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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN ENGLISH
AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
BYRON AS A SATIRIST IN VERSE
COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY PRESS
SALES AGENTS
NEW YORK :
LEMCKE & BUECHNER
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LONDON :
HENRY FROWDE
Amen Corner, E.G.
TORONTO :
HENRY FROWDE
25 Richmond Street, W.
LORD BYRON AS A SATIRIST IN
VERSE
BY
CLAUDE M. FUESS
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements
FOR the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the
Faculty of Philosophy, Columbia University
NEW YORK
1912
353 K
Copyright, 19 12
By Columbia University Press
Printed from type, July, 1912
All rights reserved
This Monograph has been approved by the Department of
English and Comparative Literature in Columbia University as a
contribution to knowledge worthy of publication.
A. H. THORNDIKE,
Secretary.
254231
^0
MY WIFE
PREFACE
This dissertation is an out-growth of some studies in
English satire, particularly in the eighteenth century, and
the book is to be regarded merely as a chapter in the
history of English satiric poetry as a whole. The initial
suggestion for this special phase of the broader subject
came from Professor W. P. Trent, to whose wide scholar-
ship and suggestive comment I have been throughout
under great obligation. Professor A. H. Thorndike, who,
with Professor Trent, read the work in manuscript, con-
tributed valuable advice regarding its arrangement and
contents ; while Professor J. B. Fletcher was of much
assistance in criticising the sections dealing with Byron's
indebtedness to the ItaHan poets. My colleague, Mr. A.
W. Leonard, read the first two chapters, and offered much
aid in connection with their style and structure. It is a
pleasure to acknowledge the stimulus given by my studies
under various members of the Departments of English and
Comparative Literature at Columbia University, among
them the late Professor G. R. Carpenter, Professor W. A.
Neilson, now at Harvard, Mr. J. E. Spingarn, and Pro-
fessors Krapp, Lawrence, and Matthews.
C. M. F.
Phillips Academy, Andover,
June ig, igi2.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PARE
I. ā Introductory i
II. ā English Satire from Dryden to Byron . lo
III. ā Byron's Early Satiric Verse ... 39
IV. ā " English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers" 48
V. ā " Hints from Horace" and "The Curse
OF Minerva " 77
VI.ā The Period of Transition .... 93
VII. ā The Italian Influence . . . .113
VIII.ā" Don Juan " 163
IX.ā " The Vision of Judgment " . . .188
X.ā" The Age of Bronze " and " The Blues " 202
XI. ā Conclusion 210
Bibliography 219
Index 225
Lord Byron as a Satirist
in Verse
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Byron's puzzling character and fascinating career have
been tempting themes for many biographers, Uttle and
great, from Sir Egerton Brydges and Tom Moore to Pro-
fessor Emil Koeppel and Mr. Richard Edgcumbe. His
Hterary product, too, has been, for the most part, so care-
fully and exhaustively treated by the critics of many
nationalities that there is small excuse for adding one more
volume to a bibliography already so comprehensive. It
happens, however, that though his contribution to satiric
poetry was extensive and important, his actual work in that
field has been made the subject of no intensive stud3^ It is
the object of this essay to fill this gap by considering, so far
as it is possible in a brief treatise, the special qualities
which distinguish Byron's satiric spirit, and by analyzing
and classifying the modifications of that spirit as they are
shown in his poetry. The wide range of material to be
investigated naturally precludes any attention to the events
of his life, except when these throw light on the inception or
I
2 LORD !3VRC)>i. 'AS .A SATIRIST IN VERSE
composition of particular satires. Nor is it practicable
to devote any space, except by way of illustration or refer-
ence, to his poetry in general, or to his letters and prose
pamphlets. The scope of the dissertation will be restricted
to include a discussion only of his satire in verse.
The lamentable absence of any established body of cri-
teria available as a basis for the study of satire is a difficulty
which must be recognized and met at the very outset.
