For I Hold That On The Seas

Sir Joseph.
For I hold that on the seas
The expression, "If you please",
A particularly gentlemanly tone implants.

Hebe.
And so do his sisters, and his cousins, and his aunts!

Chorus.
And so do his sisters, and his cousins, and his aunts!
His sisters and his cousins,
Whom he reckons up by dozens, and his aunts!

(Exeunt Sir Joseph and Relatives.)

Boatswain.
Ah! Sir Joseph's true gentleman; courteous and considerate
to the very humblest.

Ralph.
True, Boatswain, but we are not the very humblest. Sir Joseph
has explained our true position to us. As he says, a British
seaman is any man's equal excepting his, and if Sir Joseph says
that, is it not our duty to believe him?

All.
Well spoke! well spoke!

Dick. You're on a wrong tack, and so is he. He means well, but he
don't know. When people have to obey other people's orders,
equality's out of the question.

All. (recoiling)
Horrible! horrible!

Boatswain.
Dick Deadeye, if you go for to infuriate this here ship's company
too far, I won't answer for being able to hold 'em in. I'm shocked!
That's what I am — shocked!

Ralph.
Messmates, my mind's made up. I'll speak to the captain's
daughter, and tell her, like an honest man, of the honest love I have
for her.

All.
Aye, aye!

Ralph.
Is not my love as good as another's? Is not my heart as true as
another's? Have I not hands and eyes and ears and limbs like another?

All.
Aye, Aye!

Ralph.
True, I lack birth —

Boatswain.
You've a berth on board this very ship.

Ralph.
Well said — I had forgotten that. Messmates — what do you say?
Do you approve my determination?

All.
We do.

Dick.
I don't.

Boatswain.
What is to be done with this here hopeless chap? Let us sing him
the song that Sir Joseph has kindly composed for us. Perhaps it will
bring this here miserable creetur to a proper state of mind.