A Satire Anthology — Story, Setting & Ideas

Classical and Renaissance Models

The anthology begins with translations of Aristophanes' 'Chorus of Women' and Horace's 'A Would-Be Literary Bore,' establishing satire's ancient roots in social critique and self-deprecating humor. Juvenal's 'The Wish for Length of Life' follows, offering a darker, more cynical tone. These classical pieces set a template that later English poets would adapt. The Renaissance selections include Sir John Harrington's epigrams and John Donne's 'The Will,' where satire becomes personal and metaphysical. Shakespeare appears with excerpts from Henry IV, Love's Labour's Lost, and As You Like It, demonstrating how dramatic satire could blend wit with character. Ben Jonson's 'On Don Surly' and Thomas Dekker's 'Horace Concocting an Ode' show the period's fondness for mocking literary pretension. The range here—from broad comedy to sharp personal attack—illustrates the flexibility of satire as a mode.

Restoration and Augustan Sharpening

The Restoration and eighteenth-century selections sharpen satire into a political and social weapon. Samuel Butler's excerpts from Hudibras mock religious hypocrisy and philosophical pedantry through ludicrous rhymes and exaggerated similes. John Dryden's portraits of the Duke of Buckingham and Thomas Shadwell are devastating character assassinations, using heroic couplets to elevate personal animus into art. Andrew Marvell's 'The Character of Holland' and John Cleiveland's 'Satire on the Scots' deploy national stereotypes for comic effect, while Daniel Defoe's 'The True-Born Englishman' turns the same technique back on English self-regard. The section also includes lighter pieces like Charles Sackville's 'Satire on Edward Howard,' showing that not all Augustan satire was high-stakes. The cumulative effect is a demonstration of how satire adapted to partisan conflict and emerging print culture.

Nineteenth-Century Parody and Social Observation

The Victorian selections shift toward parody and social observation. Thackeray's 'Mr. Molony's Account of the Ball Given to the Nepaulese Ambassador' uses Irish dialect and breathless cataloging to mock both colonial pageantry and journalistic excess. The poem's repeated exclamations and exaggerated details—'lashins of good dhrink,' 'diamonds, and pearls'—create a comic contrast between the speaker's awe and the reader's awareness of absurdity. 'Damages, Two Hundred Pounds' adopts a mock-legal tone to satirize adultery trials and jury sentimentality. Other nineteenth-century contributors include Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and John G. Saxe, whose works often target literary fads or social pretension. The anthology closes with lighter parodies and epigrams, suggesting that satire's purpose had broadened from reform to entertainment. The variety of forms—ballads, dramatic monologues, epigrams—demonstrates the genre's adaptability to changing literary tastes.

Readers approaching this anthology should note that Wells includes only verse satires, excluding prose works like Swift's A Modest Proposal or the periodical essays of Addison and Steele. The selections are arranged chronologically by author, but the editor provides no headnotes or explanatory footnotes. This lack of apparatus places the burden of context on the reader, who may wish to consult supplementary sources for unfamiliar allusions or historical references. The anthology rewards attention to form: noticing how different poets manipulate meter, rhyme, and diction can reveal the specific targets and techniques of each satire.

There’s something tender about these old anthologies, watching a century’s worth of cleverness age into something almost fragile. Wells’ collection feels like that—sharp lines now softened by time. It made me think of Peck's Compendium of Fun Comprising the Choicest Gems of Wit, Humor, Sarcasm and Pathos of America's Favorite Humorist — Text and Context, a gentler, homier cousin, where the jokes still whisper of parlors and gaslight.