First of all, therefore, it is necessary to make clear just
what matter is to be included under the rather vague head-
ing, satire. Broadly speaking, satire comprises any manifes-
tation of the satiric spirit in literature ; but this statement
is really evasive, since the satiric spirit, like the roman-
tic spirit, is intangible and not susceptible to precise defi-
nition. In general, as Professor Tucker has pointed out,
the essential feature of th e satiric spi rit, wherever found,
is its disposition to tear down and destroy . Variations in
temper and aim may exist in different satinsts; other sub-
servient emotions may appear and other feelings may oper-
ate, in individual cases, to modify the underlying mood ;
but fundamentally the satiric spirit is negative and pessi-
mistic. ' It furthers disillusion by confronting rom ance
jvithrealis m and fiction with fact. The satirist thus per-
ceives ana exposes incongruity,"~the discrepancy between
profession and performance. He is actuated always by a
destructive motive, and it is his function to condemn and to
reprove.
Humor is, of course, usually a concomitant of satire, but
' That satire is primarily destructive criticism was asserted by Hein-
sius in a familiar passage quoted approvingly by Dr>^dcn in his Essay
on Satire: ā " Satire is a kind of poetry ā in which human vices, ignorance,
and errors, and all things besides, which are produced from them in
every man, are severely reprehended." The same theory is expressed
by De Gubernatis in his Storia della Satira: ā "La satirafe, sovra ogni
cosa, una negazione."
/
INTRODUCTION
authorities differ as to its value. Dryden, considering the
question from the standpoint of the literary artist, says : ā
"The nicest and most delicate touches of satire consist in
fine raillery." Gifford, posing as a moralist, takes another
position: ā "To raise a laugh at vice is not the legitimate
office of satire, which is to hold up the vicious, as objects of
reprobation and scorn, for the example of others, who may
be deterred by their sufferings." When humor is wanting
and the mood is entirely vituperative, the result is invec-
tive, which some critics are desirous of excluding arbitrarily
from satire. But however advantageous it may be, for
practical reasons, to limit the application of the word satire,
it is difficult to neglect invective; and in this essay, since
a considerable part of Byron's so-called satire is sheer abuse,
failure to treat that portion of h js_work would result in
much c^nf-ttsioTr: An~additional argument for including
invective is furnished by the fact that to pass it over would
mean relegating outside the domain of satire a large pro-
portion of the work of other authors who have always been
classed as satirists, among them Churchill and Gifford.
Nor is it possible to insist upon the reformatory purpose
behind the satiric spirit. Dryden's dictum that the sati-
rist "is bound, and that is ex officio, to give his reader some
one precept of moral virtue," commendable as it may be,
has been by no means a universal law for satire, and one is
forced to admit that whatever emphasis particular satirists
may have given to this rule in theory, the common practice
has too often been at variance with it. Ultimately the
single indispensable element of the satiric spirit is the wish
to deny, rebuke, or destroy.
It is evident that the satiric spirit may show itself, to a
certain extent, in nearly every known type of literature,
even at times in the epic or the lyric, to say nothing of the
prose essay or novel. The specific term satire ought, how-
ever, to be applied solely to a work in which the predomina-
4 LORD BYRON AS A SATIRIST IN VERSE
ting motive is attack, whether on individuals, on institutions,
or on mankind in general. Thus we say that Childe Harold
has satiric features; but it is not, like The Age of Bronze,
strictly a satire. For present purposes, too, it is desirable
to narrow the field definitely by discussing the satiric spirit
only so far as it has chosen verse for its medium, and by dis-
carding the drama as belonging to another department of
research. The subject may be further confined by neg-
lecting poems which are obviously unliterary and make no
pretensions to constructive or stylistic merit. The title
verse-satire will be used loosely to fit any fonnal literary
production in verse devoted ostensibly to negative criti-
cism, whether direct or indirect, animated by sympathy
or hatred; in short, to any non-dramatic poem, whatever its
method, which has for its principal or avowed object the
holding of vice, folly, or incapacity up to ridicule or repro-
bation. In Byron's work there are many poems containing
slight satiric elements, and others which are plainly
satires in the narrower sense of the term ; some are conven-
iently labelled, while others must be tested with regard to
their intention and manner, and classified accordingly.
Our not altogether adequate definition has been inten-
tionally made broad that it may comprise any formal expres-
sion of the satiric spirit in verse. The verse-satire as thus
described may select its material from every province of
human activity: literature, society, politics, and morals.
