The Dauntless Three, with Apologies to the Shade

Name: The Dauntless Three, with Apologies to the Shade of Macaulay
Author: Andrew Barton Paterson

"The Dauntless Three, with Apologies to the Shade of Macaulay" is a short political parody by Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson that transplants the opening scene of Thomas Babington Macaulay's "Horatius" (from *Lays of Ancient Rome*) into the arena of early Australian federal politics. Where Macaulay's original has the Etruscan king Lars Porsena swear by the Nine Gods to avenge the exiled Tarquins and march on Rome, Paterson recasts the oath-taker as Chris Watson, leader of the newly formed Australian Labor Party, who swears "by his Caucus Gods" that "the great Labor Party should suffer wrong no more." Watson names a "trysting day" — an election day — and sends out his "Socialists" as messengers riding "east and west and south and north" through every town in New South Wales to summon the electorate to the polls, mirroring the summoning of Porsena's Tuscan clans in the source poem. Facing this mobilization, three Liberal (anti-Labor, Free Trade) parliamentarians step forward in conscious imitation of the three Roman defenders of the Sublician bridge — Horatius Cocles, Spurius Lartius, and Titus Herminius. Paterson names them by punning classical-cum-contemporary titles: "Horatius Gould" (Albert Gould), "Herminius Millen" (William Millen), and "Walker," standing in for Spurius Lartius. Echoing Macaulay's famous challenge — "Then out spake brave Horatius... 'Now who will stand on either hand and keep the bridge with me?'" — Paterson's Horatius Gould calls out, "Now, who will stand on either hand / And face the foe with me?" His two companions answer in kind, pledging to "abide on either side" and to help him "win a seat" rather than "keep the bridge." Horatius Gould accepts their pledge with Macaulay's own formula, "'Tis well... as thou sayest, so let it be," and the poem closes with the trio going forth "against the proletaire" as the titular "dauntless three," ready to contest the coming election against the rising Labor tide. The whole piece is a compact mock-heroic squib rather than a sustained narrative: it borrows Macaulay's solemn, sonorous diction, his repetitive oath-and-summons structure, and his bridge-defense set piece, and drains them of epic stakes by substituting a Sydney electoral contest for the defense of Rome against an invading army. The comedy turns on the mismatch of registers — grand Roman gods, trumpets, and heroic vows applied to caucus politics, ballot boxes, and party machinery — with "the proletaire" (the rising Labor electorate and its working-class base) cast, tongue-in-cheek, as the barbarian horde threatening the old parliamentary order. The title's apology "to the shade of Macaulay" signals Paterson's awareness that he is taking liberties with a revered patriotic poem, using its heroic machinery for topical satire rather than genuine epic purpose. As with much of Paterson's occasional verse for the press, the piece functioned as a topical squib aimed at readers who would immediately recognize both the political figures being lampooned and the schoolroom-familiar lines of Macaulay being echoed; its humor and force depend almost entirely on that dual recognition, and it survives today chiefly as a curiosity of Paterson's journalistic sideline in political verse rather than as one of his better-known bush ballads.

By Andrew Barton Paterson · First published 1940 · Genre: Poetry, Political Satire, Parody · 285 words

First lines

Chris Watson, of the Parliament, / By his Caucus Gods he swore / That the great Labor Party / Should suffer wrong no more. / By his Caucus Gods he swore it, / And named a trysting day, / And bade his Socialists ride forth, / East and west and south and north, / To summon his array.

East and west and south and north / The Socialists ride fast, / And every town in New South Wales / Has heard their trumpet's blast. / Shame to the false elector / Who lingers in his hole, / While Watson and his myrmidons / Are riding to the poll.

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Genres

Poetry — The work is fundamentally composed in verse form with consistent meter and rhyme scheme, establishing it as poetry rather than prose.
Political Satire — The work satirizes Australian political events and figures, specifically the Labor Party and electoral politics of the era, using humor to critique political behavior and actors.
Parody — The title explicitly identifies it as a parody ('with Apologies to the Shade of Macaulay'), directly imitating the style, structure, and form of Macaulay's 'Lays of Ancient Rome.'
Mock-heroic — The work employs elevated, grandiose, and epic language to describe mundane contemporary political activities, creating deliberate ironic contrast between heroic form and ordinary subject matter.

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The Dauntless Three, with Apologies to the Shade of Macaulay is listed on Textopian as a poem by Andrew Barton Paterson, dated 1940 CE.

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Work type: Poem
Author: Andrew Barton Paterson
Date: 1940 CE
Language: English
Genres: Poetry, Political Satire, Parody, Mock-heroic, Australian Literature
Length: 285 words
Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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