I hide by the Squire’s covers;
I teach the sweet young housemaids what’s
The art of trapping lovers.’
Thus on he prattled like a babbling brook.
But I: ‘The sun hath slipt behind the hill,
And my Aunt Vivian dines at half-past six.’
So in all love we parted; I to the Hall;
They to the village. It was noised next noon
That chickens had been missed at Syllabub Farm.
We had noted down several other examples of parody by different authors, which might have served further to illustrate our subject. Our selections have necessarily lost something of force and pertinence, from the fragmentary condition in which we have been obliged to present them; but the reader, if he be sufficiently interested in the matter, may easily go to the original sources.