CHAPTER II
THE VICTORIAN CONTRIBUTION
By the nineteenth century the general inheritance in
ideas and methods had become so cumulatively rich and
various that the chances for novelty might seem correspondingly
meager. But there is always something new
under the sun, and the process of amalgamating that modicum
of newness with the great bulk of the old and established
goes steadily and eternally on—except for abnormal
phases of retrogression, or revolution—forming that ceaseless
change in changelessness we call history. The body
of satiric tradition bequeathed to the Victorians underwent,
accordingly, a normal amount of subtraction, addition, and
modification, before being passed on to their successors.
The endowment itself was large and comprehensive, including both substance and modes, as well as a supplementary current of criticism and interpretation. In none of these were the Victorians responsible for a transformation, yet none did they leave in statu quo. In form, however, a great change had recently occurred, operating both positively and negatively, of which they were just in time to take advantage. The positive side of it was the development of the satiric novel in the preceding century, whereby the channel of fiction had already been accommodated to the satiric stream. This tendency was reinforced by the negative side, the abandonment of English satire's one conventional outlet, the heroic couplet, which naturally diverted the current
