addressed. So is Pope's masterpiece, the epistle to Arbuthnot. The same glow of feeling is manifest in the epistle to Bethel and in the reference to him in the Essay on Man. Pope has been so often-and with so much justice-stigmatised as waspish, venomous, malignant, that it is worth while calling attention once more to this other st of his character. If he was a bitter enemy, he was also a warm friend. What is peculiar in the case of Pope is the sharpness of the contrast. It is unfortunate for his reputation as a man that his literary work brings into prominence the less amiable features of his character. As a poet, it is his special praise that he carried his own particular style to perfection. Of his numerous imitators none ever equalled him. They could fashion smooth couplets, but the ineffable something which made the couplets worth remembering was wanting. For energy Dryden, and for polish Pope, are the culminating points of classical satire in English verse.

CHAPTER X

POST-RESTORATION PROSE SATIRE

NOTICE has already been taken of the cessation of satire towards the end of the reign of King James I. It was even more complete in prose than in verse, and it continued almost without a break till near the close of the seventeenth century. Notwithstanding the fact that in the course of the Stuart period the principles of a sound prose style were gradually evolved, and that, in spite of the censorship, a great mass of material was produced in the shape of pamphlets and journals-Corantos, Mercuries, Newsletters and what not-only a small portion of it deserves to rank as literature at all, and a still smaller fraction as satire. A revival might have been expected after the Restoration; but the success of the new satire in verse, whether Hudibrastic or classical, delayed the development of satire in prose. Probably no man has read the whole of the vast mass, and it is conceivable that some literary gem may lie buried there. What is certain is that no one has yet found it, and that each enquirer in turn who has dipped into the mass has come away convinced that its literary value is trifling. In the great majority of cases it is the controversial rather than the literary purpose that stands foremost; and in spite of an occasional Junius the spirit of controversy does not seem to be very favourable to literary satire. In the seventeenth century it was very unfavourable; for the journalists and pamphleteers had not yet learnt the lesson that a certain command of temper is necessary in order to be effective. Even so great a man as Milton suffers himself to be abusive where a higher literary art would have made him satirical; and this weakness exposes him to the violence of so petty an antagonist as Sir Roger L'Estrange (1616-1704) in No Blind Guides. L'Estrange is worthy of remembrance rather for his antagonists than for his own satire. Not only did he cross swords with Milton, but, at a later date, he was the antagonist of James Howell

(1594?-1666) of the Epistolae Ho-Elianae. Howell was one of the few sufferers in the cause of the Crown who gained some recompense from the bounty of Charles II. This led him in A Cordial for the Cavaliers to express a view which most of the disappointed Royalists rejected; and L'Estrange answered him in A Caveat to the Cavaliers. Howell himself occasionally played the satirist. There is a vein of satire in some of the letters, and in the latter part of his career he figures as the satirist of two peoples. A Perfect Description of the Country of Scotland is an example of that vituperation which had been popular in England ever since the union of the crowns; and A Brief Character of the Low Countries under the States satirises the Dutch with more restraint, and therefore with more effect.

The flaw which disfigures A Perfect Description is to be seen everywhere in this period. Where even Milton failed such journalistic hacks as Marchamont Nedham, Henry Walker and Samuel Sheppard were not likely to succeed. But occasionally superior restraint wins the reward of greater success. Edward Sexby's celebrated Killing no Murder is a case in point-strangely enough, for the man was among the last of whom restraint would have been expected. In Don Juan Lamberto, which has been attributed to John Phillips the nephew of Milton, and also to Thomas Flatman, it was easier to observe moderation, for the piece is written in a far lighter spirit. It is a very clever imitation of the romances of chivalry, representing Cromwell as Soldan of Britain, and his son as the Meek Knight; while Sir Lambert, Knight of the Golden Tulip, is the chief knight, and Sir Vane is the knight of the Mystical Allegories. Generally it is causes or parties rather than individuals that are the subject of satire; but we must except Cromwell, who is so pre-eminent as to be a cause and a party and a person all in one. There were other exceptions too. Philip Herbert, fourth Earl of Pembroke, may not have been witty in himself, but he was certainly the cause that wit was in other men. Among the Somers Tracts there are several pieces which satirise him very cleverly. One, The last Will and Testament of the Earl of Pembroke, which is supposed to be by Sir Charles Sedley, though it has been ascribed also to Samuel Butler, is extremely witty. But it illustrates the characteristic defect of the time. The author could not persuade

