Gynecia Lines Head Over Heels

M: Gift from the Gods, of their truth it’s a sign.

The beat heats our grapes and turns them to wine.

Mus: But with a youthful…Right here.

I bid thee HALT and peel thy earlobe / From my stainless daughter!

Mus: As moisture to…for the gods to ope!

What was that? His speech doth scissor hearing.

Phil: When unnerved, he speaks in the sheperd’s tongue.

Doth not Thy flock in an adjacent meadow / Repose? Young rustic, shepherd not my lamb / But tend to thine own precious livelihood!

Phil: So harshly you abuse my childhood friend!

‘Twas a mistake to keep you close together, / Tomboy twins, a doubled nut in the same shell, / For now his eyes do kindle with romance. / You cannot wed beneath your station.d

Phil: Why?

Custom —

Phil: You mean father —

Won’t — P

Phil: Permit it? How hap’t it he became so unyielding?

It comes with the crown, I think. And offspring. / Too many turns of the hourglass make / Us forget the unscripted pleasures of / Free-feeling youth and doth render us all / Conservative in thought and policy.

Phil: If so fixed remain his policies Then would I remain a girl forever!

Such a ruckus from my sweet peacekeeper! / And on such a day too—the Tourney for / Your sister’s treasur’d hand begins post haste. / Her willful nature and her unrivall’d / Beauty a trying combination make.

P: Mother! (second one)

You do realize this is year five, child.

P: Such pressure contradicts consideration…no further my Appearance!

Compose thyself and finish your toilette.

(in song beautiful)

Divinest Pamela, I now reveal / This year’s parade of very virile men…

B: The blame for this disaster is yours, wife!

Your umbrage is unseemly, Basilius.

B: “Arcadia could lose its famous beat”…Is what makes Arcadia Arcadia!

List. “No true paradise in place remains / Forever. If you cherish your people. / And family, and wish the beat to keep, / Avoid chaos and mass extinction, you’ll / Hasten to Delphi’s temple to hear my / Prophecies.”B

B: “Chaos? Mass extinction?”

Go we now to thwart these portents most dire! / Dametas, prepare my portage.

B: Thy zeal, Gynecia,…resideth with the Male.

Promise me to humble thyself before / This Pythio. Listen and heed for once.

B: I’m back!

Good husband! What was the Prophecy?

B: A happy end for all…make haste and fly Arcaida.

Make haste and fly? NOW? What said Pythio?

B: What said the Oracle? Well might you ask.

Ask I do.

B: And most prettily too…with great curlicues of gesture—

Cut to the verb, husband dear!

B: The verb spake To me was kill.

Kill? Kill what?

Dametas: A golden stag.

A stag?

B: And forever.

There’s something off about this bus’ness.

(Get up and go)

Where go we? Tell me…Hast thou gone deaf?

B: What offense did my ears afflict that they Be so assailed? Stop thy clamor, shepherd!

Most heavenly! I felt the gadding ivy, / And laughing-eyed udders swollen with milk. / Why should she not marry the shepherd if / To her he brings all joying in their term?

(Scene 4)

Once more, dear chuck: Tell me of the Oracle. / Your silence on the subject flouts me from / All pleasantry. ‘Tis but the latest of / Your masculine conspiraces.

B: Desist!…Who feasts on the liver of Prometheus.

And I shall be as relentless as that / Eagle until you reveal the prophecy!

B: My servants…Amidst the forest there we shall make camp.

And duck you still—

B: By thy silence…if you art angry.

Nay, I do / But share a moment with myself; I trust / She will listen.

B: My ears are tun’d to thy ever wish, Spoken and unspoken.

If that were true / I would know why to Bohemia we / Travel without seeming purpose.

B: Amazonian warrior…this wretched decapitate!

Valiant damsel, when I find my breath / I’ll spend it all on gratitude.

Mus: I’m sorry for…these sisters.

Oh my heavens—how I blush!

P: Indeed! A flash…unless thou hast a—

The soothing trumpets of the night doth sound. / Pamela, quick! Into thy gown for bed / Cleophila, would you mind pouring the / Water for my bath?

(Scene 9 after Automatic Rainy Day)

How the Amazon has made our spirits / Soar these last three weeks. Though she’s cultured not, / Her cultivated countenance has / A whip-like wit which wisely woundeth none. / In motion, she is Terpsichore’s changeling / And teaches us many modish patterns.

(In Cool Jerk) P:…No, Go ahead. Dance the night away.

Come take me for a turn.

(After Cool Jerk)

This caprine caper is good for the glutes. / Thanks to you, light and lively Amazon.

Mus: O posies verdant…To slake thy thirsty roots.

Most well-gifted / Amazon of all females!

Mus: My torrent…And a shake. Ah!

