"When the Night Wind Howls" (A Poem)

In January of 1887, William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan released their comic opera Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse. The work centers around Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, who has inherited a family curse: damned by one of the many witches he persecuted, the first Baronet of Ruddigore and all his successors must commit a crime every day or perish in agony. Incapable of performing his ancestors' heinous acts, Ruthven settles on petty crimes, including filing a false income tax return and forging his own will. Ruthven's mild behaviors irk his forefathers - who have all succumb to the curse's fate - and they return one evening to entice the young man into villainy. It is at this point, as David Huckvale highlights, that the opera's comedic tone takes a dramatic turn as Ruthven vows to kidnap a woman from the village and sacrifice her. This sudden change, according to Richard Traubner, is one of the main reasons Ruddigore failed during it premier and subsequent performances. In fact, it was not until the 1920s that audiences began to slowly appreciate the work. What follows is the song sung by Ruthven's predecessors as they tempt him into his inevitable crime.

When the night wind howls in the chimney cowls, and
     the bat in the moonlight flies,
And inky clouds, like funeral shrouds, sail over the
     midnight skies -
When the footpads quail at the night-bird's wail, and
     black dogs bay the moon,
Then is the spectres' holiday - then is the ghosts' high-
     noon!

As the sob of the breeze sweeps over the trees, and the
     mist lie low on the fen,
From grey tombstones are gathered the bones that once
     were women and men,
And away they go, with a mop and a mow, to the revel
     that ends too soon,
For cockcrow limits our holiday - the dead of the
     night's high-noon!

And then each ghost with his ladye-toast to their
     churchyard beds take flight,
With a kiss, perhaps, on her lantern chaps, and a grisly
     grim "good night:";
Till the welcome knell of the midnight bell rings forth
     its jolliest tune,
And ushers our next high holiday - the dead of the
     night's high-noon!

Works Referenced

Gilbert, William and Arthur Sullivan. "Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse." The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1976. 349-398.

Huckvale, David. Touchstones of Gothic Horror: A Film Genealogy of Eleven Motifs and Images. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2010.

Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. New York: Routledge, 2003.