INDEX.

The authors of the original poems are arranged in alphabetical order; the titles of the original poems are printed in small capitals, followed by the Parodies.

[Charles S. Calverley.]
Notice of[62]
Thomas Campbell.
HOHENLINDEN—
"In London, when the Queen was Low," 1882[12]
William Cowper.
JOHN GILPIN—
John Bulljohn, 1882[12]
[Bret Harte.]
PLAIN LANGUAGE FROM TRUTHFUL JAMES[135]
The Heathen Pass-ee[135]
A Kiss in the Dark[136]
That Germany Jew, 1874[137]
St. Denys of France, 1882[137]
That Infidel Earl, 1882[138]
Truthful James's Song of the Shirt[139]
FURTHER LANGUAGE FROM TRUTHFUL JAMES[138]
Remarks about Othello, 1876[139]
The Bloomin' Flower of Rorty Gulch[140]
[Thomas Hood.]
THE SONG OF THE SHIRT—
Trials and Troubles of a Tourist[114]
The Song of the Spurt, 1865[114]
The Song of the Sheet, 1865[115]
The Song of the Street, 1865[115]
The Song of the Stump, 1868[116]
The Song of the Flirt, 1872[116]
The Song of the Wire, 1874[117]
The Song of Love, 1874[117]
The Song of the Cram, 1876[118]
The Slave of the Pen, 1875[118]
The Song of the Sword[118]
The Song of a Sot[119]
The Song of "The Case," 1875[119]
The Song of the Turk in 1877[120]
The Song of the Flirt, 1880[120]
The Janitor's Song[121]
The Song of the Shirk, 1882[121]
The Brood on the Beard[122]
The Song of the Dirt, 1884[123]
The Wail of a Proof-reader, 1884[123]
The Bitter Cry, 1884[124]
The Song of the Lines, 1873[129]
The Song of the Drunkard[129]
The Song of the "Prickly Heat," 1859[129]
The Song of the Clerk[130]
The Song of the Horse, 1844[190]
The Lament of Ashland[190]
The Song of the Post, 1877[191]
The Song of the Dance, 1877[191]
The Song of the Soldier's Shirt, 1879[192]
The Song of the Pen[192]
I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER—
Nursery Reminiscences[124]
Parody from "Notes and Queries," 1871[124]
Parodies from "The Figaro," 1874[125]
Parody from "Idylls of the Rink," 1876[125]
Parody from "The Man in the Moon"[130]
THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS—
"One more unfortunate, Ploughed for degree,"[125]
The Hair of the Dead, 1875[126]
"Take him up tendahly, Lift him with caah"[126]
The Rink of Sighs, 1876[127]
The Last Appeal for Place, 1878[127]
"One more Unfortunate Author in debt," 1883[128]
Boots of Size[128]
THE DREAM OF EUGENE ARAM—
The Fall of the Eminent I. (on Henry Irving)[130]
On "The Iron Chest" at the Lyceum Theatre,
1879, "'Twas in the Strand, a great demand"		[131]
"The sky was clear; no ripple marked"[131]
"'Twas in the dim Lyceum pit"[132]
MISS KILMANSEGG—
The Thread of Life[132]
"Young Ben, he was a nice young man," 1845[133]
"By different names were poets called," 1859[133]
"A world of whim I wandered in of late," 1878[134]
[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.]
A PSALM OF LIFE—
A Psalm of Life Assurance, 1869[63]
A Psalm of Fiction[63]
Miss M. to Mr. Green[63]
Bachelor's Life, 1872[64]
The Maiden's Dream of Life[64]
On Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors"[64]
A Noble Ambition, 1873[66]
The Liberal Psalm of Life, 1875[66]
A Psalm of Life at Sixty, 1879[66]
"Lives of wealthy men remind us"[67]
