The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan Part 63

Oh, dry the glist'ning tear That dews that martial cheek, Thy loving children hear, In them thy comfort seek.

With sympathetic care Their arms around thee creep, For oh, they cannot bear To see their father weep!

(Enter MABEL)

SOLO--MABEL

Dear father, why leave your bed At this untimely hour, When happy daylight is dead, And darksome dangers low'r?

See, heav'n has lit her lamp, The midnight hour is past, And the chilly night-air is damp, And the dews are falling fast!

Dear father, why leave your bed When happy daylight is dead?

GIRLS: Oh, dry the glist'ning tear, etc.

(FREDERIC enters)

MABEL: Oh, Frederic, cannot you, in the calm excellence of your wisdom, reconcile it with your conscience to say something that will relieve my father's sorrow?

FREDERIC: I will try, dear Mabel. But why does he sit, night after night, in this draughty old ruin?

GENERAL: Why do I sit here? To escape from the pirates'

clutches, I described myself as an orphan; and, heaven help me, I am no orphan! I come here to humble myself before the tombs of my ancestors, and to implore their pardon for having brought dishonour on the family escutcheon.

FREDERIC: But you forget, sir, you only bought the property a year ago, and the stucco on your baronial castle is scarcely dry.

GENERAL: Frederic, in this chapel are ancestors: you cannot deny that. With the estate, I bought the chapel and its contents. I don't know whose ancestors they were, but I know whose ancestors they are, and I shudder to think that their descendant by purchase (if I may so describe myself) should have brought disgrace upon what, I have no doubt, was an unstained escutcheon.

FREDERIC: Be comforted. Had you not acted as you did, these reckless men would a.s.suredly have called in the nearest clergyman, and have married your large family on the spot.

GENERAL: I thank you for your proffered solace, but it is unavailing. I a.s.sure you, Frederic, that such is the anguish and remorse I feel at the abominable falsehood by which I escaped these easily deluded pirates, that I would go to their simple-minded chief this very night and confess all, did I not fear that the consequences would be most disastrous to myself. At what time does your expedition march against these scoundrels?

FREDERIC: At eleven, and before midnight I hope to have atoned for my involuntary a.s.sociation with the pestilent scourges by sweeping them from the face of the earth-- and then, dear Mabel, you will be mine!

GENERAL: Are your devoted followers at hand?

FREDERIC: They are, they only wait my orders.

RECIT--GENERAL

Then, Frederic, let your escort lion-hearted Be summoned to receive a gen'ral's blessing, Ere they depart upon their dread adventure.

FREDERIC: Dear, sir, they come.

(Enter POLICE, marching in single file. They form in line, facing audience.)

SONG--SERGEANT

When the foeman bares his steel, Tarantara! tarantara!

We uncomfortable feel, Tarantara!

And we find the wisest thing, Tarantara! tarantara!

Is to slap our chests and sing, Tarantara!

For when threatened with -meutes, Tarantara! tarantara!

And your heart is in your boots, Tarantara!

There is nothing brings it round Like the trumpet's martial sound, Like the trumpet's martial sound Tarantara! tarantara!, etc.

MABEL: Go, ye heroes, go to glory, Though you die in combat gory, Ye shall live in song and story.

Go to immortality!

Go to death, and go to slaughter; Die, and every Cornish daughter With her tears your grave shall water.

Go, ye heroes, go and die!

GIRLS: Go, ye heroes, go and die! Go, ye heroes, go and die!

POLICE: Though to us it's evident, Tarantara! tarantara!

These attentions are well meant, Tarantara!

Such expressions don't appear, Tarantara! tarantara!

Calculated men to cheer Tarantara!

Who are going to meet their fate In a highly nervous state.

Tarantara! tarantara! tarantara!

Still to us it's evident These attentions are well meant.

Tarantara! tarantara! tarantara!

EDITH: Go and do your best endeavour, And before all links we sever, We will say farewell for-ever.

Go to glory and the grave!

GIRLS: For your foes are fierce and ruthless, False, unmerciful, and truthless; Young and tender, old and toothless, All in vain their mercy crave.

SERGEANT: We observe too great a stress, On the risks that on us press, And of reference a lack To our chance of coming back.

Still, perhaps it would be wise Not to carp or criticise, For it's very evident These attentions are well meant.

POLICE: Yes, it's very evident These attentions are well meant, Evident, yes, well meant, evident Ah, yes, well meant!

ENSEMBLE

Chorus of all but Police Chorus of Police

Go and do your best endeavour, Such expressions don't appear, And before all links we sever Tarantara, tarantara!

We will say farewell for ever. Calculated men to cheer, Go to glory and the grave! Tarantara!

For your foes and fierce and Who are going to their fate, ruthless, Tarantara, tarantara!

False, unmerciful, and In a highly nervous state-- truthless. Tarantara!

Young and tender, old and We observe too great a stress, toothless, Tarantara, tarantara!

All in vain their mercy crave. On the risks that on us press, Tarantara!

And of reference a lack, Tarantara, tarantara!

To our chance of coming back, Tarantara!

GENERAL: Away, away!

POLICE: (without moving) Yes, yes, we go.

GENERAL: These pirates slay.

POLICE: Tarantara!

GENERAL: Then do not stay.

POLICE: Tarantara!

GENERAL: Then why this delay?

POLICE: All right, we go.

ALL: Yes, forward on the foe!

Yes, forward on the foe!

GENERAL: Yes, but you don't go!

POLICE: We go, we go ALL: Yes, forward on the foe!

Yes, forward on the foe!

GENERAL: Yes, but you don't go!

POLICE: We go, we go ALL: At last they go!

At last they really go!