Chapter 60

And for myself (quoth he)This my full rest shall be,England ne'er mourn for me,Nor more esteem me.Victor I will remain,Or on this earth lie slain,Never shall she sustainLoss to redeem me.

And for myself (quoth he)

This my full rest shall be,

England ne'er mourn for me,

Nor more esteem me.

Victor I will remain,

Or on this earth lie slain,

Never shall she sustain

Loss to redeem me.

P. 153.Hypochondriacus.This formed part of some imitations (mostly prose) which Lamb described asCurious Fragments extracted from a Commonplace Book which belonged to Robert Burton, the famous Author of the Anatomy of Melancholy(1801). Though it is parody of matter more than of manner, it has echoes of Burton'sAbstract of Melancholy, which prefaces theAnatomy.

P. 154.Nonsense Verses.Here Lamb parodies the sentiment which had inspired his own poem,Angel Help, written on a picture showing a girl who had been spinning so long for the support of a bed-ridden mother that she had fallen asleep, while angels were shown finishing her work and watering a lily.

P. 155.The Numbering of the Clergy.Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's—

Come, Chloe, and give me sweet kisses,For sweeter sure never girl gave;But why, in the midst of my blisses,Do you ask me how many I'd have?

Come, Chloe, and give me sweet kisses,

For sweeter sure never girl gave;

But why, in the midst of my blisses,

Do you ask me how many I'd have?

P. 156.Peacock.All these parodies but the last (the Byron) are from Peacock'sPaper Money Lyricspublished in 1837, but written ten or twelve years earlier 'during the prevalence of an influenza to which the beautiful fabric of paper-credit is periodically subject.'

P. 160.Prœmium of an Epic.Southey'sThalaba the Destroyer: 'How beautiful is night!'

P. 165.Song by Mr. Cypress.The quintessence of Byron as distilled by Peacock into what Swinburne calls 'the two consummate stanzas which utter or exhale the lyric agony of Mr. Cypress.' The lines occur inNightmare Abbey.

P. 166.The Patriot's Progress.Shakespeare,As You Like It, Act II., Scene 7.

P. 167.Our Parodies are Ended.The Tempest, Act. IV., Sc. 1.

P. 167.Fashion.Milton'sL'Allegro.

P. 171.Verses.The 'Editor' was Leigh Hunt, editor of theExaminer, imprisoned for two years (1814-15) in Surrey Gaol for libelling the Prince Regent. The authorship of this parody is often wrongfully attributed.

Never hear Mr. Br——m make a speech.Henry, afterwards Lord, Brougham.

Law.Edward Law Baron Ellenborough, Lord Chief Justice.

P. 172.But Cobbett has got his discharge.William Cobbett had been imprisoned for two years (1810-12) for his strictures on the Government of the day.

To Mr. Murray. John Murray was 'Bookseller to the Admiralty and the Board of Longitude.' He had possessed, and parted with, a share inBlackwood's Magazine.

Strahan, Tonson, Lintot, the publishers and booksellers of the eighteenth century.

P. 174.Busby.Dr. Busby had been one of the unsuccessful writers of an Address for the opening of Drury Lane (see p. 54 and note). The lines and words in inverted commas were from the Address which Busby printed as having been sent in, not from the one that he did send in, which is preserved in the British Museum.

As if Sir Fretful.Sir Fretful Plagiary, of course, from Sheridan'sThe Critic.

P. 176.Margate.Two stanzas, complete in themselves, from Mr. Peters's story, 'The Bagman's Dog,' in theIngoldsby Legends. Byron'sChilde Harold, Canto IV.

P. 177.Not a sous had he got.Barham notes that during the controversy in 1824 as to the authorship of 'The Burial of Sir John Moore,' a—

claimant started up in the person of asoi-disant'Dr. Marshall,' who turned out to be a Durham blacksmith and his pretensions a hoax. It was then that a certain 'Doctor Peppercorn' put forthhispretensions, to what he averred was the 'true and original' version—the somewhat vulgar parody reprinted fromThe Ingoldsby Legends.

Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores.—Virgil.

I wrote these lines—... owned them—he told stories!Thomas Ingoldsby.

I wrote these lines—... owned them—he told stories!

Thomas Ingoldsby.

P. 178.The Demolished Farce.Bayly's own popular song:

Oh no, we never mention her,Her name is never heard.

Oh no, we never mention her,

Her name is never heard.

See also Andrew Lang's parody,p. 353.

P. 179.Peter Bell the Third.Mrs. Shelley felt constrained to note that—

nothing personal to the author ofPeter Bellis intended in this poem. No man ever admired Wordsworth's poetry more;—he read it perpetually, and taught others to appreciate its beauties.... His idea was that a man gifted, even as transcendently as the author ofPeter Bell, with the highest qualities of genius, must, if he fostered such errors, be infected with dullness. This poem was written as a warning—not as a narration of reality. He was unacquainted personally with Wordsworth, or with Coleridge (to whom he alludes in the fifth part of the poem), and therefore, I repeat, his poem is purely ideal;—it contains something of criticism on the compositions of those great poets, but nothing injurious to the men themselves.

P. 186.* * *Mr. H. Buxton Forman says: 'All seems to me to point to Eldon as the name left out here.'

(Seenote top. 219.)

Byron was less respectful:

There's something in a stupid ass,And something in a heavy dunce,But never since I went to schoolI heard or saw so damned a foolAs William Wordsworth is for once.And now I've seen so great a foolAs William Wordsworth is for once,I really wish that Peter BellAnd he who wrote it, were in hell,For writing nonsense for the nonce.

There's something in a stupid ass,And something in a heavy dunce,But never since I went to schoolI heard or saw so damned a foolAs William Wordsworth is for once.

There's something in a stupid ass,

And something in a heavy dunce,

But never since I went to school

I heard or saw so damned a fool

As William Wordsworth is for once.

And now I've seen so great a foolAs William Wordsworth is for once,I really wish that Peter BellAnd he who wrote it, were in hell,For writing nonsense for the nonce.

And now I've seen so great a fool

As William Wordsworth is for once,

I really wish that Peter Bell

And he who wrote it, were in hell,

For writing nonsense for the nonce.

P. 201.A long poem in blank verse.This reference in the note is to Wordsworth'sExcursion, the lines indicated being:

And, verily, the silent creatures madeA splendid sight, together thus exposed;Dead—but not sullied or deformed by death,That seemed to pity what he could not spare.Book VIII., lines 568-571.

And, verily, the silent creatures made

A splendid sight, together thus exposed;

Dead—but not sullied or deformed by death,

That seemed to pity what he could not spare.

Book VIII., lines 568-571.

P. 202.As the Prince Regent did with Sherry—i.e., Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

'Twould make George Colman melancholy.George Colman was author ofBroad Grinsand other humorous work.

P. 203.May Carnage and slaughter.The reference here is to lines in Wordsworth'sThanksgiving Ode on the Battle of Waterloo(laterOde, 1815), as originally published:

But Thy most dreaded instrumentIn working out a pure intent,Is Man—arrayed for mutual slaughter.—Yea, Carnage is thy daughter!

But Thy most dreaded instrument

In working out a pure intent,

Is Man—arrayed for mutual slaughter.

—Yea, Carnage is thy daughter!

P. 205.The immortal Described by Swift.Presumably a reference to the undying Struldbrugs ofGulliver's Travels, 'despised and hated by all sorts of people.'

P. 206.'Twould have made Guatimozin doze.Guatimozin or Cuauhtemoc was the last of the Aztec emperors, executed with circumstances of great cruelty by Cortes.

