D'oyly Carte Opera Company Pour Oh Pour The Pirate Sherry
OPENING CHORUS: Pour, O pour the pirate sherry
ALL: Pour, O pour the pirate sherry;
Fill, O fill the pirate glass;
And, to make us more than merry
Let the pirate bumper pass.
SAMUEL: For today our pirate 'prentice
Rises from indentures freed;
Strong his arm, and keen his scent is
He's a pirate now indeed!
ALL: Here's good luck to Fred'ric's ventures!
Fred'ric's out of his indentures.
SAMUEL: Two and twenty, now he's rising,
And alone he's fit to fly,
Which we're bent on signalizing
With unusual revelry.
ALL: Here's good luck to Fred'ric's ventures!
Fred'ric's out of his indentures.
Pour, O pour the pirate sherry;
Fill, O fill the pirate glass;
And, to make us more than merry
Let the pirate bumper pass.
(FREDERIC rises and comes forward with PIRATE KING, who
enters)
KING: Yes, Frederic, from to-day you rank as a full-
blown member of our band.
ALL: Aye!
FREDERIC: My friends, I thank you all, from my heart,
for your kindly wishes. Would that I could repay them
as they deserve!
KING: What do you mean?
FREDERIC: To-day I am out of my indentures, and to-day
I leave you for ever.
KING: But this is quite unaccountable; a keener hand at
scuttling a Cunarder or cutting out a White Star never
shipped a handspike.
FREDERIC: Yes, I have done my best for you. And why? It
was my duty under my indentures, and I am the slave of
duty. As a child I was regularly apprenticed to your
band. It was through an error -- no matter, the mistake
was ours, not yours, and I was in honour bound by it.
SAMUEL: An error? What error? (RUTH rises and comes
forward)
FREDERIC: I may not tell you; it would reflect upon my
well-loved Ruth.
RUTH: Nay, dear master, my mind has long been gnawed by
the cankering tooth of mystery. Better have it out at
once.
