assimilates the masterful qualities of a heroic epic, such as the Iliad, which Pope was translating at the time of writing The Rape of the Lock. However, Pope applied these qualities satirically to a seemingly petty egotistical elitist quarrel to prove his point wryly. Other satirical works by Pope include the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot. Daniel Defoe pursued a more journalistic type of satire, being famous for his The True-Born Englishman which mocks xenophobic patriotism, and The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters—advocating religious toleration by means of an ironical exaggeration of the highly intolerant attitudes of his time. The pictorial satire of William Hogarth is a precursor to the development of political cartoons in 18th-century England. The medium developed under the direction of its greatest exponent, James Gillray from London. With his satirical works calling the king (George III), prime ministers and generals (especially Napoleon) to account, Gillray's wit and keen sense of the ridiculous made him the pre-eminent cartoonist of the era. Ebenezer Cooke (1665–1732), author of "The Sot-Weed Factor" (1708), was among the first writers of literary satire in Colonial America. Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) and others followed, using satire to shape an emerging nation's culture through its sense of the ridiculous. Satire in Victorian England Several satiric papers competed for the public's attention in the Victorian era (1837–1901) and Edwardian period, such as Punch (1841) and Fun (1861). Perhaps the most enduring examples of Victorian satire, however, are to be found in the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. In fact, in The Yeomen of the Guard, a jester is given lines that paint a very neat picture of the method and purpose of the satirist, and might almost be taken as a statement of Gilbert's own intent: "I can set a braggart quailing with a quip, The upstart I can wither with a whim; He may wear a merry laugh upon his lip, But his laughter has an echo that is grim!" Novelists such as Charles Dickens (1812–1870) often used passages of satiric writing in their treatment of social issues. Continuing the tradition of Swiftian journalistic satire, Sidney Godolphin Osborne (1808–1889) was the most prominent writer of scathing "Letters to the Editor" of the London Times. Famous in his day, he is now all but forgotten. His maternal grandfather William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland was considered to be a possible candidate for the authorship of the Junius letters.