Butler/Hudibras: Bear baiting, Butler's chemist, Samuel Butler, Elephant on the moon, In praise of Hudibras, Directory
Satire and Parody: Art of satire, Complete plagiary, Critics, Critic's critic's critic, Parody, Plagiary, Puffery, Satire, Satire on plagiarism, The Satiric Eye, Directory
People: Avellaneda and Quixote, Avicenna, Bayes, Boyle, , Brydges, Chaucer's Nun's Priest Tale, Churchill, Colvil's Scots Hudibras, Cotton, Galvani, Graunt, Haldane, L'estrange, Maxwell's free lunch, Procrustes, Quixote, Walton, Ward on Dryden's passing, Wilkins, Directory
The works and times: Brydges' Iliad, Churchill's Night, Conjecture, Free trade, Gay's Lament, Churchill's Gluttony, Kings evil, Colvil's math, Medical treatments, New England justice, Occam's razor, The Plague, Prince Rupert drops, Colvil's Hudibras, Browne on Tissue grafting, Gay on trout fishing, Directory
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More recent satirical topics and poems are at the end -
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The essential problem of Hudibrastic satire is that it is almost impossible to get it published. Brilliant work goes undiscovered. Editorial writers who drip with humor have no poetic bend and are unable to cloak their offerings in such a way that amuses and offends at the same time. Perhaps this is not the case in other countries but there is a drought in the United States. Only a few names come to mind for the past fifty years and none in the past ten. The greatest satirist since world war II, is Tom Lehrer. His song-poems capture the audience and impale the victims. Well done, Tom - You need to drop another bomb! At about the same time the Kingston Trio, occasionally offered a piece that ridiculed the establishment. Their minuet, now nearing forty years of age, is just as apt now as then "They're rioting in Africa; they're starving in Spain, etc." Perhaps a few other songwriters provide a protest, but by and large, they just offer a bit of profanity, humor and no substance.
One book of Hudibrastic scope was published during FDR's administration. It's a small book, The New Deal in Rime, that requires only a few hours to read, but many-a-day in discovering who the bit players in the Roosevelt administration were. Even aging economist who should know them "like the back of their hand", seem to have either forgotten or else because of their liberal bend, choose to ignore the memory. Ulysses Grant Vogan also titled the book, A Modern Hudibras, perhaps to confuse the bibliophiles. It was published by the Balch Publishing Company in 1939 when FDR was about to cast our lot (finally) with Britain, and use the war to pull the country out of the Depression.
Then, we have Thomas Green Fessenden, an inventive sort who papered the country with a variety of publications but who richly deserves attention for his Hudibrastic attacks on Thomas Jefferson. Individuals not of that time completely miss their target when they accuse him of being a peddler of "junk science", when in fact he was alerting the public to gulling by those that promoted "Terrible Tractoration" as a cure for ailments. Oliver Wendell Holmes who otherwise wrote well of the health problems of the 1800's is especially guilt of attacking Fessenden.
Students of the Revolution in this country should spend some time with John Trumbull and his viperous attacks on the Tories and Wiggs. As Mugwumps, they tried to sort out their feelings and economic advantage before they jumped to one side or the other. As with most historic Hudibrastic verse, the individuals are lost in time and much of the emotion of issues is lost, yet after immersion into the poem, M'Fingal, Trumbull's wit and humor emerges and the characters assume a life of their own. The Satiric Poems of John Trumbull, Texas University Press.
Edward Ames Richards, Hudibras in the Burlesque Tradition, opened a can of worms when he attempted to encompass all "Hudibras" wit in the name of dissent:
�Six separate charges which the satirist brings against Dissent: namely, hypocrisy, greed, lust, intellectual narrowness, low social status, and a foolish mysticism. First three are stock in trade of all satirist. Last three are special and specific and they own a peculiar interest since they in turn become, singly or in combination, stock charges against Dissent after Butler's day. For instance, the essential criticism of Butler, of Matthew Arnold, and of H. L. Mencken can be placed on one another and come very near identity in spite of differences of time and of culture.'
In Temperament and Opinions section of book, Hudibras in the Burlesque Tradition, pp 19, Edward Ames Richards, Columbia University Press, 1937.
The pleasure of the satirist is in addressing hypocrisy practiced by current-day leaders. They not, the satirist are the ones possessing Richards' "greed, lust, and intellectual narrowness." It remains for the satirist to make fun of those who hope to distance themselves from the common folk by their posturing on issues, claiming their critics are those who know not what they are doing and who are hell bent on a mission to destroy all that is right, good and just. Progressiveness, politically correctness, avant-garde, sophistication, permissiveness, "feel good", and do no harm are their mantras.
Is it any wonder that opportunities abound for the satirist who, pen in hand (or more properly - seated before the glowing screen, pours out words, seeking to wound the target - not fatally, for that would mean that a new debased leader would have to be found.) On the other hand, the "leader" recognizing that the wounds if they become infected could lead to his (or her) demise, use all the means at their disposal to destroy the satirist or the group that he or she represents. It's an unfair joust as the one in power not only has a cadre of defenders that are paid with the spoils, but also the presence in the press of individuals and their organizations that have a mission that has no mission statement but the objective of which is clear. Like Sherman's march to the sea, they intend to destroy all that provides support for their enemies and cut off that support by any means at their disposal. They use the courts when conditions are ripe to destroy the opposition. And when justice does not serve them, they attack the writer's character; "leave no stone unturned," or hurled is their approach.
Being a satirist is not enough, one must have a muse to lead the way to create Hudibrastic bombast. Are there any that possess this talent? Sadly the answer is no. The current educational system seems to have deprived the student and focused them toward the politically correct instead.
Fessenden said it best:
"Great men can never lack supporters,
Who manufacture their own voters;
Besides, �tis plain as yonder steeple,
They will be fathers to the people."
On Jefferson pp 117 - from Democracy Unveiled
Thomas Green Fessenden was America's Butler!,
Mahtrow's recent poems:
John McCain, Georgia Nut, Nobel Prize, Al Gore, Mugwump, Lehrer, Mencken, Siedel the Louse, Clinton, Davis, Daschle ****
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