The loudest sound is hardly heard within :
But if it once grow thick, with stubborn let,
It bars all passage to the inner room;

No sounding voice unto his seat may come : The lazy sense still sleeps, unsummon'd with his drum. XLII.

This *drum divides the first and second part,
In which three hearing instruments reside;
Three instruments compact by wondrous art,
With slender string knit to the drum's inside;
Their native temper being hard and dry,
Fitting the sound with their firm quality,
Continue still the same in age and infancy.

XLIII.

The first an† hammer call'd, whose out-grown sides
Lie on the drum ; but with his swelling end
Fix'd in the hollow stithe, there fast abides:
The stithe's short foot, doth on the drum depend,
His longer in the stirrup surely plac'd;

The stirrup's sharp side by the stithe embrac'd;
But his broad base tied to a little window fast.

XLIV.

Two little windows ever open lie,

The sound unto the cave's third part conveying;

* The drum parteth the first and second passage. To ît are joined three little bones, the instruments of hearing; which never grow, or decrease, in child hood or age: they are all in the second passage.

The hammer, stithe (or anvil), and stirrup, all take their names from their likeness; and are all tied to the drum by a small string.

These are two small passages, admitting the sounds into the head, and cleansing the air.

K

And slender pipe, whose narrow cavity,

Doth purge the inborn air, that idle staying,

Would else corrupt, and still supplies the spending :
The cave's third part in twenty by-ways bending,
Is call'd the labyrinth, in hundred crooks ascending.
XLV.

Such whilome was that eye-deceiving frame,
Which crafty Dædal with a cunning hand
Built to empound the Cretan prince's shame:
Such was that Woodstock cave, where Rosamond,
Fair Rosamond, fled jealous Ellenore;

Whom late a shepherd taught to weep so sore,
That woods and hardest rocks, her harder fate deplore.
XLVI.

The third part with his narrow rocky straits

Perfects the sound, and gives more sharp accenting;
Then sends it to the *fourth; where ready waits
A nimble post, who ne'er his haste relenting,
Makes to the judgment-seat with speedy flight;
There the 'gust judge attending day and night,
Receives the ent'ring sounds, and dooms each voice aright.
XLVII.

As when a stone troubling the quiet waters,
Prints in the angry stream a wrinkle round,
Which soon another and another scatters,

Till all the lake with circles now is crown'd:

All so the air, struck with some violence night,

Begets a world of circles in the sky;

All which inflected move with sounding quality.

*The last passage is called the Cochlea, snail, or periwinkle, where the nerves of hearing plainly appear.

XLVIII.

These at Auditus' palace soon arriving,

Enter the gate, and strike the warning drum:
To those, three instruments fit motion giving,
Which every voice discern: then that third room
Sharpens each sound, and quick conveys it thence;
Till by the flying post 'tis hurry'd hence,

And in an instant brought unto the judging sense.
XLIX.

This sense is made the master of request,

Prefers petitions to the prince's ear :

Admits what best he likes, shuts out the rest;
And sometimes cannot, sometimes will not hear:
Oftimes he lets in anger-stirring lies,

Oft melts the prince with oily flatteries.

Ill mought he thrive, that loves his master's enemies!

L.

"Twixt Visus' double court a tower stands,

Plac'd in the suburbs' centre; whose high top,

And lofty raised ridge the rest commands :
Low at his feet a double door stands ope,
Admitting passage to the air's ascending;
And divers odours to the city sending,

Revives the heavy town, his lib'ral sweets dispending.
LI.

This vaulted tow'r's half built of massy stone,

The other half of stuff less hard and dry,

Fit for distending, or compression :

The outward wall may seem all porphyry.
Olfactus * dwells within this lofty fort;

But in the city is his chief resort,

Where 'twixt two little hills he keeps his judging court.

* The sense of smelling.

1

LII.

By two great caves are fix'd these little hills,
Most like the nipples of a virgin's breast;
By which the air that th' hollow tower fills,
Into the city passeth: with the rest

The odours pressing in, are here all stay'd;
Till by the sense impartially weigh'd,

Unto the common judge they are with speed convey'd.
LIII.

At each side of that tow'r, stands two +fair plains,
More fair than that in which rich Thessaly

Was once frequented by the Muse's trains :
Here ever sits sweet blushing modesty :

Here in two colours beauty shining bright,

Dressing her white with red, her red with white, With pleasing chain enthrals, and binds loose wand'ring'sight. LIV.

Below a cave, roof'd with a heav'n-like plaster,
And under strew'd with purple tapestry,

Where Gustus dwells, the Isle's and prince's taster,
Koilia's steward, one of the Pentarchy;

Whom Tactus (some affirm) got of his mother:
For by their nearest likeness one to th' other,
Tactus may eas'ly seem his father, and his brother.
LV.

Tactus the last, but yet the eldest brother;
(Whose office meanest, yet of all the race
The first and last, more needful than the other)
Hath his abode in none, yet every place :

These are those two little paps or teats spoken of in the xvth stanza of this canto.

†The cheeks.

Gustus, or the taste, is in the palate.

§ Tactus, the sense of feeling.

Through all the Isle distended is his dwelling;

He rules the streams that from the Cephal swelling, Run all along the Isle, both sense and motion dealing. LVI.

With Gustus, Lingua* dwells, his prattling wife,

Endow'd with strange and adverse qualities: The nurse of hate and love, of peace and strife; Mother of fairest truth, and foulest lies,

Or best, or worst; no mean: made all of fire,

Which sometimes Hell, and sometimes Heav'n inspire, By whom truth's self oft speaks, oft that first murd'ring liar. LVII.

The idle Sun stood still at her command,

Breathing his fiery steeds in Gibeon :

And pale-fac'd Cynthia at her word made stand,
Resting her coach in vales of Ajalon.

Her voice oft open breaks the stubborn skies,

And holds th' Almighty's hands with suppliant cries: Her voice tears open Hell with horrid blasphemies. LVIII.

Therefore that great Creator, well foreseeing

To what a monster she would soon be changing, (Though lovely once, perfect and glorious being) Curb'd her with iron † bit, and held from ranging;

And with strong bonds her looser steps enchaining, Bridling her course, too many words refraining, And doubled all his guards, bold liberty restraining. LIX.

For close within he sets twice sixteen guarders‡, Whose harden'd temper could not soon be mov'd: *The tongue. + The tongue is held with a ligament called the bridle. It is guarded by the teeth and lips, both which help and sweeten the voice.