58 I'oetry. [CHA^i*. ^. 



dibras have been given to the public; but few 

 of them are entitled to the praise of high excel- 

 lence. Probably the most successful imitations 

 of the Iludibrastic manner are to be found in the 

 Alma of Prior, and the M'Fingal of Mr. Trum- 

 bull, a respectable American poet. The merit 

 of the former is so great, that Mr. Pope, with 

 all his poetic fame, expressed a wish to have 

 been the author of it; and the latter has been 

 pronounced, by good judges, both in Europe and, 

 America, to be nearly equal to its great model. 



M. Gressett, a French poet of high reputation, 

 lias shown, in his Vert-Vert , and in his Chartreuse y 

 that between the heroic and the burlesque there is 

 still another species of poetry, partaking in some 

 degree of the characters of both : a kind of com- 

 position which, while it displays some of the attri- 

 butes of moral and serious poetry, at the same 

 time embraces the features of the satiric, the gay, 

 and the refined comic, in a very pleasing degree. 



About fifty years belbre the commencement of 

 the century under review began the fashion of 

 imitating the great satirists of Rome, or adapting 

 ancient poetry to modern characters and manners. 

 This kind of poetical exercise has continued in 

 rogue to the present day, and the number of those 

 who have made trial of their genius in this way 

 has greatly increased. Of this imitation the sa- 

 tires of Horace, Juvenal, and Persius, have all 

 been the objects. And among these imitators are 

 found the names of Pope, Johnson, GifTord, Lewis^ 

 and several other British poets. 



