"And, as the old swain said," she can unlock The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell, If she be right invok'd in warbled song : For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift "To aid a virgin, such as was herself. "And see the swain himself in season comes." Enter the Second Spirit. Haste, Lycidas, and try thy tuneful strain, SONG. By Second Spirit. Sabrina fair, Listen where thou art sitting 350 The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair; 360 Goddess of the silver lake, Listen and save. SABRINA rises and sings. By the rushy-fringed bank, Where grows the willow and the osier dank, My sliding chariot stays, Thick set with agate, and the azure sheen Of Turkis blue, and em'rald green, That in the channel strays; We implore thy powerful hand Of true virgin here distress'd, Thro' the force, and thro' the wile, Shepherd, 'tis my office best Smear'd with gums of glutinous heat, I touch with chaste palms moist and cold; And I must haste, ere morning-hour, [SABRINA descends, and the Lady rises out of her seat ; the Brothers embrace her tenderly. E. Bro. "I oft had heard, but ne'er believ'd till now, "There are, who can by potent magic spells "Bend to their crooked purpose nature's laws, "Blot the fair moon from her resplendent orb, "Bid whirling planets stop their destin'd course, 400 "And thro' the yawning earth from Stygian gloom "Call up the meagre ghost to walks of light: "It may be so, -for some mysterious end!" Y. Bro. Why did I doubt? Why tempt the wrath of heav'n To shed just vengeance on my weak distrust? "Here spotless innocence has found relief, "By means as wond'rous as her strange distress." E. Bro. The freedom of the mind, you see, no charm, No spell can reach; that righteous Jove forbids, The slave of evil, or the sport of chance. First Spirit discovering himself. Pay it to Heaven! There my mansion is : 410 "I shoot from heav'n to give him safe convoy." 420 [Then the two first Spirits advance and speak alternately the following lines, which MILTON calls epiloguizing. To the ocean now I fly, And those happy climes that lye Up in the broad fields of the sky: All amidst the gardens fair Of Hesperus, and his Daughters three, Along the crisped shades and bowers There eternal Summer dwells, 430 Now my task is smoothly done, I can fly or I can run Quickly to the green earth's end, Where the bow'd welkin slow doth bend; 440 And from thence can soar as soon Heaven itself would stoop to her. Chorus. Taught by virtue, you may climb Higher than the sphery chime; Heaven itself would stoop to her. THE END. 450 |