Daily Express, Friday, November 6, 1903
Poem 33
(Attribution uncertain)
THE PARROT.
———♦———
[Mr. Chamberlain displays the utmost terror of the “Daily News” (says the “Daily News”).]
Like Bombastes Furioso 1
See the Parrot in a pose so
Very valiant, you might think him
Leader of an army corps.
Gone his look as black as thunder
At the “Daily News’s” blunder, 2
And
again he squawked quite clearly
That “Your food will cost you more.”
“Why,”
he squawked, “I made an error;
In a state of utmost terror
Is poor Joe. In fact he wishes
He could vanish through the floor.
Though with cunning he dissembles,
Only notice how he trembles
When the ‘Daily News’ and I, sir,
Cry ‘Your food will cost you more.’ ”
“Stop,”
I cried, “you foolish nagger,
Do you think your feeble swagger
Will induce the British people
Your misstatements to ignore?
Do you think a single reader
Will believe the D.N. leader
When it says that Joe is frightened
At your ‘Food will cost you more’?”
But
the bird continues gaily
Cheering for the bumptious “Daily
News,” and otherwise behaving
Like a little england bore. 3
So
I left him to his folly.
Who can care if such a Polly
Says or does not say the falsehood
That “Your food will cost you more”?
Bombastes Furioso is a burlesque opera by William Barnes Rhodes (1772–1826) which quickly became popular after its first performance, in 1810. The title, which echoes that of the 16th century epic poem, Orlando Furioso, has the literal meaning “Mad Bombastes”. In the opera, General Bombastes is engaged to Distaffina, who jilts him in favour of the king, Artaxaminous, whereupon Bombastes goes mad and kills the king and is in turn killed by the king’s minister.
As used here, “Bombastes Furioso” is someone who talks boastfully, using inflated language.
2This refers to the Daily News’s posters, which had been ridiculed by Chamberlain in his speech at Birmingham two days earlier: see poem 32
3The term “little Englander” was applied to those who were opposed to the expansion of the Empire (or, indeed, to the existence of the Empire). The term acquired considerable currency from 1895–96, as relations between the Boer republics and British colonies in South Africa deteriorated, and during the Boer War (1899–1902) it was used perjoratively to describe those who, if not actually pro-Boer, were opposed to the war.