by John Dryden (1631 - 1700)
Come if you dare
Language: English
Come if you dare, our trumpets sound. Come if you dare, the foes rebound. We come, says the double beat of the thund'ring drum. Now they change on amain, Now they rally again; The Gods from above the mad labor behold, And pity mankind that will perish for gold, The fainting Saxons quit the ground, The trumpets languish in the sound. They fly! Victoria! the bold Britons cry. Now the victory's won, To plunder we run; We return to our lasses, like fortunate traders. Triumphant with spoils of our vanquish'd invaders.
Authorship:
- by John Dryden (1631 - 1700) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Henry Purcell (1658/9 - 1695), "Come if you dare", Z. 628 no. 9, first performed 1691 [ tenor, chorus, orchestra ], from the incidental music to King Arthur or The British Worthy, no. 9 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2014-04-06
Line count: 14
Word count: 91