ABSTRACT
‘The Nose-Drop: A Physiological Ballad by the late W. W.’ was published in the first issue of the Liverpool journal The Academic: A Periodical Publication, comprising Original Essays, Reviews, Poems &c. in January 1821. 1 It was rediscovered and partially reprinted by Robert Mortenson in 1971. 2 This tripartite parody offers a ‘Preface by the Author’, an adept parody of Wordsworthian critical prose, a ‘Note, by the Editor’, which explains why ‘the late W. W.’ is deceased, and finally the parodic ballad of ‘The Nose-Drop’ itself. In both preface and ballad, the parodist uses a level of direct quotation from his or her models rare even in Romantic period parody In the former, the usual method is to surround bathetic glosses on Wordsworth’s poetic system (which themselves rehearse antipathetic reviews) with borrowed chunks of the poet’s own prose. Wordsworth is revealed as a self-regarding individual who is given to pompous ex cathedra pronouncements on his new poetic system. The prose is perhaps better than the poetry. In the ballad, we are back to parody of the simple Wordsworth. W. W. is idiotically preoccupied with the mundane, seeking enlightenment upon the insignificant minutiae of rural life and the interrogative Lakist manner is transformed into downright aggression.
