Page:Gilbert Original Plays.djvu/27

Rh To visit earth, those whom he leaves behind May summon from the wicked world below That absent fairy's mortal counterpart; And that that mortal counterpart may stay In fairy land and fill the fairy's place Till he return. Is there not some such law?
 * Sel. And if there be, wouldst put that law in force? (horrified).
 * Zay. No; not for all the love of all the world! (equally horrified).
 * Sel. A man in fairy land! Most horrible!

He would exhale the poison of his soul, And we should even be as mortals are, Hating as man hates!
 * Dar. (enthusiastically). Loving as man loves!
 * ( looks reproachfully).

Too horrible! Still—
 * Sel. Well!
 * Dar. I see a trace

Of wisdom lurking in this ancient law.
 * Sel. Where lurks this wisdom, then? I see it not.
 * Dar. (with emphasis). Man is a shameless being, steeped in sins

At which our stainless nature stands appalled; Yet, sister, if we took this loathsome soul From yonder seething gulf of infamy— E'en but for one short day—and let him see The beauty of our pure, unspotted lives, He might return to his unhappy world, And trumpet forth the strange intelligence: