Horace Juvenal Pope Dryden Swift

Horace Juvenal Pope Dryden Swift

Horace, and Juvenal, and their Influences on Eighteenth Century Satire: Pope's the Rape of the Lock and Swift's "A Modest Proposal"

Echoes of the works of Roman satirists Horace and Juvenal can be found, often in combination, within various early eighteenth-century (Augustan) satirical works, including Alexander Pope's mock epic The Rape of the Lock (1714) and Jonathan Swift's essay "A Modest Proposal" (1729). Pope's The Rape of the Lock is closer, overall, in terms of its satirical tone and content, to the comparatively gentle and subtle satirical style of Horace, than to the more direct, less subtle or gentle style of Juvenal. However, Swift's "A Modest Proposal," which is neither subtle nor gentle in its social critique, is arguably closer, overall, in both content and tone to the types of works created by Juvenal. Neither work, however, is sufficiently parallel in its style, tone, content, or other characteristics, to the works of either Horace or Juvenal, to warrant its being judged either more "Horatian" or more "Juvenalian" than the other: both works contain elements of both Horatian and Juvenalian satirical styles and modes. Therefore', both Pope's and swift's works to be examined within this essay might be more accurately described as instead being combinations, or juxtapositions, of Horatian, Juvenalian, and other satirical styles; i.e., the results of miscellaneous eighteenth century influences and other influences on their respective authors as well (such as, for example, Pope's social and artistic ambitions, or Swift's acerbic wit and strong personality (Nokes (1987) 101-11; 179-84).

Overall, Horace as a satirist, at least as compared to the later Juvenal, employs a more subtle, gentle, and (arguably, at least) more intellectual kind of humor than does Juvenal (Dryden (2005) 18). Juvenal's work, on the other hand, is more direct and specific, coarser, and (as we might describe it nowadays) often 'in-your-face' (12; 18). In this essay, then, I shall suggest, using examples from Horace and Juvenal, combined with examples from Dryden's "Discourse concerning the Original and progress of Satire (Abridged)" (Lynch 2005) [here, Dryden compares Horace and Juvenal], that Pope's The Rape of the Lock is overall more "Horatian" than "Juvenalian," while Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is more direct, biting, and (therefore) Juvenalian than "Horatian" (though neither work is completely either "Horatian: or Juvenalian."

Horace's Satire 1.5 (2004-1310-13), tells of a journey taken by the poet, as a companion to Maecenas, from Rome to Brundisium in the year 38 or 37, apparently to help arrange a diplomatic meeting between representatives of Octavian and Antony, the "friends who had quarreled" referred to by Horace within the Satire (29).

Satire 1.5 is imitative of an earlier work (just as, though in a much different way, Pope's The Rape of the Lock is imitative of Homer's epics) by Lucillius ("Sermonum Liber Primus" 2004).

As Satire 1.5 begins, the poet "leaving the big city [Rome] behind," "found lodgings at Aricia in a smallish pub" (1-2). The first example of Homer's "raillery," or "good natured ridicule (Webster's New American Dictionary 1995 429) within Satire 1.5 ["raillery," that is, as compared to Juvenal's tendency to actually rail, or "complain angrily" (Webster's New American Dictionary] occurs along the Appian, where, stopping for dinner with his companion for that leg of the journey, the rhetoric professor Heliodurus:

declared war on my stomach because of the water which was quite appalling, and waited impatiently as the other travelers enjoyed their dinner. (6-8).

Here, Horace's raillery implies that he would rather have "declared war on my stomach" (that is, forced himself to go hungry, even after such a long trek that day) than risk becoming ill by drinking the water there.

Later that evening, Horace and Heliodurus pay boat fare for an overnight trip to Anxur. Falling asleep shortly after boarding, the poet awakens the next morning only to see that, due to their boatman's lazy drunkenness of the night before, they are still tied to the dock, have gone nowhere all night (14-23). Later, after they finally arrive at their destination and meet up with Maecenas and Cocceius, the four of them all laugh together at the opulent-looking toga and other official regalia of Aufidius Luscus, "that fatuous official" -- (135) and head off for Sinuessa to meet Plotius, Varuis, and Virgil (40-41). Here, Horace's humor, though biting (in an early, "pre-Juvenalian" sense), is also subtle, elegant, and detached, at least as compared to Juvenal's later work.

