John Dough and The Cherub - Sir Austed Alfrin

Sir Austed Alfrin

In the book's fifth chapter, Baum provides a caricature of Alfred Austin, then the poet laureate of the United Kingdom. In John Dough, he appears as "Sir Austed Alfrin," poet laureate of the Isle of Phreex. Sir Austed is "a man with a pale, thin face" in a grease-stained frock coat. When the "kinglet" of Phreex demands a "sonnet," Sir Austed responds with a series of ridiculous limericks. ("There is a wise Kinglet of Phreex," etc.)