DAUDET!
(An old Comic Song re-sung for the benefit of a French Critic.)
["As for English women, their looks and their dress, the less said the better. They have, in M. Daudet's opinion, neither beauty nor taste."—The Times' Correspondent in Paris.]
Air—"Doo-dah!"
Oh, Alphonse! Gallantry befits your race!
Daudet! Daudet!
Can you look hereafter in an Englishwoman's face,
Daudet? Daudet-say?
You must have snoozed all night,
You must have blinked all day;
Have been blind—pro tempore—to Beauty's light,
Daudet! Daudet-say!
Is every Englishwoman then a Grundy or a Gamp,
Daudet? Daudet?
Did you play Diogenes—without his lamp—
Daudet? Daudet-say?
Have you joined the pessimist churls
Who of nothing good can say,
That you slight our women and insult our girls,
Daudet? Daudet-say?
Oh, Dan seems empty and Beersheba bare,
Daudet! Daudet!
And there's nothing tasteful, and there's no one fair,
Daudet! Daudet-say!
To the saffron skin of France
English rose-tints must give way?
At our British Beauties did you get a glance,
Daudet? Daudet-say?
You laud male Britons, whilst you pour dispraise—
Daudet! Daudet!—
On our girls and matrons! 'Tis a travellers' craze,
Daudet! Daudet-say!
The Frank abroad—is frank,—
From the belles of France away,
He is doubtless home-sick, but he need not turn "crank."
Daudet! Daudet-say!
The less said the better? Well, that's true, no doubt,
Daudet! Daudet!
But the little that you have said is all sneer and flout,
Daudet! Daudet-say!
The maids of France are fair!—
Are the men fair too? Ah! nay.
Not if you're a specimen, my debonair
Daudet! Daudet-say!
Neither taste nor beauty? Oh! you must have been bad,
Daudet! Daudet!
The mal de mer all the time you must have had,
Daudet! Daudet-say!
The jaundice worked its will
Upon you all the way!
Try again—after swallowing a big blue pill—
Daudet! Daudet-say!