It may range in tone from half-tolerant raillery, as in the
Satires of Horace, to stem intolerant invective, as in the
Satires of Juvenal. Its metliod may be either direct or
indirect : direct, as in the formal classical satire, in which the
purpose is distinctly stated; indirect, or dramatic, as in the
fable, where the same end is sought through a more subtle
or less obvious channel. Finally it may appear in one of
several specialized types, each with peculiar characteristics
of its own : the so-called formal or classical satire, based on
INTRODUCTION 5
Latin, French, or Italian models, represented in English
literature in the poetry of Hall, Oldham, and Pope; the
mock4ieroic^ sometimes directly satiric as in Pope's Diin-
ciad, sometimes indirectly so, as in his Rape of the Lock; the
epigram and lampooji, used by Prior and Swift; the po-
litical ballad or song, illustrated in the verse of Marvell and
Charles Hanbury Williams; the satiric fable, borrowed by
Yalden, Gay, Whitehead, and others from ^Esop and La
Fontaine; a nd the burl esgue, with its two subdivisions ā
parody, used in Philips' Splendid Shilling, which inten-
tionally degrades the blank verse of Milton, and travesty,
illustrated in Byron's Vision of Judgment, which gives an
inferior treatment to lofty material. It is hardly necessary
to add that these types, with others of less significance, con-
tinually encroach upon each other, so that two or more are
frequently mingled in one poem. The single feature com-
mon to them all, however, is the tendency to deride or
assail; therefore, in spite of their many superficial differ-
ences, they are classed together because of their general
tone of negation.
A consideration of Byron's satiric spirit as it is shown in
his verse involves an investigation of the objects of his
attack, whether individuals, classes, or institutions, and a
discussion of the relation of his satire to contemporary Hfe
in literature, society, politics, and morals. It also necessi-
tates a study of the forms which he adopted, the methods
which he utilized, and the manner which he was incHned to
assume. Something ought also to be said of his indebted-
ness to other satirists, Latin, English, and Italian, and of
his place and influence in the evolution of English satire.
Lastly, a summary is required of the peculiar characteristics
which distinguish his satiric spirit and make his work dis-
tinctive or unique.
Sir Walter Scott's generous assertion that his rival
"embraced every topic in human life" is, of course, hyper-
6 LORD BYRON AS A SATIRIST IN VERSE
bole; but one may be permitted to suspect that the variety
and compass of Byron's genius have not always been suf-
ficiently dwelt upon. Even sympathetic critics have been
in the habit of forgetting that in all three of what are ordi-
narily reckoned the chief divisions of poetry ā the narrative,
the lyrical, and the dramatic ā Byron achieved distinct
success. The same may be said of his attempts at poetry
of a descriptive and meditative sort. That Manfred and
Beppo, Childe Harold and "She walks in beauty like the
night,'' bear the same writer's signature is convincing proof
not only of the fecundity but also of the diverseness of his
talent. What is true of his work as a whole is also true of
his satire. It is to be found in several forms: the satiric
tale, the formal or classical satire, the travesty, the epi-
gram, and the mock-heroic. It is sometimes scurrilous,
sometimes didactic, and sometimes playful. It carries its
attack into many fields: into literature in English Bards;
into society in The Waltz; into poHtics in The Age of Bronze;
and into morals in Don Juan. Finally in Don Juan, his
longest and most important poem, the satiric spirit blends
with other elements, romantic, tragic, realistic, and collo-
quial, to produce what Paul Elmer More calls "to many
critics the greatest Satire ever written."
Professor Courthope traces throughout Byron's poetry
three main currents of feehng: the romance of the dilet-
tante, the indignation of the satirist, and the lyrical utter-
ance of the man himself. Of these three emotions,
continues the critic, one comes in turn to predominate over
the others at different periods, as external circumstances
affect the poet. This analysis is, on the whole, discerning
and uncontrovertible; but despite the fact that Byron so
often ventured into romantic and lyric poetry, there is good
cause for maintaining that his mind was primarily satiric
in its observation of life. If we accept the testimony of his
nurse, May Gray, as it was taken down by Moore, Byron's
INTRODUCTION 7
first lisping in numbers was in the nature of satire, being a
short lampoon on an old lady who had irritated him by her
curious notions regarding the destination of the soul after
death. ' These verses, according to May Gray, date from
1798, when the boy was ten years old. During the ensuing
years he engaged in writing satire, without many intermis-
sions, until his career closed in 1824 with Don Juan still
unfinished. In no other branch of literature was he led to
undertake such a series of poems through so long a period.
