Note 2 — "ORIGINAL POETRY:" BY THE LATE SIR FRETFUL PLAGIARY, KNIGHT,
Reading edition
The printer's devil had taken upon himself to make the following addition to these lines:—
Blind Thamyris, and blind Mæonides, (Something like Milton). Pursue the triumph and partake the gale! (Rather like Pope). Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees, (Why, this is Shakspeare). To point a moral, or adorn a tale. (Oh! it's Dr. Johnson).
To the succeeding lines the same authority had added in succession the names of Gray Wordsworth, Campbell, and so on throughout the poem. What does he mean? Does he mean to say he has ever met with any one of these lines before?