Folk and Traditional Song Lyrics:
Ballad of Persse OReilly

The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly

The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly
(James Joyce)

1.  Have you heard of one Humpty Dumpty
    How he fell with a roll and a rumble
    And curled up like Lord Olofa Crumple
    By the butt of the Magazine Wall

    (CHORUS) Of the Magazine Wall/Hump, helmet and all?

2.  He was one time our King of the Castle
    Now he's kicked about like a rotten old parsnip.
    And from Green Street he'll be sent by order of His Worship
    To the penal jail of Mountjoy

    (CHORUS) To the jail of Mountjoy!/Jail him and joy.

3.  He was fafafather of all schemes for to bother us
    Slow coaches and immaculate contraceptives for the populace,
    Mare's milk for the sick, seven dry Sundays a week,
    Openair love and religion's reform,

    (CHORUS) And religious reform/Hideous in form.

4.  Arrah, why, says you, couldn't he manage it?
    I'll go bail, me fine dairyman darling,
    Like the bumping bull of the Cassidys
    All your butter is in your horns

    (CHORUS) His butter is in his horns./Butter his horns!

    (Repeat) Hurrah there, Hosty, frosty Hosty, change that shirt on ye,
    Rhyme the rann, the king of all ranns!

5.  We had chaw chaw chops, chairs, chewing gum, the chicken pox and china
        chambers
    Universally provided by this soffsoaping salesman.
    Small wonder He'll Cheat E'erawan our local lads nicknamed him
    When Chimpden first took the floor

    (CHORUS) With his bucketshop store/Down Bargainweg, Lower.

6.  So snug he was in his hotel premises sumptuous
    But soon we'll bonfire all his trash, tricks and trumpery
    And 'tis short till sheriff Clancy'll be winding up his unlimited
        company
    With the bailiff's bom at the door

    (CHORUS) Bimbam at the door/Then he'll bum no more.

7.  Sweet bad luck on the waves washed to our island
    The hooker of the hammerfast viking
    And Gall's curse on the day when Eblana bay
    Saw his black and tan man-o'-war

    (CHORUS) Saw his man-o'-war/On the harbour bar.

8.  Where from? roars Poolbeg.  Cookingha'pence, he bawls Donnez-moi
        scampitle, wick an wipin'fampiny
    Fingal Mac Oscar Onesine Bargearse Boniface
    Thok's min gammelhole Norveegickers moniker
    Og as ay are at gammelhore Norveegickers cod.

    (CHORUS) A Norwegian camel old cod./He is, begod.

    Lift it, Hosty, lift it, ye devil ye! up with the rann, the rhyming
        rann!

9.  It was during some fresh water garden pumping
    Or according to the Nursing Mirror, while admiring the monkeys
    That our heavyweight heathen Humpharey
    Made bold a maid to woo

    (CHORUS) Woohoo, what'll she doo!/The general lost her maidenloo!

10. He ought to blush for himself, the old hayheaded philosopher
    For to go and shove himself that way on top of her.
    Begob, he's the crux of the catalogue
    Of our antediluvial zoo

    (CHORUS) Messrs. Billing and Coo./Noah's larks, good as noo.

11. He was joulting by Wellinton's monument
    Our rotorious hipppopopotamuns
    When some bugger let down the backtrap of the omnibus
    And he caught his death of fusiliers,

    (CHORUS) With his rent in his rears./Give him six years.

12. 'Tis sore pity for his innocent poor children
    But look out for his missus legitimate!
    When that frew gets a grip of old Earwicker
    Won't there be earwigs on the green?

    (CHORUS) Big earwigs on the green,/The largest ever you seen.

    Suffoclose! Shikespower! Suedodanto! Anonymoses!

13. Then we'll have a free trade Gaels' band and mass meeting
    For to sod the brave son of Scandiknavery
    And we'll bury him down in Oxmanstown
    Along with the devil and Danes,

    (CHORUS) With the deaf and dumb Danes,/And all their remains.

14. And not all the king's men nor his horses
    Will resurrect his corpus
    For there's no true spell in Connacht or hell

    (BIS) That's able to raise a Cain.

in Finnegans Wake.
Note "perce d'oreille" is French for "earwig".
Recorded in part by the Dubliners.
JB