Leer
Lyrics by John Brenner.
Fool
The sweet and bitter fool will presently appear, an O without a figure, old before wise. I am a fool. You are nothing.
Nothing Will Come of Nothing
Speak again. Mend your speech. So young and so untender. This rashness I have sworn.
In Good Time
Sir, you are old. Being weak, seem so. Ruled and led, so you will wish on me. These are unsightly tricks. What should you need of more?
Base
My mind as generous, my shape as true. Brand they us with base. I grow. Stand in the plague of custom. Goatish disposition, I see the business: A whole tribe of fops. I prosper by heavenly compulsion.
I Nothing Am
I heard myself proclaimed. Attend my
taking. Near to beast, preserve myself. This horrible object, persecutions
Roaring voices. Beggars enforce their charity. That’s something yet.
The Need
A hundred thousand flaws! You think I’ll weep. Fool me not. I need only patience. Bear it tamely, the terrors of the earth. O Fool.
Poor Tom
(instrumental)
The Thing Itself
Is man no more than this? A poor, bare, forked animal. Cry you mercy, little dogs and all. Consider him well.
Fall / Miracle
I am at the worst. I stumbled when I saw. Madmen lead the blind.
This world I renounce. Above all strangeness...
It was some fiend. Bear free and patient thoughts. Do but look up.
Like Flies
(instrumental)
Howl / Never / Look There / The Weight
You are men of stones.
Heaven’s vault should crack. A chance: Redeem all sorrows. A plague: I am old
now.
No, no, no life, no breath at all. Never, never, never, never, never.