With these facts in view, it is convenient and not illogical to arrange the major part of Byron’s satiric verse into two distinct groups. The one, deeply rooted in classical and English tradition, conforming to established conventions and obeying precedents well understood in our language, includes English Bards, Hints from Horace, The Curse of Minerva, The Waltz, and The Age of Bronze, besides other works shorter and less noteworthy. The other, retaining something of the “sæva indignatio” of Juvenal and Swift, but embodying it in what may be called, for want of a better term, the Italian burlesque spirit—that mood which, varying in individual authors, but essentially the same, prevails in the poetry of Pulci, Berni, and Casti—comprises Beppo, Don Juan, and The Vision of Judgment. Generally speaking, this division on the basis of sources corresponds to a difference in metre: the classical satires employ, almost from necessity, the iambic pentameter couplet, while those in the Italian manner adopt the exotic ottava rima. This classification is also partly chronological, for the English satires, with the exception of The Age of Bronze and some short epigrams, were written before 1817, and the Italian satires appeared during the eight years following that date, while Byron was in Italy and Greece.
The numerous ballads, political verses, and personal epigrams, some printed in the daily newspapers, others sent in letters to his friends, constitute another interesting group of satires, about which, however, no very satisfactory generalizations can be made. There are also lines and passages of a satiric nature in other poems, but these, casual as they are, need to be mentioned only because of their connection with ideas advanced in the genuine Verse-Satires, or because of some especial interest attaching to them.
In taking up the separate poems included in this mass of material it seems best to observe, as far as practicable, a chronological order, for by so doing, we may observe the steady growth and broadening of Byron’s ability as a satirist, and trace his connection with the events of his time. However, before proceeding directly to an analysis of the poet’s work and methods, it is necessary to say something of his predecessors in English satire, from many of whom he derived so much.
CHAPTER II
ENGLISH SATIRE FROM DRYDEN TO BYRON
Enough has been said to hint that Byron’s qualities as a satirist in verse are often best to be explained by a reference to the methods and influence of those who went before him. So far as his connection with English satire is concerned, Byron was indebted in part to a widespread and somewhat conventional satiric tradition established by Pope and in part also to the special characteristics of certain individual satirists like Gifford. Unfortunately the field of English satire has been investigated carefully only to the close of the Elizabethan era; it is, therefore, imperative to present, as a working basis, a brief outline of the course of satiric verse during the century or more prior to Byron’s own age. Such a summary being of value here chiefly as affording material for comparison, detailed treatment need be given only to the more conspicuous figures, particularly to those to whom it is possible Byron was under obligation.
The years between the accession of Charles II and the death of Pope saw a remarkable advance in the quantity and quality of published satiric work, in both prose and verse. For this development several causes may be assigned. As the romantic enthusiasm of the Renaissance died away or exhausted itself in fantastic extravagance and license, the new age, in reaction, became gradually more reasonable and practical. Its general tendencies were academic, introspective, and critical: literature began to analyze itself and to frame laws for its own guidance; society found amusement in laughing at its own follies and frivolities; moralists were occupied in censuring misbehaviour and in codifying maxims for the government of conduct. This critical spirit, whenever it became destructive, naturally sought expression in satire. Party feeling, too, grew violent in dealing with the complex problems raised by the bloodless revolution of 1689 and its aftermath; moreover, most of the prominent writers of the day, gathered as they were in London, allied themselves with either Whigs or Tories and engaged vigorously in the factional warfare. In the urban and gregarious life of the age of Anne, the thinkers who sharpened their wits against one another in clubs and coffee-houses esteemed logic and good sense higher than romantic fancy. Their talk and writing dealt mainly with practical affairs, with particular features of political and social life. It is not at all surprising that this critical and practical period should have found its most satisfactory expression in satire—a literary type which is well fitted to treat of definite and concrete questions.
Before 1700 interest in English satire centres inevitably around the name of Dryden. Among his contemporaries were, of course, other satirists, some of them distinguished by originality and genius. The true political satire, used so effectively against the Parliamentarians by Cleveland (1613–1658), had been revived in the work of Denham (1615–1669) and Marvell (1621–1678). Formal satire in the manner of Juvenal and Boileau had been attempted by Oldham (1653–1683) in his Satires against the Jesuits (1678–9). Moreover, several new forms had been introduced: Butler (1612–1680) in Hudibras (1663) had created an original variety of burlesque, with unusual rhymes, grotesque similes, and quaint ideas; Cotton (1630–1687) in his Scarronides (1664) had transplanted the travesty from the French of Scarron; and Garth (1661–1719) had composed in the Dispensary (1699) our earliest classical mock-heroic. Marvell, Rochester, Sedley, Dorset, and others had written songs and ballads of a satiric character, most of them coarse and scurrilous. But the work of these men, like that of their predecessors in satire, Lodge, Donne, Hall, Marston, Guilpin, Wither, and Brome, is, as a whole, crude and inartistic, rough in metre and commonplace in style. Dryden, who took up satire at the age of fifty, after a long and thorough discipline in literary craftsmanship, avoided these faults, and polished and improved the verse-satire, preserving its vigor while lending it refinement and dignity.
Dryden’s satire is distinguished by clearness, good taste, and self-control. The author was seldom in a rage, nor was he ever guilty of indiscriminate railing. Seeking to make his victims ridiculous and absurd rather than hateful, he drew them, not as monsters or unnatural villains, but as foolish or weak human beings.[3] It is significant, too, that he did not often mention his adversaries by their real names, but referred to them, for the most part, by pseudonyms, a device through which individual satire tends constantly to become typical and universal. Although he asserted that “the true end of satire is the amendment of vices by correction,” he rarely, except in poems which were designedly theological, permitted a moral purpose to become obtrusive.
Deliberately putting aside the octosyllabic metre of Butler as too undignified for satire, Dryden chose what he called the “English heroic,” or iambic pentameter couplet, as best suited to heroic poetry, of which he considered satire to be properly a species. This measure, already employed by Hall, Donne, and others as a medium for satire, is, as Dryden perceived, admirably suited for concise and pointed expression. Having used it successfully in his plays, he was already familiar with its possibilities and skilful in its management, and in his hands it became harmonious, varied, and incisive, a very different measure from the couplet as handled by even so near a contemporary as Oldham.
Excellent as Dryden’s satires are, they cannot be said to have had an influence proportionate to their merit. Defoe’s True-born Englishman (1701), probably the most popular satire between Absalom and Achitophel and the Dunciad, did undoubtedly owe much to Dryden’s work; and it is also true that MacFlecknoe suggested the plot of the Dunciad. During the eighteenth century, however, Dryden’s satires were not extensively imitated, chiefly because they were superseded as models by the work of Pope. Of the satirists after Pope, only Churchill seems to have preferred Dryden, and even he followed the principles of Pope in practice. Thus historically Dryden is of less importance in the history of satire than his successor and rival.