From Belshazzar, HWV 61, Act I
Composer |
George Frideric Handel |
|---|---|
Key |
C major |
Meter |
4/4 |
English text |
|---|
Belshazzar |
For you my friends, the nobles of my court, |
I have prepar’d a feast magnificent, |
Worthy of you and me. Let all my wives |
And concubines attend. Our royal mother — |
Nitocris |
I must prevent thee, son. Who can endure |
Th’unbridled license of this festival, |
Miscall’d by the licentious, liberty? |
Where nought prevails but riotous excess, |
The noisy idiot laugh, the jest obscene, |
The scurril taunt, and drunken midnight brawl. |
My soul starts back at such brutality, |
Asserting reason’s empire. |
Opera Stanford |
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