lost the use of his memory, when he could
not explain his own official note, which, perhaps, at the time he was
compelled to insert. Dr. Morton was not unfriendly to Mrs. Macaulay's
political party; he was the editor of Whitelocke's "Diary of his Embassy
to the Queen of Sweden," and has, I believe, largely castrated the work.
The original lies at the British Museum.]
[Footnote 289: There was one passage he recollected:--
Just left my bed
A lifeless trunk, and scarce a dreaming head!
]
[Footnote 290: I have seen a transcript, by the favour of a gentleman
who sent it to me, of Gray's "Directions for Heading History." It had
its merit, at a time when our best histories had not been published, but
it is entirely superseded by the admirable "Methode" of Lenglet du
Fresnoy.]
[Footnote 291: Henry Stephen appears first to have started this subject
of _parody_; his researches have been borrowed by the Abbe Sallier, to
whom, in my turn, I am occasionally indebted. His little dissertation is
in the French Academy's "Memoires," tome vii. 398.]
[Footnote 292: See a specimen in Aulus Gellius, where this parodist
reproaches Plato for having given a high price for a book, whence he
drew his noble dialogue of the Timaeus. Lib. iii. c. 17.]
[Footnote 293: See Spanheim Les Cesars de L'Empereur Julien in his
"Preuves," Remarque 8. Sallier judiciously observes, "Il peut nous
donner une juste idee de cette sorte d'ouvrage, mais nous ne savons pas
precisement en quel tems il a ete compose;" no more truly than the Iliad
itself!]
[Footnote 294: The first edition of this play is a solemn parody
throughout. In the preface the author defends it from being, as
"maliciously" reported, "a burlesque on the loftiest parts of Tragedy,
and designed to banish what we generally call fine writing from the
stage." When he afterwards quotes parallel passages from popular plays
which he has parodied, he does so saying, "whether this sameness of
thought and expression which I have quoted from them proceeded from an
agreement in their way of thinking, or whether they have borrowed from
our author, I leave the reader to determine!"]
[Footnote 295: Les Parodies du Nouveau Theatre Italien, 4 vols. 1738.
Observations sur la Comedie et sur le Genie de Moliere, par Louis
Riccoboni. Liv. iv.]
[Footnote 296: _The Tailors; a Tragedy for Warm Weather_, was originally
brought out by Foote in 1767. There had been great
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