And barshly deal like an ill borrower,

It withers on the stalk with languish'd head. With that which you receiv'd on other terms; Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown Şcorning the unexempt condition,

In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, By which all mortal frailty must subsist,

Where most may wonder at the workmanship; Refreshment after toil, ease after pain,

It is for homely features to keep home, That have been tir'd all day without repast, They had their name thence ; coarse complexions, And timely rest have wanted ; but, fair virgin, And cheeks of sorry grain, will serve to ply 750) This will restore all soon.

The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. Lad.

'Twill not, false traitor! 690 What need a vermeil-tinctur'd lip for that, Twill not restore the truth and bonesty, -Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the Morn ? That thou hast banish'd from thy tongue with lies. There was another meaning in these gifts ; Was this the cottage, and the safe abode, Think what, and be advis'd; you are but young Thou toldst me of? What grim aspects are these,

yet. These ugly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me! Lad. I had not thought to have unlock'd my lips Hence with thy brew'd enchantments, foul de- In this unhallow'd air, but that this juggler[eyes, ceiver !

Would think to charm my judgment, as mine Hast thou betray'd my credulous innocence Obtruding false rules prank'd in reason's garb. With visor'd falsehood and base forgery? I hate when Vice can bolt her arguments, 760 And would'st thou seek again to trap me here And Virtue has no tongue to check her pride. With lickerish baits, fit to ensnare a brute! 700 Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature, Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, As if she would her children should be riotous I would not taste thy treasonous offer; none With her abundance; she, good cateress, But such as are good men can give good things ; Means her provision only to the good, And that which is not good, is not delicious That live according to her sober laws, To a well govern'd and wise appetite,

And holy dictate of spare Temperance : Com. O foolishness of men that lend their ears If every just man, that now pines with want, To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur,

Had but a moderate and beseeming share And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub, Of that which lewdly-pamper'd Luxury 770 Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence.

Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710 Nature's full blessings would be well dispens'd With such a full and unwithdrawing hand, In unsuperfluous even proportion, Covering the Earth with odours, fruits, and flocks, And she no wit encumber'd with her store; Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable, And then the Giver would be better thank'd, But all to please and sate the curious taste ? His praise due paid : for swinish Gluttony And set to work millions of spinning worms,

Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast, That in their green shops weave the smooth-hair'd But with besotted base ingratitude silk,

Crams, and blasphemes his feeder. Shall I go on? Todeck her sons ; and that no corner might Or have I said enough? To him that dares . 780 Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words She hutch'd the all-worshipt ore, and precious Against the sun-clad power of Chastity, gems,

Pain would I something say, yet to what end? To store her children with: if all the world 720 Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend Should in a pet of temperance feed on pulse,

The sublime notion, and high mystery, Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but That must be utter'd to unfold the sage frieze,

(prais'd, And serious doctrine of Virginity; The All-giver would be untbank’d, would be un. And thou art worthy that thou should'st not know Not balf his riches known, and yet despis’d; More happiness than this thy present lot. And we should serve him as a grudging master, Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, 790 As a penarious niggard of his wealth;

That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence; And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons, Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinc'd: Who would be quite surcharg'd with her own Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth weight,

Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits And strangled with her waste fertility;

To such a flame of sacred vehemence, The Earth cumber'd, and the wing'd air dark'd That dumb things would be mov'd to sympathize, with plumes,

730 And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and The herds would over-multitude their lords,

shake, The sea o'er fraught would swell, and the unsought Till all thy magic structures, rear'd so high, diamonds

Were shatter'd into heaps o'er thy false head. Would so imblaze the forehead of the deep, Com. She fables not; I feel that I do fear · 800 And so bestud with stars, that they below

Her words set off by some superior power; Would grow inur'd to light, and come at last And though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering To gaze upon the Sun with shameless brows.

dew List, lady: be not coy, and be not cosen'd Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove With that same vaunted name, Virginity. Speaks thunder, and the chains of Erebus, Beauty is Nature's coin, must not be hoarded, To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble, But must be current; and the good thereof 740 | And try ber yet more strongly.-Come, no more; Consists in mutual and partaken bliss,

This is mere inoral babble, and direct Unsavoury in the enjoyment of itself ;

Against the canon-laws of our foundation; If you let slip time, like a neglected rose I must not suffer this: yet 'tis but the less

course,

And settlings of a melancholy blood : 810 Listen, and appear to us,
But this will cure all straight; one sip of this In name of great Oceanus;
Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight, By the Earth-shaking Neptune's mace,
Beyond the bliss of dreams. De wise, and taste.- And Tethys' grave majestic pace,

870

By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look,
The Brothers rush in with swords drawn, wrest his and the Carpathian wisard's hook,

glass out of his hand, and break it against the By scaly Triton's winding shell,
ground; his rout make sign of resistance; but are And old sooth-saying Glaucus' spell,
all driven in. The Attendant Spirit comes in. By Leucothea's lovely hands,

And her son that rules the strands,
Spirit.

By Thetis' tinsel-slipper'd feet,
What, have you let the false enchanter 'scape? And the songs of Syrens sweet,
Oye mistook, ye should have snatch'd his wand, By dead Parthenope's dear tomb,
And bound him fast; without his rod revers'd, And fair Ligea's golden comb,

$80 And backward mutters of disserering power, Wherewith she sits on diamond rock, We cannot free the Lady that sits here

Sleeking her soft alluring locks;
In stony fetters fix'd, and motionless : 819 By all the nymphs that nightly dance
Yet stay, be not disturb'd; now I bethink me, Upon thy streams with wily glanet,
Some other means I have which may be as'd, Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head,
Which once of Melibeus old I learnt,

From thy coral-paven bed,
The soothest shepherd that e'er pip'd on plains. And bridle in thy headlong wave,

There is a gentle nymph not far from hence, | Till thou our summons answerd tare.
That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn

Listen, and save. streaın, Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure;

SABRINA rises, attended by water-nymphs, and Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine,

sings. 'That had the sceptre from his father brute. She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit Of her enraged stepdame Guendolen,

890 830

By the rushy-fringed bank, Commended her fair innocence to the flood,

Where grows the willow, and the ozier dank, That staid her fight with his cross-flowing Thick set with agate, and the azura'sbeen

My sliding chariot stays,

Of turkis blue, and emerald green, The water-nymphs, that in the bottom play'd,

That in the channel strays; Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in,

Whilst from off the waters fleet
Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall;

Thus I set my printless feet
Who, piteous of her woes, rear'd her lank head,
And gave her to his daughters to imbathe

O'er the cowslip's velvet head,

That bends not as I tread; In nectar'd lavers, strew'd with asphodel;

Gentle swain, at thy request,

900 And through the porch and inlet of each sense Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she reviv'd,

810

I am here. And underwent a quick immortal change,

Sp. Goddess dear, Made goddess of the river : still she retains

We implore thy powerful band

To undo the charmed band
Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve
Visits the herds along the twilight meadows,

Of true virgin here distrest,
Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs

Through the force, and through the wile, That the shrewd meddling else delights to make, Sabr. Shepherd, 'tis my office besť

Of unblest enchanter vile.
Which she with precious vial'd liquors heals;

To help ensnared chastity :
For which the shepherds at their festivals
Carol ber goodness loud in rustic lays,

Brightest lady, look on me;

910 And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream

Thus I sprinkle on thy breast Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. 851

Drops, that from my fountain pure

I have kept, of precious cure;
And, as the old swain said, she can unlock
The claspiog charm, and thaw, the numming Thrice upon thy finger's tip,

Thrice
spell,

upon thy rubied lip:

Next this marble venom'd'seat, If she be right invok'd in warbled song;

Smeard with gums of glutinous beat, For maidenbood she loves, and will be swift

I touch with chaste palms moist and cold :-
To aid a virgin, such as was herself,

Now the spell hath lost his hold;
In hard-besetting need; this will I try,
And add the power of some adjuring verse.

And I must haste, ere morning hour, 920

To wait in Ampbitrite's bower.
SONG.

Sabrina descends, and the Lady rises out of her Sabrina fair,

seat. Listen where thou art sitting

860
Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, Sp. Virgin, daughter of Loerine
In twisted braids of lilies knitting

Sprung of old Anchises' line,
The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair; May thy brimmed waves for this
Listen for dear bonour's sake,

Their fuil tribute never miss
Goddess of the silver lake,

From a thousand pretty rills,
Listen, and save

That tumble down the snowy bills:

Summer drought, or singed air,

There I suck the liquid air

980 Never scorch thy tresses fair,

All amidst the gardens fair Nor wet October's torrent flood

930 Of Hesperus, and bis daughters three Thy molten crystal fill with mud;

That sing about the golden tree: May thy billows roll ashore

Along the crisped shades and bowers The beryl and the golden ore ;

Revels the spruce and jocund Spring ; May thy lofty head be crown'd

The Graces, and the rosy-bosom'd Hours, With many a tower and terrace round,

Thither all their bounties bring ; And bere and there thy banks upon

There eternal Summer dwells, With groves of myrrh and cinnamon.

And west-winds, with musky wing,

990 Come, lady, while Heaven lends us grace, About the cedar'd alleys fling Let us fly this cursed place,

Nard and cassia's balmy smells. Lest the sorcerer us entice

940 Iris there with humid bow With some other new device.

Waters the odorous banks, that blow Not a waste or needless sound,

Flowers of more mingled hew Till we come to holier ground;

Than her purfled scarf can show ; I shall be your faithful guide

And drenches with Elysian des Through this gloomy covert wide,

(List, mortals, if your ears be true) And not many furlongs thence

Beds of hyacinth and roses, Is your father's residence,

Where young Adonis oft reposes, Where this night are met in state

Waxing well of his deep wound

1000 Many a friend to gratulate

In slumber soft, and on the ground His wish'd presence; and beside

950 Sadly sits the Assyrian queen : All the swains, that there abide,

But far above in spangled sheen With jigs and rural dance resort ;

Celestial Cupid, her fam'd son, advancd, We shall catch them at their sport,

Holds his dear Psyche sweet entranc'd. And our sudden coming there

After her wandering labours long, Will double all their mirth and cheer:

Till free consent the Gods among
Come, let us haste, the stars grow high,

Make her his eternal bride,
But night síts monarcb yet in the mid sky. And from her fair unspotted side

Two blissful twins are to be born,

1010

Youth and Joy: so Jove hath sworn. The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow lown and the president's castle ; then come in country I can fly, or I can run,

But now my task is smoothly done, dancers, after them the Attendant Spirit, with Quickly to the green earth's end, the two Brothers and the Lady.

Where the bow'd welkin slow doth bend;

And from thence can soar as soon
SONG.

To the corners of the Moon.

Mortals that would follow me,

Love Virtue; she alone is free : Sp. Back, shepherds, back ; enough your play,

She can teach ye how to climb

1020 Till next sun-shine holiday :

Higher than the sphery chime; Here be, without dock or nod,

960

Or if Virtue feeble were,
Other trippings to be trod

Heaven itself would stoop to her.
Of lighter toes, and such court guise
As Mercury did first devise,
With the mincing Dryades,
On the lawns, and on the leas.

ORIGINAL VARIOUS READINGS OE Comus,
This second Song presents them to their Father and
Mother,

From Milton's MS, in his own hand.
Noble lord, and lady bright,
I have brought ye new delight;

STAGE-DIRECTIONS. “ A guardian spirit or Here behold so goodly grown

demon" (enters.] After v. 4,“ In regions mild, Three fair branches of your own ;

&c.” These lines are inserted, but crossed. Heaven bath timely tried their youth, 970 Their faith, their patience, and their truth, Amidst th' Hesperian gardens, on whose banks And sent them here through hard assays

Bedewd with nectar and celestiall songs, With a crown of deathless praise,

Eternall roses grow, and hyacinth, To triurnph in victorious dance

And fruits of golden rind, on whose faire tree Q'er sensual Folly and Intemperance.

The scalie-harnest dragon ever keeps

His unenchanted eye; around the verge The dances [being] ended, the Spirit epiloguizes And sacred limits of this blissful isle,

The jealous ocean, that old river, windes Sp. To the ocean now I fy,

His farre extended armes, till with steepe fall And those happy climes that lie

Halfe his wast food the wild Atlantique fills, Where day never shuts his eye,

And halfe the slow unfadom'd stygian poole. Up in the broad fields of the sky

But soft, I was not sent to court sour wonder

ferent pace

and trees,

With distant worlds, and strange removed Ver. 145. Breake off, breake off, I hear the dif

climes.
Yet thence I come, and oft from thence behold.

