'The Quack Doctor’s Proclamation'

Description

Published in The Examiner (14 August 1841).

Creator

Dickens, Charles

Source

British Newspapers Archive

Date

Rights

British Newspapers Archive, https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000054/18410814/001/0005. Some rights reserved. This work permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Type

Bibliographic Citation

Dickens, Charles. 'The Quack Doctor's Proclamation.' The Examiner (14 August 1841): p. 517. Dickens Search. Eds. Emily Bell and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1841-08-14-The_Examiner_The_Quack_Doctors_Proclamation.

Transcription

Tune – A Cobbler there was.

An astonishing doctor has just come to town,

Who will do all the faculty perfectly brown:

He knows all diseases, their causes, and ends;

And he ‘begs to appeal to his medical friends.’

Tol de rol:

Diddle doll:

Tol de rol, de dol,

Diddle doll

Tol de rol doll.

 

He’s a magnetic doctor, and knows how to keep

The whole of a Government snoring asleep

To popular clamours; till popular pins

Are stuck in their midriffs – and then he begins.

Tol de rol.

 

He’s a clairvoyant subject, and readily reads

His countrymen’s wishes, conditions, and needs,

With many more fine things I can’t tell in rhyme

 – And he keeps both his eyes shut, the whole of the time.

Tol de rol.

 

You mustn’t expect him to talk; but you’ll take

Most particular notice the doctor’s awake,

Though for aught from his words, or his looks that you reap, he

Might just as well be most confoundedly sleepy.

Tol de rol.

 

Homëopathy too, he has practiced for ages;

(You’ll find his prescriptions in Luke Hansard’s pages)

Just giving his patient when maddened by pain, -

Of Reform the ten thousandeth part of a grain.

Tol de rol.

 

He’s a med’cine for Ireland, in portable papers;

The infallible cure for political vapours;

A neat label round it his ‘prentices tie –

‘Put your trust in the Lord, and keep this powder dry!’

Tol de rol.

 

He’s a corn doctor also, of wonderful skill,

– No cutting, no rooting-up, purging, or pill –

You’re merely to take, ‘stead of walking or riding,

The sweet schoolboy exercise – innocent sliding.

Tol de rol.

 

There’s no advice gratis. If high ladies send

His legitimate fee, he’s their soft spoken friend.

At the great public counter with one hand behind him,

And one in his waistcoat, they’re certain to find him.

Tol de rol.

 

He has only to add he’s the real Doctor Flam,

All others being purely fictitious and sham;

The house is a large one, tall, slated, and white,

With a lobby; and lights in the passage at night.

Tol de rol:

Diddle doll:

Tol de rol, de doll,

Diddle doll

Tol de rol doll.

Files

1841-08-14-The_Examiner_The_Quack_Doctors_Proclamation.pdf

Collection

Citation

Dickens, Charles, “'The Quack Doctor’s Proclamation',” Dickens Search, accessed March 28, 2024, https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1841-08-14-The_Examiner_The_Quack_Doctors_Proclamation.

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