From the opera, The Fall Of The House Of Usher. This is from the 1999 re-release, "The Fall Of The House Of Usher (Deconstructed & Rebuilt)". The original 1991 release, under Some Bizzare Records, contained drum parts. When Hammill regained rights to the opera, he removed the drum parts and added string parts, played by Stuart Gordon on violin.
Music by Peter Hammill
Libretto by Chris Judge Smith
The House - Peter Hammill
Roderick Usher - Peter Hammill
Madeline Usher - Lene Lovich
Montresor - Andy Bell
The Herbalist - Herbert Grönemeyer
Chorus - Sarah Jane Morris
---------------------------------
THE HERBALIST: Good evening, sir.
And you must be the friend of Mister Usher.
I'm so pleased to meet you, sir,
but have little time to spare
for knowledge such as mine is wanted everywhere.
In poor dwellings, yes, but some as great as Usher's.
My card...
MONTRESOR: 'J. Ducrow, Esq. Herbalist,
Doctor of Natural Medicine'...
HERBALIST: At you service, and it could be, sir,
that you have need of my panaceas now...
I have Mandrake juice that will slake any fever,
cures to convince you though you be an unbeliever now...
Laugh - would you? - at these seeds of mine.
You question the cure's causes,
but Logic and Reason do not answer,
and Nature runs her courses.
I have purest poppy for the soundest of sleeps;
a pure cake of hemp plant
that's a warranted surcease of worldly sorrow.
Lying words will be believed
if perfumed by this pastil,
or my elixir's guaranteed
to bend the will of fairest womankind.
Scheme, would you, for a worldly gain?
Lust after a frigid virgin?
My herbs can grant your secret cravings
and my price is modest!
MONTRESOR: No! No!
HERBALIST: And my price is modest...
MONTRESOR: No, thank you! No!
HERBALIST: Oh it's very modest...
MONTRESOR: No, no thank you!
No!
No thank you,
No!
HERBALIST: Perhaps a poultice of Toadbane
for weakness of the manly parts,
caused by too much wine or age,
perhaps by over-frequent natural indulgence...
Applied with skill, it will
revive the fleshy passions of a corpse...
...of a corpse
MONTRESOR: I said no
I meant no!
HERBALIST: Well then, Good-day...