himself to forbear a quip, and the consequence is that the wit is not always in keeping with the character delineated. At the best, these fugitive prose satires are no more than tolerable; they hardly rank as literature at all. Nor are they much better when they aspire to be more than occasional. Andrew Marvell was a more highly gifted man than most of their writers, and in the two parts of The Rehearsal Transprosed he devoted a substantial volume to ecclesiastical satire. It is intolerably dreary. To the modern reader the contorted wit serves only to obscure the meaning; and very few and very weary are they who are in at the death-if there is a death at the end. In the ecclesiastical sphere the violence and virulence are even greater than in the region of politics; as may be seen in such works as Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed and the answer to it.

The political pieces, and the ecclesiastical ones as well (they are as a rule closely connected), generally date themselves by their subject, and collectively they supply a sort of running commentary on the history of the time. Thus, The humble Address of the Atheists satirises the addresses asked for by James II. on his Declaration of Indulgence. More than twenty years later we find another flood of addresses, both serious and satirical, on the question of the succession; of which probably the ablest was The true genuine Tory Address by Benjamin Hoadly, afterwards Bishop of Bangor.

None of the journalists deserves serious consideration as a satirist till we come to Daniel Defoe (1661?-1731); and though no man was ever more clearly designed by nature to eschew verse and write prose, he shows the influence of the time by starting his career with a satire in verse. The earliest piece that has been identified as his is A New Discovery of an Old Intrigue (1691); and for a number of years after 1701 he was proud to distinguish himself as the author of another satire in verse, The True-Born Englishman. Provoked by the abuse showered upon William III. and his Dutch followers, Defoe in rough but vigorous verse ridicules the English as the most mongrel of races. "Your Roman-Saxon-Danish-Norman English," he calls them; and Minto justly remarks on the goodhumoured magnanimity of the English people, who received this satire with laughter and applause. The same engaging trait of

temper was still more strikingly illustrated in the Great War, when Tommy Atkins astonished the Germans in the opposing trenches by singing the Hymn of Hate with the utmost verve and vigour. Defoe makes effective use of the ennobling of Charles II.'s bastards, which threw a shadow upon the peerage; he paints an unflattering picture of the temper and manners of the people; he touches upon the unreasonable multiplication of sects:

"In their religion they are so unev'n

That each man goes his own by-way to Heav'n."

And he makes a shrewd thrust at the clergy, who found themselves in a difficult position between James II.'s popery and their own doctrine of non-resistance. The clergy

"Unpreach'd their non-resisting cant, and pray'd

To Heav'n for help, and to the Dutch for aid."

Jure Divino (1706), a satire on a much larger scale, has far less literary merit. It is surpassed both by The Mock Mourners, with its severe comments on those who "never value merit till 'tis dead"; and, still more, by The Diet of Poland, which, under a transparent disguise, deals with English politics and politicians in the reign of Anne. Perhaps the liveliest passage is that which ridicules the book of travels by William Bromley, afterwards Speaker and Secretary of State.

Not only was Defoe no poet, he was hardly even a tolerable versifier. We naturally expect more from his prose; but even his prose only shows that satire was in him a secondary gift. A vein of satire runs through many of his essays; there is occasional satire in The Political History of the Devil, and in The Complete English Tradesman. Indeed it may be suspected in most of his writings; for it is often difficult to determine in what spirit Defoe was writing. But by far the most notable of his satires in prose is The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702); and even that is interesting now less for its intrinsic literary merit than for the light it throws upon the spirit of the time. Only bigotry incarnate could have misunderstood the irony; yet at first the piece was taken as a straightforward statement of the opinions of a High Churchman. It is skilfully constructed, beginning quietly and gently leading the mind on to

N