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In the compilation of this volume my aim has been to furnish a workthat would be representative in character rather than exhaustive. Therestrictions of space imposed by the limits of such a series as thishave necessitated the omission of many pieces that readers might expectto see included. As far as possible, however, the most typical satiresof the successive eras have been selected, so as to throw into reliefthe special literary characteristics of each, and to manifest the trendof satiric development during the centuries elapsing between Langlandand Lowell.
Acknowledgment is due, and is gratefully rendered, to Mrs. C.S.Calverley for permission to print the verses which close this book; andto Messrs. Macmillan & Co. for permission to print A.H. Clough's"Spectator ab Extra".
To Professor C.H. Herford my warmest thanks are due for his carefulrevision of the Introduction, and for many valuable hints which havebeen adopted in the course of the work; also to Mr. W. Keith Leask,M.A.(Oxon.), and the librarians of the Edinburgh University andAdvocates' Libraries.
OLIPHANT SMEATON.
| Page | ||
| INTRODUCTION | xiii | |
| WILLIAM LANGLAND | ||
| I. | Pilgrimage in Search of Do-well | 1 |
| GEOFFREY CHAUCER | ||
| II. III. | The Monk and the Friar | 6 |
| JOHN LYDGATE | ||
| IV. | The London Lackpenny | 10 |
| WILLIAM DUNBAR | ||
| V. | The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins | 14 |
| SIR DAVID LYNDSAY | ...||