: Parodies of the works of English & American authors vol. V by Hamilton Walter Compiler - Parodies

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"There is no talent so universally entertaining as that of mimickry, even when it is confined to the lively imitation of the air, manner, and external deportment of ordinary individuals.

It rises in interest, however, and in dignity, when it succeeds in expressing, not merely the visible and external characteristics of its objects, but those also of their taste, their genius and temper. A vulgar mimic repeats a man's known stories, with an exact imitation of his voice and gestures; but he is an artist of a far higher description, who can make stories or reasonings in his manner, and represent the features and movements of his mind, as well as the accidents of his body. The same distinction applies to the mimickry, if it may be so called, of an author's style and manner of writing.

It is another matter, however, to be able to borrow the diction and manner of a celebrated writer to express sentiments like his own--to write as he would have written on the subject proposed to his imitator--to think his thoughts in short, as well as to use his words--and to make the revival of his style appear a natural consequence of the strong conception of his peculiar ideas. To do this in all the perfection of which it is capable, requires talents, perhaps, not inferior to those of the original on whom they are employed--together with a faculty of observation, and a dexterity of application, which that original might not always possess; and should not only afford nearly as great pleasure to the reader, as a piece of composition,--but may teach him some lessons, or open up to him some views, which could not have been otherwise disclosed.

The exact imitation of a good thing, it must be admitted, promises fair to be a pretty good thing in itself; but if the resemblance be very striking, it commonly has the additional advantage of letting us more completely into the secret of the original author, and enabling us to understand far more clearly in what the peculiarity of his manner consists, than most of us should ever have done without this assistance. The resemblance, it is obvious, can only be rendered striking by exaggerating a little, and bringing more conspicuously forward, all that is peculiar and characteristic in the model."

Footnotes:

An Opera, written and composed by Thomas Augustine Arne, M.D. It was acted at Covent Garden Theatre, London, six nights in the month of December, 1764.

Performers in the Opera.

The Round-house.

Earl of Rochester.

An author and bookseller.

The coffee house.

A trinket seller.

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