Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...
s or
parodies
A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satirical or ironic imitation. Often its subject is an original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, etc), but a parody can als ...
that mock common Classical stereotypes of
hero
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...
es and heroic literature. Typically, mock-heroic works either put a fool in the role of the hero or exaggerate the heroic qualities to such a point that they become absurd.
History
Historically, the mock-heroic style was popular in 17th-century Italy, and in the post-
Restoration and
Augustan periods in Great Britain.
The earliest example of the form is the ''
Batrachomyomachia
The ''Batrachomyomachia'' (, from , "frog", , "mouse", and , "battle") or ''Battle of the Frogs and Mice'' is a comic epic, or a parody of the ''Iliad''. Although its date and authorship are uncertain, it belongs to the classical period, as ...
'' ascribed to
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
by the Romans and parodying his work, but believed by most modern scholars to be the work of an anonymous poet in the time of Alexander the Great.
A longstanding assumption on the origin of the mock-heroic in the 17th century is that
epic
Epic commonly refers to:
* Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation
* Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale
Epic(s) ...
and the
pastoral
The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...
genres had become used up and exhausted,
[Griffin, Dustin H. (1994) ''Satire: A Critical Reintroduction']
p. 135
/ref> and so they got parodically reprise
In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any re ...
d. In the 17th century the epic genre was heavily criticized, because it was felt to be merely expressing the traditional values of feudal society.
Among the new genres, closer to the modern feelings and proposing new ideals, the satirical literature was particularly effective in criticizing the old habits and values. Beside the Spanish picaresque novel
The picaresque novel ( Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for ' rogue' or 'rascal') is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish but appealing hero, usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrup ...
s and the French burlesque
A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. novel, in Italy flourished the ''poema eroicomico''. In this country those who still wrote epic poems, following the rules set by Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...
in his work ''Discorsi del poema eroico'' (''Discussions about the Epic Poems'') and realized in his masterwork, the ''Jerusalem Delivered
''Jerusalem Delivered'', also known as ''The Liberation of Jerusalem'' ( ; ), is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, first published in 1581, that tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade in which Christian knights, l ...
'', were felt as antiquated. The new mock-heroic poem accepted the same metre, vocabulary, rhetoric of the epics. However, the new genre turned the old epic upside down about the meaning, setting the stories in more familiar situations, to ridiculize the traditional epics. In this context was created the parody of epic genre.
''Lo scherno degli dèi'' (''The Mockery of Gods'') by Francesco Bracciolini, printed in 1618 is often regarded as the first Italian ''poema eroicomico''.
However, the best known of the form is '' La secchia rapita'' (''The rape of the Bucket'') by Alessandro Tassoni
Alessandro Tassoni (28 September 156525 April 1635) was an Italian poet and writer, from Modena, best known as the author of the mock-heroic poem '' La secchia rapita'' (''The Rape of the Pail'', or ''The stolen bucket'').
Life
He was born in ...
(1622).
Other Italian mock-heroic poems were ''La Gigantea'' by Girolamo Amelonghi (1566), ''La moscheide'' by Giovanni Battista Lalli (1624), the ''Viaggio di Colonia'' (''Travel to Cologne'') by Antonio Abbondanti (1625), ''L'asino'' (''The donkey'') by Carlo de' Dottori (1652), ''La Troja rapita'' by Loreto Vittori
Loreto Vittori (5 September 1600 (baptized) – 23 April 1670) was an Italian castrato and composer. From 1622 until his death, he was a mezzo-soprano singer in the papal chapel in Rome.
Life
Vittori was born in Spoleto and educated in Rome. ...
(1662), ''Il Malmantile racquistato
''Il Malmantile racquistato'' (Malmantile Recaptured) is an Italian mock-heroic epic poem by Lorenzo Lippi (1606–65) first published posthumously in 1676.
Plot
The poem is mostly compounded out of a variety of popular tales; its principal su ...