P. 206.Like those famed Seven who slept three ages—i.e., the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus who, according to a Syrian legend, hid themselves in a cave during the Decian persecution (A.D.250), fell asleep and awakened miraculously nearly two hundred years later.

P. 215.'&c.' This ending is in accord with the original text.

P. 218.He lived amidst th' untrodden ways.Mr. Walter Hamilton, whose large collection of parodies is well known, attributes this parody to Hartley Coleridge, but efforts to trace it have failed.

P. 219.Peter Bell: a Lyrical Ballad.When Wordsworth'sPeter Bellwas announced in 1819, John Hamilton Reynolds wrote—it is said in a single day—thisLyrical Balladand hurried it out before Wordsworth's poem was issued. The fact that Reynolds used Wordsworth's measure suggests that he had seen a copy of the original. It was a criticism by Leigh Hunt of Wordsworth'sPeter Belland Reynolds' parody that moved Shelley to the writing ofPeter Bell the Third. To hisPeter BellReynolds attached aPrefaceand a shortSupplementary Essay, also purporting to be written by W. W.

'It is now (thePrefacebegan) a period of one-and-twenty years since I first wrote some of the most perfect compositions (except certain pieces I have written in my later days) that ever dropped from poetical pen.... It has been my aim and my achievementto deduce moral thunder from buttercups, daisies, celandines, and (as a poet scarcely inferior to myself, hath it) "such small deer." Out of sparrows' eggs I have hatched great truths, and with sextons' barrows have I wheeled into human hearts piles of the weightiest philosophy.... OfPeter BellI have only thus much to say: It completes the simple system of natural narrative, which I began so early as 1798. It is written in that pure unlaboured style, which can only be met with among labourers.... I commit my Ballad confidently to posterity. I love to read my own poetry: it does my heart good.'

In theSupplementary Essay'W. W.' was made to declare that he proposed 'in the course of a few years to write laborious lives of all the old people who enjoy sinecures in the text or are pensioned off in the notes of my Poetry.'

P. 221.As clustering a relationship.SeeThe Critic, Act II., Scene 2:

And thou, my Whiskerandos, shouldst be fatherAnd mother, brother, cousin, uncle, aunt,And friend to me!

And thou, my Whiskerandos, shouldst be father

And mother, brother, cousin, uncle, aunt,

And friend to me!

P. 228.Blue Bonnets over the Border.Scott's 'ditty to the ancient air of "Blue Bonnets over the Border,"'The Monastery, chap. xxv:

March, march, Ettrick and Teviotdale,Why the deil dinna ye march forward in order?

March, march, Ettrick and Teviotdale,

Why the deil dinna ye march forward in order?

P. 231.As Spencer had ere he composed his Tales.This probably refers to the Hon. W. R. Spencer, author ofBeth Gelert, as well as to the one-time fashionable tailless coat known as a 'spencer.'

P. 232.This shall a Carder... Whiteboy... Rock's murderous commands.The reference is to the secret associations which were responsible for much agrarian crime in Ireland during the early part of the nineteenth century.

P. 235.If English corn should grow abroad.. Thus in fourth edition ofWhims and Oddities(1829), but 'go' in some reprints. The bull is probably intentional.

P. 237.Huggins and Duggins.Hood appears to have had Pope's first Pastoral,Spring, especially in mind. In it Strephon and Daphnis alternately sing the praises of Delia and Sylvia:

In Spring the fields, in Autumn hills I love,At morn the plains, at noon the shady grove,But Delia always; absent from her sight,Nor plains at morn, nor grove at noon delight.

In Spring the fields, in Autumn hills I love,

At morn the plains, at noon the shady grove,

But Delia always; absent from her sight,

Nor plains at morn, nor grove at noon delight.

P. 237.All things by turns, and nothing long.'Was everything by starts, and nothing long.'—Dryden:Absalom and Achitophel.

P. 240.We met.T. H. Bayly's—

We met—'twas in a crowd,And I thought he would shun me,He came—I could not breathe,For his eyes were upon me.

