Read The Complete Poetry of John Milton Online
Authors: John Milton
Tags: #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Poetry, #European
795
To such a flame of sacred vehemence,
That dumb things would be mov’d to sympathize,
And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and shake,
Till all thy magick structures rear’d so high,
Were shatter’d into heaps o’re thy false head.
800
Comus.
She fables not, I feel that I do fear
Her words set off by som superior power;
And though not mortal, yet a cold shuddring dew
Dips me all o’re, as when the wrath of
Jove
Speaks thunder, and the chains of
Erebus
82
805
To som of
Saturns
crew. I must dissemble,
And try her yet more strongly. Com, no more,
This is meer moral babble, and direct
Against the canon laws of our foundation;
I must not suffer this, yet ‘tis but the lees
810
And setlings of a melancholy blood;
But this will cure all streight, one sip of this
Will bath the drooping spirits in delight
Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise and tast.
The brothers rush in with Swords drawn, wrest his Glass out of his hand, and break it against the ground; his rout make sign of resistance, but are all driven in. The attendant Spirit comes in.
Spirit.
What, have you let the false enchanter scape?
815
O ye mistook, ye should have snatcht his wand
And bound him fast; without his rod revers’t
And backward mutters of dissevering power,
We cannot free the Lady that sits heer
In stony fetters fixt and motionless;
820
Yet stay, be not disturb’d, now I bethink me,
Som other means I have which may be us’d,
Which once of
Melibæus
83
old I learnt
The soothest shepherd that e’re pip’t on plains.
There is a gentle Nymph not farr from hence
825
That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream,
Sabrina
is her name, a virgin pure;
Whilom she was the daughter of
Locrine
,
That had the scepter from his father
Brute
,
She guiltless damsell, flying the mad pursuit
830
Of her enraged stepdam
Guendolen
,
Commended her fair innocence to the flood
That stay’d her flight with his cross-flowing course.
84
The water nymphs that in the bottom plaid
Held up thir pearled wrists and took her in,
835
Bearing her strait to aged
Nereus
85
hall,
Who piteous of her woes, rear’d her lank head,
And gave her to his daughters to imbath
In nectar’d lavers strew’d with Asphodil,
86
And through the porch and inlet of each sense
840
Dropt in Ambrosial oils till she reviv’d
And underwent a quick immortal change,
Made goddess of the river; still she retains
Her maid’n gentlenes, and oft at eeve
Visits the herds along the twilight meadows,
845
Helping all urchin blasts, and ill luck signs
That the shrewd medling elf delights to make,
Which she with pretious viold liquors heals.
For which the shepherds at thir festivals
Carrol her goodnes loud in rustick layes,
850
And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream
Of pancies, pinks, and gaudy daffadils.
And, as the old swain said, she can unlock
The clasping charm, and thaw the numming spell,
If she be right invok’t in warbled song,
855
For maid’nhood she loves, and will be swift
To aid a virgin, such as was her self
In hard besetting need; this will I try
And add the power of som adjuring verse.
SONG
Sabrina fair
860
Listen where thou art sitting
Under the glassie, cool, translucent wave
,
In twisted braids of Lillies knitting
The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair
,
Listen for dear honours sake
,
865
Goddess of the silver lake
,
Listen and save.
870
And
Tethys grave
majestick pace,
By hoary
Nereus
wrincled look,
And the
Carpathian
wizards hook,
By scaly
Tritons
winding shell,
And old sooth-saying
Glaucus
spell,
875
By
Leucothea
’s lovely hands,
And her son that rules the strands,
By
Thetis
tinsel-slipper’d feet,
And the songs of
Sirens
sweet,
By dead
Parthenope
’s dear tomb,
880
And fair
Ligéa
’s golden comb,
Wherwith she sits on diamond rocks
Sleeking her soft alluring locks,
By all the
Nymphs
that nightly dance
Upon the streams with wily glance,
885
Rise, rise, and heave thy rosie head
From thy coral-pav’n bed,
And bridle in thy headlong wave,
Till thou our summons answer’d have.
Listen and save.
Sabrina rises, attended by water-nymphs, and sings.
890
By the rushy-fringed bank
,
Where grows the willow and the osier dank
,
My sliding chariot stayes
,
Thick set with agat, and the azurn sheen
Of turkis
88
blew, and emrauld green
895
That in the channell strayes
,
Whilst from off the waters fleet
Thus I set my printless feet
O’re the Cowslips Velvet head
That bends not as I tread.
900
Gentle swain at thy request
I am heer.
Spirit.
Goddess dear
We implore thy powerful hand
To undoe the charmed band
905
Of true virgin heer distrest,
Through the force, and through the wile
Of unblest inchanter vile.
Sabrina.
Shepherd ‘tis my office best
To help insnared chastity;
910
Brightest Lady look on me,
Thus I sprinkle on thy brest
Drops that from my fountain pure,
I have kept of pretious cure,
Thrice upon thy fingers tip,
915
Thrice upon thy rubied lip;
Next this marble venom’d seat
Smear’d with gumms of glutenous heat
I touch with chast palms moist and cold,
Now the spell hath lost his hold;
920
And I must hast ere morning howr
To wait in
Amphitrite
’s
89
bowr.
Sabrina descends, and the Lady rises out of her seat.
Spirit.
Virgin, daughter of
Locrine
Sprung of old
Anchises
line,
May thy brimmed waves for this
925
Thir full tribute never miss
From a thousand petty rills
That tumble down the snowy hills:
Summer drouth, or singed air
Never scorch thy tresses fair,
930
Nor wet
Octobers
torrent flood
Thy molten crystal fill with mudd;
May thy billows rowl ashoar
The beryl and the golden ore,
May thy lofty head be crown’d
935
With many a towr and terrace round,
90
And heer and there thy banks upon
With groves of myrrhe, and cinnamon.
Com Lady while Heav’n lends us grace,
Let us fly this cursed place,
940
Lest the sorcerer us intice
With som other new device.
Not a wast or needless sound
Till we com to holier ground,
I shall be your faithfull guide