The Baviad, a paraphrastic imitation of the First satire of Persius, by William Gifford. London, 1794. This was written to ridicule a certain clique of self-admirationists known as the “Della-Cruscan school,” and was very effectual in its object. It was followed by The Maeviad, by the same author, which completed the work The Baviad had commenced, and the spurious poetry of the Della-Cruscan school was laughed out of existence. The footnotes to these satires are delicious reading, as Gifford has selected the most amusing examples of bathos, and inflated nonsense, from the poems of Anna Matilda, Merry, Parsons, Jerningham, Bell, Mrs. Robinson, and Della-Crusca, to illustrate his points.
The Beeriad, or Progress of Drink. An Heroic Poem, in Two Cantos, the first being an imitation of The Dunciad, the second a description of a Ram Feast, held annually in a particular small district of Hampshire. By a Gentleman in the Navy. Gosport. J. Philpot. 1736.
The first canto of this poem is printed side by side with a reprint of the first book of Pope’s Dunciad.
The Beeriad commences thus:—
Beer and the men (a mighty theme!) I sing,
Who to their mouths the brimming Pitcher bring.
Say Sons of midnight! (since yourselves inspire,
This drunken Work; so Jove and Drink require!)
Say from what cause, in vain unquench’d the Thirst,
Still reigns to-day as potent as at first.