His _Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus_--a satire on the abuses
of human learning,--in which the type of the fictitious biography is
adopted, is exceedingly clever.
Finally, we reach the pair of satirists who, next to Dryden, must be
regarded as the writers whose influence has been greatest in
determining the character of British satire. Pope is the disciple of
Dryden, and the best qualities of the Drydenic satire, in both form and
matter, are reproduced in his works accompanied by special attributes
of his own. Owing to the extravagant admiration professed by Byron for
the author of the _Rape of the Lock_, and his repeated assurances of
his literary indebtedness to him, we are apt to overlook the fact that
the noble lord was under obligations to Dryden of a character quite as
weighty as those he was so ready to acknowledge to Pope. But the
latter, like Shakespeare, so improved all he borrowed that he has in
some instances actually received credit for inventing what he only took
from his great master. Pope was more of a refiner and polisher of
telling satiric forms which Dryden had in the first instance employed,
than an original inventor.
To mention all the types of satire affected by this marvellously acute
and variously cultured poet would be a task of some difficulty. There
are few amongst the principal forms which he has not essayed. In spirit
he is more pungent and sarcastic, more acidulous and malicious, than
the large-hearted and generous-souled Dryden.
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