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A Boulogne Table d'Hôte

Air, "He vowed that he would never leave her"

Tom Hood's Comic Annual for 1868

  No gathering ever can beat
      Such a treat
As you meet
  In the people who gather, to eat
    At a table d'hôte every day,
  So strange in appearance and phrase
      A leur aise
In their ways —
  As the people who show off their traits
    At a table d'hôte every day.
  You'll never be tired of meeting
The people who gather for eating
At a table d'hôte, table d'hôte, table d'hôte, table d'hôte,
    Table d'hôte every day!

  In the chair an old fellow you'll find —
      He sits there
In the chair
  Because for a fortnight he's dined
    At the table d'hôte every day.
  He's fatherly quite in his ways,
      Looking most
Like a host,
  Your senior by several days.
    He table d'hôtes every day!
  You'll never be tired of meeting
The people who gather for eating
At a table d'hôte, table d'hôte, table d'hôte, table d'hôte,
    Table d'hôte every day!

  There's another you know at a glance,
      Who's designed
In his mind
  To shine in the language of France,
    At the table d'hôte every day.
  "Hi, Garsong, vous venez ici,
      Here, I say,
S'l vous plait —
  Donnez moi — thanks — all right." He will be
    At the table d'hôte every day.
  You'll never be tired of meeting
The people who gather for eating
At a table d'hôte, table d'hôte, table d'hôte, table d'hôte,
    Table d'hôte every day!

  Then the lady so very genteel
      That you'd think
She would shrink
  From the notion of making a meal
    At a table d'hôte every day.
  But you find, though genteel she can eat,
      Go right through
The "menoo" —
  Soup, fish, entrée, joint, cheese, and sweet —
    At the table d'hôte every day.
  You'll never be tired of meeting
The people who gather for eating
At a table d'hôte, table d'hôte, table d'hôte, table d'hôte,
    Table d'hôte every day!

  There's the vulgar old glutton and wife,
      He who shines
As he dines,
  And who swallows the blade of his knife
    At the table d'hôte every day.
  With his napkin tucked under his chin,
      The old bear
Settles there,
  Long before it is time to begin,
    At the table d'hôte every day!
  You'll never be tired of meeting
The people who gather for eating
At a table d'hôte, table d'hôte, table d'hôte, table d'hôte,
    Table d'hôte every day!

  There's a gay and a gushing old girl,
      Who must be
Forty-three
  With a seven-and-sixpenny curl,
    At the table d'hôte every day.
  There's also a boy of nineteen
      (Quite a lad)
Driven mad
  By her beauty, who always is seen
    At the table d'hôte every day.
  You'll never be tired of meeting
The people who gather for eating
At a table d'hôte, table d'hôte, table d'hôte, table d'hôte,
    Table d'hôte every day!

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