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Personification
Definition of Satire
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of satire, but satirists can take... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians... read full definition
Act 1, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Saying Grace:
Shakespeare satirizes the lack of religion among the Viennese citizens during a conversation between Lucio and some of the gentleman of the city.
LUCIO
I believe thee, for I think thou never wast where
grace was said.SECOND GENTLEMAN
No? A dozen times at least.
FIRST GENTLEMAN
What? In meter?
LUCIO
In any proportion or in any language.FIRST GENTLEMAN
I think, or in any religion.
Act 3, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Dissolution of the World:
Speaking with Escalus in his disguise as a traveling friar, Duke Vincentio speaks hyperbolically about the evils of the world:
Unlock with LitCharts A+ESCALUS
What news abroad i’ th’ world?DUKE, as Friar
None but that there is so great a fever
on goodness that the dissolution of it must cure it.
Novelty is only in request, and it is as dangerous to
be aged in any kind of course as it is virtuous to be
constant in any undertaking.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Caesar and Pygmalion :
Upon seeing that Pompey Bum has been arrested, Lucio makes a number of allusions to Roman history and literature.
Unlock with LitCharts A+How now, noble Pompey! What, at the wheels of
Caesar? art thou led in triumph? What, is there
none of Pygmalion's images, newly made woman, to be
had now, for putting the hand in the pocket and
extracting it clutch'd?
Explanation and Analysis—Two Usuries:
Pompey, a “bawd” or pimp working for Mistress Overdone, satirically personifies two professions: prostitution and money-lending, referred to in early modern England as “usury”:
Unlock with LitCharts A+’Twas never merry world since, of two usuries,
the merriest was put down, and the worser allowed
by order of law a furred gown to keep him warm,
and furred with fox and lambskins too, to signify
that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for
the facing.
