Zor.But why should you not marry a bad Baronet of Ruddigore?
Ruth.All baronets are bad; but was he worse than other baronets?
Han.My child, he was accursed.
Zor.But who cursed him? Not you, I trust!
Han.The curse is on all his line and has been, ever since the time of Sir Rupert, the first Baronet. Listen, and you shall hear the legend.
Legend
Han.
Sir Rupert Murgatroyd
His leisure and his riches
He ruthlessly employed
In persecuting witches.
With fear he'd make them quake—
He'd duck them in his lake—
He'd break their bones
With sticks and stones,
And burn them at the stake!
Chorus
This sport he much enjoyed,
Did Rupert Murgatroyd—
No sense of shame
Or pity came
To Rupert Murgatroyd!
Han.
Once, on the village green,
A palsied hag he roasted,
And what took place, I ween,
Shook his composure boasted,
For, as the torture grim
Seized on each withered limb,
The writhing dame
'Mid fire and flame
Yelled forth this curse on him:
"Each lord of Ruddigore,
Despite his best endeavour,
Shall do one crime, or more,
Once, every day, for ever!
