It is very singular that in the remarkable application, in the spring of 1883, by the Duke of Vallombrosa for a criminal information against the editor of Vanity Fair for libel in stating that the Duke's father (who was an army pork contractor) had put the bodies of dead soldiers into the meat casks, counsel should have mentioned to the Court that a similar accusation had been made against St. George, who was an army bacon contractor (vide Times report).
The conclusion of the Sompting version is not so threatening, for the speech of "Johnny Jack" proceeds after the second line:—
"My family is large, but I am small,
So every little helps us all.
So ladies and gentlemen, just at your ease,
Put your hands in your pockets
And give the poor little Christmas boys just what you please."
Whilst in a third version (supplied by a Brighton Tipteerer) the last character says:—
"In comes I the little Sweep,
All the money I gets I keep;
In my pockets bread and cheese,
Ladies and gentlemen, give me what you please.
Christmas comes but once a year,
But when it comes it brings good cheer:
Roast beef, plum pudding, and mince-pie,
No one likes it better than I.
Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you a merry Christmas
And a happy new year;
Not forgetting old Father Christmas,
And the merry Tipteers."
It seems not improbable that this play is sometimes performed at other times of the year, and especially on May Day.
[Compare a paper on Christmas Mummers in Dorsetshire, by J. S. Udal, in Folk-Lore Record, vol. iii. part i. pp. 87-116.]
