_Chorus (reproachfully_).
This is the way they always go, always go, always go,
Quarrel and kick up no end of a row,
From the time they get up in the morning.
Leave them alone and let them be, let them be, let them be;
If they can't be civil, let us agree On this beautiful May-day
morning.
(_Exeunt dancing, leaving Romulus and Remus fighting_.)
Scene II.
On the Site of Rome.
Four Years Later.
_Enter Romulus and Remus lovingly, with their arms round each other's
necks_.
_Rom_.
Good old Remus, ain't I fond of you!
Oh, what a brick you are! I love you so!
_Rem_.
I never knew a chap I liked like Romly,
So gentle, kind, good-looking, bold and comly.
_Rom_.
You make me blush, my Remy; _you're_ the brick,
Through thick and thin I vow to you I'll stick.
_Rem_.
Thank you. Suppose, to mark our vows,
We raise a monument or build a house.
_Rom_.
Why, while we're at it, let us build a city,
The greatest in the world!
List to my ditty:
(_Sings_).
This is the town that Romulus and Remus built.
These are the walls that go round the town that Romulus and Remus built.
These are the boys that built the walls that go round the town that
Romulus and Remus built.
These are the poets who sing of the boys that built the walls that go
round the town that Romulus and Remus built.
These are the scholars who read the poets who sing of the boys who built
the walls that go round the town that Romulus and Remus built.
These are the schoolboys who learn from the scholars who read the poets
who sing of the boys who built the walls that go round the town that
Romulus and Remus built.
This is the book which is read by the schoolboys who learn from the
scholars who read the poets who sing of the boys who built the walls
that go round the town that Romulus and Remus built.
_Rem_.
Bravo, Romly. Let's start work at once.
You build the walls, I'll manage the finance.
_Enter Chorus of Boys derisively_.
Remus and Romulus built up a wall.
Romulus and Remus, mind you don't fall.
(_Strophe_) Romulus and Remus, nice pair of
schemers,
How does your city grow?
Bricks and cabbages, sticks and rubbishes,
And mud pies all anyhow.
1. The author is not quite sure what strophe and antistrophe mean, but
they appear to come in tragically here.
2. Rubbishes is apparently the nearest rhyme to cabbages which the
chorus can lay hands on for the moment.
(_Antistrophe_)
Hee-haw, Remus can saw,
Romulus tries to make plaster.
They shall have a penny a day,
What a pity they cannot work faster!
_Rom. (throwing stones_).
Aroint thee! Hold your row! Shut up! Go home.
Don't interfere with men who are building Rome.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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