Six Lectures. BY JAMES HANNAY, AUTHOR OF "SINGLETON FONTENOY," ETC. "Ego autem (existimes licet, quod lubet) mirifice capior facetiis, CICERO, Epist. ad Div. lib. ix. 15. "Non ulla Musis pagina gratior, Quam quæ severis ludicra jungere Utilibus recreare mentem." DR. JOHNSON, Ad Urbanum. LONDON: DAVID BOGUE, FLEET STREET. MDCCCLIV. Prefatory Dedication. TO WILTSHIRE STANTON AUSTIN, ESQ. MY DEAR AUSTIN, IN preparing for the press these Lectures (first delivered a twelvemonth ago), no part of my task has been more agreeable than that which is now to be discharged,— the dedication of them to yourself. This slight compliment I offer to you, in acknowledgment of your qualities as a friend and a companion, to which I owe many pleasant hours spent in your society. To dwell upon the talents, the taste, and the literature, which you unite with these qualities, would be to do what your friends would find superfluous, and you yourself disagreeable. In justice to my judgment, I must, however, say, that I dedicate my book to one, whose capacity for criticising it, is only equalled by the natural kindliness which will make him criticise it charitably. I take the opportunity of making what remarks I think it necessary to address to good-natured readers of this performance, by way of preface. To treat of all Satire and all Satirists is a task which I never dreamed of performing within these limits; and my work is rather a collection of passages in the history of Satirical Literature, than any thing else. To those who have written the Satire Proper, my main attention has been given; and of the Satiric Drama and Satiric Fiction no adequate |