Nunc est Bibendum

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1. NOW drink and dance, my comrades,
2. And spread the splendid feast,
3. The haughty Queen of Egypt
4. Is fleeing to the East.
5.  
6. When Caesar led his war-ships,
7. Spread far in battle line,
8. A panic fell upon her,
9. Half mad with lust and wine.
10.  
11. She fled before his galleys
12. Far from the Italian shore;
13. The herd of loathsome traitors
14. Now threaten Rome no more.
15.  
16. As swoops the eagle on the dove,
17. The hunter on the hare,
18. So Caesar followed swiftly
19. To bind her in her lair.
20.  
21. The daughter of a hundred kings,
22. She spurned the Roman chains,
23. And sought to spill the fiery blood
24. That swelled her ruby veins.
25.  
26. She failed! but in her woman's breast
27. Her courage rose serene;
28. She walked again her father's halls,
29. And still was Egypt's queen.
30.  
31. She pictured the proud triumph
32. Beneath the Roman sky,
33. And fiercely flamed her passion,
34. And sternly flashed her eye;
35.  
36. In her ears the chariots rumbled,
37. In her ears the shoutings rang,
38. Then she bared her snowy bosom
39. To the serpent's poisoned fang.