Extramural Activity

Here is a close-up of the fourth panel of the five-panel piece in the Duke Of York featured yesterday. The four other panels represent the production of rope, ships, whiskey, and tobacco products. The “William Bloat” panel presumably stands for the linen industry, as the star of the tale is the bed sheet that is fashioned into a noose. The words to the song, including an extra verse not shown on the board, can be found below, along with a Tommy Makem performance of the song (from 1973!) in which the blade is Japanese-made.

William Bloat – Raymond Calvert (1926)

In a mean abode on the Shankill Road
Lived a man named William Bloat;
He had a wife, the bane of his life,
Who always got his goat.
And one day at dawn, with her nightdress on
He slit her bloody throat.

[With a razor gash he settled her hash
Never was crime so slick
But the drip drip drip on the pillowslip
Of her lifeblood made him sick.
And the knee-deep gore on the bedroom floor
Grew clotted and cold and thick.]

Now, he was glad he had done what he had
As she lay there stiff and still
‘Til suddenly awe of the angry law
Filled his soul with an icy chill.
And to finish the fun so well begun
He decided himself to kill.

Then he took the sheet from his wife’s cold feet
And he twisted it into a rope
And he hanged himself from the pantry shelf,
‘Twas an easy end, let’s hope.
With his dying breath and he facing death
He solemnly cursed the Pope.

But the strangest turn to the whole concern
Is only just beginning.
He went to Hell but his wife got well
And she’s still alive and sinning,
For the razor blade was German made
But the rope was Belfast linen.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01026