Schadenfreude, as everyone knows, describes the pleasure some derive from another's personal misfortune. Is there a word to describe the possibly more common feeling of resentment at another's success?
The following lines chopped out of a poem by Swift describe it beautifully:
If in a battle you should find
One, whom you love of all mankind,
Had some heroic action done,
A champion kill'd, or trophy won;
Rather than thus be over-topt,
Would you not wish his laurels cropt?
...
What poet would not grieve to see
His brethren write as well as he?
But, rather than they should excel,
Would wish his rivals all in hell?
...
In Pope I cannot read a line,
But with a sigh I wish it mine;
When he can in one couplet fix
More sense than I can do in six;
It gives me such a jealous fit,
I cry, "Pox take him and his wit!"
I grieve to be outdone by Gay
In my own humourous biting way.
Arbuthnot is no more my friend,
Who dares to irony pretend,
Which I was born to introduce,
Refin'd it first, and shew'd its use.
St. John, as well as Pulteney, knows
That I had some repute for prose;
And, till they drove me out of date,
Could maul a minister of state.
If they have mortifyed my pride,
And made me throw my pen aside;
If with such talents Heaven has bless'd 'em,
Have I not reason to detest 'em?
To all my foes, dear Fortune, send
Thy gifts; but never to my friend:
I tamely can endure the first:
But this with envy makes me burst.
Edit: Speaking of Swift, there's an informal word used in Ireland for this: begrudgery. It was used on BBC radio in an attempt to explain why everyone in Ireland hates, hates, hates Bono's perdurable sunglasses.
OP
The complement of schadenfreude?
