Of midnight torches burn. Mysterious dame ! Stay thy cloudy ebon chair, Wherein thou rid'st with Hecat', and befriend Of all thy dues be done, and none left out; The nice Morn, on th' Indian steep Our conceal'd solemnity. SONG. By CoмUS and Woman. We follow sweet variety; By turns we drink, and dance, and sing, Why should niggard rules control Pleasure counts our time alone. Comus. Come, knit hands and beat the ground In a light fantastic round. A Dance. Break off, break off; I feel the diff'rent pace 210 Run to your shrouds within these brakes and trees; Wind me into the easy-hearted man, And hug him into snares. When once her eye I shall appear some harmless villager Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. And hearken if I may her bus’ness here. Lady. This Enter the Lady. 220 way the noise was, if mine ear be true, My best guide now: methought it was the sound 230 Of riot and ill-manag'd merriment; "Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe "Stirs up among the loose unletter'd hinds, "When, for their teeming flocks and granges full, In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? 240 Comus aside.] I'll ease her of that care, and be her guide. Lady. My brothers, when they saw me weary'd out "With this long way, resolving here to lodge Under the spreading favour of these pines," Stepp'd, as they said, 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 grey-hooded Even, "Like a sad votarist in palmer's weeds, 249 "Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phœbus' wain ;" But where they are, and why they come not back, Is now the labour of my thoughts: 'tis likeliest They had engag'd their wand'ring steps too far. "This is the place, as well as I may guess, "Whence, ev'n now, the tumult of loud mirth "Was rife, and perfect in my list'ning 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 beck'ning shadows dire, 260, "And aery tongues, that syllable mens' names "On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses. "These thoughts may startle well, but not astound, "The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended "By a strong siding champion, Conscience. "O! welcome pure-ey'd Faith, white-handed Hope, "Thou hov'ring angel, girt with golden wings, "And thou unblemish'd form of Chastity! "I see you visibly, and now believe, “That he, the supreme Good (to whom all things ill "Are but as slavish officers of vengeance) "Would send a glist'ring guardian, if need were, SONG. Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph! that liv'st unseen By slow Maander's margent green, And in the violet-embroider'd vale, Where the lovelorn nightingale Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well, Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair That likest thy Narcissus are? C 271 286 290 Oh! if thou have Hid them in some flow'ry cave, Tell me but where, Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the Sphere! So may'st thou be translated to the skies, And give resounding grace to all heav'n's harmonies. Comus aside.] Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? "How sweetly did they float upon the wings 300 Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs, "And chid her barking waves into attention, "I never heard till now."—I'll speak to her, And she shall be my queen.-Hail, foreign wonder! 310 |