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Comus. Two such I saw, what time the laboured

OX

In his loose traces from the furrow came,
And the swinked 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 awestrook,

And, as I passed, I worshiped. If those you seek, It were a journey like the path to Heaven

To help you find them.

· Lady.

Gentle villager,

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300

What readiest way would bring me to that place? 305 Comus. Due west it rises from this shrubby point.

Lady. To find that out, good shepherd, I sup

pose,

In such a scant allowance of star-light,

Would overtask the best land-pilot's art,

Without the sure guess of well-practised 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;

320

315 And if your stray attendance be yet lodged,
shattered

Or shroud within these limits, I shall know
Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark
From her thatched pallet rouse. If otherwise,
I can conduct you, Lady, to a low

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

Lady.

Shepherd, I take thy word,
And trust thy honest-offered courtesy;
Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds,

With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls
325 And courts of princes, where it first was named,
And yet is most pretended. In a place

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ess warranted than this, or less secure,

I cannot be, that I should fear to change it or sufficient

Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial 330 To my proportioned strength! Shepherd, lead on.

The TWO BROTHERS

Eld. Bro. Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou.

fair moond.

benedictio

That waste the traveller's best

Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud,
And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here
335 In double night of darkness and of shades;

Or, if your influence be quite dammed up
With black usurping mists, some gentle taper,
Though a rush-candle from the wicker hole
Of some clay habitation, visit us

With thy long levelled rule of streaming light,
And thou shalt be our Star of Arcady,

Or Tyrian Cynosure.

Sec. Bro.

Or, if our eyes

Be barred that happiness, might we but hear
The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes,
Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops,
Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock
Count the night-watches to his feathery dames,
"Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering,
In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs.
But, oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister!
Where may she wander now, whither betake her
From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and
thistles?

Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now,

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345

850

Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm
Leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears. 355
What if in wild amazement and affright,

Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp
Of savage hunger, or of savage heat?

360

too curious Eld. Bro. Peace, brother: be not over-exquisite To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown, What need a man forestall his date of grief, And run to meet what he would most avoid? Or, if they be but false alarms of fear, How bitter is such self-delusion!

I do not think my sister so to seek, atas

365

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Or so unprincipled in virtue's book,

And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever,
As that the single want of light and noise

370 (Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts, And put them into misbecoming plight.

Virtue could see to do what Virtue would

By her own radiant light, though sun and moon 375 Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,

Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation,
She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,
That, in the various bustle of resort,

380 Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired.
He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day:
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;

385 Himself is his own dungeon.

Sec. Bro.

'Tis most true

That musing meditation most affects

The pensive secrecy of desert cell,

Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds, And sits as safe as in a senate-house;

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

Or do his gray hairs any violence?

But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree

Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard

not able the enchant

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Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye
To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit
From the rash hand of bold Incontinence.
You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps
Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den,
And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope
Danger will wink on Opportunity,
And let a single helpless maiden pass
Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste.
Of night or loneliness it recks me not;

I fear the dread eyents that dog them both,
Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person
Of our unowned sister.

Eld. Bro.

I do not, brother,
Infer as if I thought my sister's state
Secure without all doubt or controversy;
Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear
Does arbitrate the event, my nature is
That I incline to hope rather than fear,
And gladly banish squint suspicion.
My sister is not so defenceless left

As you imagine; she has a hidden strength,
Which you remember not.

Sec. Bro.

T
What hidden strength,

Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that? Eld. Bro. I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength,

Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own. 'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity:

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