To my Scout at Breakfast[67]
"Wives of great men all remind us"[67]
BEWARE!
Take Care[67]
Beware! (of the Rink), 1876[67]
Beware! (of Lord Salisbury), 1882[68]
SONG OF THE SILENT LAND—
Song of the Irish Land, 1881[91]
Song of the Oyster Land, 1882[91]
THE NORMAN BARON—
The Repentant Baron, 1871[91]
THE SKELETON IN ARMOUR—
Calverley's Ode to Tobacco[92]
THE SONG OF HIAWATHA—
Hiawatha, a Parody[71]
The Song of Drop o' Wather, 1856[72]
Song of In-the-Water[75]
Song of Lower-Water[75]
The Wallflowers, 1872[75]
The Song of Nicotine, 1874[76]
The Bump Supper, 1874[76]
The Legend of Ken-e-li, 1875[77]
The Song of the Beetle[77]
The Hunting of Cetewayo, 1879[78]
Hiawatha's Photographing, 1883[78]
The Lawn-Tennis Party at Pepperhanger, 1883[79]
The Song of Hiawatha, by Shirley Brooks[80]
Howlawaya, the Quack Doctor, 1853[80]
Milk-and-Watha[80]
Princess Toto[80]
Revenge, a Rhythmic Recollection, 1877[80]
The Song of Big Ben, 1877[95]
The Song of Pahtahquahong, 1881[98]
Piamater, by Alfred Longcove[98]
THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH—
Shortfellow sums up Longfellow[80]
EVANGELINE—
The Wagner Festival[80]
Picnic-aline, 1855[80], [102]
Nauvoo[94]
Town and Gown, 1865[102]
A Voice from the Far West, 1859[103]
Sister Beatrice, 1882[103]
THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH—
The Village Blacksmith as he is, 1873[68]
The Night Policeman, 1875[68]
The Village Grog Shop, 1878[69]
The English Judge, 1879[69]
The Village Beauty, 1880[69]
The British M.P., 1883[70]
The Village Pax[70]
The Village Woodman, 1884[70]
EXCELSIOR—
Excelsior in "Pidgin English"—"Topside Galah"[81]
"Your name and college," 1863[81]
XX—oh lor![82]
The Theatre. "Ugh! Turn him out," 1874[82]
"The price of meat was rising fast," 1876[83]
"Clean Your Door-step, Marm!"[83]
"Egg-shell she o'er," 1876[83]
Those Horrid Schools, 1861[84]
That Thirty-four, 1880[84]
Tobacco Smoke, 1864[84]
Obstructionists[85]
Endymion (by Lord Beaconsfield), 1880[85]
A "Common" Grievance—"The Heath is ours!"[85]
"And felt so sore"[86]
Sapolio[86]
13, Cross Cheaping[87]
Pilosagine[87]
The Imperceptible[87]
Ozokerit, 1870[87]
A Plumber, 1883[99]
Dyspepsia, 1868[100]
The Bicycle, 1880[101]
Upidee, Upida[101]
Exitium, 1884[101]
"Don't bother us!" 1884[101]
CURFEW—
The Close of the Season[88]
The End, 1880[88]
THE BRIDGE—
The Bridge (by Longus Socius), 1866[89]
The Rink, 1876[89]
The Whitefriargate Bridge, 1872[89]
Sunset, 1873[90]
"I stood in the Quad at Midnight"[98]
What is in an aim, 1865[102]
THE SLAVE'S DREAM—
The Swell's Dream, 1883[90]
THE SAGA OF KING OLAF—
Queen Sigrid, the Haughty[92]
The Saga of the Skaterman, 1884[93]
A Modern Saga, 1879[93]
The Poets on the Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister Bill
(Parodies of Longfellow and Swinburne)		[100]
The Derby Week, 1878[92]
William Morris.
The Monthly Parodies[65]
Bayard Taylor.
DIVERSIONS OF THE ECHO CLUB[93]
Sir Eggnogg[45]
Nauvoo[94]
The Sewing Machine[94]
Eustace Green[181]
[Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Poet Laureate).]
Tennyson's Early Career[3]
Tennyson's Lineage[28]
Tennyson as Poet Laureate[33]
Tennyson's Plagiarisms[181]
