ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the results achieved, from Dryden to Hogarth. The period was one in which major social changes took place: for example, the growth of public credit and government financial institutions, with a consequent realignment of 'moneyed' as against 'landed' interests. Satire is usually engaged in detecting infractions of a norm; and one common theme is the picture built up of the 'new men', the invaders of established society, the pretenders to taste, the nouveau riche, the pushing outsiders. Hagstrum makes a distinction between emblematic and portrait caricature. John Dryden was not merely the greatest poet of the Restoration; he was also the most perfectly attuned to his own age and its immediate successor. In 1688 Dryden was not far off sixty. His most famous poems were already written, and the new dynasty promised little - he lost his offices at court and had to face increasing poverty as well as ill-health.
