SABRINA descends, and the LADY rises out of her seat.

hills

SP. Virgin, daughter of Locrine
Sprung of old Anchises' line,
May thy brimmed waves for this
Their full tribute never miss
From a thousand petty rills,
That tumble down the snowy
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

:

925

930

The beryl, and the golden ore;

May thy lofty head be crown'd

With many a tow'r and terrace round,

935

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 following lines. Lucret. ii. 362,

'Fluminaque illa queunt, summis labentia ripis.' 930 flood] Sylv. Du Bartas, p. 171.

dirty mudds

Defil'd 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.

945

950

955

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.

SONG.

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

960 duck] K. Richard III. act i. sc. 3. Duck with French nods.' Warton.

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.

965

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,

970

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

975

980

972 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.' Warton and Todd.

Of Hesperus, and his daughters three

985

That sing about the golden tree: Ovid is the only writer who
way that the trees were fold
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,: fed,
And drenches with Elysian dew

(List mortals, if your ears be true)
Beds of hyacinth and roses,
Where young Adonis oft reposes,
Waxing well of his deep wound

In slumber soft, and on the ground

990

foidered sleeves purjited atte honde` Canterbury Tales 193

Sadly sits th' Assyrian queen; Vennis Astarte
But far above in spangled sheen

Celestial Cupid her fam'd son advanc'd,

1000

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.'

p. 93.

1002 Assyrian] Tickel and Fenton read the Cyprian Queen.

Faery The BRITI CAFE "Jarden of Adorin 984 crisped = ripples of crissed channel Tempe II/

Holds his dear Psyche sweet intranc'd,
After her wand'ring labours long,

1005

1020

1017 corners] Macbeth, a. 3. s. 5. Upon the corner of the moon.

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.'

1023 stoop] "bow.' MS.

Warton and Todd.

the What he his writta by Mitten in de

Dentro 1639 with

alber at