The Ballad of the Jellicles of Gypsy
One historical day in the Forbidden Wood
A princess fair impatiently stood.
She’d been calling her steed many moments too long
She felt that to make a princess wait so was wrong!

A morning ride was her only need,
From the centaur CARIDYA, her faithful steed.
Instead the gypsy MUNKUSTRAP took the kit
To get revenge on MACAVITY, the mangy git!

For Munkustrap was supposed to take the throne
But for Macavity, that would not atone.
Falsely he convinced the poor town
That it was HE who was destined to wear the crown!

O! Poor Munkustrap hastened out the castle door.
For Macavity had, accusing him of falsehood, banished him forever more!
To the woods he went for refuge
Where he found other cats, victims of Macavity’s ill use.

Together they came, in that worthy place;
To defy Macavity’s cruelty and save their own face.
But Alas! Macavity’s reign of terror was not done,
He soon found others to hang up by their thumbs.

More and more cats the Jellicles saw fit to take in
Until they had to steal just to get food for din-din.
They decided they would let themselves be known.
The JELLICLES OF GYPSY was the name that was chosen.

More and more Macavity got up on the wrong side of the bed!
And he took it out on the other cats’ heads.
Munkustrap decided it could not go on longer.
And so the plan formed to kidnap Macavity’s daughter!

The kind Munkustrap did not savor his choice
He knew that to be stolen, nobody would rejoice.
But he also knew that something had to be done,
Because torturing hapless Jellicles was Macavity’s idea of fun!

The princess RITICKITY had suspicions not,
Until, of course, she was taken captive like a slave bought.
She cried because she missed her home.
Without so much as a wood fairy she felt alone.

But a very nice captivity was hers,
Most Jellicles wished her only purrs.
She got all the food she could want,
But still, near her home she was not.

For, her parents all the Jellicles seemed to hate.
And she didn’t want to believe the stolen throne had been Munkustrap’s fate.
Macavity and GRIDDLEBONE she’d been taught to admire.
Now the Jellicles wanted her to loathe them with a thousand fires!

But soon even she couldn’t deny the truth
When the Jellicles told her their stories as proof.
And tortured, homeless cats seemed to grow from trees
When they could speak again, they whispered only “Macavity.”

A ransom note she consented to write
She saw now how her parents were so trite!
The mage MISTOFFELEES sent it to Macavity’s gate.
And the Jellicles of Gypsy had naught to do but wait!

PART TWO

Without disturbance passed a week
Until came a falcon bearing in its beak
Fateful tidings from Macavity,- the King!
With shouts the woods suddenly proceeded to ring.

Approached Macavity and his bloodthirsty gang!
But the Jellicles were not harangued!
The wood mage Mistoffelees conducted a spell
That to Macavity’s troops, made their appearances quell.

The troops crashed into the forest vast
But the Jellicles reacted fast!
They shrieked, they moaned, they shouted
Until all but Macavity from the forest were ousted.

“Who’s there?” he said, trying to make his voice deep
Yet sounding like he wanted to run from the forest and weep.
“The spirits of the cats you have wronged!”
Cried the invisible Jellicles, their laments loud and long.

“O! Fearful spirits! For what will your lives atone?”
They howled fearfully, “Giving Munkustrap the throne!
And if this deed in five days is not done,
Then we guarantee to haunt you for all of your months!”

So badly scared Macavity, was he,
He did this not in five days, but in three!
And Munkustrap and Demeter to the palace went on,
For of eachother, they had grown quite fond!

And the Jellicles of Gypsy were their closest pals,
In the castle they slept in feather beds and ate whole cows.
You’re wondering what became of Ritickity, dear friends?
Why, with Mistoffelees the wood mage she’d gone to live!

So you see how happily our tale must end.
No Jellicles ever again came to torturous amends!
Oh- As for Macavity, and Griddlebone fair,
They were sentenced to a life of, out of sinks, cleaning balls of hair!