Speak Low from "One Touch of Venus" (Kurt Weill & Ogden Nash) sung by James Bierney

Speak Low from “One Touch of Venus”
Music by Kurt Weill
Lyrics by Ogden Nash
Sung by James Bierney, baritone.
One Touch of Venus was written in 1943. The music is by Kurt Weill, the lyrics by Ogden Nash, and the book by S. J. Perelman. It is based on a 1885 novella “The Tinted Venus” by Thomas Anstey Guthrie.
The plot is particularly convoluted: A long-lost, priceless, statue of the goddess Venus is placed on display in an art museum in New York. A barber, Rodney Hatch, places the engagement ring he plans to give his fiancée onto the statue's finger. The sculpture comes to life and falls in love with the hapless Rodney. She will do everything in her power to seduce him…a task that proves surprisingly difficult.
The opening line "Speak low when you speak, love" is a play of words on a line in William Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing (1600), in which Don Pedro says "Speak low if you speak love."
Speak low when you speak, love,
Our summer day withers away
Too soon, too soon.
Speak low when you speak, love,
Our moment is swift, like ships adrift,
We're swept apart too soon.
Speak low, darling speak low,
Love is a spark lost in the dark,
Too soon, too soon,
I feel wherever I go
That tomorrow is near, tomorrow is here
And always too soon.
Time is so old and love so brief,
Love is pure gold and time a thief.
We're late darling, we're late,
The curtain descends, ev'rything ends
Too soon, too soon,
I wait darling, I wait
Will you speak low to me,
Speak love to me and soon.