Don Marquis Archy and Mehitabel

For those not in the know, mehitabel, sometimes thought an alley cat, is a beautious reincarnation of the goddess Queen Cleopatra; archy is a beetle - more specifically errrr... a cockroach. He types by jumping on the keys of Don Marquis' typewriter one at a time. He cannot also do the CAPS lock, so the writing is devoid of capital letters and the full range of punctuation.

An unfortunate side effect of this, is that it appears to be a grammatical error when archy types here and google disapproves, that cannot be helped but this is why archy and mehitabel should always be in lower case folks....


I Brake For Butterflies by JohnnyChevy

Well, I guess that depends who was responsible for what? archy for the copy? mehitabel and freddy for the characterization? Herriman for the illustrations? Ahhh, but for one man archy, the cockroach with the soul of a poet, would still be typing anonymously in a garage on a rusty typewriter and Herriman would be drawing more of Krazy Kat! That one man was Don Marquis, their agent and manager!

Don Marquis, from Walnut, Illinois, was born in 1878 and died in 1937. He was a writer and wrote for newspapers such as the New York Tribune (later became the New york Herald tribune) and the Evening Sun (later became The Sun). He was also a playwright and publisher of three volumes of unpunctuated verse on behalf of his friend archy, a talking cockroach who lived in his garage. One of these was published posthumously which would be some achievement had it not been for archy himself taking on the letter writing duties posthumously and mehitabel and freddy the rat carrying correspondence to and from the publisher's office at night....

Archy, as you can see, is a cockroach. He has the soul of a great poet however and expresses himself in blank verse through the medium of Don Marquis's own typewriter after hours. Unfortunately he is handicapped by his lack of punctuation and capitals. As he jumps on the keys to type, he is unable to reach the Caps Lock or Shift keys simultaneously with the letters.

His best friend is a wonderful alley cat of dubious reputation, a reincarnation of Cleopatra, the beauteous Mehitabel....

I found archy and mehitabel thanks to a friend when I was eighteen years old and have recently rediscovered them. They are well worth a look!

BUG OFF Mug by janettedengo

this is the song of mehitabel
of mehitabel the alley cat
as i wrote you before boss
mehitabel is a believer
in the pythagorean
theory of the transmigration
of the soul and she claims
that formerly her spirit
was incarnated in the body
of cleopatra
that was a long time ago
and one must not be
surprised if mehitabel
has forgotten some of her
more regal manners

i have had my ups and downs
but wotthehell wotthehell
yesterday sceptres and crowns
fried oysters and velvet gowns
and today i herd with bums
but wotthehell wotthehell
i wake the world from sleep
as i caper and sing and leap
when i sing my wild free tune
wotthehell wotthehell
under the blear eyed moon
i am pelted with cast off shoon
but wotthehell wotthehell

do you think that i would change
my present freedom to range
for a castle or moated grange
wotthehell wotthehell
cage me and i d go frantic
my life is so romantic
capricious and corybantic
and i m toujours gai toujours gai

i know that i am bound
for a journey down the sound
in the midst of a refuse mound
but wotthehell wotthehell
oh i should worry and fret
death and i will coquette
there s a dance in the old dame yet
toujours gai toujours gai

i once was an innocent kit
wotthehell wotthehell
with a ribbon my neck to fit
and bells tied onto it
o wotthehell wotthehell
but a maltese cat came by
with a come hither look in his eye
and a song that soared to the sky
and wotthehell wotthehell
and i followed adown the street
the pad of his rhythmical feet
o permit me again to repeat
wotthehell wotthehell

my youth i shall never forget
but there s nothing i really regret
wotthehell wotthehell
there s a dance in the old dame yet
toujours gai toujours gai

the things that i had not ought to
i do because i ve gotto
wotthehell wotthehell
and i end with my favorite motto
toujours gai toujours gai

boss sometimes i think
that our friend mehitabel
is a trifle too gay

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(o o)
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