My Mother-In-Law 1856

by James Pitt-Payne, London UK - 15Feb2025
2025

I said on the morning I married,
"'Tis the happiest day of my life,"
As down to Newmarket I hurried,
With my beautiful dutiful wife.
Each day will but add to my pleasure
Along with the one I adore.
But I soon discover'd the plague of my life
It was not my friends, my servants or wife,
But my fussy old MotherinLaw, the bore!
My fussy old MotherinLaw.

The honeymoon over, returning
To town with my dear little bride,
The care of the world I was spurning
As we sat by our own fireside.
Said she, to my side drawing nearer,
"As servants they are such a bore
And mother's a widow and lonely, dear,
We cannot do better than send for her here."
I answer'd her, "yes, to be sure" oh, la!
And I sent for my MotherinLaw.

One morning in "desperate hurry,"
A cab it drove up to my door,
Containing six boxes, a bundle,
Two trunks, and my MotherinLaw
Down the steps in a terrible flurry,
To meet my wife's parent I tore,
Saying, "Welcome dear madam, pray step this way,
I'm really delighted to meet you today,"
As I handed in MotherinLaw, the bore,
My respectable MotherinLaw.

My life up this was delicious,
I never had cause for a frown,
But, "Mamma" was so very officious,
My house it was turned upside down;
The way she upset all my customs,
I very soon voted a bore!
She "worried," and "skurried" me
out of my life,
I began to imagine instead of my wife,
I had married my MotherinLaw, the bore!
Officious old MotherinLaw.

In my house I was not my own master,
Each day we'd a "family jar,"
My wife couldn't expend a shilling,
Without asking "Darling Mamma"
"Mamma can do this," and "Mamma can do that,"
At length very plainly I saw,
If I wished to be happy and pass my life,
Quite free from matrimonial strife
I must part with my MotherinLaw, the bore!
Interfering old MotherinLaw.

She told me so rudely one morning,
"I hadn't the least common sense,"
"So it seems my dear Mother," I answered,
"With your presence I now can dispense,
So pack up your luggage and off you go,
I've had quite enough of your jaw,
I'm determined no longer you stay with me,"
She departed that morning and left me free,
Of my fussy old MotherinLaw, the bore!
Disagreeable old MotherinLaw.

A moral my song is adorning,
To persons about to be wed,
Will serve as an excellent warning,
Remembering all I have said,
Relations are always best apart,
Is a saying you've heard once before,
In two there is company, three there is none,
Be certain your every comfort is gone,
If you live with a MotherinLaw, be sure!
Interfering old MotherinLaw.

Soft karaoke
Words
piano 1
piano 2
piano 3
piano 4
lyric
pizz str bass
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My Mother-In-Law 1856
By Harry Clifton
© 1856
*
sequence & karaoke by James Pitt-Payne, London UK
on Saturday 15 February 2025 at 11.04
in association with Torquil Syme
*
James Pitt-Payne