'' by Lorenzo Lippi
Lorenzo Lippi (3 May 1606 – 15 April 1665) was an Italian Painting, painter and poet from Florence.
Biography
Born in Florence, he studied painting under Matteo Rosselli. Both Baldassare Franceschini and Francesco Furini were also apprent ...
(1688), ''La presa di San Miniato'' by Ippolito Neri (1764).
Also in Italian dialects were written mock-heroic poems. For example, in Neapolitan dialect
Neapolitan ( autonym: ; ) is a Romance language of the Italo-Romance group spoken in most of continental Southern Italy. It is named after the Kingdom of Naples, which once covered most of the area, and the city of Naples was its capital. On ...
the best known work of the form was ''La Vaiasseide'' by Giulio Cesare Cortese
Giulio Cesare Cortese (1570 in Naples, Kingdom of Naples – 22 December 1622 in Naples) was a writer and poet.
Life
Born to a well-to-do family, nothing is known of Cortese's early life, though it is thought that he was a schoolmate of Giambatti ...
(1612). While in Romanesco Giovanni Camillo Peresio wrote ''Il maggio romanesco'' (1688), Giuseppe Berneri published ''Meo Patacca
"Meo Patacca" (Meo is a pet name and is short for Bartolomeo) or ''Roma in feste ne i Trionfi di Vienna'' ("Rome in jubilation for the Triumphs of Vienna") is the name of a poem in rhymes written by Giuseppe Berneri (1637–1700).
The poem
Thi ...
'' in 1695, and, finally, Benedetto Micheli printed ''La libbertà romana acquistata e defesa'' in 1765.
After the translation of ''Don Quixote
, the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...
'', by Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelist ...
, English authors began to imitate the inflated language of Romance poetry and narrative to describe misguided or common characters. The most likely genesis for the mock-heroic, as distinct from the picaresque
The picaresque novel (Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for ' rogue' or 'rascal') is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish but appealing hero, usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrupt ...
, burlesque
A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. , and satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
poem is the comic poem ''Hudibras
''Hudibras'' () is a vigorous satirical poem, written in a mock-heroic style by Samuel Butler (1613–1680), and published in three parts in 1663, 1664 and 1678. The action is set in the last years of the Interregnum, around 1658–60, immediate ...
'' (1662–1674), by Samuel Butler. Butler's poem describes a "trew blew" Puritan knight during the Interregnum
An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of revolutionary breach of legal continuity, discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one m ...
, in language that imitates Romance and epic poetry
In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard t ...
. After Butler, there was an explosion of poetry that described a despised subject in the elevated language of heroic poetry and plays.
''Hudibras'' gave rise to a particular verse form, commonly called the " Hudibrastic". The Hudibrastic is poetry in closed rhyming couplets in iambic tetrameter, where the rhymes are often feminine rhyme
A masculine ending and feminine ending or weak ending are terms used in prosody (poetry), prosody, the study of verse form. In general, "masculine ending" refers to a line ending in a accent (poetry), stressed syllable; "feminine ending" is its ...
s or unexpected conjunctions. For example, Butler describes the English Civil War
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
as a time which "Made men fight like mad or drunk/ For dame religion as for punk/ Whose honesty all durst swear for/ Tho' not one knew why or wherefore" ("punk" meaning a prostitute). The strained and unexpected rhymes increase the comic effect and heighten the parody. This formal indication of satire proved to separate one form of mock-heroic from the others. After Butler, Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...
is the most notable practitioner of the Hudibrastic, as he used that form for almost all of his poetry.
Poet Laureate John Dryden
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration (En ...
is responsible for some of the dominance among satirical genres of the mock-heroic in the later Restoration era. While Dryden's own plays would themselves furnish later mock-heroics (specifically, '' The Conquest of Granada'' is satirized in the mock-heroic ''The Author's Farce
''The Author's Farce and the Pleasures of the Town'' is a play by the English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding, first performed on 30 March 1730 at the Haymarket Theatre, Little Theatre, Haymarket. Written in response to the Theatre Royal ...
'' and ''Tom Thumb
Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. ''The History of Tom Thumb'' was published in 1621 and was the first known fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, ...
'' by Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English writer and magistrate known for the use of humour and satire in his works. His 1749 comic novel ''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'' was a seminal work in the genre. Along wi ...
, as well as '' The Rehearsal''), Dryden's ''Mac Flecknoe
''Mac Flecknoe'' (full title: ''Mac Flecknoe; or, A satyr upon the True-Blue-Protestant Poet, T.S.''Cox, Michael, editor, ''The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature'', Oxford University Press, 2004, ) is a verse mock-heroic satire writt ...
'' is perhaps the '' locus classicus'' of the mock-heroic form as it would be practiced for a century to come. In that poem, Dryden indirectly compares Thomas Shadwell
Thomas Shadwell ( – 19 November 1692) was an English poet and playwright who was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate in 1689.
Life
Shadwell was born at either Bromehill Farm, Weeting-with-Broomhill or Santon House, Ly ...
with Aeneas
In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas ( , ; from ) was a Troy, Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus (mythology), Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy ...
by using the language of ''Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
'' to describe the coronation of Shadwell on the throne of Dullness formerly held by King Flecknoe. The parody
A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...
of Virgil satirizes Shadwell. Dryden's prosody is identical to regular heroic verse
Heroic verse is a term that may be used to designate epic poems, but which is more usually used to describe the meter(s) in which those poems are most typically written (regardless of whether the content is " heroic" or not). Because the meter typ ...
: iambic pentameter closed couplets. The parody is not formal, but merely contextual and ironic. (For an excellent overview of the history of the mock-heroic in the 17th and 18th centuries see "the English Mock-Heroic poem of the 18th Century" by Grazyna Bystydzienska, published by Polish Scientific Publishers, 1982.)
After Dryden, the form continued to flourish, and there are countless minor mock-heroic poems from 1680 to 1780. Additionally, there were a few attempts at a mock-heroic novel. The most significant later mock-heroic poems were by Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early ...
. Pope’s ''The Rape of the Lock'' is a noted example of the Mock-Heroic style; indeed, Pope never deviates from mimicking epic poetry
In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard t ...
such as Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
's ''Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
'' and Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
's ''Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
''. The overall form of the poem, written in canto
The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry.
Etymology and equivalent terms
The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from th ...
s, follows the tradition of epics, along with the precursory “Invocation of the Muse
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...
”; in this case, Pope's Muse
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...
is literally the person who prodded him to write the poem, John Caryll: “this verse to Caryll, Muse, is due!” (line 3). Epics always include foreshadowing which is usually given by an otherworldly figure, and Pope mocks tradition through Ariel the sprite, who sees some “dread event” (line 109) impending on Belinda. These epic introductory tendencies give way to the main portion of the story, usually involving a battle of some kind (such as in the ''Iliad'') that follows this pattern: dressing for battle (description of Achilles shield, preparation for battle), altar sacrifice/libation to the gods, some battle change (perhaps involving drugs), treachery (Achilles ankle is told to be his weak spot), a journey to the Underworld, and the final battle. All of these elements are followed eloquently by Pope in that specific order: Belinda readies herself for the card game (which includes a description of her hair and beauty), the Baron makes a sacrifice for her hair (the altar built for love and the deal with Clarissa), the “mock” battle of cards changes in the Baron’s favor, Clarissa’s treachery to her supposed friend Belinda by slipping the Baron scissors, and finally the treatment of the card game as a battle and the Baron’s victory. Pope’s mastery of the Mock-Heroic is clear in every instance. Even the typical apotheosis
Apotheosis (, ), also called divinization or deification (), is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity.
The origina ...
found in the epics is mimicked in ''The Rape of the Lock
''The Rape of the Lock'' is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope. One of the most commonly cited examples of high burlesque, it was first published anonymously in Lintot's ''Miscellaneous Poems and Translations'' (May 1712) ...