We met—'twas in a crowd,

And I thought he would shun me,

He came—I could not breathe,

For his eyes were upon me.

P. 241.Those Evening Bells.Moore's song begins:

Those evening bells! those evening bells!How many a tale their music tellsOf youth, and home, and that sweet timeWhen last I heard their soothing chime.

Those evening bells! those evening bells!

How many a tale their music tells

Of youth, and home, and that sweet time

When last I heard their soothing chime.

P. 241.The Water Peri's Song.Moore'sLalla Rookh;

Farewell—farewell to thee, Araby's daughter!(Thus warbled a Peri beneath the dark sea,)No pearl ever lay, under Oman's green water,More pure in its shell than thy Spirit in thee.

Farewell—farewell to thee, Araby's daughter!

(Thus warbled a Peri beneath the dark sea,)

No pearl ever lay, under Oman's green water,

More pure in its shell than thy Spirit in thee.

P. 242.Cabbages.The first verse ofViolets, by L. E. L., runs:

Violets! deep blue violets!April's loveliest coronets:There are no flowers grow in the vale,Kissed by the sun, wooed by the gale,None with the dew of the twilight wet,So sweet as the deep blue violet.

Violets! deep blue violets!

April's loveliest coronets:

There are no flowers grow in the vale,

Kissed by the sun, wooed by the gale,

None with the dew of the twilight wet,

So sweet as the deep blue violet.

P. 243.Larry O'Toole.Charles Lever: 'Did ye hear of the Widow Malone?'

P. 243.The Willow Tree.In this Thackeray was parodying his own earlier treatment of the same theme, as Charles Lamb had parodied himself in theNonsense Verses(seep. 154). Thackeray's serious version begins:

Know ye the willow-tree,Whose grey leaves quiver,Whispering gloomilyTo yon pale river?

Know ye the willow-tree,

Whose grey leaves quiver,

Whispering gloomily

To yon pale river?

P. 245.Dear Jack.In O'Keeffe's opera,The Poor Soldier, is the often-parodied song imitated from the Latin:

Dear Tom, this brown jug that foams with mild ale,Out of which I now drink to sweet Nan of the Vale,Was once Toby Filpot, etc.

Dear Tom, this brown jug that foams with mild ale,

Out of which I now drink to sweet Nan of the Vale,

Was once Toby Filpot, etc.

The Rev. Francis Fawkes, famous in his day as a translator of the classics, is the reputed author of the song.

P. 248.The Almack's AdieuandThe Knightly Guerdon. These are varied parodies of a one-time popular song:

Your Molly has never been false, she declares,Since the last time we parted at Wapping Old Stairs;When I vowed I would ever continue the same,And gave you the 'Bacco Box marked with my name.When I passed a whole fortnight between decks with you,Did I e'er give a kiss, Tom, to one of the crew?To be useful and kind with my Thomas I stayed,—For his trousers I washed, and his grog, too, I made.

Your Molly has never been false, she declares,

Since the last time we parted at Wapping Old Stairs;

When I vowed I would ever continue the same,

And gave you the 'Bacco Box marked with my name.

When I passed a whole fortnight between decks with you,

Did I e'er give a kiss, Tom, to one of the crew?

To be useful and kind with my Thomas I stayed,—

For his trousers I washed, and his grog, too, I made.

P. 250.W. E.Aytoun.The contributions of Aytoun to theBook of Ballads, edited by 'Bon Gaultier,' that are here given arethose which, on the authority of Sir Theodore Martin, were solely his own composition. Several of theBalladshad appeared in periodicals before they were collected and published in book form in 1845.

P. 252.A Midnight Meditation.Six poets are parodied in the 'Bon Gaultier'Balladsunder the general heading, 'The Laureates' Tourney'—Wordsworth, the Hon. T— B— M'A—, the Hon. G— S— S—, T— M—RE, Esq., A— T—, and Sir E— B— L—, the last of which, by Aytoun only, is here given. The parodists, rememberingRejected Addresses, profess that the poems were sent to the Home Secretary when the Laureateship became vacant on the death of Southey.

