caustic soul, with leanings toward cynicism; an error due to a narrow identification of irony with its extreme right wing,—sarcasm, which is indeed, as its etymology would signify, a flesh-tearing, or at least heart-rending, performance, belonging, as Bishop Hall would say, to the toothed division of satire.
But on the extreme left sits banter, entirely amiable and even affectionate. "You scamp, you rascal, you young villain!" is a favorite way of expressing parental pride and tenderness. Reticent youth apostrophizes his cherished friend as an "old fraud." "Philosophic irony," says Anatole France, "is indulgent and gentle."[1] And Symonds[2] describes Ariosto as watching "the doings of humanity with a genial half smile, an all pervasive irony that had no sting in it." Ranging thus from the playful to the ferocious, irony is at its best when not too near either margin, having in itself more point than banter and more polish than sarcasm. "They are all," says another critic,[3] "with others of the family, in the regular service of Satire."
The metaphor of service may be allowed, in that satire, being the largest and most general type, includes the others. The relationship may be stated more literally by saying that irony is the form of humorous criticism which is expressed through innuendo, partly because of preference for verbal inversion, and partly in recognition of the topsy-turvydom of life. All irony is therefore satirical, though not all satire is ironical. The ironist conveys his own point of view by stating another's, condemning by appearing to approve, or vice versa. Boisterousness and didacticism are foreign to irony and not to be feared so long as it is dominant. Perfection in its employment indicates
