And harshly deal like an ill borrower,
With that which you receiv'd on other terms;
Scorning the unexempt condition,
By which all mortal frailty must subsist,
Refreshment after toil, ease after pain,
That have been tir'd all day without repast,
And timely rest have wanted; but, fair virgin,
This will restore all soon.
Lad.
"Twill not, false traitor!
"Twill not restore the truth and honesty,
That thou hast banish'd from thy tongue with lies.
Was this the cottage, and the safe abode,
Thou toldst me of? What grim aspects are these,
These ugly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me!
Hence with thy brew'd enchantments, foul de-
ceiver !
Hast thou betray'd my credulous innocence
With visor'd falsehood and base forgery?
And would'st thou seek again to trap me here
With lickerish baits, fit to ensnare a brute?
Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets,
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 govern'd and wise appetite.
Com. O foolishness of men! that lend their ears
To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur,
And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub,
Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence.
Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710
With such a full and unwithdrawing hand,
Covering the Earth with odours, fruits, and flocks,
Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable,
But all to please and sate the curious taste?
And set to work millions of spinning worms,
That in their green shops weave the smooth-hair'd
silk,
To deck her sons; and that no corner might
Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins
She hutch'd the all-worshipt ore, and precious gems,
To store her children with: if all the world 720
Should in a pet of temperance feed on pulse,
Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but
frieze,
[prais'd,
The All-giver would be unthank'd, would be un-
Not half his riches known, and yet despis'd;
And we should serve him as a grudging master,
As a penurious niggard of his wealth;
And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons,
Who would be quite surcharg'd with her own
weight,
And strangled with her waste fertility;
The Earth cumber'd, and the wing'd air dark'd
with plumes,
730
The herds would over-multitude their lords,
The sea o'er fraught would swell, and the unsought
diamonds
Would so imblaze the forehead of the deep,
And so bestud with stars, that they below
Would grow inur'd to light, and come at last
To gaze upon the Sun with shameless brows.
List, lady: be not coy, and be not cosen'd
With that same vaunted name, Virginity,
Beauty is Nature's coin, must not be hoarded,
But must be current; and the good thereof 740
Consists in mutual and partaken bliss,
Unsavoury in the enjoyment of itself;
If you let slip time, like a neglected rose
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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,
They had their name thence; coarse complexions,
And cheeks of sorry grain, will serve to ply 750
The sampler, and to tease the huswife'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.
Lad. I had not thought to have unlock'd my lips
In this unhallow'd air, but that this juggler[eyes,
Would think to charm my judgment, as mine
Obtruding false rules prank'd in reason's garb.
I hate when Vice can bolt her arguments,
And Virtue has no tongue to check her pride.-
Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature,
As if she would her children should be riotous
With her abundance; she, good cateress,
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-pamper'd Luxury
Now heaps upon some few with vast excess,
Nature's full blessings would be well dispens'd
In unsuperfluous even proportion,
And she no wit encumber'd with her store;
And then the Giver would be better thank'd,
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?
Or have I said enough To him that dares 780
Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words
Against the sun-clad power of Chastity,
Fain would I something say, yet to what end?
Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend
The sublime notion, and high mystery,
That must be utter'd to unfold the sage
And serious doctrine of Virginity;
And thou art worthy that thou should'st not know
More happiness than this thy present lot.
Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric,
That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence;
Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinc'd:
Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled 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 800
Her words set off by some superior power;
And though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering
dew
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 less
What, have you let the false enchanter 'scape?
Oye mistook, ye should have snatch'd his wand,
And bound him fast; without his rod revers'd,
And backward mutters of dissevering power,
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 Melibus old I learnt,
The soothest shepherd that e'er pip'd on plains.
There is a gentle nymph not far from hence,
That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn
stream,
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 enraged stepdame Guendolen,
Commended her fair innocence to the flood,
That staid her flight with his cross-flowing
The water-nymphs, that in the bottom play'd,
Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in,
Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall;
Who, piteous of her woes, rear'd her lank head,
And gave her to his daughters to imbathe
In nectar'd lavers, strew'd with asphodel;
And through the porch and inlet of each sense
Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she reviv'd,
And underwent a quick immortal change,
Made goddess of the river: still she retains
Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve
Visits the herds along the twilight meadows,
Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck sigus
That the shrewd meddling elfe delights to make,
Which she with precious vial'd liquors heals;
For which the shepherds at their festivals
Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays,
And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream
Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.
851
And, as the old swain said, she can unlock
The clasping charm, and thaw the numming
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,
In hard-besetting need; this will I try,
And add the power of some adjuring verse.
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Listen, and appear to us,
In name of great Oceanus;
By the Earth-shaking Neptune's mace,
And Tethys' grave majestic pace,
And the Carpathian wisard's book,
By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look,
By scaly Triton's winding shell,
And old sooth-saying Glaucus' spell,
By Leucothea's lovely hands,
And her son that rules the strands,
By Thetis' tinsel-slipper'd feet,
And the songs of Syrens sweet,
By dead Parthenope's dear tomb,
And fair Ligea's golden comb,
Wherewith she sits on diamond rock,
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 wav2,
Till thou our summons answer'd have
SABRINA rises, attended by water-nymphs, and
sings.
By the rusby-fringed bank,
Where grows the willow, and the ozier dank,
Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen
My sliding chariot stays,
Of turkis blue, and emerald 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.
Sp. Goddess dear,
We implore thy powerful hand
To undo the charmed band
Of true virgin here distrest,
Through the force, and through the wile,
Of unblest enchanter vile.
Sabr. Shepherd, 'tis 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 precious cure;
Thrice upon thy rubied lip:
Thrice upon thy finger's tip,
Next this marble venom'd seat,
Smear'd with gums of glutinous heat,
I touch with chaste palms moist and cold :
Now the spell hath lost his hold;
And I must haste, ere morning hour,
To wait in Amphitrite's bower.
Sabrina descends, and the Lady rises out of her
Sp. Virgin, daughter of Locrine
Sprung of old Anchises' line,
May thy brimmed waves for this
Their full tribute never miss
From a thousand pretty rills,
That tumble down the snowy hills :
Summer drought, or singed air,
Never scorch thy tresses fair,
Nor wet October's torrent flood
Thy molten crystal fill with mud;
May thy billows roll ashore
The beryl and the golden ore;
May thy lofty head be crown'd
With many a tower and terrace round,
And here and there thy banks upon
With groves of myrrh and cinnamon.
Come, lady, while Heaven lends us grace,
Let us fly this cursed place,
Lest the sorcerer us entice
With some other new device.
Not a waste or needless sound,
Till we come to holier ground;
I shall be your faithful guide
Through this gloomy covert wide,
And not many furlongs thence
Is your father's residence,
Where this night are met in state
Many a friend to gratulate
His wish'd presence; and beside
All the swains, that there abide,
With jigs and rural dance resort;
We shall catch them at their sport,
And our sudden coming there
Will double all their mirth and cheer:
Come, let us haste, the stars grow high,
But night sits monarch yet in the mid sky.
There I suck the liquid air
All amidst the gardens fair
930 Of Hesperus, and his daughters three
That sing about the golden tree :
Along the crisped shades and bowers
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 cedar'd alleys Hing
Nard and cassia's balmy smells.
Iris there with humid bow
Waters the odorous banks, that blow
Flowers of more mingled hew
Than her purfled scarf can show ;
And drenches with Elysian dew
(List, mortals, if your ears be true)
Beds of hyacinth and roses,
Where young Adonis oft reposes,
Waxing well of his deep wonnd
In slumber soft, and on the ground
950 Sadly sits the Assyrian queen :
But far above in spangled sheen
Celestial Cupid, her fam'd son, advanc'd,
Holds his dear Psyche sweet entranc'd.
After her wandering labours long,
Till free consent the Gods among
Make her his eternal bride,
And from her fair unspotted side
Two blissful twins are to be born,
Youth and Joy: so Jove hath sworn.
But now my task is smoothly done,
Quickly to the green earth's end,
I can fly, or I can run,
Where the bow'd welkin slow doth bend;
And from thence can soar as soon
To the corners of the Moon.
The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow town and the president's castle; then come in country dancers, after them the Attendant Spirit, with the two Brothers and the Lady.
ORIGINAL VARIOUS READINGS OF COMUS.
From Milton's MS, in his own hand.
STAGE-DIRECTIONS. "A guardian spirit or damon" [enters.] After v. 4, "In regions mild, &c." These lines are inserted, but crossed.
Amidst th' Hesperian gardens, on whose banks
Bedew'd with nectar and celestiall songs,
Eternall roses grow, and hyacinth,
And fruits of golden rind, on whose faire tree
The scalie-harnest dragon ever keeps
His unenchanted eye; around the verge
And sacred limits of this blissful isle,
The jealous ocean, that old river, windes
His farre extended armes, till with steepe fall
Halfe his wast flood the wild Atlantique fills,
And halfe the slow unfadom'd stygian poole."
But soft, I was not sent to court your wonder
With distant worlds, and strange removed Ver. 145. Breake off, breake off, I hear the dif
Of some chaste footing neere about this ground;
Some virgin sure benighted in these
For so I can distinguish by myne art. Run to your shrouds within these braks and trees,
Our number may affright.This disposition is reduced to the present context: then follows a STAGE-DIRECTION.
Strive to keep up, &c." this line Ver. 158. was inserted, but crossed,
Beyond the written date of mortall change.
Ver. 14. That shews the palace of æternity.
Ver, 18. But to my buisnesse now. Neptune
Ver. 21. The rule and title of each sea-girt isle. Ver. 28. The greatest and the best of all his empire.
Ver. 45. By old or modern bard, in hall or bowre.
Ver. 58. Which therefore she brought up and nam'd him Comus.
"They all scatter." Now to my trains, And to my mother's charmes.
My powder'd spells into the spungic air, Of power to cheat the eye with sleight illusion,
And give it false præsentments,
else the place.
And blind is written for sleight.
Ver. 164. And hugge him into nets.
Ver. 170. If my ear be true.
Ver. 175. When for their teeming flocks, and
garners full.
Ver. 176. they adore the bounteous Pan. Praise had been first written and crossed through; and adore written over it, but also crossed; and a line drawn under to signify that the original
Ver. 62. And in thick covert of black shade im- word should be restored. Mr. Whiter in his
learned Specimen of a Commentary on Shakespeare, first noticed this method of emendation, adopted by the poet. See the Specimen, p. 132-134. Ver. 181. In the blind alleys of this arched wood.
Ver. 190. Rose from the hindmost wheeles of Phoebus' chaire.
Ver. 193 They had eugag'd thire youthly steps too farre
Ver. 97. In the steepe Tartarian streame. Ver. 99. Shoots against the northern pole. Dusky is a marginal correction.
Ver. 108. And quick Law with her scrupulous head.
Ver. 114. Lead with swift round the months and
Ver. 117 And on the yellow sands and shelves. Yellow is altered to tawny.
Ver. 122. Night has better sweets to prove.
Ver. 133. And makes a blot in nature.
Again,
And throws a blot ore all the aire.
Ver. 134, Stay thy polisht ebon chaire
Wherein thou ridest with Hecaté,
And favour our close jocundrie.
Till all thy dues bee done, and nought
Ver. 144. With a light and frolick round. STAGE-DIRECTION. "The measure, in a wild, rude, and wanton antic."
To the soone-parting light, and envious darkness
Frompt me; and they perhaps are
not far hence.
Ver. 231. Within thy ayrie cell.
Cell is in the margin.
