'Tis not true reason I despise, but yours': The Influence of the Civil War 'Satire against' Verse Form on the Restoration 'Pamphlet War' of 1679-81

• Published in: Early modern literary studies Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 1 - 16
• Main Author: Lavery, Hannah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sheffield Matthew Steggle 01.01.2024; Matthew Steggle, Editor, EMLS
• Subjects: 16th century; Brochures; Censorship; Civil war; Dialogue; History; Literature; Poets; Political power; Political satire; Politics; Portrayals; Propaganda; Rochester, John Wilmot, 2nd earl of; United Kingdom; War; Works; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 1201-2459

The subsequent release of his 'Satire against reason and mankind', as a broadside in 1679, marks the start of years of 'pamphlet war' in which the battle for literary and political authority rages.4 This re-plays the earlier propagandist 'war of words' that complemented the start of civil war. 387-8), and pleads for a reassertion of 'manly Force' and strong leadership.5 That this also announces Dryden's accession to a position of literary 'authority', as a commentator on and for the time, underlines the perception of how intimately woven literary and political power are considered to be in this era.6 Ultimately the wider influence of the 'Satire against' verse form during the latter half the seventeenth century reveals popular recognition of the value of witty repartee over dogmatic preaching when literature engages in political dialogue. Cowley's Ad populum: or a Lecture to the People appears in 1644.10 Here, then, we witness the beginnings of a 'public sphere', in which 'debate, argument and the public airing of differences' can be seen to take place.11 Lake and Pincus also note how writers at this time value the emerging literary public sphere as a place where public discussion is a means to discover truth, 'not through the victory of one side over the other, but through the cut-and-thrust of argument and the dialogic interrogations of plausible hypotheses'.12 This was then to be a key influence on the way in which literary and political life intersected and developed under the restored court.13 In Cowley's A satyr against separatists (1642) we see the first-person satiric instructor teaching through negative exemplar: T have been where so many Round-heads dwell, / That there are only more of them in Hell' (11. In opposition to the figure of ridicule in the earlier satire, here we are drawn instead to accord with the 'grave men' who stand in juxtaposition with the 'desperate' nobility, who, with 'loyal treasons hug our King / Unto his own and Kingdoms ruining' (11. [...]a key part of the early development of printed 'satire against... ' verse is the concept of reply and debate, significant both for the dialogue that exists between the writers, but also the implications this has for how the function of reading is understood to be an active, even interactive, process.14 After two years of hard warfare, the satirist of Ad populum (1644) feels justified in returning to a more direct, vituperative attack on a treacherous citizenry, stridently proclaiming against 'Ye dull Idolaters, have ye yet bent / Your Knees enough to your Dagon-Parliament?' (11.