1. FOOL

The sweet and bitter fool
Will presently appear
An O without a figure
Old before wise
I am a fool
You are nothing


2. NOTHING WILL COME OF NOTHING

Speak again
Mend your speech
So young and
So untender
This rashness
I have sworn.


3. IN GOOD TIME

Sir, you are old
Being weak, seem so
Ruled and led
So you will wish on me

These are unsightly tricks
What should you need of more?


4. BASE

My mind as generous
My shape as true
Brand they us with base
I grow
Stand in the plague of custom

Goatish disposition
I see the business
A whole tribe of fops
I prosper
By heavenly compulsion


5. I NOTHING AM

I heard myself proclaimed
Attend my taking
Near to beast
Preserve myself
This horrible object
Persecutions
Roaring voices
Beggars
Enforce their charity
That’s something yet


6. THE NEED

A hundred thousand flaws
You think I’ll weep
Fool me not
Give me that patience
Bear it tamely
The terrors of the earth
O Fool


7. POOR TOM

(Instrumental)


8. THE THING ITSELF

Is man no more than this?
A poor, bare, forked animal
Cry you mercy
Little dogs and all
Consider him well


9. FALL/MIRACLE

I am at the worst
I stumbled when I saw
Madmen lead the blind
This world I renounce

Above all strangeness
It was some fiend
Bear free and patient thoughts
Do but look up


10. HOWL/NEVER/LOOK THERE/THE WEIGHT

You are men of stones
Heaven’s vault should crack

A chance
Redeem all sorrows
A plague
I am old now

No, no,
No life
No breath
At all

Never, never, never, never, never