SON G.

Sweet Echo, fweeteft nymph, that liv'st unseen
Within thy airy cell,

By flow Meander's margent green,

And in the violet-embroider'd vale,

Where the love-lorn nightingale

Nightly to thee her fad fong mourneth well,
Canft thou not tell me of a gentle pair,
That likeft thy Narciffus are?

Oh, if thou have

Hid them in fome flow'ry cave,
Tell me but where,

So

Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the sphere; it thou be tranflated to the fkies, And give refounding grace to all heaven's harmonies.

may

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

Breathe fuch divine inchanting ravishment?
Sure fomething holy lodges in that breast,
And with thefe raptures moves the vocal air
To teftify his hidden refidence:

How fweetly did they float upon the wings
Of filence, through the empty-vaulted night,
At ev'ry fall fimoothing the raven-down

Of darkness, till it fmil'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 fung, would take the prifon'd foul,
And lap it in Elyfium: Scylla wept,

And chid her barking waves into attention,
And fell Charybdis murmur'd foft applaufe:
Yet they in pleafing flumber lull'd the fenfe,
And fweet in madness robb'd it of itself.
• But fuch a facred and home-felt delight,
Such fober certainty of waking blifs

• I never heard till now'I'll speak to her,
And the fhall be my queen.Hail, foreign wonder,
Whom certain thefe rough fhades did never breed,
Unless the goddess that in rural fhrine

B 2

Dwell'It

Dwell'ft here with l'an, or Silvan, by blefs'd fong,
Forbidding ev'ry bleak unkindly fog

To touch the profp'rous growth of this tall wood.
Lady. Nay, gentle fhepherd, ili is loft that praife,
That is addrefs'd to unattending ears:

Not any boaft of fkill, but extreme shift
How to regain my fever'd company,
Compell'd me to awake the courteous Echo,
To give me anfwer from her moffy couch.

Comus. What chance, good lady, hath bereft you thus ?
Lady. Dim darknefs, and this leafy labyrinth.
Comus. Could that divide you from near-ufh'ring guides?
Lady, They left me weary on a graffy turf.

Comus. By falfehood, or difcourtefy, or why?
< Lady. To feek i'th'valley fome cool friendly fpring.
Comus. And left your fair fide all unguarded, lady?
Lady. They were but twain, and purpos'd quick return.
Comus. Perhaps foreftalling night prevented them?
Lady. How eafy my misfortune is to hit!'

Comus. Imports their lofs, befide the prefent need?
Lady. No lefs than if I fhould my brothers lofe.
Comus. Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom?
Lady. As fmooth as Hebe's their unrazor'd lips.
Comus. Two fuch I faw, what time the labour'd ox
In his loofe traces from the furrow came,

• And the swink't hedger at his fupper fat;
• I faw them' under a 'green' mantling vine,
That crawls along the fide of yon fmall hill,
Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots;
Their port was more than human:

I took it for a fairy vifion

as they flood,

Of fome gay creatures of the element,

· That in the colours of the rainbow live,

• And play i'th'plaited clouds. I was awe ftruck, And as I pafs'd, I worshipp'd;' if those you seek, It were a journey like the path to heav'n,

To help you find them.

Lady. Gentler villager,

1

What readieft way would bring me to that place? • Comus. Due weft it rifes from this fhrubby point. Lady. To find out that, good fhepherd, I fuppofe, • In fuch a scant allowance of itar-light,

• Would

Would over-tafk the best land-pilot's art,.
• Without the fure guefs of well-practis'd feet.'
Comus. I know each lane, and ev'ry alley green,
Dingle, or bufhy dell of this wild wood.

And ev'ry bofky bourn from fide to fide,'
My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood:
And if your ftray attendance be yet lodg'd,
Or fhroud within thefe limits, I fhall know
Ere morrow wake, or the low-roofted lark

From her thatch'd pallat roufe: if,' or grant it otherI can conduct you, lady, to a low

But loyal cottage, where you may be safe
Till farther quest.