The high point of Horace's Satire 1.5 (2004), however, seems to be the insults exchanged between Messius and Sarmentus (52-69) seemingly as entertainment for Maecenas's friends once the group arrives at a villa owned by Cocceius. Messius is of Oscan descent, "the butt of many Roman jokes" (1321), and Sarmentus is a pretentious and overtly ambitious freed slave.

Sarmentus starts the string of insults off by telling Messius 'I declare you're the image of a wild horse' (57). However, Messius (after enduring several other rapidly-delivered insults from Sarmentus, all about his looks) ultimately gets the final laugh by ridiculing the freedman's ambition, former slave status, and puny body, all at once:

Messius] Cicirrus wasn't lost for an answer. Had Sarmentus got around to offering his chain, as promised, to the household gods? His status of clerk in no way diminished his misstress' claim on him. Finally, why had he ever bothered to run away when a single pound of meal would have been quite enough for a tiny miserable scrap like him? (65-69).

Like the whole of Horace's satire itself, Messius's "last laugh" is the product of clever uses and juxtapositions of imbedded meanings and implied significances as well as considerable verbal and rhetorical skills, rather than of direct attack (as are Sarmentus's less clever and skillful, more direct, attacks on Messius). This brief exchange within Horace's Satire 1.5 offers, in and of its self, an interesting opportunity for comparison and contrast between "raillery" (Messius) and "railing" (Sarmentus), or (though Juvenal's works came later) some key differences between Horatian and Juvenalian satirical strategies.

If Homer's gentler brand of satire exemplifies "raillery" as Nokes describes it (Raillery and Rage (1987) 1-98), Juvenal's more direct satirical style might then best be described as "railing." According to Damrosch et al. (2004), "Juvenal attacks corruption through an elevated style of indignation: Rome, in his vision, is the symbol of every city, its vices the vices of all humanity" (1353). Further, Juvenal's "brilliant invective and sharp eye for the indignities of city life" (Damrosch) [which lead to his railing, as opposed to the more subtle raillery of Horace] are particularly evident within his Third Satire [Against the City of Rome] (Damrosch 1353-7, 147-320). According to John Dryden, in his "Discourse on Satire (Abridged)" 2005) comparing Horace and Juvenal:

The] Manner of Horace is indeed the best; but Horace has not executed it, altogether so happily, at least not often. The Manner of Juvenal is confess'd to be Inferior to the former;

but Juvenal has excell'd him in his Performance. Juvenal has rail'd more wittily than Horace has rally'd [emphasis added]. Horace means to make his Reader laugh; but he is not so sure of his Experiment. Juvenal always intends to move your Indignation; and he always brings about his purpose. Horace... might have tickled the people of his Age; but amongst the Moderns he is not so Successful. (18).

A good example of Juvenal's "railing," at least according to Dryden's description of it, is his lengthy complaint about the vicissitudes of living in Rome, found within his Third Satire (2004). Within that portion of his Third Satire, Juvenal elaborately rails against the many economic social injustices against the poor of Rome, and about how the times are such that only the wealthy are respected, appreciated, or treated humanely within the city:

The poor man's always a target for everyone's mocking laughter, with his torn and dirt-encrusted top-coat, his grubby toga, one shoe agape where the leather's split open -- ... (1-4).

Even worse, the poor of Rome, merely for being poor, are directly mocked and taunted by others financially better off than themselves, even those who may well be far less respectable, or deserving, than them:

You! Get out of those front-row seats,' " we're told.

You ought to be ashamed -- your incomes are far too meagre! The law's the law. Make way for some pander's son and heir, spawned in an unknown brothel;

yield your place to the offspring of that natty auctioneer with the trainer's son and the ring-fighter's brat applauding beside him! (153-7).

Further, according to those within Rome who are better off: "All low-income citizens should have marched out of town, in a body, years ago" (162-3).

The tone of Horace's Satire 1.5, as opposed to that of Juvenal's Third Satire, then, is clearly gentler and more subtle; it is even, in places, (such as during the exchange between Messius and Sarmentus) cleverly elegant in its humor. Juvenal's satire, by comparison, however, is far less elegantly detached, and at times even angry sounding: "railing," that is, as opposed to "raillery." For example, of the materialism and penchant for "conspicuous consumption" among Romans of the time, Juvenal observes:

in Rome we must toe the line of fashion, spending beyond our means, and often non-borrowed credit.

It's a universal failing: here we all live in pretentious poverty. To cut a long story short, there's a price-tag on everything in Rome. What does it cost to greet Cossus, or extract one tight-lipped nod from Veiento the honors-broker? (180-5).

