Parodies of the works of English & American authors, vol. II — Background and Themes

The Compiler's Method and the Parody as Critique

Hamilton's preface, quoting D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, asserts that parody 'will only strike at what is chimerical and false.' This principle is borne out in the selection: the volume targets poems so familiar that their inversion is immediately recognizable—'To be or not to be,' 'Excelsior,' 'My Mother,' and Wolfe's 'The Burial of Sir John Moore.' The compiler notes that subscriber demand expanded the collection from 'a few only of the best Parodies' to a near-comprehensive archive. He also explains the practical decision to spread parodies of a single short poem across multiple issues to avoid monotony. This reveals a tension between scholarly completeness and reader engagement, a dynamic that shapes the anthology's structure.

Burlesque in Practice: Burnand on The Tempest

A substantial excerpt reproduces F. C. Burnand's letter defending his treatment of The Tempest. Burnand distinguishes his work from 'vulgar, coarse piece of buffoonery,' positioning it as an 'advance' on earlier burlesques. He reimagines Ariel as 'the spirit of enterprise' and Caliban as 'a backward boy' who 'wants to acquire knowledge.' Notably, he omits the tempest entirely, substituting a 'sea-fog,' and discards Trinculo and Stephano as unfunny. This detailed rationale—part of a public exchange with a critic—illustrates how Victorian burlesque writers theorized their craft. Hamilton includes such material not as parody itself but as contextual evidence, enriching the anthology beyond mere imitation.

Catalog Subjects vs. Actual Content

The Project Gutenberg record assigns this volume to 'Adventure & Picaresque Fiction' and 'Parodies' as a subject. Yet the excerpts contain no adventure narrative; the work is a critical anthology with extensive prefatory matter, indexes, and correspondence. The 'general-literature' secondary topic is more accurate, but the primary category misleads. The volume's 81 text sections include parodies of Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Watts, Tennyson, Longfellow, Hood, Bret Harte, Matthew Arnold, Poe, and others—a range that reflects Hamilton's ambition to cover 'English and American authors' systematically. Readers expecting picaresque fiction will find instead a scholarly compendium of literary mimicry, annotated with bibliographic references and theatrical history.

Hamilton's collection rewards readers interested in the mechanics of parody and the cultural status of canonical works in the late nineteenth century. The excerpts reveal a compiler who treats parody as a serious literary form, supported by evidence from contemporary debates. Approach the volume as a reference work: use the index to locate parodies of specific poems, and read the prefatory material for insight into Victorian attitudes toward imitation and originality.

Leafing through Hamilton’s parodies, I kept noticing the eager, forgotten names beneath the satire—writers who once mattered, now just footnotes. It made me think of that odd old Who Was Who: 5000 B. C. to Date Biographical Dictionary of the Famous and Those Who Wanted to Be — Reading Companion, and how gently it holds those who almost were. A curious, tender little shelf of ghosts.