TIMBUCTOO, The Cambridge Prize Poem, 1829, Thackeray's Parody on[3]
LILIAN—
Caroline[5]
MARIANA—
Mariana at the Railway Station[4]
The Wedding Dress[5]
The Bow Street Grange[17]
Behind Time[48]
The Clerk, 1842[57]
The Baggage Man[58]
On a Dull old Five-Act Play, 1848[142]
The Exiled Londoner, 1848[142]
Lord Tomnoddy in the Final Schools, 1868[143]
"They lifted him with kindly care"[144]
The M.P. on the Railway Committee, 1845[145]
The Squatter's 'Baccy Famine, 1880[178]
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS—
Recollections of the Stock Exchange[186]
A CHARACTER—
A Character (M. Jullien)[24]
THE POET—
The Poet of the Period[6]
THE BALLAD OF ORIANA—
"Oriana" at the Globe Theatre[4]
The Ballad of Boreäna[17]
CIRCUMSTANCE—
Tit for Tat[56]
Circumstance, 1848[145]
THE MERMAN—
The Laureate[5]
THE MERMAID—
The Mermaid at the Aquarium[6]
MARGARET—
Mary Ann[9]
THE TWO VOICES—
The Three Voices[50]
The Two Voices, as heard by Jones[186]
ŒNONE—
The New Œnone[16]
THE SISTERS—
Matrimonial Expediency[7]
THE PALACE OF ART—
"I built myself a high-art pleasure-house."[18]
"I built my Cole a lordly pleasure-house," 1862[145]
"I built myself a lordly picture-place," 1877[146]
LADY CLARA VERE DE VERE—
Lady Clara V. de V.[7]
Baron Alfred Vere de Vere[27]
Baron Alfred, T. de T.[49]
Mrs. Biggs, of Brunswick Square[56]
The Premier's Lament[56]
Captain Falcon of the Guards, 1848[148]
The Russian Czar, 1854[148]
Rustic Admiration of Lady Clara, 1868[149]
Lady Clara in the South, 1870[149]
The Vicar's Surplice, 1875[149]
Rhyme for Rogers, 1884[166]
A Parody Advertisement of Velveteen[185]
THE MAY QUEEN—
The Biter Bit[9]
The May Queen Corrected, 1879[10]
A Farewell Ode to the Brompton Boilers[10]
The "May" of the Queen (Judge May)[11]
The Play King (Henry Irving)[11]
The Opening of the New Law Courts[12]
The Queen of the Fête[19]
Election's Eve[20]
"I'm to be One of the Peers, Vicky"[36]
August the Twelfth, 1869[144]
A May Dream of the Female Examination[149]
The Dray Queen[150]
The May Queen in the Existing Climate[151]
The Sight-Seeing Emperor, 1877[152]
The Welsher's Lament, 1878[152]
The Modern May Queen, 1881[152]
The Penge Mystery Trial, 1877[152]
The May Exam. (By A. Pennysong)[153]
The Premier's Lament, 1884[154]
The New Lord Mayor, 1881[154]
The Lord Mayor to the Lady Mayoress, 1884[154]
The Last Lord Mayor to his Favourite Beadle[155]
The Eve of the General Election, 1884[155]
A Tory Lord on the Franchise Bill, 1884[155]
On a Debate on the Franchise Bill, 1884[155]
The Premier to Mrs. Gladstone, 1884[156]
The Promise of May, 1882[156]
The May Queen of 1879[162]
"Awake I must, and early," 1861[186]
Baron Honour, 1884[186]
THE LOTUS EATERS—
The Whitebait Eaters[8]
The Ministers at Greenwich[61]
A DREAM OF FAIR WOMEN—
"I read, before I fell into a doze"[8]
"Long time I fed my eyes on that strange scene"[20]
A Dream of Queer Women[54]
A Dream of Fair Women, and others[55]
A DREAM OF FAIR WOMEN—
"Dreaming, methought I heard the Laureate's Song"[55]
A Dream of Great Players (Lawn Tennis)[160]
The Dream of Unfair Women[181]
"YOU ASK ME WHY, THO' ILL AT EASE"—
The Laureate in Parliament[54]
