THE POET’S ANSWER

New Zealand Tablet, 23 October 1913, Page 61

THE POET’S ANSWER

Thomas Moore, the poet, was the son of. a Dublin grocer. Without the slightest ‘pushing' on his part, his genius and the unaffected charm of his manner made 'a' host of friends for him in the highest circles of ■English .society. • ~ - When he was at the very height of his fame, when all London went mad over his ballads, and his personality, an envious snob undertook to humiliate him one evening at a banquet. After a brilliant repartee of Moore's had been applauded by the diners, the cad, fixing his monocle in his eye, leaned across the table and drawled impertinently, in a voice meant .to ‘ carry * "his meaning well around the table: ‘ Pray, sir, was not your father a grossah?’ ' . Moore smilingly responded: ‘ Ay, sir, my father .was a grocer.’ ■ ‘Then, pray, why deed he noat make a grossah of you?’ •

Still smiling, Moore /counter-queried : ‘Was not your father a gentleman, sir?’ ‘ 0 caose, my fattah was a gentleman.’ ‘Then why,’ demanded Moore, blandly, pray, why did he not make a gentleman of you V