The third act is of gigantic length, and deals with giants. There is
mourning in Tartary. David has killed the king’s son in a tournament,
and the king remarks, like a retired apothecary, that “Time’s plaster
must draw the sore before he can feel peace again.” To punish David, he
is compelled to undertake the destruction of the enchanter Ormandine,
who lived in a cavern fortress with “some selected friends.” The prize
of success is the reversion of the kingdom of Tartary to the Welsh
knight. The latter goes upon his mission, but he is so long about it
that our old friend Chorus enters, to explain what he affirms they
have not time to act--namely, the great deeds of St. George, who, as
we learn, had slain the never-to-be-forgotten dragon, rescued Sabrina,
been cheated of his reward, and held in prison seven years upon bread
and water. His squire, Suckabus, alludes to giants whom he and his
master had previously slain, and whose graves were as large as Tothill
Fields. He also notices “Ploydon’s law,” and other matters, that could
hardly have been contemporaneous with the palmy days of the kingdom of
Tartary. Meanwhile, David boldly assaults Ormandine, but the enchanter
surrounds him with some delicious-looking nymphs, all thinly clad and
excessively seductive; and we are sorry to say that the Welsh champion,
not being cavalierly mounted on proper principles, yields to seduction,
and after various falls under various temptations, is carried to bed by
the rollicking nymph Drunkenness.
But never did good, though fallen, men want for a friend at a pinch.
St. George is in the neighborhood; and seedy as he is after seven
years in the dark, with nothing more substantial by way of food than
bread, and nothing more exhilarating for beverage than _aqua pura_, the
champion of England does David’s work, and with more generosity than
justice, makes him a present of the enchanter’s head. David presents
the same to the King of Tartary, that, according to promise pledged in
case of such a present being made, he may be proclaimed heir-apparent
to the Tartarian throne. With this bit of cheating, the long third act
comes to an end.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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