But, if thou'lt stay with me, my only care
Shall be to please and make thee love to stay,
With music, song, and dance
* * * * *
But, if you go, nor music, song, nor dance,
* * * * *
If thou art studious, I will read
Thee tales of pleasing woe—
If thou art sad, I'll kiss away
The tears…. that flow.
If thou would'st play, I'll kiss thee till I blush,
Then hide that blush upon thy breast,
If thou would'st sleep….
Shall rock thy aching head to rest.
"Hunts. My soul's wonder, I will never leave thee.
"(The Dance.—Allemande by two Bears.)
"Enter PEVIDOR.
"Pev. So fond, so soon! I cannot bear to see it. What ho, within (Devils enter.) secure him. (Seize and bind the Huntsman.)"
The Duke or sovereign of the country, where these events are supposed to take place, arrives at the head of a military force, for the purpose of investing the haunted wood, and putting down, as he says, those "lawless renegades, who, in infernal masquerade, make a hell around him." He is also desirous of consulting the holy hermit of the wood, and availing himself of his pious consolations and prayers—being haunted with remorse for having criminally gained possession of the crown by contriving the shipwreck of the rightful heir, and then banishing from the court his most virtuous counsellors. In addition to these causes of disquietude, he has lately lost, in a mysterious manner, his only son, who, he supposes, has fallen a victim to these Satanic outlaws, but who, on the contrary, it appears, has voluntarily become an associate of their band, and is amusing himself, heedless of his noble father's sorrow, by making love, in the disguise of a dancing bear, to a young village coquette of the name of Mopsa. A short specimen of the manner in which this last farcical incident is managed, will show how wide even Sheridan was, at first, of that true vein of comedy, which, on searching deeper into the mine, he so soon afterwards found:—
"SCENE.—The Inside of the Cottage.—MOPSA, LUBIN (her father), and COLIN (her lover), discovered.
"Enter PEVIDOR, leading the Bear, and singing.