ABSTRACT
Edward (Ned) Ward (1667–1731), was a popular satirist of his day who wrote prodigiously in the early decades of the eighteenth century. Mars Stript of his Armour was one of two publications specifically directed at Britain’s armed forces; it came two years after his attack on the navy, entitled The Wooden World Dissected. Ward devoted the majority of this treatment of the army to various members of the officer corps, but the last few chapters dealt with the lowest ranks. The first of the following brief excerpts concluded a chapter on “A Regiment, or Battalion”, by cynically mocking the men’s show of generousity in their distribution of deceased comrades’ effects. The second excerpt reinforced the common stereotypes introduced in the first example: that private soldiers were prone to drink and neglect their families.
