Satire in the Victorian novel

by Frances Theresa Russell

[163] Framley Parsonage, 264.

[164] Ibid., 266.

[165] On dramatic irony, see American Philological Association Transactions, 1917, for summary of an interesting unpublished paper read before the Society by Dr. J. S. P. Tatlock.

[166] As advised by John Brown in his Essay on Satire:

“The Muse’s charms resistless then assail,

When wrapt in irony’s transparent veil;

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Then be your lines with sharp encomiums grac’d;

Style Clodius honorable, Busa chaste.”

And not long before this, Dryden had been saying: “How easy it is to call rogue and villain, and that wittily! But how hard to make a man appear a fool, a blockhead, or a knave, without using any of these opprobrious terms! * * * Neither is it true that this fineness of raillery is offensive. A witty man is tickled while he is hurt in this manner, and a fool feels it not.” Essay on Satire, 98.