Satire in the Victorian novel

by Frances Theresa Russell

Would humble many a tow’ring poet’s pride.”

(Charity.)

[61] Sea Dreams.

[62] Collected Essays, I, 187.

[63] Post Liminium.

[64] Preface to Headlong Hall, in the Aldine edition of Peacock, 40. In his Essay on Comedy, Meredith goes beyond mere absence of hate:

“You may estimate your capacity for comic perception by being able to detect the ridicule of them you love, without loving them the less; and more by being able to see yourself somewhat ridiculous in dear eyes, and accepting the correction their image of you proposes,” 72.

It is true that on the next page he differentiates,—“If you detect the ridicule, and your kindliness is chilled by it, you are slipping into the grasp of satire.” But he is evidently using satire in the older, narrower sense.

[65] John Brown’s Essay on Satire.

[66] Spectator, 209. L.