For centuries the most fruitful source of parody was the Bible and the liturgy of the Christian Church. This was, of course, in line with the work of Lucian, though it wax at first in no direct way connected with him. From the twelfth century onward, increasing greatly during the Reformation period. flourished parodies of the mass, the creed, the litany. the paternoster, and prayers and hymns to the Vir gin. They were sometimes written in Latin. and at other times in the vernacular speech. In Cynthia's Berets, Ben Jonson introduces a light. parody of the litany; and Lord Somers, who framed the th;cloration of Rights, parodied the first four ehapters of Saint Matthew. In ISIT William ]lone, a London author and bookseller, was prosecuted for publishing parodies on the litany, the Athanasian creed. and the catechism, which lie had employed for political satire. These are hut a few' examples taken from a class num bering hundreds.
The purely literary parody. aiming at goad natured banter. though not unknown to the ancients, is mainly a modern development from the harsh invective of the earlier times. It has long been expected that a popular poet or novelist will have his peculiar style and way of viewing things held up to ridicule. So kindly is this ridicule that not even the sensitive author can receive other than pleasurable emo tions from it. Shakespeare amused his an dienees with the rant of the contemporary drama and the euphuism of John Lylv, and was not hurt when friends like Beallimmt and Fletcher paid him in his OWII coin. In more than one instance Shakespeare even parodied himself. The bombast and nonsense of Dryden's tragedies received its just castigation in the Duke of Buckingham's R(hcarsol. . Illinig the parodies of „Nlilton the Nide/Wu/ Nhining ot .101m Phillips (died 170I) is still res•kouid the best, although the almost contcutpura'? I Barn, now easily avee,..ible in iuorks of Lady \Vinelielsea ( 1 9(13), is almost a. good. Passing by Gray, Goldsmith, and I owl,r, each of whom hail his parodist, we come to t111. nine (veal] century—the age• jr,G c.,e,ll, ore of parody. The first romantic group of English poets. iu eluding, among others, 1Vordsl%ortli, Keats, and Shelley, were especially exposed to ridicule. Then caw(' Itnmiling with marked man nerisms, and finally the so-called Preraphaelites.
like Rossetti, Alorris, and tswinburne, with their florid imaginations, distorted female figures, and unreal landscapes. Th,ne could lie no finer material for the parodist. In their ihjected Addresses 11S1'2 lloraee and .1a Smi111 111111(,(illell deliciously 1Vordsworth, Southey, Byron, and Scott. Following in the line of the Smiths are 11. ]1. Barliam's Legends and the lion Ca tither Ballads, the joint work of \\'. E. Aytoun and Theodore Martin.
.\niong other clever verse parodists were Thomas Hood, W. 1\1. Thackt;ray, C. S. Calverley, Lewis Carroll. Sir Frederick Pollock, .1. K. Stephen, and the numerous contributors to Punch. who have closely watched for absurdities of sentiment and style. From this list should lie seleeted Calverley as undoubtedly the most felicitous parodist in the whole range of English literature. Especially successful was he in imitating Ten wysui's Groot' and Br•owning's and ilrr Book iu The Wanrierers and The Cad: and Ii.- Ball.
And the eeeentricities of the Preraphaelites are finely exaggerated in the Ito/fad.
The English novel began its c:n•eer witIi parody. Richardson had no sooner published !'o m, than humorous continuations were placed upon the niarket. _\]1 of them are now forgotten ex cept l'ielding's Joseph I which begins with ridicule of AtieliarJson's point of iiew and a close parody of his epistolary style. Sterne was likewise the sport of a score of Iminorists.
Before publishing l'anily Fair, Thaekeray paid his compliments to ItuNer. Disrm'i, Lever. and G. I'. R. James. and afterwards to Scott. The mine (veiled by Thackera3; in these Iturbs.ims was further Ixort;ed by Bret Harty in two series of l'millcirsed Yore Is dealing• with I he older novelists. and Mrs. Iliimpliry \Van], \lit hotly 'lope. Conan Moyle. Ball Caine. and Kipling. In like manner ()wen Seaman in U. rroi•id borlesipled :\Irs. Craigie.
Fowler•, Marie Corcili. George Nlaurice Hewlett, Henry dames, and .11111'r novelists .1f the day.
Parody has been conshleriddv cultivated by Anierivan writers with at least fair success• colonial parodists the most important is doubt. less Acisepli I;11'1'11 of Boston. the witty rival of \lather kyles. the punning pin•-dmm. Th, uevohi limmi-v satirists naturally made use of par dy, a _mod illustration being .1011,1 parody of the P,tition nrinter. .\ tier the Ilevolution the 'Hartford \\*its' essayed parody and the moeklieroie in The L7elio and The loan-him!. 'Hie absurdities of the Della Crnseans and the pretensions of the new• Demovratie-Republican Party furnished ma terials to parodists and satirists. but the first elaborate parody of real consequence, Irving's Kniekerboacr's llisioiji of New loth•, changed under its author's hands into a masterpiece of humorous narration. \Vitt, the next generation came authors original enough to be parodied not only in America, but in England; for ex ample, Willis, Longfcllbw•, and Yoe. It was even found worth while to parody, in a volume modeled on the Rejected Addresses, versifiers whose names are now scarcely remembered. The Civil \Var gave an impetus to the writing of parodies. Some clever ones are to be found in the works of professed like D. R. Locke ("Petroleum V. Nasby") and R. II. New ell ("(rpheus C. Kerr''), but the most important and sustained is Richard Grant White's New Gospel of Peace. 01 recent years Walt Whitnian is naturally the writer who has best lent himself to parody. Bret Harte (q.v.) and Bayard Tay lor, in The Echo Club and Other Literary Diver sions, are probably the most important writers of parody with regard to both quantity and quality. Fur the early history,consult, with its bib liography. Delepierre. Easai sur la parodic (Lon don, 1871). A popular history of parody with ex amples from modern literature is given by :Martin in On Parody (New York, 189(i). For a larger collection, consult Hamilton, Parodies of the Works of English and American Authors (Lon don, 11;84-89). Some good specimens of re cent verse-parody may also lie found in Miles, The Poets and Poetry of the rentnry, vol. ix. (ib., 1S117), and in other anthologies. See also the articles on the writers here mentioned, and the article on BURLESQUE.