Gentle Swain, at thy request I am here. SPIR. Goddess dear, We implore thy pow'rful hand Of true virgin here distrest, Through the force, and through the wile Of unbleft inchanter vile. SAB. Shepherd, 'tis my office beft To help infnared chastity: Brightest Lady, look on me; Thus I fprinkle on thy breast Thrice upon thy rubied lip; 925 Next this marble venom'd feat, Smear'd with gums of glutenous heat, I touch with chafte palms moist and cold : Now the fpell hath loft his hold; And I must hafte ere morning hour 930 To wait in Amphitrite's bow'r. Sabrina defcends, and the Lady rifes out of her feat. SPIR. Virgin, daughter of Locrine Sprung of old Anchises line, May thy brimmed waves for this May thy lofty head be crown'd With many a tow'r and terras round, And here and there thy banks upon 945 1 With groves of myrrh, and cinnamon. Come, Lady, while Heav'n lends us grace, Let us fly this cursed place, Left the forcerer us entice, With jiggs, and rural dance refort; We shall catch them at their sport, And our fudden coming there 950 955 960 Will double all their mirth and chear; 965 The fcene changes, prefenting Ludlow town and the. Prefident's castle; then come in country dancers, *after them the attendant Spirit, with the two Bro thers and the Lady. SON G. SPIR. Back, Shepherds, back, enough your play, Till next fun-fhine holyday; 970 Of lighter toes, and fuch court guise As Mercury did first devise With the mincing Dryades On the lawns and on the leas. 975 This fecond Song prefents them to their Father and Mother. Noble Lord and Lady bright, I have brought you new delight, Heav'n hath timely try'd their youth, Their faith, their patience, and their truth, And fent them here through hard affays Revels the spruce and jocund fpring, 995 The Graces, and the rofy-bofom'd Hours, Thither all their bounties bring; That there eternal Summer dwells And weft-winds with mufky wing About the cedarn alleys fling. 1000 Nard and Caffia's balmy smells. Iris there with humid bow Waters the odorous banks, that blow Flowers of more mingled hue Celestial Cupid her fam'd fon advanc'd, I can fly, or I can run Quickly to the green earth's end, 1005 1010 1015 1020 Where the bow'd welkin flow doth bend, 1025 And from thence can foar as foon To the corners of the moon. Mortals that would follow me, Love Virtue, fhe alone is free, She can teach you to clime Higher than the fphery chime; Or if Virtue feeble were, Heav'n itself would stoop to her. 1012. 1030 th' Affyrian queen;] Venus, fo called because she was first worshipped by the Affyrians. XVII. LYCIDAS. * In this monody the author bewails a learned friend, unfortunately drown'd in his paffage from Chester on the Irish Seas, 1637, and by occafion foretels the ruin of our corrupted clergy then in their heighth. Y ET once more, O ye Laurels, and once more I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, Shatter your leaves from the mellowing year. That from beneath the feet of Jove doth spring, This poem was made upon the unfortunate and untimely death of Mr. Edward King, fon of Sir John King, Secretary for Ireland, a fellow-collegian and intimate friend of Milton, who as he was going to vifit his relations in Ireland, was drowned Aug. 10, 1637, in the 25th year of his age. This poem is with great judgment made of the paftoral kind, as both Mr. King and Milton had been defigned for holy orders and the paftoral care, which gives a peculiar propriety to several paffages in it. |