Page "Polyphemus" Paragraph 15

Polyphemus sings in Georg Friedrich Händel's popular 1718 setting of Acis and Galatea, an English language pastoral opera or masque with the libretto set by John Gay to Ovid's Metamorphosis.

Here, the jealous monster scares the lovers in the aria " I rage, I melt, I burn " and then monstrously courts Galatea with his " O ruddier than the cherry ".

As he realizes how he frightens the one he would love, he resists mollification with " Love sounds the alarm " then ultimately interrupts their sweet duet, now a trio, and murders his opponent in a rage.