Listen, they're beautiful, no?
So many colors of sound, so many changing moods
Because you know, they don't ring all by themselves
- They don't? -
No, silly boy.
Up there, high, high in the dark bell tower
lives the mysterious bell ringer.
Who is this creature - Who? -
What is he? - What? -
How did he come to be there - How? -
Hush, and Clopin will tell you
It is a tale, a tale of a man and a monster.


Dark was the night when our tale was begun
On the docks near Notre Dame


Man #1
Shup it up, will you!

Man #2
We'll be spotted!

Gypsy
Hush, little one.

Clopin
Four frightened gypsies slid silently under
The docks near Notre Dame

Man #3
Four guilders for safe passage into Paris

Clopin
But a trap had been laid for the gypsies
And they gazed up in fear and alarm
At a figure whose clutches
Were iron as much as the bells

Man #4
Judge Claude Frollo

Clopin
The bells of Notre Dame

Chorus
Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

Clopin
Judge Claude Frollo longed
To purge the world
Of vice and sin

Chorus
Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

Clopin
And he saw corruption
Ev'rywhere
Except within

Frollo
Bring these gypsy vermin to the palace of justice

Guard
You there, what are you hiding?

Frollo
Stolen goods, no doubt. Take them from her

Clopin
She ran

Chorus
Dies irae, dies illa (Day of wrath, that day)
Solvet saeclum in favilla (Shall consume the world in ashes)
Teste David cum sibylla (As prophesied by David and the sibyl)
Quantus tremor est futurus (What trembling is to be)
Quando Judex est venturus (When the Judge is come)

Gypsy
Sanctuary, please give us sanctuary

Frollo
A baby? A monster!

Archdeacon
Stop!

Clopin
Cried the Archdeacon

Frollo
This is an unholy deamon.
I'm sending it back to hell, where it belongs.

Archdeacon
See there the innocent blood you have spilt
On the steps of Notre Dame

Frollo
I am guiltless. She ran, I pursued.

Archdeacon
Now you would add this child's blood to your guilt
On the steps of Notre Dame

Frollo
My conscience is clear

Archdeacon
You can lie to yourself and your minions
You can claim that you haven't a qualm
But you never can run from
Nor hide what you've done from the eyes
The very eyes of Notre Dame

Chorus
Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

Clopin
And for one time in his live
Of power and control

Chorus
Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

Clopin
Frollo felt a twinge of fear
For his immortal soul

Frollo
What must I do?

Archdeacon
Care for the child, and raise it as your own

Frollo
What? I'd be settled with this misshapen ...?
Very well. Let him live with you, in your church.

Archdeacon
Live here? Where?

Frollo
Anywhere
Just so he's kept locked away
Where no one else can see
The bell tower, perhaps
And who knows, our Lord works in mysterious ways
Even this foul creature may
Yet prove one day to be
Of use to me

Clopin
And Frollo gave the child a cruel name
A name that means half-formed, Quasimodo
Now here is a riddle to guess if you can
Sing the bells of Notre Dame
Who is the monster and who is the man?

Clopin and Chorus
Sing the bells, bells, bells, bells
Bells, bells, bells, bells
Bells of Notre Dame