The early reviews certainly mentioned the bloodthirstily graphic language of Swinburne's poems about "the massacre of the innocents" but afaik (might be wrong) Lang's 1889 book was the first published pro-Herod humour (provided one reads Lang as lolzing in the context of his letter).

Thank you for the quotes. I can see why you might find his vitriol droll. I suspect I'm more likely to be laughing at Hopkins than with him.... ;-)