Colombine

Chapter 20: TREASON AND PLOT

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

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.

TREASON AND PLOT

When I am very, very rich,

And very famous, too,

I’ll take a cab to Regent’s Park,

And walk into the Zoo

With quite a consequential air,

For I shall be the richest there.

And in a lordly way I’ll take

A shilling from my purse,

And buy the biggest rattle-snake

To carry home to Nurse,

And, as she’s very short of breath,

Perhaps ’twill frighten her to death.