Z 629 The Fairy Queen I, 7: Scene Of The Drunken Poet. [Neapolitan translation]

BLIND POET

Fill up the Bowl, then, &c.

FAIRY

Trip it, trip it in a Ring;

Around this Mortal Dance, and Sing.

POET

Enough, enough,

We must play at Blind Man’s Buff.

Turn me round, and stand away,

I’ll catch whom I may.

SECOND FAIRY

About him go, so, so, so,

Pinch the Wretch from Top to Toe;

Pinch him forty, forty times,

Pinch till he confess his Crimes.

POET

Hold, you damn’d tormenting Punck,

I confess…

BOTH FAIRIES

What, what, &c.

POET

I’m Drunk, as I live Boys, Drunk.

BOTH FAIRIES

What art thou, speak?

POET

If you will know it,

I am a scurvy Poet.

FAIRIES

Pinch him, pinch him for his Crimes.

His Nonsense, and his Dogrel Rhymes.

POET

Oh! oh! oh!

FIRST FAIRY

Confess more, more!

POET

I confess I’m very poor.

Nay prithee do not pinch me so,

Good dear Devil let me go;

And as I hope to wear the Bays,

I’ll write a Sonnet in thy Praise.

CHORUS

Drime ‘em hence, away, away,

Let ‘em sleep till break of Day.