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Bells" and The Battle of the Bays," published by John Lane, are filled with admirably witty verse, and prove the author to be, since Calverley, the foremost among English parodists and wits.

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100. Dibdin's Ghost. Field has been happily characterized by Mr. Stedman as the Yorick of American Poetry." The Dibdin referred to in this poem is Thomas Frognall Dibdin, D. D., the distinguished English bibliographer, 1776 - 1847.

104. My Other Chinee Cook. The author of this ballad was born and educated in Scotland, but has passed most of his life in Australia. Of his volumes of verse, Convict Once," Macmillan, 1885, is the best known.

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106. Prehistoric Smith. Proudfit printed most of his verse in the New York Daily Graphic under the nom de plume of "Peleg Arkwright," a pseudonym which was accidentally attached to his first publication, and which he finally discarded. His "Love Among the Gamins, and Other Poems," was published by Dick & Fitzgerald, of New York, in 1877, his "Mask and Domino" by Porter & Coates, Philadelphia, in 1888. The verses quoted are from the latter volume.

108. The Irish Schoolmaster. Doctor Sidey, an Edinburgh surgeon, published a book of verses for private circulation, entitled, 'Mistura Curiosa," from which this poem is taken. "The Irish Schoolmaster" has been set

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to music and sung all over Great Britain.

113. Mr. Barney Maguire's Account of the Coronation. We are told by Barham's biographer that this poem was composed as a pure improvisation, and published with but few changes. The Irishman is supposed to be relating the result of his observations at the coronation of Victoria (June 28, 1838), to his associates in the Servants' Hall upon his return from the ceremony. How he managed to insinuate himself into the Abbey is not explained. For exhaustive notes on this poem, explaining all the historical allusions, see the (London) Academy and Literature for August 9, 1902.

117. Feminine Arithmetic. From "Lyrics by the Letter H," published in New York by J. C. Derby in 1854. Charles G. Halpine, the author, born in Ireland, was graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, spent several years in London, and, after emigrating to the United States, engaged in

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journalism, first in Boston, and afterward in New York. During the Civil War he was an officer in the Northern army. He assumed, in 1862, the pseudonym of Miles O'Reilly," a "private in the Forty-seventh New York," which at once became a household word in all parts of the North.

117. Sky-making. “An admirable reductio ad absurdum of a pet theory of Professor Tyndall's." W. D. Adams. 123. A Piazza Tragedy. First published in the Denver Tribune, and included in "A Little Book of Tribune

Verse."

129. A Kiss in the Rain. Doctor Peck is a physician of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who has written much graceful verse. This selection is from "Cap and Bells," 1886.

131. Vat You Please. The author, J. R. Planché, was a native of London, and produced about two hundred plays and extravaganzas, besides books of travel, biography, heraldry, fairy tales, and verse.

134. Tam O'Shanter. Line 1, chapman billies, peddlers or small tradesmen; 2, drouthy, thirsty; 4, gate, road; 5, nappy, ale; 8, slaps, breaches in hedges or walls; 19, skellum, a worthless fellow; 20, blellum, a babbler; 23, melder, a quantity of corn sent to the mill to be ground; 25, naig, horse, nag; 31, mirk, dark; 33, gars me greet, makes me weep; 38, unco, unusually; 39, ingle, fire; 40, reaming swats, foaming ale; 81, skelpit, hastened; 86, bogles, hobgoblins, bogies; 90, smoor'd, was smothered; 103, ilka bore, every chink; 108, usquabae, whisky; 109, the swats, etc., the ale so wrought in Tammie's head; 110, boddle, a farthing; 119, winnock-bunker, window-seat; 121, tousie tyke, a shaggy dog; 123, gart, made; 123, skirl, scream; 124, dirl, ring; 127, cantraip, spell; 131, airns, irons; 134, gab, mouth; 148, till ilka carlin, etc., till each old beldam smoked with sweat; 149, coost, stript; 149, duddies, rags, clothes; 150, linket, tripped, danced; 150, sark, shirt; 151, queans, young girls; 153, creeshie flannen, greasy flannel; 154, Seventeen hunder linen, woven in a reed of seventeen hundred divisions; 155, thir breeks, these breeches; 157, hurdies, thighs; 158, burdies, lassies; 160, rigwoodie, lean or ancient; 160, spean, wean; 161, crummock, crooked staff; 163, brawlie, full well; 164, wawlie, hearty, robust; 171, cutty, short; 171, harn, a coarse cloth; 174, vauntie, proud of it; 176, coft, bought; 179, cour,

lower; 181, lap and fling, jumped and kicked; 185, fidg'd, fidgeted; 186, hotch'd, hitched; 188, tint, lost; 193, fyke, fuss; 194, byke, hive; 201, fairin, deserts; 210, fient, fiend (petty oath), fient a, not a; 213, ettle, design, aim.

140. The Latest Decalogue. No one at all acquainted with Clough's poetry will need to be assured that the flippancy which may be suspected to exist in this and the following poem is only apparent. Clough was as reverent, truth-loving a soul as ever lived. His invectives against Phariseeism, religious or social, are no less fierce because so often couched in the language of irony, but they are always manly and sincere.

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152. The American Traveller. Originally appeared in the "Orpheus C. Kerr Papers," First Series, Letter Third. Republished in Versatilities (poems), Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1871. Newell introduces the poem by the facetious explanation that he wrote it in reply to an article in a British journal, affirming that all our writers are but weak imitators of English authors, and that such a thing as a distinctively American poem sui generis had not been produced.

155. Song of One Eleven Years in Prison. From the ‘Anti-Jacobin,” 1798. Sung by Rogero in the burlesque play of "The Rover." The first five stanzas are by Canning; the last stanza is said to have been added by Mr. Pitt.

156. Mary the Cook-maid's Letter. "Doctor Sheridan, one of Swift's friends and butts, was a schoolmaster of considerable wit and scholarship, and progenitor of a distinguished family, in which genius is hereditary. . . Swift delighted in showing his knowledge of servants their phraseology, and ways of thinking." Leigh Hunt: Wit and Humour.

162. Holy Willie's Prayer. Line 32, fash'd, troubled, annoyed; 56, splore, a row; 60, kail, cabbage; 70, pish'd wi' dread, filled with dread; 71, snakin, sneering; 81, gear, goods, wealth. 'Holy Willie" was a certain William Fisher, an elder in the parish church of Mauchline, who was active in the prosecution of Mr. Gavin Hamilton, a friend of Burns, on the charge of violation of the Sabbath and neglect of ordinances. Robert Aiken was Hamilton's counsel. Henley calls the poem an "amazing achievement in satire. . . so nice, so exquisite in detail, so overwhelming in effect."

164. What Mr. Robinson Thinks. This selection, like The Courtin', p. 29, is from “ 'The Biglow Papers." It is Number III. of the First Series. “This satire was directed against the Mexican War, which was forced upon the country in 1845 by the South, in conformity with their policy of an extension of slave territory." H. C. Lodge.

166. John Gilpin. The editor has taken the liberty of printing the stanzas (written as quatrains) in the form of couplets, for the sake of economizing space. He believes that little is lost by this merely formal alteration. John Gilpin was first published anonymously in The Public Advertiser in 1782. "The story was related to Cowper by Mrs. Austen, and is supposed to refer to a Mr. Bayer, 'an eminent linen draper,' whose shop was situated at the corner of Cheapside, London." Adams's "Dictionary of English Literature."

173. The Irishman and the Lady. William Maginn, born at Cork, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and was on the staff of Blackwood's and Fraser's.

177. He Came to Pay. Mr. Kelley was born in New York, and contributed humorous verse, 1870-1880, to the Century and the Detroit Free Press. This poem was imitated from "The Aged Stranger" of Bret Harte. 181. The Wife. From Poems and Parodies," Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1854. A parody on James Aldrich's " A Death-bed" ("Her suffering ended with the day," etc.). See Stedman's "American Anthology," p. 197. 186. The Poster-Girl. This clever parody on Rossetti's "Blessed Damozel" first appeared in the Century. Miss Wells lives in Rahway, N. J. She has published "The Jingle Book," 1899, "Idle Idyls," 1900, and several other books.

188. The Prayer of Cyrus Brown. Mr. Foss has published four volumes of humorous and dialect verse, which have had an extensive sale. He is librarian of the Somerville, Mass., City Library, a member of the Boston Authors' Club, and a popular public reader and lecturer.

191. The Chimpanzor and the Chimpanzee. Hamilton received his education at Trinity College, Dublin. Wrote "Dublin Doggerels," 1877, and "The Moderate Man,” 1888. A member of the Royal Irish Academy.

194. A Rhyme for Priscilla. An admirable example of delicately turned society verse. Included in "Madrigals and

Catches," 1887 (Stokes), and quoted by kind permission of the author. Mr. Sherman is adjunct professor of architecture at Columbia University.

200. The Usual Way. Mr. Weatherley, born in 1848, was graduated at Brasenose College, Oxford, 1871, and called to the bar in 1887. Lyrics, librettos, children's books.

212. Jabberwocky. The clergyman, mathematician, and laureate of the nursery, who wrote under the pen name of "Lewis Carroll," was one of the most rare and versatile geniuses of modern times. This selection is from “Through the Looking Glass," the sequel to "Alice in Wonderland," and has been well called an inimitable satire upon the unintelligible school in modern poetry." Some prefer to consider it a piece of pure fun without any deeper meaning. In either case, it must be regarded, as Mr. Davenport Adams says, "a miracle of ingenuity."

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213. Little Mamma. Mr. Webb lives in Nantucket, Mass. His best known books are "Vagrom Verse," 1889, and "With Lead and Line," 1901. He founded The Californian (1864), to which Mark Twain and Bret Harte contributed.

218. Father William. Parody on a well-known didactic poem by Robert Southey, beginning

"You are cld, Father William,' the young man cried,

The few locks which are left you are gray,'

and entitled in Southey's works, "The Old Man's Comforts, and How He Gained Them.” Another capital parody on this original is "You are young, Kaiser William," by Mostyn T. Pigott, contained in T. A. Cock's " Anthology of Humorous Verse," London: H. Virtue and Co. The opening stanzas are too good not to quote:

"You are young, Kaiser William,' the old man exclaimed,

And your wisdom-teeth barely are through,

And yet by your deeds the whole world is inflamed

Do you think this is proper of you?'

As a baby I doted on playing with fire,'

Replied the irascible prince,

'And though I was spanked by my excellent sire,

I've been doing the same ever since.'

"You are young,' said the Sage, and your juvenile legs
Are not what one would call fully grown ;

Yet you point out to Grandmamma how to suck eggs —
Why adopt this preposterous tone?'

'As a child,' said the youth, I perceived that my head
Wouldn't ever allow me to learn,

So I made up my mind to start teaching instead,
And I've taught everybody in turn.'