Hartford Wits Critical Essay | William Bradley Otis

William Bradley Otis

SOURCE: "Political and Satirical Verse," in American Verse 1625-1807, Moffat, Yard and Company, 1909, pp. 88-171.

In the excerpt below, Otis considers Trumbull's M'Fingal and Barlow's Columbiad as two of the most important literary productions of the Connecticut Wits.

The most popular and by far the best of the Revolutionary satires, both in plan and execution, is the McFingal of John Trumbull. It is a mock-heroic modelled upon Hudibras, and is scarcely inferior to Butler's masterpiece in the sparkling quality of its wit. MceFingal was written at the urgent request of members of the American Congress, who believed that Trumbull could aid the cause of Independence by writing a poem which should weaken the Tory cause by turning it to ridicule. The first two cantos were published in Philadelphia in 1775, when the author was but twenty-five years of age. The poem was not completed until 1782, and was published...
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