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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=539031" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Mystic Selvagee</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Perhaps already you may know<br>SIR BLENNERHASSET PORTICO?<br>A Captain in the Navy, he -<br>A Baronet and K.C.B.<br>You do? I thought so!<br>It was that Captain's favourite whim<br>(A notion not confined to him)<br>That RODNEY was the greatest tar<br>Who ever wielded capstan-bar.<br>He had been taught so.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;BENBOW! CORNWALLIS! HOOD! - Belay!<br>Compared with RODNEY&quot; - he would say -<br>&quot;No other tar is worth a rap!<br>The great LORD RODNEY was the chap<br>The French to polish!<br>&quot;Though, mind you, I respect LORD HOOD;<br>CORNWALLIS, too, was rather good;<br>BENBOW could enemies repel,<br>LORD NELSON, too, was pretty well -<br>That is, tol-lol-ish!&quot;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">SIR BLENNERHASSET spent his days<br>In learning RODNEY'S little ways,<br>And closely imitated, too,<br>His mode of talking to his crew -<br>His port and paces.<br>An ancient tar he tried to catch<br>Who'd served in RODNEY'S famous batch;<br>But since his time long years have fled,<br>And RODNEY'S tars are mostly dead:<br>EHEU FUGACES!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But after searching near and far,<br>At last he found an ancient tar<br>Who served with RODNEY and his crew<br>Against the French in 'Eighty-two,<br>(That gained the peerage).<br>He gave him fifty pounds a year,<br>His rum, his baccy, and his beer;<br>And had a comfortable den<br>Rigged up in what, by merchantmen,<br>Is called the steerage.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;Now, JASPER&quot; - 't was that sailor's name -<br>&quot;Don't fear that you'll incur my blame<br>By saying, when it seems to you,<br>That there is anything I do<br>That RODNEY wouldn't.&quot;<br>The ancient sailor turned his quid,<br>Prepared to do as he was bid:<br>&quot;Ay, ay, yer honour; to begin,<br>You've done away with 'swifting in' -<br>Well, sir, you shouldn't!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;Upon your spars I see you've clapped<br>Peak halliard blocks, all iron-capped.<br>I would not christen that a crime,<br>But 'twas not done in RODNEY'S time.<br>It looks half-witted!<br>Upon your maintop-stay, I see,<br>You always clap a selvagee!<br>Your stays, I see, are equalized -<br>No vessel, such as RODNEY prized,<br>Would thus be fitted!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;And RODNEY, honoured sir, would grin<br>To see you turning deadeyes in,<br>Not UP, as in the ancient way,<br>But downwards, like a cutter's stay -<br>You didn't oughter;<br>Besides, in seizing shrouds on board,<br>Breast backstays you have quite ignored;<br>Great RODNEY kept unto the last<br>Breast backstays on topgallant mast -<br>They make it tauter.&quot;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">SIR BLENNERHASSET &quot;swifted in,&quot;<br>Turned deadeyes up, and lent a fin<br>To strip (as told by JASPER KNOX)<br>The iron capping from his blocks,<br>Where there was any.<br>SIR BLENNERHASSET does away,<br>With selvagees from maintop-stay;<br>And though it makes his sailors stare,<br>He rigs breast backstays everywhere -<br>In fact, too many.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">One morning, when the saucy craft<br>Lay calmed, old JASPER toddled aft.<br>&quot;My mind misgives me, sir, that we<br>Were wrong about that selvagee -<br>I should restore it.&quot;<br>&quot;Good,&quot; said the Captain, and that day<br>Restored it to the maintop-stay.<br>Well-practised sailors often make<br>A much more serious mistake,<br>And then ignore it.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Next day old JASPER came once more:<br>&quot;I think, sir, I was right before.&quot;<br>Well, up the mast the sailors skipped,<br>The selvagee was soon unshipped,<br>And all were merry.<br>Again a day, and JASPER came:<br>&quot;I p'r'aps deserve your honour's blame,<br>I can't make up my mind,&quot; said he,<br>&quot;About that cursed selvagee -<br>It's foolish - very.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;On Monday night I could have sworn<br>That maintop-stay it should adorn,<br>On Tuesday morning I could swear<br>That selvagee should not be there.<br>The knot's a rasper!&quot;<br>&quot;Oh, you be hanged,&quot; said CAPTAIN P.,<br>&quot;Here, go ashore at Caribbee.<br>Get out - good bye - shove off - all right!&quot;<br>Old JASPER soon was out of sight -<br>Farewell, old JASPER!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=William+Schwenck+Gilbert">William Schwenck Gilbert</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=539031" data-title="The Mystic Selvagee de William Schwenck Gilbert" data-description="Perhaps already you may know
SIR BLENNERHASSET PORTICO?
A Captain in the Navy, he -
A Baronet and K.C.B.
You do? I thought so!
It was that Captain's favourite whim
(A notion not confined to him)
That RODNEY was the greatest tar
Who ever wielded ca..."></div>
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