(By an Ancient True Blue.)
Air-“Auld Robin Gray.”
John Bull loved me well: and when “Church and State!” I
cried,
And “King and Constitution!” he shouted at my side:
Till on Test and Corporation Acts I found myself at sea,
And then with other things than Trade there came a making free.
Emancipation passed: Reform: Corn-Laws were swept away;
The angrier I felt the less my wrath I could display:
I wanted Peel pitched into, but no one for that could see,
When young Vivien Grey came a-courting of me.
Lord George was great at figures, but a yarn he couldn't spin.
While Vivien Grey had wealth of words and power of pitching in:
He made Peel's life a burden, Derby’s right hand grew to be,
Then said, “Don't you think, old True Blue, you’d best take up With me?”
My heart it said “Nay:” I hoped the clock-hands would go back:
But they didn’t; things grew worse and worse; the old ways began to
crack:
The old True Blue coach ceased running: I was left to cry “woe's
me,”
“To have seen the things that I have seen—to see the things I see!
With a man who’s done one's dirty work one feels ashamed to break;
I knew what dirt young Vivien Grey had eaten for my sake.
So I gave him my hand, though his my heart could never be,
And Old Vivien Grey was a leader for me!
His lead I had followed some ten years, less or more,
When I found, one fine morning, a Reform Bill at my door!
I said, “You’ve come to the wrong shop: Beales and Bright's the firm, not me;”
But it said, “I’m sent by Vivien Grey-made law by you to be.
Oh, long and low I swore, though little I did say:
For better and for worse I am tied to Vivien Grey:
I wish I was out, but out he doesn’t want to be;
And I must do his dirty work, as he did mine for me.
King Mob to Britain’s throne-room I have invited in;
I’ve to eat my words and pledges, and don’t know where to begin
But I must do my best a Household Suffrager to be,
For old Vivien Grey has so settled it for me!
Related material
- Benjamin Disraeli’s Vivien Grey as a Silver Fork Novel
- Another Punch Satirical Poem from this Period in Disraeli’s career
- A Caricature of Disraeli as the character from his own novel in Fun, a rival to Punch
- Disraeli’s Defence of His Votes on the Corn Laws, 1842
- Disraeli’s Speech on the Bill for the Repeal of the Corn Laws: 15 May 1846
- Disraeli’s Speech on the third Reform Bill, 15 July 1867
- Sambourne's Punch Cartoon of Disraeli as Histrionic Organist
Last modified 1 June 2020