Gifford’s method, like Byron’s, was descriptive and direct, and his satires have little action. The _Baviad_, with its dialogue framework, is not unlike some of Pope’s _Epistles_, while the _Mæviad_ is more akin to _English Bards_. Byron, following Mathias and Gifford, employed prose notes to reinforce his verse, but he never, like Gifford, padded them with quotations from the men whom he was attacking. In both the _Mæviad_ and _English Bards_ names are printed in full. Gifford used no type names, nor did he succeed in creating a type. In style and diction Byron is Gifford’s superior. The latter was often vulgar and inelegant, and his ear for rhythm and melody was poor. Byron’s instinctive good taste kept him from blotting his pages with the language of the streets. His study of Pope, moreover, had enabled him to acquire something of the smoothness as well as of the vigor of that master. It may be said in general of _English Bards_ that it owes most in versification to Pope, and most in manner and structure to Gifford. There are, however, other satirists to whom Byron may have been slightly indebted. At the time when he was preparing _British Bards_, Francis Hodgson (1781–1852), his close friend, irritated by some severe criticism in the _Edinburgh Review_ on his translation of Juvenal (1807), was planning his _Gentle Alterative prepared for the Reviewers_, which appeared in _Lady Jane Grey; and other Poems_ (1809). The fact that the provocation was the same as for _English Bards_ and that the two authors were acquaintances offers a curious case of parallelism in literature. It is certain, however, that Byron’s satire, which is much longer than the _Gentle Alterative_, is indebted to it only in minor respects, if at all. Both satires mention the ludicrous mistake of an _Edinburgh Review_ article in attributing to Payne Knight some Greek passages really quoted from Pindar; but this error had been discussed in a long note to _All the Talents_, and was a favorite literary joke of the period. Both poets, too, call upon the master, Gifford, to do his part in castigating the age. Beyond these superficial similarities, it may safely be asserted that Byron borrowed nothing from Hodgson. It is curious that the striking simile of the eagle shot by an arrow winged with a feather from his own plume used by Moore in _Corruption_[121] should have been employed by Byron[122] in speaking of the tragic death of Henry Kirke White (1785–1805), the religious poet and protégé of Southey. The simile, which has been traced to _Fragment 123_ of Æschylus, occurs also in Waller’s _To a Lady Singing a Song of His Own Composing_. It is somewhat remarkable that two poets in two successive years should have happened upon the same figure, each working it out so elaborately. Aside from this one parallelism, Moore’s early satires, almost entirely political, would seem to have had no definite influence upon _English Bards_.