From the Musical, “KISS ME, KATE”
Words and Music by Cole Porter
Copyright ©14 February 1949
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics:
Verse
The girls today in society
Go for classical poetry,
So, to win their hearts, one must quote with ease
Aeschylus and Euripides.
One must know Homer and b’lieve me, be,
Sophocles and Sapphoho,
Unless you know Shelley and Keats and Pope,
Dainty Debbies will call you a dope.
But the poet of them all
Who will start ’em simply ravin’
Is the poet people call
The bard of Stratford-on-Avon.
Refrain 1
Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now.
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow.
Just declaim a few lines from “Othella”
And they think you’re a heckuva fella,
If your blonde won’t respond when you flatter ‘er
Tell her what Tony told Cleopaterer.
And if still, to be shocked, she pretends, well,
Just remind her that “All’s Well That Ends Well.”
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they’ll all kow-tow!
Refrain 2
Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now.
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow.
If your goil is a Washington Heights dream,
Treat the kid to “A Midsummer Night Dream.”
With the wife of the British embassida
Try a crack out of “Troilus and Cressida,”
If she says she won’t buy it or tike* it,
Make her *tike it, what’s more, “As You Like It.”
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they’ll all kow-tow!
Refrain 3
Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now.
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow.
If you can’t be a ham and do “Hamlet”
They will not give a damn or a damn-let.
Just recite an occasional sonnet,
And your lap’ll have Honey upon it.
When your baby is pleading for pleasure
Let her sample your “Measure for Measure.”
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they’ll all kow-tow!
- Cockney for ‘take’
Sung by Laurence Rubenstein: