3rd scene
(The bar. The Manager, getting drunk)
Manager
Thou gav'st me leave to kiss,
Thou gav'st me leave to woo;
Thou mad'st me think, by this
And that, thou lov'dst me too.
But I shall ne'er forget
How, for to make thee merry,
Thou mad'st me chop, but yet
Another snapped the cherry. (Robert Herrick, 1591-1674)
(enter Strephon and Alexis)
Strephon (to Alexis)
By heavens! 'Twas bravely done
First to attempt the chariot of the sun
And then to fall like Phaeton. (John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, 1647-1680)
Alexis
Thus ends my love, but this doth grieve me most,
That so it ends, but that ends too, this yet,
Besides the wishes, hopes and time I lost,
Troubles my mind awhile, that I am set
Free, worse then denied: I can neither boast
Choice nor success, as my case is, nor get
Pardon from my self, that I loved not
A better mistress, or her worse; this debt
Only's her due, still, that she be forgot
Ere changed, lest I love none; this done, the taint
Of foul inconstancy is cleared at least
In me, there only rests but to unpaint
Her form in my mind, that so dispossessed
It be a temple, but without a saint. (Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury, 1582-1648)
Manager
Against the charms our bullocks have
How weak all human skill is!
Since they can make a man a slave
To such a bitch as Willis.
Whom that I may describe throughout,
Assist me bawdy powers:
I'll write upon a double clout,
And dip my pen in flowers.
Her look's demurely impudent,
Ungainly beautiful,
Her modesty is insolent,
Her mirth is pert and dull.
A prostitute of all the town,
And yet with no man friends,
She rails and scolds when she lies down,
And curses when she spends.
Bawdy in thoughts, precise in words,
Ill-natured, and a whore,
Her belly is a bag of turds,
And her cunt's a common shore. (John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, 1647-1680)
Alexis
I will not love one minute more, I swear,
No, not a minute; not a sigh or tear
Thou get'st from me, or one kind look again,
Though thou shouldst court me to 't and wouldst begin.
I will not think of thee but as men do
Of debts and sins, and then I'll curse thee too:
For thy sake woman shall be now to me
Less welcome, than at midnight ghosts shall be:
I'll hate so perfectly, that it shall be
Treason to love that man that loves a she;
Nay, I will hate the very good, I swear,
That's in thy sex, because it doth lie there;
Their very virtue, grace, discourse, and wit,
And all for thee; what, wilt thou love me yet? (Sir John Suckling, 1609-1642)
Alexis and Manager
To my revenge and to her desperate fears
Fly, thou made bubble of my sighs and tears.
In the wild air when thou hast rolled about,
And, like a blasting planet, found her out,
Stoop, mount, pass by to take her eye, then glare
Like to a dreadful comet in the air:
Next, when thou dost perceive her fixed sight
For thy revenge to be most opposite,
Then, like a globe or ball of wild-fire, fly,
And break thyself in shivers on her eye. (Robert Herrick, 1591-1674)
8. The Kingfisher
(Baritone)
So when the shadows laid asleep
From underneath these Banks do creep,
And on the river as it flows
With Eben shuts begin to close;
The modest halcyon comes in sight,
Flying betwixt the day and night;
And such an horror calm and dumb,
Admiring nature does benum.
The viscous air, wheres'ere she fly,
Follows and sucks her azure dye;
The gellying stream compacts below,
If it might fix her shadow so;
The stupid fishes hang, as plain
As flies in crystal overt'ane;
And men the silent scene assist,
Charm'd with the sapphire-winged mist.
(Andrew Marvell, 1621-1678)