P. 252.These mute inglorious Miltons.Hood had already used this pun connecting the poet and the oysters in his ballad of the blindTim Turpin:

A surgeon oped his Milton eyes.Like oysters, with a knife.

A surgeon oped his Milton eyes.

Like oysters, with a knife.

P. 254.The Husband's Petition.In this Aytoun was using to a ludicrous end the measure he had employed inThe Execution of Montrose:

Come hither, Evan Cameron!Come, stand beside my knee—I hear the river roaring downTowards the wintry sea.

Come hither, Evan Cameron!

Come, stand beside my knee—

I hear the river roaring down

Towards the wintry sea.

P. 256.Sonnet CCCI.Martin Farquhar Tupper published a volume ofThree Hundred Sonnetsin 1860.Punchprofessed to have made an arrangement with him to continue the series, and boldly put the initials M. F. T. to this parody in the number for May 26, 1860.

P. 257.You see yon prater called a Beales.Edmond Beales (1803-1881) was President of the Reform League at the time of the Hyde Park riots. He thus figures inPunchin lines written apropos of tears shed by Walpole, Home Secretary, when he learnt of the riots:

Tears at the thought of that Hyde Park affairRise in the eye and trickle down the nose,In looking on the haughty Edmond Beales,And thinking of the shrubs that are no more.

Tears at the thought of that Hyde Park affair

Rise in the eye and trickle down the nose,

In looking on the haughty Edmond Beales,

And thinking of the shrubs that are no more.

P. 258.The Lay of the Lovelorn.This is one of the 'Bon Gaultier'Ballads, and is included by permission of Messrs. William Blackwood and Sons. Aytoun had no part in this parody. It was solely Sir Theodore Martin's, and in its author's opinion is the best he contributed to the collection. In theBook of BalladsSir Theodore was at pains to explain that—

it was precisely the poets whom we most admired that we imitated the most frequently. This was certainly not from any want ofreverence, but rather out of the fullness of our admiration, just as the excess of a lover's fondness often runs over into raillery of the very qualities that are dearest to his heart. 'Let no one,' says Heine, 'ridicule mankind unless he loves them.' With no less truth may it be said, Let no one parody a poet unless he loves him. He must first be penetrated by his spirit, and have steeped his ear in the music of his verse, before he can reflect these under a humorous aspect with success.

Some excellent parodists have succeeded very well in dissembling their love.

P. 266.The Laureates Bust at Trinity.Parody of part ofGuineverein theIdylls of the King:

So the stately Queen abodeFor many a week, unknown, among the nuns....'Late, late, so late! and dark the night and chill!Late, late, so late! but we can enter still.Too late, too late! ye cannot enter now.'

So the stately Queen abode

For many a week, unknown, among the nuns....

'Late, late, so late! and dark the night and chill!

Late, late, so late! but we can enter still.

Too late, too late! ye cannot enter now.'

The parody is fromPunch, November 12, 1859.

P. 268.Unfortunate Miss Bailey.Tennyson'sThe Lord of Burleigh.

In her ear he whispers gaily,'If my heart by signs can tell,Maiden, I have watched thee daily,And I think thou lov'st me well.'

In her ear he whispers gaily,

'If my heart by signs can tell,

Maiden, I have watched thee daily,

And I think thou lov'st me well.'

P. 270.Cary.Phoebe Cary wrote many parodies. One entitledThe Wifeis sometimes said to be a burlesque of Wordsworth:

Her washing ended with the day,Yet lived she at its close,And passed the long, long night awayIn darning ragged hose.But when the sun in all his stateIllumed the eastern skies,She passed about the kitchen grateAnd went to making pies.

