“He is an Englishman!
For he himself has said it,
And it's greatly to his credit,
That he is an Englishman!.

For he might have been a Rooshian
A French or Turk or Proosian,
Or perhaps Itali-an.
But in spite of all temptations
To belong to other nations,
He remains an Englishman.”

The Englishman (from HMS Pinafore).
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

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W. S. Gilbert67

English librettist of the Gilbert & Sullivan duo 1836–1911

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“In spite of all temptations
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Source: 1878, HMS Pinafore, act 2, also quoted in Dictionary of Quotations, p. 354 (2005)

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