Note 166 — Chapter III · THE IRONIC
Reading edition
As advised by John Brown in his Essay on Satire:
“The Muse’s charms resistless then assail, When wrapt in irony’s transparent veil; ***** Then be your lines with sharp encomiums grac’d; Style Clodius honorable, Busa chaste.”
And not long before this, Dryden had been saying: “How easy it is to call rogue and villain, and that wittily! But how hard to make a man appear a fool, a blockhead, or a knave, without using any of these opprobrious terms! * * * Neither is it true that this fineness of raillery is offensive. A witty man is tickled while he is hurt in this manner, and a fool feels it not.” Essay on Satire, 98.