E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Irritable Genus (The)
or the “Genus irritabile” (Horace: Epistles, ii. 2, 102). Poets, and authors generally.
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“It [publishers] is a wrathful trade, and the irritable genus comprehends the bookselling as well as the book-writing species.”—Sir W. Scott: The Monastery (Int.).
