Political Heroes of the Victorian Music Hall
Michael Diamond discusses what popular songs and singers had to say about Britain's politicians in the 1880s and 1890s.
The House of Commons, you mentioned, Mother,
I know where it is though I've never been,
There once sat there a great man, Mother,
Respected alike by his country and Queen,
Lord Beaconsfield is the one I mean,
In the House are there any like him to be seen?
Not there! Not there! Not there, my child,
There are none like him there! not there my child.
These are lines from just one of the scores of music-hall songs which continued to mourn Disraeli for years after his death in 1881. For the music hall, there would never he anyone like him.
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