Dean Swift won the favour alike of Irish Protestant and Irish Catholic by his mordant pamphlets against the English policy in Ireland and may justly be reckoned as on the whole the most powerful champion of Irish independence in the sense of the eighteenth century.
"The Evolution of Sinn Fein"
Robert Mitchell Henry
It was a mordant touch of rebuke.
"The Unknown Sea"
Clemence Housman
Tiberius and Claudius and Nero, Messalina and Agrippina, in spite of the most mordant criticism, will live for ever as they have been portrayed by the fervid imagination of Tacitus.
"Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius"
Samuel Dill