24 ME Song (Essex) 1902 'Merrie England'

Dr. Pitt-Payne in London UK - 01 May 2003

[Essex:] When Cupid first
this old world trod,
he was, you know, a baby god;
and old Dame Nature nursed the lad,
but let him run about unclad.

[Bessie and Jill:] And old
Dame Nature nursed the lad,
but let him run about unclad.

[Essex:] One day my Lady Fashion came,
and blushed beneath her rouge with shame
to see the pretty innocent
unclothed in Gipsy Nature's tent.

[Bessie and Jill:] to see the
pretty innocent unclothed
in Gipsy Nature's tent.

[Essex:] And, heedless of
Dame Nature's curse,
she took him from his Gipsy nurse,
and set him in her chariot,
determined to improve his lot.

[Bessie and Jill:] And heedless
of Dame Nature's curse,
she took him from his Gipsy nurse,
and set him in her chariot,
and set him in her chariot,
determined to improve his lot.

[Essex:] Beneath my
Lady Fashion's rule
Poor Cupid then was sent to school,
and learned the laws of common sense,
and how to value pounds and pence.

[Bessie and Jill:] and learned
the laws of common sense,
and how to value pounds and pence.

[Essex:] She dressed him up
from toe to top,
and put him in a London shop,
where Cupid, at the counter sells
new tunes for modern marriage bells.

[Bessie and Jill:] where Cupid,
at the counter sells
new tunes for modern marriage bells.

[Essex:] For Love
no longer baits his hooks
with gentle sighs and tender looks,
but nowadays poor lovers get
entangled by a million net.

[All:] For Love
no longer baits his hooks
with gentle sighs and tender looks,
but nowadays poor lovers get
but nowadays poor lovers get
entangled by a million net.

[Essex:] So Cupid seldom comes to us
"In puris naturalibus,"
for such extremely simple guise
would shock the modern worldly wise!

[Bessie and Jill:] for such
extremely simple guise
would shock the modern worldly wise!

[Essex:] Yet even now
sometimes they say,
he takes a little holiday,
and ev'ry now and then returns
where old Dame Nature
waits and yearns!

[Bessie and Jill:] And ev'ry
now and then returns
where old Dame Nature
waits and yearns!

[Essex:] For Love's a gipsy
still at heart,
tho' fashion makes him look so smart:
And I, for one, would not complain
were he a naked child again!

[All:] For Love's a gipsy
still at heart,
tho' fashion makes him look so smart:
And I, for one, would not complain,
And I, for one, would not complain
were he a naked child again!

Soft karaoke
Words
str 25
str 50
str 110
fr hrn 60
brass 75
flute
tymp
bassoon
clarinet
piano t clef
oboe
pizz str
*
24 ME Song (Essex) 1902
Music by Sir Edward German
Lyrics by Capt. Basil Hood
copyright MCMII by Chappell and Co.
sequence and karaoke by Dr. Pitt-Payne in London UK
on Thursday 01 May 2003 at 11.41
in association with Doug Grierson
*