Satire in the Victorian novel

by Frances Theresa Russell

“Of no good bysshop speke I,

Nor good priest I escrye,

Good frere, nor good chanon,

Good nonne, nor good canon,

Good monke, nor good clerke,

Nor yette of no good werke;

But my recounting is

Of them that do amys.”

[31] Barclay: Preface to Ship of Fools.

“This present Boke myght have been callyd nat inconvenyently the Satyr (that is to say) the reprehencion of foulysshnes. * * * For in lyke wyse as olde Poetes Satyriens repreved the synnes and ylnes of the peple at that tyme lyvynge; so and in lyke wyse this our Boke representeth unto the iyen of the redars the states and condicions of men.”