HENRY MAYHEW (1812-1887) AND

these four types. the term "anatomy" described the Menippean satire, a term which Frye
considered misleading and is not. in all respects, appropriate to Mayhew:
The Menippean satire deals less with people as such than with mental
attitudes. Pedants, bigots, cranks. parvenus. virtuosi. enthusiasts,
rapacious and incompetent professional men of all kinds. are handled in
terms of their occupational approach to life as distinct from their social
behaviour. The Menippean satire thus resembles the confession in its
ability to handle abstract ideas and theories. and differs from the novel in
its characterization, which is stylized rather than naturalistic. and
presents people as mouthpieces of the ideas they represent. ... The
novelist sees evil and folly as social diseases, but the Menippean satirist
sees them as diseases of the inteilect, as a kind of maddened pedantry
which the philosophus gloriosus at once symbolizes and defines."
Importantly, Frye's "anatomy" was not described as a genre in the classical sense, it was a much
broader literary classification that tended to blur distinctions between the novel, confession,
romance. and anatomy. And he renamed the genre "anatomy", following Burton's Anatomy of
Melanclzoly, to indicate to scholars that they should not identify immediately with the nuances
peculiar to specific ancient texts." But beyond the world of classical scholarship, Menippean
satire as a critical term has been used to discuss a vast genre of world literature, comprising the
fulI range of seriocomic and learned fiction, and has denoted very generally a subversive
combination of fantasy. learning and philosophic thinking." in other words, the genre of the
'" Ibid.
" Relihan. Joel. Ancient Menippean Satire. 1993.4; See Frye's analysis. 1957. 308- 12.
I' Relihan. 5.
13
Ibid.. x.