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The Zoo by Arthur Sullivan


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Song No. 1

THE BRITISH PUBLIC

MIDI Icon MIDI File 23K, 2 min. 40 seconds.


SCENE: The London Zoological Gardens. The bear pit. The Refreshment Stall
.
[Lyrics start 41 seconds into the MIDI file]

The British Public
The Pennine Players

Chorus:

(Walking about -- Looking into the Bear Pit -- Sitting at the Refreshment Stalls, etc.)

The British Public here you see,
The much abused and feared B.P.:
In all our native majesty--
We're here today.

We have opinions of our own,
And, if they're wrong, and so it's shown,
We never let the thing alone--
But peg away.

We've come to see the beasts today,
And if to enter we must pay,
It costs no more to go away--
So let us stay.

And when the lion's cage we seek,
No fear shall blanch our British cheek,
And, if the noble beast could speak--
What would he say?

He'd say -- in well-known English staves--
He'd say, "Britannia rules the waves,
And Britons never never will be slaves"--
Hurray! Hurray!

(The crowd separate, and Aesculapius Carboy is discovered on a chair with a rope round his neck, attached to the verandah of the Refreshment Stall.)

Carboy
Off Monroe Players
(2001)
Chorus:

Forbear! Rash one, we say, forbear!

Carboy:

Will somebody just kick the chair,
And let me dangle in the air?
I'm tired of life!

Chorus:

By all means hang yourself up high,
If that's the way you choose to die,
But let us know the reason why--
(Pause) Is it your wife?

Carboy:

No! Listen!



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