There was a man who would be king
To sit upon siege perilous
Among the sick and the acephalous
All princes pale know from the start
They must learn Locusta's art
From the priests of Agarii
The deadly gifts of earth and sea
If Hecate gave us the hemlock
And Apollo the a***nic
Then it's the poison of the gods that deifies
I only tell the tale that I have heard is told
King Mithradates, he died old
There was a king reigned in the east
Who ate the golden orpiment
And regimes leased and regimes seized
For gold and poison rule the earth
And men are shackled from their birth
By the princes treachery
By which they govern you and me
And if venom comes from Venus
Then love is venereal
It is the poison of the gods that deifies
The kind of love that will not kill and never dies
King Mithradates, he died old
What is not poison
For nothing without poison is
Only the dose, you see,
Makes a thing not poison be
If Hecate gave us the hemlock
And Apollo the a***nic
Then it's the poison of the gods that deifies
But in the end the princes too will tire and cry:
"I'm not a god, I want to die!"
He asked for hemlock, hellebore, arthemesia and more
Cinnabar and leopard's bane, honey that makes one insane
Salamanders and their ilk, Scythian vipers' poison milk
But he who knows Locusta's art
Can only die of broken heart
To sit upon siege perilous
Among the sick and the acephalous
All princes pale know from the start
They must learn Locusta's art
From the priests of Agarii
The deadly gifts of earth and sea
If Hecate gave us the hemlock
And Apollo the a***nic
Then it's the poison of the gods that deifies
I only tell the tale that I have heard is told
King Mithradates, he died old
There was a king reigned in the east
Who ate the golden orpiment
And regimes leased and regimes seized
For gold and poison rule the earth
And men are shackled from their birth
By the princes treachery
By which they govern you and me
And if venom comes from Venus
Then love is venereal
It is the poison of the gods that deifies
The kind of love that will not kill and never dies
King Mithradates, he died old
What is not poison
For nothing without poison is
Only the dose, you see,
Makes a thing not poison be
If Hecate gave us the hemlock
And Apollo the a***nic
Then it's the poison of the gods that deifies
But in the end the princes too will tire and cry:
"I'm not a god, I want to die!"
He asked for hemlock, hellebore, arthemesia and more
Cinnabar and leopard's bane, honey that makes one insane
Salamanders and their ilk, Scythian vipers' poison milk
But he who knows Locusta's art
Can only die of broken heart