aiorttell mritu^raii^lSthtatg Stljata, New loth BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1891 DATE DUE PRINTEOINU^.A. Cornell University Library PR 878.S3R96 Satire in the Victorian novel. 3 1924 013 281 047 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924013281047 SATIRE IN THE VICTORIAN NOVEL THE MACMILtAN COMPANY HZW ¥ORE BOSTON • CHICAGO DALLAS ATLAHTA • SAN IXANdSCO MACMILLAN & CO., LnoTED LONDON BOUBAY ' CALCUTTA MELBOUKNE THE MACMnXAN CO. OF CANADA, Lid. lOKONIO SATIRE IN THE VICTORIAN NOVEL BY FRANCES THERESA RUSSELL, Ph.D. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, STANFORD UNIVERSITY S9'?m lark THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1920 All riihU reserved A^(^ lO-JZi COFYSIGHT, 1920 Bv THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and electrotyped. Published January, igzo. VIRO DOCTISSIMO DAVID STARR JORDAN ET DIS MANIBUS GUILELMI JAMES SACRUM QUI MIHI TEMPORE MEO GRAVISSIMO, NOVA SUPPEDITANTES OFFICIA NOVAM VIT^ SEMITAM MONSTkAVERUNT PREFACE If the following monograph were to be presented from the point of view of a proponent, the author would be put triply on the defensive in relation to the theme. For, from one cause or another, the trio of terms in the title lies under a certain blight of critical opinion. Satire, being a thistle "pricked from the thorny branches of reproof," cannot expect to be cherished in the sensitive human bosom with the welcome accorded to the fair daffodil or the sweet violet. It must be content to be admired, if at all, from a safe distance, with the cold eye of intellectual appraisal. Victorianism has the distinction of being the only pe- riod in literature whose very name savors of the byword and the reproach. To be an Elizabethan is to be envied for the gift of youthful exuberance and an exquisite joy in life. To be a Queen Annian (if the phrase may be adapted) is to be respected for the accomplishments of mature manhood,—a dignified mein, ripened judgment, and polished wit. To be a Victorian—that indeed pro- vokes the question whether 'twere better to be or not to be. The chronological analogy cannot, however, be car- ried out, for the Victorian, whatever the cause of his unfortunate reputation, can hardly be accused of senility. On the contrary, the impression prevails that the startled ingenuousness, for instance, with which he opened his eyes at Darwin, Ibsen, and the iconoclasts in Higher Crit- icism; the vehemence with which he opposed and refuted and fulminated against everything hitherto undreampt Vlll PREFACE of in his philosophy; the complacency with which he viewed himself and his achievements, were attributes more appropriate to adolescence than to any later time ot life. Withal there was little of the grace and gayety of youth, and not much more of the poise and humor of manhood. That the Victorian was never at ease, in Zion or elsewhere, that he was prone to take himself and his disjointed times very seriously, without achieving a pro- portionate reformation, is a charge from which he never can be acquitted. To our modern authorities, especially such dictators as Shaw and Wells, contemplating him from the vantage ground of a higher rung in the ladder of civilization, the Victorian looks as Wordsworth did to Lady Blandish, like "a very superior donkey," pro- tected by the side-blinders of conventionality, saddled and bridled by authority, and ridden around in a circle by sentiment (most tyrannical of drivers), with much cracking of whip and raising of dust, but no real change of intellectual or spiritual locality. Nor can all the cavort- ing fun of Dickens, all the pungent playfulness of Thack- eray, all the sardonic gibes of Carlyle, all the grotesque gesturing of Browning, all the winged irony of George Eliot and Matthew Arnold, not even all the quips and cranks in Punch itself, avail to quash the indictment. The Victorian may be defended, appreciated, exonerated even; he may in time succeed in li^nng it down. But to live it down is not quite the same as to have had nothing that had to be lived down. The Novel has been called the Cinderella of Literature. And it is true that while she may be useful, indispensable, a secret favorite of the whole family, no magic wand can give her the real enchantment of a caste that survives the stroke of twelve. She may act as the drudge to PREFACE IX fetch and carry our theories, or the playmate to amuse our idle hours, but she must be kept in her place, and her place is with neither the esthetic aristocracy of poetry nor the didactic patricianism of philosophy and criticism. She has, indeed, recently been fitted with a golden slipper, but her Prince hails from the Kingdom of Dollars, and his rank is recorded in Bradstreet instead of the Peerage. The