Of Cynthia's seat the airy region thrilling, Yea, Truth and Justice then
Orbed in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing,
Mercy will sit between,
Throned in celestial sheen,
With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering;
8 inexpressible 2 cf. Job xxxviii: 7 rich, as if woven with threads of silver and gold
With two sister Graces more, To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore; Or whether (as some sager sing)
The frolic wind that breathes the spring, Zephyr, with Aurora playing, As he met her once a-Maying, There on beds of violets blue
And fresh-blown roses washed in dew, Filled her with thee, a daughter fair, So buxom, blithe, and debonair. Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee Jest, and youthful Jollity,
Quips and cranks and wanton wiles, Nods and becks and wreathed smiles, Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek; Sport that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter, holding both his sides. Come, and trip it as you go, On the light fantastic toe; And in thy right hand lead with thee The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty; And if I give thee honour due, Mirth, admit me of thy crew, To live with her, and live with thee, In unreprovèd pleasures free: To hear the lark begin his flight, And singing, startle the dull night, From his watch-tower in the skies, Till the dappled dawn doth rise; Then to come in spite of sorrow, And at my window bid good-morrow, Through the sweet-briar or the vine, Or the twisted eglantine;
'Mongst horrid shapes and shrieks and sights unholy!
Find out some uncouth cell,
Where brooding darkness spreads his jeal. Through the high wood echoing shrill :
Under the hawthorn in the dale.
Whilst the landskip1 round it measures:
Russet lawns and fallows grey,
Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures
Where the nibbling flocks do stray; Mountains on whose barren breast The labouring clouds do often rest; Meadows trim with daisies pied, Shallow brooks and rivers wide; Towers and battlements it sees Bosomed high in tufted trees, Where perhaps some beauty lies,
The cynosure of neighbouring eyes. Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes From betwixt two aged oaks, Where Corydon and Thyrsis met Are at their savoury dinner set
Of herbs and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses; And then in haste her bower she leaves, With Thestylis to bind the sheaves; Or, if the earlier season lead,
To the tanned haycock in the mead. Sometimes, with secure delight, The upland hamlets will invite, When the merry bells ring round,
Where throngs of knights and barons bold, In weeds of peace high triumphs hold, With store of ladies, whose bright eyes Rain influence, and judge the prize Of wit or arms, while both contend To win her grace whom all commend. There let Hymen 3 oft appear In saffron robe, with taper clear, And pomp and feast and revelry, With mask and antique pageantry; Such sights as youthful poets dream On summer eves by haunted stream. Then to the well-trod stage anon,
Such as the meeting soul may pierce,
If Jonson's learned sock be on,
Or sweetest Shakespear, Fancy's child, Warble his native wood-notes wild. And ever, against eating cares, Lap me in soft Lydian airs, Married to immortal verse,
In notes with many a winding bout
Of linked sweetness long drawn out,
With wanton heed and giddy cunning,
The melting voice through mazes running, Untwisting all the chains that tie
The hidden soul of harmony;
That Orpheus' self may heave his head
From golden slumber on a bed
Of heaped Elysian flowers, and hear
And young and old come forth to play On a sunshine holiday,
Such strains as would have won the ear
Till the livelong daylight fail:
Of Pluto to have quite set free His half-regained Eurydice.
Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,
With stories told of many a feat,
These delights if thou canst give, Mirth, with thee I mean to live.
How faery Mab the junkets eat.
She was pinched and pulled, she said; And he,5 by friar's lantern led, Tells how the drudging goblin sweat To earn his cream-bowl duly set, When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn That ten day-labourers could not end; Then lies him down, the lubber fiend, And, stretched out all the chimney's length, Basks at the fire his hairy strength, And crop-full out of doors he flings,
Ere the first cock his matin rings.
Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, By whispering winds soon lulled asleep. Towered cities please us then, And the busy hum of men,
1 landscape 2 Phænician sailors steered by the constellation of the Little Bear, Cynosura. 3 carefree
garments 2 Originally influence meant the power of the stars over human affairs. 3 cf. Epithalamion, 11. 25 ff. cf. Jonson's lines on Shakespeare, ll. 36-7 5 aid 6 foolish
Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of human sight, And therefore to our weaker view O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue; Black, but such as in esteem
Prince Memnon's sister1 might beseem, Or that starred Ethiop queen2 that strove To set her beauty's praise above
The sea nymphs, and their powers offended. Yet thou art higher far descended: Thee bright-haired Vesta long of yore To solitary Saturn bore;
His daughter she (in Saturn's reign Such mixture was not held a stain). Oft in glimmering bowers and glades He met her, and in secret shades Of woody Ida's inmost grove, Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove. Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure, Sober, steadfast, and demure, All in a robe of darkest grain,3 Flowing with majestic train,
And sable stole of cypress lawn 4 Over thy decent shoulders drawn. Come, but keep thy wonted state, With even step, and musing gait, And looks commercing with the skies,
To bless the doors from nightly harm. Or let my lamp at midnight hour
Be seen in some high lonely tower, Where I may oft out-watch the Bear, With thrice-great Hermes; or unsphere The spirit of Plato, to unfold What worlds or what vast regions hold The immortal mind that hath forsook Her mansion in this fleshly nook; And of those demons that are found In fire, air, flood, or underground, Whose power hath a true consent With planet or with element. Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy In sceptred pall come sweeping by, Presenting Thebes', or Pelops' line, Or the tale of Troy divine, Or what (though rare) of later age Ennobled hath the buskined1 stage. But, O sad Virgin! that thy power Might raise Musæus from his bower; Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing Such notes as, warbled to the string, Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, And made Hell grant what love did seek; Or call up him that left half-told The story of Cambuscan bold, Of Camball, and of Algarsife, And who had Canace to wife, That owned the virtuous2 ring and glass, And of the wondrous horse of brass
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