The Cattle Show (1863)
by W. S. Gilbert
649498The Cattle Show1863W. S. Gilbert

The Half-Crown Day
(By a Heavy Swell)

No! I'm not in the least democratic,
I object to a mob and a crush,
My tastes are too aristocratic,
My way through a crowd to push.
So when to the cattle I take my way,
It's either a crown or a half-crown day!

On the high-priced days c'est une autre
Chose tout à fait, if you please
Then the place is quite filled with les notres,
With the people one everywhere sees,
Who, like myself, much prefer to pay
To see the show on half-crown day.


I in toto object to the "people,"
They are always so shockingly rude
E'en on men on society's steeple
Their sad vulgar marks they'll intrude.
So you cannot wonder I'd rather pay
To see the show on half-crown day.

Need I say that we don't care a button
For the beasts in which farmers delight;
As long as the sheep turn to mutton,
And the oxen to beef, why it's right!
To see and be seen is for what we pay
At Islington on the half-crown day.


What to us are the tools used for farming
For our tenants they're all very well;
But there really cannot be a charm in
Such things to the genuine swell.
And that being the case I prefer to pay
To see the show on half-crown day.



The Shilling Day
(By a very Low Fellow)

Pushing, crushing, panting, squeezing,
Fat-faced farmers left and right;
Round the beasts scarce room for sneezing,
Each one struggling for a sight.
That's the style, we like a mob,
And we've only paid a bob!

Passing on, we next a visit
To the fatted oxen make;
Prime indeed each sleek side is, it
Makes us long to cut a steak.
Such things are not for the mob,
Who have only paid a bob!


Into pigs umbrellas poking,
Likewise sticks and parasols,
They're too fat to mind such joking,
Thoughts of oil-cake fill their souls.
They are heedless of the mob
Who have only paid a bob!

Then the sheep claim our attention,
Southdowns, Devons, Herefords;
This a medal's gained, that, mention,
Gladness bringing to their lords.
What care we? the vulgar mob,
Who have only paid a bob!


To the implements for farming
Next we turn, and drawing near,
Comes the thought there'd be no harm in
Half a pie and bottled beer.
We eat and feel we're of the mob
Who have only paid a bob!

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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