SONG.

SWEET Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen

Within thy airy shell,

By slow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet-embroider'd vale,

Where the love-lorn nightingale

231

Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well; 235
Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair

That likest thy Narcissus are?
O, if thou have

Hid them in some flow'ry cave,

Tell me but where,

240

Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the sphere! So mayst thou be translated to the skies,

And give resounding grace to all heav'n's harmonies.

Enter COMUS.

245

COм. Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould
Breathe such divine inchanting ravishment?
Sure something holy lodges in that breast,
And with these raptures moves the vocal air
To testify his hidden residence:

How sweetly did they float upon the wings
Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250

231 shell] The margin of the Cambridge MS. Cell.' Hurd and Warburton observe that 'shell' means the horizon, the hollow circumference of the heavens.

At every fall smoothing the raven down
Of darkness till it smil'd! I have oft heard
My mother Circe with the Sirens three,
Amidst the flow'ry-kirtled Naiades,

Culling their potent herbs, and baleful drugs, 253
Who, as they sung, would take the prison'd soul,
And lap it in Elysium; Scylla wept,

And chid her barking waves into attention,
And fell Charybdis murmur'd soft applause:
Yet they in pleasing slumber lull'd the sense, 360
And in sweet madness robb'd it of itself;
But such a sacred, and home-felt delight,
Such sober certainty of waking bliss

264

I never heard till now. I'll speak to her,
And she shall be my queen. Hail, foreign wonder!
Whom certain these rough shades did never breed,
Unless the goddess that in rural shrine
Dwell'st here with Pan, or Silvan, by blest song
Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog

269

To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. LAD. Nay, gentle Shepherd, ill is lost that praise

252 Of darkness] See T. Heywood's Love's Mistresse, p. 14, 4to. and Milton's Life, p. xv. note.

253 Circe] On Milton's having intermix'd the 'Sirens' with 'Circe,' T. Warton's note may be consulted, p. 283. 258 barking] Giles Fletcher's Christ's Victorie and Triumph, 1632, p. 55.

And more in heaps the barking surges band.'

259 Charybdis] Sil. Ital. xiv. 474.

A. Dyce.

'Scyllæi tacuere canes, stetit atra Charybdis.' Warton.

267 goddess] See Cowley's Love's Riddle, p. 117.

That is address'd to unattending ears ;
Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift
How to regain my sever'd company,
Compell'd me to awake the courteous Echo
To give me answer from her mossy couch.
Coм. What chance, good Lady, hath bereft.
you thus ?

275

LAD. Dim darkness, and this leafy labyrinth. COM. Could that divide you from near-ushering guides ?

LAD. They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 Coм. By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? LAD. To seek i' th' valley some cool friendly spring. [Lady? COM. And left your fair side all unguarded, LAD. They were but twain, and purpos'd quick

return.

COм. Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. LAD. How easy my misfortune is to hit!

COM. Imports their loss, beside the present need? LAD. No less than if I should my Brothers lose. Coμ. Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom?

LAD. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazor'd lips. COM. Two such I saw, what time the labour'd ox In his loose traces from the furrow came,

273 extreme] Mirror for Mag. (ed. 1610) p. 430.

'In rustie armour, as in extream shift.’ Todd.

292

292 loose] Benlowe's Theophila, p. 247. The tired oxe sent in loose traces home.' 'Medio die interjunxerunt.' Seneca de Tranq. Animi, Cap. ult. vol. i. p. 385. See Lip

295

And the swink'd 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,

500

And play i' th' plighted clouds. I was awe-struck,
And as I pass'd, I worshipp'd; if those you seek,
It were a journey like the path to heaven,
To help you find them.

LAD. Gentle Villager,

304

[pose

What readiest way would bring me to that place?
Com. Due west it rises from this shrubby point.
LAD. To find that out, good Shepherd, I sup-
In such a scant allowance of star-light,
Would overtask the best land-pilot's art,
Without the sure guess of well-practis'd feet.
COM. 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;

310

sius's note on the force of this word. See too Arati Diosem. ver. 93.

297 human] The editions vary in pointing, either after 'human,' or after 'they stood.'

301 plighted] Folded. Milton's H. of England, b. ii. 'she wore a plighted garment of divers colours.' Todd.

304 plighted clouds] Euripidis Orest. 1647. εν αιθέρος πτυχᾶις. A. Dyce.

And if your stray-attendants be yet lodg'd
Or shroud within these limits, I shall know
Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark
From her thatch'd pallat rouse; if otherwise
I can conduct you, Lady to a low

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

315

320

LAD. Shepherd, I take thy word,
And trust thy honest offer'd courtesy,
Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds
With smoky rafters, than in tap'stry halls
And courts of princes, where it first was nam❜d, 325
And yet is most pretended: in a place
Less warranted than this, or less secure,

I cannot be, that I should fear to change it.
Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial
To my proportion'd strength. Shepherd, lead on.
Enter The Two BROTHERS.

1 BR. Unmuffle, ye faint stars, and thou, fair

moon,

That wont'st to love the traveller's benizon,
Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud,

331 Unmuffled] Benlowe's Theophila, st. xxii. p. 202. 222. 'Unmuffle, ye dim clouds, and disinherit

From black usurping mists.'

Shirley's Young Admiral, act ii. sc. 2.

not a star

Muffled his brightness in a sullen cloud.'

331

See Gascoigne's Jocasta, p. 99. Lisle's Du Bartas, p. 106. Browne's Shepherd's Pipe, vol. iii. p. 41. 129.

Abbey, p. 48, for the use of this word.

Thorney