Heer dwell no frowns, nor anger, from these gates
Sorrow flies farr: See here be all the pleasures
That fancy can beget on youthfull thoughts,
670
When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns
Brisk as the April buds in primrose season.
And first behold this cordial Julep heer
That flames, and dances in his crystal bounds
With spirits of balm, and fragrant syrops mixt.
675
Not that Nepenthes69 which the wife of Thone
In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena
Is of such power to stir up joy as this,
To life so freindly, or so cool to thirst.
Why should you be so cruel to your self,
680
And to those dainty limms which nature lent
For gentle usage, and soft delicacy?
But you invert the cov’nants of her trust,
And harshly deal like an ill borrower
With that which you receav’d on other terms,
685
Scorning the unexempt condition
By which all mortal frailty must subsist,
Refreshment after toil, ease after pain,
That have bin tir’d all day without repast,
And timely rest have wanted, but fair Virgin,
690
This will restore all soon.
Lady. Twill not false traitor,
’Twill not restore the truth and honesty
That thou hast banisht from thy tongue with lies;
Was this the cottage, and the safe abode
Thou toldst me of? What grim aspects are these,
695
These oughly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me!
Hence with thy brew’d inchantments, foul deceaver;
Hast thou betrai’d my credulous innocence
With visor’d falshood and base forgeries
And wouldst thou seek again to trap me heer
700
With lickerish70 baits fit to ensnare a brute?
Were it a draft for Juno when she banquets,
I would not taste thy treasonous offer; none
But such as are good men can give good things,
And that which is not good is not delicious
705
To a well-govern’d and wise appetite.
Comus. O foolishnes of men! that lend thir ears
To those budge71 doctors of the stoick furr,
And fetch thir precepts from the cynick tub,72
Praising the lean and sallow abstinence.
710
Wherfore did nature powr 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 sate the curious taste?
715
And set to work millions of spinning worms
That in thir green shops weave the smooth-hair’d silk
To deck her sons, and that no corner might
Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loyns
She hutch’t73 th’ all-worshipt ore and precious gems
720
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 freise,74
Th’ all-giver would be unthank’t, would be unprais’d,
Not half his riches known, and yet dispis’d,
725
And we should serve him as a grudging maister,
As a penurious niggard of his wealth,
And live like natures bastards, not her sons,
Who would be quite surcharg’d with her own waight
And strangl’d with her wast fertility;
730
Th’ earth cumber’d, and the wing’d air dark’t with plumes,
The herds would over-multitude thir Lords,
The sea o’refraught would swell, and th’ unsought diamonds
Would so emblaze the forhead of the deep75
And so bestudd with stars that they below
735
Would grow inur’d to light, and com at last
To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows.
List Lady be not coy, and be not cozen’d76
With that same vaunted name virginity;
Beauty is natures coyn, must not be hoorded,
740
But must be currant, and the good therof
Consists in mutual and partak’n bliss,
Unsavoury in th’ injoyment of it self.
If you let slip time, like a neglected rose
It withers on the stalk with languish’t head.
745
Beauty is natures brag, and must be shown
In courts, at feasts, on high solemnities
Where most may wonder at the workmanship;
It is for homely features to keep home,
They had thir name thence; course complexions
750
And cheeks of sorry grain77 will serve to ply
The sampler, or to teize78 the huswifes wooll.
What need a vermeil-tinctur’d lip for that,
Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn?
There was another meaning in these guifts,
755
Think what, and be advis’d, you are but young yet.
Lady. I had not thought to have unlockt my lips
In this unhallow’d air, but that this jugler
Would think to charm my judgement, as mine eyes
Obtruding false rules pranckt in reasons garb.
760
I hate when vice can bolt79 her arguments,
And vertue has no tongue to check her pride:
Impostor, do not charge most innocent nature,
As if she would her children should be riotous
With her abundance; she good cateress,
765
Means her provision only to the good
That live according to her sober laws
And holy dictate of spare temperance:
If every just man that now pines with want
Had but a moderate and beseeming share
770
Of that which lewdly-pamper’d Luxury
Now heaps upon som few with vast excess,
Natures full blessings would be well dispens’t
In unsuperfluous eev’n proportion,
And she no whit encumber’d with her store,
775
And then the giver would be better thankt,
His praise due paid, for swinish gluttony
Ne’re looks to Heav’n amidst his gorgeous feast,
But with besotted base ingratitude
Cramms, and blasphemes his feeder. Shall I go on?
780
Or have I said anough? To him that dares
Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words
Against the Sun-clad power of Chastity,
Fain would I somthing say, yet to what end?
Thou hast nor Ear, nor Soul to apprehend
785
The sublime notion, and high mystery80
That must be utter’d to unfold the sage
And serious doctrine of Virginity,
And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know
More happines then this thy present lot.
790
Enjoy your deer Wit, and gay Rhetorick
That hath so well been taught her dazling fence,81
Thou art not fit to hear thy self convinc’t;
Yet should I try, the uncontrouled worth
Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits
795
To such a flame of sacred vehemence,
That dumb things would be mov’d to sympathize,
And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and shake,
Till all thy ma
gick structures rear’d so high,
Were shatter’d into heaps o’re thy false head.
800
Comus. She fables not, I feel that I do fear
Her words set off by som superior power;
And though not mortal, yet a cold shuddring dew
Dips me all o’re, as when the wrath of Jove
Speaks thunder, and the chains of Erebus82
805
To som of Saturns crew. I must dissemble,
And try her yet more strongly. Com, no more,
This is meer moral babble, and direct
Against the canon laws of our foundation;
I must not suffer this, yet ‘tis but the lees
810
And setlings of a melancholy blood;
But this will cure all streight, one sip of this
Will bath the drooping spirits in delight
Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise and tast.
The brothers rush in with Swords drawn, wrest his Glass out of his hand, and break it against the ground; his rout make sign of resistance, but are all driven in. The attendant Spirit comes in.
Spirit. What, have you let the false enchanter scape?
815
O ye mistook, ye should have snatcht his wand
And bound him fast; without his rod revers’t
And backward mutters of dissevering power,
We cannot free the Lady that sits heer
In stony fetters fixt and motionless;
820
Yet stay, be not disturb’d, now I bethink me,
Som other means I have which may be us’d,
Which once of Melibæus83 old I learnt
The soothest shepherd that e’re pip’t on plains.
There is a gentle Nymph not farr from hence
825
That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream,
Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure;
Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine,
That had the scepter from his father Brute,
She guiltless damsell, flying the mad pursuit
830
Of her enraged stepdam Guendolen,
Commended her fair innocence to the flood
That stay’d her flight with his cross-flowing course.84
The water nymphs that in the bottom plaid
Held up thir pearled wrists and took her in,
835
Bearing her strait to aged Nereus85 hall,
Who piteous of her woes, rear’d her lank head,
And gave her to his daughters to imbath
In nectar’d lavers strew’d with Asphodil,86
And through the porch and inlet of each sense
840
Dropt in Ambrosial oils till she reviv’d
And underwent a quick immortal change,
Made goddess of the river; still she retains
Her maid’n gentlenes, and oft at eeve
Visits the herds along the twilight meadows,
845
Helping all urchin blasts, and ill luck signs
That the shrewd medling elf delights to make,
Which she with pretious viold liquors heals.
For which the shepherds at thir festivals
Carrol her goodnes loud in rustick layes,
850
And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream
Of pancies, pinks, and gaudy daffadils.
And, as the old swain said, she can unlock
The clasping charm, and thaw the numming spell,
If she be right invok’t in warbled song,
855
For maid’nhood she loves, and will be swift
To aid a virgin, such as was her self
In hard besetting need; this will I try
And add the power of som adjuring verse.
SONG
Sabrina fair
860
Listen where thou art sitting
Under the glassie, cool, translucent wave,
In twisted braids of Lillies knitting
The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair,
Listen for dear honours sake,
865
Goddess of the silver lake,
Listen and save.
Listen and appear to us
In name of great Oceanus,87
By th’ earth-shaking Neptunes mace,
870
And Tethys grave majestick pace,
By hoary Nereus wrincled look,
And the Carpathian wizards hook,
By scaly Tritons winding shell,
And old sooth-saying Glaucus spell,
875
By Leucothea’s lovely hands,
And her son that rules the strands,
By Thetis tinsel-slipper’d feet,
And the songs of Sirens sweet,
By dead Parthenope’s dear tomb,
880
And fair Ligéa’s golden comb,
Wherwith she sits on diamond rocks
Sleeking her soft alluring locks,
By all the Nymphs that nightly dance
Upon the streams with wily glance,
885
Rise, rise, and heave thy rosie head
From thy coral-pav’n bed,
And bridle in thy headlong wave,
Till thou our summons answer’d have.
Listen and save.
Sabrina rises, attended by water-nymphs, and sings.
890
By the rushy-fringed bank,
Where grows the willow and the osier dank,
My sliding chariot stayes,
Thick set with agat, and the azurn sheen
Of turkis88 blew, and emrauld green
895
That in the channell strayes,
Whilst from off the waters fleet
Thus I set my printless feet
O’re the Cowslips Velvet head
That bends not as I tread.
900
Gentle swain at thy request
I am heer.
We implore thy powerful hand
To undoe the charmed band
905
Of true virgin heer distrest,
Through the force, and through the wile
Of unblest inchanter vile.
Sabrina. Shepherd ‘tis my office best
To help insnared chastity;
910
Brightest Lady look on me,
Thus I sprinkle on thy brest
Drops that from my fountain pure,
I have kept of pretious cure,
Thrice upon thy fingers tip,
915
Thrice upon thy rubied lip;
Next this marble venom’d seat
Smear’d with gumms of glutenous heat
I touch with chast palms moist and cold,
Now the spell hath lost his hold;
920
And I must hast ere morning howr
To wait in Amphitrite’s89 bowr.
Sabrina descends, and the Lady rises out of her seat.
Spirit. Virgin, daughter of Locrine
Sprung of old Anchises line,
May thy brimmed waves for this
925
Thir full tribute never miss
From a thousand petty rills
That tumble down the snowy hills:
Summer drouth, or singed air
Never scorch thy tresses fair,
930
Nor wet Octobers torrent flood
Thy molten crystal fill with mudd;
May thy billows rowl ashoar
The beryl and the golden ore,
May thy lofty head be crown’d
935
With many a towr and terrace round,90
And heer and there thy banks upon
With groves of myrrhe, and cinnamon.
Com Lady while Heav’n lends us grace,
Let us fly this cursed place,
940
Lest the
sorcerer us intice
With som other new device.
Not a wast or needless sound
Till we com to holier ground,
I shall be your faithfull guide
945
Through this gloomy covert wide,
And not many furlongs thence
Is your Fathers residence,
Where this night are met in state
Many a freind to gratulate
950
His wish’t presence, and beside
All the swains that there abide,
With Jiggs and rural dance resort.
We shall catch them at thir sport,
And our sudden comming there
955
Will double all thir mirth and chere;
Com let us hast, the stars grow high,
But night sits monarch yet in the mid sky.
The scene changes presenting Ludlow Town and the Presidents Castle, then com in country-dancers, after them the attendant Spirit, with the two brothers and the Lady.
SONG
Spirit. Back shepherds, back, anough your play,
Till next sunshine holiday,
960
Heer be without duck or nod
Other trippings to be trod
Of lighter toes, and such court guise
As Mercury did first devise91
With the mincing Dryades
965
On the lawns, and on the leas,
This second Song presents them to their father and mother.
Noble Lord and Lady bright,
I have brought ye new delight,
Heer behold so goodly grown
Three fair branches of your own.
970
Heav’n hath timely92 tri’d thir youth,
Thir faith, thir patience, and thir truth.
And sent them heer through hard assays
With a crown of deathless praise,
To triumph in victorious dance
975
O’re sensual folly, and intemperance.
The dances ended, the Spirit Epiloguizes.