Respectfully dedicated to Miss Effie Shannon
"The Moth and the Flame" (1899)
Words by George Taggart
Music by Max S. Witt
A Drama in Song
Based on Mr. Clyde Fitch's successful comedy as presented by the Kelceu-Shannon Company

New York, NY: 34 E. 21st Street
[Source: pp.198-202 from "Favorite Songs of the Nineties"]

1.
At a gay reception given in a mansion grand and old,
A young man met the girl he used to know;
And once again the story of his honest love he told,
The love he'd cherished since long years ago.
But she sighed and sadly murmur'd that her childhood love was past,
That soon another man she was to wed.
The lover knew the other man already had a wife,
He bade farewell, but as he went, he said:

CHORUS
"The Moth and the Flame played a game, one day,
The game of a woman's heart;
And the Moth that played was a maid, they say,
The Flame was a bad man's art,
The Moth never knew, as she flew so near,
That flame was the light of shame;
But she flutter'd away just in time, so they say,--
That's the tale of the Moth and the Flame!

2.
The maiden did not understand the fable that he told,
A church was soon arrayed in holy state,
A couple at the altar stood before the crowd of guests,
When a woman scream'd, "Stop! ere it is too late."
The villain turn'd and saw his wife and rudely struck her down,
Denouncing her as an imposter bold;
But the girl threw off the bridal wreath, "You coward," then she cried:
"My true love warned me when this tale he told:"