LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,111)
  • Text Authors (19,486)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Michel Veber (1896 - 1965), as Nino
Translation © by Laura Prichard

La souris d'Angleterre
Language: French (Français) 
Our translations:  ENG ENG
C'était une souris qui venait d'Angleterre,
Yes, Madame, yes, my dear,
Ell' s'était embarquée au port de Manchester
Sans même savoir où s'en allait le navire.
No, Madam', no, my dear.
Elle avait la dent long' comme une vieille Anglaise,
S'enroulait dans un plaid à la mode écossaise
Et portait une coiffe en dentelle irlandaise.

Dans le port de Calais, elle mit pied à terre,
Yes, Madame, yes, my dear,
Elle s'en fut bien vite à l'hôtel d'Angleterre,
Et grimpe l'escalier tout droit sans rien leur dire,
No, Madam', no, my dear,
Le grenier de l'hôtel lui fut un vrai palace,
La souris britannique avait là tout sur place,
Du whisky, du bacon, du gin, de la mélasse.

Chaque soir notre miss faisait la ribouldingue,
Yes, Madame, yes, my dear,
C'était toute la nuit des gigues des bastringues,
Les bourgeois de Calais ne pouvaient plus dormir,
No, Madam', no, my dear,
En vain l'on remplaçait l'appât des souricières,
Le Suiss' par le Holland', le Bri' par le Gruyère,
Rien n'y fit, lorsqu'un soir on y mit du Chester.

C'était une souris qui venait d'Angleterre,
Yes, Madame, yes, my dear.

Text Authorship:

  • by Michel Veber (1896 - 1965), as Nino [author's text not yet checked 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 Manuel Rosenthal (1904 - 2003), "La souris d'Angleterre", 1934, from Chansons du Monsieur Bleu, no. 9. [ sung text verified 1 time]

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

  • ENG English [singable] (Peter Low) , "The English mouse", copyright © 2001, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "The English mouse", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 26
Word count: 189

The English mouse
Language: English  after the French (Français) 
There once was a mouse that came from England,
Yes, Madam, yes, my dear,
She had embarked at the Port of Manchester
Without even knowing where the ship was sailing.
No, Madam, no, my dear.
She had high standards like an old English lady,
Wrapped up in a Scottish plaid blanket
And wearing an Irish lace headress.

At the Port of Calais, she disembarked,
Yes, Madam, yes, my dear,
She went quickly over to the Hotel d'Angleterre,
And climbed straight up the stairs without speaking to anyone,
No, Madam, no, my dear,
The attic of the hotel was truly a palace,
The British mouse had everything laid out just so,
Some whisky, some bacon, some gin, some molasses candy.

Every night our little miss threw a party
Yes, Madam, yes, my dear,
All night there were jigs and honty tonk songs,
The citizens of Calais could not get to sleep,
No, Madam, no, my dear,
In vain, they replaced the cheese on the mousetraps,
From Swiss to Dutch, from Brie to Gruyère,
Nothing worked, until one night they tried some [English] Cheddar.

There once was a mouse that came from England,
Yes, Madam, yes, my dear.

Translator's note for line 1-6: "high standards" - literally, to be long in the tooth, which in French can mean ambitious, hungry, or uppity (all slightly derogatory)

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2016 by Laura Prichard, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
    Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in French (Français) by Michel Veber (1896 - 1965), as Nino
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2016-04-14
Line count: 26
Word count: 196

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris