Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Milton

by John Milton

  Comus. Why are you vext Lady? why do you frown?

  Heer dwell no frowns, nor anger, from these gates

  Sorrow flies farr: See here be all the pleasures

  That fancy can beget on youthfull thoughts,

  670

  When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns

  Brisk as the April buds in primrose season.

  And first behold this cordial Julep heer

  That flames, and dances in his crystal bounds

  With spirits of balm, and fragrant syrops mixt.

  675

  Not that Nepenthes69 which the wife of Thone

  In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena

  Is of such power to stir up joy as this,

  To life so freindly, or so cool to thirst.

  Why should you be so cruel to your self,

  680

  And to those dainty limms which nature lent

  For gentle usage, and soft delicacy?

  But you invert the cov’nants of her trust,

  And harshly deal like an ill borrower

  With that which you receav’d on other terms,

  685

  Scorning the unexempt condition

  By which all mortal frailty must subsist,

  Refreshment after toil, ease after pain,

  That have bin tir’d all day without repast,

  And timely rest have wanted, but fair Virgin,

  690

  This will restore all soon.

  Lady. Twill not false traitor,

  ’Twill not restore the truth and honesty

  That thou hast banisht from thy tongue with lies;

  Was this the cottage, and the safe abode

  Thou toldst me of? What grim aspects are these,

  695

  These oughly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me!

  Hence with thy brew’d inchantments, foul deceaver;

  Hast thou betrai’d my credulous innocence

  With visor’d falshood and base forgeries

  And wouldst thou seek again to trap me heer

  700

  With lickerish70 baits fit to ensnare a brute?

  Were it a draft for Juno when she banquets,

  I would not taste thy treasonous offer; none

  But such as are good men can give good things,

  And that which is not good is not delicious

  705

  To a well-govern’d and wise appetite.

  Comus. O foolishnes of men! that lend thir ears

  To those budge71 doctors of the stoick furr,

  And fetch thir precepts from the cynick tub,72

  Praising the lean and sallow abstinence.

  710

  Wherfore did nature powr her bounties forth

  With such a full and unwithdrawing hand,

  Covering the earth with odours, fruits, and flocks,

  Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable,

  But all to please and sate the curious taste?

  715

  And set to work millions of spinning worms

  That in thir green shops weave the smooth-hair’d silk

  To deck her sons, and that no corner might

  Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loyns

  She hutch’t73 th’ all-worshipt ore and precious gems

  720

  To store her children with; if all the world

  Should in a pet of temperance feed on pulse,

  Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but freise,74

  Th’ all-giver would be unthank’t, would be unprais’d,

  Not half his riches known, and yet dispis’d,

  725

  And we should serve him as a grudging maister,

  As a penurious niggard of his wealth,

  And live like natures bastards, not her sons,

  Who would be quite surcharg’d with her own waight

  And strangl’d with her wast fertility;

  730

  Th’ earth cumber’d, and the wing’d air dark’t with plumes,

  The herds would over-multitude thir Lords,

  The sea o’refraught would swell, and th’ unsought diamonds

  Would so emblaze the forhead of the deep75

  And so bestudd with stars that they below

  735

  Would grow inur’d to light, and com at last

  To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows.

  List Lady be not coy, and be not cozen’d76

  With that same vaunted name virginity;

  Beauty is natures coyn, must not be hoorded,

  740

  But must be currant, and the good therof

  Consists in mutual and partak’n bliss,

  Unsavoury in th’ injoyment of it self.

  If you let slip time, like a neglected rose

  It withers on the stalk with languish’t head.

  745

  Beauty is natures brag, and must be shown

  In courts, at feasts, on high solemnities

  Where most may wonder at the workmanship;

  It is for homely features to keep home,

  They had thir name thence; course complexions

  750

  And cheeks of sorry grain77 will serve to ply

  The sampler, or to teize78 the huswifes wooll.

  What need a vermeil-tinctur’d lip for that,

  Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn?

  There was another meaning in these guifts,

  755

  Think what, and be advis’d, you are but young yet.

  Lady. I had not thought to have unlockt my lips

  In this unhallow’d air, but that this jugler

  Would think to charm my judgement, as mine eyes

  Obtruding false rules pranckt in reasons garb.

  760

  I hate when vice can bolt79 her arguments,

  And vertue has no tongue to check her pride:

  Impostor, do not charge most innocent nature,

  As if she would her children should be riotous

  With her abundance; she good cateress,

  765

  Means her provision only to the good

  That live according to her sober laws

  And holy dictate of spare temperance:

  If every just man that now pines with want

  Had but a moderate and beseeming share

  770

  Of that which lewdly-pamper’d Luxury

  Now heaps upon som few with vast excess,

  Natures full blessings would be well dispens’t

  In unsuperfluous eev’n proportion,

  And she no whit encumber’d with her store,

  775

  And then the giver would be better thankt,

  His praise due paid, for swinish gluttony

  Ne’re looks to Heav’n amidst his gorgeous feast,

  But with besotted base ingratitude

  Cramms, and blasphemes his feeder. Shall I go on?

  780

  Or have I said anough? To him that dares

  Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words

  Against the Sun-clad power of Chastity,

  Fain would I somthing say, yet to what end?

  Thou hast nor Ear, nor Soul to apprehend

  785

  The sublime notion, and high mystery80

  That must be utter’d to unfold the sage

  And serious doctrine of Virginity,

  And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know

  More happines then this thy present lot.

  790

  Enjoy your deer Wit, and gay Rhetorick

  That hath so well been taught her dazling fence,81

  Thou art not fit to hear thy self convinc’t;

  Yet should I try, the uncontrouled worth

  Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits

  795

  To such a flame of sacred vehemence,

  That dumb things would be mov’d to sympathize,

  And the brute Earth w
ould 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 Erebus82

  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 Melibæus83 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 Nereus85 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.

  Listen and appear to us

  In name of great Oceanus,87

  By th’ earth-shaking Neptunes mace,

  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 turkis88 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’s89 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 thi
s 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

  945

  Through this gloomy covert wide,

  And not many furlongs thence

  Is your Fathers residence,

  Where this night are met in state

  Many a freind to gratulate

  950

  His wish’t presence, and beside

  All the swains that there abide,

  With Jiggs and rural dance resort.

  We shall catch them at thir sport,

  And our sudden comming there

  955

  Will double all thir mirth and chere;

  Com let us hast, the stars grow high,

  But night sits monarch yet in the mid sky.

  The scene changes presenting Ludlow Town and the Presidents Castle, then com in country-dancers, after them the attendant Spirit, with the two brothers and the Lady.

  SONG

  Spirit. Back shepherds, back, anough your play,

  Till next sunshine holiday,

  960

  Heer be without duck or nod

  Other trippings to be trod

  Of lighter toes, and such court guise

  As Mercury did first devise91

  With the mincing Dryades

  965

  On the lawns, and on the leas,

  This second Song presents them to their father and mother.

  Noble Lord and Lady bright,

  I have brought ye new delight,

  Heer behold so goodly grown

  Three fair branches of your own.

  970

  Heav’n hath timely92 tri’d thir youth,

  Thir faith, thir patience, and thir truth.

  And sent them heer through hard assays

  With a crown of deathless praise,

  To triumph in victorious dance

  975

  O’re sensual folly, and intemperance.