Ship of Fools

Ship of Fools

2013, 15:00

For Voice and Chamber Ensemble

Written for Jennie Lena, The Ship of Fools and the Amsterdam Canal Festival 2013

Programme notes

Written for the 400th Anniversary of the Amsterdam Canals

Lyrics

Well, the old world and the new world, weighed together:
I wouldn’t give you spit for all we’ve learned The old world and the new,
One’s hardly better
Its been a bloody vale of tears to all concerned
O past and future priests and kings,
O magistrates with pockets of gold
We defy your perfumed scorn
We lift our leg on the feather’d bed in which your sons were born

Let us bark
Let us sing
Like the mad dogs that we are
Let us boast
Let us toast
Like the mad dogs that we are
Let us roar from shore to shore
A lubber’s life is such a bore
Let us make a scurvy noise they’ll hear from here to Zanzibar

O choirboys and wary brides
O radiant clergy of the dull
A heart that’s chaste is such a waste,
it’s just an empty hull
And what’s more, it’s a bore,
It bores us to the bone
Those that pray at night at their bedside light go to sleep all on their own!

Grobian!
Patron saint of rude and vulgar
Lord of taverns, whores and ulcers
Show us thy gallant ways
As we drink our nights and days
Grobian!
Patron saint of the dice and dagger
Lord of boasts and the drunken swagger
Our souls are yours to save
O lead us into true temptation’s watery grave.

Gallant fencers, cheats, babboons scum and rascals, midnight lunes Blessed children, ship of fools
Brethren of the mad
Show your dagger at the door
To ev’ry man and ev’ry lad
Fight ‘til they lay on the tavern floor Heaven holds no place for the bad

Let us bark
Let us sing
Like the mad dogs that we are
Let us boast
Let us toast
Like the mad dogs that we are
Let us roar from shore to shore
A lubber’s life is such a bore
Let us make a scurvy noise they’ll hear from here to Zanzibar

When your belly’s full of mutton
And you’ve busted ev’ry button
The spirit of the wine and the smoke glows in your brain As the tavern door shuts at your back
The night invites a dubious tack
Cast about the streets of wicked Amsterdam
With your lamp and your lusty voice
‘tween him & him, such as difficult choice!
Swear and curse like a Dutch man
Show your dagger to any old Brit
Spill your shillings on a bosom white
Stagger thru this cursed town, this holy cursed night

Grobian!
Patron saint of rude and vulgar
Lord of taverns, whores and ulcers
Show us thy gallant ways
As we drink our nights and days
Grobian!
Patron saint of the dice and dagger
Lord of boasts and the drunken swagger Our souls are yours to save
Lead us into true temptation’s watery grave.

Let us bark
Let us sing
Like the mad dogs that we are Let us boast
Let us toast
Like the mad dogs that we are
Let us pray to our patron saint of vulgar
The patron saint of sin
And at noon we’ll board with this glorious hoard, The ship of fools!

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