The New Umbrella, 1882[162]
"OF OLD SAT FREEDOM ON THE HEIGHTS"—
"Not Old, Stood Pam Upon the Heights," 1861[163]
TITHONUS—
Parody from "The World," 1879[60]
Tithonus in Oxford[60]
Lord Beaconsfield as Tithonus, 1879[163]
LOCKSLEY HALL—
"Cousins, leave me here a little, in Lawn Tennis you excel"[15]
Bacchanalian Dreamings[15]
The Lay of the Lovelorn[21]
Vauxhall[23]
Sir Rupert, the Red[24]
Cousin Amy's View, 1878[50]
Locksley Hall, before he passed his "Smalls"[163]
Battue shooting, 1884[164]
Granny's House, 1854[177]
Codgers' Hall, 1876[185]
GODIVA—
The Modern Lady Godiva[13]
Madame Warton as "Godiva," 1848[164]
THE LORD OF BURLEIGH—
Unfortunate Miss Bailey[47]
Parody in "Figaro"[61]
The Lord Burghley, 1884[160]
The Faithless Peeler, 1848[161]
The Lord of Burleigh to the Land Bill, 1881[161]
A Burlington House Ballad, 1884[162]
THE VOYAGE—
The Excursion Train[61]
Parody from "Kottabos," 1875[165]
A FAREWELL—
"Flow down, cold Rivulet, to the Sea"—
"Bite on, thou Pertinacious Flea"[30]
"Rise up, cold Reverend, to a See"[30]
Ode to Aldgate Pump[30]
"Flow down, false Rivulet, to the Sea"[30]
THE BEGGAR MAID—
The Undergrad[30]
BREAK, BREAK, BREAK—
To my Scout[14]
The Bather's Dirge[15]
The Musical Pitch[15]
Tennyson at Billingsgate in 1882[15]
Parody from "Snatches of Song"[24]
Parody from "Punch's Almanac," 1884[24]
The Unsuccessful Stock Exchange Speculator[60]
Hot, Hot, Hot[165]
Pelt, Pelt, Pelt[165]
Wake, Wake, Wake, 1884[166]
To Professor O. C. Marsh, U.S.[181]
ENOCH ARDEN—
Enoch Arden, continued, 1866[166]
Enoch's "Hard 'Un"[167]
THE BROOK—
The Tinker[30]
The Rinker[31]
Song of the Irwell[57]
Keeping Term after Commemoration[168]
The Maiden's Lament, 1874[168]
"Flow down, old River, to the Sea"[169]
Our River (Old Father Thames), 1884[169]
The (North) Brook[169]
The Plumber and Builder[178]
On Mr. Gladstone's Visit to Scotland (Liberal Lyrics, 1854)[179]
The Train[179]
The Mill, 1884[179]
THE PRINCESS—
The Princess Ida[52]
"HOME THEY BROUGHT HER WARRIOR, DEAD"—
"Home they brought her Lap-dog Dead"[29]
"Home they brought her Sailor Son"[29]
"Home they brought Montmorres, dead"[29]
"Home they brought the Gallant Red"[57]
"Home they brought the news with dread"[58]
"Lay the stern old warrior down," 1865[170]
"Home they brought her husband, 'tight'"[170]
"Home the 'Worrier' comes! We read"[170]
TEARS, IDLE TEARS—
Peers, Idle Peers, 1868[170]
Tears, Idle Tears, 1866[181]
(To the Right Hon. Spencer Walpole).
"ASK ME NO MORE."
To an Importunate Host[170]
THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE—
Charge of the Light (Irish) Brigade[31]
"The Two Hundred" Mechanical Engineers in Dublin, 1865[37]
The Half Hundred (of Coals)[37]
The Doctor's Heavy Brigade[38]
The Charge of the Black Brigade, 1865[38]
At the Magdalen Ground[39]
Charge of the Fair Brigade[39]
The Charge of the "Bustle"[40]
On the Six Hundredth Representation of "Our Boys" at the Vaudeville Theatre[40]
The Vote of Six Millions[41]
The Charge of the "Rad" Brigade[41]
A Lay of the Law Courts[41]
The Latest Charge (against Mr. Biggar, M. P., for Breach of Promise of Marriage)[41]
