Flav.: Good fellows all,
The latest of my wealth I'll share amongst you.
Wherever we shall meet, for Timon's sake
Let's yet be fellows; let's shake our heads, and say,
As 'twere a knell unto our master's fortunes,
"We have seen better days." Let each take some.
(Giving them money.)
Nay, put out all your hands. Not one word more:
Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor.
-----
Notes on Australianisms. Based on my own speech over the years, with
some checking in the dictionaries. Not all of these are peculiar to
Australian slang, but are important in Lawson's stories, and carry
overtones.
barrackers: people who cheer for a sporting team, etc.
boko: crazy.
bushman/bushwoman: someone who lives an isolated existence, far from
cities, "in the bush", "outback". (today: "bushy". In New
Zealand it is a timber getter. Lawson was sacked from a forestry
job in New Zealand, "because he wasn't a bushman" :-)
bushranger: an Australian ``highwayman'', who lived in the `bush'--
scrub--and attacked and robbed, especially gold carrying coaches
and banks. Romanticised as anti-authoritarian Robin Hood figures--
cf. Ned Kelly--but usually very violent.
US use was very different (more = explorer), though some
lexicographers think the word (along with "bush" in this sense)
was borrowed from the US.
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