Augustan “Mock-epic”: Form and Style Burlesquing the Serious Epic

Mock-epic – a work which employs manner, the high and serious tone and the supernatural machinery of epic to treat a trivial subject and theme in such a way as to make both subject and theme ridiculous – almost a case of breaking a butterfly upon a wheel. It is a type of epic derived from the serious epic, which satirizes contemporary ideas or conditions in a form and style burlesquing the serious epic.  By extension the epic mode is also mocked but this is a secondary consideration. Noted mock epics include The Rape of the Lock (1712) by the English poet Alexander Pope.

The mock-epic typically uses the following elements of the epic poem:

• A grand style and elevated language
• A long and complex plot
• A cast of heroic characters
• Supernatural elements
• Battles and other heroic events

However, the mock-epic uses these elements in a way that is humorous or ironic. For example, the characters in a mock-epic may be petty or ridiculous, and the plot may be trivial or inconsequential. The supernatural elements may be used for comic effect, and the battles may be described in a way that is exaggerated or absurd.

The mock-epic was a popular form of satire in the Augustan period (1688-1750), a time of great social and political change in England. The poets of this period used the mock-epic to satirize the manners and customs of the upper class, as well as the political and religious establishment.

The acknowledged masterpiece in this genre is Pope’s The Rape of the Lock (1712, 1714), which he himself describes as a heroic-comical poem. His subject is the estrangement between two families resulting from Lord Petre’s snipping off a lock of Miss Arabella Fermor’s hair. With faultless skill Pope minifies the epic in proportion to the triviality of his theme:

  What dire Offence from am’rous Causes springs,

What mighty Contests rise from trivial Things
I sing – This Verse to Caryll, Musel is due;

This, ev’n Belinda may vouchasafe to view:

   Slight is the subject; but not so the Praise,

 If She inspire, and He approve my Lays.

  Say what strange Motive, Goddessl cou’d compel

   A well-bred Lord t’assault a gentle Belle?

Pope had precedents in the Homeric Batrachomyomachia, or The Battle of the Frogs and the mice (translated by Thomas Parnell as a contemporary satire in 1717); Alessandro Tassoni’s Ln Secchia Rapita (The Rape of the Bucket) 1622 Boileau’s Le Lutrin (1674-83); Dryden’s Mac Flecknoe (1682); and Samual Garth’s The Dispensary (1699).

        The mock-epic tone of Dryden’s opening lines differs from Pope’s:

                       All human things are subject to decay,

                       And, when Fate summous, Monarchs must obey:

                       This Fleckno found, who, like Augusts, young

                       Was call’d Empire, and had govern’d long;

                        In prose and Verse, was own’d, without dispute

                        Through all the Realms of non-sense, absolute.

Mac Flecknoe gave Pope the basic idea for The Dunciad (1728-43); also a mock-epic but more powerful, in a denunciatory manner; and more elaborate than The Rape of the Lock.

More about the form and style of Augustan mock-epic:

• The use of high style and elevated language: The mock-epic typically uses the high style and elevated language of the epic poem. This can create a sense of irony, as the trivial or mundane subject matter is treated with such seriousness.
• The use of a long and complex plot: The mock-epic often has a long and complex plot that is full of twists and turns. This can make the poem more humorous, as the reader is led to expect a serious and heroic story, but is instead presented with something more ridiculous or absurd.
• The use of a cast of heroic characters: The mock-epic often features a cast of heroic characters who are typically petty or ridiculous. This can create a sense of satire, as the reader is invited to laugh at the characters' pretensions to greatness.

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