For toil doth give a better touch To make us feel our joy; And ease finds tediousness, as much As labor yields annoy. Siren. Then pleasure likewise seems the shore Whereto tends all your toil; Which you forego to make it more, And perish oft the while. Who may disport them diversely And ease may have variety, Ulysses. But natures of the noblest frame These toils and dangers please; And they take comfort in the same, And with the thought of actions past Are recreated still; When pleasure leaves a touch at last To show that it was ill. Siren. That doth opinion only cause That's out of custom bred; Which makes us many other laws Than ever nature did. No widows wail for our delights, Ulysses. But yet the state of things require And these great spirits of high desire Το purge the mischiefs that increase And all good order mar; For oft we see a wicked peace To be well changed for war. Siren.* Well, well, Ulysses, then I see I shall not have thee here; And therefore I will come to thee, And take my fortune there. The meaning of this verse seems to be that he who will not yield to false pleasure shall win the true pleasure. The author of these verses was Samuel Daniel, a contemporary of Spenser. The lines have something of the roughness characteristic of the old poets, yet less than was usual at his day. I must be won that cannot win, INVOCATION. By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet, Sleeking her soft alluring locks; &c. COMUS. THE SIRENS IN THE SKIES. [Later writers represent the Sirens as presiding over the music of the spheres. In Milton's Arcades they soothe the Fates with their song.] IN the deep of night, when drowsiness That sit upon the nine infolded spheres, MILTON. THE MERMAID. O'ER her fair brow her pearly comb unfurls caves; Where lurk the pearls, where coral sea-flowers grow, And all the wonders of the world below." APOLLONIUS RHODIUS. |