Peter Hammill - Act 1. An Unenviable Role Lyrics

The chorus has often an unenviable role to play,
Often a distasteful task to perform;
Summoned as witness to uncounted crime,
She's the silent accomplice of all,
Then she turns and comments on the action.

She hears... observes, but must never betray her emotions
She moves, unseen, the characters oblivion of her presence;
A simple stage device.

She cannot hide, cannot take sides.
It his curse that she must stay and comment on the action...
A young man named Montresor lately received an urgent
Letter from a dear friend of childhood,
Roderick Usher by name,
In which his friend begged him to come
With all speed to the family seat.

So, during the whole of a dull, dark and soundless day
In the autumn of the year,
When the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens,
He had been passing through
A singularly dreary tract of country
'till he found himself,
As the shades of night drew on,
Within view of the melancholy house of Usher