To meet the rudeness, and swill'd insolence
Of such late wassailers; yet O where else
Shall I inform my unacquainted feet
In the blind mazes of this tangled wood?
My Brothers, when they saw me wearied out
With this long way, resolving here to lodge
Under the spreading favour of these pines,
Stepp'd, as they said, to the next thicket side 185
To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit
As the kind hospitable woods provide.
They left me then, when the gray-hooded Even,
Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed,
Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain.
But where they are, and why they came not back,
Is now the labour of my thoughts; 'tis likeliest
They had engag'd their wand'ring steps too far;
And envious darkness, ere they could return,
Had stole them from me: else, O thievish Night,
Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end,
In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars,
That nature hung in heav'n, and fill'd their lamps
With everlasting oil, to give due light
To the misled and lonely traveller?
This is the place, as well as I may guess,
Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth
180 inform] Sams. Agon. 335. inform'd your younger feet. Warton.
19 votarist] Benlowe's Theophila, p 32 and P. 60.
'Sad votaresse! thy Earth of late o'ergrown
195 thiev h] P. Fletcher's Pisc. Eclog. p. 34, ed. 1633, The hievish night steals on the world.'
Was rife, and perfect in my list'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 shadows dire,
And airy tongues, that syllable men's names
On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses.
These thoughts may startle well, but not astound
The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended
By a strong-siding champion, Conscience.-
O welcome pure-ey'd Faith, white-handed Hope,
Thou hovering Angel, girt with golden wings,
And thou, unblemish'd form of Chastity!
I see ye visibly, and now believe
That he, the Supreme Good, t' whom all things ill
Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,
Would send a glist'ring guardian, if need were,
To keep my life and honour unassail'd.
Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
I did not err, there does a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night,
And casts a gleam over this tufted grove:
I cannot halloo to my Brothers, but
Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest
I'll venture, for my new enliven'd spirits
Prompt me; and they perhaps are not far off.
221 Was I deceiv'd] Ov. Fast. v. 545.
'Fallor? an arma sonant? Non fallimur: arma sonabant.'
SWEET Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen
Within thy airy shell,
By slow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet-embroider'd vale,
Where the love-lorn nightingale
Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well; 235 Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair
That likest thy Narcissus are?
O, if thou have
Hid them in some flow'ry cave,
Tell me but where,
Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the sphere! So mayst thou be translated to the skies, And give resounding grace to all heav'n's harmonies.
COм. Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould
Breathe such divine inchanting ravishment?
Sure something holy lodges in that breast,
And with these raptures moves the vocal air
To testify his hidden residence:
How sweetly did they float upon the wings
Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250
251 shell] The margin of the Cambridge MS. Cell.' Hurd and Warburton observe that 'shell' means the horizon, the hollow circumference of the heavens.
every fall smoothing the raven down
Of darkness till it smil'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, 2:5
Who, as they sung, would take the prison'd soul,
And lap it in Elysium; Scylla wept,
And chid her barking waves into attention,
And fell Charybdis murmur'd soft applause:
Yet they in pleasing slumber lull'd the sense,
And in sweet madness robb'd it of itself;
But such a sacred, and home-felt delight,
Such sober 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 blest song
Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog
To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood.
LAD. Nay, gentle Shepherd, ill is lost that
252 Of darkness] See T. Heywood's Love's Mistresse, p. 14, 4to. and Milton's Life, p. xv. note.
253 Circe] On Milton's having intermixed the 'Sirens' with 'Circe,' T. Warton's note may be consulted, p. 283. 258 barking] Giles Fletcher's Christ's Victorie and Triumph, 1632, p. 55.
And more in heaps the barking surges band.'
259 Charybdis] Sil. Ital. xiv. 474.
'Scyllæi tacuere canes, stetit atra Charybdis.' Warton. goddess] See Cowley's Love's Riddle, p. 117.
That is address'd to unattending ears;
Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift
How to regain my sever'd company,
Compell'd me to awake the courteous Echo
To give me answer from her mossy
couch.
COM. What chance, good Lady, hath bereft
you thus?
LAD. Dim darkness, and this leafy labyrinth.
COM. Could that divide you from near-ushering
guides?
LAD. They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280
COм. By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why?
LAD. To seek i' th' valley some cool friendly
[Lady?
COM. And left your fair side all unguarded,
LAD. They were but twain, and purpos'd quick
COм. Perhaps forestalling night prevented them.
LAD. How easy my misfortune is to hit!
COM. Imports their loss, beside the present need?
LAD. No less than if I should my Brothers lose.
COм. Were they of manly prime, or youthful
bloom?
LAD. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazor'd lips. COм. Two such I saw, what time the labour'd ox
In his loose traces from the furrow came,
273 extreme] Mirror for Mag. (ed. 1610) p. 430. 'In rustie armour, as in extream shift.'
292 loose] Benlowe's Theophila, p. 247 The tired oxe sent in loose traces home.' 'Medio die interjunxerunt.' Seneca de Tranq. Animi, Cap. ult. vol. i. p. 385. See Lip
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