Brush Up Your Shakespeare

BRUSH UP YOUR SHAKESPEARE          

(Cole Porter, from Kiss Me Kate)

 

MOBSTERS:

 

The girls today in society

Go for classical poetry,

So to win their hearts one must quote with ease

Aeschylus and Euripides.

But the poet of them all

Who will start 'em simply ravin'

Is the poet people call

The bard of Stratford-on-Avon.

 

Brush up your Shakespeare,

Start quoting him now.

Brush up your Shakespeare

And the women you will wow.

Just declaim a few lines from "Othella"

And they think you're a heckuva fella.

If your blonde won't respond when you flatter 'er

Tell her what Tony told Cleopaterer,

And if still, to be shocked, she pretends well,

Just remind her that "All's Well That Ends Well."

Brush up your Shakespeare

And they'll all kowtow.

 

Brush up your Shakespeare,

Start quoting him now.

Brush up your Shakespeare

And the women you will wow.

If your goil is a Washington Heights dream

Treat the kid to "A Midsummer Night Dream."

If she fights when her clothes you are mussing,

What are clothes? "Much Ado About Nussing."

If she says your behavior is heinous

Kick her right in the "Coriolanus."

Brush up your Shakespeare

And they'll all kowtow,

And they'll all kowtow,

And they'll all kowtow.

 

Brush up your Shakespeare,

Start quoting him now.

Brush up your Shakespeare

And the women you will wow.

 

Brush up your Shakespeare

And they'll all kowtow,

And they'll all kowtow.