"THEY ARE THE MOST UNLIKELY OF FRIENDS: Archy is a cockroach with the soul of a poet, and Mehitabel is an alley cat with a celebrated past — she claims she was Cleopatra in a previous life.  Together, cockroach and cat are the foundation of one of the most engaging collections of light poetry to come out of the twentieth century.”

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"Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless it is kept under control.” — Archy

why mehitabel jumped

well boss i saw mehitabel the cat the other day and she was looking a little thin and haggard with a limp in the hind leg on the starboard
side old feline animal i said
how is tricks still in the
ring archy she said and still a
lady in spite of h dash double l
always jolly archy she said in
spite of hard luck
toujors gai is the word
archy toujours gai how did you
get the game leg mehitabel i asked her alas she said it is due
to the treachery of one of these social swells who is sure one bad actor he was a fussed up cat with a
bell around his neck on a
ribbon and the look about him of
a person that is currycombed and
manicured from teeth to
tail every day i met him
down by the east river
front when i was scouting
about for a little piece of fish since
the high cost of living has
become so self conscious archy
it would surprise you how close they
watch their fish nowadays
but what the h dash double l archy
it is the cheerful heart that
wins i am never cast down for long
kid says this gilded
feline to me you look hungry i
am all of that i says to him i
have a vacuum in my midst
that is bigger than i am i
could eat the fish that ate
jonah kid he says you have
seen better days i can
tell that from looking at you thanks
i said what you say is at
least half true i have never
seen any worse ones and so
archy one word led to
another until that sleek villain
practically abducted me
and i went with him
on board a houseboat of which
he was the pampered mascot
such evidence of pomp and wealth archy were there that you would not
believe them if i told of them to
you poor cockroach that you
are but these things were nothing to me for i am a reincarnation of cleopatraas i told you long ago you meanher soul transmigrated to a cats body i said it is all one archy said she have it your own way reincarnation or transmigration is the same to me the point is i used to be a queen inegypt and will likely be one again this place was furnished swell percy i said the furniture is fine and i could eat some of it if i was a saw mill but where is the honest to g dash d food the eats percy what i crave issome cuisine for my stomach let ustrifle with an open ice boxfor a space if one can be persuaded to divulge the scheme of itsinterior decoration follow me said this percy thing and led me to a cabin in which stood a table upon which stood viands i have heard of tables groaning archy but this one did not it was too satisfied it purred with contentment in an instant i had eaten a cold salmon who seemed to be toastmaster of the occasion and a whole scuttleful of chef dovers what you mean is hors douvres mehitabel i told her what i mean is grub said she when in walked a person whom

i should judge to be either a butler
or the admiral of that fleet or maybe
both this percy creature who had led me to it was on the table eating with me what do you think he did what
would any gentleman friend with a
spark of chivalry do what but stand by a lady this percy does nothing of the kind archy he immediately attacks me do you get me archy he acts
as if i was a stray cat he did not know 
and he was protecting his loving master's

food from my onslaughts i do not doubt
he got praise and had another blue ribbon
for his heroism as for me i got the boot
and as i went overboard they hit me on
the limb with a bottle or an anchor or 
something nautical and hard that archy
is why i limp but toujours gai archy what

the h dash double l i am always
merry and always ladylike mine archy has
been a romantic life and i will
tell you some more of my adventures
ere long well au revoir i suppose i
will have to go and start a pogrom
against some poor innocent little
mouse just the same i think
that mehitabel s unsheltered life sometimes
makes her a little sad

—archy 

Column from the editorial page of The (New York) Evening Sun, March 29, 1916

To borrow from Mehitabel, “There’s a dance in the old dame yet.”

"The drawing at the top of this page is by the brilliant cartoonist George Herriman, creator of the Krazy Kat comic strip.  You’ll find them in all but the earliest editions of Marquis’ Archy and Mehitabel books.

Archy the cockroach wrote his name in lowercase letters because he couldn’t maneuver the shift bar of Don’s typewriter.  But Archy was no e.e. cummings and he clearly preferred to see his name in capital letters.  Don always used capital letters when writing about Archy in the third person (third cockroach?).”

"I have noticed that when chickens quit quarreling over their food they often find that there is enough for all of them.  I wonder if it might not be the same with the human race."  Don Marquis, humorist and poet (29 Jul 1878-1937)