I Once Was As Meek As A New-Born Lamb

(ACT II
SCENE. — PICTURE GALLERY IN
RUDDIGORE CASTLE. THE WALLS
ARE COVERED WITH FULL LENGTH
PORTRAITS OF THE BARONETS OF
RUDDUGORE FROM THE TIME OF
JAMES I — THE FIRST BEING THAT OF
SIR RUPERT, ALLUDED TO IN THE
LEGEND; THE LAST, THAT OF THE
LAST DECEASED BARONET, SIR
RODERIC.
ENTER ROBIN AND ADAM MELODRAMATICALLY. THEY ARE GREATLY ALTERED IN APPEARANCE,
ROBIN WEARING THE HAGGARD ASPECT OF A GUILTY ROUÉ; ADAM, THAT OF THE WICKED
STEWARD TO SUCH A MAN.
DUET — ROBIN AND ADAM.)
(ROB.)
I once was as meek
as a new-born lamb,
I’m now Sir Murgatroyd —
ha! ha!
With greater precision
(Without the elision),
Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd —
ha! ha!
(ADAM.)
And I,
who was once his valley-de-sham,
As steward I’m now employed —
ha! ha!
The dickens may take him —
I’ll never forsake him!
As steward I’m now employed —
ha! ha!
(BOTH.)
How dreadful when an innocent heart
Becomes, perforce, a bad young Bart.,
And still more hard on old Adam,
His former faithful valley-de-sham!
Ha! ha!