[358] Thus in the _Batrachomyomachia_ the elevated manner of epic poetry is used in depicting a warfare between frogs and mice; while in Voltaire’s _La Pucelle_, the French national heroine is made to behave like a daughter of the streets. [359] Some examples of the parody are _The Splendid Shilling_ (1701) by John Philips (1676–1709); _The Pipe of Tobacco_ (1734) by Isaac Hawkins Browne (1760); _Probationary Odes_; _Rejected Addresses_; and Swinburne’s _Heptalogia_. [360] The travesty flourished especially during the 17th century in the work of Paul Scarron (1610–1660) and his followers in France, and of Charles Cotton (1630–1687), John Philips (1631–1706), and Samuel Butler (1612–1680) in England. During this period Virgil and Ovid were popular subjects for travesty. Several travesties of Homer were published in England during the 18th century, one of which, by Bridges, was read by Byron (_Letters_, v., 166). [361] Charles Lamb said of it that it deserved prosecution far more than Byron’s _Vision_; and Nichol has styled it “the most quaintly preposterous panegyric ever penned.” [362] In his dedication Southey called George IV. “the royal and munificent patron of science, art, and literature,” and praised the monarch’s rule as Regent and King as an epoch remarkable for perfect integrity in the administration of public affairs and for attempts to “mitigate the evils incident to our state of society.” [363] _Letters_, v., 387. [364] _Ibid._, vi., 10. [365] _Ibid._, vi., 93. [366] _Letters_, vi., 129. [367] _Ibid._, vi., 159. [368] In the only public retort which Southey undertook, a _Letter to the Courier_, December 8, 1824, he could do little more than make charges of misrepresentation, and repeat his accusation that Byron was one “who played the monster in literature, and aimed his blows at women.” Southey unwittingly had engaged with too powerful an antagonist and only his want of a sense of humor kept him from appreciating the fact. [369] _Letters_, v., 385. [370] The recurrence in the _Vision_ of many familiar devices of _Don Juan_ reminds us that the _Vision_ marks Byron’s resumption of the ottava rima, which he had left off on December 27, 1820, at the completion of _Don Juan_, Canto V., because of the request of the Countess Guiccioli that he discontinue the work. In the meantime he turned his attention to the drama, and _Cain_, _The Two Foscari_, and _Sardanapalus_ were published in December, 1821. The _Vision_ then was his only work in the octave stanza between December 27, 1820, and June, 1822, when he began Canto VI. of _Don Juan_. [371] Byron had finished his translation of the first canto of the _Morgante_ in February, 1820. [372] _The Vision of Judgment_, 25. [373] _Morgante Maggiore_, XXVI., 91. [374] _History of English Poetry_, v., 250. [375] _The Vision of Judgment_, 92. [376] _Letters_, vi., 77. [377] _Letters_, vi., 160–161. [378] (this footnote was missing from the original book.)