THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

22 August 1914

(page 6)

A LINE-O’-TYPE OR TWO.

“Only one poet,” says Aleister Crowley in the English Review, “has struck the True Note of British Patriotism, the author of—

“We don’t want to fight, but, by Jingo, if we do,

We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, we’ve got the money, too.”

And he submits a few variants of the theme as English poets might have done them. Here is Browning’s:

Non volumus pugnare—that won’t do:

Out with your hand, boy, novolumus, whack, whack!

Nolumue—now go on—pugnare—we

Don’t want to fight. Sed, but. Smith septimus,

Your collar’s crumpled. How comes that? You fought?

Well, you are no true Briton. Sed—but—vi

Try not to mumble so. Si volumes,

Naves, the ships, habemus, them we have;

Noves habomus, we have got the ships.

Et, and, nautas, the men, et etiam

And also. Briscoe, do sit straight. Go on,

Coleman, from Nagias, sailors. Et. Well? And,

Etiam, also. Well? Don’t stammer so!

Peouniam. Yes. The money. We have got

Habemus naves, all the ships we want,

Et nautas, and the men, et etiam

Pecuniam. And the money, too. Time’s up.