Following Kiah Endleman Music’s blog here, you can read the full transcript of the song here:
GSAA/DIR/5/38: ‘Dumble-Dum-Dearie or How Fra Newbery Got His Cloak and Hat; The School of Art Song’, unauthored [1916].
DUMBLE-DUM-DEARIE.
or
HOW FRA NEWBERY GOT HIS CLOAK AND HAT.
THE SCHOOL OF ART SONG.
Oh! Mackintosh – he built a School
And Newbery – he filled it full
With Painters and Sculptors and Arkerytects
Of various ages and every sex
Singing Dumble-dum-dearie-cum-dumble-dum-day.
And how did he do it we’d like for to know
Why – he promised to everyone who would go
A Fifty-Pound Travelling Scholarship
A Maintenance Bursary and the Dip;
And some Dumble-dum-dearie-cum-dumble-dum-day.
He got some Professors to show ‘em the way
To lay on the paint and to rough up the clay,
A Frenchman from France with a straightedge and rule
To build up an Arkerytectural School
Singing Dumble– etc.
The honours they had made a splendid array
From A.R.C.A. to full-blown R.A.
With Fra; at the top with his S.P.G.
And his Cav-a-li-er-e Uf-fic-i-al-ee
Singing Dumble– etc.
The first on his list was old Maurice Greiff,
There was no one like him who knew more about life
He never spoilt no one by sparing the rod
When he looked at our drawings he said – “O my God!”
“What a Dumble– etc.
There was Balthus the Belgian – the tempera toff
He could fresco the paint so it wouldn’t rub off
With yolk of egg, bee’s wax and lots of casein
Then wash it all down with a drop of dry gin
And some Dumble– etc.
There was Jimmy Dunlop – the anatomy bloke
He rattled his mastoids whenever he spoke
Sitting on his “gluteus” held speak for a week
Of his favourite form the ‘external oblique’
Singing Dumble– etc.
There were lots of small fry adorning the Staff
With some we would cry – with some we would laugh
Gray-Nicholas-Huck-J-J-F-X-King
All excellent Teachers of any old thing
And of Dumble– etc.
But who they all were we don’t need to tell
And the last one we’ll mention is old Anning Bell
He not only showed us to do a design
But got it accepted and hung on the line
With some Dumble– etc.
Fra: went to the Contiong every year
For plaster casts for his Students dear
France – Austria – Germany – Italy – Greece
Like Jason of old for his Golden Fleece
And for Dumble– etc.
He got up a lecture-scheme – lofty and grand
Artists to talk – the best in the land
He also invited James Whistler McNeill
To tell ‘em of Art – what was false – what was real
What was Dumble– etc.
Mr. Whistler inquired as to who he had had
To tell ‘em of Art – was it good – it was bad
Fra; answered – he’d had Walter Crane – Lewis Day
When Whistler heard those names he said – Go away –
With you Dumble– etc.
He said “Mister Fra; what a blizzard you’ve had
To what they have told you I’ve nothing to add”
So Fra: took his leave – said Good-bye and all that
But he borrowed his cloak and he purloined his hat
Singing Dumble- etc.
GSAA/DIR/5/38/8/2 caricature of F H Newbery by Hugh Munro, in “St Mungo” 1897
