Thomas Carlyle and Lucian of Samosata

This short article deals with Thomas Carlyle's reading of the ancient Syrian satirist Lucian of Samosata. It argues that Carlyle read Lucian in late 1849, and proceeded to borrow several ideas and devices from him, particularly in the Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850). These borrowings have hitherto gone unnoticed by scholars, and serve to enhance our appreciation of Carlyle's debts to classical antiquity and its satirical traditions.