Colombine

Chapter 12: THE BURYIN’

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About This Book

Set on a windswept hill that hides ancient Roman traces and fairy rings, the fantasy play blends rustic vernacular and commedia dell'arte figures to stage scenes of memory, folklore, and romantic rivalry. A fairylike maid meets two country labourers, recounts the site's layered past, and foretells a comic, ritualized duel between Harlequin and Pierrot for her affection. Interwoven prologue poems and stage tableaux alternate lyrical reflections on time and place with light comedy, costume spectacle, and debates about love, fate, and the endurance of ritual. The piece balances pastoral atmosphere, nostalgia, and theatricality in brief, episodic scenes voiced in verse and colloquial dialogue.

THE BURYIN’

The mists be on the river bed,

The roses all be gone;

And here be I, about to die,

Wi’ harvest coming on.

Dear Lord, I’ve trapsed some weary miles,

I’ll be main glad to rest awhiles.

The folk’ll soon be in the fields,

A-getting in the grain.

For most of those, the time I’ve chose

Be awkerd in the main.

Though not so bad, ’tis sure, for they

As be a-working by the day.

September be a better month

For all the carter men;

And when I die don’t signify,

So let I bide till then.

The wagons’ll be standing by,

And there’ll be time to bury I.