Scriblerus Secundus." It is certainly one of the best burlesques ever
written. As Baker observes in his _Biographia Dramatica_, it may fairly
be ranked as a sequel to Buckingham's _Rehearsal_, since it includes the
absurdities of nearly all the writers of tragedies from the period when
that piece stops to 1730. Among the authors satirised are Nat. Lee,
Thomson (whose famous

"O Sophonisba, Sophonisba, O!"

is parodied by

"O Huncamunca, Huncamunca, O!"),

Banks's _Earl of Essex_, a favourite play at Bartholomew Fair, the
_Busiris_ of Young, and the _Aurengzebe_ of Dryden, etc. The
annotations, which abound in transparent references to Dr. B[_entle_]y,
Mr. T[_heobal_]d, Mr. D[_enni_]s, are excellent imitations of
contemporary pedantry. One example, elicited in Act 1 by a reference to
"giants," must stand for many:--

"That learned Historian Mr. S--n in the third Number of his Criticism
on our Author, takes great Pains to explode this Passage. It is, says
he, difficult to guess what Giants are here meant, unless the Giant
_Despair_ in the _Pilgrim's Progress_, or the giant _Greatness_ in the
_Royal Villain_; for I have heard of no other sort of Giants in the
Reign of King _Arthur_. _Petnis Burmanus_ makes three _Tom Thumbs_, one
whereof he supposes to have been the same Person whom the _Greeks_
called _Hercules_, and that by these Giants are to be understood the
_Centaurs_ slain by that Heroe. Another _Tom Thumb_ he contends to have
been no other than the _Hermes Trismegistus_ of the Antients. The third