Song lyrics to ‘If I Were King of the Forest’, by Yip Harburg, music by Harold Arlen, from ‘The Wizard of Oz’

Song lyrics to If I Were King of the Forest, sung by Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz

Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr)
If I were King of the Forest,
not queen, not duke, not prince.
Each rabbit would show respect to me
The chipmunks genuflect to me.

[Pretending that his three companions are his adoring subjects, Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man wrap the royal-looking beast’s shoulders in a rug and crown his head with a jagged, broken flower pot.]

Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland)
If you were king, you wouldn’t be afraid of anything?

Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr)
Not nobody, not no how.

Tin Woodsman (Jack Haley)
Not even a rhinoceros?

Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr)
Imp-oceros.

Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland)
How about a hippopotamus?

Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr)
Why I’d thrash him from top to bottom-us.

Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland)
Supposin’ you met an elephant.

Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr)
I’d knot him up in cellophant.

Scarecrow (Ray Bolger)
What if it were a brontosaurus?

Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr)
I’d show him who’s King of the Forest.

Dorothy, Tin Man and Scarecrow
How?

Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr)
How? Courage! What makes a King out of a slave? Courage!
What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage!
What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage!
What makes the Sphinx the Seventh Wonder? Courage!
What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage!
What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the ape in ape-ricot? What have they got that I ain’t got?

Dorothy, Tin Man and Scarecrow
Courage.

Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr)
You can say that again. Huh?

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