Criticizing the inflated costs of everything in Rome, Juvenal also states:

inflation swells the rent of your miserable flat, inflation hits the keep of your hungry slaves, your own humble dinner. (166-7)

Moreover, within the declining Roman society described by Juvenal's Third Satire, wealth is so revered for its own sake that, when, for instance, a rich man's house burns to the ground, his house and all his belongings will soon be replaced by better than what he had before (giving rise, in Juvenal's mind, to the idea that the rich man may have set the fire himself) (212-22). In the case of a poor man named Cordus, however, whose home has also just burned to the ground, "no one will give him a roof and shelter, no one will buy him food" (210-11).

According to John Dryden in his "Discourse concerning the Original and progress of Satire (Abridged)" (Lynch 2005), in comparing and contrasting the satirical works of Horace and Juvenal:

wou'd willingly divide the Palm betwixt them; upon the two Heads of Profit and Delight,

Which are the two ends of poetry in general. It must be granted by the Favourers of Juvenal,

That Horace is the more Copious, and Profitable in his Instructions in Humane Life.

But in my particular Opinion... Juvenal is the more delightful Author. I am profited by Both, I am pleased with both; but I owe more to Horace for my Instruction; and more to Juvenal for my pleasure. (7)

In Raillery and Rage: A Study of Eighteenth Century Satire (1987), David Nokes observes that Juvenalian satire, is characteristically harsh, pointed, and specific, often to the extent of attacking specific individuals with invective (51-2). Horatian satire, although equally influential during the 18th century, is in essence subtler and gentler, involving "raillery as opposed to railing" (52). The early eighteenth century, known also as the period of Augustan satire (32-98), produced many notable works, among them Pope's mock-epic The Rape of the Lock, and Swift's irony (and invective)-filled essay "A Modest Proposal." In terms of frequent literary references, to the early eighteenth century, as the "Augustan period" in British satire in particular, Nokes states:

the invocation of the 'Augustan parallel' by writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries did not automatically indicate an endorsement of the supposed values of imperial Rome. What it did provide, however, was a universally recognizable system of analogies, a thesaurus of precedents, to be used as yardsticks for measuring the achievements of contemporary society. The well-known episodes of Roman history acquired a quasi- mythic status which allowed them to be used as a kind of literary code or sub-text, providing instant parallels with, and commentaries upon, the state of English politics, literature, and society. (32-3)

Clearly, then, Pope displays the characteristics of an Augustan satirist within The Rape of the Lock, especially in terms of his implicit (and often also not so implicit) critiques of the shallow, materialistic and ephemeral values of the beautiful, vain, and hedonistic Belinda (Wall (1998) 57:

The busy Sylphs surround their darling Care;

These set the head;, and those divide the Hair,

Some fold the Sleeve, whilst others plait the Gown;

And Betty's prais'd for Labours not her own. (145-8)

Pope, also a translator of Homer's Iliad during that time, uses the Homerian epic form of ancient works like Iliad and the Odyssey for his mock-epic, thus causing The Rape of the Lock with its ridiculously trivial subject matter, to hilariously resemble (in form, if not in theme or content) the Iliad itself.

Wall (1998) states: "The Rape of the Lock has a certain timeless, placeless, enchanted quality in the satirical delicacy of its self-sufficient world" (3). Pope's idea for The Rape of the Lock sprang from an estrangement that had come about when two formerly friendly families of his acquaintance, each of them Catholic like himself, grew suddenly estranged from each other after the son of one family playfully cut off a lock of hair of the daughter of the other. Pope, a young man at the time ("He was twenty-four when the first version of the Rape appeared" (11)), wrote The Rape of the Lock as a way of, hopefully, at least "laughing them back together again" (15) (in this he succeeded) and also promoting his own fledgling literary career:

Both the Petres and the Fermors were prominent, wealthy, aristocratic Catholic families, as was John Carlyll and Sir George Brown "Sir Plume" in the poem. Although Pope, as son of a linen draper, occupied a much lower social position than the players in the poem, he still identified with the small, anxious community - and, as he wrote to John Carlyll on March 20, 1716, he believed at this time that social disputes "may be softened, by some degree, by a general well-managed humanity among ourselves." Carlyll thus easily coaxed

Pope to write the little poem that would laugh the parties together again. (15)

In The Rape of the Lock (Wall 1998 53-87), just as Achilles had the benefit of the gods looking over his shoulder right from the start, Belinda, the vapid and insipid female subject of this particular mock-epic, has her "Guardian Sylph" by her side to prolong her "balmy Rest" prior to today's adventure (20), although, on a more down-to-earth note, she also has "Lapdogs" (15). Here, both the tone and the subtle of Pope's mock-epic is reminiscent of Horace's similar juxtaposition, within his Satire 1.5, of the down-to-earth bawdiness of Sarmentus's taunting of Messius, juxtaposed against Messius's elegant response Damrosch et al. 2004-1321).

