Publications of the University of Pennsylvania: Series in philology ...

Whatever may have been the relation of satire among the Romans to so-called satire among the Greeks (a matter disputed in Dryden's time, and still imperfectly understood), it is universally agreed that formal satire, in the sense already indicated, began in Latin literature. No less certainly, wherever it has appeared in modern literature it has been under Latin influence. As has already been said, it is a self-conscious form, and requires for its full development a selfconscious and self-critical age. The first age of this kind in England was that of Elizabeth, when the beginnings of all formal and conscious literary modes took shape.1 When to this is joined the fact that it was an imitative age, and the further fact that it followed close upon the revival of classical learning, it is clear enough why formal satire should have arisen in England just when it did. We may conveniently look for its beginnings where we look for those of nearly all other exotic forms, in the middle of the sixteenth century; and we shall find that, like the other forms, it had passed through a period of development and decline by the time of the accession of Charles the First, and was ready for new development under the new influences of the seventeenth century. It is the purpose of the present study to trace its rise during the period thus defined.

Some preliminary clearing of the ground will be necessary. It will first be in order to consider rapidly the appearances of satire, in the broader sense of the word, in English literature previous to the period of classical influence, in order to be able to recognize new elements by comparison with the old. It must next be inquired just what the classical satirists did, and how they came to be imitated on the continent and in England. We shall then be in a position to reach some general conclusions as to the relations of native English and classical elements. The particular satirists of the period chiefly under consideration will then be taken up in detail. 1 See Warton: History of English Poetry, Hazlitt ed., vol. iv. p. 362.