by John Milton
By her own radiant light, though sun and moon
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Were in the flat sea sunk. And wisdoms self
Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,
Where with her best nurse Contemplation
She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings
That in the various bustle of resort
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Were all to36 ruffl’d, and somtimes impair’d.
He that has light within his own cleer brest
May sit i’th center,37 and enjoy bright day,
But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the midday sun;
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Himself is his own dungeon.
2 Brother. Tis most true
That musing meditation most affects38
The Pensive secrecy of desert cell,
Far from the cheerfull haunt of men, and herds,
And sits as safe as in a Senat house,
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For who would rob a Hermit of his weeds,
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
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Of dragon watch with uninchanted39 eye,
To save her blossoms and defend her fruit
From the rash hand of bold incontinence.40
You may as well spred out the unsun’d heaps
Of misers treasure by an outlaws den,
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And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope
Danger will wink on opportunity,
And let a single helpless maiden pass
Uninjur’d in this wild surrounding wast.
Of night, or lonelines it recks me not,41
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I fear the dred events that dog them both,
Lest som ill greeting touch attempt the person
Of our unowned42 sister.
Elder Brother. I do not, brother,
Inferr, as if I thought my sisters state
Secure without all doubt, or controversie:
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Yet where an equall poise of hope and fear
Does arbitrate th’ event, my nature is
That I encline to hope, rather then fear,
And banish gladly squint suspicion.
My sister is not so defenceless left
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As you imagine, she has a hidden strength
Which you remember not.
2 Brother. What hidden strength,
Unless the strength of Heav’n, if you mean that?
Elder Brother. I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength
Which if Heav’n gave it, may be term’d her own:
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’Tis chastity, my brother, chastity:
She that has that, is clad in compleat steel,
And like a quiver’d nymph43 with arrows keen
May trace huge forests, and unharbour’d heaths,
Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds,
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Where through the sacred rayes of chastity,
No savage feirce, bandite, or mountaneer
Will dare to soyl her virgin purity;
Yea there, where very desolation dwells
By grots, and caverns shag’d with horrid shades,
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She may pass on with unblench’t majesty,
Be it not don in pride, or in presumption.
Som say no evil thing that walks by night
In fog, or fire, by lake, or moorie fen,
Blue meager hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost,
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That breaks his magick chains at curfew time,
No goblin, or swart faery of the mine,
Has hurtfull power o’re true virginity.
Do ye beleeve me yet, or shall I call
Antiquity from the old schools of Greece
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To testifie the arms of chastity?
Hence had the huntress Dian her dred bow,
Fair silver-shafted Queen for ever chaste,
Wherwith she tam’d the brinded lioness
And spotted mountain pard,44 but set at naught
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The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men
Fear’d her stern frown, and she was queen o’th woods.
What was that snaky-headed Gorgon sheild
That wise Minerva wore,45 unconquer’d virgin,
Wherwith she freez’d her foes to congeal’d stone?
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But rigid looks of chast austerity,
And noble grace that dash’t brute violence
With sudden adoration, and blank aw.
So dear to Heav’n is saintly chastity,
That when a soul is found sincerely so,
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A thousand liveried angels lackey her,
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
And in cleer dream, and solemn vision
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear,
Till oft convers with heav’nly habitants
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Begin to cast a beam on th’ outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,
And turns it by degrees to the souls essence,
Till all be made immortal: but when lust
By unchast looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,
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But most by lewd and lavish act of sin,
Lets in defilement to the inward parts,
The soul grows clotted by contagion,
Imbodies, and imbrutes,46 till she quite loose
The divine property of her first being.
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Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp
Oft seen in charnel vaults, and sepulchers
Hovering, and sitting by a new made grave,
As loath to leave the body that it lov’d,
And link’t it self by carnal sensualty
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To a degenerate and degraded state.
2 Brother. 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,
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Where no crude surfet raigns.
Elder Brother. List, list, I hear
Som far off hallow break the silent Air.
