85

I shoot from heaven to give him safe convoy,
As now I do: But first I must put off
These my sky-robes, spun out of Iris' woof,
And take the weeds and likeness of a swain
That to the service of this house belongs,
Who with his soft pipe, and smooth-dittied song,
Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar,
And hush the waving woods; nor of less faith,
And in this office of his mountain watch
Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid
Of this occasion. But I hear the tread
Of hateful. steps ; I must be viewless now,

90

Comus enters with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other;

with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, but otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistering ; they come in making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands.

Comus. The star that bids the shepherd fold
Now the top of heaven doth hold;
And the gilded car of day
His glowing axle doth allay
In the steep Atlantic stream;
And the slope sun his upward beam

95

100

105

Shoots against the dusky pole,
Pacing toward the other goal
Of his chamber in the east.
Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast,
Midnight shout and revelry
Tipsy dance and jollity.
Braid your locks with rosy twine,
Dropping odours, dropping wine.
Rigour now is gone to bed,
And Advice with scrupulous head,
Strict Age, and sour Severity,
With their grave saws, in slumber lie.
We, that are of purer fire,
Imitate the starry quire,
Who, in their nightly watchful spheres,
Lead in swift round the months and years.
The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove,
Now to the moon in wavering morrice move;
And on the tawny sands and shelves
Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves.
By dimpled brook and fountain-brim,
The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim,

110

115

120

101. His chamber in the east.] dancing. 'Splendet tremulo sub Psalm xix. 5, .The sun as á lumine pontus. Virg. Æn. vii. bridegroom cometh out of his 9. The morris dance, i. e. the chamber.'

Morisco or Moorish dance, said 112. The starry quire.] So to have been introduced into Engcalled because of the supposed land, in the reign of Edward III., music of the spheres.' In line by John of Gaunt on his return 1021 we have higher than the from Spain, is probably of later sphery chime.

introduction. The hobby-horse, so 113. Nightly watchful.] Sleep- often referred to by the old draless during night. See the Note matists, was long one of the chief on l. 84 of n Penseroso.

characters in this festive dance. 116. In wavering morrice move.] 119. Fountain brim.] Fountain Quiver in the moonlight as if edge cr border.

. Mai dent Mistress nih mouchs reouo. Atalanta

nero

125

Their merry wakes and pastimes keep;
What hath night to do with sleep?
Night hath better sweets to prove,
Venus now wakes, and wakens Love.
Come, let us our rights begin; Mites
"Tis only day-light that makes sin, ile
Which these dun shades will nc'er report.
Hail! goddess of nocturnal sport,
Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame
Of midnight torches burns; mysterious dame,
That ne'er art called but when the dragon womb
Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom,
And makes one blot of all the air:
Stay thy cloudy ebon chair,
Wherein thou ridest with Hecate, and befriend
Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end

130

135

14C

Of all thy dues be done, and none left out;
Ere the blabbing eastern scout,
The nice morn, on the Indian steep
From her cabined loop-hole peep,
And to the tell-tale sun descry
Our concealed solemnity.
Come, knit hands, and beat the ground
In a light fantastic round.

THE MEASURE. (conce
Break off, break off, I feel the different

pace
Of some chaste footing near about this ground.

Shrouds within these brakes and trees;
Our number may affright;—Some virgin sure
(For so I can distinguish by mine art)
Benighted in these woods. Now to my charms,
And to my wily trains: I shall ere long
Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed
About

my

mother Circe. Thus I hurl

145

Run to your

150

155

160

My dazzling spells into the spungy air,
Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion,
And give it false ptesentments, lest the place
And my quaint habits breed astonishment,
And put the damsel to suspicious flight;
Which must not be, for that's against my course;
I, under fair pretence of friendly ends,
And well-placed words of glozing courtesy,
Baited with reasons not unplausible,
Wind me into the easy-hearted man,
And hug him into snares. When once her eye
Hath met the virtue of this magic dust,
I shall appear some harmless villager,
Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear.
But here she comes; I fairly step aside,
And hearken, if I may, her business here.

The Lady enters.
Lady. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true
My best guide now. Methought it was the sound
Of riot and ill-managed merriment,

That he began to doubt his dazzled sight.

154. Dazzling.] Beguiling, 161. Glozing.] Feigning, preillusive. The air is called tending, insinuating. spungy, because as a sponge 167. Keeps up, &c.] Keeps holds water so the air held in up to this late hour minding his

suspension the magic dust which rustic business. X Comus threw into it.

168. Fairly.] Gently, softly. His wonder far exceeded reason's reach, So Fletcher, The Chances, iii. 4, Spenser, F. Q. II. xi. 40.

171. Methought.] It thought 155. Blear.] Dim, or rather

me, i.e. I thought. In Chaucer dimming. 156. Presentments.] Repre

and other old writers we fre

quently meet with such expressentations. So in Shakspeare's

sions as it thinketh me, it thought Hamlet, iii. 4, “The counterfeit

me, or me thinketh, me thought. [i.e. copied] presentment of two brothers.'

Madame, quoth he, how thinké you 157. Quaint habits.] Curious How that me thinketh ? quoth she. dress.

Chaucer's Clerk's Tale.