The Charge of the Gownsmen at the Anti-Tobacco Lecture[52]
The Charge of the Light Ballet[53]
Tragic Episode in an Omnibus[53]
Michael Drayton on the Battle of Agincourt[171]
The "Light" Cavalier's Charge[171]
The Charge of the Court Brigade, 1874[171]
The Battle of Bartlemy's, 1875[172]
Charge of the Light Brigade at the Alexandra Palace Banquet, 1875[72]
On the Rink, 1876[173]
"Half a Duck! Half a Duck!"[173]
"Half a League!" (Tea Advertisement)[185]
A WELCOME TO ALEXANDRA—
Britannia's Welcome to the Illustrious Stranger, Ismail Pasha, 1869[35]
On a Statue to the late John Brown[35]
A Welcome to Alexandra (Palace)[61]
On the Opening of the Alexandra Palace, May, 1875[173]
THE GRANDMOTHER—
Hard Times[58]
Parody in "Snatches of Song"[59]
"And Willy with Franchise Horn," 1884[168]
IN THE GARDEN AT SWAINSTON—
In the Schools at Oxford[32]
THE VICTIM—
The Victim[46]
The Prophet Enoch, 1860[47]
THE HIGHER PANTHEISM—
The Higher Pantheism in a Nutshell[51]
THE VOICE AND THE PEAK—
The Voice and the Pique, 1874[178]
"FLOWER IN THE CRANNIED WALL"—
"Terrier in my Granny's Hall"[174]
IN MEMORIAM—
Richmond, 1856[25]
In Immemoriam[29]
In Memoriam, £. s. d., Baden-Baden[48]
Punch to Salisbury[48]
The Rinker's Solace[48]
The Lawyer's Soliloquy[61]
"I Hold this Truth with one who sings"[61]
Ozokerit[174]
In Memoriam Technicam, 1865[174]
In Memoriam; a Collie Dog, 1884[186]
"RING OUT WILD BELLS TO THE WILD SKY."
"Wring out the Clouds," 1872[174]
"Ring out, Glad Bells," 1876[175]
"Ring out Fool's Bells," 1881[175]
"COME INTO THE GARDEN, MAUD."
"Nay, I cannot come into the garden just now"[7]
Maud in the Garden[25]
Anti-Maud[25]
The Poet's Birth, a Mystery, 1859[175]
"Chirrup, chirp, chirp, chirp twitter"[176]
Midsummer Madness.—"I am a Hearthrug"[176]
"Birds in St. Stephen's Garden"[176]
Song by Burne-Jones, "Come into my Studio, Maud," 1878[179]
Come into "The Garden," Maud (Covent Garden) 1882[180]
THE IDYLLS OF THE KING—
Voyage de Guillaume (Sept. 1883)[13]
The Last Peer, December, 1883[27]
Parody of the Morte d'Arthur, by H. Cholmondeley-Pennell[32]
The Coming K——[35]
Vilien[34]
Goanveer[34]
The Very Last Idyll[44]
Sir Tray; an Arthurian Idyll[44]
Sir Eggnogg[45]
The Players; a Lawn Tennisonian Idyll[45]
An Idyll of Phatte and Leene, 1873[181]
Eustace Green, or the Medicine Bottle[181]
The Passing of M'Arthur, 1881[182]
Garnet. (An Idyll of the Queen), 1882[182]
Jack Sprat. 1884[182]
The Quest of the Holy Poker, 1870[183]
Willie and Minnie, 1876[183]
The Latest Tournament, 1872[183]
The Princes' Noses, 1880[183]
On the Hill; a Fragment, 1882[183]
Tory Revels, 1882[183]
London to Leicester; a Bicycling Idyll, 1882[183]
The Lost Tennisiad, 1883[183]
The Lay of the Seventh Tournament, 1883[56], [183]
"LATE, LATE, SO LATE," (GUINEVERE)—
Mala-Fide Travellers, 1872[144]
THE WAR ("RIFLEMEN FORM")—
"Into them, Gown!" 1861[147]
1865-1866—"I STOOD ON A TOWER IN THE WET"—
1867-1868—"I sat in a 'Bus in the Wet"[46]
"Tennyson Stood in the Wet"[46]
"I Stood by a River in the Wet," 1868[180]
ON A SPITEFUL LETTER—
The Spiteful Letter, 1874[59]
From Algernon C. Swinburne[60]
From Walt Whitman[60]
HANDS ALL ROUND—
Slops all Round[43]
