.**."-.!iwnr«*Mt--!V--.--i mm. it. L^A^mAiJjlz fc * * ;£ *^_^J i /^ ; .w^^ Byron a& « Satirist 6 7 Charles A. fordyee-CUrk «s> Byron as a Satirist, toy Charles A. Fordyce-Clark A Thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of English. The University of British Columbia, April, 1925. Table of Contents. Section. Page 1. Introduction — definition. 1 2. Byron's Heritage from Preceding Satirists. 5 3. Inherent Predisposition to Satire. 15 4. The Satires in the English Tradition. 20 5. Italian Influence and the Later Satires. 41 6. The Scope of His Satire. 58 7. Conclusion. 77 Bibliography. 80 Byron as a Satirist. 1. In defining and dealing with satire there is, perhaps, more difficulty than with the other genres of literature. The narrative and lyric are easily re-cognisable as epic, novel, ode, and so on. We are soon made aware of the presence of the ogre of didactic intent in any literary vehicle. But so often there is another passenger, like the romantic spirit, in-tangible, who boards and alights here and there. It is the satiric spirit., which is more or less apparent wherever the mirror is held up to Nature. It has its place in Shakespearean drama, in the lyrics of Shelley, and the novels of Thackeray. It may be assumed, then, to be an element in normality. With cause this spirit may become highly developed in the individual or group, and what was in a normal state tolerable and even amus-ing, may become when carried further, obtrusively annoy-ing both to those who suffer from its ministrations and to those who must witness the wholesale execution and inconoclasm which follow in the wake of the satiric spirit ranging for revenge. 2. In such cases of unusual development of satiric habits of thought, a v/riter may bring forth a work which is classified as a "satire.u Thus arises the necessity of giving a definition to the form which is so called in the works of writers ancient and modern. Aa for the satirist himself, it is almost a norm that he should evidence some highly distinctive abnormality. A satire may be defined or described as a literary form in which the writer expresses his amuseraent or disgust at what appears to him as ridiculous or un-seemly. When this is done wittily or humourously, the product becomes more than mere invective. So, too, the maintenance of literary form prevents reversion to the level of the coarse satiric exchanges flung at random by the degraded characters in ancient Greek and Latin comedy. Especially must the satirist, therefore, who desires any lasting remembrance for his performance ensure its technique and finish. 1. "Humour is the making others act or talk absurd-ly and unconsciously; wit is the pointing out and ridi-culing the absurdity consciously, and with more or less ill-nature." Wm.Hazlitt: "Lectures on the English Poets: on Dryden and Pope." 3. The satire in poetic form, i.e. the verse-satire, may be argued very reasonably to be a species of the lyrical genre. In the ode the writer expresses enthusiasm, in the elegy, sorrow or sadness. "Et quand enfin ii epanche sa colore ou sa bile, c'est alors de la satire. En d'autres termes, satire morale ou politique, satire litteraire, la satire est toujours une expression du moi du satirique; et, quelque forme qu'elle rev&te, prose ou vers, la podte ne s'en sert que comme d*un moyen d'opposer sa facon de sentir ou de penser a celles qui ne sont point les siennes, et qui excitent pour ce motif sa colore ou son indignation, son horreur ou sa crainte, son m^pris ou son ironie."1. The satiric notes in the lyric utterance of Byron as the romantic Childe Harold become the predominating strain of the cynical Don Juan. The aim of satire is primarily destructive. Any professed moral purpose accompanying the chastening is, if it exists, likely to be wholly secondary and is not allowed to interfere with the main purpose. In his egotism the satirist focuses attention upon the discrepancies in the world external to his ego, a world 1. La Grande Encyclopedic; Satire. 4. upon which his assumption of superiority allows him to look down. From his exalted place he passes judgment, always condemnatory, for, where he has been displeased, it is his pleasure to notice only incongruities, and he finds joy in destroying, or attempting to destroy, what he considers other people's illusions. Satire of the highest type is written from this, so to speak, position of eminence which admits—almost impells—the employment of the superior weapons, mockery and raillery. Some pedestrian satirists never reach this position, never become adepts with the finer weapons; and some who have gained it after the effort of years, still retain the tendency to forsake, in an impassioned moment, this tactical advantage to rush directly at the objective.:1 1. e.g. Byron in "The Age of Bronze." 5. 2. Byron'B Heritage from Preceding Satirists. The human—or inhuman—propensity for satire appears in the literature of Ancient Greece, yet it does not exist in that concentrated form which later ages employ, "Elle ne s'y rencontre qu'a l'e'tat diffus." It requires a hypercritical age, no less than a hypocritical one. Fools and villains are its quarry, and it postu-lates a fine eye for faults and a sharp tongue. Given these materials, the rest depends on the satirist's imagination and audacity. - Metrical satire did, indeed, receive an impetus from Archilochus and other writers of the dim past whose work received the approval of Horace and ^uintilian. It is an interesting fact that the latter asserts that satire is an Italian growth.3 It is a far cry from the rude recriminations of the early Italian folk to the — * — • — • — l — r - r ^ l - i irr—i 1 • m .i i - i i -i •_ • - M i i ii i i III m !• « iw n -IT -i - - i - -i i i i i ~ • I ~i m m • m 'i i i • • m \m 1* Notably in the comedies of Aristophanes. 2. La Grande Encyclopedic: Satire. 3. Inst. Orat. X. i. "Satura quidea tota nostra est." The whole question of Greek and Alexandrian influence is still being debated. 