From the operetta “Babette”, 1903.
Words by Harry B. Smith.
Music by Victor Herbert.
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
There once was an owl, an intelligent fowl
So they tell me
He hid in the shade of the dark branches made all the day
But when night had grown dark
To the tower in the park
So stealthily and sly he’d fly
And ’twas there, never found by the world all around
He would wait on his neighbors to spy
Oh there in the dark he would think it a lark just to listen
To hear all the secrets of others he’d hide and he’d prowl
‘Twas his greatest delight all the day or by night
Just to keep all the neighbors in trouble and fright
Such a gossip and pest was this old scandal mong’ring owl
Then let us be secret, as secret as we can
It’s right as conspirators we should
Secretive and sly let us peer around and pry
All envoys do so I’ve understood
“Hist Hist! “our principal remark
To which now and then we add “Hark Hark!”
That’s the way as conspirators and diplomats
We ought to do, Hist Hark
Conspirators we who are nothing if not diplomatic
So stealthy of tread on our mission of dread do we prowl
We are not what we seem
But we plot and we scheme
We mutter and we crouch and scowl
With a hush and a hist, and a hark and a whist
Let’s be secret as old Mister Owl
Conspirators we who are nothing if not diplomatic
So stealthy of tread on our mission of dread do we prowl
We are not what we seem
But we plot and we scheme
And we frown and we scowl as we peer and we prowl
We are stealthy and sly as that wise old fowl the owl
Hark Hist, And whist with stealthy tread and bated breath we go
Sung here by Vancha March: