Punch,  32 (1857), 169.

The Mud-Fish

An Indignant Tory Footman

Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Zoology, Animal Behaviour, Taxonomy, Analogy, Class


    Opens with an extract from a news report of the mudfish at the Crystal Palace that escaped to a fountain in the palace, where it grew very stout on fish. The poem regards the 'golden fishes' in Joseph Paxton's 'marble dishes' as the 'Hupper Classes', and the 'nasty Mud-fish' as one of the 'Lower Horders'. Goes on to describe how the mudfish devoured 'all his betters [...] till he gets enormous, / Just as would them low reformers'. Concludes by urging: 'Don't give low folks too much freedom' and 'Keep the Mud-fish in their places'.



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