When a felon's not engaged in his employment
or maturing his felonious little plans,
His capacity for innocent enjoyment
is just as great as any honest man's.
Our feelings we with difficulty smother
When constabulary duty's to be done
Ah, take one consideration with another,
A policeman's lot is not a happy one.
When an enterprising burgler's not a-burgling
When a cut-throat isn't occupied in crime,
He loves to hear the little brook a-gurgling
And listen to the merry village chime.
When the coster's finished jumping on his mother
He loves to lie a-basking in the sun
Ah, take one consideration with another
A policeman's lot is not a happy one.
And here is another one of my favourite songs, called A Paradox.
Ruth
When you had left our pirate fold,
We tried to raise our spirits faint,
According to our custom old,
With quip and quibble quaint.
But all in vain the quips we heard,
We lay and sobbed upon the rocks,
Until to somebody occurred
A startling paradox.
Frederic.
A paradox?
Ruth. (laughing)
A paradox,
A most ingenious paradox!
We’ve quips and quibbles heard in flocks,
But none to beat this paradox!
All.
A paradox, a paradox,
A most ingenious paradox.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
This paradox.
King
We knew your taste for curious quips,
For cranks and contradictions queer;
And with the laughter on our lips,
We wished you there to hear.
We said, "If we could tell it him,
How Frederic would the joke enjoy!"
And so we’ve risked both life and limb
To tell it to our boy.
Frederic. (interested)
A paradox?
King. (laughing)
A paradox,
That most ingenious paradox!
We’ve quips and quibbles heard in flocks,
But none to beat that paradox!
All.
A paradox, a paradox,
A most ingenious paradox.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
That paradox.
CHANT
King.
For some ridiculous reason, to which, however, I’ve no desire to be disloyal,
Some person in authority, I don’t know who, very likely the Astronomer Royal,
Has decided that, although for such a beastly month as February,
twenty-eight days as a rule are plenty,
One year in every four his days shall be reckoned as nine and twenty.
Through some singular coincidence – I shouldn’t be surprised if it were owing to the agency of an ill-natured fairy –
You are the victim of this clumsy arrangement, having been born in leap-year,
on the twenty-ninth of February;
And so, by a simple arithmetical process, you’ll easily discover,
That though you’ve lived twenty-one years, yet, if we go by birthdays, you’re only five and a little bit over!
Ruth & King.
Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!Ho! ho! ho! ho!
Frederic.
Dear me! Let’s see! (counting on fingers)
Yes, yes; with yours my figures do agree!
Ruth & King.
Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!
Frederic. (more amused than any)
How quaint the ways of Paradox!
At common sense she gaily mocks!
Though counting in the usual way,
Years twenty-one I’ve been alive.
Yet, reckoning by my natal day,
Yet, reckoning by my natal day,
I am a little boy of five!
Ruth & King.
He is a little boy of five!
All.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
A paradox, a paradox,
A most ingenious paradox.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
A paradox. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
A curious paradox,
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,A
most ingenious paradox.
The first operetta that I saw was The Mikado, which is one that Dad knew and had for a long time. It is also very funny, one of my favourite songs in that movie was There is Beauty in the Bellow of the Blast.
Katisha
There is beauty in the bellow of the blast,
There is grandeur in the growling of the gale,
There is eloquent outpouring
When the lion is a-roaring,
And the tiger is a-lashing of his tail!
Ko-Ko
Yes, I like to see a tiger
From the Congo or the Niger,
And especially when lashing of his tail!
Katisha
Volcanoes have a splendour that is grim,
And earthquakes only terrify the dolts,
But to him who's scientific
There's nothing that's terrific
In the falling of a flight of thunderbolts!
Ko-Ko.
Yes, in spite of all my meekness,
If I have a little weakness,
It's a passion for a flight of thunderbolts!
Both
If that is so,
Sing derry down derry!
It's evident, very,
Our tastes are one.
Away we'll go,
And merrily marry,
Nor tardily tarry
Till day is done!
Ko-Ko
There is beauty in extreme old age —
Do you fancy you are elderly enough?
Information I'm requesting
On a subject interesting:
Is a maiden all the better when she's tough?
Katisha
Throughout this wide dominion
It's the general opinion
That she'll last a good deal longer when she's tough.
Ko-Ko.
Are you old enough to marry, do you think?
Won't you wait till you are eighty in the shade?
There's a fascination frantic
In a ruin that's romantic;
Do you think you are sufficiently decayed?
Katisha.
To the matter that you mention
I have given some attention,
And I think I am sufficiently decayed.
Both
If that is so,
Sing derry down derry!
It's evident, very,
Our tastes are one.
Away we'll go,
And merrily marry,
Nor tardily tarry
Till day is done!
Sing derry down derry!
We'll merrily marry,
Nor tardily tarry
Till day is done!
The other two I have seen are H.M.S. Pinafore, which is also very funny, and Justin's favourite, Trial by Jury. He really likes the song From Bias free. Here are the lyrics.
USHER Now, Jurymen, hear my advice—
All kinds of vulgar prejudice I pray you set aside:
With stern, judicial frame of mind
From bias free of every kind,
This trial must be tried.
CHORUS From bias free of every kind,
This trial must be tried.
USHER Oh, listen to the plaintiff's case:
Observe the features of her face—
The broken-hearted bride.
Condole with her distress of mind:
From bias free of every kind,
This trial must be tried!
CHORUS From bias free, etc.
USHER And when, amid the plaintiff's shrieks,
The ruffianly defendant speaks—
Upon the other side;
What he may say you needn't mind---
From bias free of every kind,
This trial must be tried!
CHORUS From bias free, etc.
So here you have a bit of some of my favourite movies, and I urge you to see them.
Joanna
1 comment:
That was probably my longest post yet!
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