In Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, The King and I, the English governess quarrels with her royal employer over his refusal to provide her with a separate house, outside the harem walls. Alone in her room afterwards, Anna takes her revenge with a spirited patter song, indignantly denouncing the King as a 'conceited, self-indulgent libertine' and seizing the occasion to inform him in - absentia - of 'certain goings on around this place/That I wish to tell you I do not admire.'

LRB 30 January 1992 | PDF Download