Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/165

 Satire's View of Sentimentalism 159 Although Woodhouse was at his best as a poet between 1760 and 1780, he did not write the autobiographical satirical narra- tive, Crispinus Scriblerus, in which the passage just quoted appears, until about 1800, and the work was published for the first time in 1896. Obviously, therefore, his bits of romantic rebellion, like Chatterton's criticism of Johnson in Kew Gar- dens, were quite without influence upon the reading public of his day. And though the isolated passages from Crabbe and Cowper concerning inspiration discredit imitation, they are not essentially contrary to the general tendencies of neo- classicism. On the whole, the evidence of romanticism in our satirists* remarks about poetry is but slight. 8 Similarly, there is little that is anti-classical in satirical criticism of the drama. Few satirists arraigned the Unities, in spite of the fact that in England the Unities had long been freely disregarded. 9 And those few were quite out of the current and regular course of English verse-satire. Chatterton, in his interesting but uninfluential attack on Dr. Johnson, thus mocked at the literary dictator's perfect tragedy: Irene creeps so classical and dry, None but a Greek philosopher can cry; Through five long acts unlettered heroes sleep, And critics by the square of learning weep. 10 8 Of course Cowper was in some respects a romanticist, but in those respects he was no satirist. For example, it is not in satirical context that he asserts: "No bard could please me but whose lyre was tuned To Nature's praises. " Cowper, II, 120. An opinion more characteristic of the English satire of the period is that of the necessity of adhering to the rules. It is expressed again and again by Anthony Pasquin in The Children of Thespis. Apparently in all seriousness he urged dramatists to "Preserve all the unities, true as they ought, For they're full as essential to acting as thought; And those rules by which Grace chain'd the Drama's decorum, The play-wright and player should both have before 'em; Nor e'er let a vulgar demeanour obtrude, To debase your neat form, by a habit that's rude." Pasquin, II, 220. Cf. p. 223. "> Chatterton, I, 146-147.