Drinks all Round[43], [186]
Northampton's Freemen[43]
Pots all Round[186]
Tennysonian Toryism[186]
Cheers all Round[186]
Howls all Round[186]
RIZPAH—
Rizpah, 1883[184]
THE REVENGE, A BALLAD OF THE FLEET—
Retribution, a Ballad of the Sloe[42]
DE PROFUNDIS—
"Awfully Deep, my Boy, Awfully Deep"[52]
"THOSE THAT OF LATE HAD FLEETED FAR AND FAST,"
Prefatory Sonnet to the "Nineteenth Century."
The Last Hat Left.
"Those low-born cubs who sneaked away so fast"[183]
MONTENEGRO—
The City Montenegro, 1880[183]
ACHILLES OVER THE TRENCH—
A Parody on[47]
DESPAIR; A DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE, 1881—
Disgust; a Dramatic Monologue, 1881[184]
THE POETASTERS, A DRAMATIC CANTATA, 1884[86]
THE PROMISE of MAY—
Reprint of the Play-bill, dated November, 1882[157]
Parodies on the Play-bill[159]
The Marquis of Queensberry on "The Promise of May"[158]
Miscellaneous Parodies on Tennyson.
A Laureate's Log. September, 1883[49]
Papa's Theory[57]
"The Bugle calls in Bayreuth's Halls"[57]
The Amiable Dun, a Fragment[61]
Early Spring, in an American Paper[62]
"In Hungerford, did some wise man," 1844[145]
Mrs. Henry Fawcett on the Education of Women[150]
(Apropos of a Parody on the Collegiate Examinations of Female Students.)
"British Birds," by Mortimer Collins[186]
[Reverend Charles Wolfe.]
THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE[105]
"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note."
The disputed origin of the Poem[105]
"Ni le son du tambour ... ni la marche funèbre"[106]
"Not a sous had he got, not a guinea or note"[107]
"Not a trap was heard, or a Charley's note"[108]
Ode on the Death and Burial of the Constitution, 1832—
"Not a moan was heard—not a funeral note"[108]
On the threatened Death of John O'Connell[108]
"He looked glum when he heard, by a friendly note," 1864[109]
"Not a laugh was heard, not a joyous note,"[109]
The Flight of O'Neill, the Invader of Canada[109]
Running him in, by a Good Templar[110]
"Not a hiss was heard, not an angry yell," 1875[110]
The Burial of the Title "Queen," 1876[110]
On the Downfall of the Beaconsfield Government, 1880[111]
"Not a hum was heard, not a jubilant note"[111]
"Not a sigh was heard, not a tear-drop fell"[111]
The Burial of the Masher, 1883[112]
"He felt highly absurd, as he put on his coat"[112]
"Not a mute one word at the funeral spoke"[113]
A Moonlight Flit[140]
The Burial of Pantomime, 1846-7[141]
The Burial of Philip Van Artevelde (Princess's Theatre)[141]
The Burial of the Bills, 1850[141]
A Tale of a Tub[141]
The Death of the "Childerses," 1884[187]
The Burial of "The Season," 1884[187]
The Burial of my Fellow Lodger's Banjo[187]
The Fate of General Gordon, 1884[187]
One more Victim at Monte Carlo[187]
The Burial of the Duke of Wellington[188]
The Burial of the Bachelor[188]
The Marriage of Sir F. Boore[188]
Working Men at the Health Exhibition[188]
The Removal of the House of Lords[188]
The Spinster Householder Martyr[188]
The Murder of a Beethoven Sonata[189]
The Burial of the Pauper[189]
The Fate of the Franchise Bill, 1884[189]
The Defeated Cricket Eleven[190]
The Marriage of Sir John Smith, 1854[190]

