University of Virginia Library

Scene Fifth.

—The Whispering Gallery as before—Florina discovered.
Flor.
My heart, suspended betwixt hope and fear,
Hangs like Mohammed's intermediate bier.
If Charming's ears against me still are barred up,
I've no more eggs to shell out when I'm hard up.
But hark! again, a footstep! fleeter, faster!
It is the man—that is, it is the master!

Enter Charming.
Charm.
Florina!

Flor.
Charming!

Charm.
'Tis my long-lost treasure!

Flor.
My heart intoxicated reels with pleasure!

Charm.
My pulses all ecstatically tingle!
And art thou true?

Flor.
As truth!

Charm.
And single?

Flor.
Single!

Charm.
Come to my arms, and be as dear as ever!
But did you never love another?

Flor.
Never!

Charm.
Nor lend sharp knives to lacerate my breast?

Flor.
No, never, not by no means, I protest!

Charm.
Enchanting fact, although indifferent grammar.
They told me, then, a most outrageous crammer.
But I believe you, my sweet girl, with joy!

Flor.
And I—oh! I believe you too, my boy!

Charm.
I hug my little, but my precious, store!
What now shall part us?

Flor.
Nothing, never more!

[Charm., Flor.]
Duet—“Suono il trombe intrepida.”

Enter King Henpeckt, Queen, Troutina, and Guards.
Queen.
Indeed! we'll soon see that!

Charm.
The Queen!

Flor.
My father!

Charm.
Madam, I am surprised—

Queen.
You are, sir, rather!
And in good time to frustrate all your plans.
Henpeckt, I bid you to forbid the banns!

King.
Daughter, you hear my wife is quite forbidding—
That is, for bidding me—

Charm.
I'll soon be ridding
The palace of these meddlers—make them sing
Another song. 'Sdeath! am I not the King?

Queen.
But I'm vice-regent over you, you'll see.

King.
Yes, 'gad, she was that always over me!

Charm.
By this affront I quite aback am taken!

Flor.
And I have no more eggs to save my bacon!

Charm.
Well, I'll die game! my guards!

Queen.
They will not stir;
You quite forget that you're “non compos,” sir.
Great Hocus Pocus soon will make you mum.

King.
And here I take it is the doctor come.

Music—Hocus Pocus rises.
Hocus.
Yes, I have come from a long consultation,
Upon this sad case of hallucination,
And am compelled to give the patient over.
No medicine, Ovid says, can cure a lover,
So let them marry, if they wish it still,
If that won't cure them both, why nothing will!

Charm.
You hear the learned doctor, what he says?

King.
I must admit it answer'd in my case.

Queen.
What, let King Charming marry any other
Than my Troutina?

Enter Fairy Soussio.
Sous.
Never!

Trout.
Here's godmother!
Now we shall see!

Sous.
Is Soussio's power defied?
Six moons have passed! Troutina is the bride
Of Charming!

Charm.
No!

Flor.
No!

Hocus.
No!

Sous.
What, do you back
Out of your own proposal? Hence, vile quack!

Hocus.
Quack! vengeance!

Sous.
Upon you mine first shall fall!
Quake earth! down palace! crush them one and all!

Charming and Florina rush behind pedestal—Thunder, lightning, crash—pillars fall, pedestal sinks—Scene changes to the throne of Fan-sea—Charming and Florina are protected by Hocus Pocus and Fairy Azurine.
Hocus.
(to Soussio)
Ah, would you? that is easier said than done!

Azur.
The odds are 'gainst you, sister, two to one!
Ruin may seize all else the earth above,
But indestructible are Truth and Love.

Finale—“Morris Dance.”
Flor.
Our trials o'er, but one fear more
Is now my heart alarming—
It is that those in yonder rows,
May not approve King Charming.

Charm.
Say “yes,” kind friends, for goodness sake,
And nightly here come swarming;
Your magic hands can truly make
Immortal our King Charming.

Tableau—Flourish.