Book contents
- British Women Satirists in the Long Eighteenth Century
- British Women Satirists in the Long Eighteenth Century
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Traditions and Breaks
- Part II Publicity and Print Culture
- Part III Moral Debates and Satiric Dialogue
- Appendix Selected List of Eighteenth-Century Women Writers and Their Satiric Works
- Selected Bibliography and Guide to Further Reading
- Index
Introduction
Recognizing British Women’s Satire in the Long Eighteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 March 2022
- British Women Satirists in the Long Eighteenth Century
- British Women Satirists in the Long Eighteenth Century
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Traditions and Breaks
- Part II Publicity and Print Culture
- Part III Moral Debates and Satiric Dialogue
- Appendix Selected List of Eighteenth-Century Women Writers and Their Satiric Works
- Selected Bibliography and Guide to Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s bold attack on Pope’s satire in “Verses Addressed to the Imitator of the First Satire of the Second Book of Horace” (1733) positions her in a place of literary and cultural authority. Montagu critiques Pope’s satire – “an Oyster-Knife, that hacks and hews” – on the grounds that his indiscriminate personal attacks violate the benevolent spirit of Horatian satire and fail to produce sufficient moral effects. Satire should aim judiciously at targets, she explains, and the satirist must always wield the pen with precision and self-restraint. Like a surgeon’s knife, satire will cut and wound, but it is ultimately meant to heal and should never be used to bludgeon literary, political, or personal opponents.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022