I feel so strange, I know poor Loo is seedy;
I dreamt I saw his ghost all pale and bleedy.
I'll write him. Where's the ink? Lor, how I shudder!
(Looks about for ink) I'm on the ink-quest now—poor absent brudder.
The ink!—the quill! Ah! this, I think, will do.
(Sits and writes) "Louis, old cock, how wags the world with you?"
(Music—he shudders) I feel as if a ghost were at my elbow handy.
This goes to prove I want a drop of brandy.
Of the other puns in the piece the following are perhaps fair specimens. At the bal masqué, Louis, meeting Emilie de Lesparre, says:—
Why are you here?
Emilie. I came because I'm asked (puts on mask).
Louis. This is no place for you to cut a shine;
'Tain't womanly.
Emilie.I know it's masky-line.
Again:—
Louis. My dagger awaits you—for your blood I faint!
Renaud. Your dagger awaits—you'd aggerawate a saint.
In the final tableau, Chateau Renaud is advised to take some brandy; but he asks instead for "a go of gin—I want the gin-go spirit."