Evensong: For many are cold, but few are frozen

During this time of asserting national sovereignty, here's some nonsense from the seventeenth century, alleging the supernatural specialness of Britain. King Arthur, or The British Worthy, is a semi-opera in five acts with music by Henry Purcell and a libretto by John Dryden. It was first performed at the Queen's Theatre, Dorset Garden, London, in late May or early June 1691. A semi-opera was an operatic form in which the principal characters talk, rather than sing, at each other, and the musical interest is carried by set pieces or masques performed for the principals. Here's the story: There are two claimants to rule the Britons: the Christian Arthur, assisted by his spad, Merlin, or the heathen Oswald, assisted by his spad, Osmond. In Act 111, Osmond tries to woo Arthur's girlfriend, Emmeline, by showing her a masque acted by spirits. He conjures up a vision of "Yzeland" and "farthest Thule", waking up the Cold Genius, who prefers to remain frozen, for Emmeline's entertainment.The Cold Genius really doesn't want to wake up, and protests in the song What Power Art Thou, voice shaking with cold.

COLD GENIUS:

What Power art thou,

Who from below,

Hast made me rise,

Unwillingly and slow,

From beds of everlasting snow!

See'st thou not how stiff,

And wondrous old,

Far unfit to bear the bitter cold.

I can scarcely move,

Or draw my breath,

I can scarcely move,

Or draw my breath.

Let me, let me, Let me,

let me, Freeze again...

Let me, let me, Freeze

again to death!

Anyway, after a few adventures involving a magic wood, it all turns out well for Arthur, who gets the top job, and Britannia emerges triumphantly from the waves, which, as we all know from the Proms, she will thereafter rule over, and Britons never, never, never, will be slaves.