APAG--Eureka!

(A patter song in which Albert explains to Eleanora why he has dedicated his life to the study of Alchemy and, consequently, to the service of the prince)
.
ALBERT:
A man will climb a mountain just because it's there.
A man will steal a jewel just because the stone is rare.
A man would catch a thunderhead to prove he can.
And I am just a man like any other man.
.
A fool chases nightmares that do not exist.
A wise man finds reality within the mist.
An alchemist is driven by the need to know,
for something's always possible if man can think it so.
.
A man will stick with courage when the prospects all are bleak.
A man will find the answers that the men around him seek.
A man will dream of insight that might hit him like a streak.
A man like me must realize that such men are unique.
For when I wake, and when I rise, and when I eat, and when I work, and even when to someone such as you I speak....
.
It's all about "Eureka"!
that moment when the thing you seek you thought that you would never ever find
becomes a candle glowing, growing, burning brightly in your mind,
that all-elusive and anticipated
flash of insight liberated
from the depths of muse-kept slumber till you give it wings
and let it fly....
.
It's when the stars are lining up
and pointing to the holy cup
that's overflowing with the secrets and the mysteries of time,
and there is not a mountain made by man
or gods of old or new that you will find
too insurmountable to climb,
it's when the star that's you will shine.
.
And all your eyes and ears are open
to potentials strange and new
and every path mankind has ever
and has never trod unfolds itself to you
and in the moment when the planets in your honor start to sing,
a crazy, driven, absent-minded, maybe even brilliant man like me feels like a king!
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ELEANORA:
Now, wait! I hesitate to say this:
But how can you be sure that your Eureka thing exists?
You've never found the answers to your very noble quest.
IT seems to me, "eureka's" still ellude you and at best,
it looks like all that you can show for all your work from tales you've told
is proof of 97 ways you can't make gold!
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ALBERT:
Oh, I never tried to say I wasn't crazy.
After 97 failures, why keep coming back for more?
But when I'm through each day,
I can say that I've learned one more way
to fail than I knew yesterday,
and two more than I knew the day before.
.
I guess it means that I'm a bit romantic.
I dream and plain and wait for things that I may never see.
But it keeps my spirits high
if I just believe that someday I
will look into the sky and find
Eureka's sweet epiphany.
And then, my dear new friend, the world will see...
It's all about "Eureka!"
the long-awaited flash of sweet and mighty light you always knew existed
after many years of struggle comes unhidden and untwisted
from the vault of undiscoverable
brilliance and uncoverable
answers to a morning when a single spark can set a whole new
world on fire...
.
And the stones are all aglow
with all the secrets that they know
and that stars and stones and muses have bequeathed to you.
And there is not a story told by men or angels here or after
that has words and breadth and depth enough to ever hope to capture
what if feels when all your senses see and hear and taste anew.
.
And the world will be my playground, like a puppet on a string.
For when Eureka's shower down on you, the playground is the thing
and in the moment when the planets, in your honor, start to sing,
a man like me can truly be the univere's king.
A crazy, driven, single-minded, philosophic, scientific, unexciting, unappealing, overworked and underfeeling man like me can truly be a king.
.
And that, my dear, is why I do this thing.