1793.21
A Favourite Song,
Anon
The Star (November 15, 1793)

Founded on Facts,

Sung By Mr. Wallack,

In the Character of a Poor Harmless French Cobler, in a new
Ballet, called The Carmagnols Routed, and which will be
presented This Evening Tomorrow the 16th, and Monday next,
the 18th Instant,

At the Royal Saloon, Astley's, Westminster-Bridge.

                                I.

Piere Savetier, behold, is from France just arriv'd,
Where twenty-five years I at cobling had triv'd,
Till one fatal day I was tore from my stall,
Le deable tear par pieces the democrats all.
                           Derry down, down, &c.

                                II.

My lapstone and last being chang'd to a gun,
With thousands of others o'er Frontiers I run;
But Messieurs les Anglois cause me so much fright,
That I did sham dead, and escap'd the same night[1].
                           Derry down, &c.

                                III.

If fair words the back and the belly suffice,
We'd have victuals and clothes, mafois, in a trice;
But when these we ask of our fam'd democrats,
They stop our mouths with their demm'd assignats[2].
                           Derry down, &c.

                               IV.

I'd rather be Cobler, and work in my stall,
Than of the Convention von grand General;
One day he be great man, he head all the mob,
One two three days after they cut off his nob[3].
                           Derry down, &c.

                               V.

The Convention's like to an old rotton shoe,
That wants both a soal and a top leather too;
What lets water behind, and the mud in before,
Runs away from the foot, and returns never more.
                           Derry down, &c.

                              VI.

If safe I arrive, I will stick to my trade[4],
In London where always I'm sure to be paid,
Where law is respected, and that is the ting,
What makes the poor happy, the rich, and the king.
                           Derry down, &c.

Notes

1. [Author's note]: "The Cobler being forced from his stall, and obliged to join the Jacobin army and march to the Frontiers, on arriving in the environs of Lisle, and finding everything in confusion, very prudently made his escape to the British army."

2. [Author's note]: "All kind of work being totally at a stand, the different working and trade-people apply to the Municipality Officers for subsistence 5 sols per day (two-pence halfpenny) is given to buy bread, notwithstanding that article is three times that sum per pound."

3. [Author's note]: "Alludes to the late General Custine, &c, &c."

4. [Author's note]: "The Cobler seems to have a thorough knowledge of the French National Conjurers; grass positively grows in the streets and public markets; famine, assassination, and other calamities, daily increasing, and which the tongue of the most florid orator, nor the pen of the most ingenious writer, can possibly describe."