Block:English Baseball in London on April 14 1880

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The words "base ball" appeared among the lyrics of a song entitled "Polling" that were published in the London satirical magazine "Fun." The song expressed the complaints of the women of Mayfair at how their men's focus on the current election campaign was interfering with the balls and cotillons that comprised the local social season. The lines of the chorus (of "Mayfair Maids and Matrons") read as follows: "Polling, polling, Keep the base ball rolling, Never mind your sisters, nor your cousins, nor your aunts, So you 'stump' for, 'Split' or 'plump' for Candidates that mock you with their miserable vaunts."

Sources

Fun (London), April, 14, 1880, p. 147

Block Notes

It is unclear to me why the songwriter chose to invoke the term "base ball" in this context, although it is worth noting that elsewhere, his lyrics mention other sports, including lawn tennis, polo and cricket. The phrase -- "never mind your sisters, nor your cousins, nor your aunts" -- was an homage to a similar line in Gilbert and Sullivan's popular operetta HMS Pinafore, which had completed its initial run of 571 performances only two months prior to the publication of "Polling." The magazine "Fun" was a rival to the better known "Punch," appealing to a lower middle class audience as compared with Punch's upper class readership.

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