The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan

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No. 2: SONG (Ruth)

"When Frederic was a little lad"

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Ruth.	Alice Barnett as Ruth (1880)
When Frederic was a little lad He proved so brave and daring, His father thought he'd 'prentice him To some career seafaring. I was, alas! his nurserymaid, And so it fell to my lot To take and bind the promising boy Apprentice to a pilot – A life not bad for a hardy lad, Though surely not a high lot, Though I’m a nurse, you might do worse Than make your boy a pilot.

Click on picture to enlarge — Rosina Brandram as Ruth (1901)

I was a stupid nurserymaid,
On breakers always steering,
And I did not catch the word aright,
Through being hard of hearing;
Mistaking my instructions,
Which within my brain did gyrate,
I took and bound this promising boy
Apprentice to a pirate.

A sad mistake it was to make
And doom him to a vile lot.
I bound him to a pirate – you –
Instead of to a pilot.

I soon found out, beyond all doubt,
The scope of this disaster,
But I hadn’t the face to return to my place,
And break it to my master.
A nurserymaid is not afraid
Of what you people call work,
So I made up my mind to go as a kind
Of piratical maid-of-all-work.

And that is how you find me now,
A member of your shy lot,
Which you wouldn’t have found, had he been bound
Apprentice to a pilot.

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