ch. Enter King Paramount, attended by guards and nobles, and
preced-
ed by girls dancing before him.

CHORUS

Quaff the nectar--cull the roses--
Gather fruit and flowers in plenty!
For our king no longer poses--
Sing the songs of far niente!
Wake the lute that sets us lilting,
Dance a welcome to each comer;
Day by day our year is wilting--
Sing the sunny songs of summer!
La, la, la, la!

SOLO -- King.

A King of autocratic power we--
A despot whose tyrannic will is law--
Whose rule is paramount o'er land and sea,
A presence of unutterable awe!
But though the awe that I inspire
Must shrivel with imperial fire
All foes whom it may chance to touch,
To judge by what I see and hear,
It does not seem to interfere
With popular enjoyment, much.

Chorus: No, no--it does not interfere
With our enjoyment much.

Stupendous when we rouse ourselves to strike,
Resistless when our tyrant thunder peals,
We often wonder what obstruction's like,
And how a contradicted monarch feels.
But as it is our Royal whim
Our Royal sails to set and trim
To suit whatever wind may blow--
What buffets contradiction deals
And how a thwarted monarch feels
We probably will never know.

Chorus: No, no--what thwarted monarch feels,
You'll never, never know.

RECITATIVE -- King.

My subjects all, it is your with emphatic
That all Utopia shall henceforth be modelled
Upon that glorious country called Great Britain--
To which some add--but others do not--Ireland.

Chorus: It is!

King: That being so, as you insist upon it,
We have arranged that our two younger daughters
Who have been "finished" by an English Lady--
(tenderly) A grave and good and gracious English Lady--
Shall daily be exhibited in public,