E-text prepared by Lynn Bornath and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) ENGLISH SATIRES With an Introduction by OLIPHANT SMEATON London The Gresham Publishing Company 34 Southampton Street Strand TO THE MEMORY OF ALEXANDER BALLOCH GROSART D.D., LL.D., F.S.A. WITH A GRATEFUL SENSE OF ALL IT OWES TO HIS TEACHING THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR PREFACE. In the compilation of this volume my aim has been to furnish a work that would be representative in character rather than exhaustive. The restrictions of space imposed by the limits of such a series as this have necessitated the omission of many pieces that readers might expect to see included. As far as possible, however, the most typical satires of the successive eras have been selected, so as to throw into relief the special literary characteristics of each, and to manifest the trend of satiric development during the centuries elapsing between Langland and Lowell. Acknowledgment is due, and is gratefully rendered, to Mrs. C.S. Calverley for permission to print the verses which close this book; and to Messrs. Macmillan & Co. for permission to print A.H. Clough's "Spectator ab Extra". To Professor C.H. Herford my warmest thanks are due for his careful revision of the Introduction, and for many valuable hints which have been adopted in the course of the work; also to Mr. W. Keith Leask, M.A.(Oxon.), and the librarians of the Edinburgh University and Advocates' Libraries. OLIPHANT SMEATON. CONTENTS. Page INTRODUCTION xiii WILLIAM LANGLAND I. Pilgrimage in Search of Do-well 1 GEOFFREY CHAUCER II. III. The Monk and the Friar 6 JOHN LYDGATE IV. The London Lackpenny 10 WILLIAM DUNBAR V. The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins 14 SIR DAVID LYNDSAY VI. Satire on the Syde Taillis--Ane Supplicatioun directit to the Kingis Grace--1538 19 BISHOP JOSEPH HALL VII. On Simony 22 VIII. The Domestic Tutor's Position 23 IX. The Impecunious Fop 24 GEORGE CHAPMAN X. An Invective written by Mr. George Chapman against Mr. Ben Jonson 26 JOHN DONNE XI. The Character of the Bore 29 BEN JONSON XII. The New Cry 34 XIII. On Don Surly 35 SAMUEL BUTLER XIV. The Character of Hudibras 36 XV. The Character of a Small Poet 43 ANDREW MARVELL XVI. Nostradamus's Prophecy 45