Текст песни: I Once Was As Meek As A New-Born Lamb + перевод

(ACT II

SCENE. — PICTURE GALLERY IN

RUDDIGORE CASTLE. THE WALLS

ARE COVERED WITH FULL LENGTH

PORTRAITS OF THE BARONETS OF

RUDDUGORE FROM THE TIME OF

JAMES I — THE FIRST BEING THAT OF

SIR RUPERT, ALLUDED TO IN THE

LEGEND; THE LAST, THAT OF THE

LAST DECEASED BARONET, SIR

RODERIC.

ENTER ROBIN AND ADAM MELODRAMATICALLY. THEY ARE GREATLY ALTERED IN APPEARANCE,

ROBIN WEARING THE HAGGARD ASPECT OF A GUILTY ROUÉ; ADAM, THAT OF THE WICKED

STEWARD TO SUCH A MAN.

DUET — ROBIN AND ADAM.)

(ROB.)

I once was as meek

as a new-born lamb,

I’m now Sir Murgatroyd —

ha! ha!

With greater precision

(Without the elision),

Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd —

ha! ha!

(ADAM.)

And I,

who was once his valley-de-sham,

As steward I’m now employed —

ha! ha!

The dickens may take him —

I’ll never forsake him!

As steward I’m now employed —

ha! ha!

(BOTH.)

How dreadful when an innocent heart

Becomes, perforce, a bad young Bart.,

And still more hard on old Adam,

His former faithful valley-de-sham!

Ha! ha!

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