Poem 442
These two songs flow together at the end of the first Act of The Nightdress … Little Monkeys is sung by Miss Gough the nurse as she tries to settle three year old Saville for the night … we know he will be abducted and murdered (by Constance) before dawn so everything in this lullaby is freighted with irony and dread … ( I particularly like the rhyming on the numbers … )
… between the two songs the music rises to a pitch of intensity as we see the murder enacted … then the full chorus sings Fallen Angel a lament for Saville as he dies and his body is disposed of … it’s the moment when the real sadness horror and loss of the killing comes home and the whole sequence makes a powerful end to the first half of the musical .. the lines at the end in italics are sung by the Bloody Girl who represents the part of Constance that is the murderer, born at this moment and at her apogee of power …
( Years before, the phrase dangling angel came to me out of nowhere and I noted it down, this song turned out to be the perfect place to use it … )
Little Monkeys / Fallen Angel
Little monkeys little monkeys now should be asleep little monkeys little monkeys lie down without a peep Little monkeys little monkeys can't do just what they please little monkeys little monkeys must climb down from their trees In the morning the morning will be a new day in the morning the morning there'll be time to play Little monkeys little monkeys can't always have their way little monkeys little monkeys will make me old and grey In the morning the morning you can jump and run you will rise in the morning with the rising sun Do what you're told why must I scold? 1, 2, 3 little monkey eyes shut quick 4, 5, 6 7, 8, 9 for the last time 10 and 10 and 10 and 10 ... down you go don't wake again please don’t wake again Fallen Angel Fallen angel fall through the darkness don't leave us behind little angel so young and heartless throat gashed open wide where do you go now remember to breathe heart beating so slow now I bleed and I grieve Fallen angel fall on forever bright chattering boy you're tearing my soul as you go my heart is destroyed curl in your dark hole there you must hide till someone has paid in full for the way that you died Little lost angel vanishing angel sweet dangling angel I'm watching you fly Where do you go now remember to breathe heart beating so slow now I bleed and I grieve for little lost angel I sing in the darkness vanishing angel sweet dangling angel I'm watching you fly sing in the darkness where do you go now I'm watching you fly ... I sing in the darkness sing in the darkness I sing