Consenting, repenting,
Disdaining, complaining,
Indifference now feigning,
Again with quick feet the ground beat, beat, beat.
[Exeunt Dancers.
Com. List, lady, be not coy, and be not cozen'd
With that samne 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,
Unsavoury in th' enjoyment of itself:
If you let slip time, like a neglected rose,
It withers on the stalk with languish'd head.
Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown.
In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities,
Where most may wonder at the workmanship.
It is for homely features to keep home;
What, have you let the false enchanter 'scape?
O, ye mistook; you should have snatch'd his
wand,
And bound him fast: without his rod revers'd,
And backward mutters of dissev'ring pow'r,
We cannot free the Lady that sits here
In stony fetters fix'd, and motionless.
Yet stay, be not disturb’d; now I bethink me,
Some other means I have, which may be us'd,
Which once of Melibaus old I learn'd,
The soothest shepherd that e'er pip'd on plains:
I learn'd 'em then, when with my fellow-swain,
The youthful Lycidas, his flocks I fed.
There is a gentle nymph not far from hence,
Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure,
They had their name thence: Coarse complex-That sways the Severn stream;
And cheeks of sorry grain, will serve to ply
The sampler, and to teaze the housewife's wool.
What need a vermeil-tinctur'd lip for that,
Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn?
There was another meaning in these gifts;
Think what, and be advis'd: you are but young
yet;
This will inform you soon.
Lady. To him that dares
Arm his prophane tongue with contemptuous
Against the sun-clad power of chastity,
Fain would I something say, yet to what purpose?
Thou hast nor ear, nor soul to apprehend;
And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know
More happiness than this thy present lot.
Enjoy your dear wit and gay rhetoric,
That has so well been taught her dazzling fence:
Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinc'd;
Yet should I try, the uncontrouled worth
Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits
To such a flame of sacred vehemence,
That dumb things would be mov'd to sympathize,
And the brute earth would lend her nerves, and
shake,
Till all thy magic structures, rear'd so high,
Were shatter'd into heaps o'er thy false head.
Com. She fables not: I feel that I do fear
Her words set off by some superior pow'r;
And though not mortal, yet a cold shudd'ring
Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove
Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus,
To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble,
And try her yet more strongly.-Come, no more,
This is mere moral babble, and direct
Against the canon laws of our foundation;
I must not suffer this; yet 'tis but the lees
And settlings of a melancholy blood;
But this will cure all straight; one sip of this
Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight,
Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste.-
[The Brothers rush in with swords drawn, wrest
the glass out of his hand, and break it against
the ground; his rout make signs of resis
tance, but are all driven in.
And, as the old swain said, she can unlock
The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell,
If she be right invok'd in warbled song:
For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift
To aid a virgin, such as was herself.
And see the swain himself in season comes.
Enter the Second Spirit.
Haste, Lycidas, and try thy tuneful strain,
Which from her bed the fair Sabrina calls.
Listen where thou art sitting,
Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,
In twisted braids of lilies knitting
The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;
Listen, for dear honour's sake,
Goddess of the silver lake;
Listen and save.
SABRINA rises and sings.
By the rushy-fringed bank,
Where grows the willow and the osier dank,
My sliding chariot stays,
Thick set with agate and the azure sheen
Of turkis blue, and em'rald green,
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.
RECITATIVE.-Second Spirit.
Goddess dear,
We implore thy powerful hand
To undo the charmed band
Of true virgin here distress'd,
Through the force, and through the wile,
Of unbless'd enchanter vile.
RECITATIVE.-Sabrina.
Shepherd, 'tis my office best
To help ensnared chastity.
There are, who can by potent magic spells
Bend to their crooked purpose Nature's laws,
Blot the fair moon from her resplendent orb,
Bid whirling planets stop their destin❜d course,
And through the yawning earth from Stygian
gloom
Call up the meagre ghost to walks of light:
It may be so-for some mysterious end!
r. Bro. Why did I doubt? Why tempt the wrath of Heav'n
To shed just vengeance on my weak distrust?
Here spotless innocence has found relief,
By means as wond'rous as her strange distress.
E. Bro. The freedom of the mind, you see, no
charm,
No spell can reach; that righteous Jove forbids,
Lest man should call his frail divinity
The slave of evil, or the sport of chance.
Inform us, Thyrsis, if, for this thine aid,
We aught can pay that equals thy desert.
First Spirit, discovering himself.
Pay it to Heav'n! There my mansion is: But when a mortal, favour'd of high Jove, Chances to pass through yon advent❜rous glade, Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star
I shoot from heav'n to give him safe convoy.
That lent you grace to escape this cursed place;
To heav'n, that here has try'd your youth,
Your faith, your patience, and your truth,
And sent you through these hard essays
With a crown of deathless praise.
[Then the two first Spirits advance, and speak
alternately the following lines, which MIL-
TON calls epiloguizing.
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
Of Hesperus and his daughters three,
That sing about the golden tree.
Along the crisped shades and bow'rs
Revels the spruce and jocund Spring;
The graces and the rosy-bosom'd hours
Thither all their bounties bring:
There eternal summer dwells,
And west winds with musky wing
About the cedarn alleys fling
Nard and cassia's balmy smells.
