satiric weapon by Hogarth, and by the caricaturists (Rowlandson, Gilray) and cartoonists of more modern times; and medals even have been put to satiric purposes.

Ancient Greece, though she never produced a school of satire, had in Aristophanes and others men of the highest satiric genius. Archilochus (720-680 B.C.) is the first we read of as having used the iambic metre for the purposes of satire. He wrote with such effect that certain of his victims are said to have gone and hanged themselves. Simonides of Amorgus and Hipponax of Ephesus intervene between Archilochus and Aristophanes. The last named is the most brilliant representative of the Athenian Old Comedy, the writers of which, bold and outspoken, constituted themselves censors of public morality and critics of current events. Satire as a special branch of literature was the creation, the only original literary creation, of the practical-minded Romans. It grew out of the rude aramatic medleys (saturæ) with which, in primitive republican times, the citizens were wont to be diverted on the occasion of large festive gatherings. The father of poetical satire was Lucilius, who criticised boldly and freely, equally without moral indignation and without any desire to provoke laughter. It is, however, Horace and Juvenal whose names are principally associated with Roman satire. Both expended their chief efforts upon social topics; but whilst the former uses satire as a medium for recording his personal tastes and distastes, and enlarging on his own experience, and writes with the easy good-nature of a thorough man of the world, Juvenal dwells upon the tragic and sombre aspects of the society of his time (the age of Domitian and Trajan), and denounces them with the scornful indignation of the moralist. Horace is the model, the archetype of 'classic satire,' the form that was imitated or adapted by the French satirists of the school of Boileau and by their English successors. For grim intensity of scorn and sustained power of invective Juvenal's work has never been equalled; indeed the only man who can at all be put on the same level with him is Dean Swift. The Greek Lucian, and the Romans Persius, Petronius, Martial, and Apuleius, all wrote satire, but in different forms; and some of the strongest satire ever written stands in the grave pages of the historian Tacitus.

During the long night of the dark ages satire, like most other branches of good literature, was almost entirely neglected. It began to revive in the 10th century: certain of the early versions of Reynard the Fox (e.g. Reinardus Vulpes and Reinaert Vos) are thinly disguised satires on the clergy. This class continued a favourite butt until past the Reformation; they were attacked, for instance, by the goliards, wandering scholars with a turn for witty buffoonery, who jotted down their effusions in doggerel Latin verse. Walter Mapes, whose name is connected with the preservation of the Grail legends, wrote (12th century) vigorous Latin verses in the same strain.

