Chapter I: Preface

This dissertation is an out-growth of some studies in English satire, particularly in the eighteenth century, and the book is to be regarded merely as a chapter in the history of English satiric poetry as a whole. The initial suggestion for this special phase of the broader subject came from Professor W. P. Trent, to whose wide scholarship and suggestive comment I have been throughout under great obligation. Professor A. H. Thorndike, who, with Professor Trent, read the work in manuscript, contributed valuable advice regarding its arrangement and contents; while Professor J. B. Fletcher was of much assistance in criticising the sections dealing with Byron’s indebtedness to the Italian poets. My colleague, Mr. A. W. Leonard, read the first two chapters, and offered much aid in connection with their style and structure. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the stimulus given by my studies under various members of the Departments of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, among them the late Professor G. R. Carpenter, Professor W. A. Neilson, now at Harvard, Mr. J. E. Spingarn, and Professors Krapp, Lawrence, and Matthews.

C. M. F.

PHILLIPS ACADEMY, ANDOVER,
_June 19, 1912_.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I.--INTRODUCTORY 1

II.--ENGLISH SATIRE FROM DRYDEN TO BYRON 10

III.--BYRON’S EARLY SATIRIC VERSE 39

IV.--“ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS” 48

V.--“HINTS FROM HORACE” AND “THE CURSE OF MINERVA” 77

VI.--THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION 93

VII.--THE ITALIAN INFLUENCE 113

VIII.--“DON JUAN” 163

IX.--“THE VISION OF JUDGMENT” 188

X.--“THE AGE OF BRONZE” AND “THE BLUES” 202

XI.--CONCLUSION 210

BIBLIOGRAPHY 219

INDEX 225

Lord Byron as a Satirist in Verse