The Practice of Satire in England, 1658–1770

450 Pages·2013·1.664 MB·English

by  Ashley Marshall

The Practice of Satire in England, 1658–1770
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The Practice of Satire in England,
1658–1770
Ashley MArshAll
The Johns hopkins University Press
Baltimore
© 2013 The Johns hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2013
Printed in the United states of America on acid-free paper
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The Johns hopkins University Press
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library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marshall, Ashley.
The practice of satire in england, 1658–1770 / Ashley Marshall.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-4214-0816-3 (hdbk. : alk. paper)—isbn 978-1-4214-0817-0 (electronic)—
isbn 1-4214-0816-3 (hdbk. : alk. paper)—isbn 1-4214-0817-1 (electronic)
1. satire, english—history and criticism. 2. english literature—18th century—history and criticism.
3. english literature—17th century—history and criticism. I. Title.
Pr935.M37 2013
827ʹ409—dc23 2012025275
A catalog record for this book is available from the British library.
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please contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or [email protected].
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For Rob Hume
There can be no adequate criticism that is not solidly based on
the history of the art with which it is concerned.
—r. s. Crane, “history versus Criticism in the
study of literature”
contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
A Note on Texts, Dates, and Money xvii
chapter 1 Canonical and Noncanonical Satire, 1658–1770: Some Questions of
Definition, Aims, and Method 1
I. The “Definition” Quagmire and the Problem of Descriptive Terminology 2
II. Genre versus Mode 5
III. The Modern Critical Canon and Its Implications 8
IV. The Total satire Canon and Its economic Context 14
The Production of satire in england, 1658–1770 14
Price, Format, Dissemination, and Implied Audiences 20
V. some Issues of Coverage and Organization 26
VI. The Uses of a Taxonomic Methodology 30
The Varieties of satire 31
Forecasting some Conclusions 33
The Nature of the enterprise 37
chapter 2 Contemporary Views on Satire, 1658–1770 39
I. Concepts of satire 40
“satire”: etymology and Terminology 40
Definition by Contrast 42
II. The Business of satire 43
The Opposition to satire 44
The Case for satire 48
III. The Practice and Province of satire 53
Acceptable and Problematical satiric Methods 54
Appropriate and Inappropriate satiric Targets 57
IV. Characterizing the satirist 62
V. Perceptions of eighteenth-Century satire Then and Now 65
viii Contents
chapter 3 Satire in the Carolean Period 70
I. some Preliminary Considerations: realities versus Assumptions 72
II. Dryden, rochester, Buckingham 74
Carolean Dryden: lampoonist, social Commentator, Propagandist 75
rochester: skeptical, Provocative, Negative 79
Buckingham’s Purposive satire 82
III. Marvell, Ayloffe, Oldham 86
Marvell as Polemical satirist 86
Ayloffe’s Antimonarchical Diatribes 88
Oldham’s Juvenalian Performances 89
IV. Hudibras and Other Camouflage satires 92
V. Personal and social satire: From lampoons to Otway and lee 97
VI. Chronological Change, 1658–1685 101
VII. Issues: satiric Intensity, Tone, Positives—and the Problem of Application 104
Intensity 104
Tone 105
Presentation of Positives 108
The Problem of Application 110
VIII. The Discontinuous World of Carolean satire 111
chapter 4 Beyond Carolean: Satire at the End of the
Seventeenth Century 113
I. Altered Circumstances 115
II. Dryden as satirist, 1685–1700 119
III. Poetic satire 126
Tutchin, Defoe, and Political satire 127
Gould and Defamatory satire 130
Garth and Blackmore 133
Brown, Ward, and Commercial satire 136
IV. Dramatic satire 139
shadwell and exemplary Comedy 140
Mitigated satire: Cibber, Vanbrugh, Farquhar 143
harsh social satire: Congreve and southerne 145
V. The state of satire ca. 1700 148
chapter 5 Defoe, Swift, and New Varieties of Satire, 1700–1725 150
I. Defoe as satirist 153
Attack and Defense 154
Instruction and Direct Warning (Aimed at the Audience) 155
Indirect exposure and Discomfiture 156
II. religious and Political satire 158
Topical Controversy 158
Monitory satire in the Manner of Defoe 161
Ideological Argumentation: Dunton, Defoe, and Others 165
Contents ix
III. social and Moral satire 168
Generalized satire 168
Didactic satire in the Manner of steele 169
Particularized and Topical satire 171
Argument and Inquiry: Mandeville and Prior 172
IV. The Alleged “scriblerians” 174
V. swift before Gulliver 180
Jokiness and Play 181
Destruction and Negativity 182
Purposive Defamation and Defense 183
Indirection and Difficult satire 186
VI. Characterizing the early eighteenth Century 191
chapter 6 Harsh and Sympathetic Satire, 1726–1745 194
I. Pope and swift among Their Contemporaries 196
Political Commentary and Combat 197
The Culture Wars 201
social satire 205
II. Pope, swift, Gay 209
Pope 209
swift 211
Gay 214
III. The Problem of Meaning in Gulliver’s Travels 220
IV. Fielding and the Move toward sympathetic satire 226
Playful satire and entertainment 227
Provocation and Preachment 227
Distributive Justice: Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones 229
Fielding’s Concept of satire 231
sympathetic satire 234
V. Alive and Well: The state of satire at Midcentury 237
chapter 7 Churchill, Foote, Macklin, Garrick, Smollett, Sterne,
and Others, 1745–1770 239
I. The rise of “Poetic” satire 241
Frivolity and entertainment 242
Moral Preachment 243
Particularized Attack 244
Poeticized satire 246
Churchill’s Nonpolitical satire 248
II. Wilkes, Churchill, and Political Controversy in the 1760s 250
The North Briton 250
Churchill’s Political satire 251
Visual satire 253
Wilkes’s Essay on Woman 254
x Contents
III. satire in the Commercial Theater 255
social Comedy 256
lightweight Afterpiece entertainment 259
samuel Foote 261
Charles Macklin 265
David Garrick 269
IV. satire in the Mid-eighteenth-Century Novel 273
smollett’s Dark satire 274
The late Career of Fielding 276
Tristram Shandy and the singularity of sterne 278
Charlotte lennox, Oliver Goldsmith, sarah Fielding:
satire and sentiment 283
V. satire for a stable era 286
Epilogue: Toward a New History of English Satire, 1658–1770 289
I. Motives and Modes 290
II. remapping english satire, 1658–1770 298
Appendix: Standard Price Categories and Sample Titles 305
Notes 313
Bibliography 355
Index 411