Fine singers we have, both woman and man,
Gallop O! fly away! jump!
They all bravura, as fast as they can,
They mock Catalani,
Up long laney,
Bawling,
Squalling,
Galloping all away! drag and tail,--die away--plump!
They come on the stage, so fine and so gay,
Gallop O! fly away! jump!
They mount in the air, and they ride away,
They mock Catalani, &c.
They canter one off, all into the dark,
Gallop O! fly away! jump!
The Jack-bottom sings, instead of the lark,
They mock Catalani, &c.
They let off a trill, and it asks the way,
Gallop O! fly away! jump!
They quiver and shake--oh! I bid you good day,
They mock Catalani, &c.
Such singing I guess, does nobody good,
Gallop O! fly away! jump!
Notes wander about, like the babes in the wood,
They mock Catalani, &c.
I sing by myself, but pray take a peep,
Gallop O! fly away! jump!
You’ll soon find singers, to sing you to sleep,
They mock Catalani, &c.
[_Exit Song._
From the same piece there may be another “seasonable” extract, for we
are at that period of the year when the chase, which was once a
necessary pursuit, is indulged as an amusement. In Von Weber’s “Der
Freischütz,” the casting of the fifth bullet by Caspar is accompanied by
“a wild chase in the clouds;” the writer who travestied that opera, as
it was represented at the Lyceum theatre, represents this operation to
be thus accompanied:--
_Neighing and barking_ ‘old clothes!’--_Skylarking_--_A wild chase in
the clouds_; an ‘Etherial Race--inhabitants of air,’ consisting of
skeleton dogs muzzled, skeleton horses, and skeleton horsemen, _with
overalls and preservers, and_ MR. GREEN from the city, are _in pursuit
of a skeleton stag_ ‘to Bachelor’s-hall,’ _with_ grave _music
accompanying the following_--