Sir Walter Scott’s generous assertion that his rival “embraced every topic in human life” is, of course, hyperbole; but one may be permitted to suspect that the variety and compass of Byron’s genius have not always been sufficiently dwelt upon. Even sympathetic critics have been in the habit of forgetting that in all three of what are ordinarily reckoned the chief divisions of poetry--the narrative, the lyrical, and the dramatic--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 epigram, 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 politics 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 colloquial, 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 feeling: the romance of the dilettante, the indignation of the satirist, and the lyrical utterance 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 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.[2] 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 intermissions, 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_ (1812); 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.