indifferent or repellent nature of a subject, even though triple distilled, has nothing to do, however, with its value as a topic for investigation. I present this study neither as apologist nor enthusiast. If we expand Brown- ing's "development of a soul" to include the mental as well as the spiritual stages, as the poet himself did in actual practice, we must agree with him that "little else is worth study." So persistent and insistent in the mind of man has been, and still is, the satiric mood, so devoted has he been from immemorial ages to the habit of story- telling (and seldom for the mere sake of the story), so voluminous and emphatic did he become in the nine- teenth century, that no complete account of him can be rendered up until, amid the infinite variety of his aspects, he has been viewed as a Victorian satirist, using as his medium the English novel. Whatever the result of this observation may be, the process has been one of continual delight, tempered by despair; for one enters as it were a room of tremendous size not only full of curious and challenging objects (over- furnished perhaps), but supplied also with numerous doors opening into other apartments, and these ask an amount of time and attention which only the span of a Methuse- lah could place at one's disposal. It must be admitted, though, that it is a happier lot to stand before open doors, even in dismay at the illimi- X PREFACE table vistasj than to confront closed doors or none at all. And I wish in this connection to offer my tribute of ap- preciation and admiration to one who has preeminently the scholar's talisman of Open Sesame into the many and rich realms of literature. It was my good fortune to pre- pare this study under the direction of Professor Ashley H. Thorndike, of Columbia University, by whose benignly severe criticism so many students have profited, by whose sure taste and searching wisdom so many have been guided. To him, to his colleagues in the English Depart- ment, and to the other officers of the University who helped to make my term of residence the satisfaction it has been, it is a pleasure to express my gratitude. To my Stanford colleague. Miss Elisabeth Lee Buckingham, I am indebted for the drudgery of copy-reading, both in manuscript and in proof, and for many valuable sug- gestions. F. T. R. CONTENTS PART I PREMISES Chapter I THE SATIRIC SPIRIT PAGE Various interpretations because of various manifestations. Chief con- stituents, criticism and humor. Relation of these in the formula. Testi- mony of satirists as to the presence of humor, criticism being taken for granted. The satiric motive; temperamental cause and ethical intent. Testimony as to both. Symposium on the discrepancy between prospectus and performance. The realizable ideal. Objects: empiric data on vice, folly, and deception. Reason for universal criticism and ridicule of decep- tion. Criteria of good satirev^ Difficulties, hmitations, and real function. ... I Chapter II THE CONFLUENCE Relationship between satire and fiction. Ancient but incomplete and uneven alliance. Union in the nineteenth century. The Victorian nov- elists. Their chronology and background. Classification as satirists. Testimony of the novelists themselves as to satire 41 PART 11 METHODS Chapter I THE romantic Possible methodic categories. Reason for present choice. Proportion of the romantic or fantastic type. Peacock and ButleK Lytton and Dis- '-^ raeli. Thackeray and Meredith . Characteristics of this form of satire: wit, invention, exaggeration, and concentration 59 XU CONTENTS Chapter II THE REALISTIC Character of Victorian realism. Nature of realistic satire. Subdivi- sions, based on authors' methods and devices. The direct or didactic satirists: Lytton, Thackexa;^„Pii:^ns._ ^9;edith. Satire in plot or situa- tion: Martin Chuzzleuiit, E^it^J'sizi^XhiL Egoist- Minor episodes. Sadre expressed by witty characters, of various types 84 Chapter III THE IRONIC Verbal and philosophic irony. Banter and sarcasm. The Irony of Fate. Relation of irony to satire. Differing opinions. Distribudon of irony among the novelists. Direct or verbal: present in varying degrees in practically all. Crystallized and pervasive forms. Irony in circumstance: Trollope, ^liotjandjl^letedith. Subdivisions: dramadc irony; the reversed wheel of fortune, the granted desire; the lost opportunity. Meredithi^ irony directed against the ironic interpretation of life 121 PART III OBJECTS Chapter I INDIVIDUALS Personalities the original and primitive element in sadre. Effect of tMs influence upon the satiric product, and of this in turn upon the atdtude toward satire. Citations. In fiction no hard and fast line between real and imaginary characters. Lack of personal satire among the novelists.