NOTES

66

Page 1. Plain Language from Truthful James. This poem, popularly known as The Heathen Chinee," together with the brilliant story, "The Luck of Roaring Camp," established Harte's reputation. The poem was copied everywhere, and created a sensation, both in England and America.

5. The Ahkoond of Swat. The author of this capital burlesque was born in Canada, in 1845, and died in Philadelphia in 1886. Lanigan held responsible positions on the Chicago Times, St. Louis Democrat, New York World, and Philadelphia Record. Edward Lear has a comic poem on the same oriental potentate, entitled, “The Akond (sic) of Swat." It is included in Lear's Laughable Lyrics: A Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems.

9. Widow MacShane. Newell was born in New York City. Under the nom de plume of Orpheus C. Kerr " (Office Seeker), he published a series of humorous and satirical papers on the Civil War, which met with great success. 'Versatilities,” 1871, contains most of his humor

ous verse.

13. Robinson Crusoe. The author of this poem is a broker and member of the New York Stock Exchange, who has made several successful excursions into the fields of children's, humorous, and fanciful literature. His books are published by the Harpers, Century, and Houghton, Mifflin companies.

16. Only Seven. This delicious parody on Wordsworth's "We are Seven" is taken from Mr. Leigh's "Carols of Cockayne," a volume of humorous verse which, in the judgment of Mr. W. Davenport Adams, "deserves to be put by the side of 'The Bab Ballads."" Mr. Leigh was an early contributor to Fun, and has published several books of very clever verse. Line 34, Ache-inside, a pun on the name of the English poet, Mark Akenside, 1721-1770.

18. An Actor. The concluding lines of Ode X. of the "Farewell Odes for the Year 1786," by "Peter Pindar," beginning,

66

"A modest love of praise I do not blame

But I abhor a rape on Mistress Fame."

19. The Biter Bit. This clever burlesque on Tennyson's 'May Queen" is from the "Bon Gaultier Ballads," a series of parodies of modern poetry, collaborated by W. E. Aytoun and Theodore Martin.

20. Ode to Tobacco. The late Mr. Calverley was as truly a master in the field of lightly touched and refined comic poetry as either Locker-Lampson or Praed. An educator, lecturer, and lawyer, he was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and Christ's College, Cambridge, and published “Verses and Translations," 1862, “Fly Leaves,” 1872, etc. He carried the art of parody to a perfection never before attained.

26. Captain Reece. Gilbert is admittedly the greatest comic dramatist of our time. He collaborated with Sir Arthur Sullivan in producing numerous light operas, which still enjoy wide popularity. All of his poems in this book are taken from the inimitable "Bab Ballads." In Captain Reece may be discovered the germ of "H. M. S. Pinafore," and "The Pirates of Penzance."

36. The Lawyer's Invocation to Spring. There has been considerable discussion over the authorship of this poem. Rossiter Johnson assigns it to a Mr. H. P. H. Brownell, about whom little can be learned, but Bryant's "Library of Poetry and Song" attributes the authorship to Henry Howard Brownell. It is not contained among the latter's collected works.

38. Rhymes of Ironquill. The "Rhymes of Ironquill" were published in 1889, in Topeka, Kansas. Ten editions have been exhausted in this country, and several in London, and a new revised edition has just been published in New York by G. P. Putnam's Sons. The author is a prominent lawyer who has been appointed this year (1902) United States Pension Commissioner by President Roosevelt.

41. The Baby's Début. James Smith and his brother Horace were the co-authors of the celebrated "Rejected Addresses," 1812, a series of burlesques upon the style of famous contemporary poets, including Byron, Scott, and

Wordsworth. This book, which went through more than twenty editions within the first half-century after its publication, was pronounced by Parton "the most successful jeu d'esprit of modern times."

43. Larrie O'Dee. First appeared in The Independent, and has been widely copied.

53. Salad. An imitation of the style of Swinburne. Mr. Collins has produced many other successful examples of parody and genial persiflage.

