Satire in the Victorian novel

by Frances Theresa Russell

Come, Panegyric,” * * *

In The Author he asks, “Lives there a man whom Satire cannot reach?” And the author of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers declares that vice and folly will—

“More darkly sin, by Satire kept in awe,

And shrink from ridicule, though not from law.”

But Marston and Defoe, already quoted on the other side, have their dubious moments. Says the former,[23]

“Now, Satire, cease to rub our galled skins,

And to unmask the world’s detested sins;

Thou shalt as soon draw Nilus river dry

As cleanse the world from foul impiety.”

And the latter[24] would be sanguine if he could: