Spir. O my lov'd master's heir, and his next joy, I came not here on such a trivial toy

As a stray'd ewe, or to pursue the stealth

Of pilfering wolf, not all the fleecy wealth

511

That doth enrich these downs, is worth a thought
To this my errand, and the care it brought.
But, O my virgin Lady, where is she?

How chance she is not in your company?

Eld. Bro. To tell thee sadly, shepherd, without

blame,

Or our neglect, we lost as we came.

Spir. Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true.

515

Eld. Bro. What fears, good Thyrsis? Prithee briefly shew.

Spir. I'll tell ye; 'tis not vain or fabulous, (Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance,) What the sage poets, taught by th' heav'nly

Muse,

520

(509) In the term wolf here, and again in 539, there seems to be an allusion to the groupe of West India Islands commonly called Lucayes (Auxos) of which Cuba is the chief.

Story'd of old in high immortal verse,

Of dire chimera's and inchanted isles,

And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to hell;
For such there be, but unbelief is blind.

Within the navel of this hideous wood,
Immur'd in cypress shades a sorcerer dwells,
Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus,
Deep skill'd in all his mother's witcheries,
And here to every thirsty wanderer,

525

530

By sly enticement gives his baneful cup,
With many murmurs mix'd, whose pleasing poison
The visage quite transforms of him that drinks,
And the inglorious likeness of a beast

Fixes instead, unmoulding reason's mintage

(526) Comus is a sorcerer, as Cuba his prototype borders upon the tropical circle; and sorcerers, magicians, wizards, and the like, are in the habit of drawing circles.

(531) Murmurs and immured in 526 contain puns upon the moors or stagnant marshes, by a mixture with which the waters of the springs of the country become poisoned.

Character'd in the face; this have I learn'd 535
Tending my flocks hard by i' th' hilly crofts,
That brow this bottom glade, whence, night by

night,

He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl
Like stabled wolves, or tygers at their prey,
Doing abhorred rites to Hecate

In their obscured baunts of inmost bowers.

Yet have they many baits and guileful spells
To inveigle and invite th' unwary sense
Of them that pass unweeting by the way.
This evening late, by then the chewing flocks,
Had ta'en their supper on the savory herb

Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold,

I sat me down to watch upon a bank
With ivy canopied, and interwove

540

546

With flaunting honey-suckle, and began,

550

Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy,
To meditate my rural minstrelsy,

(536) This line alludes, disguisedly, to the Andes mountains, in which the river Mamore, represented by the Attendant Spirit, or shepherd, has its source.

Till fancy had her fill, but ere a close,

The wonted roar was up amidst the woods,
And fill'd the air with barbarous dissonance; 555

At which I ceas'd, and listen'd them a while,
Till an unusual stop of sudden silence
Gave respite to the drowsy-flighted steeds
That draw the litter of close-curtain'd sleep;
At last a soft and solemn breathing sound
Rose like a steam of rich distill'd perfumes,
And stole upon the air, that even silence

560

Was took cre she was ware, and wish'd she might

Deny her nature, and be never more

Still to be so displac'd. I was all ear,

565

And took in strains that might create a soul

Under the ribs of death; But O ere long

Too well I did perceive it was the voice

(557) This line would seem to allude to the particular moment at which the waters in the Queen's Garden cease to be agitated by the waves of the sea, and therefore to make a dashing noise in the narrow channels there; and begin to be separate and stagnant.

Of my most honour'd lady, your dear sister.
Amaz'd I stood, harrow'd with grief and fear, 570
And, O poor hapless nightingale, thought I,
How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly

snare!

Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste Through paths and turnings often trod by day, Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place, 575

(570) In the word amazed there is a fresh allusion to Cape Maisy, one of the principal promontories of the Isle of Cuba.

(575) In conformity to what is said in a former note, I apprehend that at the time of the winter tropic, the Mamore (or Shepherd-river, as it may be called from its strong resemblance in shape to a shepherd's crook,) finds its way to the sea down the river Amazon; but at the time of the summer tropic, or rainy season, the same river, by the libration of the earth, spreads itself in inundation all around, and perhaps all over that space at the top of South America, which in the third Chapter on Homer was assimilated to an egg, (the egg of