...I do therefore humbly offer it to publick consideration, that of the hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine, and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore, one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune, through the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump, and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter....
Satire has had a long and complex history. It is neither entirely the "cankered muse" referred to in Alvin Kernan's work on the satire of the English Renaissance, nor is it purely a literary form. (The word itself comes from the Latin word satura, the sense of which is perhaps closest to that of the French term pot-pourri.) Folks interested in delving into satire's complicated evolution will find available a number of titles appropriate to the task:
Although works similar to satire are known as early as the 2nd millenium BCE, what we today recognize as satire is largely the product of the ancient Graeco-Roman world--the plays of Aristophanes, the works of Lucilius and Perseus, and, most importantly, the works of Horace and Juvenal:
It is from the latter authors that the two types of modern satire derive their names. Horatian satire "playfully criticizes some social vice through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humour. It directs wit, exaggeration, and self-deprecating humour toward what it identifies as folly, rather than evil:"
Juvenalian satire, on the other hand, "addresses social evil through scorn, outrage, and savage ridicule. This form is often pessimistic, characterized by irony, sarcasm, moral indignation and personal invective:"
Irrespective of type, satire frequently is misunderstood, and because it is misunderstood it has suffered repeated attempts at censorship, as well as denunciations of various types over the centuries (e.g., "tasteless," "heartless," "insulting," etc.). All of this, naturally, has very much depended upon whose ox was being gored, so to speak....
Recent Comments