Moreover, again in an apt Horatian vein, the humor within The Rape of the Lock is indeed strong, at least implicitly speaking, on "Instruction" (Dryden (2005) 12) (especially in terms of Pope's clear condescension toward Belinda's silly and ephemeral values; her expenditures and focus on cosmetics and other 'fripperies," and her vain and shameless primping) and therefore Horatian by Dryden's standards of greater "Instruction" (Dryden (2005) 12) than Juvenal. As Damrosch et al. (2004) explain of Horace in a related respect:

The Satires are... built around a series of oppositions: country vs. city, a simple vs. complicated life, poverty vs. wealth, past vs. present, private vs. public. Central to these oppositions is the Epicurean conception of the aurea mediocritas of golden mean, the desire to avoid extremes in life and to focus on the simple pleasures of the present. Horace prides himself on puncturing pretensions and unreasonable behavior... (1309)

However, it is also delightful in its wit and in its giving of pleasure to the reader: therefore, it is perhaps Juvenalian as well.

Within Pope's mock epic, Belinda languishes in bed one morning, after a night apparently filled with naughty dreams (since she appears to be blushing upon first awakening that morning), and readies herself for an outing for an afternoon of card-playing. Once there, she is victorious in her card playing that day. As she primps and celebrates both her beauty and her (mock-epic) card-playing victory that afternoon, the young Baron (aided and abetted by the servant Clarissa) sneaks up behind her, and with his "engine" (a pair of scissors he has ready) mischievously snips off a lock of Belinda's hair. That, then, is the "Rape" of Belinda's blonde curly lock. In its overall straightforward humorousness, this scene from The Rape of the Lock is (at least in terms of content) Juvenalian, although it is, on the other hand, in terms of intelligence, subtlety, and craft, Horatian. The poem is, as a whole, a seamless and sophisticated blend of these two distinct types of satirical humor, as well as the result of Pope's artistic and personal ambitions, and overall outlook on life, art, and the purposes of art. Despite a strong and apparently widespread dislike of Pope the man by many of his peers during the poet's lifetime (Nokes (1987) 99-102; Wall (1998) 3-12) Byron later called Pope 'the moral poet of all civilisation' (qtd. In Nokes (1987) 99).

Further, as Nokes (1987) suggests, of Pope's influences and the social influences on Pope himself:

Throughout his life Pope was subject to sustained campaigns of vilification by his enemies...

Alongside, and often providing an unacknowledged motive for such faint praise of Pope's poetry, ran a dislike of Pope the man... [but] During the past fifty years we have heard less of the little monster [Pope was slight of stature and physically deformed (Wall (1998) 3-4;

Nokes (1987) 100)]... And more of the master of mock-heroics... As a subtle poet of Allusion, whose satires have a unique facility for blending modern facts with ancient myths,

And confusing classical heroes with contemporary hacks. (99-100).

Further, as Wall suggests."...sometimes Pope would see his poetry as the agent of change itself,

With the power to change appearances, to change responses, to change the shape of man, of the world" (18). In that sense, then, Pope's impressions of his art's higher purpose are not at all dissimilar from Horace's own, whose work Pope's resembles in many ways, in Horace's pursuit of the "golden mean" (Damrosch (2004) 1309).

An example of another early eighteenth century satirist, however, who might seem, at least initially, lopsidedly Juvenalian, rather than Horatian at all, would be Jonathan Swift, and particularly his essay ironically advocating the eating of Irish babies at one year of age for the greater good of the rest of the population, "A Modest Proposal" (1729). For instance, just as Juvenal's Cordus in his Third Satire (2004 211) whose home has burned to the ground but, because he is poor, can find no one to give him food, shelter, or clothing, Swift, within "A Modest Proposal" refers to:

beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg for sustenance for their helpless infants: who as they grow up... turn thieves... fight for the Pretender of Spain... Or sell themselves to the Barbadoes. (1)