The Northern Guardian. — 1899-08-26 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

THE DECAY OF SATIRE.  QATIRE it.. /ong gone nut of fashion! A b.) mild temper reigns ammagal our literary men who no longer Mar each other to pieces, . as in the stirring ,Jays of the "lluncisd:. Nor : do our writers gloat over tho weakness's and vices of general huinanity. Nowadays, the tendency ie to explain man, not to condemn him. If hie teeth be on e 1 Ige, we blame hie ammeters • for eatinu sour grapes: and we pity rather than 0f.... Am as a victim of heredity. We push our study of origins to the point of oh.surdity and amount for the weekly debauch of our workers by the periodicity of the tides which affected our amphibious forbears. We delight in tracing the genesis of ey,ery habit, and our philosophers study crime 04/actors study dia mule. The Mndency to coneidur man se Um inevitable outcome of circumstances past and present. has softened our judgments. Heerlen:l,l that studies man as he ta without sty Mforewed to standards of conduct, has killed the plainer ,forms of satire.  Paradoxical ea it may sound, yogi satirist hi idealini who stretehes Inumanity upon the rack of theory. Ito has his etandard and laugh. .0 .11 who fnil to retch it. In halo things, as in great, hr eomparee the actual with the ideal. If hie Heal he one of mere physical perfection, he will Imigh et all bodily deformilite: if he have a theory of moral excellence, he will scoff at viol, or if he elall the in- 1 fennel hie prey will be stupidity. The Greeks Cub their wunihip of the body were apt to Cod antipasto for Intighter and ecom in physical defect. and, generally, in the seamy aide of man viewed simply as an animal. Thia, also, was the defect of much of the I satire during the Iliddle Agee: but, with the growth of intrapaction in the modern world, the point of riew changed and mental and moral  <lnfects became the main nbrets of laughter, sends or bitter, according to the temper of the writsr. In Channer. the earliest of oar greet mitirists, there is still mine coarsening. but also a subtlety, a eltnem, that h. rarely been sun payed. In Shakeenemn alk As little seem and areakneases of man are treated with the wie• laughter_ibioh &amnia to Abs inevitable. It not let i.TPam without • mocking recognition. A. satire, t in, perhaps, too anntble. Ethaltespare enjoyed the world tou much to be • eour satirist. In Tinton "he is savage enough, but the mood  -to. not soo.o It ma during Cho otos. of the seventeenth 00 0,.07 mid the beginning of the eighteenth that esdire reached it. Meat exprearion in this country. It was an age of theoriare, an age of I understanding rather than of int•Pumhoth everything arm criticised ho rm. and prom with paseionate party him. One alatost regrets that such a tenter as Dryden should put se much genius into tattrattnal attacks nputt hie eramios. tinder the name of og, he Nal-Irises the poet Shadwell with • sm wary quite foreign la our modern style. No tietcribee him rolling home front a tavern at nudnight  rl, With all thjoulk nntninstlhastim For every Web that is not fool is mints.  Al his attaok upon Settle mak. the inveotive of abs most mitapoken of our contemporan. (my, Robert Buohanan), sound ramie and thin . Spiteful, hp is not, though hews-eta n. ti7n=„T:7,,;7o7:7,'7,i`rlAT:ffl,r,nr“lnelthlnk, All hie 00 005 aro to eat sod drum. If he rosue and reseal from garret, He means 70,1 Bo mots niachief then a parrot. There is a careless strength m I/rydene satire, ne though the man felt himself greater than his work In Pspe thie is entirely +taint. You feel that the writer concentrated hie whole nature in hie venomous lines. All hie art was lavished in polishing end barbing hie darns. Intones, nea row, uneymnat beta he never go. outeide of h golf. He hen the directness of aim of an angry aaaaa . The glitter, too, of Ma basilisk is Ina— and the eonscience. In Hamlet's wornful phrase, he trial to -circumvent God ' and made hitimulf an ogre; a devourer of dunce.. Tbe solos) of Swift iiounls deeper mite. He attack• nut particular men. but humanity itanlf. Ile doe. not even entire himself, &lel " The Voyage to ',sputa ' draw an awful pienire of the miwrien and weaknees uf men of genius. No one after roadmg it would wish to he a " strut, brug." Wo hud in it the ammy of a great mind that felt ita poems withommg away. Swift auelysee birnwlf and tortures himself before our eye.. lii. the suicide of ...out before the darkneat of 'enmity came over it. " Don dean" is Om last of the great sabres written in English. In A Byron revenged himself upon a Society that had finit attacked him. 1 His wit im easy and brilliant, and he btu small , trouble in espoming the hyparisiee of the world. Thackeray's satire is keen, but Mobs breath. lie, km an eye for microacopie distinction* of Cleft and oonventien. He is • tardier rather than • mitre; and there is some meanness Mown in the pleastre he takes in reposing nicannee• The playful comedy of 3fr Meredith can hardly oe called satire, althie.h A a ringed Meiewith. It Would be well. perhaps, were the .tiria spirit to reMve, if only for. tune. English Merge time is suffering fran the mutual admiration of author.. Appreciation ie pushed to the verge of fatuous adulation. In If, sad in literature people sh,nk from lopping if the withered bough.. Whilst there ere reuguee in the world and fools an print there le room for the satirist. 'Thew withered boughs will crackle woner or later in the firee of Slut., Let to, !mete the Lonbra