But hold! She is a counterfeit of she! / No woman but a masculine intruder — / Oh quick now, I must raise a loud alarum! / But then again what sport! I do admire / His insubordinate and feminine / Endeavors. Of what mischief is he made! / Virility doth show itself in men / Who misbehave. And I have long adored / A male of reckless quality. In truth / I thought I married such a man, but a / Love that began in wild abandon now / Delivers much efficiency. Oh Hell, / Am I beguiled by this scalawag?

Phil: Nay!…Thou shalt deliver it.

I knew a woman once, and once she knew / An untamed Love where Apprehension grew / But imperceptibly, in small events; / The changes choked her childish Innocence. / Would I could tell thee that I knew her now; / I lost her, though, along the way somehow. / (beat) I have remain’d ever true to the King. / But he to me? Fie, men are men and tend / Not to halt the tenor of their spray. / But we women? Why stay we true, as new / Passion dwindles over time to routine / Play? Am I woman who could from her husband stray? (decides) Only if the occasion arises. E

Ensemble: Oh! Skidmarks on my heart!

Yes?

Mus: You are the “she”…doth quaver.

Quaver not! With dizziness / Made of delight, thee I receive! Stay close — / She opens the letter and reads. / “My dearest one, forgive my anxious hand. / Thy company reveals a desert in / My heart, and in’t I welcome thy oasis. / I am a man—” That much I knew! “—who’s new / To metaphor. So if my double meaning / Offendeth thee, I beg thee burn this note.” (lowers letter) What’s made of fire cannot be burned.

Mus: What?

Appreciating thy formality, / I shall respond in kind. Do stand apart. / I hope my flair for prose has not grown rusty.

(After singing first verse of This Old Feeling)

Oh, Cleophila! Hence my heart dispatch.

B: Oh heark! Is that the screeching of an owl?

O heark! Is that the cooing of a dove?

B: ‘Tis dark!

‘Tis dark!B

B: Is’t thee?

‘Tis me!

B: ‘Tis we!

My secret gave you penetrate—

B: Oh how…Hold me, Love!

I’ll fetch a torch so I might gaze on thee.

B: Nay, should I know…vestments and conjoin!

Our hurricane of love blows shame away!

B: Fly you straight to Hades, woman!

Coward! / Thou SHALT NOT give thy back and stomp away!

B: ‘Twas honesty that led me…Armageddon.

An “Armageddon” is it? Rather say / “Thy Wife is Standing Up to Thy Control.”

B: Clap clap clap…Eager lovers.

My sweet sarcastic spouse, / So quick dost thou assume my innocence / When just as fast I’ve made of thee a cuckhold!

(at same time)

Cleophila!

B: Weren’t you just in—

Weren’t you just near—

B: Weren’t you under—

You mean you weren’t—

B: Adultery committed I with HER! My Love, what point is there in hiding now?

Oh what?

Phil: — it spins—

But nay—

M: Of course!

He’s mine!

P: How queer!

But wait—

B: Hold! Never…’Twas certainly woman I—

As strangers we renewed our love. How sad.

Mus: My lord, what are you doing?

Husband!

(Basilius singing)…would tear my world apart!

What means this rash affront, Basilius?

(Basilius singing)…You;ve got me acting like a fool!

Are you mad? Cease this broil!

(Musidorius gets stabbed)

Foul, foulest, foolish villain!

Phil: O…in these bellows not a wind doth move.

Lo, Now’s a tableau grim, overweening. (to Basilius) The tragic consequences of your mad wrath.

B: I am no longer King…Until my time on earth is cut in twain.

‘Tis unprecedented. But I accept.

Dametas: ‘Tis the permanent distemperature / Predicted by the Oracle.

The what?

Dametas: Pythio has won, and our beat have we lost for good.

“No true paradise in place / remains forever” spake the Oracle. / We must craft a new beat anew from our hearts / Within, and let a new Arcadia / Commence—one more tolerant and generous. / Let us pray that the heavens will steer us / From suffering and injustice, and guide / Us to our better, nay, to our best selves. / I shall now, hand to heart, begin.

Dametas: I did. ‘Twas an utter fabrication.

Though well-horn’d, methinks the glitt’ry beast doth / Come in peace. O veiled one, await we all / Your antler’d auguries.

B: ‘Twas well spoke.

List! (pause) methinks he might be diffident of speech.

B: ‘Twould seem…I wish you well.

Hold. / Under my supervision I predict / A gentler man will over time evolve.

B: One who promises to listen more, and love thee most.

Twas well spoke, Basilius, and now I / Grow weary of travel. The gates of Bohemia / Must surely be near to us. Let’s away!

(Scene 6 Skidmarks on my Heart)

It seems we have traveled in a circle.

Pythio: Go round and round—

Light light and light—