“You soldiers, there,
Who court the fair,
I pray you make one trial.
Why, sure as fate,
Sure as I’m great,
You’ll ignore the word denial
Thank you; and you,
Four crowns, ’twill do.
I am great Dulcamara,
But two? take three!
Cash hand to me!
I’m famed in Carrara.
“Oh, every one, or old, or young, or you of middle age,
To do all things—I don’t care what—I doctor do engage.
Grow rich, grow poor, grow young, grow old, I’m Doctor Dulcamara,
Famed north, famed south, and as I’ve said, I think, in far Carrara.
“You want a head;
No sooner said,
Than done—if I’m your doctor.
Your skin, I ween,
I’ll color green
Or make you look a Chocktaw.
But mind you all,
Both great and small,
Don’t draw away afraid, oh!
The money bring
For every thing,
Dulcamara must be paid, oh!”
And after this happy conclusion, who shall say there is not some virtue in the Elixir of Love.
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA. (Rossini).
THE BARBER OF SEVILLE.
CHAPTER I.
The barber, Figaro, was, in his way, a blessing.
I don’t mean to say for one moment that he was at all equal to any one benison uttered by any one ecclesiastic in the quaint old city of Seville; yet I do assert, and plainly, he was a blessing—Figaro, barber and bleeder of Seville.
For, besides being a barber, a Spanish barber, Figaro was a bleeder; and in Figaro’s days, barbers were of infinitely more importance than they are now.