KING:
For some ridiculous reason, to which, however, I've no desire to be disloyal, some person in authority, I don't know who, very likely the Astronomer Royal, has decided that, although for such a beastly month as February, twenty-eight days as a rule are plenty, One year in every four his days shall be reckoned as nine and twenty. Through some singular coincidence, I shouldn't be surprised if it were owing to the agency of an ill-natured fairy, You are the victim of this clumsy arrangement, having been born in leap-year on the twenty-ninth of February; And so, by a simple arithmetical process, you'll easily discover, That though you've lived twenty-one year, yet, if we go by birthdays, you're only five and a little bit over!
RUTH AND KING:
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!
FRED:
Dear me!
Let's see! (counting on fingers)
Yes, yes; with yours my figures do agree!
ALL:
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!
FRED:
How quaint the ways of Paradox!
At common sense she gaily mocks!
Though counting in the usual way,
years twenty-one I've been alive,
Yet, reckoning by my natal day,
I am a little boy of five!
-Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance
Parce que I had this song stuck in my head all day this February 29th
more matter with less art?
Showing posts with label Pirates of Penzance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pirates of Penzance. Show all posts
Saturday, March 1, 2008
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