From the 1896 Japanese musical “The Geisha”
words by Harry Greenbank
music by Sidney Jones
The sheet music:
Accompaniment from gsarchive.net:
Lyrics
- A goldfish swam in a big glass bowl
As dear little goldfish do
But she loved with the whole of her heart and soul
An officer brave from the ocean wave
And she thought that he loved her, too
Her small inside he daily fed
With crumbs of the best digestive bread
“This kind attention proves,” said she
“How exceedingly fond he is of me”
And she thought, “It’s fit-fit-fitter
He should love my glit-glit-glitter
Than his heart give away to the butterflies gay
Or the birds that twit-twit-twitter” - She flashed her frock in the sunshine bright
That officer brave to charm
And he vowed she was quite a delightful sight
So her spirits were gay, till he came one day
With a girl on his stalwart arm
In whispers low they talked of love
He begged for a rose and a worn-out glove
But when they kissed a fond goodbye
The poor little goldfish longed to die
And she sobb’d, “It’s bit-bit-bitter
He should love this crit-crit-critter
When I thought he would wish for a nice little fish
With a frock all glit-glit-glitter” - That charming girl for a time upset
The officer brave and gay
And his sad little pet he contrived to forget
For with never a crumb did he chance to come
So the goldfish pined away
Until at last some careless soul
With a smash knocked over the big glass bowl
And there on the carpet, dead and cold
Lay the poor little fish in her frock of gold
But her fate so bit-bit-bitter
Is a story fit-fit-fitter
For a sad little sigh and a tear in the eye
Than a thoughtless tit-tit-titter
Sung here by Fred Feild: