Speak roughly to your little boy,
And beat him when he sneezes;
He only does it to annoy,
Because he knows it teases.

I speak severely to my boy,
I beat him when he sneezes;
For he can thoroughly enjoy
The pepper when he pleases!

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Note: this is a parody of David Bates' "Speak Gently."

Text Authorship:

• by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832 - 1898), as Lewis Carroll, appears in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, first published 1865 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Pig and Pepper", 1991, published 1996 [ high voice or medium voice and piano ], from "Alice" Songs, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by John Woods Duke (1899 - 1984), "The Duchess' Lullaby", 1982 [ baritone and piano ], from Five Lewis Carroll Poems, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ulf A. Grahn , "The Duchess' Lullaby", published 1989, first performed 1992 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Liza Lehmann (1862 - 1918), "Speak Roughly to Your Little Boy", published 1908 [ contralto ], from Nonsense Songs: The Songs That Came Out Wrong, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Nicholas Maw (1935 - 2009), "Speak roughly to your little boy", published 1978 [ voice (or unison voices) and piano ], from Caroline Pink (and other Nonsense Rhymes), no. 1, London ; New York : Boosey & Hawkes [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• FRE French (Français) (Henri Bué) , no title

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2004-04-11
Line count: 8
Word count: 45