Chorus.

Follow, we follow, we give thee chase. [Entering.

Deid. Follow me, follow.

Ch. We come, we come.

Deid. Here is my home; I choose this tree: this is the ground Where we will make our play. Stand all around, And let us beg the dwellers in this glade To bear us company. Be not afraid, (I will begin) sweet birds, whose flowery songs Sprinkle with joy the budding boughs above, The airy city where your light folk throngs, Each with his special exquisite of love,— Red-throat and white-throat, finch and golden-crest, Deep-murmuring pigeon, and soft-cooing dove,— Unto his mate addrest, that close in nest Sits on the dun and dappled eggs all day. Come red-throat, white-throat, finch and golden-crest, Let not our merry play drive you away.

Ch. And ye brown squirrels, up the rugged bark That fly, and leap from bending spray to spray, And bite the luscious shoots, if I should mark, Slip not behind the trunks, nor hide away.— Ye earthy moles, that burrowing in the dark Your glossy velvet coats so much abuse;— Ye watchful dormice, and small skipping shrews, Stay not from foraging; dive not from sight.— Come moles and mice, squirrels and skipping shrews, Come all, come forth, and join in our delight.

Deid. Enough. Now while the Dryads of the hill Interpret to the creatures our good will, Listen, and I will tell you a new game That we can play together.—As hither I came, I marked that in the hazel copse below, Where we so oft have hidden and loved to go To hear the night-bird, or to take unseen Our noontide walks beneath the tangled screen, The woodcutter hath been with cruel blade, And of the tasselled plumes his strewage made: And by the mossy moots the covert shorn Now lieth low in swathe like autumn corn. These ere he lop and into bundles bind, Let us go choose the fairest we may find, And of their feathered orphan saplings weave A bowery dome, until the birds believe We build a nest, and are come here to dwell. Hie forth, ye Scyrian maids; do as I tell: And having built our bower amid the green, We will choose one among us for a queen, And be the Amazons, whose maiden clan By broad Thermodon dwells, apart from man; Who rule themselves, from his dominion free, And do all things he doth, better than he. First, Amazons, your queen: to choose her now: Who shall she be?

Ch. Thyself, thou. Who but thou? Deidamia.

Deid. Where then were the play, If I should still command, and ye obey?

Ch. Choose thou for all.

Deid. Nor will I name her, lest Ye say my favour sets one o’er the rest.

Ch. Thy choice is ours.

Deid. If then I gave my voice For Pyrrha?

Ch. Pyrrha, Pyrrha is our choice. Hail, Pyrrha, hail! Queen of the Amazons!

Deid. (To Ach.). To thee I abdicate my place, and give My wreath for crown. Long, my queen, mayst thou live! Now, fellow-subjects, hie we off at once.