Just for your information, a note in my book says "a few copies of this poem were printed with the title Edwin and Angelina; A Ballad...Printed for the Amusement of the Countess of Northumberland." I'm sure the Countess was thrilled to see this in his novel! ;-) Since I'm suspicious of Mr. Burchell, I'm going to keep the ballad in mind as I progress through the novel to see if there are any clues to future happenings in the poem.
Can anyone explain what Mr. Burchell is referring to when he refers to Gay and Ovid "loading all their lines with epithet"? I'm uneducated in epithets...