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Colombine

Chapter 14: SONG
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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.

SONG

Long ago,
(How long ago I really don’t know;)
A kingfisher lived in a valley of green,
The finest kingfisher that ever was seen—
In that little green valley I know.
Silent and slow
All in a row, buttercups grow.
One day the kingfisher selected his queen,
And the bride wore a costume of purple and green
’Neath the willows that stand in a row.
Heigho!
(As the years go, still the streams flow)
The whole of this summer they haven’t been seen,
And a wood-pecker reigns in that valley serene.
Where they’ve gone to I really don’t know.