6. refinement of Roratian rally and Juvenalian censure hut the evolutionary process is logically traceable; and while the classical form commanded the attention of scholars in other lands, the satire in the vernacular continued to develop, awaiting export in a later age. The coarse jests and repartee of the Saturnian versifiers were consolidated to form the "satura" which implies "medley." From this source and from Old Greek comedy, Andronieus received inspiration for his satiric drama, and likewise JSnnius for his "satura" in dialogue form. , But it was Lucilius who determined the form and tone of classical Roman satire* A bachelor of doubtful character, his mind stocked with the obscene abuse of Athenian comedy, and with political animus besides, he set the fashion of attacking and neglected the milder delineation in caricature that is so often the manner of such a gentler spirit as Horace. He was followed by Persius and imitated by a pupil after his own heart—Juvenal. . These three, Horace, Persius and Juvenal, are the models for the English Augustans who regarded Lucilius as too primitive and lacking in "justesse." They gave the Romans credit for more "moral purpose" than is consistent with the known characters of the ancient writers, although in fairness 7. to Dryden it must be said that he suspected that Persius1 repeated frankness on the subject of sex did not spring from the purest of motives. Satire as developed and polished by Dryden and Pope is probably the most obvious example of classical Latin influence on English Literature. In their trans-lations and imitations the English writers, to effect a correspondence with the Latin hexameters and elegaic couplets, employed the decasyllabic line and the heroic couplet. Their familiarity with the content and tone of their models isy reflected also in their original work. Byron's reaction to his Italian masters produced similar effects. Bdfore this intensive cultivation of English satire there were centuries of slower development that leave a specific national flavour. There is the satiric verse in Mediaeval Latin of which the chief theme is the scandalous conduct of the ecclesiastical and monastic orders. This pseudo-Juvenalian stuff is usually trace-able to some no less scandalous "clerkes" who "lack advancement." Chaucer incorporates these ideas in his delineation of "Frere", M.onke", and "Somner", with, possibly, the addition of moral earnestness, which, though a. not, as already observed, an essential element in satire, is met with occasionally even in formal satire. "Piers Plowman" is, perhaps, the best example in Early English Poetry of satire which aims at moral reform. Skelton, Marprelate, and the early polemical writers are not strictly satirists even though they afford a comprehensive lesson in invective. Nash, in his "Four Letters Con-futed", expresses dislike for poems purely satiric, while, on the other hand Lodge and Donne sustain the vogue of satire. Their method is to employ a Horatian intro-duction to a medley of invective in restricted compass against "the town." Hall's scope is wider; and his urbanity, even his couplets, looks forward to Pope. Among the Italian importations of Wyatt and Surrey wa& the ottava rima, destined to be the stanza form of "Don Juan." It was, however, employed in expressing sentiments far removed from its native association with the burlesque, and its popularity was. brief. It suffered a sea-change into the Spenserian stanza which Byron himself employed before adopting the more exotic form. 1. e.g. Drayton: The Barronsr Warres* 9. The "Imitations" and "Hints" of Pope and Byron are faintly adumbrated in the method and treatment of Thomas Drant's "Medicinable Morail", in which the moral purpose of the English writer directs the attack most strongly against hypocrisy. But the humour and sym-pathy of his satire fades in the enthusiasm for Persius which Oasaubon and Montpellier aroused in the eighteenth century writers who set more store by vehemence than by moral purpose. When the Elizabethans "under fained private names noted generall vices"» they were, in fact, giving expression to personal enmity and partisan strife. Aside from Addison and Steele, the sincerity of any pro-fessed moral purpose in English satire after Oldham is doubtful. During the civil wars formal satire was neglected for the vituperative pamphlet. "Inter arma satura silet." Even the sublime Milton descends to Billings-p gate. The Restoration permitted the bigoted Butler to hurl the coarsest abuse at everything Puritanical. 1. The Medicinable Morall of Thos. Drant, that is, the two Books of Horace his Satyres, Englyshed according to the prescription of Saint Hierome (1566). A 2.v. "Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence against Smectymnuus." 10. The licence, audacity, and bizarre rhymes, which are the features of Butler's octosyllabics, appear in the wider scope of Swift's satire which Byron greatly admired. The genius of Dryden was concentrated upon satire only after years of attention to other literary forms. His literary training, self-control, and good taste in using pseudonyms give his satire a universality and per-manence which are denied the efforts of those who, while still apprentices to the craft, attempt particularised invective. But the tradition of the island and the disposition of the age was to limit the application of satire to the individual or, at the widest, the well-defined group. The spirit of English satire was malicious. Embodied in Pope it became supremely so. His genius, though inspired by, could scarcely comprehend to the full the universal wit of Dryden, or the ingenuity involved in producing "Absalom." But ease, urbanity, cold-blooded capacity for dissection of character, to-gether v/ith a fine sense for correctness in detail and lack of hampering scruples, were added to malice and wit and subtle irony to make Pope the prime influence upon later satirists in verse. His effect upon Byron is tempered by two important intermediaries, the fiery Churchill of "Rosciad" fame, and the irascible and scurrilous author 11. of the "Baviad" and "Maeviad", William Gifford (1756-1826). Nor is the plastic satiric genius of Byron free of debt to the manner of the imposing Dean Swift who, v/ith inimitable irony, holds up to the world a mdrror which reflects only to distort. On the continent such famous names as Dante, Cervantes,