Her washing ended with the day,Yet lived she at its close,And passed the long, long night awayIn darning ragged hose.

Her washing ended with the day,

Yet lived she at its close,

And passed the long, long night away

In darning ragged hose.

But when the sun in all his stateIllumed the eastern skies,She passed about the kitchen grateAnd went to making pies.

But when the sun in all his state

Illumed the eastern skies,

She passed about the kitchen grate

And went to making pies.

As a matter of fact this only differs by the use of a few turns from

Her suffering ended with the day,

by James Aldrich (1810-1856).

P. 271.That very time I saw, etc. SeeMidsummer Night's Dream, Act II., Sc. 1.

P. 272.On a Toasted Muffin, Sir E. L. B. L. B. L. B. Little was Edward Lytton Bulwer Lytton, afterwards Lord Lytton, who had written an anonymous satire,The New Timon.

P. 273.In Immemoriam.In connexion with these quatrains it may be noted that Whewell (1794-1866), in one of his treatises, published beforeIn Memoriam, dropped into the following sentence: 'No power on earth, however great, can stretch a cord, however fine, into a horizontal line that shall be absolutely straight.'

P. 274.Bayard Taylor.The Diversions of the Echo Clubfirst appeared in theAtlantic Monthly, 1872, and in book form in 1876. The poems here reprinted are given by permission of the Houghton, Mifflin Company.

Taylor, writing to T. B. Aldrich, March 29, 1873, says:

Story told me that Browning sent him theEcho Clublast summer, with a note saying it was the best thing of the kind he had ever seen, and that if he had found the imitations of himself in a volume of his poems he would have believed that he actually wrote them.Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor.

Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor.

P. 281.All or Nothing.While parodying Emerson's poetry generally Bayard Taylor had probably chiefly in mindThe Sphinx:

The Sphinx is drowsy,Her wings are furled:Her ear is heavy,She broods on the world.

The Sphinx is drowsy,

Her wings are furled:

Her ear is heavy,

She broods on the world.

Most of Bayard Taylor's parodies are obviously rather of the poets' general styles than of particular poems.

P. 286.If life were never bitter.Parody of Swinburne'sA Match:

If love were what the rose isAnd I were like the leaf.

If love were what the rose is

And I were like the leaf.

P. 286.Salad.FromThe British Birds(1872):

Enter three Poets, all handsome. One hath redundant hair, a second redundant beard, a third redundant brow. They present a letter of introduction from an eminent London publisher, stating that they are candidates for the important post of Poet Laureate to the New Municipality which the Birds are about to create.

P. 289.I'm a Shrimp.

I'm afloat! I'm afloat! On the fierce rolling tide—The ocean's my home and my bark is my bride.Up, up, with my flag, let it wave o'er the sea,—I'm afloat! I'm afloat! and the Rover is free.

I'm afloat! I'm afloat! On the fierce rolling tide—

The ocean's my home and my bark is my bride.

Up, up, with my flag, let it wave o'er the sea,—

I'm afloat! I'm afloat! and the Rover is free.

P. 290.Dante Rossetti.These poems are taken, by permission, fromThe Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti—the single-volume edition of1911. 'MacCracken' is a close parody of one of Tennyson's early poems, 'The Kraken':

Below the thunders of the upper deep;Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleepThe Kraken sleepeth.

Below the thunders of the upper deep;

Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,

His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep

The Kraken sleepeth.

Mr. Francis MacCracken, of Belfast, was the purchaser of early works by the pre-Raphaelite artists.

P. 290.The Brothers.Another poem by Tennyson, 'The Sisters,' tells of the tragic love of twin girls for one man, and this duality suggested the verses to Rossetti when he found that the 'Thomas Maitland' who had attacked his work in theContemporary Review('The Fleshly School of Poetry') was really Robert Buchanan.