PARODIES
OF
THE WORKS OF
ENGLISH & AMERICAN AUTHORS,

COLLECTED AND ARRANGED BY
WALTER HAMILTON,

Fellow of the Royal Geographical and Royal Historical Societies;
Author of "The Æsthetic Movement in England," "The Poets Laureate of England,"
"A Memoir of George Cruikshank," etc.

INTRODUCTION.

I HAVE, for many years past, been collecting Parodies of the works of the most celebrated British and American Authors. This I have done, not because I entirely approve of the custom of turning high-class work into ridicule, but because many of the parodies are in themselves works of considerable literary merit. Moreover, as "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," so does a parody show that its original has acquired a certain celebrity, for no author would waste his time, or his talent, in composing a burlesque of an unknown, or obscure work.

Numerous articles on parodies are to be found scattered up and down in odd corners of old magazines and reviews, a few small books have been written on the topic; but, until now, no attempt has been made to give, in a connected form, a history of parody with examples and explanatory notes.

This, then, is what I propose to do in the following articles, and those who desire to possess a complete set of parodies on any favourite author, would do well to preserve these papers for future reference.

PARODY is a form of composition of a somewhat ungracious description, as it owes its very existence to the work it caricatures; but it has some beneficial results in drawing our attention to the defects of some authors, whose stilted language and grandiloquent phrases have veiled their poverty of ideas, their sham sentiment, and their mawkish affectations.

The first attribute of a parody is that it should present a sharp contrast to the original either in subject, or treatment of the subject; that if the original subject should be some lofty theme, the parody may reduce it to a prosaic matter-of-fact narrative. If, on the other hand, the topic selected be one of every day life, it may be made exceedingly amusing if described in high-flown mock heroic diction. If the original errs in sentimental affectation, so much the better for the parodist. Thus many of Tom Moore's best known songs are mere windy platitudes in very musical verse, which afford excellent and legitimate materials for ridicule. The nearer the original diction is preserved, and the fewer the alterations needed to produce a totally opposite meaning or ridiculous contrast, the more complete is the antithesis, the more striking is the parody; take for instance Pope's well-known lines:—

"Here shall the Spring its earliest sweets bestow,

Here the first roses of the year shall blow,"

which, by the alteration of two words only, were thus applied by Miss Katherine Fanshawe to the Regent's Park when it was first opened to the public:—

"Here shall the Spring its earliest coughs bestow,

Here the first noses of the year shall blow."

In this happy parody we have that "union of remote ideas," which is said, and said truly, to constitute the essence of wit. Even the most serious and religious works have been parodied, and by authors of the highest position. Thus Luther mimicked the language of the Bible, and both Cavaliers and Puritans railed at each other in Scriptural phraseology. The Church services and Litanies of both the Catholic, and Protestant Churches, have served in turn as originals for many bitter satires and lampoons, directed at one time against the Church and the priests, at another time in equally bitter invective against their opponents.

To undertake the composition of parodies, as the word is generally comprehended—that is, to make a close imitation of some particular poem, though it should be characteristic of the author—would be at times rather a flat business. Even the Brothers Smith in "Rejected Addresses," and Bon Gaultier in his "Ballads," admirable as they were, stuck almost too closely to their selected models; and Phœbe Carey, who has written some of the best American parodies, did the same thing. It is an evidence of a poet's distinct individuality, when he can be amusingly imitated. We can only make those the object of our imitations whose manner, or dialect, stamps itself so deeply into our minds that a new cast can be taken. But how could one imitate Robert Pollok's "Course of Time," or Young's "Night Thoughts," or Blair's "Grave," or any other of those masses of words, which are too ponderous for poetry, and much too respectable for absurdity! Either extreme will do for a parody, excellence or imbecility; but the original must at least have a distinct, pronounced character.

Certain well known poems are so frequently selected as models for parodies that it will only be possible to select a few from the best of them; to re-publish every parody that has appeared on Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade," E. A. Poe's "The Raven," Hamlet's Soliloquy, or Longfellow's "Excelsior," would be a tedious, and almost endless task.

