Shabby Genteel

AKA
First published1866
LyricsHenry S LeighMusicHarry Clifton Roud22504
Music Hall performersHarry Clifton 1860s
Victor Liston 1870s
Folk performancesSource Singers
Maggie Haun, 1937, Tennessee, USA
Mrs JU Newman, 1939, N Carolina, USA
Martin Leo, ca1950, Newfoundland
Freeman Young, 1953, Nova Scotia, Scotland
We have heard it asserted a dozen time o'er
That a man may be happy in rags,
That a prince is no more, in his carriage and four,
Than a pauper who tramps on the flags.
As I chance to be neither, I cannot describe
How a prince or a pauper may feel.
I belong to that highly respectable tribe,
Which is known as the Shabby Genteel.

Too proud to beg, too honest to steal,
I know what it is to be wanting a meal.
My tatters and rags, I try to conceal,
I'm one of the Shabby Genteel.
   
I'm a party, in fact, who has known better days,
But their glory is faded and gone;
I have started in life in a lot of odd ways,
But have not found the way to get on.
There are only three roads, I'm afraid, that are left:
I shall have to beg, borrow, or steal.
Yet I don't quite encourage the notion of theft,
Tho' I'm awfully Shabby Genteel.

I am dress'd in my best, tho' I cannot pretend
That my costume is quite comme il faut,
You'll observe that my watch has been left with a friend,
And my gloves are unfitted for show.
There are traces of wear on my elbows and knees,
And my boots have run down at the heels 
But it's cruel to criticise matters like these
When a man has grown Shabby Genteel.

Still I strive to be cheerful in all my distress, 
And I bear my bad luck like a man,
If I can't have my way as to feeding or dress,
I must still do the best that I can.
And remember, good people, that Fortune some day,
By a turn of her treacherous wheel,
May reduce one of you in the very same way
To the level of Shabby Genteel.

Kilgarrif suggests that Harry Clifton didn’t have much success with this song, but in the hands of another artiste it was a great hit. According to Harold Scott, Victor Liston (1838-1913):

…made a great impression with the song “Shabby Genteel… [the song] is reported to have charmed the Prince of Wales… He is said to have taken the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland to Evans’ [a song and supper room/early Music Hall] in its declining days especially to hear it.

Harold Scott, Early Doors

The success, both with royalty and commoners, on this side of the Atlantic was reflected in North America and Ireland. There it was sung with great success amongst others, Gus Williams. It is widely found in broadsides and songbooks on both sides of the Atlantic, but significantly has been collected several times from source singers in Canada and America, until the early 1950s. I can find no evidence of more modern recordings or performances since then.

So in this case, perhaps we can state it’s a song from Halls that entered North American traditional music, but is largely forgotten today?

This song is sometimes confused with Though poor, I’m a gentleman still.

Sources:

Last Updated on August 15, 2023 by John Baxter | Published: May 4, 2020

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