I do not think my sister so to seek,
Or so unprincipled in Virtue's book,

And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever,
As that the single want of light and noise
(Not being in danger, as I trust she is not)
Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts,
And put them into misbecoming plight.
Virtue could see to do what Virtue would

370

By her own radiant light, though sun and moon
Were in the flat sea sunk; and Wisdom's self
Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude;

375

Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation,

She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,
That in the various bustle of resort

Were all-to ruffled, and sometimes impair'd.

He that has light within his own clear breast,
May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day:
But he, that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;
Himself is his own dungeon.

SEC. BR.

380

That musing Meditation most affects

The pensive secrecy of desart cell,

Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds,
And sits as safe as in a senate-house;

For who would rob a hermit of his weeds,

390

His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,
Or do his gray hairs any violence?

But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree

Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard

Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye,

395

To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit,
From the rash hand of bold Incontinence.

You may as well spread out the unsunn'd heaps

Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den,

And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope

400

Danger will wink on opportunity,
And let a single helpless maiden pass
Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste.
Of night, or loneliness, it recks me not;

I fear the dread events that dog them both,
Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person
Of our unowned sister.

Infer as if I thought my sister's state

Secure, without all doubt or controversy;

405

376. Seeks to. This expression is com- | here, namely, to smoothe and pick, and mon in our translation of the Bible: see Isa. xi. 10. Deut. xii. 5.

378. She plumes her feathers. Warton thinks the true reading is "prunes:" but plumes is used in the sense intended

set in order when ruffled.

380. All-to, for altogether, entirely. 395. Unenchanted: Which cannot be enchanted.

Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear
Does arbitrate the event, my nature is
That I incline to hope, rather than fear,
And gladly banish squint suspicion.
My sister is not so defenceless left

As you imagine; she has a hidden strength,
Which you remember not.

SEC. Br.

What hidden strength,
Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that?
EL. BR. I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength,
Which, if Heaven gave it, may be term'd her own:
'Tis Chastity, my brother, Chastity:
She, that has that, is clad in complete steel;
And, like a quiver'd Nymph with arrows keen,
May trace huge forests, and unharbour'd heaths,
Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds;
Where, through the sacred rays of Chastity,
No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer,
Will dare to soil her virgin purity:

By grots and caverns shagg'd with horrid shades,

410

415

420

425

Yea, there, where very desolation dwells,

She may pass on with unblench'd majesty,

430

Be it not done in pride, or in presumption.

Some say, no evil thing that walks by night

In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen,

Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost

That breaks his magick chains at curfeu time,

435

Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call

Antiquity from the old schools of Greece
To testify the arms of Chastity?

440

Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow,

Fair silver-shafted queen, for ever chaste,

Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness

And spotted mountain-pard, but set at naught

The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men

445

Fear'd her stern frown, and she was queen o' the woods.
What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield,
That wise Minerva wore, unconquer'd virgin,
Wherewith she freez'd her foes to congeal'd stone,

413. Squint. So Quarles uses "squinteyed suspicion."

424. Infamous, in the sense of the Latin infamis, "of ill report," "of bad repute."

430. Unblench'd: Unblinded, unconfounded.-WARTON.

434. Unlaid ghost. An unlaid ghost was among the most vexatious plagues of the world of spirits. The metaphorical expression of breaking his magick chains for "being suffered to wander abroad," 18 beautiful.-T. WARTON.

436. Swart: "Swarthy or of dark com plexion. In the Gothic system of pneu matology, mines were supposed to be inhabited by various sorts of spirits."WARTON. The true British goblin, called elsewhere by Milton the "lubbar-fiend," and by the Scotch poets the "billie-blin” or "brownie," is a sort of drudging do mestic fiend, slightly inclined to work mischief on sluttish housemaids and lazy hinds, but not at all disposed to injure virgins, or harm the good and the industrious.

But rigid looks of chaste austerity,
And noble grace that dash'd brute violence
With sudden adoration and blank awe?
So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity,
That, when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lacky her,
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt;
And in clear dream and solemn vision,
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear;
Till oft converse with heavenly habitants
Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,

450

455

460

And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence,
Till all be made immortal: but when lust,

By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,

But most by lewd and lavish act of sin,

465

Lets in defilement to the inward parts;

The soul grows clotted by contagion,

Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite lose

The divine property of her first being.

Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp,

470

Oft seen in charnel vaults and sepulchres

Lingering, and sitting by a new-made grave,
As loth to leave the body that it loved,
And link'd itself by carnal sensuality
To a degenerate and degraded state.

SEC. BR. How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose;
But musical as is Apollo's lute,

And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns.

EL. BR.

475

List, list; I hear

480

Some far off halloo break the silent air.
SEC. BR. Methought so too; what should it be?
EL. BR.

