COMUS

The star that bids the Shepherd fold, Now the top of heaven does hold, And the gilded Car of Day His glowing Axle does allay, In the steep Atlantik stream, And the slope Sun his upward beam Shoots against the dusky Pole, Pacing towards the other goal Of his Chamber in the East. Mean while welcome Joy, and Feast, Midnight shout, and revelry, Tipsy dan e, and Jollity. Braid your Locks with rosy Twine, Worser opping odours, dropping Wine. Rigor now is gone to bed, And A vice with scrupulous head, Strict Age, and sour Severi j With their graven Saws in slumber lie. We that are of pu er fire, Imitate the starry choir, Who in their nightly watchful Spheres, Led in swift round the Months and Years. The Sounds, and Seas with all their finny drove, Now to the Moon in wavering Morrice move, And on the tawny sands and shelves, Trip the pert Fairies and the dapper Elves; By dimpled Brook, and Fountain brim. The Wood-nymphs decked with daisiestrim, Their merry wakes, and pastimes keep, What hath night to do with sleep? Night hath better sweets to prove, Venus now wakes, and wakens Love. Come let us our rights begin It's only daylight that makes Sin Which these Don shades will never report. Hail Goddess of Nocturnal sport Dark-vailed cotytto, whom the secret flame Of midnight To ches burns; mysterious Dame That never at called, but when the Dragon woome Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom And makes one blot of all the air, Stay thy cloudy Ebon chair, Wherein thou ridest with Hecat', and befriend Us thy vowed Priests, till utmost end Of all thy dues be done, and none left out E e the blabbing Eastern scout The nice Morn on the Indian steep From her cabined loop hold peep, And to the telltale Sun descry Our concealed Solemnity. Come, knit hands, and heat the ground In a light fantastic round. Break off, break off, I feel the different pace Of some chased footing near about this ground, Run to your shrouds, within these Brakes, and Trees Our number may affright: Some Virgin sure (For so I can distinguish by mine Art) Benighted in these woods. Now to my charms And to my wily trains, I shall ever long Be well stocked with as fair a Herd as grazed About my Mother Circe. Thus I hurl My worser zling Spells into the spongy air Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion, And give it false presentments, lest the place And my quaint habits breed astonishment, And put the Damsel to suspicious flight, Which must not be, for that's against my course; I nder fair praetents of friendly ends, And well placed words of glozing courtesy Bait worser with reasons not unplausible Wind me into the easy hearted man, And hug him into snares; when once her eye Hath met the virtue of this Magic dust, I shall appear some harmless Villager Whom thrift keeps up about his Country gea But here she comes, I fairly step afide And Harken, if I may, her buifnesse here. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true My best guide now, me thought it was the found Of Riot, and ill managed Merriment, Such as the jocund Flute, or gamesome Pipe Stirs up among the lose unleter'd Hinds When for their teeming Flocks, and granges full In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan, And thank the gods amiss. I should be loath To meet the rudeness, and swilled infolence Of such late Wassailers; yet where else Shall I in e my unacquainted feet In the of this tangled wood? My Brot when they saw me wearied out With that ng way, resolving here to lodge. Under the spreading favour of these Pines Stepped as they seed to the next Thicket side To bring me Berries, or such cooling fruit As the kind hospitable woods provide. They left me then, when the gray-hooded Even Like a sad Vota st in Palmer's weeds Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phaebus wain. But where they are, and why they came not back Is now the labour of my thoughts, it's likeliest They had engaged their wandering steps too far, And envious darkness, ever they could return, Had stolen them from me, else o thievish Night Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end In thy dark lantern thus close up the Stars, That nature hung in Heaven, and filled their lamps With everlasting oil to give endue light To the misled, and lonely Traveler. This is the place, as well as I may guess Whence even now the tumult of loud Mirth Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear, Yet nought but single darkness do I find, What might this be? a thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, And airy tongues, that syllable men's names On Sands, and Shores, and desert Wildernesses. These thoughts may startle well, but not astounded The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended By a strong siding champion Conscience.— Oh welcome pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope Thou flittering Angel girded with golden wing ; And thou unblemished form of Chastity I see ye visibly, and now believe That he, the Supreme good, whom all things ill Are but as slavish officers of vengeance Would send a glistering Guardian if needs were To keep my life, and honour unassailed. Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night? I did not err, there does a sables cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night And casts a gleam over this tufted Grove. I cannot hallow to my Brother's, but Such noise as I can make to be herd farthest I'll venture, for my new enliv'nd spirits Prompt me; and they perhaps are not far off. Sweet echo, sweetest Nymph that livest unseen Within thy airy shell By slow Meander's margin green, And in the violet-imbroider'd vale Where the love- Nightingale Nightly to thee her sad Song mourneth well. Canst thou not tell me of a gentle Pair That likest thy Narcissus are? Oh if thou have Hid them in some flowery Cave, Tell me but where Sweet Queen of Parley, Daughter of the Sphare, So mayest thou be translated to the skies, And give resounding grace to all Heavens Harmonies. Nay Lady fit; if I but wave this wand, Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster, And you a statre; or as Dap was Root bound that fl Apoll . Can any mortal mixture of Earth's mould Breath such Divine enchanting 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 At every fallen smoothing the Raven down Of darkness till she smiled: I have oft herd My mother Circe with the Sirens three Amid the slowrie-kirtl'd Naiades Culling their Potent herbs, and baleful drugs Who as they sung, would take the prisoned soul And lap it in Elysinm, Scylla wept, And chid her barking waves into attention, And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause: Yet they in plea king slumber lulled the sense And in sweet madness robbed it of it self, But such a sacred, and homefelt delight, Such sober certainty of waking bliss I never herd 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 Dwellest here with Pan, or Sylvan, by blessed Song Forbidding every bleak unkindly Fog To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. What chance good Lady hath bereft you thus? Could that divide you from near-ushering guides? By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? And left your fair side all unguarded Lady? Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. Impor S their lose, beside the present needs? Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom? Two such I saw, what time the laboured Ox In his lose traces from the furrow came, And the swink't hedger at his Supper sat; I saw them under a green mantling vine That crawls along the side of yond small hill, Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots, Their port was more then human; as they stood, I took it for a Fairy vision Of some gay creatures of the element That in the colours of the Rainbow live And play i'th plighted clouds, I was aw-strooke, And as I passed, I worshipped; if those you seek It were a journey Like the path to heaven To help you find them. Endue west it rises from this shrubby point. 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 day lie walks and ancient neighbourhood, And if your stray attendance be yet lodged Or shroud within these limits, I shall know Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark From her thach't palate rouse, if otherwise I can conduct you Lady to a low But loyal cottage, where you may be safe Till further quest. Why are you we to Lady, why do you frow Here dwell no frowns, nor anger, from these gates Sorrow ies far: see here be all the pleasures That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns Brisk as the April buds in primrose season. And first behold Thy cordial ulep here That flames, and dances in his crystal bounds With spirits of bal e, and fragrant syrups mixed. Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Though In Egypt gave to love born He Is of such power to up joy as this, To li e so friendly, or so cool to thirst. Why should you be so cruel to your self, And to those dain li ms which nature lent For gentle usage, and soft delicacy? But you invert the covenants of her trust, And har hly deal Like and ill borrower With that which you received on other terms, Scorning the u exempt 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 This will restore all soon. Oh 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 sat 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 hutch't th'all worshipped over, 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 Freize, Th'all-giver would be unthank't, 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, plumes, And strangled with her wast fertility; Earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with The heards would over-inultitude their Lords, The sea overfraught would swell, and unsought Diamond monds Would so emblaze he forehead of the Deep, And so bestud with stars that they below 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, But must be currant, and the good thereof Consists in mutual and partaken bliss, Unsavoury in enjoyment of it self If you let slip time, Like a neglected rose It withers on the stalk with languished head. 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; course complexions And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply The sampler, and to tease the huswives wool. What needs a vermeil-tinctured lip for that Love-darting eyes, or tresses Like the Morn There was another meaning in these gifts? Think what, and be advise, you are but young yet. She fables not, I feel that I do fear Her words set off by some superior power; And to ough not mortal, yet a cold shuddering Due Dips me allo e, as when the wrath of Jove Speaks thunder, and the chains of Erebus To some of Scturns 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 it's but the lees And settlings of a melancholy blood; But this will cure all straight, one sip of this Will bath the drooping spirits in delight Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste.—