The first notable name in the annals of English satire is that of William Langland, who in Piers Plowman inveighs against the clergy and mendicant orders, the law-courts, and abuses generally. Skelton, who railed at Wolsey, and at the clergy, was perhaps the wildest and most reckless of English satirists. Thomas Nash, one of the most able opponents of the Martin Marprelate writers, puts a good deal of strong vituperation into his Anatomie of Absurdity (1589). The invectives of Gosson and Stubbes are not satire, for they are hardly literature. In the same century Scotland had two satirists of rare quality, one in Sir David Lyndsay, whose Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, written in the vernacular, helped to pave the way for the Reformation, and the other in George Buchanan, the ripe scholar of his country, who made the Franciscans smart under his cutting irony. Bishop Joseph Hall and John Donne are chiefly notable as the forerunners of Dryden and Pope, both writing classic satire in the heroic verse measure. Then came John Barclay, the author of the clever political allegory Argenis (1621); Andrew Marvell, who was very skilful in the use of banter, with which he assailed the private and social corruptions of the reign of the second Charles; Oldham (1653-83), an imitator of Horace and Juvenal, and a writer who in spite of much extravagance had something of the gift of true satiric wrath, which he expended upon the Jesuits; and Congreve, the master of witty repartee, who went in for light lampooning, and in The Double-dealer and other pieces ridiculed the fashionables of the Restoration. But the reputations of all these is eclipsed by Samuel Butler, the writer of Hudibras, a burlesque character-sketch, in doggerel rhymes, of the Puritan anti-royalist. He was seconded, though at a long distance, by the royalist Cleveland, who enjoyed great popularity in his day for his satires on Cromwell and the Scotch. The greatest English writer in the field of classic satire was John Dryden; a manly, large-hearted man, a stranger to meanness and spite, he spoke out boldly and dealt downright stunning blows, pouring the most unsparing ridicule upon Shaftesbury, the supporters of Monmouth, the literary satellites of the Whigs, and the poet Shadwell. Amongst others who had to repent for having provoked 'Glorious John' were the Duke of Buckingham, author of the Rehearsal, and Tom Brown 'of facetious memory.' The reign of Anne is, however, the golden age of English satire, its brightest ornaments being Swift, Pope, and Addison. The first named is both philosophical and personal in his treatment, and writes with marvellous force of invective and savage scorn. Pope, as a man almost the direct opposite of the masculine Swift, had a wholly inimitable way of putting things, with the finest point and precision, elegance and ease, and the keenest wit. His satire is by preference personal, strongly spiced with malice, and feminine spite, and elfish fun. Next to these two comes Addison, whose subtle irony and exquisite literary touch and admirable character-sketching are familiar to all readers of good English. Gay, the friend of satirists, had literary partnerships with Swift, Pope, and Arbuthnot, and won enormous success with The Beggars' Opera, a hit at the social vices of the day. Dr Arbuthnot, the chief if not sole author of Martinus Scriblerus, in which he gibbeted the pedantic follies of antiquaries and metaphysicians, is best known for his History of John Bull, an amusing attack on Marlborough and the war policy of the Whigs. Dr Johnson too tried his hand at satire, and wrote London and The Vanity of Human Wishes in free imitation of Juvenal. Young of the Night Thoughts wrote on The Universal Passion (i.e. love of fame), but without much point. Charles Churchill is the most important satirist between Pope and Byron. A literary swashbuckler, he assailed with plenty of Drydenic vigour the actors, critics, and opponents of Wilkes (of whom he was a rabid partisan), as well as Dr Johnson, Warburton, and other individuals. Sir C. Hanbury Williams, one of Walpole's men, was accounted by his admirers a master of the light political squib in gay and easy verse. But he is altogether overshadowed by 'Junins,' whose polished sarcasm, cutting invective, and dignity of style elevated the political pamphlet to the level of permanent literature. Wolcot (Peter Pindar), a sort of street buffoon in letters, a man with more rolling wit and impudence than real malice, poked rare fun at the oddities of George III., at Sir Joseph Banks, the French philosophers, &c. Gifford, the founder of the Quarterly, was a translator of Juvenal and author of some vigorous but ill-bred invective; thus, Peter Pindar, who had assailed him personally, is styled a 'dotard,' 'reptile,' and 'brutal sot.' Cowper denounced in old-fashioned satire the extravagances of a society he knew at second hand only. A much greater name than any of these in the annals of satire is that of Burns, who hated as he loved, well and ardently; uniting reckless glee with fine irony and boisterous fun with keen wit, he hit out boldly at hypocrisy and pride of birth, as well as at individuals. Byron turned his ready command of easy verse and fluent sarcasm, and his keen appreciation of an opponent's weak places, to admirable account in his celebrated rejoinder to the Scotch critics, and in his attack upon the Lake poets (Vision of Judgment). But his satiric masterpiece is of course Don Juan. Tom Moore's political squibs in verse are full of sparkle, waggery, and airy fancy. Political warfare indeed has always been very prolific of satirical effusions, especially in England; The Rolliad (1784-85) and The Anti-Jacobin (1797-98) series may be instanced. Theodore Hook wrote in John Bull satires, vigorous, scurrilous, but funny, upon the Whigs and lampoons upon Queen Caroline. James and Horace Smith in The Rejected Addresses raised parody to perhaps its highest level. A more or less distinctive vein of satire occurs in the writings of Douglas Jerrold, Leigh Hunt, and Landor. Thackeray has said some very fine things about quacks and fools, snobs and toadies, and has many exquisite touches of satire scattered through his novels. He is also distinguished as the author of some of the finest burlesques in English. Carlyle employed the resources of his powerful genius—thundering invective, grand rhetoric, indignant scorn, grim humour, satiric gloom—in denouncing the shams of human society and human nature; and admirable social satire, in prose or verse, in article, in novel or in poem, has been written by Sydney Smith, Hood, Dickens, Disraeli, Browning, George Meredith, Lytton, Tennyson, and Swinburne.

