SABRINA descends, and the Lady rises out
of her seat.
SP. Virgin, daughter of Locrine
Sprung of old Anchises’ line,
May thy brimmed waves for this
Their full tribute never miss
925 From a thousand petty rills, That tumble down the
snowy
hills :
Summer drouth, or singed air
Never scorch thy tresses fair,
Nor wet October's torrent flood
Thy molten crystal fill with mud;
May thy billows roll ashore
The beryl, and the golden ore;
May thy lofty head be crown'd
With many a tow'r and terrace round,
And here and there thy banks upon
With groves of myrrh and cinnamon.
Come, Lady, while heav'n lends us grace,
Let us fly this cursed place,
Lest the sorcerer us entice
940
924 brimmed] 'brined,' Warburton ; a wrong and tasteless alteration : brimmed' is connected with the two fòllowing lines. Lucret. ii. 362,
• Fluminaque illa queunt, summis labentia ripis.' 930 food] Sylv. Du Bartas, p. 171.
dirty mudds Defild the crystal of smooth sliding floods.'
Dunster.
With some other new device.
Not a waste, or needless sound,
Till we come to holier ground;
I shall be your faithful guide
Through this gloomy covert wide,
And not many furlongs thence
Is your Father's residence,
Where this night are met in state
Many a friend to gratulate
His wish'd presence, and beside
All the swains that there abide,
With jigs, and rural dance resort ;
We shall catch them at their sport,
And our sudden coming there
Will double all their mirth and cheer;
Come, let us haste, the stars grow high,
But night sits monarch yet in the mid sky.
The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow town and
the President's castle; then come in country dancers, after them the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, with the Two BROTHERS, and the LADY.
Sp. Back, Shepherds, back, enough your play, Till next sunshine holiday; Here be without duck or nod
951 there] So Milton's own edition, the MS. 'near.'
960 duck] K. Richard ill. acti.sc. 3. 'Duck with French nods.' rton,
Other trippings to be trod
Of lighter toes, and such court guise
As Mercury did first devise,
With the mincing Dryades,
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,
Here behold so goodly grown
Three fair branches of your own;
Heav'n hath timely tried their youth,
Their faith, their patience, and their truth,
And sent them here through hard assays
With a crown of deathless praise,
To triumph in victorious dance
O'er sensual folly, and intemperance.
The dances ended, the Spirit epiloguises.
Sp. To the ocean now I fly,
And those happy climes that lie
Where day never shuts his eye,
Up in the broad fields of the sky:
There I suck the liquid air
All amidst the gardens fair
07? hard] Milton is fond of this expression. P. L. iv.932. from hard assays.' P. Reg. i. 264. iv. 478. Todd. 979 broad] MS. 'plain fields. Fairfax, B. viii. st. 57. O'er the broad fields of heaven's bright wildernesse.'
Varton and Todd.
Of Hesperus, and his daughters three
That sing about the golden tree:
Along the crisped shades and bowers
Revels the spruce and jocund Spring,
The Graces, and the rosy-bosom'd Hours,
Thither all their bounties bring;
There eternal Summer dwells,
And west-winds, with musky wing,
About the cedarn alleys fling
Nard and cassia's balmy smells.
Iris there with humid bow
Waters the odorous banks, that blow
Flowers of more mingled hue
Than her purfled scarf can show,
And drenches with Elysian dew
(List mortals, if your ears be true)
Beds of hyacinth and roses,
Where
young
Waxing well of his deep wound
In slumber soft, and on the ground
Sadly sits th’ Assyrian queen;
But far above in spangled sheen
Celestial Cupid her fam'd son advanc'd,
988 There] Milton's own edition, 1673, reads That there, but in the errata directs. That' to be omitted ; so it is by Tickell and Fenton, but silently readopted by Newton.
Warton. 989 musky) See Cowley's Silva. p, 56, and Love's Riddle,
. The musky kisses of the west wind.' 1092 Assyrian] Tickeland Fenton read 'the Cyprian Queea.'
Holds his dear Psyche sweet intranc'd,
After her wand'ring labours long,
Till free consent the Gods among
Make her his eternal bride,
And from her fair unspotted side
Two blissful twins are to be born,
Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn.
But now my task is smoothly done,
I can fly, or I can run
Quickly to the green earth's end,
Where the bow'd welkin slow doth bend,
And from thence can soar as soon
To the corners of the moon.
Mortals, that would follow me,
Love Virtue, she alone is free,
She can teach ye how to climb
Higher than the sphery chime:
Or, if Virtue feeble were,
Heav'n itself would stoop to her.
1017 corners] Macbeth, a. 3. s. 5. Upon the corner of the
Warton. 1021 sphery] 'sphery chime' is the chime or music of the spheres. Mids. N. Dream, act ii. sc. 7, 'Hermia's sphery eyne.' Machin's Dumbe Knight, (Reed's Old Pl. iv. 447), . It was as silver as the chime of spheres.' Herrick's Hesp. p. 116, Fall down from those thy chiming spheres.'
Warton and Todd. 1023 stoop] bow. MS.
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