To me, no proffer'd meed must e'er belong.
To me, who trod the vale of life unknown,
Whose proudest boast was but an idle song.
'Della Crusca,' the chief of the band, was Robert Merry (1755-1798). The 'Della Cruscans' may be said to have been killed by ridicule by Gifford's Baviad and Maeviad.
[P. 151.] Epicedium. This appeared originally under the title 'Gone or Going' in Hone's Table Book (1827), and was reprinted by Lamb in his Album Verses. It is an echo rather than a close parody of Michael Drayton's Ballad of Agincourt, of which the fifth stanza runs:
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,