(Immediately afterwards, Madeline Usher enters, in a trance)
MADELINE Carriages at seven
I shall wear the flower he gave me
It's so cold here
deep beneath the lapping water...
The water
The water
My love
Head against his shoulder,
'cross the lawn I hear the music...
Silent blackness,
In the lake I'm sinking slowly...
Oh, how lovely,
nothing could be more becoming...
Underwater,
floating in the icy darkness...
Count the candles
'May I dance with you this evening?'...
On the surface
Swans are feeding high above me...
Hold him tightly
round and round the floor we're spinning
Breathing water
I am drowning
Watch the sun rise
driving home across the meadows...
All is darkness
I can feel myself dissolving
The water
The water
The darkness
The darkness
My love
Head against his shoulder
Floating in the icy darkness
Hold him tightly
I can feel myself dissolving
Oh how lovely
Deep beneath the lapping water
Count the candles
I am drowning I am drowning
Count the candles
Floating in the icy darkness
Hold him tightly
I can feel myself dissolving
Oh how lovely
Deep beneath the lapping water
Count the candles
I am drowning
Oh how lovely
I am drowning I am drowning
Oh how lovely
Oh how lovely
Oh how lovely
MONTRESOR Stop, Madeline, look at me!
My god, man, what is wrong with her?
USHER Yes, it's right you should know,
She is dying!
I have not dared to speak of it.
A chronic catalepsy had drained her of her youth.
I have watched her waste away and could do nothing!
A period of health is followed by sudden coma,
death-like sleep.
It can last a full day or more,
no movement, no colour, no flame in the cheeks.
MONTRESOR What, then of these dreaming visions?
USHER The recovery, ah, this is even worse!
She rises and moves about the house
but her mind still sleeps...
You see her now a mindless ghost:
Beautiful, dead eyes stare in sleep, unrecognising.
She speaks in dreams, sees only dreams,
she haunts the house in hideous sleepwalking
and may not be restrained, for like some automaton
she tirelessly thrusts and tears herself
against her fetters,
heedless of injury.
And so she walks and then she wakes,
remembering nothing, so week that she can
barely build up strength before she is struck down again.
Month after month each attack worse than the last.
Death will not wait long.
Her final days are flickering past.
Dear God,
helpless,
helpless!
MONTRESOR But what is the word from her doctors?
Do they hold out no hope, nor offer any treatment?
USHER MONTRESOR CHORUS
They do not understand
her case
and cannot treat a case
they do not understand
He does not understand
You're dealing with a case
Who is her doctor,
a specialist I trust?
Yes indeed, one of
the foremost rank
You're dealing
with a case
Then he will help her,
Montresor oh, yes,
no more of this he surely must You do not understand
now
no more talk He does not
of cures, please, understand
Or of doctor.
I bless you concern,
but know that she
will walk no more tonight.
When she wakes soon
she will need my care.
I must be there, so,
dear friend, goodnight.
(Usher exits with Madeline, leaving Montresor alone. The Herbalist enters)
THE HERBALIST Good evening, sir.
And you must be the friend of Mister Usher.
I'm so pleased to meet you, sir,
but have little time to spare
for knowledge such as mine is wanted everywhere.
In poor dwellings, yes, but some as great as Usher's.
My card...
MONTRESOR 'J. Ducrow, Esq. Herbalist,
Doctor of Natural Medicine'...
HERBALIST At you service, and it could be, sir,
that you have need of my panaceas now...
I have Mandrake juice that will slake any fever,
cures to convince you though you be an unbeliever now...
Laugh - would you? - at these seeds of mine.
You question the cure's causes,
but Logic and Reason do not answer,
and Nature runs her courses.
I have purest poppy for the soundest of sleeps;
a pure cake of hemp plant
that's a warranted surcease of worldly sorrow.
Lying words will be believed
if perfumed by this pastil,
or my elixir's guaranteed
to bend the will of fairest womankind.
Scheme, would you, for a worldly gain?
Lust after a frigid virgin?
My herbs can grant your secret cravings
and my price is modest!
MONTRESOR No! No!
HERBALIST And my price is modest...
MONTRESOR No, thank you! No!
HERBALIST Oh it's very modest...
MONTRESOR No, no thank you!
No!
No thank you,
No!
HERBALIST Perhaps a poultice of Toadbane
for weakness of the manly parts,
caused by too much wine or age,
perhaps by over-frequent natural indulgence...
Applied with skill, it will
revive the fleshy passions of a corpse...
...of a corpse
MONTRESOR I said no
I meant no!
HERBALIST Well then, Good-day...
MONTRESOR So that is Usher's idea of a doctor!
That wretched mountebank can't help them.
I confront madness face to face!
And whatever it's cause, it lies within this place
I breathe an atmosphere of sorrow;
an alien despair makes my courage fail,
like the collapse of an opium vision,
the hideous dropping of the veil
CHORUS Tormented by a thousand doubts and fancies,
he will not sleep tonight.
