Comus. Lift, lady. be not coy, and be not cozen'd With that fame vaunted name Virginity..

Beauty is nature's coin, muft not be hoarded, But must be current, and the good thereof ⚫ Confifts in mutual and partaken blifs,

Unfavory in th' enjoyment of itfelf:
If you let flip time, like a neglected rofe,
It withers on the stalk with languifh'd head.
Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown
In courts, at feasts, and high folemnities,
"Where most may wonder at the workmanship.
It is for homely features to keep home,

They had their name thence: Coarfe complexions,
And cheeks of forry grain, will ferve to ply
The fampler, and to teaze the housewife's wool.'
What need a vermeil tinctur'd lip for that,
Love-darting eyes, or treffes like the morn?
There was another meaning in thefe gifts;

·

Think what, and be advis'd: you are but young yet ;
This will inform you foon.

Lady. To him that dares

Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words
Against the fun clad power of chastity,

⚫ Fain would I fomething fay, yet to what purpofe?
← Thou haft no ear, nor foul to apprehend;

And thou art worthy that thou should'st not know

• More happiness than this thy present lot.

Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric,

That has fo well been taught her dazzling fence:
Thou art not fit to hear thyfelf convinc'd,
Yet fhould I try, the uncontroled worth
Of this pure caufe would kindle my rapt spirits
To fuch a flame of facred vehemence,

That dumb things would be mov'd to fympathize,

And the brute earth would lend her nerves, and shake,

Till all thy magic ftructures, rear'd fo high,
Were fhatter'd into heaps o'er thy falfe head.
Comus. She fables not, I feel that I do fear
Her words fet off by fome fuperior pow'r;
And tho' not mortal, yet a cold fhudd'ring dew
'Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove
Speaks thunder, and the chains of Erebus,
To fome of Saturn's crew. I muft diffemble,

• And

•And try her yet more ftrongly-Come, no more, This is meer moral babble, and direct Against the canon laws of our foundation ; • I must not fuffer this, yet 'tis but the lees And fettlings of a melancholy blood;

⚫ But this will cure all ftreight,' one fip of this Will bathe the drooping fpirits in delight,

Beyond the blifs of dreams. Be wife, and taste.

[The Brothers rush in with favords drawn, wreft the glafs out of his hand, and break it against the ground; his rout make figns of refiftance, but are al driven in.

Enter the firft Spirit.

What, have you let the falle enchanter scape?
O, ye mistook, you should have snatch'd his wand
And bound him faft; without his rod revers'd,
And backward mutters of diffev'ring pow'r,'
We cannot free the lady, that fits here
In ftony fetters fix'd, and motionless.
Yet ftay, be not difturb'd; now I bethink
Some other means I have, which may be us❜d,
"Which once of Melibœus old I learn'd,

me,

The footheft fhepherd that e'er pip'd on plains:
• I learn'd 'em then, when with my fellow fwain,
The youthful Lycidas, his flocks I fed.'
There is a gentle nymph not far from hence,
Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure,

That fways the Severn stream;

And, as the old swain faid,' fhe can unlock
The clafping charm, and thaw the numbing fpell,
If the be right invok'd in warbled fong;

For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift

To aid a virgin, fuch as was herself.

And fee the fwain himself in feafon comes."

Enter the fecond Spirit.

Hafte, Lycidas, and try the tuneful ftrain,
Which from her bed the fair Sabrina calls.

SONG. By a fecond Spirit.

Sabrina fair,

Liften where thou art fitting
Under the glaffy, cool, tranflucent wave,
In twitted braids of lilies knitting
The loofe train of thy amber-dropping hair;
Liften for dear honour's fake,

Goddess of the filver lake,
Listen and fave.

Sabrina rifes and fings.

By the rushy-fringed bank,

Where grows the willow and the offer dank,
My fliding chariot stays,

Thick fet with agate, and the azure shëen
Of Turkis blue, and em'rald green,
That in the channel ftrays;
Whilft from off the waters fleet
Thus I fet my printless feet
O'er the cowflip's velvet head,
• That bends not as I tread;
Gentle fwain, at thy request,
I am here.

RECITATIVE.
Second Spirit.

Goddefs dear,

We implore thy powerful hand
To undo the charmed band

Of true virgin here diftrefs'd,
Thro' the force, and thro' the wile,
Of unblefs'd enchanter vile.

Sabrina.

RECITATIVE.

Shepherd, is my office best
To help enfnared chastity:
Brighteft lady, look on ine;

Thus I fprinkle on thy breaft
Drops, that from my fountain pure
I have kept, of precious cure;

Thrice

Thrice upon thy finger's tip,
Thrice upon thy ruby'd lip;
Next this marble venom'd feat,
Smear'd with gums of glutinous heat,

I touch with chafte palms moift and cold':
Now the spell hath lost his hold;

And I must hafte, ere morning-hour,
To wait in Amphitrite's bower.

[Sabrina defcends, and the lady rifes out of her feat; the Brothers embrace her tenderly.

6 • E. Broth. I oft had heard, but ne'er believ'd till

now,

There are, who can by potent magic spells Bend to their crooked purpose nature's laws, • Blot the fair moon from her refplendent orb, Bid whirling planets stop their deftin'd course, And thro' the yawning earth from Stygian gloom • Call up the meagre ghost to walks of light:

• It may be fo,

for fome mysterious end!'

r. Broth. Why did I doubt? Why tempt the wrath of heav'n

To fhed juft vengeance on my weak distrust? 'Here fpotlefsinnocence has found relief,

By means as wond'rous as her strange distress.'
E. Broth. The freedom of the mind, you fee, no charm,
No fpell can reach; that righteous Jove forbids,
Left man fhould call his frail divinity

The flave of evil, or the fport of chance.
Inform us, Thyrfis, if for this thine aid,
We aught can pay that equals thy defert.

First Spirit difcovering himself.
Pay it to heaven! There my manfion is:
But when a mortal, favour'd of high Jove,
Chances to pafs thro' yon advent'rous glade,
• Swift as the sparkle of a glancing ftar
• I fhoot from heav'n to give him fafe convoy.
That lent you grace to efcape this curfed place;
To heaven, that here has try'd your youth,
Your faith, your patience, and your truth,
And fent you thro' these hard effays
With a crown of deathlefs praife.

[Then

[Then the two firft Spirits advance and speak alternately the following lines, which Milton calls Epiloguizing. To the ocean now I fly,

And thofe happy climes that lye
Where day never shuts his eye
Up in the broad fields of the sky:
There I fuck the liquid air,
All amidst the gardens fair

Of Hefperus, and his Daughters three,
That fings about the golden tree.

Along the crifped shades and bowers
Revels the fpruce and jocund Spring;
The Graces and the rofy-bofom'd Hours
Thither all their bounties bring;
There eternal Summer dwells,
And weft-winds with musky wing
About the cedar'n alleys fling
Nard and Caffia's balmy fmells.

Now my task is fmoothly done,
I can fly or I can run,

Quickly to the

earth's end,

green

Where the bow'd welkin flow doth bend;
And from thence can foar as foon
To the corners of the moon.
Mortals that would follow me,
Love Virtue, fhe alone is free:
She can teach you how to climb
Higher than the sphery chime;
Or, if Virtue feeble were,
Heaven itself would stoop to her.

Chorus.

Taught by virtue, you may climb
Higher than the fphery chime;
Or, if virtue feeble were,
Heaven itself would stoop to her.

END of the THIRD ACT.