596

599

Gathered like scum, and settled to itself,
It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed and self-consumèd. If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness,
And earth's base built on stubble. But come,
let's on!
Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven
May never this just sword be lifted up;
But, for that damned magician, let him be girt
With all the griesly legions that troop
Under the sooty flag of Acheron,
Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous
forms

"Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out,
And force him to restore his purchase back,
Or drag him by the curls to a foul death,
Cursed as his life.

Spirit.

605

Alas! good ventrous youth, I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise; But here thy sword can do thee little stead. Far other arms and other weapons must 612 Be those that quell the might of hellish charms.

He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints,

And crumble all thy sinews.

Elder Brother. Why prithee, Shepherd, How durst thou then thyself approach so near As to make this relation?

Spirit.
Care and utmost shifts
How to secure the Lady from surprisal
Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad,
Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled 620
In every virtuous plant and healing herb
That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning
ray.

He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing;
Which when I did, he on the tender grass
Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy, 625
And in requital ope his leathern scrip
And show me simples of a thousand names,
Telling their strange and vigorous faculties.
Amongst the rest a small unsightly root,
But of divine effect, he culled me out.
The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it,
But in another country, as he said,

630

Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil:

He called it Hæmony, and gave it me, And bade me keep it as of sovran use 'Gainst all inchantments, mildew blast, or damp,

Or ghastly Furies' apparition.

640

I pursed it up, but little reckoning made,
Till now that this extremity compelled.
But now I find it true; for by this means
I knew the foul inchanter, though disguised,
Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells,
And yet came off. If you have this about
you

(As I will give you when we go), you may
Boldly assault the necromancer's hall;
Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood 650
And brandished blade rush on him: break
his glass,

And shed the luscious liquor on the ground; But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew

Fierce sign of battail make, and menace high, Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke, Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink.

Elder Brother. Thyrsis, lead on apace; I'll follow thee;

And some good angel bear a shield before us! The Scene changes to a stately palace, set out with all manner of deliciousness: soft music, tables spread with all dainties. Comus appears with his rabble, and the Lady set in an inchanted chair; to whom he offers his glass; which she puts by, and goes about to rise.

Brisk as the April buds in primrose season.
And first behold this cordial julep here,
That flames and dances in his crystal
bounds,

With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed.

676

Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone
In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena
Is of such power to stir up joy as this,

681

To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst.
Why should you be so cruel to yourself,
And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent
For gentle usage and soft delicacy?
But you invert the covenants of her trust,
And harshly deal, like an ill borrower,
With that which you received on other terms,
Scorning the unexempt condition
By which all mortal frailty must subsist,
Refreshment after toil, ease after pain,
That have been tired all day without repast,
And timely rest have wanted. But, fair
virgin,

This will restore all soon.

Lady.

685

689

'T will not, false traitor!

"T will not restore the truth and honesty That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies.

Was this the cottage and the safe abode Thou told'st me of? What grim aspects are these,

These roughly-headed monsters?

guard me!

Mercy

695

Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver!

Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence With vizored falsehood and base forgery? And wouldst thou seek again to trap me here With lickerish baits, fit to ensnare a brute? Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets,

701 I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None But such as are good men can give good things;

And that which is not good is not delicious To a well-governed and wise appetite.

705

To gaze upon the Sun with shameless brows.
List, Lady; be not coy, and be not cozened
With that same vaunted name, Virginity.
Beauty is Nature's coin; must not be
hoarded,

But must be current; and the good thereof
Consists in mutual and partaken bliss, 741
Unsavoury in the enjoyment of itself.
If you let slip time, like a neglected rose
It withers on the stalk with languished head.
Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown
In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities,
Where most may wonder at the workman-
ship.

It is for homely features to keep home;
They had their name thence: coarse com-
plexions

749

And cheeks of sorry grain, will serve to ply The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that, Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the Morn?

There was another meaning in these gifts; Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet.

755

Lady. I had not thought to have unlocked my lips

In this unhallowed air, but that this Juggler Would think to charm my judgment, as mine

eyes,

Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb.

I hate when Vice can bolt her arguments And Virtue has no tongue to check her

761

pride. Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature,

As if she would her children should be riot

ous

With her abundance. She, good Cateress,

765

Means her provision only to the good,
That live according to her sober laws,
And holy dictate of spare Temperance:
If every just man that now pines with
want

Had but a moderate and beseeming share
Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury 770
Now heaps upon some few with vast excess,
Nature's full blessings would be well-dis-
pensed

In unsuperfluous even proportion,

And she no whit encumbered with her store; 774

And then the Giver would be better thanked, His praise due paid: for swinish Gluttony Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast,

But with besotted base ingratitude Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on?

779

Or have I said enow? To him that dares Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words

Against the sun-clad power of Chastity
Fain would I something say;

end?

yet to what

Sabrina is her name: a virgin pure;
Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine,
That had the sceptre from his father
Brute.

She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit
Of her enragèd stepdame, Guendolen, 830
Commended her fair innocence to the flood
That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing

course.

The water-Nymphs, that in the bottom played,

Held up their pearlèd wrists, and took her in,

Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall; Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank

head,

836

And gave her to his daughters to imbathe
In nectared lavers strewed with asphodil,
And through the porch and inlet of each

sense

Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived, 840 And underwent a quick immortal change, Made Goddess of the river. Still she re

tains Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve Visits the herds along the twilight meadows, Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs

That in the channel strays;
Whilst from off the waters fleet
Thus I set my printless feet
O'er the cowslip's velvet head,
That bends not as I tread.
Gentle swain, at thy request
I am here!
Spirit. Goddess dear,
We implore thy powerful hand
To undo the charmed band

Of true virgin here distressed

Through the force and through the wile Of unblessed enchanter vile.

Sabrina. Shepherd, 't is my office best
To help ensnared Chastity.
Brightest Lady, look on me.
Thus I sprinkle on thy breast

Drops that from my fountain pure
I have kept of pretious cure;
Thrice upon thy finger's tip,
Thrice upon thy rubied lip.

895

900

905

910

915

860

Next this marble venomed seat,

Sabrina fair,

Listen where thou art sitting

Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, In twisted braids of lilies knitting

The loose train of thy amber-dropping

Spirit. Virgin, daughter of Locrine,

Sabrina descends, and the Lady rises out of her seat.

Sprung of old Anchises' line,

May thy brimmèd waves for this

By dead Parthenope's dear tomb,
And fair Ligea's golden comb,
Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks
Sleeking her soft alluring locks;
By all the nymphs that nightly dance
Upon thy streams with wily glance;
Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head
From thy coral-paven bed,

And bridle in thy headlong wave,

With some other new device.

Till thou our summons answered have.
Listen and save!

Sabrina rises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings.

Their faith, their patience, and their truth,
And sent them here through hard assays
With a crown of deathless praise,
To triumph in victorious dance
O'er sensual Folly and Intemperance.

The dances ended, the Spirit epiloguizes.

Spirit. To the ocean now I fly
And those happy climes that lie
Where day never shuts his eye,
Up in the broad fields of the sky.
There I suck the liquid air,
All amidst the Gardens fair

975

980

LYCIDAS

Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear
Compels me to disturb your season due;
For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,
Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer.
Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew 10
Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.
He must not float upon his watery bier
Unwept, and welter to the parching wind,
Without the meed of some melodious tear.
Begin, then, Sisters of the sacred well 15
That from beneath the seat of Jove doth
spring;

Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string.

Hence with denial vain, and coy excuse:
So may some gentle Muse

With lucky words favour my destined urn, 20
And as he passes turn,

And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud! For we were nursed upon the self-same

hill,