Chilled by the gloom of his surroundings,
mortal, half-dead mortar.
MONTRESOR CHORUS
He will not sleep!
I see simple solutions
He will not sleep!
State them laud and clear,
but the echoes of the House He will not sleep!
shout 'Unreason!'
The one thing that I fear.
The evil that is done
cannot be undone.
The evil that will come
cannot be prevented.
The evil that is done
Yet somehow I must help
these two tormented souls,
cannot be undone.
for if I cannot, who will?
The evil that will come
These are the friends
I've loved so dearly...
cannot be prevented
Leave!
No! What a monstrous thought!
Depart!
How could I even think of it!
Go!
Abandon those who have need of me!
Leave!
Oh, but what a temptation,
Depart!
to run like a thief in the night,
Go!
And yet now I cannot
because it is too late Before it is too late,
I feel myself bound up in before you are bound up in
the web of fear and pain, the web of fear and pain,
the evil that surrounds me. the evil that surrounds you.
It cannot be undone.
It cannot be undone.
The evil that will come
cannot be prevented.
End of Act Three
Act Three
Hammill Peter
Purchase "Act Three"
Purchase Entire Album
Email Video to Friends Play Youtube "Act Three" Video
Play Spotify "Act Three" Song
View Wikipedia "Act Three"
Entry
Receive Emails for Future Hammill Peter Lyrics
Link to "Act Three"
Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
See Recommended Lyrics For You
Share:
Copied!
Loading...
Lyrics by Hammill Peter
A Louse Is Not A Home Act Five Act Four Act One Act Six Act Two Again Breakthrough Candle Central Hotel Child Comfortable? Curtains Description Easy To Slip Away Empress's Clothes Faint-heart And The Sermon Ferret And Featherbird Film Noir Fireships Flight Fogwalking Forsaken Gardens German Overalls Given Time Glue Golden Promises Happy Hesitation His Best Girl I Will Find You Imperial Zeppelin (chris Judge Smith) In Slow Time In The Black Room Incomplete Surrender Jeunesse D'oree Labour Of Love Losing Faith In Words My Experience No More (the Submariner) Now More Than Ever Oasis Ophelia Out Oyster People You Were Going To Re-awakening Red Shift Reprise Rock And Role Rubicon Shingle Song Sign Sitting Targets Slender Threads Solitude Stranger Still Summer Song (in The Autumn) Sunshine Tapeworm The Birds The Jargon King The Lie (bernini's St Theresa) The Spirit Thunder Time For A Change (chris Judge Smith) Time Heals Traintime Vision What's It Worth? Wilhelmina
Related Songs
Act Five Scene Three - Appease
No Long Journey Home - Cowboy Junkies
Unpatience - Quadron
What's My Age Again? - blink-182
What's My Age Again? - Various Artists
What's My Age Again?...
C.C.C. (COUNTING CAMERON'S CROWS)...
Snobbery And Decay - Act
Absolutely Immune - Act
Welcome - Act
Laughter [Seven Inch Mix][Instrumental] - Act
Absolutetly Immune [Instrumental] - Act
Certified [Instrumental] - Act
Under the Nights of Germany [Instrumental] - Act
Gestures [Instrumental] - Act
Thorns that pierce the skull - Act
Of osiris execration - Act
A thousand burning temples - Act
Revelation apocalypse - Act
War in christendom - Act
What is will not - Act
Mors somnis - Act
Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 - Hank Snow
Since The Machine - Aesma Daeva
I Got What You Want - K'La
This Song Is a Curse... - Frank Iero
Making Friends - Bishop Allen
Any Last Words? - New Years Day
You Scratched My Anchor - Ice Nine Kills
What's My Age Again - Richard Cheese
Lipstick - Elise Estrada
Act - Ephemera
ACT - Juicy J
Act - Blindside
Three Might Be Duende - They Might Be Giants
Never - Blindside
By the Light of the Silvery Moon - Doris Day
Act Naturally (All Starr Band Version)...
Act 1, Act 2, Act 3 - Hank Snow
Act Up - Ninety Pound Wuss
Since The Machine - Aesma Daeva
Act Naturally - Dwight Yoakam
Cocktails for Three - Terry Allen
The Act We Act - Sugar
The Act We Act - Bob Mould
The Act We Act - Bob Mould
Knucklehead - Garrison Starr
The Three Ring Government - Various Artists
Dead Archetype - Carnifex
Better (Hangar No. 9 Part 1) - Matt Olsson
9x3 - Mary Timony
Act like you know me - Three 6 Mafia
Act Like You Know - Three 6 Mafia
I Do What I Do - Anarbor
Keanu Man - The Great Luke Ski
By the Light of the Silvery Moon - Julie Andrews
By the Light of the Silvery Moon - Louis Prima
By the Light of the Silvery Moon - Al Jolson
By the Light of the Silvery Moon...
By the Light of the Silvery Moon - Bing Crosby
By the Light of the Silvery Moon - Gordon MacRae
O Come and Mourn With Me Awhile (Our Lord Is Cruci...
