Page:Parodyoniolanthe.djvu/28

Or it never could have such a character won,
Said I to myself, said I.

(This being rather a difficult song to sing, the Counselor, in reply to the deafening encore which he receives, will hand to each person in the audience a copy of the Langtry Map, a book of the Patience Parody, a copy of the Chicago News-Letter, and a folder of the Alton Road. Exit Counselor, with a skip.)

STREPHON—It 's too bad to be taken from Phyllis just when she was my own.

(Enter Iolanthe.)

IOLANTHE—What, my son in tears upon his wedding-day!

STREPHON—The Counselor, who is Phyllis's guardian, separates us forever.

IOLANTHE—Oh, if he only knew—— No matter. The Queen of our road and its fairies shall protect you. See, here they come. (Enter Fairies.)

(Strephon embraces Iolanthe, sobbing. Enter Phyllis. She sees Strephon embrace his mother, and starts violently.)

SONG.

STREPHON—The little girl I love has caught me talking to another.

ALL—Oh, fie! Strephon is a rogue.

STREPHON—But then, upon my honor, that other is my mother.

CHORUS.

Taradiddle, taradiddle, fol lol de lay.

STREPHON—
She wont believe my statement, and declares we must be parted,
Although I 'm just as true as an Alton train when started;
And if she gets another hub, a brakeman, broken-hearted,
I shall be, taradiddle dee, taradiddle dee.

QUEEN—
You cruel and heartless counselor to part them from each other;
You 've done him an injustice, for this lady is his mother.

COUNSELOR——
That yarn requires obesity its thinness well to cover;
I did n't see her face, but he acted like her lover.
And how could she, at seventeen, be an Alton brakeman's mother?