From the 1899 comic opera “The Ameer.”
Words by Frederic Ranken.
Music by Victor Herbert.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Side by side on a wall displayed
They posed, so the story ran
She was a dainty Poster maid
While he was a poster man
In gobelin blue they’d flirt, these two
He’d smile a saffron smile
She’d turn her orange face away
But greenly watch the while
She was a dainty little Poster maid
A sad coquette was she
With an ankle trim and a well turned limb
And a figure fine to see
He glanced at her in a manner bold
Quite shocking, I’m afraid
When he asked for a kiss she posed like this
For she was a Poster maid
- He told his love as there they stood
On a dull vermillion street
They redly glowed, as lovers should
From head to their old gold feet
His yellow hair he’d madly tear
Her pale green blush grew nil
As she pinkly said, “A Prince I’d wed
While you’re but a poster, “Bill”
She was a fickle little Poster maid
A sad coquette was she
With an ankle trim and a well turned limb
And a figure fine to see
He tried to frown an umber brown
(They’d used another shade)
Instead of brown, she turned him down
For she was a Poster maid
- Of heart bereft stood on her left
A Solferino Knight
His coat was blue, his face the hue
Quite opposite from white
“My Knight,” said she, “Jet black must be”
Said he, “I’m black and blue”
“Just name the Knight,” she answered bright
“Will Tuesday night suit you?”
She was a naughty little Poster maid
A sad coquette was she
With an ankle trim and a well turned limb
And a figure fine to see
But sad to tell, she fooled him well
Nor met him in the glade
All Knights she’d aver looked alike to her
For she was a Poster maid
- And so she lived ’till one dark night
The drizzling rain came down
Came down in sheets on the scarlet streets
And spoiled her magenta gown
The posters all felt blue next morn
They knew the truth that day
Amid the wet, this coy coquette
Must quite have run away
She was a dainty little Poster maid
A sad coquette was she
With an ankle trim and a well turned limb
And a figure fine to see
The Posters know that she had to go
For storms must be obeyed
They’d learned at last she was not fast
Tho’ she was a Poster maid