His narrative poetry cannot be said to have begun before
Childe Harold (18 12); as a dramatist he published nothing
anterior to Manfred (1817) ; and even his lyrics appeared at
infrequent intervals and in no great numbers. During
most of his life, on the other hand, he engaged in satire of
one kind or another. The Curse of Minerva was brought
back from his early travels, along with the first two cantos
of Childe Harold; The Waltz is almost synchronous with the
Giaour; and The Vision of Judgment was being planned
while he was composing Cain. Even in the period between
the Waltz (18 13) and Beppo (18 18), during which no long
verse-satire of his was published, he wrote The Devil's
Drive (181 2,), Windsor Poetics (18,14), and A Sketch (1816),
besides other shorter epigrams. Thus Byron's satiric spirit
was persistent and conspicuous from the date of Fugitive
Pieces (1806) until his death eighteen years later.
The position which Byron occupies in the history of j
English satire is especially important because he is, in many v.^
respects, the last of the powerful satirists in verse. English
Bards, and Scotch Reviewers, published in March, 1809, is '
perhaps the last of the great English satires in the heroic
couplet measure. It is a final vigorous outburst in the
genre which, originating possibly with Wyatt, and improved
by Donne and Hall, culminated in the satires of Dryden,
and then passing successively through the hands of Pope,
^ See Poetry, VII, I.
8 LORD BYRON AS A SATIRIST IX VERSE
Churchill, and Gifford, underwent many modifications,
and seemed, down to the end of the eighteenth century, to
be losing gradually in universality and permanent value.
The revival in which Byron took part, but which, as we shall
see, was not altogether occasioned by him, was spasmodic
and temporary ; and in the hundred years since the appear-
ance of English Bards, our literature has produced no single
satire in the same manner worthy of being placed by the side
of the Dunciad, the Rosciad, or even the Baviad. Byron
himself, though he continued to write this sort of satire up
to the time of The Age of Bronze, never equalled his early
success. Eventually he turned from his standard models,
Pope and Gifford, and under the inspiration of Italy and
Italian authors, made his chief original contribution to
satire in Beppo, Don Juan, and The Vision of Judgment. He
thus, in a significant way, closes and sums up the work of
an old and passing school, at the same time bringing into
English satire the infusion of a new spirit and method.
With these facts in view, it is convenient and not illogical
to arrange the major part of Byron's satiric verse into two
distinct groups. The one, deeply rooted in classical and
English tradition, conforming to established conventions
and obeying precedents well understood in our language,
includes English Bards, Hints from Horace, The Curse of
Minerva, The Waltz, and The Age of Bronze, besides other
works shorter and less noteworthy. The other, retaining
something of the "saeva indignatio" of Juvenal and Swift,
but embodying it in what may be called, for want of a better
term, the Italian burlesque spirit ā that mood which, vary-
ing in individual authors, but essentially the same, prevails
in the poetry of Pulci, Berni, and Casti ā comprises Beppo,
Don Juan, and The Vision of Judgment. Generally speak-
ing, this division on the basis of sources corresponds to a
difference in metre : the classical satires employ, almost from
necessity, the iambic pentameter couplet, while those in the
INTRODUCTION 9
Italian manner adopt the exotic ottava rima. This classi-
fication is also partly chronological, for the English satires,
with the exception of The Age of Bronze and some short epi-
grams, were written before 1817, and the Italian satires
appeared during the eight years following that date, while
Byron was in Italy and Greece.
The numerous ballads, political verses, and personal
epigrams, some printed in the daily newspapers, others sent
in letters to his friends, constitute another interesting group
of satires, about which, however, no very satisfactory gen-
eralizations can be made. There are also lines and passages
of a satiric nature in other poems, but these, casual as they
are, need to be mentioned only because of their connection
with ideas advanced in the genuine Verse-Satires, or because
of some especial interest attaching to them.
In taking up the separate poems included in this mass
of material it seems best to observe, as far as practicable,
a chronological order, for by so doing, we may observe the
steady growth and broadening of Byron's ability as a sati-
rist, and trace his connection with the events of his time.
However, before proceeding directly to an analysis of the
poet's work and methods, it is necessary to say something
of his predecessors in EngHsh satire, from many of whom
he derived so much.
