When DGR learned in mid-October 1871 that Buchanan was the author of the pseudonymous
attack on his 1870
Poems
Correspondence
This poem was originally written in late October to form part of DGR's prose reply to Buchanan, and it was in fact set in type in November with the long pamphlet version of DGR's essay. After he was persuaded against publishing this document, however, he dropped this poem from his essay as well.
The “brothers” of the title is an ironical reference to Buchanan's
pseudonym “Maitland”—Buchanan as a two-faced creature. The subtitle of course
references Byron's famous satire English
Bards and Scotch Reviewers
DGR wrote two different versions of his parodic ballad. The version first published by
WMR in