The Little Poster Maid

From the 1899 comic opera “The Ameer.”
Words by Frederic Ranken.
Music by Victor Herbert.


The sheet music:


Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:


Lyrics

  1. 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

  1. 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

  1. 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

  1. 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