This volume brings together examples of English verse satire written during the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, interpreting satire widely to include reflective poems modelled on Horace, ‘aggressive’ poems modelled on Juvenal, and poems in the native or medieval tradition. There are substantial extracts from the anonymous Cock Lorell’s Boat, Skelton’s Colin Clout and Spenser’s Mother Hubberd’s Tale, but most poems are given complete. Among other poets represented are Wyatt, Donne, Marston and Jonson and a number of pieces have been included by writers whose work is today not readily accessible, such as Gascoigne, Lodge, Rowlands and Guilpin. The nature and development of verse satire as a literary genre is discussed in the introduction.
