"These thoughts may startle well, but not astound, "The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended "By a strong siding champion, Conscience.

"O! welcome pure-ey'd Faith, white-handed Hope, "Thou hov'ring angel, girt with golden wings, "And thou unblemish'd form of Chastity! "I see you visibly, and now believe,

"That he, the supreme Good (to whom all things ill "Are but as slavish officers of vengeance)

“Would send a glist'ring guardian, if need were,
"To keep my life and honour unassail'd.
"Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud
"Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
"I did not err; there does a sable cloud
"Turn forth her silver lining on the night,
"And casts a gleam over this tufted grove."
I cannot halloo to my brothers, but

Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest
I'll venture, for my new enliven'd spirits
Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off.

SONG.

Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph! that liv'st unseen
Within thy aery cell,

By slow Maander's margent green,

And in the violet-embroider'd vale,

Where the lovelorn nightingale

Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well,
Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair

That likest thy Narcissus are?

C

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Oh! if thou have

Hid them in some flow'ry cave,

Tell me but where,

Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the Sphere!

So may'st thou be translated to the skies,

And give resounding grace to all heav'n's harmonies.

Comus aside.] Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould

Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment?
"Sure something holy lodges in that breast,
"And with these raptures moves the vocal air 300
"To testify his hidden residence :

"How sweetly did they float upon the wings
"Of silence through the empty-vaulted night,
"At ev'ry fall smoothing the raven down
"Of darkness till it smil'd! I have oft' heard
"My mother Circe, with the Sirens three,
"Amidst the flow'ry-kirtled Naiades,

"Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs,
"Who, as they sung, would take the prison'd soul
"And lap it in Elysium: Scylla wept,

"And chid her barking waves into attention,
"And fell Charybdis murmur'd soft applause;
"Yet they in pleasing slumber lull'd the sense,
"And sweet in madness robb'd it of itself;
"But such a sacred and home-felt delight,
"Such sober certainty of waking bliss,

"I never heard till now."—I'll speak to her,

And she shall be my queen.-Hail, foreign wonder!

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Whom certain these rough shades did never breed,
Unless the goddess that, in rural shrine,

Dwell'st here with Pan or Silvan, by bless'd song
Forbidding ev'ry bleak unkindly fog

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To touch the prosp'rous growth of this tall wood.
Lady. Nay, gentle Shepherd! ill is lost that praise
That is address'd to unattending ears:

Not any
boast of skill, but extreme shift
How to regain my sever'd company,
Compell'd me to awake the courteous Echo

To give me answer from her mossy couch.

Com. What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you thus? Lady. Dim darkness and this leafy labyrirth. 331 Com. Could that divide you from near-ush'ring guides? Lady. They left me weary on a grassy turf.

Com. "By falsehood or discourtesy, or why?

Lady." To seek i' th' valley some cool friendly spring.

Com. And left your fair side all unguarded, Lady! Lady. They were but twain, and purpos'd quick re

turn.

Com. "Perhaps forestalling night prevented them? Lady. "How easy my misfortune is to hit!" Com. Imports their loss beside the present need? Lady. No less than if I should my brothers lose. 341 Com. Were they of manly prime or youthful bloom? Lady. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazor'd lips. Com. Two such I saw "what time the labour'd ox "In his loose traces from the furrow came, "And the swink't hedger at his supper sat ;

"I saw them" under a "green" mantling vine, That crawls along the side of yon' small hill, Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots :

Their port was more than human; "I took it for a fairy vision

"as they stood

"Of some gay creatures of the element,
"That in the colours of the rainbow live,

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"And play i' th' plighted clouds. I was awe-struck, "And as I pass'd I worshipp'd:" if those you seek It were a journey like the path to heav'n To help you find them.

Lady. Gentle Villager,

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What readiest way would bring me to that place? Com. "Due west it rises from this shrubby point. Lady. "To find out that, good Shepherd, I suppose, "In such a scant allowance of star-light, "Would overtask the best land pilot's art, "Without the sure guess of well-practis'd feet.” Com. I know each lane and ev'ry alley green, Dingle or bushy dell, of this wide wood, "And ev'ry bosky bourn from side to side," My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood; And if your stray attendants be yet lodg'd, Or shroud within these limits, I shall know Ere morrow wake, "or the low-roosted lark "From her thatch'd pallat rouse: if" otherwise, I can conduct you Lady to a low

But loyal cottage, where you may be safe

Till farther quest.

Lady. Shepherd, I take thy word,

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And trust thy honest offer'd courtesy,

"Which oft' is sooner found in lowly sheds "With smoky rafters, than in tap'stry halls

"And courts of princes, where it first was nam'd, 380
"And yet is most pretended." In a place
Less warranted than this, or less secure,

I cannot be, that I should fear to change it.
Eye me, bless'd Providence, and square my trial
To my proportion'd strength-Shepherd, lead on.

Enter COMUS' Crew from behind the trees.

SONG. By a Man.

[Exeunt.

Fly swiftly, ye Minutes! till Comus receive
The nameless soft transports that beauty can give;
The bowl's frolick joys let him teach her to prove,
And she in return yield the raptures of love.

Without love and wine, wit and beauty are vain,
All grandeur insipid, and riches a pain,

The most splendid palace grows

dark as

the

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grave:

Love and wine give, ye Gods, or take back what you gave.

CHORUS.

Away, away, away,

To Comus' court repair;

There night outshines the day,

There yields the melting fair.

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