P. 292.Ode to Tobacco.This is in the Draytonian metre, 'Fair stood the wind for France,' but Calverley evidently had Longfellow in mind. Compare the second stanza of his Ode with the third stanza of Longfellow'sSkeleton in Armour:

I was a Viking old!My deeds, though manifold,No Skald in song has told,No Saga taught thee!

I was a Viking old!

My deeds, though manifold,

No Skald in song has told,

No Saga taught thee!

P. 294.The real beverage for feasting gods on.The allusion in the seventh stanza is to Jupiter and the Indian Ale:

'Bring it!' quoth the Cloud-Compeller,And the wine-god brought the beer—'Port and Claret are like waterTo the noble stuff that's here.'

'Bring it!' quoth the Cloud-Compeller,

And the wine-god brought the beer—

'Port and Claret are like water

To the noble stuff that's here.'

Calverley also parodied Byron inArcades Ambo.

P. 297.Wanderers.Tennyson's 'The Brook,' with the song of the brook:

I come from haunts of coot and hern,I make a sudden sally,

I come from haunts of coot and hern,

I make a sudden sally,

but ending in a parody of Tennysonian blank verse. In hisCollections and Recollections, Mr. G. W. E. Russell has quoted the last six lines, 'which even appreciative critics generally overlook.... Will any one stake his literary reputation on the assertion that these lines are not really Tennyson's?' (The poem is fromFly-Leaves, 1872, by permission of Messrs. George Bell and Sons.)

P. 298.Proverbial Philosophy.Here are some typical lines by Martin Tupper:

A man too careful of danger liveth in continual torment,But a cheerful expecter of the best hath a fountain of joy within him:Yea, though the breath of disappointment should chill the sanguine heart,Speedily gloweth it again, warmed by the live embers of hope;Though the black and heavy surge close above the head for a moment,Yet the happy buoyancy of Confidence riseth superior to Despair.

A man too careful of danger liveth in continual torment,

But a cheerful expecter of the best hath a fountain of joy within him:

Yea, though the breath of disappointment should chill the sanguine heart,

Speedily gloweth it again, warmed by the live embers of hope;

Though the black and heavy surge close above the head for a moment,

Yet the happy buoyancy of Confidence riseth superior to Despair.

P. 300.Read incessantly thy Burke—i.e., Burke'sPeerage.The Prince of Modern Romance—i.e., Lord Lytton.

P. 301.The Cock and the Bull.As Mr. Seaman truly remarks, this is a recognized masterpiece of the higher stage of parody, when an author's literary methods—in this case Browning'sThe Ring and the Book—are imitated. (FromFly-Leaves.)

P. 304.Lovers, and a Reflection.Calverley may have had in mind William Morris's 'Two Red Roses across the Moon,' which begins 'There was a lady lived in a hall,' but undoubtedly the source of his inspiration was Jean Ingelow's 'The Apple-Woman's Song,' fromMopsa the Fairy, the second line of which recurs: 'Feathers and moss, and a wisp of hay.' (FromFly-Leaves.)

P. 306.Ballad.Another burlesque of the same poet. Miss Ingelow attempted to retaliate inFated to be Free, with feeble lines intended to pour scorn on 'Gifford Crayshaw'—i.e., Calverley. (FromFly-Leaves.)

P. 309.You are old, Father William.An example of a parody known to everybody, although the original is known to few. The poem imitated is Southey's 'The Old Man's Comforts, and how he gained them,' beginning:

You are old, Father William, the young man cried,

and ending:

In the days of my youth I remember'd my God!And He hath not forgotten my age.

In the days of my youth I remember'd my God!

And He hath not forgotten my age.

P. 314.The Three Voices.Tennyson'sThe Two Voices:

A still small voice spake unto me.

P. 322.Beautiful Soup.The authorship of 'Beautiful Snow,' which was immensely popular in this country as well as in its native America, cannot be verified. It has been attributed to an unhappy woman, to Major W. A. Sigourney, who was said to have written the verses in 1852, and who died in 1871, and to a James W. Watson.

