hypocritical, pedantic, fantastically delicate; whenever it sees them self-deceived or hoodwinked, given to run riot in idolatries, drifting into vanities, congregating in absurdities, planning short-sightedly, plotting dementedly; whenever they are at variance with their professions, * * * whenever they offend sound reason, fair justice; are false in humility or mined with conceit, * * * they are detected and ridiculed."
Meredith[1] also reiterates the distinction made by Swift
and Fielding in regard to misfortune:
"Poverty, says the satirist, has nothing harder in itself than
that it makes men ridiculous. But poverty is never ridiculous
to Comic perception until it attempts to make its rags conceal
its bareness in a forlorn attempt at decency, or foolishly to
rival ostentation."
And he remarks of Molière:
"He strips Folly to the skin, displays the imposture of the
creature, and is content to offer her better clothing."
Of the two forms of affectation, Fielding chooses hypocrisy
as better satirical game, but Bergson[2] votes for the
other:
"In this respect it might be said that the specific remedy for
vanity is laughter, and that the one failing that is essentially
laughable is vanity."
Fuess[3] makes for the last great poetic satirist the familiar
conventional claim:
"Byron is attacking not virtue, but false sentiment, false
idealism, and false faith. His satiric spirit is engaged in * * *
tearing down what is sham and pretence and fraud."
