In a papered house
The lights are going down
In blissful ignorance the king
Makes a hash of repairing
His papier mache crown

The treasure in his grasp
The part he was born to play
Have led him up the garden path
With his hopes and his broken heart shown on open display

He doesn't understand
They'll never let the talent know
That the shaking in his hand
Is a sign-off: goodbye and not hello

So much for awareness
Of the crooked nature of the deal
In a papered house there's no big reveal

He doesn't understand
So much he'd rather not know
But he caught a glimpse of the seating plan
And so the story's blown

Grandees and groundlings, they've seen it all before
And there's no sense of romance left at the artists' door
Anagnorisis, it's all given away
In a papered house
There's hell to pay