[108] Popanilla, 394.
[109] Ibid., 459. The whole is in ridicule of Utilitarianism.
[110] Ixion, 272.
[111] A prominent feature of this is a white ass (the Public) which the prime minister leads by the nose.
[112] The laborers.
[113] These two are alike in their handling of sparkling dialogue.
[114] Walker’s dictum (Victorian Literature, 700) that “Good burlesque is impossible except through sound criticism,” is an instance of the dangerous half truth. The sounder the criticism the better the burlesque, to be sure, but only as criticism: as burlesque it may be highly successful in spite of some critical unsoundness. Indeed, it must necessarily contain the element of injustice that inheres in all exaggeration,—the very foundation of burlesque and caricature.
Moreover, Walker’s conception of the burlesque is indicated when he calls Rebecca and Rowena “perhaps the best burlesque ever penned.” As a matter of fact, it is not only far from that preëminence, but it is in form actually less of a burlesque than most of the others under consideration.
“Heroes and gods make other poems fine;