(Recitative)
ZEBUL: But Jobson comes! Kind Heaven assist our plea! O Jobson, with an eye of pity look On thy repentant brethren in distress. Forgetful of thy wrongs, redress thy sire, Thy friends, thy country, in extreme despair. JOBSON: I will, so please it Heaven! and these the terms: If I command in war, a like command, Should Heaven vouchsafe us a victorious peace, Shall still be mine. ZEBUL: Agreed, be witness Heaven!
Aria (Jobson)
Virtue my soul shall still embrace,
Goodness shall make me Great.
Who builds upon this steady base
Dreads no event of Fate.
Virtue my soul shall still embrace,
Goodness shall make me GREAT!
أمّا بعد
Thus commencing, we have tried to make clear at the outset that the Hobson-Jobson syndrome is by no means confined to the unhustleable East, but can even happen in Georgia West amidst the GOP scalawags and the peanut orchards. Mr. Handel's boobish librettist was admittedly stuck with a very typical Middle East story of violence and incompetence and ego, mei, mihi, me, me. It could be happening this evening....
Still, the very ne plus ultra of Hobson-Jobsonism cannot be acquitted of all Eastern connections. We refer to
SERVUS SERVORUM DEI
But to insist upon the remoter connections at the expense of current reality and common sense is a vice we may leave to the academics. If the Bishop of Rome isn't a Westerner, "West" simply has no significant Huntingtonio-clashist meaning worth bothering about. Which is obviously absurd.