The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan

Name: The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan
Author: Arthur Sullivan

by Arthur Sullivan

Pages: about 586
Category: Literature & Fiction
Language: English
Reading time: 11 h at 250 wpm

Start readingThe whole book, as cards or one word at a time. 6 h at 450 wpm in Read mode.

From the opening

(An interval of three months is supposed to elapse between Acts I and II)
ACT I Scene.— the Piazzetta, Venice. The Ducal Palace on the right.
Fiametta, Giulia, Vittoria, and other Contadine discovered, each tying a bouquet of roses.
List and learn, ye dainty roses, Roses white and roses red, Why we bind you into posies Ere your morning bloom has fled. By a law of maiden's making, Accents of a heart that's aching, Even though that heart be breaking, Should by maiden be unsaid: Though they love with love exceeding, They must seem to be unheeding— Go ye then and do their pleading, Roses white and roses red!
Two there are for whom in duty, Every maid in Venice sighs— Two so peerless in their beauty That they shame the summer skies. We have hearts for them, in plenty, They have hearts, but all too few, We, alas, are four-and-twenty! They, alas, are only two! We, alas!
CHORUS. They, alas, are only two, alas! Now ye know, ye dainty roses, Roses white and roses red, Why we bind you into posies, Ere your morning bloom has fled, Roses white and roses red!
(During this chorus Antonio, Francesco, Giorgio, and other Gondoliers have entered unobserved by the Girls—at first two, then two more, then four, then half a dozen, then the remainder of the Chorus.)
FRANC. Good morrow, pretty maids; for whom prepare ye These floral tributes extraordinary?
FIA. For Marco and Giuseppe Palmieri, The pink and flower of all the Gondolieri.
GIU. They're coming here, as we have heard but lately, To choose two brides from us who sit sedately.
GIOR. But what of us, who one and all adore you? Have pity on our passion, we implore you!
GIU. When they have chosen two that leaves you plenty— Two dozen we, and ye are four-and-twenty.

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The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan

From the opening

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