Lady. Shepherd, I take thy word,

And truft thy honeft offer'd courtesy,

Which oft is fooner found in lowly sheds
With fmoaky rafters, than in tap❜ftry halls
And courts of princes, where it firft was nam'd,,
And yet is moft pretended.' In a place,

Lefs warranted than this, or lefs fecure,

[wife,

I cannot be, that I fhould fear to change it.
Eye me, blefs'd Providence, and fquare my trial
To my proportion'd ftrength-Shepherd, lead on..

Enter Comus's crew from behind the trees..

SONG. By a Man.

[Exeunt..

Fly fwiftly, ye minutes, till Comus receive
The nameless foft tranfports 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 infipid, and riches a pain,

The moft fplendid palace grows dark as the grave :
Love and wine give, ye gods! or take back what you

gave.

CHORUS.

B 3

CHORU S.

Away, away, away,

To Comus' court repair;
There night out-fhines the day,
There yields the melting fair.

END of the FIRST ACT.

UN

ACT II.

"Enter the two Brothers.

• ELDEST BROTHER.

Nmuffle, ye faint ftars; and thou, fair moon,
That wont'ft to love the traveller's benizon,
Stoop thy pale vifage through an amber cloud,
And difinherit chaos, that reigns here

• In double night of darkness and of fhades:
Or if your influence be quite damm'd up
With black ufurping mifts, fome gentle taper,
Though a rush candle, from the wicker hole
• Of fome clay habitation, vifit us

With thy long levell'd rule of ftreaming light;
And thou shalt be our star of Arcady,
Or Tyrian cynofure.

• Y. Broth. Or, if our eyes

'Be barr'd that happiness, might we but hear The folded flocks penn'd in their wattled cot, • Or found of past'ral reed with oaten stops; • Or whistle from the lodge, or village-cock • Count the night-watches to his feathery dames, ''Twould be fome folace yet; fome little chearing In this close dungeon of innum'rous boughs. But, Oh! that hapless virgin, our loft fifter! Where may she wander now, whither betake her • From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles? • Perhaps fome cold bank is her bolster now, 'Or 'gainst the rugged bark of fome broad elm

Leans her unpillow'd head, fraught with fad fears. • What if in wild amazement and affright,

.

'Or, while we fpeak, within the direful grafp 'Of favage hunger, or of favage heat?

E. Broth. Peace, brother; be not over exquifite To caft the fashion of uncertain evils;

For grant they be fo, while they reft unknown,
What need a man foreftall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would moft avoid?
'Or if they be but false alarms of fear,
How bitter is fuch felf-delufion!

'I do not think my fister so to seek,
Or fo unprincipled in virtue's book,

And the fweet peace that goodness bofoms ever,
As that the fingle want of light and noise
(Not being in danger, as I truft she is not)
Could stir the conftant mood of her calm thoughts,
And put them into mifbecoming plight.

'Virtue could fee to do what virtue would

By her own radiant light, though fun and moon "Were in the flat fea funk: and wifdom's felf "Oft feeks to fweet retired folitude;

Where, with her beft nurfe, Contemplation,
• She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,
That in the various bustle of refort

Were all too ruffled, and fometimes impair'd.
He that has light within his own clear breast,
May fit i'th'center, and enjoy bright day:
But he that hides a dark foul, and foul thoughts,
⚫ Benighted walks under the mid-day fun;
Himfelf is his own dungeon.

• Y. Breth. 'Tis most true,
'That mufing meditation most affects
'The penfive secrecy of defert cell,

• Far from the chearful haunt of men and herds,
And fits as fafe as in a fenate house:

For who would rob a hermit of his weeds,
His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,

• Or do his grey hairs any violence?

But beauty, like the fair Hefperian tree

• Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard Of dragon watch with uninchanted eye,

To fave her bloffoms and defend her fruit

• From