Act Five Lyrics

Peter Hammill - Act Five Lyrics

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Act Five Lyrics

CHORUS   Late that evening the Lady Madeline

     again succumbed to the power

     of her dark afflictions.

     Her brother and her friend sat by her

     and Montresor, although familiar with many

     of the gross and wonderful

     phenomena of morbid flesh

     marvelled at the depth and completeness of her coma.

     Life so exactly mirroring death

     that only the merest of involuntary pulses

     betrayed the presence of a Spirit hiding within.

     In the cold hours before dawn they broke their vigil

     and Montresor retired to a restless sleep

     only to be woken as a grey light spread from the east

     across the leaden tarn.

      (Usher and the Herbalist enter)

USHER   Montresor,

     she is dead.

     She is dead,

     I sat by her,

     I watched her;

     I am alone.

USHER,   That she should die so,

MONTRESOR,  that she should die so young,

HERBALIST  fate is cruel, fate is hard.

     Why must innocence be punished?

     Need a flower fall so fast?

     Why must innocence be punished?

     Was her soul too good to last?

     Now the punishment is finished

     And the fever... the fever called 'Living'...

     that fever's conquered at last.

USHER   Will you do something for me?

MONTRESOR  With all my heart

USHER   I wish my sister to be entombed

     in one of the vaults beneath the House.

     The family burial ground is remote,

     to lead her cortege there would

     require a strength of will I do not command.

     Will you help me bear her?

MONTRESOR  Of course, of course I will...

USHER   Come then, before I fully realise my loss.

        End of Act Five