Songtexte The Yeomen of the Guard, Act I: "Well sung and well danced!" - Neil Mackie feat. Anthony Michaels-Moore, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chorus, Robert Lloyd, Sylvia McNair, Sir Thomas Allen, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner

Well sung and well danced
A kiss for that pretty maid
Away with it!
Clear the rabble
Now, my girl, who are you?
And what do you here?
May it please you sir, we are two strolling players, Jack
Point and I, Elsie Maynard, at your worship's service
We go from fair to fair, singing and
Dancing and playing brief interludes
And so we make a poor living
The two of you, eh?
Are you man and wife?
No, sir
For though I'm a fool, there is a limit to me folly
Her mother, old Bridget Maynard, is abed with fever
Hark ye, my girl
Your mother is ill?
Sorely ill, sir
And needs good food and many things thou canst not buy?
Alas, sir, it is too true
Would'st thou earn an hundred crowns?
An hundred crowns!
They might save her life
Then listen
A worthy but unhappy gentleman is to be
Beheaded in an hour on this very spot
For sufficient reasons, he desires to marry before
He dies, and he has asked me to find him a wife
Wilt thou be that wife?
The wife of a man I have never seen?
Have we your worship's word for it that this gentleman will die today?
Nothing is more certain, I grieve to say
And that the maiden will be allowed to depart
The very instant the ceremonies have ended?
The very instant
I pledge my honor that it shall be so
An hundred crowns?
An hundred crowns
For my part, I consent
It's for Elsie to say