He'll go down to Posterity--
We think we ought to know!
Tar.: (explaining) He'll go up to Posterity, Blown up with dynamite!
Sca., Phan.: (apologetically)
He'll go up to Posterity, Of course he will, you're right!
ENSEMBLE
King, Lady Sophy, Nek., Sca., Phan, and Tar Fitz.and Zara (aside)Kal., Calynx and Chorus (aside)Henceforward of a verity,If he has the temerityWho love with all sincerity;With fame ourselves we Our wishes thus to blinkTheir lives may safely link.
link--
And go down to Posterity,He'll go up to Posterity And as for our posterity Of sovereigns all pink! Much earlier than theyWe don't care what they think!
think!
CHORUS
Let's seal this mercantile pact--
The step we ne'er shall rue--
It gives whatever we lacked--
The statement's strictly true.
All hail, astonishing Fact!
All hail, Invention new--
The Joint Stock Company's Act--
The Act of Sixty-Two!
END OF ACT I
ACT II
Scene -- Throne Room in the Palace.Night.Fitzbattleaxe discovered, singing to Zara.
RECITATIVE -- Fitzbattleaxe.
Oh, Zara, my beloved one, bear with me!
Ah, do not laugh at my attempted C!
Repent not, mocking maid, thy girlhood's choice--The fervour of my love affects my voice!
SONG -- Fitzbattleaxe.
A tenor, all singers above (This doesn't admit of a question), Should keep himself quiet, Attend to his diet And carefully nurse his digestion;But when he is madly in love It's certain to tell on his singing--You can't do the proper chromatics With proper emphatics When anguish your bosom is wringing!
When distracted with worries in plenty, And his pulse is a hundred and twenty, And his fluttering bosom the slave of mistrust is, A tenor can't do himself justice, Now observe--(sings a high note), You see, I can't do myself justice!
I could sing if my fervour were mock, It's easy enough if you're acting--But when one's emotion Is born of devotion You mustn't be over-exacting.
One ought to be firm as a rock To venture a shake in vibrato, When fervour's expected Keep cool and collected Or never attempt agitato.
But, of course, when his tongue is of leather, And his lips appear pasted together, And his sensitive palate as dry as a crust is, A tenor can't do himself justice.
Now observe--(sings a high note), It's no use--I can't do myself justice!
Zara: Why, Arthur, what does it matter? When the higher qualities of the heart are all that can be desired, the higher notes of the voice are matters of comparative insignificance.
Who thinks slightingly of the cocoanut because it is husky?
Be-
sides (demurely), you are not singing for an engagement (putting her hand in his), you have that already!
Fitz.:How good and wise you are! How unerringly your practiced brain winnows the wheat from the chaff--the material from the merely incidental!
Zara: My Girton training, Arthur.At Girton all is wheat, and idle chaff is never heard within its walls! But tell me, is not all working marvelously well? Have not our Flowers of Progress more than justified their name?
Fitz.:We have indeed done our best.Captain Corcoran and Ihave, in concert, thoroughly remodeled the sister-services--and upon so sound a basis that the South Pacific trembles at the name of Utopia!
Zara: How clever of you!
Fitz.:Clever? Not a bit.It's easy as possible when the Admiral-ty and Horse Guards are not there to interfere.And so with the others.Freed from the trammels imposed upon them by idle Acts of Parliament, all have given their natural tal-ents full play and introduced reforms which, even in Eng-land, were never dreamt of!
Zara: But perhaps the most beneficent changes of all has been ef-fected by Mr.Goldbury, who, discarding the exploded theory that some strange magic lies hidden in the number Seven, has applied the Limited Liability principle to individuals, and every man, woman, and child is now a Company Limited with liability restricted to the amount of his declared Capital!
There is not a christened baby in Utopia who has not already issued his little Prospectus!
Fitz.:Marvelous is the power of a Civilization which can trans-mute, by a word, a Limited Income into an Income Limited.
Zara: Reform has not stopped here--it has been applied even to the costume of our people.Discarding their own barbaric dress, the natives of our land have unanimously adopted the taste-ful fashions of England in all their rich entirety.
Scaphio and Phantis have undertaken a contract to supply the whole of Utopia with clothing designed upon the most approved English models--and the first Drawing-Room under the new state of things is to be held here this evening.
Fitz.:But Drawing-Rooms are always held in the afternoon.
Zara: Ah, we've improved upon that.We all look so much better by candlelight! And when I tell you, dearest, that my Court train has just arrived, you will understand that I am long-ing to go and try it on.
Fitz.:Then we must part?
Zara: Necessarily, for a time.
Fitz.:Just as I wanted to tell you, with all the passionate enthu-siasm of my nature, how deeply, how devotedly I love you!
Zara: Hush! Are these the accents of a heart that really feels?
True love does not indulge in declamation--its voice is sweet, and soft, and low.The west wind whispers when he woos the poplars!
DUET -- Zara and Fitzbattleaxe.
Zara: Words of love too loudly spoken Ring their own untimely knell;Noisy vows are rudely broken, Soft the song of Philomel.
Whisper sweetly, whisper slowly, Hour by hour and day by day;Sweet and low as accents holy Are the notes of lover's lay.
Both: Sweet and low, etc.
Fitz: Let the conqueror, flushed with glory, Bid his noisy clarions bray;Lovers tell their artless story In a whispered virelay.
False is he whose vows alluring Make the listening echoes ring;Sweet and low when all-enduring Are the songs that lovers sing!
Both: Sweet and low, etc.