Satire
keenness and severity of remark; sarcasm; trenchant wit; biting ridicule; incisive humor; pungent irony; denunciation and exposure to derision or reprobation. In literature, the representation of follies or vices in a ridiculous form, either in discourse or dramatic action. The Romans were the first to distinguish themselves in this species of literature. Horace is the great master in this art, whose humorous and playful raillery of the follies and foibles of mankind are ever fresh and ever true. Juvenal is much more serious and declamatory. He has more strength and fire, and more elevation of style than Horace, but is at the same time greatly inferior to him in gracefulness and ease. Persius is a nervous and lively writer, but has more of the fire and force of Juvenal than of the politeness of Horace. Though the name satire usually is confined to poetical compositions, prose works of a satirical character are frequently included under the same head. Among the French may be mentioned_Rabelais, Montaigne, and Voltaire; in England, Pope, Swift, Fielding, Byron, Thackeray, Carlyle, Samuel Butler, and Shaw; and in the United States, Irving, Holmes, Mark Twain, Dunne ("Mr. Dooley"), etc.