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MIDI File [24KB, 3' 06"] Sequenced by Colin Johnson.

Enter Elsie from Tower, led by Wilfred, who removes the bandage from her eyes, and exit.

Elsie. Tis done! I am a bride! Oh, little ring, That bearest in thy circlet all the gladness That lovers hope for, and that poets sing, What bringest thou to me but gold and sadness? A bridegroom all unknown, save in this wise, To-day he dies! To-day, alas, he dies! Though tear and long-drawn sigh Ill fit a bride, No sadder wife than I The whole world wide! Ah me! Ah me! Yet maids there be Who would consent to lose The very rose of youth, The flow'r of life, To be, in honest truth, A wedded wife, No matter whose! No matter whose! Ah me! what profit we, O maids that sigh, Though gold, though gold should live If wedded love must die?

Ann Drummond-Grant as Elsie, 1930s

Ere half an hour has rung,
A widow I!
Ah, heaven, he is too young,
Too brave to die!
Ah me! Ah me!
Yet wives there be
So weary worn, I trow,
That they would scarce complain,
So that they could
In half an hour attain
To widowhood,
No matter how!
No matter how!
O weary wives
Who widowhood would win,
Rejoice, rejoice, that ye have time
To weary in.
O weary wives
Who widowhood would win,
Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice,
O weary, weary wives, rejoice!

Exit Elsie as Wilfred re-enters.

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