Page:Satire in the Victorian novel (IA satireinvictoria00russrich).pdf/30

 an analysis of the then newest literary type. He sketches the history of satire as an exposure of crime, but insists that this mission may be performed with courtesy and the light touch, since even weighty matters are sometimes settled more effectively by a jest than by grim asperity.

"Ridiculum acri Fortius et melius magnas plerumque secat res."

It is interesting to note that his own consistent practice in this matter is acknowledged by his successor Persius, who says of him,

"Sportive and pleasant round the heart he played, And wrapt in jests the censure he conveyed."

When Jonson reintroduced the Aristophanic vehicle of comedy to carry his satire, though fashioned in a different style, he also re-voiced the Horatian satiric philosophy, promising realism,—such characters and actions as comedy would choose,

"When she would show an image of the times, And sport with human follies, not with crimes. Except we make 'hem such, by loving still Our popular errors, when we know they're ill. I mean such errors, as you'll all confess, By laughing at them, they deserve no less:"

A writer of the Restoration Period carries on the tradition: