by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
1910
Language: English
Suffragists: Sounds of the battle raging around us, up and defy them laugh in their faces! Friendly Men: How they will knock you about, and yet as you say, this cause is worth a blow or two Suffragists: This cause that we love, this cause that we serve, is worth a blow or two Friendly Men, Unfriendly Men: Sounds of the battle raging. Hi! Stop them if you can, stop them, stop them, O stop them if you can. Unfriendly Men: Stop them, O stop them if you can Suffragists: This cause that we love, this cause that we serve, it shall prevail as prevails the light Friendly Men, Unfriendly Men: This cause that we serve, it shall prevail, is prevailing Friendly Men: Sounds of the battle raging around us, gently ladies, gently ladies. Why this violence? Unfriendly Men: Sounds of the battle raging around us, come move on please, come move on Suffragists: But the vow! We vowed to obey, we vowed to obey, honour, love Anti-Suffragists: What of the vow to obey! We vowed to obey, we vowed to obey honour, love Friendly Men:: You vowed to obey us Unfriendly Men: You vowed to obey, you vowed to obey, I know Mrs Humphrey Ward. You vowed to obey… All: This cause that we love, this cause that we serve, is worth a blow or two Friendly Men, Unfriendly Men: Stopping the traffic, stopping the traffic Suffragists: Try again, try again, on to the goal! Friendly Men/ Unfriendly Men: They are putting back the cause, they are putting it back for years Suffragists: Patience, patience Suffragists: This cause we love will surely prevail as sure as sun doth rise! Friendly Men, Unfriendly Men: I fear they will get it, I fear they will get it All: We know we shall get it! We know we shall get it! Soon or later, surely, surely… Suffragists: We know we shall get it… Men: They will soon get it… Suffragists: The sounds of the battle raging around us, raging, raging, raging, raging… Unfriendly Men: Move on, move on, move on… Suffragists: We know we shall get it! Sounds of the battle raging around us Suffragists: Nelly Bly, shuts her eye when she goes to sleep! Anti-Suffragists, Friendly Men, Unfriendly Men: But when she wakened All: Then she knew she would get it! When she wakened then she knew she would get it! … She has wakened up again and of course she will get it.
Quoted in ‘1910’: Ethel Smyth’s Unsung Suffrage Song, Hannah Millington, Dublin City University, 2021.
A mini operetta inspired by the Black Friday suffrage demonstration, 18 November 1910.
Lines of prose have been split at punctuatuion marks.
Researcher for this page: Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor]
Text Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author [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 Ethel Mary Smyth, Dame (1858 - 1944), "1910", 1910 [ women's chorus a cappella ] [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2024-05-02
Line count: 72
Word count: 358