ELDER BROTHER

Unmuffle ye faint stars, and thou fair moon That wontest to love the travelers benizon Stoop thy pale visage through and amber cloud And disinherit Chaos, that raigns here In double night of darkness, and of shades; Or if your influence be quite worser mm'd up With black usurping mists, some gentle taper Though a ush candle from the wicker hold Of some clay habitation visit us With thy long leveled rule of streaming light And thou shalt be our star of Arcady Or Tyrian Cynosure. Peace brother, be not over exquisite To cast the fashion of uncertain evils, For grant they be so, while they rest unknown What needs a man forestall his date of grief And run to meet what he would most avoid? Or if they be but false alarms of Fear How bitter is such self-delusion? I do not think my sister so to seek Or so unprincipled in virtues book And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever As that the single want of light, and noise (Not being in danger, as I trust she is ot) Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts And p to them into miss becoming plighted. Virtue could see to do what virtue would By her owne'radiant light, though Sun and Moon Were in the slat Sea sunk, and Wifdoms self Oft seeks to sweet retired Solitude Where with her best nurse Contemplation She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings That in the various bustle of resort Were all to ruffled, and sometime impaired. He that has light within his own clear breast May fit i'th centre, and enjoy bright day, But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the midday Sun, Himself is his own dungeon. For certain Either some one Like us night foundered here, Or else some neighbour wood man, or at worst Some roving robber calling to his fellows. I'll hallow, If he be friendly he comes well, if not Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us. That hallow I should know, what are you, speak, Come not too near, you fallen on iron stakes else. Thyrsis whose artful strains have oft de laid The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, And sweetened every muskrose of the dale, How camest thou he good Swain, hath any ram Slip't from the fold, or young kid lost his dam, Or straggling weather the pen't flock forsook, How couldst thou find this dark sequestered nook? To tell thee sadly shepherd, without blame Or our neglect, we lost her as we came. What fears good Thyrsis? prithee briefly show. Yes, and keep it still, Lere on it safely, not a perjod Shall be unsaid for me; against the threats Of malice or of , or that power Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm, Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt, Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled, Yea even that which mischief meantmost harm, Shall in the happy trial prove most glory. But on it self shall back recoil And no more with goodness, when at last Gathered Like see m, and settled to it self It shall be in eternal restless change ̄ Self fed, and self consumed, if this fail The pillared firmament is rottenness , And earth's base built on stubble. But come let's on Against the opposing will and arm of heaven May never this just sword be lifted up, But for that damned magician, let him be girded With all the greisly legions that troop Under the sooty flag of Acheron, Harpyies and Hydra's, or all the monstrous bugs betwixt Africa, and Ind, I'll find him out And force him to restore his purchase back Or drag him by the curls, and cleave his scalp Down to the hips. I do not brother Infer, as if I thought my sisters state Secure without all doubt, or controversy: Yet where and equal poise of hope, and fear Does arbitrate th'event, my nature is That I incline to hope, rather then fear And gladly banish squint suspicion. My sister is not so defenceless left As you imagine, she has a hidden strength Which you remember not. I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength Which if heaven gave it, may be termed her own: It's chastity, my brother, chastity: She that has that, is clad in complete steel, And Like a quivered nymph with arrows keen May trace huge forests, and unharboured heaths Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds Where through the sacred rays of chastity No savage fierce, bandit, or mountaneet Will dare to soil her virgin purity Yea there, where very desolation dwells By grots, and caverns shagged with horrid shades She may pass on with unblench't majesty Be it not done in pride, or in presumption. Some say no evil thing that walks by night In fog, or fire, by lake, or moorish fen Blue meager hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost That breaks his magic chains at curfeu time No goblin, or swart Fairy of the mine as hurtful power over true virginity. Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call Antiquity from the old schools of Greece To testify the arms of Chastity? Hence had the huntress Dian her dreaded bow Fair silver-shaf ed Queen for ever chased Wherewith we tamed the brinded lioness And spotted mountain pard, but set at nought The frivolous bolt of Cupid, gods and men Feared her stern frown, & sh was queen oth' woods. What was hat snaky headed Gorgon shield That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone? But rigid looks of Chaste austerity And noble grace that dashed bruit violence With sudden adoration, and blank awe. So deer to heaven is saintly chastity That when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lackey her Driving sarre off each thing of sin, and gilded, And in clear dream, and solemn vision Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear, Till oft converse with heavenly habitants Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape The unpolluted temple of the mind And turns it by degrees to the souls essence Till all be made immortal; but when lust By unchaste looks, lose gestures, and foul talk But most by lewd, and lavish act of sin Lets in defilement to the inward parts, The soul grows clotted by contagion, Imbody , and imbrutes, till she quite lose The divine property of her first being. Such are those thick, and gloomy shadows damp Oft seen in Charnel vaults, and Sepulchers Hovering, and sitting by a new made grave As loath to leave the body that it loved, And linked it self by carnal sensuality To a degenerate and degraded state. Why prithee shepherd How durst thouthen thy self approach so near As to make this relatio ? Thyrsis led on apace I'll ollow thee, And some good angel bear a shield before us. List, list I hear Some far off hallow break the silent air.