For
caustic bitterness, sustained but polished irony, and merciless
sarcastic malice, the characters of Atticus (Addison), Bufo, and Sporus
have never been surpassed in the literature of political or social
criticism.[18]
The _Dunciad_ is an instance of the mock-epic utilized for the purposes
of satire. Here Pope, as regards theme, possibly had the idea suggested
to him by Dryden's _MacFlecknoe_, but undoubtedly the heroic couplet,
which the latter had first applied to satire and used with such
conspicuous success, was still further polished and improved by Pope
until, as Mr. Courthope says, "it became in his hands a rapier of
perfect flexibility and temper". From the time of Pope until that of
Byron this stately measure has been regarded as the metre best suited
_par excellence_ for the display of satiric point and brilliancy, and
as the medium best calculated to confer dignity on political satire.
The _Dunciad_, while personal malice enters into it, must not be
regarded as, properly speaking, a malicious satire. From a literary
censor's point of view almost every lash Pope administered was richly
deserved. In this respect Pope has all Horace's fairness and
moderation, while at the same time he exhibits not a little of
Juvenal's depth of conviction that desperate diseases demand radical
remedies.[19]
By the side of Pope stands an impressive but a mournful figure, one of
the most tragic in our literature, to think of whom, as Thackeray says,
"is like thinking of the ruin of a great empire".
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