2 Brother. Me thought so too; what should it be?
Elder Brother. For certain
Either som one like us night-founder’d47 heer,
Or els som neighbour woodman, or at worst,
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Som roaving robber calling to his fellows.
2 Brother. Heav’n keep my sister! Agen, agen and neer,48
Best draw, and stand upon our guard.
Elder Brother. Ile hallow,
If he be freindly he comes well, if not,
Defence is a good cause, and Heav’n be for us.
The attendant Spirit habited like a Shepherd.
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That hallow I should know, what are you? speak;
Com not too neer, you fall on iron stakes49 else.
Spirit. What voice is that, my young Lord? speak agen.
2 Brother. O brother, ‘tis my fathers shepherd sure.
Elder Brother. Thyrsis? Whose artfull strains have oft delaid
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The huddling50 brook to hear his madrigal,
And sweeten’d every muskrose of the dale,
How cam’st thou heer good Swain? hath any ram
Slip’t from his fold, or young Kid lost his dam,
Or straggling weather the pen’t flock forsook?
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How couldst thou find this dark sequester’d nook?
Spirit. O my lov’d maisters heir, and his next joy,
I came not heer on such a trivial toy
As a stray’d ewe,
or to pursue the stealth
Of pilfering wolf, not all the fleecy wealth
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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?
Elder Brother. To tell thee sadly shepherd, without blame,
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Or our neglect, we lost her as we came.
Spirit. Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true.
Elder Brother. What fears good Thyrsis? Prethee breifly shew.
Spirit. Ile tell you. Tis not vain, or fabulous,
(Though so esteem’d by shallow ignorance)
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What the sage poets taught by th’ heav’nly Muse,
Storied of old in high immortal vers
Of dire Chimeras and inchanted Iles,
And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to hell,
For such there be, but unbeleif is blind.
520
Within the navil51 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 mothers witcheries,
And heer to every thirsty wanderer
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By sly enticement gives his banefull cup,
With many murmurs mixt, whose pleasing poison
The visage quite transforms of him that drinks,
And the inglorious likenes of a beast
Fixes instead, unmoulding reasons mintage52
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Character’d in the face; this have I learn’t
Tending my flocks hard by i’th hilly crofts
That brow this bottom glade, whence night by night
He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl
Like stabl’d wolves, or tigers at thir prey,
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Doing abhorred rites to Hecate
In thir obscured haunts of inmost bowrs.
Yet have they many baits, and guilefull spells
T’ inveigle and invite th’ unwary sense
Of them that pass unweeting53 by the way.
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This evening late by then the chewing flocks
Had tane thir supper on the savoury herb
Of Knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold,
I sate me down to watch upon a bank
With ivy canopied, and interwove
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With flaunting honiesuckle, and began
Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy54
To meditate my rural minstrelsie,
Till fancy had her fill, but ere a close55
The wonted roar was up amidst the woods,
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And fill’d the air with barbarous dissonance,
At which I ceas’t, and listen’d them a while,
Till an unusuall stop of sudden silence
Gave respit to the drowsie frighted steeds
That draw the litter of close-curtain’d sleep.
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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
Was took e’re she was ware, and wish’t she might
Deny her nature, and be never more
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Still to be so displac’t. I was all ear,
And took in strains that might create a soul
Under the ribs of Death, but O ere long
Too well I did perceave it was the voice
Of my most honour’d Lady, your dear sister.
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Amaz’d I stood, harrow’d with greif and fear,
And O poor hapless nightingale thought I,
How sweet thou sing’st, how neer the deadly snare!
Then down the lawns I ran with headlong hast
Through paths and turnings oft’n trod by day,
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Till guided by mine ear I found the place
Where that damn’d wisard hid in sly disguise
(For so by certain signs I knew) had met
Already, ere my best speed could prevent,56
The aidless innocent Lady his wisht prey,
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Who gently askt if he had seen such two,
Supposing him som neighbour villager;
Longer I durst not stay, but soon I gues’t
Ye were the two she meant; with that I sprung
Into swift flight, till I had found you heer,
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But furder know I not.
