a popular maxim, adage, or proverb.

Parody is also a poetical pleasantry, consisting in applying the verses written on one subject, by way of ridicule, to another; or in turning a serious work into a burlesque, by affecting to observe as near as possible the same rhymes, words, and cadences.

The parody was first set on foot by the Greeks; from whom we borrow the name. It comes near to what some of our late writers call travesty. Others have more accurately distinguished between a parody and burlesque; and they observe, that the change of a single word may parody a verse; or of a single letter a word. Thus, in the last case, Cato exposed the inconstant disposition of Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, by changing Nobilior into Mobilior. Another kind of parody consists in the mere application of some known verse, or part of a verse of a writer, without making any change in it, with a view to expose it. A fourth instance is that of writing verses in the taste and style of authors little approved. The rules of parody regard the choice of a subject, and the manner of treating it. The subject should be a known and celebrated work; as to the manner, it should be by an exact imitation, and an intermixture of good natural pleasantry.

PA.