PREFACE. In the compilation of this volume my aim has been to furnish a work that would be representative in character rather than exhaustive. The restrictions of space imposed by the limits of such a series as this have necessitated the omission of many pieces that readers might expect to see included. As far as possible, however, the most typical satires of the successive eras have been selected, so as to throw into relief the special literary characteristics of each, and to manifest the trend of satiric development during the centuries elapsing between Langland and Lowell. Acknowledgment is due, and is gratefully rendered, to Mrs. C. S. Calverley for permission to print the verses which close this book; and to Messrs. Macmillan & Co. for permission to print A. H. Clough's "Spectator ab Extra". To Professor C. H. Herford my warmest thanks are due for his careful revision of the Introduction, and for many valuable hints which have been adopted in the course of the work; also to Mr. W. Keith Leask, M.A.(Oxon.), and the librarians of the Edinburgh University and Advocates' Libraries. OLIPHANT SMEATON. |