Hoo.What's your question?
Chorus.Who are these?
Hoo.Strangers from the land of Greece.
Chorus.What design has brought them thence?410
What's their errand or pretence?
Hoo.They come here simply with a view
To settle and reside with you;
Here to remain and here to live.415
Chorus.What is the reason that they give?
Hoo.A project marvellous and strange.
Chorus.Will it account for such a change,
Coming here so vast a distance?
Does he look for our assistance
To serve a friend or harm a foe?420
Hoo.Mighty plans he has to show
(Hinted and proposed in brief)
For a power beyond belief;
Ocean, earth, he says, and air,
All creation everywhere,
Everything that's here or there,
An empire and supremacy
Over all beneath the sky,
Is attainable by you,425
Your just dominion and your due.
Chorus.Tell us, was he fool or mad?
Hoo.No, believe me: grave and sad.
Chorus.Did his reasons and replies
Mark him as discreet and wise?
Hoo.With a force, a depth, a reach
Of judgment; a command of speech;
An invention, a facility,
An address, a volubility,430
More than could be thought believable;
'Tis a varlet inconceivable!
Chorus.Let us hear him! let us hear him!
Bid him begin! for raised on high
Our airy fancy soars; and I
Am rapt in hope; ready to fly.