By The Light Of The Silvery Moon - Etta James
Our Lord Is Crucified - Jars Of Clay
By the Light of the Silvery Moon - Jackie Wilson
Work That Thang - UNLV
heartbeat - I Wish I Was Lightning
Life's A Bitch - Motorhead
The Answer - Bran Van 3000
Memorize Your Lines - Sleater-Kinney
Memorize Your Lines - Sleater Kinney
Drop The Act - Audiostrobelight
Nothing To Prove - Allen Stone
Nothing To Prove - Allen Stone
Nothing To Prove - Allen Stone
Act A Fool - Lil Jon
Act A Fool - Lil' Jon
Trouser Press - The Bonzo Dog Band
The Trouser Press - The Bonzo Dog Band
Fear of Life - Channel 3
By the Light of the Silvery Moon - Gene Vincent
O Come And Mourn With Me Awhile - Jars Of Clay
By the Light of the Silvery Moon - Day Doris
Butter Wouldn't Melt - Alsou
Stupid Girls - P!nk
Stupid Girls - Pink
Hot Sauce - Travis Scott
Stupid Girls [Kardinal Beats Remix] - P!nk
Stupid Girls [DVD] - P!nk
Stupid Girls [DVD] - P!nk
Work That Thang - U.N.L.V.
Texas Dolly - The Number Twelve Looks Like You
Three - The Wedding Present
Three - Devics
Three - ohGr
Three - Cormega
Three - The Cure
Three - I Would Set Myself on Fire for You
Three - Natalia Zukerman
Three - Forward, Russia!
Three - Wolftron
Three - Gene Watson
Three - Gaia Consort
Three - Kathryn Williams
Three - Britney Spears
Three - Strawberry Alarm Clock
Three - Massive Attack
Three - St. Lunatics F/ Nelly
Three - Rico Love
Three - Akinyele
Three - Amazing Transparent Man
Three - Prodigy
Three - Face Candy
Three - Sesame Street
Three - Daniel Tosh
Three - Disturbed
Three - Cameron Ernst
Three - Adamantra
Don't Act Right - Fantasia
Stupid Girls - P!nk Featuring Nate Ruess
Principal actors to the stage please,...
The Three Fine Daughters Of Farmer Brown...
Tappin' Out (mario Demo) - Travis Garland
it's universal - High Five, Atom Bomb
Mr. B's Ballroom - Devo
Mr. B's Ballroom - Devo
Mr B's Ballroom - Devo
Big Top - Jimmy Buffett
What I'm Trying To Say - Stars
What I'm Trying To Say - Stars
Harsh - Styles P
Harsh - Rick Ross
Kill the Moonlight - Channel 3
How You Gonna Act Like That? - Tyrese
Three Little Indians - Run DMC
Three Little Indians - Run D.M.C.
Disappearing Act - Self Against City
National Act - Park Ranger
Lounge Act - The Album Leaf
Act IV - Roddy Woomble
Wickedness Act - Celesty
The Act - Why?
Act Now - Heartdrive
Act-Phenom - Pep Love
Disappearing Act - Rollins Band
Act Accordingly - Woodie
Method Act - Touche Amore
Sad Act - Misery Addict
Disappearing Act - U2
Vanishing Act - Crystalic
Act Naturally - Johnny Russell
Act Right - Eyedea and Abilities
Act Naturally [*] - Buck Owens
Act Naturally - Buck Owens & His Buckaroos
Act Together - Ron Wood
Act Naturally - Jody Miller
Think & Act - Curve
Act Naturally - Earl Scruggs
Act Naturally - Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band
An Act - Splitbelly
Act Surprised - Superchunk
Class Act - James Hunter
blasphemy act - Lords
Vanishing Act - Monster Movie
Act Naturally - Buck Owens
Weird Act - Good Morning June
Act Right - Teairra MarÃ
Act Naturally - Kapena
Act Naturally - Daniel O'Donnell
Act Naturally - Daniel O'Donnell
Act Naturally - The Punkles
Act Naturally - Stuart Anderson
Act Naturally - Meg Mackay
Act Naturally - Brian Hyland
Act Naturally - The Countdown Kids
Act Naturally - The Youngbloods
Patriot Act - Roy Zimmerman
Act III - Circles
Act/Reaction - Big Boys
Act Surprised - Hot Breakfast!
Disappearing Act - The Bear Quartet
re-ACT - Olivia Lufkin
Act III - Jarboe
Act Five - Why?
Act Up - Gucci Mane
Opening Act - Drive-By Truckers
Act Right - Teairra Mari
Act I - T.I.
Act II - T.I.
Disappearing Act - Ron Sexsmith
Act II - Naughty Boy
Act II - Naughty Boy
Act I - Naughty Boy
Riot Act - Gang Starr
Disappearing Act - Grizzly Bear
Riot Act - Elvis Costello
Act naturally - Beatles, The
Act Cool - Wonder Girls
Opening Act - Ugly Duckling
Act Right - Yo Gotti
