University of Virginia Library

Scene Fourth.

—The Verdant Valley—On one side the cottage ornée of Sublimus—A brook runs along the centre, in which Chloe and Phillis are fishing.
Chloe.
Air—Chloe—“La Donna è mobile.”

Enter Sublimus.
Sub.
Girls, where's your mother?

Pastora sings without “Under the Greenwood Tree.”
Chloe.
Coming at a wish.

Sub.
She is—and all alive O! like your fish.

Enter Pastora from cottage.
Sub.
Now, my co-partners, in this blest retreat,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than t'other? Don't it beat, for sport and use,
The royal game, as it is called, of goose?

Pas.
I wouldn't change it. Happy is your grace.
Can snap your royal fingers in the face
Of fickle Fortune in so sweet a style.

Sub.
See! I have nearly made this basket while
Our daughters here are catching fish for dinner.

Pas.
And I have been a most industrious spinner;
So hand me over all the fish you can,
And I'll go fry 'em in the frying pan.

Sub.
Ennobling sight! upon a Queen to look
Who from her throne can thus come down to cook!

Pas.
Example bright! to see a King forsaking
The craft of Courts for that of basket-making.

Chloe.
Not to say anything of two Princesses
Catching the fish their royal mother dresses!

Sub.
What has become of Corin, by-the-bye?

Pas.
He's found, perhaps, some other fish to fry.

Sub.
He has been absent longer than he ought.

Pas.
He's absent, probably, from want of thought.

Sub.
I don't know what's come to the boy of late.

Pas.
What he'll come to it's hard to calculate.

Sub.
He won't be quiet in the verdant valley,
But out of bounds the silly youth will sally
Into the wild woods, against brutes much wilder
Drawing his bow.

Pas.
I wish he'd draw it milder.

Sub.
Well, thank the stars! he never draws the long one!
He's truth itself! and that praise is a strong one.

Phil.
He comes!

Chloe.
No! some young woman, I declare!

Sub.
What a fair stranger!

Pas.
What a strange affair.

Enter Princess, as a peasant girl.
Princess.
Pray pardon this intrusion, but I'm told
This is “the Verdant Valley.”

Pas.
To behold
This scene and doubt it, child, would prove that you
Are what the vulgar would call verdant too.

Princess.
Another question, then, to ask I'm bound—
Where is an ancient shepherd to be found
They call Sublimus?

Sub.
That's what they call me—
My wife, my daughters, and my house you see.

Princess.
You, sir, a shepherd! and those ladies fair
Your wife and daughters—all so rich and rare!
I should have thought you gentlefolks!

Pas.
My dear,
All things and folks are gentle you see here.
Lo, here the gentle lark, with gentle lay,
Gently salutes the gentle dawn of day;
The gentle shepherd with his gentle fair
Here tend their gentle flocks with gentle care,
Or gently stray among the gentle trees,
'Mid gentle flowers that woo the gentle breeze.
We even fish with gentles—and we feel
To be ungentle would be ungenteel.

Princess.
“Com' è gentil!”—such exquisite gentility
Induces me to say, with all humility,
That, if you please, I'm come to board and lodge here.

Sub.
The deuce you are! (aside)
She comes some artful dodge here.

Pas.
And pray by whom, miss, are you recommended?

Princess.
A dame by whom I have been much befriended,
The Fairy Amazona.

Sub.
Amazona!
As our friend, also, we are proud to own her,
And place full confidence in her discretion.

Pas.
What is your name, young woman, and profession?

Princess.
My name is Carpillona. I profess
Nothing at all.

Pas.
Then you'll perform no less.
I'm not displeased to light upon one such—
Young people now-a-days profess so much.

Chloe.
Then you can't brew or bake?

Phil.
Or spin or churn?

Princess.
No; but I shall be very glad to learn.

Sub.
She can't speak fairer—nor more fair appear,
And so, fair maid, you're fairly welcome here.
We'll teach you to tend sheep—

Chloe.
For fish to angle—

Phil.
Milk cows, feed chickens—

Pas.
Cook, and wash, and mangle.
And not to sell your mangle, mind, to pay
For a piano you're not born to play.
Oh, there be misses, I have here and there heard,
Play in a style that quite out Erard's Erard.
Pray you avoid it—

Chloe.
Corin comes.

Sub.
At last!

Phil.
How fast he runs!

