"...They call me savage, monster on four legs,
To feed their vanity — a master race
Of whose learning and liquor I have tasted;
Two-legged gods, whose boots I licked and feet kissed,
Only to find that, beneath their fair skin,
They are as seedy as I am misshapen.
And, as any native monkey will tell you:
Learning and liquor are peanuts when bartered
For land and liberty.
And now, armed with language and skilled in cursing —
To outsmart this learned philistine whose skull
I cannot crush, nor can I burn his books —
Cursing shall be my joy ’til he be driven to sea,
From whence he came — and I regain sovereignty."
With affectionate thanks to Edgar Rice Burroughs and his Mucker, Frank Frazetta, and Victor Sasson ("Caliban on Language")
4 comments:
The only Burroughs I ever read was John Carter on Mars, and the very early Tarzan novels (courtesy of the array of 1930-50 offerings in my small town library). I'd give a lottery's winnings for those books now.
Was the source of that "Caliban on Language"? It wasn't clear, and I'd dearly love to know how to get hold of it.
It's from an old edition of Iona College's Shakespeare Newsletter. E me and I'll send you the complete text.
BTW, compare and contrast: ERB's "The Mucker" and Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy Ape."
BTW, Got Burroughs?
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