[296] Young had condemned war in Satire VII., 55–68; Cowper had spoken against it in the Task, in the lines:—
“War is a game which, were their subjects wise,
Kings would not play at.”
Leigh Hunt and Shelley held exactly Byron’s opinions, and expressed them repeatedly.
[297] It is possible that Byron, in his description of this assemblage, was influenced to some extent by T. L. Peacock, the friend of Shelley, who had published Headlong Hall (1816) and Nightmare Abbey (1818). In these books Peacock had created a sort of prose Comedy of Humors by forming groups of curious eccentrics, each one obsessed by a single passion or hobby, and by giving each figure a name suggestive of his peculiar folly.
[298] Don Juan, XI., 86.
[299] Letters, v., 542.
[300] Don Juan, I., 205.
[301] Don Juan, III., 78–87.
[302] Don Juan, III., 5.