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Colombine

Chapter 13: A ZONG TO ZING-OH!
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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.

A ZONG TO ZING-OH!

When the zun beyond the Beacon be a-zettin’
And everything’s as quiet as can be,
By the gate to varmur’s meddy,
That old gate zo vurm and zteddy,
You be pretty zure uv vindin’ Jim and me.
When the mists along the valley be uprisin’
And the nightingale’s a-zingin’ in the tree;
When the peewits be a-zquawkin’
Uz don’t waste no time a-talkin’
Time’s a vasty zight too short sez Jim an’ me
With the honeyzuckle zcent zo thick as treacle,
And the chestnut blossoms droppin’ onto we;
As us zets zo close together,
Why zometimes I wonders whether
Jim ull zet that close in Paradise to me.
When the clocks down in the village be a-strikin’
And darkness comes a-creepin’ up the lea,
Then, though us be zeldom ready,
Us must leave old varmur’s meddy,
Or the volk ull all be wonderin’ where us be.