My Toy Theatre

Andersen: When I was born and placed upon my parent’s bridal bed Made from the timber of a nobleman’s unwanted coffin They say I screamed an endless song Beyond that snuffed out spark Frightened of the dark That covers land like blight Now all the verses that I sing Are pulled out of the superstitious night My poor mad grandfather would take his knife and carved strange beasts Sometimes he’d wander from the forest with garlands in his hair He sat shaping creatures that resembled dogs with wings As harmless lunatics weave cradles out of twine But deep within the spinning room I feared one day this madhouse might be mine All of them had recognised their worth Accept for the changeling that lives beneath the stairs I knew I was a foundling of some noble birth My father dreamed some rare dreams for a shoemaker He made for me this very fine toy theatre He taught me how I might first cut and then dress the paper dolls Showed me strings I should attach to every puppet and fool And in time it came to me to give to them their stories and their souls So do you think that my pale eye Would fail to spy the street below? Where gutters run with butcher’s blood They say untold wealth lies Beneath all unholy cries While the poor pour fiery furnaces that spout The brass that’s battered out into cornets that will trump Notes from the wan fanfare of every loveless chump Slumped in doorways, dimmed like lamps Airs are strained with brazen verses Harlot’s curses, dipping into beggar’s purses Gambler’s hunches Songs of finches Forfeit these and sweeter stenches Old men die by shrunken inches Infants chained to factory benches And yet I wait for him or is it her? Hoping that they may appear In My Toy Theatre The words I really long to reach Hide behind each halting speech Just as some familiar hand lies just beyond my grasp From that first fine entrance and through each mistake until our life’s last gasp

My Toy Theatre (unreleased song) Written by Elvis Costello Performed by Elvis Costello Background:  This song is intended for Elvis' chamber opera The Secret Songs Of Hans Christian Andersen. Known performances:  October 8, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark  October 9, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark  October 10, 2005, Aarhus, Denmark      (3 known performances)

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