Copyright © 2005 by The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
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JOSEPHINE: The hours creep on apace,
My guilty heart is quaking!
Oh, that I might retrace
The step that I am taking!
Its folly it were easy to be showing,
What I am giving up, and whither going.
On the one hand, papa's luxurious home,
Hung with ancestral armour and old brasses,
Carved oak and tapestry from distant Rome,
Rare "blue and white", Venetian finger glasses,
Rich oriental rugs, luxurious sofa pillows
And everything that isn't old from Gillow's.
And on the other, a dark and dingy room
In some back street with stuffy children crying,
Where organs yell, and clacking housewives fume,
And clothes are hanging out all day adrying.
With one cracked lookingglass to see your face in,
And dinner served up in a pudding basin!

A simple sailor, lowly born,
Unlettered and unknown,
Who toils for bread from early morn
Till half the night has flown,
Till half the night has flown!
No golden rank can he impart--
No wealth of house or land--
No fortune save his trusty heart
And honest brown right hand!
His trusty heart and brown right hand!
And yet he is so wondrous fair
That love for one so passing rare,
So peerless in his manly beauty,
Were little else than solemn duty!
Were little else than solemn duty!
Oh, god of love, and god of reason, say,
Which of you twain shall my poor heart obey!
A simple sailor, lowly born,
Unlettered and unknown,
No golden rank can he impart--
No wealth of house or land--
No fortune save his trusty heart
And honest brown right hand!
His trusty heart and right hand!
Oh, god of love, and god of reason, say,
Which of you twain shall my poor heart,
My poor heart obey!
God of love, god of reason,
God of reason, god of love say,
Which shall my poor heart obey.
Oh, god of love, and god of reason, say,
Oh, god of love, and god of reason, say,
Which of you twain shall my poor heart obey,
My heart obey,
Which shall my heart,
My heart obey!

By Arthur Sullivan
Generated by NoteWorthy Composer

Pinafore No. 15
Josephine
Piano
Piano-2
Tempo Track