But hark! the door’s unbarr’d, and marching forth, With gouty steps and slow Gen’rals and shrives, and peers of royal birth, And mitred bishops home to dinner go; North, with th’ exchequer laurels on his brow, From haughty Greville torn, And sad Fitzpatrick on his bridal morn, That weeps his fault too late; and proud Dundas; And watchful Dy――n; and the paler Burke, The rival of his fortune, and his place; And either Onslow there. _Quartette._ What are pensions without power? Heavy toil, insipid pain. Who but would wish like thee to gain The guidance of the public weal? Sweet is Dundas’s golden show’r, Cli――e’s visionary treasure sweet, Sweet Holland’s rise but sweeter yet, The still small place of privy seal. “_A Long Story_,” which Gray himself considered unworthy a place amongst his Poems, does not appear to have attracted enough attention to be parodied, but a _sequel_ to it was written by John Penn, and inserted in Hakewill’s _History of Windsor_, and a further sequel to that by the Poet Laureate, Henry James Pye. “_Poems by Mr. Gray._” Dublin. Printed by William Sleater, at No. 51 in _Castle Street_, 1775. This volume, published only four years after the death of Gray, contains poems which show that his reputation had already made its way to the Continent. It contains several Latin translations of the Elegy; a Latin address “_Ad Poetam_,” and an Italian version of the Elegy written by Signor Abbate Crocchi of Sienna. It also gives Mason’s continuation of Gray’s fragmentary _Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude_; the Ode to Raneleigh, a Parody; An Evening Contemplation in a College, a Parody; and Lloyd and Colman’s Burlesque Ode, all of which parodies have already been quoted. “_Runic Odes, imitated from the Norse Tongue_,” in the manner of Mr. Gray. By Thomas James Mathias. Quarto. London, 1781. Price one shilling and sixpence. This imitation of Gray by the learned author of the once famous _Pursuits of Literature_, has nothing of a burlesque character, indeed it opens with a complimentary address to Gray:―― “Pardon me, Mighty Poet, that I turn My daring steps to thy supreme abode, And tread with awe the solitary road, To deck with fancied wreaths thy hallow’d urn.” [Illustration] WILLIAM COWPER, _Born, November_ 15, 1731. _Died, April_ 25, 1800. ―――― THE DIVERTING HISTORY OF JOHN GILPIN. _Showing how he went farther than he intended, and came safe home again._ The story of John Gilpin’s ride was related to Cowper by his friend, Lady Austen, who had heard it as a child. It caused the poet a sleepless night, we are told, as he was kept awake by laughter at it. During these restless hours he turned it into the famous ballad. It appeared in the “Public Advertiser,” November 14th, 1782, anonymously.