Satire

            
             The word satire derives from the Latin satira, meaning "medley." A satire, either in prose or in poetic form, holds prevailing vices or follies up to ridicule: it employs humour and wit to criticize human institutions or humanity itself, in order that they might be remodelled or improved. Satire as an English literary form derives in large part from Greek and Roman literature. Aristophanes, Juvenal, Horace, Martial, and Petronius all wrote satires of one kind or another, and the tradition maintained a weak existence in England down through the Middle Ages in the form of the fabliau and the Beast-epic. The eighteenth century, however, in which poetry, drama, essays, and literary criticism were all instilled with the form, was the golden age of English satire. Dryden, Swift, Pope, Addison, Steele, and Johnson were all great satirists, and self-described heirs of the Roman poets Horace and Juvenal. Horatian satire tends to be calmer and more sympathetic than the sharper and harsh Juvenalian satire, in which the author Swift is the great example repeatedly rails savagely against the evil inherent in man and his institutions. Byron and Thackeray, in the nineteenth century along with T. S. Eliot in the twentieth, sustained and refined the satiric tradition. .
             Define the term feudal system: In most of medieval Europe, society was dependent on the "feudal" system, which was based on allocation of land in return for service. The king would give out grants of land to his most important noblemen (barons and bishops), and each noble would have to promise to loyally follow him and supply him with soldiers in time of war. They did this at a special - kneeling before the king, he swore an oath with the words "Sire, I become your man." The nobles then divided their land among lower lords, or knights who also had to become their vassals (servants). In the lowest spot in society sat the peasants who worked on the land itself.