Parodies of the works of English & American authors, vol. I
General
Parodies of the works of English & American authors, vol. I
Parodies
The first portion of this work will be devoted to the parodies themselves,
accompanied by short notes sufficient to explain such allusions as may,
in time, appear obscure; the second will contain a full bibliographical
account of all the principal collections of Parodies and Works on the
subject, such as the "Probationary Odes," Hone's Trials, the "Rejected
Addresses," and the late M. Octave Delepierre's _Essai sur la Parodie_.
The latter work, which was published by Trübner & Co. in 1870, gave an
account of old Greek and Roman, and of modern French and English Parodies.
I had the pleasure of supplying M. Delepierre with the materials for
his chapter on English Parodies, but, owing to the limited space at his
command, he was only able to quote a verse or two of the best parody of
each description. My aim will be to give each parody intact, except in the
few cases where I have been unable to obtain the author's permission to do
so.
WALTER HAMILTON.
Alfred Tennyson.
_Poet Laureate._
ALFRED TENNYSON, the third of seven brothers, was born August 5th, 1809,
at Somersby, a small village near Horncastle, in Lincolnshire. His
father, Dr. George Clayton Tennyson, was the rector of this parish, he
was a man remarkable for his strength, stature, and varied attainments
as poet, painter, musician and linguist. In 1827, Alfred Tennyson, with
his elder brother Charles, both then being scholars at the Louth Grammar
school, published a small volume entitled "Poems by Two Brothers." Shortly
afterwards, these two brothers removed to Trinity College, Cambridge, and
in 1829, Alfred Tennyson obtained the Chancellor's Gold Medal for his poem
on "Timbuctoo." His subsequent poetical works rapidly attracted attention,
and, on the death of William Wordsworth, he was created Poet Laureate, the
Warrant being dated the 19th November, 1850. As a poet he has achieved
almost the highest fame, but in his numerous efforts as a dramatist he has
been less successful.
For the consideration of the Parodies of Tennyson's poems, they may
conveniently be divided into three periods, namely, his early Poems, poems
in connection with his appointment in 1850 to the office of Poet Laureate,
and Poems since that date. Although Tennyson has suppressed many of his
early works, yet he occasionally furbishes up, and re-issues as a new poem
some of his youthful compositions.
Fastidious as he is known to be in his selection of what he thus
re-publishes, it is still a matter of some surprise that he should have
entirely suppressed his prize poem _Timbuctoo_, which would always be of
interest as a specimen of his early work, and is, besides, far removed
above the average of Prize Poems.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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