As of some one madly clinging to the bell at his front door;

“It is D’Oyly Carte,” he muttered, “ringing at my big front door,

Merely this, and nothing more.”

Poking then the glowing ember, for ’twas cold as bleak December,

Gilbert said, “Ah, I remember in the olden time of yore,

Yea, and shall forget it never, though I were to live for ever,

How I vainly did endeavour once to see my ‘Pinafore;’

Sat and suffered awful anguish in the stalls at ‘Pinafore,’

Just that once, but nevermore.”

“For the feeling sad uncertain, at the rising of the curtain.