SIR,--The amazing popularity of the Costermonger Songs seems to me
a significant phenomenon. While no humane person would deny to the
itinerant vendor of comestibles that sympathy which is accorded
to the joys and sorrows of his more refined fellow-creatures, it
is impossible to view without alarm the hold which his loose and
ungrammatical diction is obtaining in the most cultured _salons_ of
to-day. Anxious to minimise the danger, yet loth to check a sentiment
of fraternity so creditable to our common humanity, I have devised
a plan by which Mr. CHEVALIER's songs may he rendered in such-wise
that while all their deep humanity is preserved, their English is so
elevated as to be innocuous to the nicest sensibility. Permit me to
give, just as a sample, my treatment of that very popular ballad,
known, _rubesco referens_, as "_Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road_."
Not being a singer, I have adopted Mr. CLIFFORD HARRISON's charming
plan of speaking through the music of the song, and this is how _I_
render the chorus:--
"'How is it with you?' was the universal exclamation of the residents
in the vicinity.
"'With whom, WILLIAM, have you made an appointment?'
"'Have you, WILLIAM, purchased all the house-property in this
thoroughfare?'
"Were my risible faculties exercised?--you ask me. Nay. Indeed I was
actually apprehensive of a fatal issue.
"So striking was the effect produced upon those in the ancient Cantian
highway."
This, Sir, not only gives the sense, but gives it, I venture to claim,
in a form fit for the apprehension of the most refined. Judging,
too, by the reception it met with at our recent Penny Readings, I
am convinced that Mr. CHEVALIER's peculiar humour is thoroughly
preserved, for, indeed, many of the audience laughed till I became
positively concerned for their safety.
Yours faithfully, ROBERT BOWDLER SPALDING.
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