A later eighteenth century view is voiced by Cowper:[262]
“Most satirists are indeed a public scourge;
Their mildest physic is a farrier’s purge;
Their acrid temper turns, as soon as stirr’d,
The milk of their good purpose all to curd.
Their zeal begotten, as their works rehearse,
By lean despair upon an empty purse,
The wild assassins start into the street,
Prepar’d to poignard whomsoe’er they meet.”
It is with reference to this conception, induced by this type of satire, that a modern critic observes, “It is commonly held by the unreflecting that your satirist is bitter, your humorist a jester.”[263]