Vincent Starrett

Name: Buried Caesars — Chapter 14: Y. E. A. and a Bottle of Rum
Author: Vincent Starrett

Buried Caesars — Chapter 14: Y. E. A. and a Bottle of Rum (1968)

Summary

“Buried Caesars — Chapter 14: Y. E. A. and a Bottle of Rum”, published in 1968, is a work by Vincent Starrett. It explores elements such as Allison, chanty and Stevenson.

Quotes from Buried Caesars — Chapter 14: Y. E. A. and a Bottle of Rum (Vincent Starrett)

Vincent Starrett, Buried Caesars — Chapter 14: Y. E. A. and a Bottle of Rum (1968)

“ To come back to Allison: I suppose there is little doubt that his fame is assured by this remarkable poem, so far as it is possible to predict the vagaries of fame's erratic flight; and it is pleasant to know that the controversy over authorship was happily adjusted in his lifetime. Without Champ Hitchcock and the other champions, the dispute might have been continued indefinitely, for Allison himself is far too retiring an individual to push his own claims beyond a modest statement of fact. It is his notion that "these things take care of themselves, and usually work out all right." ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Vincent Starrett, Buried Caesars — Chapter 14: Y. E. A. and a Bottle of Rum (1968)

“ In other words, then, the song was known only to the fictitious crew of a fictitious captain; the extraordinary puppets of an invincible invalid who invented and wrote about pirates because it was neither expedient nor possible to be one himself. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Vincent Starrett, Buried Caesars — Chapter 14: Y. E. A. and a Bottle of Rum (1968)

“ Lloyd Osbourne, stepson of R. L. S., for whom "Treasure Island" was written and to whom the work was dedicated. Says Mr. Osbourne: "'Fifteen Men' was wholly original with Stevenson, and it has always been a regret to me that he never saw the Allison extension of the chanty."
But long before the Times controversy brought the whole matter before the public, an circle knew the name of "Derelict's" author, and cherished the poem. As first written, it contained three stanzas, and was entitled "A Piratical Ballad." ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Vincent Starrett, Buried Caesars — Chapter 14: Y. E. A. and a Bottle of Rum (1968)

“ LIVING to-day in Louisville, Kentucky, is an elderly gentleman, with a white mustache and a droll eye, slightly deaf and soft-spoken, who some day will be just such a subject for gossip as are Goldsmith, Charles Lamb and Eugene Field. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Vincent Starrett, Buried Caesars — Chapter 14: Y. E. A. and a Bottle of Rum (1968)

“ Be this as it may, from first to last there have been word-, line-, and punctuation-changes of the shrewdest sort, until at present the nuances are as perfect as the author can make them. From the beginning, Allison's intention has been to complete the poem as Stevenson himself might have done, and explanation of the italicized fifth stanza is found in that intention; it is a delicate intimation that the theme of a woman is foreign to the main idea.
The following version of the ballad incorporates its author's final revisions:
DERELICT
A Reminiscence of Treasure Island. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Vincent Starrett, Buried Caesars — Chapter 14: Y. E. A. and a Bottle of Rum (1968)

“ That is obviously a hoax, with no particular intention to deceive, and it is also good fun. The stanzas are exceedingly clever regarded as a "rough, unstudied sailor's jingle," and the fellow who composed them knew what he was about. Allison's chanty is far too good to have been written by any but a very superior sort of sailor; but this newspaper-chanty might actually have been the work of a singing seaman. It is quite possible that the author of the newspaper article did not himself compose the chanty he quoted, that he heard it sung, someplace, and adopted and adapted it ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Vincent Starrett, Buried Caesars — Chapter 14: Y. E. A. and a Bottle of Rum (1968)

“ Allison understood the reference, and was not misled by the "chest."
Then in 1902 there appeared "The Pirate Song," with music by Henry F. Gilbert, and "words adapted from Stevenson's 'Treasure Island.' Additional stanzas by Alice C. Hyde." This is an admirable musical macabre, although it is not as good as Waller's. The verses by Miss Hyde are ordinary. To complete the note, however, they are here transcribed:
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest,
⁠Yo! ho! ho! ”

Vincent Starrett

Summary

Quotes from Buried Caesars — Chapter 14: Y. E. A. and a Bottle of Rum (Vincent Starrett)

Common terms

Similar works

Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature