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Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight,
Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste.

The BROTHERS rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his hand, and break it against the ground: his rout make sign of resistance, but are all driven in. The ATTENDANT SPIRIT comes in

Spir. What! have you let the false enchanter scape?

O ye mistook; ye should have snatched his wand, 81s
And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed,
And backward mutters of dissevering power,
We cannot free the Lady that sits here
In stony fetters fixed and motionless.

Yet stay, be not disturbed; now I bethink me,
Some other means I have which may be used,
Which once of Melibœus old I learnt,

The soothest shepherd that e'er piped on plains.
There is a gentle Nymph not far from hence,

That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn 825

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 stayed her flight with his cross-flowing

course.

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The water nymphs, that in the bottom played, Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, 835 Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall; Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head, And gave her to his daughters to imbathe In nectared lavers strewed with asphodil, And through the porch and inlet of each sense 840 Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived, 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, 845 Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make, Which she with precious vialed 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.

And, as the old swain said, she can unlock

The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell, If she be right invoked in warbled song;

855 For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift
To aid a virgin, such as was her self,

In hard-besetting need. This will I try,
And add the power of some adjuring verse.

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Song

Sabrina fair,

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.

Listen, and appear to us,

In name of great Oceanus.

By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace,
And Tethys' grave majestic pace;
By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look,
And the Carpathian wizard's hook;
By scaly Triton's winding shell,
And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell;
By Leucothea's lovely hands,
And her son that rules the strands;
By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet,
And the songs of Sirens sweet;
By dead Parthenope's dear tomb,
And fair Ligea's golden comb,

Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks
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,

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And bridle in thy headlong wave,

Till thou our summons answered have.

Listen and save!

SABRINA rises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings

890 By the rushy-fringed bank,

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Where grows the willow and the osier dank,

My sliding chariot stays,

Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen
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.

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We implore thy powerful hand

To undo the charmed band

Of true virgin here distressed

Through the force and through the wile

Of unblessed 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 finger's tip,

Thrice upon thy rubied lip:

Next this marble venomed seat,

Smeared 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

seat

Spir. Virgin, daughter of Locrine,
Sprung of old Anchises' line,

May thy brimmèd waves for this
Their full tribute never miss

From a thousand petty rills,

That tumble down the snowy hills:
Summer drought or singèd 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 crowned

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,

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