We also performed alternate lyrics for the Fairy Queen's second verse .

Act I :

• The Peer and the Peri - a Peer is a high-ranking nobleman, and a Peri is a fairy.
• Arcadian Shepherd - an idealized rustic, the standard hero of the 18th-century genre of pastoral, mythological drama
• A Ward of Chancery - a minor under the guardianship of the Courts of Chancery
• I've a borough or two at my disposal - analogous to a congressional district
• to sit upon a woolsack which is stuffed with such thorns... - the traditional seat of the Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords; an oversized hassock stuffed with wool
• I'll stick to my pipes and my tabors - pastoral musical instruments; flutes and drums
• In a lowly cot alone is virtue found - cottage
• Belgrave Square... Seven Dials - examples of a fashionable area and a slum, respectively
• never throw dust in a juryman's eyes - same as pulling the wool over his eyes
• When tempests wreak thy bark - your ship, i.e. 'when you are in trouble'
• let us pipe out eye - cry
• Taradiddle, Tol-lol-lay - Taradiddle is a fib, Tol-lol may mean languid or so-so (as in the name of the character Lord Tolloller), but may be just nonsense syllables here
• Foreign Phrases - The Peers flaunt their linguistic learning in the following:
  • taking his Dolce far Niente - Italian for blissful dalliance, "sweet nothing"
  • as the ancient Romans said "festina lente" - Latin for "hurry slowly"
  • Of a sudden, which is English for "Repente" - from either Italian or Latin
  • will be carried, nobody at all contradicente - Latin for "contradicting"
  • with base canaille - as the Fairies note, "That word is French" for low rabble
  • a herd of vulgar plebs - "a Latin word" for the common people
  • 'Twould fill with joy... the Hoi Polloi - "a Greek remark" meaning common folk
• Marriage with deceased wife's sister - refers to a long-standing legislative feud between two houses of Parliament. A bill permitting this was finally passed in 1907.

Act II :

• When all night long a chap remains on sentry-go - sentry duty
• When in that House M.P.s divide - Members of Parliament, voting by physically going to one side of the House or the other
• He's a Parliamentary Pickford - he carries everything - Pickford's was (and is) a hauling firm whose slogan was "we carry everything"
• Yet Britain won her proudest bays - laurel wreaths, given to victorious heroes
• Oh, foolish fay - yet another word for fairy
• Oh, amorous dove, type of Ovidius Naso - the Fairy Queen is apostrophizing the dove as a symbol of love, and likening it to the Latin amatory poet, Ovid.
• Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song:
  • nothing 'twixt you and the ticking - material covering a mattress or pillow
  • a large bathing machine - wheeled changing-room used by modest beach-goers
  • the ship's now a four-wheeler - a type of horse-drawn carriage
  • the black silk with gold clocks - decorative stitching on socks
  • he's telling the tars all the particulars - sailors
  • Apple puffs, and three-corners, and Banburys - various pastries
  • shares... taken by Rothschild and Baring - two major banking establishments
• Be you law the ancient saw - old saying. This song, like "Things are seldom what they seem" in H.M.S. Pinafore, strings together many 'old saws.'
• not worth a maravedi - a Spanish coin of very little value
• As an old Equity draughtsman - a barrister who draws up complex legal documents
• two strings go to every bow... grief 'twill bring if you've two beaux to every string - a pun on the phrase 'to have two strings to your bow,' meaning to be prepared for emergencies (when you resort to your second string), and the French word 'beaux,' meaning boy-friends, whom one may have 'on a string'