As Good As You

ROCHESTER
 Love!
 Love is like a virus we're infected with
 You're so naive
 Wouldn't it be wonderful
 If life was just as you perceive?
 Women are inhuman, worthless
 Hard and savage
 On the average
 Never to be trusted
 Completely maladjusted, it's true
 And if I'd not loved a few
 I might have been as good as you
 She was my flame, my gallic sylph
 I was her fool's delight
 She put me in her spell and turned my
 Rage to trust in just one night
 With appetites for pleasure
 We would search for buried treasure
 In the excess of temptation
 I thought it my salvation, it's true
 And if I had thought things through
 I might have been as good as you
 She found me handsome
 My opera dancer
 And like a fool I believed it was true
 I held the world inside my hands, a man
 Full in his prime
 When she left me for another
 Pierced my heart a second time
 "Nothing lasts forever," she said
 "Find the door yourself, dear, won't you?
 Think me still your flower
 I've treasured every hour, it's true
 And if I had loved you, too
 I might have been as good as you."
 I came upon her some time later
 The years had not been very kind
 She has this child, Adele
 Said she was mine, as well
 "Nothing lasts forever, Edward
 Take good care and, oh yes
 Won't you take our lovely daughter?
 For you see, dear, I don't want her
 But I'm still your flower
 I'll just bloom elsewhere
 Tell her my soul is in heaven, with God"
 Miss Eyre, I tell you this
 Because I want you to know
 That I, with some luck
 Without shame, without blame
 Or the curse of my name
 Might have been as good as you