Satire,
keenness and severity of remark; sarcasm; trenchant wit; biting ridicule; incisive humor; pungent irony; denunciation and exposure to derision or reprobation. In literature, the representation of follies or vices in a ridiculous form, either in discourse or dramatic action. Though the name satire is usually confined to poetical compositions, prose works of a satirical character are frequently included under the same head. Modern nations have not generally furnished many distinguished satirists. Among the French are Rabelais, Montaigne, and Voltaire; master of satiric English include Pope, Swift, Fielding, Byron, Gifford, Thackeray, and Lowell.
Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.