If you’d like to support the channel (gold bars, gemstones, rare earth rocks accepted) 👉 www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith/membership What is satire for — laughter, outrage, moral attack? In this conversation, we explore the evolution of English satire from the 17th and 18th centuries, examining how writers like Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, John Dryden, and the Earl of Rochester used anger, wit, and self-induced misanthropy to critique politics, religion, art, and human nature itself. Opening with a powerful reading from Pope’s The Dunciad, the discussion moves into questions of righteous vs unrighteous anger (Aristotle’s ethics), the role of masks and persona in satire, and how satire shifted from vicious moral attack to modern comedy. We compare the biting invective of Restoration satire with the refined irony of Pope and Swift, and trace ho ...