P. 323.Ravings.Parodying Poe'sUlalume:

The skies they were ashen and sober;The leaves they were crisped and sere—The leaves they were withering and sere;It was night in the lonesome OctoberOf my most immemorial year;It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,In the misty mid region of Weir—It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

The skies they were ashen and sober;

The leaves they were crisped and sere—

The leaves they were withering and sere;

It was night in the lonesome October

Of my most immemorial year;

It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,

In the misty mid region of Weir—

It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,

In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

P. 324.The Wedding.The name, 'Owing Merrythief' (i.e., Owen Meredith), invented by Hood the Younger, sufficiently explains the Tennysonian fragrance of these lines.

P. 327.A Clerk ther was.The seventy-fifth birthday of that distinguished scholar and oarsman, the late Dr. F. J. Furnivall, was celebrated by the publication by the Oxford University Press of a Festschrift,An English Miscellany. Professor Skeat's contribution was received too late for inclusion among the other tributes in this volume, and it was first published inThe Periodical, the organ of the Oxford Press.

P. 330.A Reminiscence of 'David Garrick,'etc. T. W. Robertson'sDavid Garrickwas produced in 1864.

P. 330.Lord Dundreary.A farcical stage character in Tom Taylor's play,Our American Cousin, in which Edward A. Sothern created something of a furore in 1861-62.

P. 330.Mr. Buckstone's playhouse—i.e., The Haymarket Theatre.

P. 331.But at last a lady entered.Nelly Moore (d. 1869), an actress whose chief success was gained at the Haymarket with Sothern.

Pp. 336-41.FromSpecimens of Modern Poets|The Heptalogia|or|The Seven against Sense.| aCap with Seven Bells: by permission of Mr. Theodore Watts-Dunton and Messrs. Chatto and Windus. The poets parodied are Tennyson, Robert and Mrs. Browning, Coventry Patmore, 'Owen Meredith,' D. G. Rossetti, and Swinburne himself. TheSpecimenswere published anonymously in 1880. The 'Owen Meredith' is particularly severe, and strikes the same note as that of Hood the Younger (p. 324). Swinburne's parody of himself is one of the rare successes of its kind. 'The Kid' Idyll is the third part of a parody ofThe Angel in the House.

ThePoet and the Woodlouseis presumably suggested byLady Geraldine's Courtship.

P. 342.Bret Harte.The Bret Harte poems are taken from hisComplete Worksby permission of Messrs. Chatto and Windus and the Houghton, Mifflin Company.

P. 342.A Geological Madrigal.Shenstone's verses beginning

I have found out a gift for my fair;I have found where the wood-pigeons breed,

I have found out a gift for my fair;

I have found where the wood-pigeons breed,

are inHope, the second part of hisPastoral Ballad in Four Parts. The inspiration of Bret Harte's verses is sometimes ridiculously attributed to Herrick.

P. 347.Vers de Société.This might have been classed as a parody of Praed, but was printed originally as by 'Fritteric Lacquer.' It is here reprinted, with the two following parodies, from Traill'sRecaptured Rhymes, by permission of Messrs. Blackwood.

P. 348.The Puss and the Boots.This may be compared with Calverley's 'The Cock and the Bull' (see p. 301).

P. 350.After Dilettante Concetti.See Rossetti'sSister Helen, which commences:

'Why did you melt your waxen man,Sister Helen?To-day is the third since you began.''The time was long, yet the time ran,Little Brother!'(O Mother, Mary Mother,Three days to-day, between Hell and Heaven!)

'Why did you melt your waxen man,

Sister Helen?

To-day is the third since you began.'

'The time was long, yet the time ran,

Little Brother!'

(O Mother, Mary Mother,

Three days to-day, between Hell and Heaven!)

The sonnet with which Traill closes is a parody of Sonnet XCVII. ofThe House of Life, beginning:

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