Ver. 243. And give resounding grace, is written
in the margin of the manuscript; and the for-
mer part of the line, which regularly concluded
the song, is blotted out with great care; but
enough, I think, remains to show that the poet,
and not Lawes, wrote And hold a counterpointe.
Before Comus speaks at v. 244, is this STAGE-
"Comus looks in and specks."
Of darknesse till she smil'd.---
Culling their powerfull herbs,
Scylla would weepe, [tion Chiding her barking waves into atten
It was at first And chide.
Ver. 268. Liv'st here with Pan and Sylvan.Ver. 270. To touch the prospering growth of this tall wood.
Ver. 279. Could that divide you from thire ushering hands.
Ver. 280. They left me wearied on a grassie turf.
Ver. 304. To help you find them out. Ver. 310. Without sure steerage of well practiz'd feet.
Ver. 312. Dingle or bushie dell of this wide wood.
In a different hand "wild wood."
Ver. 316. Within these shroudie limits.
Ver. 321. Till further quest be made.
Ver. 323. And smoakie rafters.
Ver. 326. And is pretended yet.
She might be free from perill where she is,
But where an equal poise of hope and fear.
For encounter he had first written passado, and hopes and fears; and Beshrew me but I would, instead of I could be willing.
Ver. 415. As you imagin, brother: she has a hidden strength.
Ver. 421. She that has that, is clad in compleate steele:
And may on every needful accident,
Be it not don in pride or wilfull tempting,
Walk through huge forests and un-
harbour'd heaths,
Infamous hills, and sandie perilous
wilds;
[Chastitie,
Where, through the sacred awe of
No savage fierce, bandite, or moun-
taneere,
Shall dare to soile her virgin puritie.
Ver. 327. Less warranted than this I cannot be. Ver. 428. Yea, even where very desolation Ver. 329.
After v. 330, STAGE-DIRECTION.
The two Brothers enter."
Ver. 340. With a long-levell'd rule of streaming
Ver. 349. In this sad dungeon of innumerous
But first lone, then sad, and lastly close.
dwells, [horrid shades, By grots and caverns shagg'd with And yawning dens, where glaring mon
The line And yawning, &c. is crossed, and therefore omitted, I suppose, in the printed copies. Ver. 432. Nay more, no evill thing, &c.
Ver. 352. From the chill dew, in this dead soli-Ver. 433. In fog, or fire, by lake, or moorie fen, tude? [ster now, Blue wrinkled hag, or stubborne un Perhaps some cold banke is her boullaid ghost. Or 'gainst the rugged barke of some broad elme
She leanes her thoughtfull head musing at our unkindne.se:
Or lost in wild amazement and affright, So fares, as did forsaken Proserpine, When the big rowling flakes of pitchie And darknesse wound her in. [clouds 1 Br. Peace, brother, peace, I do not think my sister, &c.
Dead solitude is also surrounding wild. Some of the additional lines (v. 350-366.) are on a sepa
Ver. 448. That wise Minerva wore, aternal virgin.
Then, unvanquish'd, then, unconquer'd.
Ver. 452. With suddaine adoration of her pure-
Then, bright raycs, then, blank awe.
Ver. 454. That when it finds a soul sincerely so.
Ver. 465. And most by the lascivious act of sin.
Ver. 471. Oft seene in charnel vaults, and mo-
Hovering, and sitting by a newe-made
Ver. 361. Which, grant they be
Ver. 365. This self-delusion.
List, list, methought I heard.
Some curl'd man of the sword calling to his fellows.
also written over curl'd man of the
Ver. 371. Could stirre the stable mood of her Ver. 490. Had best looke to his forehead: here
Ver. 376. Oft seeks to solitarie sweet retire.
"He hallows: the guardian
Ver. 383. Walks in black vapours, though the damon hallows again, and enters in the habit of a
Ver. 491. Come not too neere; you fall on pointed stakes else.
Ver. 390. For who would rob a hermit of his Ver. 492. Dam. What voice, &c.
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