On the other side of the Atlantic satire has been cultivated by Washington Irving (Knickerbocker), Panlding, Lowell (Biglow Papers), Holmes, Artemus Ward, Charles Dudley Warner, and others. Some of the best American satire—not always the best known—is remarkable alike for its delicacy and its effectiveness, and takes rank not unworthily with that of other countries.

Many of the best French Fabliaux (12th and 13th centuries) are essentially social satires, and of these not a few are of high literary quality; Jean de Meung (13th century) was a true satirist; the first in France to write satires on the classic model was J. Vanquelin de la Fresnaye, in the 16th century. The Huguenot D'Anbigné made a bold, impetuous onslaught upon the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics; nor did he spare Henry of Navarre. His greater contemporary Regnier, a writer of pungent but polished verse, confined himself to general satire of poets, pedantic dryadists, hypocrites, and the types of which French satire has always been so fond. Rabelais, to lash the abuses of monkery, had long before written one of the greatest masterpieces of the world's literature. Pierre Pithou had a hand in the Satire Ménippée, which cast so much discredit upon the chiefs of the League. But the real exponent of classic satire in France was Boileau, who set the example to Dryden, Pope, and the English school. But few among the countless mazarinades attained the dignity of permanent literature. La Bruyère wrote, by the way, exquisite social satire, influenced by Theophrastus; Molière, besides his other gifts, stands among the greatest satirists of the world; the Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules of Bussy-Rabutin and the Historiettes of Tallemant des Réaux supply a form of malicious personal satire, hardly found out of French literature. There is ample store of fine satire alike in the fiery wrath of Saint-Simon's Mémoires and the sprightly malice of Madame de Sévigné's letters. Pascal's onslaught upon the Jesuits is a piece of work that for polished irony and literary grace, as well as for effect, still stands unrivalled. Théophile de Viand, Motin, and Berthelot all wrote satirical books. Voltaire is the next great satirist of France; a downright scoffing, a master of mocking irony and stinging sarcasm, he penned personal lampoons with the same gusto with which he sneered at religion and the politics of the day. Contemporary with him were M. J. Chénier, and Piron. Béranger turned the chanson or song into a powerful weapon of political warfare; Courier too wrote political satires.

Ulrich von Hutten, though he wrote chiefly in Latin, is the first great German satirist. He made fiery and fierce attacks upon papal rule. His name recalls that of his greater contemporary Erasmus, who, besides satirising the superstition and ignorance of the ecclesiastics, found ample opportunity in numerous personal quarrels for the effective use of a biting sarcasm. Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff ridicules certain typical classes of men. Murner and Fischart followed in the footsteps of Hutten. Gryphius and Moscherosch deal with characters of the Thirty Years' War. Rabener, Liscow, and Kästner wrote general satire. Wieland ridiculed popular credulity and litigiousness. The true successors of Hutten are Jean Paul and Lichtenberg. The former indulges in general social satire, and steepens all he says in a golden bath of the rarest humour; Lichtenberg is much more bitter and severe. Goethe and Schiller both wrote satire—e.g. in the Xenien, a collection of verses on their literary contemporaries. Goethe also had a hit at Wieland, and Schiller at tyrannical rulers. Tieck, Hauff, and Hamerling all deserve mention here; and especially so does Heine, first because of the mocking spirit he breathed upon nearly everything he touched, and second because of his Atta Troll, a burlesque sketch of his countrymen.

The satirists of the remaining countries of Europe must be very briefly enumerated. Spain has two men of the highest rank in Cervantes and Quevedo. Holland boasts of Marnix (St Aldegonde) and Anna Bijns, who took opposite sides in the Reformation quarrel; and it produced much fair satire through the literary guilds. Italy's principal satirists are Dante, Ariosto, Salvador Rosa, the writers of macaronic verse, Alfieri, and Carlo Gasparo Gozzi. In Scandinavian literatures we have the nothing verses of the ancient Norsemen, and in more recent times admirable satire by Wessel, Holberg, Paludan-Müller, Ibsen, Kjelland, and Strindberg. The corruptions of the officers of government in Russia have been mercilessly exposed by Gogol and Schchedrin (Soltykoff).

See the articles under the several writers' names in this work; the standard histories of literature mentioned under the respective countries; such articles as BURLESQUE, CARICATURE, FABLIAUX, and PARODY; and more especially Hannay, Satire and Satirists (1854); and 'English Political Satires,' in Quar. Rev. (1857).