  (WITH THE SPELLING CORRECTED, THE GRAMMAR MY name is John Dobbs. In the year ’58 I was born in a street which I fear was fifth-rate. My pa was a gent who had had a reverse, And my ma took in other folks’ babies to nurse. Thus early my life-long acquaintance began With the folks who are first in Society’s van; In the cradle next mine slept the son of a peer, Who had gone to the dogs all through skittles and beer. At six I developed a beautiful voice, Which made the fond hearts of my parents rejoice; I was sent out to sing with a man in the street, But I plied my vocation among the Élite. We sang in the squares where proud nobles reside; And often a duchess’s face I espied, As she peered o’er the blind at the little artiste; Thus I grew to mind duchesses not in the least. I pass o’er my youth, merely pausing to state That I met many folks who were famous and great, And it frequently happened my supper I took With a tip-top celebrity’s housemaid or cook. I was just in the twentieth year of my age When I made my dÉbut on the music-hall stage; And ’twas there that I soon made a very big name, And earned all my subsequent fortune and fame. I’d a song with a chorus of “jammy jam-jam,” That was sung from Southend to Seringapatam; And often, when singing my song at the halls, I have seen lords and marquises smile in the stalls. Lord Beaconsfield once I’d the honour to meet— His lordship was walking up Parliament Street— By the merest of chances I trod on his toe, And his lordship looked up and remarked to me “Oh! Conversations like these I have frequently had With the rich and the great, and the good and the bad; And I once had the pleasure and honour to dine With the Prince, who’s a very great patron of mine. The banquet, I own, was a public affair, At which his Royal Highness had taken the chair. And I paid for my ticket; but still I’ve a right To say with the Prince I had dinner that night. And now, as folks’ memoirses seem all the go, I’ve thought that the public might p’raps like to know All about the great people of whom I can speak With the candour becoming a Lion Comique. |
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