There is a line in Oliver! that baffles me when Oliver has been taken by the rich man to his upper class townhouse. Oliver, who's gone from rags to riches overnight, literally, comes out on the balcony after getting up on his first day there.
It's a brilliant early morning. He looks down with wonder at vendors below who form a growing dancing/singing routine. He begins to sing "Who will buy?" It's a beautiful song, but the sentence I've underlined that the vendors sing doesn't make sense. It takes a little (only a little really) away from the song for me.
Who will buy this wonderful morning? Such a sky you never did see! Who will tie it up with a ribbon And put it in a box for me?
They'll never be a day so sunny It could not happen twice Where is the man with all the money? It's cheap at half the price!
Who will buy this wonderful feeling? I'm so high I swear I could fly Me, oh my! I don't want to lose it So what am I to do To keep a sky so blue? There must be someone who will buy...
I get it that it's an idiom, but it seems misplaced because of course, anything is cheap[er] at half the price. But the vendors are reflecting Oliver's sense of joy and wonder, so if they're going to use the idiom at all, IMO it should be reworded to "cheap at twice the price." |