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Music Video

When Frederic Was a Little Lad Lyrics – Pirates of Penzance Cast



Soundtrack Album: Pirates Of Penzance, The
When Frederic Was a Little Lad Text
Ruth. Alice Barnett as Ruth (1880)

When Frederic was a little lad
He proved so brave and daring,
His father thought he'd 'prentice him
To some career seafaring.
I was, alas! his nurserymaid,
And so it fell to my lot
To take and bind the promising boy
Apprentice to a pilot –

A life not bad for a hardy lad,
Though surely not a high lot,
Though I’m a nurse, you might do worse
Than make your boy a pilot.


Rosina Brandram as Ruth (1901)
I was a stupid nurserymaid,
On breakers always steering,
And I did not catch the word aright,
Through being hard of hearing;
Mistaking my instructions,
Which within my brain did gyrate,
I took and bound this promising boy
Apprentice to a pirate.

A sad mistake it was to make
And doom him to a vile lot.
I bound him to a pirate – you –
Instead of to a pilot.

I soon found out, beyond all doubt,
The scope of this disaster,
But I hadn’t the face to return to my place,
And break it to my master.
A nurserymaid is not afraid
Of what you people call work,
So I made up my mind to go as a kind
Of piratical maid-of-all-work.

And that is how you find me now,
A member of your shy lot,
Which you wouldn’t have found, had he been bound
Apprentice to a pilot.

[Thanks to Anna for lyrics]


Pirates Of Penzance, The Album Cover

Pirates Of Penzance, The

Soundtrack Lyrics for Musical, 1998

Track Listing

›Pour, O Pour the Pirate Sherry

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›When Frederic Was a Little Lad

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Oh, Better Far to Live and Die

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Oh! False One, You Have Deceived Me

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Climbing over Rocky Mountains

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Stop, Ladies, Pray!

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Oh Is There Not One Maiden Breast?

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Poor Wondering One

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›What Ought We to Do?

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›How Beautifully Blue the Sky

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Stay, We Must Not Lose Our Senses

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Hold, Monsters!

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Oh! Men of Dark and Dismal Fate

›Oh, Dry the Glistening Tear

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Now, Frederic, Let Your Escort Lion-Hearted When the Foeman Bares His Steel

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Now for the Pirates' Lair!

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›When You Had Left Our Pirate Fold

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›The My Eyes Are Fully Open

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Away, Away! My Heart's on Fire

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›All Is Prepared / Stay, Frederic, Stay!

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›The Sorry Her Lot

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›No, I Am Brave

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›When a Felon's Not Engaged in His Employm

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Rollicking Ban of Pirates We

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›With Cat-Like Tread

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›Hush, Hush! Not a Word / Sighing Softly to the River

Pirates of Penzance Cast

›The Finale

Pirates of Penzance Cast