Poor Thing is the fourth song of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Role[]
The scene is a flashback of the events following Sweeney Todd's exile from London, when he was then known as Benjamin Barker, narrated by Mrs. Lovett. The flashback shows his wife, Lucy Barker, having locked herself and her daughter, Johanna Barker, up in the shop's second floor room. Judge Turpin, the man who sentenced Benjamin to Australia on false charges (or as Mrs. Lovett tells Sweeney, the crime of "foolishness"), sends flowers to Lucy every day in hopes that he will eventually win her heart. When this doesn't work, he sends Beadle Bamford to fetch Lucy and tell her the Judge is remorseful for his actions and wants to see her immediately.
When Lucy arrives at the Judge's home, she finds that a wild masked ball is well underway, with no one that she knows there. She wanders through the crowd in increasing torment and drunkenness, seeking to find Judge Turpin. But when Lucy finally does find the Judge, she finds that he is anything but remorseful, and has used this party to set a trap for her and sate his horrible lust upon her once and for all. With nowhere to run or hide, Lucy is at the Judge's mercy, and she is raped amid the cruel laughter of the surrounding crowd.
A horrified Sweeney stops Mrs. Lovett's story, revealing himself to be Benjamin Barker. He is further grieved to learn from Mrs. Lovett that Lucy poisoned herself soon after what happened to her at the party, and that the Judge adopted Johanna as his own. Sweeney swears vengeance upon Judge Turpin.
The stage musical has a few differences in regards to this song and scene. The first is Mrs. Lovett's mention that both the Judge and the Beadle wanted Lucy, the second is another verse which describes Benjamin's transportation and leaving Lucy with "nothing but grief and a year-old kid", and the third is Mrs. Lovett's mention of Johanna's name after the ending about how "there was worse yet to come" for Lucy. Also, the stage version of the masked ball that Lucy goes to is a "dumb show" -- essentially a piece of silent action that has been used in old-style theatre for purposes of conveying action without speech or sound -- rather than the full scene that takes place in the film.
Lyrics[]
SWEENEY:
"You got a room over the shop here? Times is so hard, why don't you rent it out?"
MRS.LOVETT:
"What, up there? No one will go near it.
People think it's haunted."
SWEENEY:
"Haunted?"
MRS.LOVETT:
"Yeah. And who's to say they're wrong?
You see, years ago, something happened up there.
Something not very nice."
There was a barber and his wife
And he was beautiful
A proper artist with a knife
But they transported him for life
And he was beautiful...
"Barker, his name was. Benjamin Barker."
SWEENEY:
"What was his crime?"
MRS. LOVETT:
"Foolishness."
He had this wife, you see
Pretty little thing
Silly little nit
Had her chance for the moon on a string
Poor thing
Poor thing
There was this Judge, you see
Wanted her like mad
Every day he’d send her a flower
But did she come down from her tower?
Sat up there and sobbed by the hour
Poor fool
Ah, but there was worse yet to come, poor thing
Well, Beadle calls on her, all polite
Poor thing, poor thing
The Judge, he tells her, is all contrite
He blames himself for her dreadful plight
She must come straight to his house tonight!
Poor thing, poor thing
Of course, when she goes there, poor thing, poor thing
They're havin' this ball all in masks
There's no one she knows there, poor dear, poor thing
She wanders, tormented and drinks, poor thing
The Judge has repented, she thinks, poor thing
"Oh, where is Judge Turpin?" she asks
He was there, all right --
Only not so contrite!
She wasn't no match for such craft, you see
And everyone thought it so droll
They figured she had to be daft, you see
So all of 'em stood there and laughed, you see
Poor soul!
Poor thing!
SWEENEY:
"No!
Would no one have mercy on her?"
MRS.LOVETT:
"So, it is you... Benjamin Barker?"
SWEENEY:
"Where is Lucy? Where is my wife?"
MRS.LOVETT:
"She poisoned herself. Arsenic, from the apothecary around the corner.
Tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen to me.
And he's got your daughter."
SWEENEY:
"He? Judge Turpin?"
MRS.LOVETT:
"Adopted her, like his own."
SWEENEY:
"Fifteen years...sweating in a living hell on a false charge.
Fifteen years dreaming I might come home to a wife and child."
MRS.LOVETT:
"Well, I can't say the years have been particularly kind to you, Mr. Barker."
SWEENEY:
"No. Not Barker.
That man is dead.
It's Todd now, Sweeney Todd.
And he will have his revenge."