Pas.
I fear he'll get too fast!

Music—Enter Corin, with a young roe on his shoulders.
Sub.
Why, Corin! What a heat the boy is in!
Sirrah, where have you all the morning been?

Cor.
Hunting.

Pas.
(crosses)
What's that you've on your shoulder got?

Cor.
A roe, that with an arrow I have shot—
I know my father is so fond of venison.

Sub.
Such pious care demands a father's benison!

Chloe.
Here's a young person come with us to live.

(introducing Princess)
Cor.
(starting)
Oh, murder!

All.
(but Princess)
What's the matter?

Cor.
Pray forgive
The sudden transport—something went right through
My heart—

Princess.
(aside)
And something went right through mine, too.

Pas.
You've got the rheumatism, I've no doubt,
Rambling those nasty cold damp rocks about.
I've known a pic-nic in such horrid chasms
Give the whole party an attack of spasms;
Of course they laid it to the lobster salad,
But I am certain when, in book or ballad,
You authors praise such spots in words ecstatic,
That for romantic we should read rheumatic.

Princess.
(aside)
If mine of rheumatism was a touch,
I don't think I should mind it very much.

Cor.
(aside)
Whate'er the pain, I caught it from that face,
And feel 'tis like to be a chronic case.

Princess.
(aside)
Though of young noblemen I've seen so many,
This noble young man's handsomer than any.

Cor.
(aside)
Take all the black and blue eyed beauties round,
She'd beat 'em black and blue, I'd bet a pound!

Pas.
But, bless me, I've been talking, and forgot
I'd never put the dumplings in the pot!
And here's the fish to fry, the cloth to lay.
Come, help me, girls, or we shan't dine to-day.
And, Corin, mind, now, if you feel that pain
About the region of your heart again,
I've got some opodeldoc, and desire
You'll rub your side with it before the fire;
If that will not at once the mischief master,
I shall insist upon a mustard plaster.

Sestette—Pastora, Princess, Chloe, Phillis, Sublimus, Corin—“Kitty Katty Kino.”
Pas.
If once it gets into your bones,
With a rubdum rum rheumatic kino,
It grinds 'em worse than grinding stones,
With a rubdum rum rheumatic kino.

Prin., Cor., Sub.
Sad disaster! Mustard plaster!
Won't do much good, I know!

All.
The cloth go/come and lay,
Or we shan't dine to-day.
With a rubdum Kitty Katty Kino,
Kitty Katty, Kitty Katty Kino!

Exeunt Pastora, Chloe, Phillis, and Princess, into cottage.
Cor.
(aside)
A mustard plaster! Oh my heart! I vow
Something much hotter's drawing it just now
Towards that rustic beauty! Sir, pray who
Is our new lodger?

Sub.
Sir, what's that to you?

Cor.
I beg your pardon, sir, if I'm to blame,
I simply wished to know the lady's name!

Sub.
'Tis Carpillona—so upon that score
Pray don't be simply wishing any more,

Cor.
(aside)
Oh, Carpillona! I am a gone 'coon!
You are the medicine, I am but the spoon!

(Exit)
Sub.
Humph! If my Latin I've not quite lived out,
I think old Ovid something says about
A pain that very difficult to curb is,
And “Nullis medicabilis est herbis.”
That's his disease, and one that 'twould be curst hard
To cure with opodeldoc or with mustard.
Rubbing his side won't touch the peccant part;
'Tis a confirmed affection of the heart.
And young miss seems as poorly as young mister;
“Aye, there's the rub,” and a perpetual blister
For me—for what on earth is to be done?
The boy is only my adopted son;
And if I suffered him this girl to wed,
I might bring—heaven knows what upon my head.
Well, as they both were sent by the same fairy,
She's bound to get us out of this quandary;
So I'll write to her by next magic post.
Re-enter Pastora from house.
Well, is the dinner ready, wife?

Pas.
Almost—
But I've to shew you such a curious thing;
That strange young woman's given me a ring
To buy her better clothes—such as we wear.
And I suspect her habits need repair;
For I'm afraid, and so I think will you be,
She couldn't honestly come by this ruby.

(shews a ring)
Sub.
This ruby! Bless my stars! can such things be?

Pas.
Can you cast any light on what you see?

Sub.
You make me stare, to think, by any light,
That you can on this ruby cast your sight,
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
While mine are blanched like almonds!

