Numerous parodies and imitations of Gray’s poems appeared in the early pages of this volume, a few remain still to be quoted.
Musæ Berkhamstediensis, or Poetical Prolusions by some Young Gentlemen of Berkhamsted School, 1794. This work contains Latin translations of Gray’s Elegy in a Country Churchyard, and of several other standard poems.
An Imitation of Gray’s Elegy. Written by a Sailor. London. Printed by George Cooke, 1806.
The setting sun now gilds the mountain tops,
The busy shepherd pens his fleecy care,
Domestic fowls now seek their fav’rite props,
And leave the fields, barn-doors, and stack-yards fare.
The following parody was satirically attributed to William Cobbett, M.P., by the Editor of The Satirist, in which paper it appeared in August, 1810. The whole of it is bitterly personal and offensive, but it must be remembered that Cobbett himself never spared the feelings or characters of his adversaries:—
Elegy in Newgate.