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Epigraph: Men, proud men, / Drest in a little brief authority, / Most ignorant of what they are most assured, / Play such fantastic tricks before high heaven / As make the angels weep. - Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act II, Scene 2.
Author's note: In preserving these pieces for future republication, I am very influenced by the ambition of figuring as a clever satirist. My chief - almost my sole object, in doing so, is to be able at any future time to repudiate 'imputed trash and nonsense not my own' by openly avowing everything of a satirical nature which I have been really guilty of. And if in the process of recopying, several of them have been retouched this finish has been bestowed, more with view to rendering these completer as compositions for which my literary name is answerable, than of adding in any degree to their severity as satires. (The Poetical Works of Charles Harpur (1984): 599)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
First known date:1845
Notes:
Originally published, either anonymously or pseudonymously, in the Weekly Register of Politics, Facts and General Literature over the period 8 February to 31 May 1845.
Appears in:
yThe Poetical Works of Charles HarpurCharles Harpur,
Elizabeth Perkins
(editor),
Sydney:Angus and Robertson,1984Z4595551984selected work poetry satire 'This collection represents one version of almost every poem written by Charles Harpur, with the omission of some translations and paraphrases. The verse drama, "Stalwart the Bushranger", and the fragments of the dramatic poem "King Saul" are not included. ... The collection is edited from Harpur's manuscript poems held in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, and from printed copies in colonial newspapers when no manuscript version existed.' (Preface)Sydney:Angus and Robertson,1984