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No. 6: Recit. and Ballad (Alfredo)

Midi Symbol MIDI File [8KB, 3' 43"]  

Enter ALFREDO.

RECITATIVE — ALFREDO.

Teresa! little word so glibly spoken!
Take pity on a heart that’s all but broken!
Teresa! one-word poem trisyllabic;
An Eastern ode in sensuous Arabic —
Would that thou wert as tender in thy nature
As in thy soft and tender nomenclature!

BALLAD

Bedecked in fashion trim,
  With every curl a-quiver;
Or leaping, light of limb,
  O’er rivulet and river;
Or skipping o’er the lea
  On daffodil and daisy;
Or stretched beneath a tree,
  All languishing and lazy —
    Whatever be her mood;
Be she demurely prude,
      Or languishingly lazy;
My lady drives me crazy
      In vain her heart is wooed,
Whatever be her mood!
Mr. J. Robertson as Alfredo

What profit should I gain
  Suppose she loved me dearly?
Her coldness turns my brain
  To verge of madness nearly.
Her kiss — though, Heaven knows,
  To dream of it were treason —
Would tend, as I suppose,
  To utter loss of reason!
    My state is not amiss;
I would not have a kiss
      Which, in or out of season, Might tend to loss of reason!
      What profit in such bliss?
A fig for such a kiss!
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Page modified 24 March 2009