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Paradox
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—Love Poems:
Flamineo satirizes common conventions of romantic poetry from the Renaissance period in a speech to Camillo. Employing yet another tactic to convince Camillo to set aside his suspicions of adultery, Flamineo states:
See, she comes. What reason have you to be jealous of this creature? What an ignorant ass or flattering knave might he be counted that should write sonnets to her eyes, or call her brow the snow of Ida, or ivory of Corinth, or compare her hair to the blackbird’s bill when ’tis liker the blackbird’s feather! This is all. Be wise; I will
make you friends and you shall go to bed together. Marry, look you, it shall not be
your seeking, do you stand upon that by any means. Walk you aloof; I would not
have you seen in’t.
Act 3, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Undigestible Words:
The lawyer who leads the case against Vittoria in court for the murder of her husband uses highly technical language that is difficult to understand. Vittoria, hoping to gain favor from the jury and onlookers, uses an extended metaphor to describe and satirize the jargon of the legal profession:
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Hold your peace!
Exorbitant sins must have exulceration.VITTORIA
Surely, my lords, this lawyer here hath swallowed Some ’pothecary’s bills or proclamations,
And now the hard and undigestable words
Come up like stones we use give hawks for physic. Why, this is Welsh to Latin.
Explanation and Analysis—Lawyers:
Webster offers a biting satire of lawyers and the legal profession in his depiction of Vittoria’s trial for the murder of her husband, Camillo. The unnamed lawyer for the prosecution addresses Vittoria and the court in needlessly complicated language:
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Most literated judges, please your lordships So to connive your judgements to the view
Of this debauched and diversivolent woman, Who such a black concatenation
Of mischief hath effected, that to extirp
The memory of’t must be the consummation Of her and her projections.VITTORIA What’s all this?
