The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #8822   Message #2380874
Posted By: Jim Dixon
04-Jul-08 - 07:51 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea
Subject: Lyr Add: REVOLUTIONARY TEA (Seba Smith)
REVOLUTIONARY TEA is in the DT, but the following version is a bit different from that one and the one above.

Here's the oldest version that Google Book Search has to offer, from The Wide-awake Gift: A Know-nothing Token for 1855 By One of 'em, New York: J. C. Derby, 1855, page 279:

REVOLUTIONARY TEA.
BY SEBA SMITH.

THERE was an old lady lived over the sea,
And she was an Island Queen;
Her daughter lived off in a new countrie,
With an ocean of water between.

The old lady's pockets were full of gold,
But never contented was she;
So she called to her daughter to pay her a tax
Of "thrippence" a pound on her tea.

"Now, mother, dear mother," the daughter replied,
"I shan't do the thing that you ax;
I'm willing to pay a fair price for the tea,
But never the thrippenny tax."

"You shall," quoth the mother, and reddened with rage,
"For you're my own daughter, ye see;
And sure 'tis quite proper the daughter should pay
Her mother a tax on her tea."

And so the old lady her servants called up,
And pack'd off a budget of tea,
And, eager for thrippence a pound, she put in
Enough for a large familie.

She ordered her servants to bring home the tax,
Declaring her child should obey,
Or, old as she was, and almost woman-grown,
She'd half whip her life away.

The tea was conveyed to the daughter's door,
All down by the ocean side,
And the bouncing girl poured out every pound
In the dark and boiling tide.

And then she called out to the Island Queen,
"Oh, mother, dear mother," quoth she,
"Your tea you may have, when 'tis steeped enough,
But never a tax from me—
No, never a tax from me."