For certain

Either some one like us night-founder'd here,
Or else some neighbour woodman, or at worst,
Some roving robber calling to his fellows.

485

SEC. BR. Heaven keep my sister. Again, again, and near! Best draw, and stand upon our guard.

450. Rigid looks refer to the snaky 476. How charming, &c. Much the locks, and noble grace to the beautiful same sentiment is found in the author's face, as the Gorgon is represented on an-Tractate of Education:"-"I shall not cient gems. WARBURTON.

462. Turns it to the soul's essence. The same notion, of the body's working up to spirit, Milton afterwards introduced into his Paradise Lost, (v. 469.) In this place it falls in so well with the poet's design, gives such force and strength to this encomium on Chastity, and carries in it such a dignity of sentiment, that, however repugnant it may be to our philosophical ideas, it cannot miss striking and delighting every virtuous and intelligent reader.--THYER |

detain you longer in the demonstration of what we should not do, but straight conduct you to a hill-side, where I will point you out the right path of a virtuous and noble education, laborious indeed at the first ascent, but also so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melodious sounds, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming."

483. Night-founder'd. See note in Paradise Lost, i. 204.

EL. BR.

I'll halloo :

If he be friendly, he comes well; if not,
Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us.

Enter the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, habited like a Shepherd.
That halloo I should know; what are you? speak;
Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes else.

490

495

SPIR. What voice is that? my young lord? speak again.
SEC. BR. O brother, 'tis my father's shepherd, sure.
EL. BR. Thyrsis? whose artful strains have oft delay'd
The huddling brook to hear his madrigal,
And sweeten'd every muskrose of the dale?
How cam'st thou here, good swain? hath any ram
Slipp'd from the fold, or young kid lost his dam,
Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook?
How couldst thou find this dark sequester'd nook?

SPIR. O my loved 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,

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?

EL. BR. To tell thee sadly, shepherd, without blame,

Or our neglect, we lost her as we came.

SPIR. Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true.
EL. BR. What fears, good Thyrsis?

shew,

500

505

510

Pr'ythee briefly

SPIR. I'll tell ye; 'tis not vain or fabulous,
(Though so esteem'd by shallow ignorance,)

What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse,
Storied of old, in high immortal verse,

Of dire chimeras, and enchanted 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

By sly enticement gives his baneful cup,
With many murmurs mix'd, whose pleasing poison

509. Sadly Soberly, seriously.

517. The chimeras dire of ancient verse have passed away from popular belief; not so the enchanted isles and the rifted rocks, whose entrance leads to perdition: the former are to be found in Scandinavian song; and, not to go further, the volcanic mountains not inaptly support a belief in the existence of the latter.BRYDGES.

515

520

525

520. Within the navel; that is, in the middle. Delphi was called by the Greeks oupaλdos yns, "the navel of the earth," as they believed it the centre of the world.

526. Murmurs: That is, in preparing this enchanted cup, the charm of many barbarous, unintelligible words was inter mixed, to quicken and strengthen itɛ operation.-WARBURTON

The visage quite transforms of him that drinks,
And the inglorious likeness of a beast
Fixes instead, unmoulding reason's mintage
Character'd in the face: this have I learn'd,
Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts,

That brow this bottom-glade; whence night by night
He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl,
Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey,
Doing abhorred rites to Hecate

In their obscured haunts of inmost bowers.
Yet have they many baits and guileful spells,
To inveigle and invite the 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 savoury herb
Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold,
I sat me down to watch upon a bank
With ivy canopied, and interwove
With flaunting honey-suckle; and began,
Wrapp'd in a pleasing fit of melancholy,
To meditate my rural minstrelsy,
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;
At which I ceased, and listen'd them a while,
Till an unusual stop of sudden silence
Gave respite to the drowsy-frighted 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

530

535

540

545

550

555

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

Deny her nature, and be never more,

Still to be so displaced. I was all ear,

560

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

Of my most honour'd Lady, your dear sister.
Amazed I stood, harrow'd with grief and fear,
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;

542. Besprent, besprinkled.-548. But ere a close, a musical close on his pipe.

553. Drowsy-frighted: that is, the drowsy steeds of Night, who were af frighted on this occasion, at the barbarous dissonance of Comus's nocturnal revelry.-T. WARTON.

562. Under the ribs of Death. Milton may have taken this idea from one of the Emblems in Herman Hugo's "Pia Desideria," where a soul in the figure of an infant is represented within the ribs

565

of a skeleton, as its prison, with this
motto, "O wretched man that I am!
who shall deliver me from the body of
this death." Quarles has adopted this
idea, and for the eighth emblem, Book v.,
he has a human skeleton, with a youth
inside the ribs, puliing and trying to get
out, while the author exclaims:-

O wretched Man! thus doom'd to draw thy
Breath

Within the loathsome Body of this Death.