Neo-Latin Verse Satire
摘要
Neo-Latin verse satire continued the tradition of Roman verse satire in different European countries. This chapter deals with the main representatives and development of the genre from fifteenth-century Italy through the Low Countries to Reformation Germany and Papal Rome. Along with the poetic form, the genre is bound together by topics and phrases borrowed from the Roman satirists or the Bible, and by a harsh criticism of vices, which sometimes takes on the characteristics of a personal invective. Typical human vices reproached in the poems include greed, ambition, lack of self-knowledge, and hypocrisy, which the satirists try to cure with their therapy. Especially during the Reformation, apocalyptic language and Antichrist imagery gained a place in the tradition. The recurring satirical themes include the defence of writing satires, youth education, and the general rottenness and destruction of the world.