No. 8 - Octette - "I'll have the law, I'll have my right."

Lyrics by Grant Stewart

[Mrs. Bardell:] In spite of hate I bear to you,
I'm going to be fair to you,
and here and now declare to you
I mean to have my rights.
[Lisa, Sally & Sue:] We've come down here
to stop a thing,
and as we never drop a thing
we'll make you do the proper thing
according to our lights.
[Pickwick:] Your attitude so furious
to you will prove injurious,
your charge is simply spurious
as very well you know.
[Tupman, Winkle & Snodgrass:] You have been very rude in here.
On matters we were brooding here
when you three came intruding here;
you're very much de-trop.
[Mrs. Bardell:] Oh, you never will get rid of us
by such very unpleasant attack;
We have made up our minds for a fuss.
[Tupman, Winkle & Snodgrass:] Go! Go!
[Lisa, Sally & Sue:] If we go,
we shall only come back.
[Pickwick:] As the eminent man of the day
I have not been considered a dunce
but I can't understand what you say,
what you say when you're all of you
talking at once.
[Mrs. Bardell & Girls:] No, they can't understand
[Others:] No, we can't understand
[Mrs. Bardell & Girls:] when we're all of us
talking at once.
[All:] No, we/they can't understand
what we/you say,
what we/you say,
when we're/you're all of us talking
and talking and talking,
we're/you're all of us talking at once.
[Mrs. Bardell:] Then gentlemen,
and you too, girls,
keep quiet just a minute;
I'll open up my heart to you
and likewise all that's in it.

When Bardell went to his last abode
(as the very best of husbands will,)
I took a place in the Goswell road,
and in the window put a bill,
[Pickwick:] One day your house I chanced to pass;
came up the steps and rang the bell.
[Mrs. Bardell:] You took my lodgings and alas!
You took then in my heart as well!
[Others:] I/He took her lodgings and alas,
I/he took her widow's heart as well!
[Mrs. Bardell:] When sometimes I would
sit and mope
[Pickwick:] I'd come into your room and chat,
[Mrs. Bardell:] You'd praise my cooking,
then you'd hope
I'd always cook for you like that.
I'd speak of husband number one,
[Pickwick:] And I would cheer you up and vow,
no matter where Bardell has gone,
he's better off where he is now.
[Others:] Oh truce, no matter where he's gone,
he's better off where he is now.
[Mrs. Bardell:] You might have been the husband
who won my affections sweet and coy.
You might have been a father too,
to my poor angel, orphan boy.
So if I on the jury call
for damages for my complaint,
it's when I come to think of all
he might have been, but what he ain't.
[All:] We'll go and on the jury call
for damages for her complaint.
[Mrs. Bardell:] I'll have the law, I'll have my rights.
[Pickwick:] Lor' bless the woman, how she fights.
[Sally:] You villain you, and you, and you,
[Tupman, Winkle & Snodgrass:] I vow my dear, that isn't true.
[Lisa & Sue:] Our aunt shall have her full revenge.
[Pickwick:] You needn't bother, keep the change.
[Lisa & Sue:] You call yourself a poet, eh?
[Tupman, Winkle & Snod.:] You run away and play.
[Mrs. Bardell:] I'm going to faint, I know I am,
I know I am.
[Lisa, Sally & Sue:] No, no you ain't.
[Mrs. Bardell:] Oh yes I am, I know I am,
Oh Bardell, to protect your wife
why don't you come.
[Pickwick:] The woman's in delirium, delirium.
[Lisa, Sally & Sue:] We've seen you somewhere
once before, somewhere before.
[Tupman, Winkle & Snod.:] You'll never see us
any more, oh never more.
[Lisa, Sally & Sue:] 'Twas somewhere you'd no right to be,
no right to be,
[Tupman, Winkle & Snodgrass:] I hope she don't refer to me.
[Lisa, Sally & Sue:] We vow the law
at you shall gnaw,
and sharper claw you never saw.
[Tupman, Winkle & Snodgrass:] We easily can see
that she is going to be our enemy.
[Lisa, Sally & Sue:] No words can paint
our just complaint, she's going to faint!
[Mrs. Bardell:] No, no I ain't.
[Men:] We're in dismay at what they say.
[Women:] We'll make you pay!
[Men:] Oh, go away.
[All:] We'll have the law, the law.