A Century of Parody and Imitation

by Unknown

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 as Curious 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's Abstract of Melancholy, which prefaces the Anatomy.

[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,