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

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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.

The Royal Oak, a public-house near the Hall.

"Where's Brummell? Dish'd. Where's Long Pole Wellesley? Diddled."

A celebrated boot-maker in Pall Mall, London.

Dyde and Scribe were then well known dealers in ladies finery.

A sort of under tap, in the interior of the Bench, in which porter is sold by the authority of the marshal, to the debtors.

A solitary place of confinement for such as break the rules of the prison.

Mrs. Mary Anne Clarke, mistress of the Duke of York.

A well-known bookseller, who wrote some amusing but egotistical memoirs.

The City Box, refused by the Prince Regent, was proposed by draper Waithman to be given to the Baronet if his cause had succeeded; but alas! it was destined again to go a-begging. Robert Waithman was Lord Mayor of London.

A name given by the Baronet to the British House of Commons.

George Hudson, a draper, and Lord Mayor of York in 1839, by his successful management of various railway schemes amassed a large fortune , and became known as the "Railway King."

In the original this word is written "Atty."

Sir Francis Bolton died early in 1887, leaving a very large fortune.

Quere, Liar? Some doubts have arisen on the orthography of the last word in this line.

John Wilson Croker. Author and Politician, who invented the term "Conservative" as applied to the Tory party.

Tambour qui se bat sur le rampart des villes fronti?res, vers le coucher du soleil, pour y rappeller les habitans.

Mr. Walpole, after the death of Mr. Gray, placed the China vase in question on a pedestal at Strawberry-Hill, with a few lines of the Ode for its inscription.

Glitters, or Glisters, in other Editions.

King Henry the Sixth, founder of the College.

The name given by the founder to the College.

The Hauberk was a texture of steel ringlets, or rings interwoven, forming a coat of mail that sat close to the body, and adapted itself to every motion.

Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, son-in-law to King Edward.

Edmond de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore.

Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkley-castle.

Isabel of France, Edward the Second's adulterous Queen.

Death of that king, abandoned by his children, and robbed in his last moments by his courtiers.

Edward the Black Prince, dead some time before his father.

Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward the Fifth, Richard Duke of York, &c. believed to be murdered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is attributed to Julius Caeesar.

Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her husband and her crown.

Henry the Fifth.

Henry the Sixth. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the crown.

The white and red roses, devices of York and Lancaster.

Eleanor of Castile died a few years after the conquest of Wales. The heroic proof she gave of her affection for her lord is well known. The monuments of his regret and sorrow for the loss of her, are still to be seen at Northampton, Gaddington, Waltham, and other places.

Both Merlin and Talliessin had prophesied, that the Welsh should regain their sovereignty over this island; which seemed to be accomplished in the house of Tudor.

John Philip Kemble, manager of Covent Garden Theatre.

Westminster Hall.

Mrs. Siddons.

The name of the street in which the Society was held.

One of the Esquire Bedells who bear the mace before the Vice-Chancellor.

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