Camelot
Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Frederick Loewe
Copyright © 1961 by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe
Lyrics copyright © 1960 by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe
Based on T. H. Whites The Once and Future King
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Act I |
Scene One |
Arthur: Merlyn, why have you never taught me love and marriage?
Merlyn: Dont scramble them together that way. They are two different things.
| Topics: Love
Marriage
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Guenevere: Marriage is rather frightening, isnt it?
Arthur: I must confess, Your Ladyship, it did occur to me. But now not marrying seems infinitely more terrifying.
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Scene Three |
Arthur: [...] I suddenly realized that when youre in the sky looking down at the earth, there are no boundaries. No borders. Yet thats what somebody always attacks about. And you win by pushing them back across something that doesnt exist.
| Topic: Boundaries
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Arthur: [...] Proposition: Wrong or right, they have the might, so wrong or right, theyre always rightand thats wrong. Right?
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Scene Four |
Lancelot: A picnic, Your Majesty?
Arthur: Yes. Its a custom we have here. England, you know. Its the time for flower gathering.
Lancelot: Knights gathering flowers, Your Majesty?
Arthur: Someone has to do it.
Lancelot: But with so much to be done?
Arthur: Precisely because there is so much to be done.
| Topic: Custom
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Arthur: [...] And I have stumbled on my future. I have done the right thing.
Lancelot: Did you ever doubt it, Your Majesty?
Arthur: Of course. Only fools never doubt.
| Topic: Doubt
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Scene Nine |
Arthur: [...] Youve never been in love, have you, Pelly?
Pellinore: No time, old man. Been too busy chasing the Beast. Now Im not young enough. Or old enough.
Arthur: And Im too young and too old. Too old not to be uncertain of fears that may be phantom, and too young not to be tormented by them.
| Topic: Age
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Scene Eleven |
Arthur: [...] This is the time of King Arthur, and violence is not strength and compassion is not weakness.
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Act II/td>
| Scene One |
Mordred: Ah, Camelot. Where the King gives freedom and the Queen takes liberties.
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Arthur: The adage Blood is thicker than water, was invented by undeserving relatives.
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Scene Two |
Arthur: [...] Before, when disputes were settled by physical combat, I always knew the outcome, because I could tell at a glance which was the better swordsman. But now, with a jury and a judge, you never know till you hear the verdict. Its positively riveting.
Guenevere: I know it is. But I do worry about the jury, Arthur. They dont know the parties involved. They dont really care who wins. Are you sure its wise to trust decisions to people so impartial?
| Topic: Law
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Arthur: [...] But we practice civil law now, and we cannot take the law back into our own hands. Talking is not a crime, nor is walking in the woods. When he violates the law, the law shall deal with him.
Pellinore: Do you mean to say, Arthur, a chap has to wait till hes killed before he can attack?
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Guenevere: [...] The one thing I can say for him is that hes bound to marry well. Everybody is above him.
| Topic: Insults
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(both singing)
Guenevere: What else do the simple folk do
To help them escape when theyre blue?
Arthur: They sit around and wonder
What royal folk would do.
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Scene Eight |
Arthur: [...] Run boy! Through the lines!
Pellinore: Who is that, Arthur?
Arthur: One of what we all are, Pelly. Less than a drop in the great blue motion of the sunlit sea. But it seems some of the drops sparkle, Pelly. Some of them do sparkle! Run, boy!
| Topic: Hope
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text checked (see note) Jan 2005
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