WS Gilbert A Mid-Victorian Aristophanes - Haddon Hall

28 THE ENGLISH ARISTOPHANES
Myrine. How old wast thou, Cynisca?
Cynisca. I was ten!
Well — in due course I reached eleven, still
I saw no reason to regret the step;
Twelve — thirteen — fourteen saw me still unchanged;
At fifteen it occurred to me one day
That marriage was a necessary ill
Inflicted by the gods to punish us.
And to evade it were impiety;
At sixteen the idea became more fixed;
At seventeen I was convinced of it.
Pygmalion. In the meantime she’d seen Pygmalion.
The conclusion here too is equally characteristic both in form and meaning. In the Wicked
World again the fairy-queen Seline protests to Ethais her “strange, irrational belief” in him.
“Is that so strange?” answers her knight, and this is his adorer’s explanation:
Seline. Nay, my love, reflect,
I am a woman, and thou art a man;
Well, thou art comely, so in truth am I;
We meet and love each other —
And why?
Because I see in thee, or thou in me,
Astounding virtue, brilliant intellect,
Great self-denial, venerable years,
Rare scholarship, or godly talent?
No! Because, forsooth, we're comely specimens
Not of our own, but Nature’s industry!
He is convinced that vanity plays a large part in love. We get Maggie in Engaged
flattering her face in the brook; and Yum-Yum is an ingenue self-complacent to a marvel:
Yum-Yum. The sun, whose rays are all ablaze with ever-living glory,
Does not deny his Majesty — he scorns to tell a story.
He don’t exclaim, “I blush for shame, so kindly be indulgent.”
But, fierce and bold, in fiery gold, he glories all effulgent!
I mean to rule the earth. as he the sky —
We really know our worth, the sun and I!