Archy
was a cockroach and poet who lived in a newspaper office in the 1910s
and 1920s, and came out at night to use columnist Don Marquis'
typewriter. Because he typed by jumping onto the keys, he couldn't
use capital letters. (ee cummings did not have that excuse.)
Archy's friend Pete the Parrot had
lived at the Mermaid Tavern in a previous life, and knew Shakespeare
and his crowd. Here is Archy quoting Pete quoting Shakespeare:
. . . any mutt can write
plays for this london public
says bill if he puts enough
murder in them what they want
is kings talking like kings
never had sense enough to talk
and stabbings and stranglings
and fat men making love
and clowns basting each
other with clubs and cheap puns
and off color allusions to all
the smut of the day oh i know
what the low brows want
and i give it to them
And here's Archy's take:
coarse
jocosity
catches the crowd
shakespeare
and i
are often
low browed
the fish wife
curse
and the laugh
of the horse
shakespeare
and i
are frequently
coarse
The poems excerpted above can both be
read here.
The archy & mehitabel books have
seldom been out of print since the first was published in 1927. They
can be found, new and used, hardback and paperback, at all the usual
places.
