indignatio, and it is from this perennial spring that a steady flow of eulogy has irrigated the history of satire.
A representative of the Elizabethan group is Marston:[1]
"I would show to be
Tribunus plebis, 'gainst the villainy
Of those same Proteans, whose hypocrisy
Doth still abuse our fond credulity."
Milton manages here as elsewhere to sound a clarion note over the clash of seventeenth century partisanship:[2]
"A taste for delicate satire cannot be general until refinement
of manners is general likewise; till we are enlightened enough
to comprehend that the legitimate object of satire is not to
humble an individual, but to improve the species. * * *
For a satire as it is born out of a tragedy so it ought to resemble
its parentage, to strike high, to adventure dangerously at the
most eminent vices among the greatest persons."
Defoe[3] echoes Dryden,[4] both speaking with reasonable
consistency; and even Pope[5] tries to make out a case for
himself. But the completest paean is from the pen of
John Brown.[6] His poetic analysis begins at the beginning:
"In every breast there burns an active flame,
The love of glory, or the dread of shame:
The passion one, though various it appear,
As brighten'd into hope, or dimm'd by fear.
- ↑ Scourge of Villainy.
- ↑ Apology for Smectymnuus.
- ↑ "The end of Satire is reformation." Preface to The Trueborn Englishman.
- ↑ "The true end of Satire is the amendment of vices by correction." Preface to Absalom and Achitophel.
- ↑ "Now the author, living in these times, did conceive it an endeavour worthy an honest satirist, to dissuade the dull, and punish the wicked, in the only way that was left." Preface of Martinus Scriblerus to The Dunciad.
- ↑ An Essay on Satire. Occasioned by the death of Pope. Inscribed to Dr. Warburton. In Dodsley's Collection of Poems, Vol. III.
