The Family Fool Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFEFGFGE HGGGIIJIKLKLI GMNMOGGGPQPQG GMGMRSTUVWVWU RMXMYGZGA2B2A2B2G| Oh a private buffoon is a light hearted loon | A |
| If you listen to popular rumour | B |
| From morning to night he's so joyous and bright | C |
| And he bubbles with wit and good humour | B |
| He's so quaint and so terse both in prose and in verse | D |
| Yet though people forgive his transgression | E |
| There are one or two rules that all Family Fools | F |
| Must observe if they love their profession | E |
| There are one or two rules | F |
| Half a dozen maybe | G |
| That all family fools | F |
| Of whatever degree | G |
| Must observe if they love their profession | E |
| - | |
| If you wish to succeed as a jester you'll need | H |
| To consider each person's auricular | G |
| What is all right for B would quite scandalise C | G |
| For C is so very particular | G |
| And D may be dull and E's very thick skull | I |
| Is as empty of brains as a ladle | I |
| While F is F sharp and will cry with a carp | J |
| That he's known your best joke from his cradle | I |
| When your humour they flout | K |
| You can't let yourself go | L |
| And it DOES put you out | K |
| When a person says Oh | L |
| I have known that old joke from my cradle | I |
| - | |
| If your master is surly from getting up early | G |
| And tempers are short in the morning | M |
| An inopportune joke is enough to provoke | N |
| Him to give you at once a month's warning | M |
| Then if you refrain he is at you again | O |
| For he likes to get value for money | G |
| He'll ask then and there with an insolent stare | G |
| If you know that you're paid to be funny | G |
| It adds to the tasks | P |
| Of a merryman's place | Q |
| When your principal asks | P |
| With a scowl on his face | Q |
| If you know that you're paid to be funny | G |
| - | |
| Comes a Bishop maybe or a solemn D D | G |
| Oh beware of his anger provoking | M |
| Better not pull his hair don't stick pins in his chair | G |
| He won't understand practical joking | M |
| If the jests that you crack have an orthodox smack | R |
| You may get a bland smile from these sages | S |
| But should it by chance be imported from France | T |
| Half a crown is stopped out of your wages | U |
| It's a general rule | V |
| Though your zeal it may quench | W |
| If the Family Fool | V |
| Makes a joke that's TOO French | W |
| Half a crown is stopped out of his wages | U |
| - | |
| Though your head it may rack with a bilious attack | R |
| And your senses with toothache you're losing | M |
| And you're mopy and flat they don't fine you for that | X |
| If you're properly quaint and amusing | M |
| Though your wife ran away with a soldier that day | Y |
| And took with her your trifle of money | G |
| Bless your heart they don't mind they're exceedingly kind | Z |
| They don't blame you as long as you're funny | G |
| It's a comfort to feel | A2 |
| If your partner should flit | B2 |
| Though YOU suffer a deal | A2 |
| THEY don't mind it a bit | B2 |
| They don't blame you so long as you're funny | G |
William Schwenck Gilbert
(1)
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