KING: Oh, he will take you with him.
FREDERIC: Well, Ruth, I feel some difficulty about you.It is true that I admire you very much, but I have been constantly at sea since I was eight years old, and yours is the only woman's face I have seen during that time.I think it is a sweet face.
RUTH: It is -- oh, it is!
FREDERIC: I say I think it is; that is my impression.But as Ihave never had an opportunity of comparing you with other women, it is just possible I may be mistaken.
KING: True.
FREDERIC: What a terrible thing it would be if I were to marry this innocent person, and then find out that she is, on the whole, plain!
KING: Oh, Ruth is very well, very well indeed.
SAMUEL: Yes, there are the remains of a fine woman about Ruth.
FREDERIC: Do you really think so?
SAMUEL: I do.
FREDERIC: Then I will not be so selfish as to take her from you.
In justice to her, and in consideration for you, I will leave her behind.(Hands RUTH to KING)KING: No, Frederic, this must not be.We are rough men, who lead a rough life, but we are not so utterly heartless as to deprive thee of thy love.I think I am right in saying that there is not one here who would rob thee of this inestimable treasure for all the world holds dear.
ALL: (loudly) Not one!
KING: No, I thought there wasn't.Keep thy love, Frederic, keep thy love.(Hands her back to FREDERIC)FREDERIC: You're very good, I'm sure.(Exit RUTH)KING: Well, it's the top of the tide, and we must be off.
Farewell, Frederic.When your process of extermination begins, let our deaths be as swift and painless as you can conveniently make them.
FREDERIC: I will! By the love I have for you, I swear it! Would that you could render this extermination unnecessary by accompanying me back to civilization!
KING: No, Frederic, it cannot be.I don't think much of our profession, but, contrasted with respectability, it is comparatively honest.No, Frederic, I shall live and die a Pirate King.
SONG -- PIRATE KING
KING: Oh, better far to live and die Under the brave black flag I fly, Than play a sanctimonious part With a pirate head and a pirate heart.
Away to the cheating world go you, Where pirates all are well-to-do;But I'll be true to the song I sing, And live and die a Pirate King.
For I am a Pirate King!
And it is, it is a glorious thing To be a Pirate King!
For I am a Pirate King!
ALL:You are!
Hurrah for the Pirate King!
KING: And it is, it is a glorious thing To be a Pirate King.
ALL:It is!
Hurrah for the Pirate King!
Hurrah for the Pirate King!
KING: When I sally forth to seek my prey I help myself in a royal way.
I sink a few more ships, it's true, Than a well-bred monarch ought to do;But many a king on a first-class throne, If he wants to call his crown his own, Must manage somehow to get through More dirty work than e'er I do, For I am a Pirate King!
And it is, it is a glorious thing To be a Pirate King!
For I am a Pirate King!
ALL:You are!
Hurrah for the Pirate King!
KING: And it is, it is a glorious thing To be a Pirate King.
ALL:It is!
Hurrah for the Pirate King!
Hurrah for the Pirate King!
(Exeunt all except FREDERIC.Enter RUTH.)RUTH: Oh, take me with you! I cannot live if I am left behind.
FREDERIC: Ruth, I will be quite candid with you.You are very dear to me, as you know, but I must be circumspect.
You see, you are considerably older than I.A lad of twenty-one usually looks for a wife of seventeen.
RUTH: A wife of seventeen! You will find me a wife of a thousand!
FREDERIC: No, but I shall find you a wife of forty-seven, and that is quite enough.Ruth, tell me candidly and without reserve: compared with other women, how are you?
RUTH: I will answer you truthfully, master: I have a slight cold, but otherwise I am quite well.
FREDERIC: I am sorry for your cold, but I was referring rather to your personal appearance.Compared with other women, are you beautiful?
RUTH: (bashfully)I have been told so, dear master.
FREDERIC: Ah, but lately?
RUTH: Oh, no; years and years ago.
FREDERIC: What do you think of yourself?
RUTH: It is a delicate question to answer, but I think I am a fine woman.
FREDERIC: That is your candid opinion?
RUTH: Yes, I should be deceiving you if I told you otherwise.
FREDERIC: Thank you, Ruth.I believe you, for I am sure you would not practice on my inexperience.I wish to do the right thing, and if- I say if- you are really a fine woman, your age shall be no obstacle to our union!
(Shakes hands with her.Chorus of girls heard in the distance, "climbing over rocky mountain," etc.) Hark!
Surely I hear voices! Who has ventured to approach our all but inaccessible lair? Can it be Custom House? No, it does not sound like Custom House.
RUTH: (aside) Confusion! it is the voices of young girls!
If he should see them I am lost.
FREDERIC: (looking off) By all that's marvellous, a bevy of beautiful maidens!
RUTH: (aside) Lost! lost! lost!
FREDERIC: How lovely, how surpassingly lovely is the plainest of them! What grace- what delicacy- what refinement! And Ruth-- Ruth told me she was beautiful!
RECITATIVE
FREDERIC: Oh, false one, you have deceived me!
RUTH: I have deceived you?
FREDERIC: Yes, deceived me!
(Denouncing her.)
FREDERIC: You told me you were fair as gold!
RUTH: (wildly) And, master, am I not so?
FREDERIC: And now I see you're plain and old.
RUTH: I'm sure I'm not a jot so.
FREDERIC: Upon my innocence you play.
RUTH: I'm not the one to plot so.
FREDERIC: Your face is lined, your hair is grey.
RUTH: It's gradually got so.
FREDERIC: Faithless woman, to deceive me, I who trusted so!
RUTH: Master, master, do not leave me!
Hear me, ere you go!
My love without reflecting, Oh, do not be rejecting!
Take a maiden tender, her affection raw and green, At very highest rating, Has been accumulating Summers seventeen, summers seventeen.
Don't, beloved master, Crush me with disaster.
What is such a dower to the dower I have here?
My love unabating Has been accumulating Forty-seven year--forty-seven year!
ENSEMBLE
RUTHFREDERIC
Don't, beloved master, Yes, your former master Crush me with disaster.Saves you from disaster.