Parodies of the works of English & American authors, vol. I

Parodies

*       *       *       *       *

At page 127 of _Snatches of Song_, by F. B. Doveton (Wyman and Sons, 1880)
will be found another long parody of the same original.

       *       *       *       *       *


THE SPITEFUL LETTER.

    Of course, it is here, all snarl and sneer,
      A letter from my Tutor.
    He said it was wrong, not to read in the "Long,"
      For he was far acuter.

    O little don, in the days bygone,
      Did you never prefer the pages
    Of those gay books--a woman's looks--
      To the lore of Eastern sages?

    Were there not times when College Rhymes
      Relieved your mind dejected?
    And were they not a sorry lot
      Of things you had rejected?

    The time is brief from the fresh green leaf
      Of the callow moderator;
    From the greener leaf to the yellow leaf,
      The age of perambulator.

    Silly, am I? Is that your cry?
      And, I shall live to see it?
    Exactly so; but yours said "No,"
      And mine said "Yes, so be it."

    And he would know who 'twas that so
      Had filled my thoughts with folly,
    And, oh! the name was the very same,
      The name of our love was Molly.

                From _The Shotover Papers_, Oxford 1874.

       *       *       *       *       *

In _Fun_ of February 1, 1868, it was asked, "Who sent _The Spiteful
Letter_ to Alfred Tennyson?"

    "If anybody _did_--and nobody doubts that it really was
    somebody--everybody ought to know about it. _Fun_ has, therefore,
    addressed a circular to everybody who is anybody in the round of
    rhyme, putting the direct question--'Was it you, you, or you?'
    Down to the latest moment answers had been received from George
    Macdonald, the Poet Close, Algernon Swinburne, and Walt Whitman."

As the two last-named parodies are the best they are quoted, although it
will be seen that they give not the slightest explanation of the origin of
_The Spiteful Letter:_--

FROM A.....N S......E.

    Sick of the perfume of praise, and faint with the fervid caresses,
    Flushing his face with a flame that is fair, like the blood on a dove;
    Weary of pangs that have pleased him, the poet refrains and confesses--
    Shrinks from the rapture of death, and the lips and the languors of
      love;
    The rootless rose of delight, and the love that lasts only to blossom,
    Blossom and die without fruit, as the kisses that feed and not fill;
    Famishing pleasure, dry-lipped, with the sting and the stain on her
        bosom,
    And all of a sin that is good, and all of a good that is ill!

(This explicit language of Mr. S......E'S will, we are sure, be
satisfactory to all our readers. No explanation could make his reply
clearer and more readily intelligible.--ED. _Fun_.)

       *       *       *       *       *


FROM W..T W..TM..N.

(_An American, one of the roughs, a kosmos._)

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

General

Parodies of the works of English & American authors, vol. I

Parodies

*       *       *       *       *

At page 127 of _Snatches of Song_, by F. B. Doveton (Wyman and Sons, 1880)
will be found another long parody of the same original.

       *       *       *       *       *


THE SPITEFUL LETTER.

    Of course, it is here, all snarl and sneer,
      A letter from my Tutor.
    He said it was wrong, not to read in the "Long,"
      For he was far acuter.

    O little don, in the days bygone,
      Did you never prefer the pages
    Of those gay books--a woman's looks--
      To the lore of Eastern sages?

    Were there not times when College Rhymes
      Relieved your mind dejected?
    And were they not a sorry lot
      Of things you had rejected?

    The time is brief from the fresh green leaf
      Of the callow moderator;
    From the greener leaf to the yellow leaf,
      The age of perambulator.

    Silly, am I? Is that your cry?
      And, I shall live to see it?
    Exactly so; but yours said "No,"
      And mine said "Yes, so be it."

    And he would know who 'twas that so
      Had filled my thoughts with folly,
    And, oh! the name was the very same,
      The name of our love was Molly.

                From _The Shotover Papers_, Oxford 1874.

       *       *       *       *       *

In _Fun_ of February 1, 1868, it was asked, "Who sent _The Spiteful
Letter_ to Alfred Tennyson?"

    "If anybody _did_--and nobody doubts that it really was
    somebody--everybody ought to know about it. _Fun_ has, therefore,
    addressed a circular to everybody who is anybody in the round of
    rhyme, putting the direct question--'Was it you, you, or you?'
    Down to the latest moment answers had been received from George
    Macdonald, the Poet Close, Algernon Swinburne, and Walt Whitman."

As the two last-named parodies are the best they are quoted, although it
will be seen that they give not the slightest explanation of the origin of
_The Spiteful Letter:_--

FROM A.....N S......E.

    Sick of the perfume of praise, and faint with the fervid caresses,
    Flushing his face with a flame that is fair, like the blood on a dove;
    Weary of pangs that have pleased him, the poet refrains and confesses--
    Shrinks from the rapture of death, and the lips and the languors of
      love;
    The rootless rose of delight, and the love that lasts only to blossom,
    Blossom and die without fruit, as the kisses that feed and not fill;
    Famishing pleasure, dry-lipped, with the sting and the stain on her
        bosom,
    And all of a sin that is good, and all of a good that is ill!

(This explicit language of Mr. S......E'S will, we are sure, be
satisfactory to all our readers. No explanation could make his reply
clearer and more readily intelligible.--ED. _Fun_.)

       *       *       *       *       *


FROM W..T W..TM..N.

(_An American, one of the roughs, a kosmos._)

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Parodies of the works of English & American authors, vol. I

Parodies of the works of English & American authors, vol. I

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