The present paper suggests that the representations of manhood in Elizabethan satire mobilized cultural and sexual values at odds with prevailing masculine ideals of self-control. Thus, the paper investigates to what extent the conventions and conditions of early modern satire imply redefinitions of or challenges to early modern masculinity. While other types of poetry often explore emotional weakness such as tears or effeminacy, even representing ‘alternative’ masculinities, satire is extensively preoccupied with other forms of flawed manhood, such as the angry, dissolute or reckless man. Elizabethan satire explores countercodes of manly conduct, although such countercodes are manifestly different from the ‘soft’ or ‘effeminate’ man of much lyric poetry. Instead, the disorderly and unruly manhood in Elizabethan satire should be understood as an interrogation of classical genre conventions that also responds to early modern patriarchal notions of moderation.