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The Politest of Nations!
Fun, VIII - 2nd January 1866
| Paris fashions to puff people can't say enough, | ||
| Its idioms, its shrugs, and its phrases — | ||
| And people who chance to have visited France | ||
| Are eternally singing its praises. | ||
| Wherever we go, as all travellers know, | ||
| We are met by the same observations, | ||
| We are constantly told by the young and the old | ||
| That it's much the politest of nations, | ||
| By far the politest of nations, Most courteous and civil of nations, |
||
| Though Britons we be, we are bound to agree | ||
| That it's much the politest of nations! | ||
| Though it's true beyond doubt that they shove you about | ||
| With an unceremonious behavement, | ||
| And ladies they meet in a narrowish street | ||
| They will elbow right off of the pavement. | ||
| Though conduct like this, touchy men take amiss, | ||
| As a blot on their civilisations, | ||
| Yet only think how they will chatter and bow — | ||
| It's by chalks the politest of nations | ||
| By chalks the politest of nations, Most courteous and civil of nations, |
||
| Though Britons we be, we are bound to agree | ||
| That it's much the politest of nations! | ||
| Though they fight with ill grace for a popular place | ||
| At a theatre or concert or races, | ||
| Though rollicking blades sneer at blighted old maids, | ||
| And puff bad cigars in their faces, | ||
| Though they cover with shame any elderly dame, | ||
| Who elicits unkind observations, | ||
| How they twist and they twirl to a pretty young girl! | ||
| It's by far the politest of nations, | ||
| By far the politest of nations, Most courteous and civil of nations, |
||
| Though Britons we be, we are bound to agree | ||
| That it's much the politest of nations! | ||
| Though the dresses they wear I'd be sorry, I swear, | ||
| To see on my wife or my daughter — | ||
| Though they rouge themselves fair, and don't comb out their hair, | ||
| And are n — not over partial to water — | ||
| Though untidy by day in a slipsloppy way, | ||
| And scorning all kinds of lavations, | ||
| Yet it must be confessed that when — when they are dressed, | ||
| They do look the politest of nations, | ||
| By far the politest of nations, Most courteous and civil of nations, |
||
| Though Britons we be, we are bound to agree | ||
| That it's much the politest of nations! | ||
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Page Created 30 July, 2011