Parodies of the works of English & American authors, vol. VI — Context and Discussion

Swinburne's Rhythm and the 'Varsity Men

The excerpt from College Rhymes (1870) titled 'Eremus' mimics Swinburne's characteristic anapestic metre and classical allusions—'Libitina and Clotho to boot'—while applying them to a dead dog encountered by three Oxford or Cambridge students. The parody sustains Swinburne's incantatory repetition ('By the tutors who woefully work us, / By the tutors who don't in the least') and his tendency toward abstract personification ('The desire of an aimless flirtation / Is more than the wisdom of years'). Yet the subject matter is deliberately bathetic: a 'corse, of the brute' prompts mock-heroic invocations and a lament that 'the water of Lethè were powerless / To cleanse from the rust of the years.' The poem's final stanza shifts to decay ('Thou shalt swell with thy gases, and ranker / And ranker shall grow thy perfume'), undercutting Swinburne's usual solemnity with scatological humour.

Alliterative Excess in 'The Song of Sir Palamede'

A second Swinburne parody, from the Century Magazine (1883), exaggerates the poet's alliterative and alexandrine style. The opening lines—'With flow exhaustless of alliterate words, / And rhymes that mate in music glad as birds'—self-consciously announce the technique being mocked. The parody reproduces Swinburne's compound adjectives ('emerald fire,' 'imperious seas') and his fondness for mythological references ('Meleager splendid as the sun / Shrank to a star'). A note in the original publication wryly observes: 'As to any meaning to be attached to the lines each reader is perfectly at liberty to make what sense out of them he can.' This disclaimer highlights a common criticism of Swinburne's verse: that sound sometimes overwhelms sense. The parody's speaker claims to 'sound one sole sweet string,' yet the poem's relentless alliteration and anapestic drive suggest a mechanical rather than inspired composition.

The Compiler's Annotated Archive

Hamilton's preface reveals the scale of his undertaking: the collection required 'an intimate knowledge of English Poetical Literature' and reference to 'many very rare and scarce books, English, American, and Colonial.' He thanks contributors including Cuthbert Bede, T. F. Dillon Croker, and Gleeson White, and notes that 'in nearly every case the permission of the authors has been obtained.' The volume's table of contents lists sections devoted to 'Ballades, Rondeaus, Villanelles, Triolets,' 'Nursery Rhymes and Children's Songs,' 'Parodies and Poems in Praise of Tobacco,' 'Prose Parodies,' 'Slang, Flash, and Cant Songs,' and 'Religious and Political Parodies.' A bibliography of parody and dramatic burlesques closes the volume. Hamilton explicitly addresses librarians, 'Managers of Penny Readings, and Professors of Elocution' as intended users, suggesting the collection served both scholarly reference and practical performance needs.

Readers approaching this volume should treat it as a period-specific anthology rather than a definitive critical edition. Hamilton's annotations are minimal, and the parodies often depend on familiarity with the original works' metre, diction, and cultural standing. The collection is best sampled in short bursts, comparing each parody with its source to appreciate the precise verbal and structural mimicry. The bibliography of burlesque, though dated, offers a useful starting point for tracing the genre's evolution through the nineteenth century.

There’s something tender about how Hamilton lingers over the parodied voices, catching their rhythms just before they falter. It reminds me of the idle rich in that other book, Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich — Themes and Context, whose own pretensions feel gently, almost lovingly exposed. Both leave me a little wistful for an era I never knew.