STREPH. Mighty protectress, hasten to my aid! (Enter Fairies, tripping, headed by Celia, Leila, and Fleta, and followed by Queen.) CHORUS Tripping hither, tripping thither. OF Nobody knows why or whither; FAIRIES Why you want us we don't know, But you've summoned us, and so Enter all the little fairies To their usual tripping measure! To oblige you all our care is— Tell us, pray, what is your pleasure! STREPH. The lady of my love has caught me talking to another— PEERS. Oh, fie! young Strephon is a rogue! STREPH. I tell her very plainly that the lady is my mother— PEERS. Taradiddle, taradiddle, tol lol lay! STREPH. She won't believe my statement, and declares we must be parted, Because on a career of double-dealing I have started, Then gives her hand to one of these, and leaves me broken-hearted— PEERS. Taradiddle, taradiddle, tol lol lay! QUEEN. Ah, cruel ones, to separate two lovers from each other! FAIRIES. Oh, fie! our Strephon's not a rogue! QUEEN. You've done him an injustice, for the lady is his mother! FAIRIES. Taradiddle, taradiddle, tol lol lay! LORD CH. That fable perhaps may serve his turn as well as any other. (Aside.) I didn't see her face, but if they fondled one another, And she's but seventeen—I don't believe it was his mother! Taradiddle, taradiddle. ALL. Tol lol lay! LORD TOLL. I have often had a use For a thorough-bred excuse Of a sudden (which is English for "repente"), But of all I ever heard This is much the most absurd, For she's seventeen, and he is five-and-twenty! ALL. Though she is seventeen, and he is four or five-and-twenty! Oh, fie! our Strephon is a rogue! LORD MOUNT. Now, listen, pray to me, For this paradox will be Carried, nobody at all contradicente. Her age, upon the date Of his birth, was minus eight, If she's seventeen, and he is five-and-twenty! PEERS and FAIRIES. If she is seventeen, and he is only five-and-twenty. ALL. To say she is his mother is an utter bit of folly! Oh, fie! our Strephon is a rogue! Perhaps his brain is addled, and it's very melancholy! Taradiddle, taradiddle, tol lol lay! I wouldn't say a word that could be reckoned as injurious, But to find a mother younger than her son is very curious, And that's a kind of mother that is usually spurious. Taradiddle, taradiddle, tol lol lay!