All posts material: “Sauce” and “Gentleman’s Relish” by Ronnie Barker – Hodder & Stoughton in 1977
The Actor’s Seasons
By Arthur Goddard
With a crutch in his hand, and his hat on one side,
His purse full of cash, and his heart full of pride,
Fitz-Clarence de Belleville struts gaily along,
Cheerily humming a snatch of a song,
For fickle Dame Fortune has smiled with a will,
And De Belleville, at last, has his name in the bill.
Society welcomes De Belleville’s new "school",
A sort of a hybrid ‘twixt Irving and Toole,
Votes his Hamlet "intense", and his Lear "too, too",
His Paul Pry the finest the stage ever knew;
And well may the tide of their favour run strong,
For he’s "posted" in letters a yard or two long.
But, somehow, Dame Fortune – an innate coquette –
All at once poor Fitz-Clarence resolves to forget;
Like a star in high heaven, or spent rocket-stick,
He falls out of favour remarkably quick:
And the name on the bill-board less legibly shines,
He is found in small print, ‘midst the spirits and wines.
This may mean bread and cheese, but his fame-dreams have vanished
To that Limbo where so many visions are banished:
He still, with avuncular aid, can contrive
To keep his old gin-sodden body alive;
But for him ’tis the winter of sore discontent –
On a bloater he dines, and is chased for his rent!
Retrorambling 