53. The Origin of the Banjo. Irwin Russell was born in Mississippi in 1853, and died at New Orleans in 1879, at the early age of twenty-six. A posthumous volume of his poems was published by the Century Co. in 1888, with an introduction by Joel Chandler Harris. Mr. Harris pronounces Russell's "Christmas Night in the Quarters," from which our selection is taken, to be "inimitable," and adds that Russell's studies of negro and plantation life have never been surpassed.

55. Wanderers. This parody on Tennyson's "Brook" is as truly a masterpiece as its original.

60. The Romance of the Carpet. Burdette is a native of Pennsylvania, and served as a private during the Civil War. He entered journalism, and made his reputation as a humorist in the columns of the Burlington Hawkeye. In 1887 he entered the Baptist ministry. Author of numerous books. A few examples in this poem of assonance instead of perfect rhyme must be pardoned in view of its general effectiveness.

99

62. The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-grinder. From "The Anti-Jacobin," the famous collection of political satires, originated by Canning in 1797, and designed to expose the doctrines of the French Revolution. It appeared as a weekly newspaper containing both prose and verse, and edited by William Gifford. The "Friend of Humanity was intended for Mr. Tierney, M. P., an aggressive reformer, and a member of the "Society of Friends of the People." The poem was written to ridicule the early poetry of Southey, being a parody of Southey's "The Widow." Canning's poem "is said to have annihilated English Sapphics." (L'Estrange's "History of English Humour,” Vol. II.)

63. Leedle Yawcob Strauss. First published in the Detroit Free Press in 1876, these lines have been widely

was

popular. "Leedle Yawcob Strauss and Other Poems published in 1877 from the press of Lee and Shepard, Boston. Dialect Ballads," Harper & Brothers, followed in 1888. Mr. Adams lives in Roxbury, Mass., and is well known as a public reader and entertainer.

65. Jones at the Barber Shop. Punch was founded in July, 1841. Among its most famous artists have been John Leech, John Tenniel, Gilbert, H. K. Browne, and George Du Maurier. The literary staff has included such names as Douglas Jerrold, Doctor Maginn, Thackeray, Tom Taylor, Mortimer Collins, and F. C. Burnand.

66. Wedded Bliss. Mrs. Gilman is prominent as a lecturer upon social reforms and woman's suffrage. Her most widely known poem is “Similar Cases,” a vigorous satire which nothing except its length has crowded out of this anthology.

66

68. Address to the Toothache. Line 3, lug, ear; 15, giglets keckle, youngsters giggle; 16, loup, leap; 17, heckle, flax-comb; 18, doup, bottom; 19, dools, sorrows, woes; 20, hairsts, harvests; 20, cutty-stools, stools of repentance (cutty, short or small). This cutty-stool was 'conspicuously placed in front of the pulpit, and the penitent, the opening prayer being done, was conducted to it by the beadle, sat on it through the service, and at the close arose from it to receive the rebuke." 21, mools, mould, grave; 23, fash, annoyance; 24, gree, prize; 28, raw, a row; 32, gars, makes, causes; 36, towmond, twelve-month.

77. True to Poll. A song from the famous extravaganza, "Poll and Partner Joe." Burnand was educated at Eton and Cambridge, became editor of Punch, and is the author of numerous successful plays, farces, and burlesques. He was knighted by King Edward in 1902.

87. The V-A-S-E. Mr. Roche, editor of The Pilot, since 1890, is a native of Ireland. He has published a biography of his friend, John Boyle O'Reilly, three volumes of successful verse, and several other books.

92. Cure for Homesickness. The author is a journalist of Auburn, Maine, whose writings for the Lewiston Journal and Saturday Evening Post of Philadelphia have been widely popular. Of the selections in this book, “Uncle Tascus and the Deed" is from "Pine Tree Ballads," 1902; the other poems are from "Up in Maine," 1900.

94. To the Lord of Potsdam. Mr. Seaman's "Cap and