Why should you be so cruel to yourself,
680 And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent
For gentle usage and soft delicacy?

But you invert the covenants of her trust,
And harshly deal, like an ill borrower,
With that which you received on other terms,
685 Scorning the unexempt condition

By which all mortal frailty must subsist,
Refreshment after toil, ease after pain,

That have been tired all day without repast, And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin, 690 This will restore all soon.

Lady.

'Twill not, false traitori "Twill not restore the truth and honesty

That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies, Was this the cottage and the safe abode

Thou told'st me of? What grim aspects are these, 695 These ugly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me! Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver!

Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence With vizored falsehood and base forgery? And would'st thou seek again to trap me here 700 With liquorish 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 705 To a well-governed and wise appetite.

Comus. 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
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-haired
silk,

To deck her sons; and, that no corner might

Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins

She hutched the all-worshiped ore and precious

gems,

To store her children with. If all the world Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse, Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but

frieze,

The All-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised,

Not half his riches known, and yet despised;
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 surcharged with her own

weight,

710

715

720

725

And strangled with her waste fertility:

730 The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with plumes,

The herds would over-multitude their lords;

The sea o'erfraught would swell, and the unsought diamonds

Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep,
And so bestud with stars, that they below
735 Would grow inured to light, and come at last
To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows.
List, Lady; be not coy, and be not cozened
With that same vaunted name, Virginity.
Beauty is Nature's coin; must not be hoarded,
740 But must be current, and the good thereof
Consists in mutual and partaken bliss,
Unsavoury in the enjoyment of itself.
If you let slip time, like a neglected rose
It withers on the stalk with languished head.
745 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 750 And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that, Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn? There was another meaning in these gifts; 755 Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet

Lady. I had not thought to have unlocked my

lips

In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler'

Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes,
Obtruding false rules pranked 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-pampered Luxury
Now heaps upon some few with vast excess,
Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed
In unsuperfluous even proportion,

And she no whit encumbered with her store;
And then the Giver would be better thanked,
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
Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words
Against the sun-clad power of chastity

Fain would I something say;-yet to what end?

760

765

770

775

780

Thou hast not ear, nor soul, to apprehend 785 The sublime notion and high mystery

That must be uttered to unfold the sage
And serious doctrine of Virginity;

And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know More happiness than this thy present lot.

790 Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric,

That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence; Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced. Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits 795 To such a flame of sacred vehemence,

800

That dumb things would be moved to sympathize, And the brute earth would lend her nerves, and shake,

Till all thy magic structures, reared so high,
Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head.

Comus. She fables not. I feel that I do fear 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.

805 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 lees

810 And settlings of a melancholy blood.

But this will cure all straight; one sip of this