“See where he comes, with visage long and grim, Whining with nasal twang his impious hymn! See where he stands, nor bows the suppliant knee, He apes the Publican, but acts the Pharisee— Snatching the sword of just Jehovah's wrath, And damning all who leave _his_ thorny path. Now by this wand which Hermes, with a smile, Gave to Ulysses in the Circean isle, I will again exert the power divine, And change to Britons these disgusting swine.” She waves the sprig of Moly over the head of the Puritan three or four times, who, sensible of the force of the charm, cries out:— “Hah! what is this! strange feelings fill my heart; Avaunt thee, tempter! I defy thy art— Up, Israel! hasten to your tents, and smite These sons of Belial, and th' Amalekite,— Philistia is upon us with Goliah, Come, call the roll from twelfth of Nehemiah,[31] Gird up your loins and buckle on your sword, Fight with your prayers, your powder, and the word. How, General 'Faint-not,'[32] has your spirit sunk? Let not God's soldier yield unto a Monk.”[33] Then, as the charm increases, he continues in a feebler voice: “Curse on the tempter's art! that heathenish Moly Has in an instant changed my nature wholly; The past, with all its triumphs, is a trance, My legs, once taught to kneel, incline to dance, My voice, which to some holy psalm belongs, Is twisting round into these carnal songs. Alas! I'm lost! New thoughts my bosom swell; Habakuk, Barebones, Cromwell, fare ye well. Break up conventicles, I do insist, Sing the doxology and be dismissed.” As he finishes the last line, the heavy roll of thunder is heard, and suddenly the doors of a dungeon in the background fly open, from which emerges the impersonation of Christmas, followed by the Queen of May. Christmas is represented by a jolly, round-bellied, red-nosed, laughing old fellow, dressed in pure white. His hair is thickly powdered, and his face red with rouge. In his right hand he holds a huge mince-pie, which ever and anon he gnaws with exquisite humour, and in his left is a bowl of generous wassail, from which he drinks long and deeply. His brows are twined with misletoe and ivy, woven together in a fantastic wreath, and to his hair and different parts of his dress are attached long pendants of glass, to represent icicles. As he advances to the right of the stage, there descends from the awning above an immense number of small fragments of white paper, substitutes for snow-flakes, with which that part of the floor is soon completely covered.