Virtue Triumphs (Prologue)

I offer you this passion play
By my declining wit in these dimming days
For your merriment! For your enlightenment !
Where the Devil, bedeviled by the demanding damned, Forgets my lover’s idle hands
And with evil absent she suddenly
Grows drunk on a drop of integrity !
When the Devil is not in the mood Virtue is triumphant!
When the Devil is not in the mood Virtue triumphs!
We do our best when we do naught
Yet our lungs breathe life to lofty thought: We’d never steal what is nailed fast
Or tell a lie if no one asks
Behold these angels of love and trust Above all malice. Above all lust
Oh sweet salvation, we avoid temptation When temptation avoids us!