'', as “the stars inscribe Belinda’s name!” (line 150). He invokes the same Mock-heroic style in ''The Dunciad
''The Dunciad'' () is a landmark, mock-heroic, narrative poem by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times from 1728 to 1743. The poem celebrates a goddess, Dulness, and the progress of her chosen agents as they ...
'' which also employs the language of heroic poetry to describe menial or trivial subjects. In this mock-epic the progress of Dulness over the face of the earth, the coming of stupidity and tastelessness, is treated in the same way as the coming of civilization is in the ''Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
'' (see also the metaphor of '' translatio studii''). John Gay
John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for ''The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peach ...
's ''Trivia
Trivia is information and data that are considered to be of little value.
Modern usage of the term ''trivia'' dates to the 1960s, when college students introduced question-and-answer contests to their universities. A board game, ''Trivial Purs ...
'' and ''Beggar's Opera
''The Beggar's Opera'' is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of sati ...
'' were mock-heroic (the latter in opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
), and Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
's ''London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
'' is a mock-heroic of a sort.
By the time of Pope, however, the mock-heroic was giving ground to narrative parody
A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...
, and authors such as Fielding led the mock-heroic novel into a more general novel of parody, although Fielding's ''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', often known simply as ''Tom Jones'', is a comic novel by English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding. It is a ''Bildungsroman'' and a picaresque novel. It was first published on 28 February 1749 in ...
'' contains passages of pure mock-heroic. The ascension of the novel drew a slow end to the age of the mock-heroic, which had originated in Cervantes's novel. After Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...
's flourishing, mock-heroics like Byron's ''Don Juan
Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni ( Italian), is a legendary fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women.
The original version of the story of Don Juan appears in the 1630 play (''The Trickster of Seville and t ...
'' were uncommon.
Finally, the mock-heroic genre spread throughout Europe, in France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, in Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, in Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, in Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
, in Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. The most noted mock-heroic poems in French were ''Le Vergile Travesti'' (''The disguised Vergil'') by Paul Scarron
Paul Scarron (; – 6 October 1660) (a.k.a. Monsieur Scarron) was a French poet, dramatist, and novelist, born in Paris. Though his precise birth date is unknown, he was baptized on 4 July 1610. Scarron was the first husband of Françoise d'A ...
(1648–52) and '' The Maid of Orleans'' by Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...
(1730). In macaronic Latin enriched with Scottish Gaelic expressions William Drummond of Hawthornden
William Drummond (13 December 15854 December 1649), called "of Hawthornden", was a Scottish poet.
Life
Drummond was born at Hawthornden Castle, Midlothian, to John Drummond, the first laird of Hawthornden, and Susannah Fowler, sister of the ...
wrote ''Polemo-Middinia inter Vitarvam et Nebernam'' in 1684. The main author of mock-heroic poems in Polish was Ignacy Krasicki
Ignacy Błażej Franciszek Krasicki (3 February 173514 March 1801), from 1766 Prince-Bishop of Warmia (in German, ''Ermland'') and from 1795 Archbishop of Gniezno (thus, Primate of Poland), was Poland's leading Polish Enlightenment, Enlightenment ...
, who wrote ''Myszeida'' (''Mouseiad'') in 1775 and ''Monacomachia'' (''The War of the Monks'') in 1778. In the same language Tomasz Kajetan Węgierski published ''Organy'' in 1775–77. The Bohemian poet Šebestiàn Hnĕvkovský in 1805 printed two mock-heroic poems: ''Dĕvin'' in Czech and ''Der böhmische Mägderkrieg'' in German. In 1791 the Russian poet N. P. Osipov published (). Ivan Kotliarevsky's mock-epic poem Eneyida (Ukrainian: Енеїда), written in 1798, is considered to be the first literary work published wholly in the modern Ukrainian language.
References
Further reading
*
''Mock-Heroics in The Rape of the Lock'' Opera
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mock-Heroic
Satire
Genres of poetry
English poetry