The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #20201   Message #210504
Posted By: Steve Parkes
12-Apr-00 - 03:28 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: The Ratcatcher's Daughter
Subject: Lyr Add: THE RATCATCHER'S DAUGHTER
Penultimate verse (with the worst Latin pun I've come across in a long while):

The verdict was as too much wet this poor young woman died on,
'Cause she made a great hole in the River Thames, what the penny steamers ride on.
'Twas plain it were an accident, not nothing like self-slaughter,
So not guiltee of fell in the sea [felon de se!] theybrought in the Ratcatcer's Daughter.

Great song, I've been singing it for years; I've even got sheet music for it somewhere. John For[e?]man used to do the 'donkey' line in the last verse like this:
... and stabbed 'is donkey arter [spoken:]Poor ole Arter!