PrefaceAcknowledgmentsA Note on Texts, Dates, and MoneyPart 1. Canonical and Noncanonical Satire, 1658–1770I. The "Definition" Quagmire and the Problem of Descriptive TerminologyII. Genre versus ModeIII. The Modern Critical Canon and Its ImplicationsIV. The Total Satire Canon and Its Economic ContextThe Production of Satire in England, 1658–1770Price, Format, Dissemination, and Implied AudiencesV. Some Issues of Coverage and OrganizationVI. The Uses of a Taxonomic MethodologyThe Varieties of SatireForecasting Some ConclusionsThe Nature of the EnterprisePart 2. Contemporary Views on Satire, 1658–1770I. Concepts of Satire"Satire"Definition by ContrastII. The Business of SatireThe Opposition to SatireThe Case for SatireIII. The Practice and Province of SatireAcceptable and Problematical Satiric MethodsAppropriate and Inappropriate Satiric TargetsIV. Characterizing the SatiristV. Perceptions of Eighteenth-Century Satire Then and NowPart 3. Satire in the Carolean PeriodI. Some Preliminary ConsiderationsII. Dryden, Rochester, BuckinghamCarolean DrydenRochesterBuckingham's Purposive SatireIII. Marvell, Ayloffe, OldhamMarvell as Polemical SatiristAyloffe's Antimonarchical DiatribesOldham's Juvenalian PerformancesIV. Hudibras and Other Camouflage SatiresV. Personal and Social Satire: From Lampoons to Otway and LeeVI. Chronological Change, 1658–1685VII. IssuesIntensityTonePresentation of PositivesThe Problem of ApplicationVIII. The Discontinuous World of Carolean SatirePart 4. Beyond CaroleanI. Altered CircumstancesII. Dryden as Satirist, 1685–1700III. Poetic SatireTutchin, Defoe, and Political SatireGould and Defamatory SatireGarth and BlackmoreBrown, Ward, and Commercial SatireIV. Dramatic SatireShadwell and Exemplary ComedyMitigated SatireHarsh Social SatireV. The State of Satire ca. 1700Part 5. Defoe, Swift, and New Varieties of Satire, 1700–1725I. Defoe as SatiristAttack and DefenseInstruction and Direct Warning (Aimed at the Audience)Indirect Exposure and DiscomfitureII. Religious and Political SatireTopical ControversyMonitory Satire in the Manner of DefoeIdeological Argumentation: Dunton, Defoe, and OthersIII. Social and Moral SatireGeneralized SatireDidactic Satire in the Manner of SteeleParticularized and Topical SatireArgument and InquiryIV. The Alleged "Scriblerians"V. Swift before GulliverJokiness and PlayDestruction and NegativityPurposive Defamation and DefenseIndirection and Difficult SatireVI. Characterizing the Early Eighteenth CenturyPart 6. Harsh and Sympathetic Satire, 1726–1745I. Pope and Swift among Their ContemporariesPolitical Commentary and CombatThe Culture WarsSocial SatireII. Pope, Swift, GayPopeSwiftGayIII. The Problem of Meaning in Gulliver's TravelsIV . Fielding and the Move toward Sympathetic SatirePlayful Satire and EntertainmentProvocation and PreachmentDistributive JusticeFielding's Concept of SatireSympathetic SatireV. Alive and WellPart 7. Churchill, Foote, Macklin, Garrick, Smollett, Sterne, and Others, 1745–1770I. The Rise of "Poetic" SatireFrivolity and EntertainmentMoral PreachmentParticularized AttackPoeticized SatireChurchill's Nonpolitical SatireII. Wilkes, Churchill, and Political Controversy in the 1760sThe North BritonChurchill's Political SatireVisual SatireWilkes's Essay on WomanIII. Satire in the Commercial TheaterSocial ComedyLightweight Afterpiece EntertainmentSamuel FooteCharles MacklinDavid GarrickIV. Satire in the Mid-Eighteenth-Century NovelSmollett's Dark SatireThe Late Career of FieldingTristram Shandy and the Singularity of SterneCharlotte Lennox, Oliver Goldsmith, Sarah FieldingV. Satire for a Stable EraEpilogueI. Motives and ModesII. Remapping English Satire, 1658–1770AppendixNotesBibliographyIndex

Outstanding Academic Title, ChoiceIn The Practice of Satire in England, 1658–1770, Ashley Marshall explores how satire was conceived and understood by writers and readers of the period. Her account is based on a reading of some 3,000 works, ranging from one-page squibs to novels. The objective is not to recuperate particular minor works but to recover the satiric milieu—to resituate the masterpieces amid the hundreds of other works alongside which they were originally written and read.The long eighteenth century is generally hailed as the great age of satire, and as such, it has received much critical attention. However, scholars have focused almost exclusively on a small number of canonical works, such as Gulliver’s Travels and The Dunciad, and have not looked for continuity over time. Marshall revises the standard account of eighteenth-century satire, revealing it to be messy, confused, and discontinuous, exhibiting radical and rapid changes over time. The true history of satire in its great age is not a history at all. Rather, it is a collection of episodic little histories."This strong and wide-ranging book . . . earns its authority from the wealth of information it provides . . . It also offers a considerable enlargement of our knowledge and understanding of a lively and turbulent terrain, whose boundaries are wider and more untidy than we have imagined."—Times Literary Supplement"This original, detailed account of satire during the period will challenge and shape the literary history of satire for decades to come. Essential."—Choice“So much material is included in The Practice of Satire in England, and its historiographic claims are so striking, that scholars will be discussing this book for some time. Perhaps most admirably, Marshall has put satire, recently a rather neglected genre, firmly back at the center of scholarly attention and debate.”—Philological QuarterlyAshley Marshall is an associate professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is the author of Swift and History: Politics and the English Past.

Marshall is completely in control of her vast materials . . . Exceptional cases are not her subject; hers is the much broader one of satire across-the-board, whether we call it lampoon or tirade, punitive or educative, merely entertaining or even affectionate; and her subject is one that has never been systematically dealt with.—Ronald Paulson, Johns Hopkins University, author of The Beautiful, Novel, and Strange: Aesthetics and Heterodoxy

Marshall is completely in control of her vast materials... Exceptional cases are not her subject; hers is the much broader one of satire across-the-board, whether we call it lampoon or tirade, punitive or educative, merely entertaining or even affectionate; and her subject is one that has never been systematically dealt with. -- Ronald Paulson, Johns Hopkins University, author of The Beautiful, Novel, and Strange: Aesthetics and Heterodoxy Ashley Marshall wisely sets the great eighteenth-century satirists within the vastly diverse literary contexts of their own and consequent ages. The study is important, persuasive, lively, learned, and a major advance upon scholarship concerning English satiric theory and practice from 1658 to 1770. -- Howard D. Weinbrot, University of Wisconsin, author of Literature, Religion, and the Evolution of Culture, 1660-1780 This is a remarkable work of scholarship: a revaluation of the whole idea and scope of satire as actually produced in the Restoration and eighteenth century. These chapters are notable for their command of this material, their analytical depth, their nuanced reading of the historical character of satire over generational passages of time, and their clear-sighted power of synthesis in putting all this disorderly mass of material before the reader in such vivid form. I do not see how any serious scholarship on satire will be able to proceed henceforth without reference to Marshall's book. -- Thomas Lockwood, University of Washington, coeditor of Henry Fielding: The Critical Heritage