Of some chaste footing neere about

this ground; In the third of the preceding lines, “ Eternal

Some virgin sure benighted in these roses yeeld” had been also written, and then

woods, “ bloome;" both which are crossed, and grow re

For so I can distinguish by myne art mains. After stygian poole the following lines,

Run to your shrouds within these braks through which the pen is drawn, occur:

Our number may affright.
I doubt me, gentle mortalls, these may seeme

This disposition is reduced to the présent con-
Strange distances lo heare and unknowne climes.

text: then follows a
Then follows in the margin, But soft, &c. STAGE-DIRECTION. “ They all scatter."
Ver. 5. the smoke and stir of this dim nar. Ver. 151. Now to my trains,
Tow spot.

And to my mother's charmes.-
After v. 7, “ Strive to keep up, &c.” this line Ver. 153. Thus I hurle
was inserted, but crossed,

My powder'd spells into the spungic air, Beyond the dritten date of mortall change.

Of power to cheat the eye with sleight

illusion, Ver. 14. That shews the palace of æternity.

And give it false præsentments; Ver. 18. But to my buisnesse now. Neptune

else the place.
whose sway.

And blind is written for sleight.
Ver. 21. The rule and title of each sea-girt isle. Ven 164. And hugge him into nets.
Ver. 28. The greatest and the best of all his em- Ver. 170.

If my ear be true.
pire.

Ver. 175. When for their teeming flocks, and Ver. 45. By old of modern bard, in hall or

garners full. bowre.

Ver. 176. they adore the bounteous Pan. Ver. 58. Which therefore she brought up and Praise had been first written and crossed through; nam'd him Comus,

and adore written over it, but also crossed; and In the margin, whome.

a line drawn under to signify that the original Ver. 62. And in thick covert of black shade im- word should be restored. Mr. Wbiter in his bowr'd

learned Specimen of a Commentary on Shakespeare, Excels his mother at her potent art. first noticed this method of emendation, adopted Covert is written first, then sheller.

by the poet. See the Specimen, p. 132-134. Ver. 67. For most doe taste through weake ia- Ver. 181. In the blind alleys of this arched temperate thirst.

wood Ver. 72. All other parts remaining as before. Ver. 190. Rose from the hindmost wheeles of Ver. 90). Neerest and likeliest to give present

Phæbus' chaire. aide,

Ver. 193 They had eugag'd thire youthly steps Ver. 02. Of virgin steps. I must be viewlesse

too farre

To the soone-parting light, and envious Virgin is expunged for hatefull.

darkness STAGE-DIRECTION. * Goes outi-Comus enters

Had stolné them from me. with a charming rod and glasse of liquor, with Ver. 199. With everlasting oyle to give thire his rout all headed like some wild beasts; thire

light. garments, some like men's and some like women's. Ver. 208. And ayrie toungs that lure night-warThey come on in a wild and antic fashion. In

derers. trant Κωμάζοντές.»

Ver. 214. Thou flittering angel girt with goldea Ver. 97. In the steepe Tartarian streame.

wings, Ver. 99. Shoots against the northern pole.

And thou unspotled forme of Chastity, Dusky is a marginal correction.

I see ye visibly, and while I see yee, Ver. 108. And quick Law with her scrupulous

This duskye hollow is a paradise, head.

And heaven gates ore my head: now I Ver. 114. Lead with swift round the months and

beleeve. years.

Ver. 219. Would send à glistering cherub, if Ver. 117. And on the yellow sands and shelves.

need were. Yellow is altered to tawny.

Ver: 229. Prompt me; and they perhaps are Ver. 122. Night has better sweets to prove.

not far hence. Ver. 133. And makes a blot in nature.

Ver. 231. Within thy ayrie cell. Again,

Cell is in the margin,

Ver. 243. And give resounding grace, is written And throws a blot øre all the aire,

in the margin of the manuscript ; and the ferVer. 134. Stay thy polisht ebon chaire

mer part of the line, which regularly concluded Wherein thou ridest with Hecaté, the song, is blotted out with great care ; but

And favour our close jocundrie. enough, I think, remains to show that the poety Till all thy dues bee done, and nought and not Lawes, wrote And hold a counterpointe. left out.

Before Comus speaks at v. 244, is this STAGEVer. 144. With a light and frolick round.

DIRECTION, “ Comus looks in and speaks." Srage-direction. “ The measure, in a wild, Ver. 252. Of darknesse till she sinil'd.-qude, and wantón antica

Ver. 254. Culling their powerfull herbs.

now.

2

Ver. 237, Scylla would weepe, [tion

She might be free from perill where she is, Chiding her barking waves into atten

But where an equal poise of hope and It was at first And chide.

fear. Ver. 268. Liv'st here with Pan and Sylvan. For encounter he had first written passado, and Ver. 270. To touch the prospering growth of this hopes and fears ; and Beshrew me bui I would; intall wood.

stead of I could be willing. Ver. 279. Could that divide you from thire Ver. 415. As you imagin, brother : she has a ushering hands.

hidden strength. Ver. 280. They left me wearied on a grassie Ver. 421. She that has that, is clad in compleate turf.

steele: Ver. 304. To help you find them out.

And may on every needful accident, Ver. 310. Without sure steerage of well prac

Be it not don in pride or wilfull tempting, tiz'd feet.

Walk through huge forests and unVer. 312. Dingle or bushie dell of this wide

harbour'd heaths, wood.

Infamous hills, and sandie perilous In a different band “ wild wood.”

wilds;

[Chastitie, Ver. 316. Within these shroudie limits.

Where, through the sacred awe of Ver. 321. Till further quest be made.

No savage fierce, bandite, or mounVer. 323. And smoakie rafters.

taneere, Ver. 326. And is pretended yet.

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. Square this tryal.

dwells,

[horrid shades; After v. 350, STAGE-DIRECTION. “ E.reunt.

By grots and carerns shagg'd with The two Brothers enter.”

And yawning dens, where glaring monó Ver. 340. With a long-levell’d rule of streaming

sters house, light.

She may pass on, &c. Ver. 349. In this sad dungeon of innumerous The line And yawning, &c. is crossed, and therebuughs.

fore omitted, I suppose, in the printed copies. But first lone, then sad, and lastly close.

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 urPerhaps some cold banke is her boul.

laid ghost.
Or 'gainst the rugged barke of some Ver. 448. That wise Minerva wore, aternal virgin.
broad elme

Then, undanquish'd, then, unconquer'd.
She leanes her thoughtfull head musing Ver. 452. With suddaine adoration of her pure-

at our unkindnesse:
Or lost in wild amazement and affright, Then, bright raycs, then, blank awe.
So fares, as did forsaken Proserpine, Ver. 454. That when it finds a soul sincerely so.
When the big rowling flakes of pitchie Ver. 465. And most by the l.zscivious act of sin.
And darknesse wound her in. (clouds Ver. 471. Oft seene in charnel vaults, and mo-
1 Br. Peace, brother, peace, I do not

numents, think my sister, &c.

Movering, and sitting by a newe-made Dead solitude is also surrounding wild. Some of

grare. the additional lines (v. 350—366.) are on a sepa- Ver. 481. List, list, methought I heard. rate slip of paper.

Ver. 435. Some curld man of the sword calling to Ver. 361. Which, grant they be so, &c.

his fellows. Ver. 362. The date of grief.

Hedger is also written over curl'd man of the Ver. 365. This self-delusion.

sword. Ver. 371. Could stirre the stable mood of her Ver. 490. Had best looke to his forehead : here calme thoughts.

be brambles. Ver. 376. Oft seeks to solitarie sweet relire. STAGE-DIRECTION. “ He hallows : the guardian Ver. 383. Walks in black vapours, though the damon hallows again, and enters in the habit of a noon-lide brand

shepherd.” Blaze in the summer solstice. Ver. 491. Come not too neere; you fall on Ver. 388. of men or heards.

pointed stakes else. Ver. 390. For who would rob a hermit of his Ver. 192. Dam. What voice, &c. beads,

Ver. 496. And sweeten'd every musk-rose of the His books, or his haire gowne, or ma.

valley. ple-dish?

Ver, 497. How cam'st thou heere good shepVer. 400. Bid me think.

herd?
Ver. 403. Uninjur'd in this vast and hideous wild. Ver. 498. Leapt ore the penne.-
At first “ this wide surrounding wast.”

Then,“ his fold;" Then“ the fold.”
Ver, 409. Secure, without all doubt or question : Ver. 512. What feares, good shepherd ?
no,

(darke, to trie Ver. 513. I'll tell you.
I could be willing, though now i tho Ver. 523. Deep learnt in all his mother's
A tough encounter with the shaggiest

witcheries, Tuffian,

[crcuit, / It had been first written, Enur'd; and lastly That lurks by hedge or lane of this dead Deep skill'd. To have her by my side, though I were Ver. 531. Tending my flocks hard by i' th' pas

tur'd launs.

nesse.