Pas.
What wild freaks
Are these, sir? Blanched like almonds! For what reasons?
Here we are out of reach of plots and treasons;
When all is done, you look but on a ring.

Sub.
Look in it, madam! when I touch this spring,
Up, you perceive, the jewel flies, and shews—

Pas.
A miniature!—ah! sure one knows that nose.

Sub.
'Tis mine—so were those curls ere sorrow brought
My gray hairs to a wig!—too dearly bought
At such a price! And oh, my precious eyes!
In them again I feel the waters rise.

Pas.
I too!—for oh, if mine believe I may,
This ring you gave me on our wedding day!
And round the neck 'twas fastened of our daughter,
When the poor infant perished in the water!

Sub.
How came that strange young woman by a jewel
Which conjures up such recollections cruel?

Pas.
She says she found it.

Sub.
She must all declare—

Enter Princess from cottage.
Pas.
She comes; we'll make her tell us when and where.

Duet—Pastora and Sublimus—“Oh, tell me when, and tell me where.”
Oh, tell me when, and tell me where
You found this ruby ring so rare,
Or into trouble this affair
Is likely you to bring;
For it has given us both a shock,
To think a girl, in such a frock,
Not only at our door should knock,
But come with such a ring!

Princess.
Madam, my story in few words is told;
When quite a baby—only six months old—
I had the great misfortune to be washed—

Sub.
Misfortune! to be washed?

Pas.
You would say squashed.

Princess.
No, washed, ma'am, overboard and drown'd.

Pas.
And drown'd!

Sub.
Where?

Princess.
In the water.

Pas.
How, then, above ground,
Have we the pleasure of your conversation?

Princess.
I was indebted for resuscitation
To fishermen for carp, who threw a net in;
But thought all fish whatever they could get in.
They took me for a carp at first—but that
As they had saved me—one must not carp at;
And, as they couldn't either sell or cook me,
Back to the palace, I am told, they took me.

Sub.
How came you on the water?

Princess.
O'er a lake
My parents their escape were forced to make.
The night was dark, the lake was like a sea,
And a big billow roll'd o'er little me.

Pas.
Who were your parents? speak!

Princess.
The King and Queen
Of the Pacific Isles they once had been;
But too pacific, of their throne were tricked out,
By a usurper—now in his turn kicked out.

Pas.
It is! it is! with joy I shall go wild!

Sub.
Away disguise! behold us here, my child!

Princess.
Us, madam! Sir! Oh, you don't mean—
you can't—ah!

Sub.
I am King Placid!

Pas.
I, Queen Dominanta!

Princess.
(embracing them)
Ma! Pa!

Sub.
O, nature!—wondrous is thy power!
I feel—it must be past the usual hour
At which we dine; and this sweet child, my dear,
Has not had bit or sup since she's been here.

Enter Phillis and Chloe from cottage.
Phil. and Chloe.
Dinner's on table.

Pas.
They, too, must be told.
Daughters, your eldest sister here behold!

Chloe.
Our eldest sister!

Phil.
Who was food for fishes!

Pas.
Now to return the compliment she wishes,
And feed on some of them.

Chloe.
Oh, this is prime!
Sister, you have just come in pudding time.

Princess.
(kissing them)
I have supped full of happiness so sweet,
I only feel that all you I could eat,
Nor have for pudding left the smallest corner.
Where is my brother?

All.
Brother!

Sub.
(to Pastora)
We must warn her.

Princess.
Yes! Brother! Oh, I long to kiss him too!

Pas.
Kiss him! ahem! No, darling, that won't do.
He's not your brother, save by our adoption,
Therefore, to kiss him you have not the option.

Sub.
Nor does he know our real names or quality,
So don't imprudently upset our polity.

Pas.
You've only to remember just at present
You're a Princess, and he is but a peasant.

Princess.
(aside)
Not my own brother! Well, it's curious, though
I almost think I like him better so.

Quintette—Princess, Pastora, Sublimus, Chloe, Phillis—“Summer Flowers.”
Princess.
With joy the hours too fast will fly!

Pas.
Our darling cast up high and dry!

All.
O, such a happy family
Who wouldn't pay to view?

Princess.
Would I four pairs of arms had got,
To hug at once the whole dear lot!
But, as it happens I have not,
My best with these I'll do.
Papa! mamma!
With joy the hours, &c.

(Exeunt into cottage)