Prose parodies, though less numerous than those in verse, are often far more amusing, and it will be found that Dr. Johnson's ponderous sentences, Carlyle's rugged eloquence, and Dickens' playful humour and tender pathos, lend themselves admirably to parody.

The first portion of this work will be devoted to the parodies themselves, accompanied by short notes sufficient to explain such allusions as may, in time, appear obscure; the second will contain a full bibliographical account of all the principal collections of Parodies and Works on the subject, such as the "Probationary Odes," Hone's Trials, the "Rejected Addresses," and the late M. Octave Delepierre's Essai sur la Parodie. The latter work, which was published by Trübner & Co. in 1870, gave an account of old Greek and Roman, and of modern French and English Parodies. I had the pleasure of supplying M. Delepierre with the materials for his chapter on English Parodies, but, owing to the limited space at his command, he was only able to quote a verse or two of the best parody of each description. My aim will be to give each parody intact, except in the few cases where I have been unable to obtain the author's permission to do so.

WALTER HAMILTON.

Alfred Tennyson.

Poet Laureate.

ALFRED TENNYSON, the third of seven brothers, was born August 5th, 1809, at Somersby, a small village near Horncastle, in Lincolnshire. His father, Dr. George Clayton Tennyson, was the rector of this parish, he was a man remarkable for his strength, stature, and varied attainments as poet, painter, musician and linguist. In 1827, Alfred Tennyson, with his elder brother Charles, both then being scholars at the Louth Grammar school, published a small volume entitled "Poems by Two Brothers." Shortly afterwards, these two brothers removed to Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1829, Alfred Tennyson obtained the Chancellor's Gold Medal for his poem on "Timbuctoo." His subsequent poetical works rapidly attracted attention, and, on the death of William Wordsworth, he was created Poet Laureate, the Warrant being dated the 19th November, 1850. As a poet he has achieved almost the highest fame, but in his numerous efforts as a dramatist he has been less successful.

For the consideration of the Parodies of Tennyson's poems, they may conveniently be divided into three periods, namely, his early Poems, poems in connection with his appointment in 1850 to the office of Poet Laureate, and Poems since that date. Although Tennyson has suppressed many of his early works, yet he occasionally furbishes up, and re-issues as a new poem some of his youthful compositions.

Fastidious as he is known to be in his selection of what he thus re-publishes, it is still a matter of some surprise that he should have entirely suppressed his prize poem Timbuctoo, which would always be of interest as a specimen of his early work, and is, besides, far removed above the average of Prize Poems.

The poems were sent in for competition in the month of April, 1829; and on June 12, 1829, the Cambridge Chronicle recorded that "On Saturday last, the Chancellor's Gold Medal for the best English poem by a resident undergraduate was adjudged to Alfred Tennyson, of Trinity College." Shortly afterwards the poem was published, and was favourably reviewed in The Athenæum, which speaking of Prize poems generally, stated, "These productions have often been ingenious and elegant, but we have never before seen one of them which indicated really first-rate poetical genius, and which would have done honour to any man that ever wrote. Such, we do not hesitate to affirm, is the little work before us."

W. M. Thackeray was at Cambridge at the same time as Tennyson, and early in 1829 he commenced the publication of a small paper entitled "THE SNOB, a Literary and Scientific Journal, not conducted by members of the University." This was published by W. H. Smith, of Rose Crescent, Cambridge, and ran for eleven weeks: its contents were humorous sketches in prose and verse, and the most remarkable paper amongst them is the following droll poem on Timbuctoo, which appeared on the 30th April, 1829, and has most unaccountably been omitted from recent editions of Thackeray's works:—

To the Editor of the "SNOB."

SIR,—Though your name be Snob, I trust you will not refuse this tiny "Poem of a Gownsman," which was unluckily not finished on the day appointed for delivery of the several copies of verses on Timbuctoo. I thought, Sir, it would be a pity that such a poem should be lost to the world; and conceiving "THE SNOB" to be the most widely circulated periodical in Europe, I have taken the liberty of submitting it for insertion or approbation.—I am, Sir, yours, &c., &c.