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Persius has generally been considered far less attractive than Horace or Juvenal, and thus far less important as a contributor to the history of British satire. Indeed, the few modern studies of Persius' relevance for the eighteenth century suggest an advanced case of anorexia, a willful starvation and withdrawal of nourishment rather than a healthy leanness. Most earlier readers also placed Persius beneath Horace and Juvenal, though still in their qualitative group, and still of great interest and significance. His dark, rough, grave poems were essential for the ongoing Renaissance view of what satire should be, and his other conventions mingled well with those of Juvenal to create a satirist of immediate utility for Pope and the opposition to Walpole – the biting, hostile, somber, virtuous outcast who attacked a society rotting from the top down.
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Persius has generally been considered far less attractive than Horace or Juvenal, and thus far less important as a contributor to the history of British satire. Indeed, the few modern studies of Persius' relevance for the eighteenth century suggest an advanced case of anorexia, a willful starvation and withdrawal of nourishment rather than a healthy leanness. Most earlier readers also placed Persius beneath Horace and Juvenal, though still in their qualitative group, and still of great interest and significance. His dark, rough, grave poems were essential for the ongoing Renaissance view of what satire should be, and his other conventions mingled well with those of Juvenal to create a satirist of immediate utility for Pope and the opposition to Walpole – the biting, hostile, somber, virtuous outcast who attacked a society rotting from the top down.
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