In the blind mazes of this tangled wood?
My Brothers, when they faw me wearied out
With this long way, refolving here to lodge
Under the spreading favor of these pines,
Stept, as they faid, to the next thicket fide
To bring me berries, or fuch cooling fruit
As the kind hofpitable woods provide.
They left me then, when the gray-hooded Even,
Like a fad votarist in palmer's weed,
Rofe from the hindmoft wheels of Phœbus' wain. 190
But where they are, and why they came not back,
Is now the labor of my thoughts; 'tis likelieft
They had engag'd their wand'ring fleps too far,
And envious darkness, ere they could return,
Had ftole them from me; else O thievish Night 195
Why should'st thou, but for some fellonious end,
In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars,
That nature hung in Heav'n, and fill'd their lamps
With everlafling oil, to give due light
To the mifled and lonely traveller?
This is the place, as well as I may guess,
Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth
Was rife, and perfect in my lift'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 fhadows dire,
And aery tongues, that fyllable men's names
On fands, and fhores, and defert wildernesses.
These thoughts may startle well, but not aftound
The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended 211
By a frong fiding champion, confcience.---
O welcome pure-ey'd Faith, white-handed Hope,
Thou hovering Angel girt with golden wings,
And thou unblemish'd form of Chastity;
I fee ye vifibly, and now believe
That he, the Supreme Good, t' whom all things ill
Are but as flavifh officers of vengeance,
Would send a glist'ring guardian if need were
To keep my life and honor unaffail'd.
Was I deceiv'd, or did a fable cloud
Turn forth her filver lining on the night?
I did not err, there does a fable cloud
Turn forth her filver lining on the night,
And cafts a gleam over this tufted grove.
I cannot hallow to my Brothers, but
Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest
I'll venture, for my new inliven'd spirits
Prompt me; and they perhaps are not far off.
EET Echo, fweetest nymph, that liv'ft unseen
Within thy aery shell,
By flow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet-embroider'd vale,
Where the love-lorn nightingale
Nightly to thee her fad fong mourneth well; 235 Canft thou not tell me of a gentle pair
That likeft thy Narciffus are?
O if thou have
Hid them in fome flow'ry cave,
Tell me but where,
Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the fphere, So may'st thou be tranflated to the fkies, And give refounding grace to all Heav'n's harmo(nies.
Com. Can any mortal mixture of earth's mold Breathe fuch divine inchanting ravishment? 245 Sure fomething holy lodges in that breast, And with these raptures moves the vocal air To teftify his hidden refidence:
How fweetly did they flote upon the wings Of filence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250 fall smoothing the raven down
Of darkness till it fmil'd! I have oft heard
My mother Circe with the Sirens three,
Amidst the flow'ry-kirtled Naiades
Culling their potent herbs, and baleful drugs, 255
Who as they fung, would take the prison'd soul,
And lap it in Elyfium; Scylla wept,
And chid her barking waves into attention,
And fell Charybdis murmur'd soft applause:
Yet they in pleasing flumber lull'd the fenfe, 260
And in fweet madness robb'd it of itself;
But such a facred, and home-felt delight,
Such fober certainty of waking bliss
I never heard 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
Dwell'st here with Pan, or Silvan, by bleft song
Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog
269
To touch the prosp'rous growth of this tall wood.
Lady. Nay gentle Shepherd, ill is loft that praise
That is addrefs'd to unattending ears;
Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift
How to regain my fever'd company,
Compell'd me to awake the courteous Echo
To give me answer from her moffy couch.
Com. What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you thus?
Lady. Dim darkness, and this leafy labyrinth.
Com. Could that divide you from near-ushering
Lady. They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 Com. By falfhood, or discourtesy, or why?
Lady. To seek i' th' valley fome cool friendly fpring. Com. And left your fair fide all unguarded, Lady? Lady. Theywere but twain,and purpos'dquick return. Com. Perhaps fore-stalling night prevented them. Lady. How eafy my misfortune is to hit! 286 Com. Imports their lofs, beside the present need? Lady. No lefs than if I fhould my Brothers lofe.
Com. Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom?
Lady. As fmooth as Hebe's their unrazor'dlips. 290
Com. Two fuch I faw, what time the labor'd ox
In his loose traces from the furrow came,
And the swinkt hedger at his fupper fat;
I saw them under a green mantling vine
That crawls along the fide of yon fmall hill, 295
Plucking ripe clusters from the tender fhoots;
Their port was more than human, as they flood:
I took it for a faëry vision
Of some gay creatures of the element,
That in the colors of the rainbow live,
And play i' th' plighted clouds. I was aw-struck,
And as I paft, I worshipt; if those you seek,
It were a journey like the path to Heaven,
To help you to find them. La. Gentle Villager,
What readiest way would bring me to that place?
Com. Due weft it rifes from this fhrubby point. 306
Lady. To find out that, good Shepherd, I suppose,
In such a scant allowance of star-light,
Would over-tafk the beft land-pilot's art,
Without the fure guess of well-practic'd feet. 310
Com. I know each lane, and every alley green,
Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood,
And every bofky bourn from fide to fide,
My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood;
And if your ftray-attendence be yet lodg'd,
Or fhroud within thefe limits, I fhall know
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