PARODY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20306, 13 July 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

PARODY.

MODERN MASTERS,

BY KOTAEB

Parody is usually imitation that 13 not llattcry, sincere or othorwiso. It is often real criticism through imitation. It can help a man to sco himself as others 6ee him, an admirable if often chastonintr dis ciplino. His faults are isolated from the environment that perhaps mitigates and disguises them. They stand out clear against the sky. Probably they are in tensified as well as isolated, but the mere denuding thorn of their familiar garb is intensification enough. " Ridicule," says Christopher Stone, "is society's most effective means of curing inelasticity. It explodes tho pompous, cor rects tho well-meaning eccentric, cools the fanatical, and prevents tho incompetent from achieving success. Truth will provail over it, falsehood will cower under it, and it is well known that when reason, indignation, entreaty, and menace fail, ridiculo will often cause a government to abandon a bill, a lover his mistress, a younger brother his sartorial indiscro tions."

Tho erul of parody is commonly to mako ridiculous. Not always, of courso. Parody is sometimes merely an oxerciso in ingenuity. A poet may imitate a creator man's peculiarities simply to display his own skill. 110 is trying in his own way to pay ft compliment, arid has r.o critical intention A readable anthology of tho parody of compliment could be collected But on the whole this form of parody is ineffective; a display of clever fireworks at tho best. The parodies that lustify themselves are for tho most part satirical burlesques. They may be infinitely subtlo and delicate: or they may havo no more subtlety than a nourished shillelagh or a charging elephant. Unconscious Parody. Sometimes the parody is unconscious. Once Tennyson was commissioned as Poot Laureate to write somo extra verses to the National Anthem in honour of the marriage of the Princess Royal and the Crown Prince of Prussia. 110 did his best poor man; but ho achieved only tho heavi est-footed burlesque ever perpetrated bv a poet of distinction. What can you make of this ? God bless our Prince and bride, God keep their lands allied; God save the Queen _ Clothe them with righteousness, Crown thera with happiness. Them with all blessings bless. God save tho Queen. On tho few occasions when our present Laureate has left hi 3 cloistered eroves with their classic calm to be an up-to-the minute interpreter ol current events, he maunders into what seems uncommonly like poor parody He thus celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria which Kipling honoured with tho majestic " Recessional ": In wisdom and lovo firm is thy famo. Enemies bow to revero thy name; The world shall nevor tiro to tell ['raise of tho Queen that reigned well. There aro two other verse 3 of tho Game quality. It looks lilco a parody on some servile poetaster or composer of in mem oriam verses of tho early Victorian era, or of that latci maker of mirth, Alfred Austin. Masters. There are many first-rate parodists writing to-day. That could bo expected of an ago when cleverness is the common est attribute of all tho writing tribe. Sir Owen Seaman has a long list in verse and prose. Could anything . better hit off tho colourful exuberance of Swinburne than tho Sung of Renunciation ?

In the days of my season of salad. When the down was as clow on my cheok And for French I was fed on the ballad. And for Greek on tho writers of GreekThen I sans of tho roso that as ruddy. Of pleasure that winoia and stings. Of white women and wine that is bloody. And similar things.

And F. E. Weatherloy, writer of thou sands of pretty-pretty songs that a former ago warbled in countless drawing rooms, what could better sum up both his matter and manner than tho affecting ballad. " Yet, "

Sing me a drawing room sons, darling! Sentiment may bo false, Yet it will worry along. darling! Set to a tarn-turn valsc; See that the verses are few, darling! Keep to tho rule of three; That will be better for you. darling 1 Certainly better fur me.

J. C. Squiro and E. V. Knox aro second only to Seaman in facility and felicity. G. K. Chesterton must have rubbed his eyes when lie read Knox's par ody, "Tho Song Against Gold," and won dercd if in some forgotten moment of inspiration ho had not really written it himself. For this is pure Chesterton in his most characteristic boisterous mood:

When nobody drank water And everyone drunk wine. The King of England's daughter Uung washing on a line. And the King took all tho rich moil And slew them for a sign. Beyond tho road of Milo End ITo hanged them in a row. Where nil things cheap and vilo end, Beyond the Bridge of Bow; But now there's nothing cheap about, And millionaires still creep about, And lamp posts never leap about, S'avu only down in West Llani, v.hero rich men may not go. Another Type. That looks like a third typo of parody. It is neither criticism nor flattery, the.ro is no ridicule m it; it is a sort of friendly jest without malice; kindly admiration the chief note of it. Chesterton's own parodies have more bite in them. Ho roars with laughter, but his laughter covers a sense of outrage. Something deep in him has been stirred. lie scorches with his gargantuan guffaw. He is too bitr for bitterness; but there are, ho concoives. moral issues involved, and error must be smitten down His evolution parody, which borrows a familiar poem of Hood's and applies its rhythms to tho desciip tion of the mental state of a dazed Darwinian. tires no shot at tho original mi 1.11 oi Ho simply takes a well-known font, and applies it to his own ends.

L remember, I remember, Long beforo I was born, Tli" tree-tops where my racial nelf Went dancing round at morn.

I am too fat to climb a tree. There aru no trees to climb; Instead tho factory chimneys riso, Unscaleable. sublime.

Tho past was bestial ignorance; But 1 feel a litll o funky, To think I'm further off from heaven Thau when I was u monkey.

ft .seems that parodies havo as many forms and aims as a religion 'or a do cadent political party. Tlie.y can bo an offering from a smali man to a big man, they can bo an expression of friendly ad miration, llioy can bo sound literary critic ism, thoy can bo an effort to puncture swollen pomposity with the darts of ridi culo, or they can be ft light disguiso for a .strong conviction. They can justify their existence only by their cleverness; I hero is no excuse when they crudely thumb with rio ond but clownago, poems long onshrincd ib tho reverent affection of «ll that iovo beauty..