of Grecian parody will probably be reflected
in a clearer light from his researches.

Dramatic parodies in modern literature were introduced by our vivacious
neighbours, and may be said to constitute a class of literary satires
peculiar to the French nation. What had occurred in Greece a similar
gaiety of national genius unconsciously reproduced. The dramatic
parodies in our own literature, as in _The Rehearsal_, _Tom Thumb_,[294]
and _The Critic_, however exquisite, are confined to particular
passages, and are not grafted on a whole original; we have neither
naturalised the dramatic parody into a species, nor dedicated to it the
honours of a separate theatre.

This peculiar dramatic satire, a burlesque of an entire tragedy, the
volatile genius of the Parisians accomplished. Whenever a new tragedy,
which still continues the favourite species of drama with the French,
attracted the notice of the town, shortly after uprose its parody at the
Italian theatre, so that both pieces may have been performed in
immediate succession in the same evening. A French tragedy is most
susceptible of this sort of ridicule, by applying its declamatory style,
its exaggerated sentiments, and its romantic out-of-the-way nature to
the commonplace incidents and persons of domestic life; out of the stuff
of which they made their emperors, their heroes, and their princesses,
they cut out a pompous country justice, a hectoring tailor, or an
impudent mantua-maker; but it was not merely this travesty of great
personages, nor the lofty effusions of one in a lowly station, which
terminated the object of parody. It was designed for a higher object,
that of more obviously exposing the original for any absurdity in its
scenes, or in its catastrophe, and dissecting its faulty characters; in
a word, weighing in the critical scales the nonsense of the poet. Parody
sometimes became a refined instructor for the public, whose discernment
is often blinded by party or prejudice. But it was, too, a severe
touchstone for genius: Racine, some say, smiled, others say he did not,
when he witnessed Harlequin, in the language of Titus to Berenice,
declaiming on some ludicrous affair to Columbine; La Motte was very
sore, and Voltaire, and others, shrunk away with a cry--from a parody!
Voltaire was angry when he witnessed his _Mariamne_ parodied by _Le
mauvais Menage_; or "Bad Housekeeping." The aged, jealous Herod was
turned into an old cross country justice; Varus, be