D'oyly Carte Opera Company The Hours Creep On Apace
The hours creep on apace,
My guilty heart is quaking!
Oh, that I might retrace
The step that I am taking!
Its folly it were easy to be showing,
What I am giving up and whither going.
On the one hand, papa's luxurious home,
Hung with ancestral armour and old brasses,
Carved oak and tapestry from distant Rome,
Rare "blue and white" Venetian finger-glasses,
Rich oriental rugs, luxurious sofa pillows,
And everything that isn't old, from Gillow's.
And on the other, a dark and dingy room,
In some back street with stuffy children crying,
Where organs yell, and clacking housewives fume,
And clothes are hanging out all day a-drying.
With one cracked looking-glass to see your face in,
And dinner served up in a pudding basin!
A simple sailor, lowly born,
Unlettered and unknown,
Who toils for bread from early morn
Till half the night has flown!
No golden rank can he impart--
No wealth of house or land--
No fortune save his trusty heart
And honest brown right hand!
And yet he is so wondrous fair
That love for one so passing rare,
So peerless in his manly beauty,
Were little else than solemn duty!
Oh, god of love, and god of reason, say,
Which of you twain shall my poor heart obey!
Sir Joseph and Captain enter
SIR JOSEPH. Madam, it has been represented to me that
you
are appalled by my exalted rank. I desire to convey to
you
officially my assurance, that if your hesitation is
attributable
to that circumstance, it is uncalled for.
JOS. Oh! then your lordship is of opinion that married
happiness is not inconsistent with discrepancy in rank?
SIR JOSEPH. I am officially of that opinion.
JOS. That the high and the lowly may be truly happy
together, provided that they truly love one another?
SIR JOSEPH. Madam, I desire to convey to you officially
my
opinion that love is a platform upon which all ranks
meet.
JOS. I thank you, Sir Joseph. I did hesitate, but I
will
hesitate no longer. (Aside.) He little thinks how
eloquently he
has pleaded his rival's cause!
