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The Spike: or, Victoria College Review Capping Carnival 1920

Prologue. — Solo

page 13

Prologue.

Solo

The Dogs: Extravaganza. In a Prologue and Four Acts

What ho! How are you, sweet ladies and gentlemen (And students, too)?
I am here to present you
To this ere play of ours.

To-night we leave our books and midnight oil for light frivolity.
So kindly will you join in this our annual jollity,
And don't give a damn for quality.

To-night we come to play the fool,
And you'll find as you roam o'er the world so gay
That 'tis folly that reigns and her minions that rule
(These are the fools we play).

So then, in true College fashion, to-night's entertainment
Will picture the growth and attainment
Through various ages of Parliament's august control;
Start with de Montfort and end with de Massey
And his Liberal re-Ward at the poll.

We'll show our fathers fighting
For Truth and Freedom's cause;
The Commons uniting
Their long and their bitter wars
With Royalists and with Papacy
Their hard-won conquest and power.

page 14

Time was ambition incited,
Great statesmen to govern a country united;
But parties arising chose their leaders
Not for worth and honor, but for a faction's glory;
So runs our story.

The pageant rolls onward.
Labour parties are forming to struggle for freedom
All peoples uniting
Olden party strife fails to restrain them—
Doctrines and customs fade.
Unplanned yet the building,
Comes there also, mayhap to guide us,
The new vision of women beside us.

With the plot we are furnished,
In its solution high carnival making.
Up, then, ring up the curtain!