Baited with reasons nor unplausible, Wind me into the easy-hearted man,
And hug him into snares. When once her eye Hath met the virtue of this magic dust, I shall appear some harmless villager, Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. But here she comes; I fairly step aside, And hearken, if I may, her business here.
Lady. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, My best guide now: methought it was the sound Of riot and ill-manag'd merriment.
Such as the jocund flate, or gamesome pipe, E Stirs up among the loose unletter'd hinds: When for their teeming flocks, and granges full, In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan. And thank the gods amiss. I should be ioth.... To meet the rudeness, and swill'd insolence) Of such late wassailers; yet Ol where else ul Shall I inform my unacquainted feet In the blind mazes of this tangled wood ? My brothers, when they saw me wearied outon With this long way, resolving here to lodgeba Under the spreading favour of these pipes, Stept, as they said, to the next thicket-side, To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit) As the kind hospitable woods provide 1104) They left me then, when the grey-hooded even, Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed, Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phœbus' wain. But where they are, and why they came not back, Is now the labour of my thoughts; 'tis likeliest They had engag'd their wandering steps too far: And envious darkness, ere they could return/ Had stole them from me: else, O thievish night, Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end, In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars, That nature hung in heaven, and fill'd their lamps
With everlasting oil, to give due light
To the misled and lonely traveller ? This is the place, as well as I may guess, Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear; Yet nought but single darkness do I find. What might this be? A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory,
Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, And airy tongues that syllable men's names On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses. These thoughts may startle well, but not astound, The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended By a strong siding champion, Conscience. O welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings, And thou, unblemish'd form of Chastity!
I see ye visibly, and now believe That he, the Supreme Good, to whom all thing Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,
Would send a glistering 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? 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.
Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that livest unseen
Within thy aery shell, By slow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet-embroider'd vale, Where the love-lorn nightingale Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well: Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair That likest thy Narcissus are?
Hid them in some flowery cave,
Tell me but where,
Sweet queen of parley, daughter of the sphere: So mayst thou be translated to the skies,
And give resounding grace to all heaven's har monies.
Comus. 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 To testify his hidden residence. How sweetly did they float upon the wings Of silence through the empty-vaulted night, At every fall smoothing the raven-down Of darkness, till it smil'd! I have oft heard My mother Circe with the Syrens three, Amidst the flowery-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 in sweet madness robb'd it of itself; But such a secret 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! Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, Unless the goddess that in rural shrine Dwell'st here with Pan, or Sylvan, by blest song Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog To touch the prosperous 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.
Fompell'd me to awake the courteous Echo, To give me answer from her mossy couch.
Comus. What chance, good lady, hath berøft
Lady. Dim darkness, and this leafy labyrinth. Comus. Could that divide you from near-usher.
Lady. They left me weary on a grassy turf. Comus. By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why ? Lady. To seek i' the valley some cool friendly
Comus. And left your fair side ali unguarded lady?
Lady. They were but twain, and purpos'd quick
Comus. Perhaps forestalling night prevente
Lady. How easy my misfortune is to hit ! Comus. Imports their loss, beside the present
Lady. No less than if I should my brothers
Comus. Were they of manly prime, or youth.
Lady. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazor'd lips. Comus. Two such I saw, what time the la. bour'd ox
In his loose traces from the furrow came, And the swink'd 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 as they stood : I took it for a faery vision
Of some gay creatures of the element That in the colours of the rainbow live,
And play i' the 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 heaven,
Lady. What readiest way would bring me to that place Comus. Due west it rises from this shrubla
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.
Comus. I know each lane, and every alley green, Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood, And every 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 pallet rouse; if otherwise. I can conduct you, lady, to a low, But loyal cottage, where you may be safe Till further quest.
Shepherd, I take thy word,
And trust thy honest-offer'd courtesy, Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls In courts of princes, where it first was nam'd 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, blest Providence, and square my trial To my proportion'd strength. Shepherd, lead on. [Excunt.
Enter the Two Brothers.
El. Br. Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou,
That wont'st to love the traveller's benison, Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, And disinherit chaos, that reigns here In double night of darkness and of shades; Or, if your influence be quite damm'd up With black usumping wists, some gentle taper,
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