2 Brother. O night and shades,
How are ye joyn’d with hell in triple knot
Against th’ unarmed weakness of one virgin
Alone, and helpless! Is this the confidence
You gave me brother?
Elder Brother. Yes, and keep it still,
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Lean on it safely, not a period57
Shall be unsaid for me: against the threats
Of malice or of sorcery, or that power
Which erring men call chance, this I hold firm,
Vertue may be assail’d, but never hurt,
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Surpris’d by unjust force, but not enthrall’d,
Yea even that which mischeif meant most harm
Shall in the happy trial prove most glory.
But evil on it self shall back recoyl,
And mix no more with goodness, when at last
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Gather’d like scum, and setl’d to it self
It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed, and self-consum’d; if this fail,
The pillar’d firmament is rott’nness,
And earths base built on stubble. But com let’s on.
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Against th’ opposing will and arm of Heav’n
May never this just sword be lifted up,
But for that damn’d magician, let him be girt
With all the greisly legions that troop
Under the sooty flag of Acheron,
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Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous buggs58
’Twixt Africa and Inde. Ile find him out,
And force him to restore his purchase59 back,
Or drag him by the curls and cleave his scalp
Down to the hipps.
Spirit. Alas good ventrous youth,
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I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise,60
But heer thy sword can do thee little stead;
Farr other arms and other weapons must
Be those that quell the might of hellish charms,
He with his bare wand can unthred thy joynts,
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And crumble all thy sinews.
Elder Brother. Why prethee shepherd,
How durst thou then thy self approach so neer
As to make this relation?
Spirit. Care and utmost shifts
How to secure the Lady from surprisal
Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad
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Of small regard to see to, yet well skill’d
In every vertuous61 plant and healing herb
That spreds her verdant leaf to th’ morning ray;
He lov’d me well, and oft would beg me sing,
Which when I did, he on the tender grass
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Would sit and hearken ev’n to extasie,
And in requitall ope his leathern scrip,
And shew me simples62 of a thousand names
Telling thir strange and vigorous faculties;
Amongst the rest a small unsightly root,
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But of divine effect, he cull’d me out;
The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it,
But in another country, as he said,
Bore a bright golden flowr, but not in this soyl:
Unknown, and like esteem’
d, and the dull swayn
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Treads on it dayly with his clouted shoon,63
And yet more med’cinal is it then that Moly
Which Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave;64
He call’d it Hæmony, and gave it me,
And bad me keep it as of sovran use
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’Gainst all inchantments, mildew blast, or damp
Or gastly Furies apparition;
I purs’t it up, but little reck’ning made,
Till now that this extremity compell’d,
But now I find it true; for by this means
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I knew the foul inchanter though disguis’d
Enter’d the very lime-twigs65 of his spells,
And yet came off: if you have this about you
(As I will give you when we go) you may
Boldly assault the necromancers hall;
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Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood,
And brandish’t blade rush on him, break his glass,
And shed the lushious liquor on the ground
But sease his wand; though he and his curst crew
Feirce sign of battail make, and menace high,
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Or like the sons of Vulcan vomit smoak,66
Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink.
Elder Brother. Thyrsis lead on apace, Ile follow thee,
And som good angel bear a sheild before us.67
The scene changes to a stately Palace, set out with all manner of deliciousness: soft Musick, Tables spred with all dainties. Comus appears with his rabble, and the Lady set in an inchanted Chair, to whom he offers his Glass; which she puts by, and goes about to rise.
Comus. Nay Lady sit; if I but wave this wand,
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Your nervs are all chain’d up in alablaster
And you a statue; or as Daphne was
Root-bound, that fled Apollo.68
Lady. Fool do not boast,
Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind
With all thy charms, although this corporal rind
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Thou hast immanacl’d, while Heav’n sees good.