Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Monsieur le Compte de More
1
At times it is my pleasure to appear Bourgeois,
At times a valet, I favor quick change,
To obey with alacrity the adorable laws
Of she whom a great God would like as a Mistress.
What can I not do? I have received laurels
In the alarms of Mars from the hands of glory:
And when I emit the flames of my glance,
I am called the Master of Victory by all.
All my actions indicate I am a Sun:
Like the actual sun I never rest,
And if Mars has always thought me without equal,
The same opinion issues from the mouth of Love.
Did you see me resplendent in our grand Ballet?
I demonstrated such grace and skill therein,
That it was said, though I was disguised as a valet,
That I merited the heart of a Goddess.
In war, in the hunt with his Majesty,
I am tireless both in body and heart:
To die in his service is my immortality,
and all I have as an end is this honorable goal.
1
"Dance as Text: Ideologies of the Baoroque Body",
Mark Franko, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993, p. 73
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