the monstrous vice which excited the hatred of the
satirist of the eighteenth century. To Thackeray, men were weak rather
than bad, selfish rather than vicious. George Osborne braves the
consequences of marrying poor Amelia Sedley, and yet prefers his own
pleasure to that of his wife. Rawdon Crawley is ignorant, rude, and
unprincipled, but yet is loving and faithful to Rebecca. Weakness,
pettiness, self-deception were the main objects of Thackeray's satire.
Where are the absurdities of youthful woman-worship held up to such
derision as in Pendennis' love for Miss Costigan!

Pen tried to engage her in conversation about poetry and about her
profession. He asked her what she thought about Ophelia's madness,
and whether she was in love with Hamlet or not? "In love with such
a little ojus creature as that stunted manager of a Bingley?" She
bristled with indignation at the thought. Pen explained that it was
not of her he spoke, but of Ophelia of the play. "Oh, indeed, if no
offense was meant none was taken: but as for Bingley, indeed, she
did not value him--not that glass of punch." Pen next tried her on
Kotzebue. "Kotzebue? who was he?" "The author of the play in which
she had been performing so admirably." "She did not know that, the
man's name at the beginning of the book was Thompson," she said.
Pen laughed at her adorable simplicity.... "How beautiful she is,"
thought Pen, cantering homewards. "How simple and how tender! How
charming it is to see a woman of her genius busying herself with
the humble affairs of domestic life, cooking dishes to make her old
father comfortable, and brewing him drink! How rude it was of me to
begin to talk of professional matters, and how well she turned the
conversation! ... Pendennis, Pendennis,--how she spoke the word!
Emily! Emily! how good, how noble, how beautiful, how perfect she
is!"[207]

Thackeray's satire is all the more powerful in that it is directed
against foibles more than against vices. Many a reader who will reject
Swift's portrait of man as a libel, cannot but feel a twinge at
Thackeray's delicate pencillings. After dwelling on the worldliness,
the hypocrisy, the self-seeking of the inmates of Queen's Crawley, how
softly but how terribly he scourges them! "These honest folks at the
Hall, whose simplicity and sweet rural purity surely show the advantage
of a country life over a town one." His