Gilbert & Sullivan Pour Oh Pour The Pirate Sherry
ALL. Pour, oh, pour the pirate sherry;
Fill, O fill the pirate glass;
And, to make us more than merry,
Let the pirate bumper pass.
SAM. For today our pirate 'prentice
Rises from indenture freed;
Strong his arm, and keen his scent is
He's a pirate now indeed!
ALL. Here's good luck to Frederic's ventures!
Frederic's out of his indentures.
SAM. 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 Frederic's ventures!
Frederic's out of his indentures.
Pour, O pour the pirate sherry, etc.
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. Hurrah!
FRED. 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?
FRED. 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 P. & O. never shipped a handspike.
FRED. 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.
SAM. An error? What error?
FRED. I may not tell you; it would reflect upon my
well-loved Ruth.
RUTH rises and comes forward.
RUTH. Nay, dear master, my mind has long been gnawed by
the cankering
tooth of mystery. Better have it out at once.
