A decorative woodcut headpiece at the top of the page features a central basket filled with flowers, surrounded by symmetrical scrolling foliage and floral ornaments in a late Baroque or Rococo style.

THE SONOROUS ISLAND,

COMIC OPERA.

ACT ONE.

The stage represents the Gardens & the exterior of the Palace on the Sonorous Island.

SCENE ONE.

DURBIN

You, who believe you deserve praise in every place
For the taste & the choice of words you use;
Tyrant, cease, Tyrant, to weary the air

With these Allobrogian words original: "paroles allobroges," referring to harsh or barbarous speech

With which you compose your concerts.

Gods! what a country, & what concerts

For music, & for the tunes.

I think I hear madmen escaped from their cells.
Always singing, rhyming without cease, what perversity!
All these people seem to me like clocks
From which sounds are pulled by various springs;

Yet one must shower them with praise,

Both their rhymed prose, & their voices, & their tunes.

Gods! what a country, & what concerts

For music & for the tunes.