Now my task is smoothly done,
I can fly or I can run
Quickly to the green earth's end,
Where the bow'd welkin slow doth bend;
And from thence can soar as soon
To the corners of the moon.
Mortals that would follow me,
Love Virtue; she alone is free:
She can teach you how to climb
Higher than the sphery chime ;
Or, if Virtue feeble were,
Heaven itself would stoop to her.
Chorus. Taught by Virtue, you may climb
Higher than the sphery chime;
Or, if Virtue feeble were,
Heaven itself would stoop to her.
AT THE REVIVAL. SPOKEN BY EUPHROSYNE, WITH A WAND AND CUP.
SOME critic, or I'm much deceiv'd, will ask, What means this wild, this allegoric masque? Beyond all bounds of truth this author shoots; Can wands or cups transform men into brutes? 'Tis idle stuff!-And yet I'll prove it true: Attend; for sure I mean it not of you.
The mealy fop, that tastes my cup, may try
How quick the change from beau to butterfly;
But o'er the insect should the brute prevail,
He grins a monkey with a length of tail.
One stroke of this, as sure as Cupid's arrow,
Turns the warm youth into a wanton sparrow;
Nay, the cold prude becomes a slave to love,
Feels a new warmth, and coos a billing dove:
The sly coquette, whose artful tears beguile
Unwary hearts, weeps, a false crocodile :
Dull, poring pedants, shock'd at truth's keen light,
Turn moles, and plunge again in friendly night:
Misers grow vultures, of rapacious mind,
Or more than vultures, they devour their kind:
Flatt'rers ca.elions, creeping on the ground,
With every changing colour changing round:
The party-fool, beneath his heavy load,
Drudges a driven ass through dirty road;
While guzzling sots, their spouses say, are hogs,
And snarling critics, authors swear, are dogs.
But to be grave, I hope we've prov'd at least,
All vice is folly, and makes man a beast.
But he too well their weakness knows, to rest His fortune on their prowess.
Thy valour, Corbred; else I should suspect
Thy keenness for this new-invented mode
Of waging war, by bargaining and treaty;
It looks so strange for Normans, sprung from
heroes,
While victory smiles on our streaming banners,
And our fierce steeds impatient paw the ground,
To stand in arms, and barter provinces,
Like subtle merchants; try to over-reach,
Where we might conquer; and intrust our cause
To heralds' tongues, parchment, and lazy pen-
men!
Cor. Had we ne'er fought with loss, this con
In headstrong valour might become us well :
But in disgrace from these invaded shores
So lately driven, and by this same Alcanzor,
Our camp abandoned, and those lovely flowers,
The boast of Christendom, thy fair Tamira,
And Raimond's daughter, wretched captives left,
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We soon shall know. Lo, from the castle gate,
A Moorish chief advances. 'Tis Benascar,
A generous, though a formidable foe.
The prime account which in their state he bears,
For prudent councils, claims our best regard.
Enter BENASCAR.
Ben. Christians, once more, and but this once, I come
With words of peace in great Alcanzor's name.
Your insolent demands of territory
He scoffs and laughs at; scorns your false alliance,
And your vain threats indignant spurns away.
Already thundering on your haughty crests
His sabre you had felt, if not restrained
By the persuasive eyes of fair Zimorna,
And soft enchantment of her snowy arms.
She, our adored sultana, sadly mindful
Of your late general, her gallant brother,
And in her heart perhaps half Christian still,
Sends you these terms of safety. In three days
Abandon Sicily, fly to your ships,
Crowd all your sails, and carry home for booty
The spoils and treasures in Palermo won;
You may be needy-we can spare them well:
Take also, a far richer prize, our captive,
Lord Manfred's daughter; and may gracious
Allah
Forgive your crimes, and favour your retreat!
Man. Is this the language of a conquer'd foe?
This the submission, Corbred, which you dream-
ed of?
Well-we have lost some time, and what remains In words shall not be wasted. To your master Return, Benascar. Tell him, with our swords His mockery shall be answered.-Ho! my hel
About Palermo's loss, as if the devil
Had all our plot revealed. My trusty friends,
To-day I must affect the blustering warrior,
And deal sound blows; therefore avoid the wing
Where I command. Your strongest force op-
pose
To Zagan, that old prating African:
'Twould please me much to see him scouring off With his fine barb.-Advance the standard there! [Speaking to his train without. Cor. Sicardo, linger not. Go call the trum
For we must bustle too. [Exit Sic.] This foolish fellow
We'll trust no farther. He begins to totter
Upon ambition's ladder-talks of conscience-
Sees visions and all night must have a monk
To sleep within his tent.-Your martial fit
Comes rather suddenly. I hardly thought
Your new sultana would have let her lord
So soon escape from love.
Ben. You know her not.
The spirit of her brother dwells within her.
With boundless passion she adores Alcanzor,
Yet even the very trifling of her fondness
Has something glorious. She will toss his spear
Around the hall; with plumes bedeck his hel-
Benascar waves his pennon high advanced,
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