IN the latter part of the eighteenth century political satire in prose
reached its highest point in Junius, and early in the nineteenth
century poetical satire culminated in Byron. An observer fore-
casting the future might with every show of reason have predicted
that ere it ended the nineteenth century would enrich literature
with satires equal, if not even superior, to those of the eighteenth.
Yet the forecast would have been wholly wrong. Since the re-birth
of satire in the seventeenth century there has been no period so
poor in that species of literature as the century between the death
of Byron and the present day. It has yielded but one satire in verse
that can be called great--Mr. Gilbert Frankau One of Us (for his
One of Them is much inferior); and though there is a good deal of
satire intermingled with the prose, there is no single great prose
work that can without reservation be called a satire. There is much
satire in Sartor Resartus; but that "spiritual autobiography" is
far more than a satire, and the fact that the general idea was
suggested by A Tale of a Tub does not alter its character. Vanity
Fair is heavily charged with satire; but though the novel or the
drama may embody satire, they necessarily embody much besides.
Only in Peacock and Samuel Butler does the satire outweigh
all else. Whatever may have been the reason, the facts show that
satire was uncongenial to the age. Perhaps the age had grown
more tolerant: it is certain that many themes which a century
earlier would have been treated satirically are dealt with humor-
ously or in the vein of sentiment. When satire is used it is generally
of the lighter sort. No period is so rich in that species which finds
expression in parody. But the parodies in Rejected Addresses and
The Bon Gaultier Ballads, and those of Calverley and J. K. Stephen,

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