Comic medley song from 1824
Librettist: G: Coleman
Composer: Jas. McEwen
Utilizes the following songs: O A Noble Race was Shinkin, Cease rude Boreas, We’re a noddin’, Black Joke, Maid of Lodi, Let the Toast Pass (Here’s to the Maiden of Bashful Fifteen), and Young Lobski.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by Ross Boyle:
Lyrics
Oh! the great Mogul called Babor
Was a little fat Punchinella
On his Ottoman gay he dozed all day
Squat under a grand Umbrella
When a Monarch so despotic
Yielded to the drowsy God
Spreading round him a narcotic
All his court began to nod
For they all nodded, nid, nid, nodded
And they all nodded round the great Mogul
When he chanced to awake
How brisk they all grew
And again when he nodded
Then they all nodded, too
For they all nodded, nid, nid, nodded
And they all nodded round the great Mogul
But it happened one day when to sleep he reclined
That a mighty big Fly of the Hindostan kind
Came buzzing just under the great Mogul’s nose
“By Mahomed,” bellowed the Emperor then
“If that Blue-Bottle ever should teaze me again
My first Lord in waiting that moment shall die
Unless he immediately catches the Fly
That dares to disturb my Imperial repose”
Again soft slumbers coming
The Emperor ceased to speak
Again the Fly came humming
And settled on his cheek
Then the first Lord in waiting took aim with a grace
Calling all the good stars to assist him
And dealt the Mogul a sound slap in the face
Crying, “Curse the Blue-Bottle, I’ve missed him
Rot it how dull, woe on my scull
The Fly has escaped and I’ve floored the Mogul”
The Mogul got up with fury fraught
A Limner then his likeness caught
Which makes him look so grim they say
On Packs of Cards in the present day
In the present day, in the present day
On Packs of Cards in the present day