SATIRE

(Lat. satura, a mixed dish), a form of literary composition (prose or verse) that exposes, ridicules, and censures particular or general vices and follies. S. may be fierce or kindly, but it must always be humorous. The ‘father of s.’ was Archilochos of Paros (VII. cent. B.C.); the inventor of Rom. s. was Gaius Lucilius, 116 B.C.; famous Rom. satirists were Horace, Juvenal, and Perseus. Many great dramatists novelists, etc., have strong satiric vein Thackeray). Among greatest modern satire writers are Butler, Dryden, Pope, Swift, Byron; Rabelais, Régnier, Pascal, Boileau, Voltaire, and Heine. The Satire Mentppee, 1594, is a good example of political s.; written by several hands against the League