CHAPER II
ENGLISH SATIRE FROM DRYDEN TO BYRON
Enough has been said to hint that Byron's quahties as
a satirist in verse are often best to be explained by a refer-
ence to the methods and influence of those who went before
him. So far as his connection with English satire is con-
cerned, Byron was indebted in part to a widespread and
somewhat conventional satiric tradition established by
Pope and in part also to the special characteristics of certain
individual satirists like Gifford. Unfortunately the field of
English satire has been investigated carefully only to the
close of the Elizabethan era; it is, therefore, imperative to
present, as a working basis, a brief outHne of the course of
satiric verse during the century or more prior to Byron's
own age. Such a summary being of value here chiefly as
affording material for comparison, detailed treatment need
be given only to the more conspicuous figures, particularly
to those to whom it is possible Byron was under obligation.
The years between the accession of Charles II and the
death of Pope saw a remarkable advance in the quantity
and quality of published satiric work, in both prose and
verse. For this development several causes may be assigned.
As the romantic enthusiasm of the Renaissance died away
or exhausted itself in fantastic extravagance and license,
the new age, in reaction, became gradually more reasonable
and^practical. Its general tendencies were academic, intro-
spective, and critical: literature began to analyze itself and
to frame laws for its own guidance; societv found amuse-
ENGLISH SATIRE FROM DRYDEN TO BYRON II
ment in laughing at its own follies and frivolities ; moralists
were occupied in censuring misbehaviour and in codifying
maxims for the government of conduct./" This critical
spirit, whenever it became destructive, naturally sought
expression in satire, Party feeling, too, grew violent in
dealing with the complex problems raised by the bloodless
revolution of 1689 and its aftermath; moreover, most of the
prominent writers of the da3^ gathered as they were in Lon-
don, allied themselves with either Whigs or Tories and
engaged vigorously in the factional warfare. In the urban
and gregarious life of the age of Anne, the thinkers who
sharpened their wits against one another in clubs and coffee-
houses esteemed logic and good sense higher than romantic
fancy. Their talk and writing dealt mainly with practical
affairs, with particular features of political and social life.
It is not at all surprising that this critical and practical
period should have found its most satisfactory expression
in satire ā a literary type which is well fitted to treat of
definite and concrete questions.
Before 1700 interest in English satire centres inevitably
around_the name of Dry den. Among his contemporaries
"were, of course, other satirists, some of them distinguished
by originality and genius. The true political satire, used
so effectively against the Parliamentarians by Cleveland
(1613-1658), had been revived in the work of Denham
(1615-1669) and Marvell (1621-1678). Formal satire in
the manner of Juvenal and Boileau had been attempted
by Oldham (1653- 1683) in his Satires against the Jesuits
(1678-9). Moreover, several new forms had been intro-
duced: Butler ( 1 612-1680) in Hiidibras (1663) had created
an original variety of burlesque, with unusual rhymes,
grotesque similes, and quaint ideas; Cotton (i 630-1 687) in
his Scarronides (1664) had transplanted the travesty from
the French of Scarron; and Garth (1661-1719) had com-
posed in the Dispensary (1699) our earliest classical mock-
12 LORD BYRON AS A SATIRIST IN VERSE
heroic. Marvell, Rochester, Sedley, Dorset, and others
had written songs and ballads of a satiric character, most
of them coarse and scurrilous. But the work of these men.
like that of their predecessors in satire, Lodge, Donne, Hall,
Marston, Guilpin, Wither, and Brome, is, as a whole, crude
and inartistic, rough in metre and commonplace in style.
Dryden, who took up satire at the age of fifty, after a long
and thorough discipHne in literary craftsmanship, avoided
these faults, and polished and improved the verse-satire,
preserving its vigor while lending it refinement and dignity.
Dryden's satire is distinguished by clearness, good taste,
and self-control, i The author was seldom in a rage, nor was
he ever guilty of indiscriminate railing^. Seeking to make
his victims ridiculous and absurd rather than hateful, he
drew them, not as monsters or unnatural villains, but as
foohsh or weak human beings. ' It is significant, too, that
he did not often mention his adversaries by the ir real n ames,
but referred to them, for the most part, by pseudon^'ms, a
device through which individual satire tends constantly to
become typical and universal. Although he asserted that
"the true end of satire is the amendment of vices by correc-