It is based on a similarly ironic poem by the English Decadent poet Ernest Dowson (1867–1900), with its popular chorus Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae ('I have been faithful to thee, Cynara, in my fashion.').
During this time in London Ghose met many other members of the "Rhymers' Club" set such as Lionel Johnson, Ernest Dowson, who were both very fond of him.
Ernest Hemingway | Ernest Shackleton | Ernest Borgnine | Ernest Tubb | Ernest Rutherford | Ernest Renan | Ernest Chausson | Ernest Bloch | Ernest Bevin | Ernest | Ernest George | Ernest Gruening | Ernest Dowson | Ernest Bai Koroma | Ernest Thompson Seton | Ernest Hollings | William Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Weimar | John Ernest | Ernest Thayer | Ernest Jones | Ernest Giles | Ernest Gellner | Ernest Fenollosa | Ernest Augustus I of Hanover | Ernest Augustus I, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach | Reginald Ernest Moreau | Ernest Torrence | Ernest Nagel | Ernest Marples | Ernest L. Wilkinson |
Critics tend to group Crackanthorpe together with a clutch of young British writers and artists of the 1890s who suffered untimely deaths caused by various factors, including suicide, alcohol abuse or tuberculosis; e.g. Oscar Wilde, Ernest Dowson, Lionel Johnson, and the two editors of the Yellow Book, Aubrey Beardsley and Henry Harland.
Those of the group appearing in these two volumes were: T.W. Rolleston, John Todhunter, W.B. Yeats, Richard Le Gallienne, Lionel Johnson, Arthur Cecil Hillier, Ernest Dowson, Victor Plarr, Ernest Radford, Arthur Symons, G.A. Greene, Edwin J. Ellis, and Ernest Rhys.