Imitating the Obscene: Henry Higden's Versions of Horace's Satire 1.2 and Juvenal's Satire 6

Abstract

Henry Higden has hitherto been known, if at all, for two works of English classical imitation: of Juvenal's Satire 13 (printed 1686) and Satire 10 (printed 1687), the second an influence on Dryden. Other than a failed stage play, these are Higden's sole recorded works. This article argues that he was also the author of two closely related imitations, probably also composed in the late 1680s but circulated anonymously, and both extant in manuscript copies. Higden's versions tend to make more rather than less emphatic the sexual content of these Latin poems, providing a reason why one who was called to the bar in 1686 and well known in polite circles would not have wished to claim them publicly as his work. A text of the 313-line Horatian imitation is printed for the first time within this contribution.