Sabrina defcends, and the Lady rifes out of her feat.
Spir. Virgin, daughter of Locrine Sprung of old Anchises liné May thy brimmed waves for this Their full tribute never miss From a thousand petty rills, That tumbled down the fnowy hills: Summer drouth, or finged air
Never fcorch thy treffes fair, Nor wet Octobers torrent flood
Thy molten crystal fill with mudd, May thy billows rowl afhoar
The beryl, and the golden ore, May thy lofty head be crown'd With many a tower and terras round, And here and there thy banks upon With Groves of myrrhe, and cinnamon. Com Lady while Heaven lends us grace, Let us fly this curfed place, Left the Sorcerer us entice With fom other new device. Not a waste, or needlefs found Till we com to holier ground, I shall be your faithfull guide Through this gloomy covert wide, And not many furlongs thence Is your Fathers refidence, Where this night are met in ftate Many a friend to gratulate His wish't presence, and befide All the Swains that there abide,
With Jiggs, and rural dance refort, We shall catch them at their sport, And our fudden coming there Will double all their mirth and chere; Com let us hafte, the Stars grow high, But night fits monarch yet in the mid sky.
The Scene changes, prefenting Ludlow Town and the Prefidents Caftle, then com in Country-Dancers, after them the attendant Spirit, with the two Brothers and the Lady.
SONG.
Spir. Back Shepherds, back, anough your play, Till next Sun-fhine holiday, Here be without duck or nod
Other trippings to be trod Of lighter toes, and fuch Court guise As Mercury did firft devife With the mincing Dryades
On the Lawns, and on the Leas.
Noble Lord, and Lady bright, I have brought ye new delight, Here behold fo goodly grown Three fair branches of your own, Heav'n hath timely tri'd their youth, Their faith, their patience, and their truth, And fent them here through hard affays With a crown of deathless Praife,
This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother.
To triumph in victorious dance O're fenfual Folly, and Intemperance.
The dances ended, the Spirit Epiloguizes.
Spir. To the Ocean now I fly, And those happy climes that ly Where day never shuts his eye, Up in the broad fields of the fky: There I fuck the liquid air
All amidst the Gardens fair
Of Hefperus, and his daughters three That fing about the golden tree : Along the crifped fhades and bowres Revels the spruce and jocond Spring, The Graces, and the rofie-boofom'd Howres, Thither all their bounties bring. There eternal Summer dwels, And Weft winds, with mufky wing About the cedar'n alleys fling
Nard, and Caffia's balmy smels. Iris there with humid bow, Waters the odorous banks that blow Flowers of more mingled hew Then her purfl'd scarf can fhew, And drenches with Elyfian dew (Lift mortals if your ears be true) Beds of Hyacinth, and Rofes Where young Adonis oft repofes, Waxing well of his deep wound In flumber foft; and on the ground Sadly fits th' Affyrian Queen; But far above in fpangled fheen
Celestial Cupid her fam'd Son advanc't, Holds his dear Pfyche fweet intranc't After her wandring labours long, Till free consent the gods among Make her his eternal Bride, And from her fair unspotted fide Two blissful twins are to be born, Youth and Joy; so Jove hath fworn. But now my task is smoothly don, I can fly, or I can run Quickly to the green earths end, Where the bow'd welkin flow doth bend, And from thence can foar as soon To the corners of the Moon.
Mortals that would follow me, Love vertue, she alone is free, She can teach ye how to clime Higher then the Spheary chime; Or if Vertue feeble were, Heav'n it felf would ftoop to her.
Lycidas.
In this Monody the Author bewails a learned Friend, unfortunately drown'd in his passage from Chester on the Irish Seas, 1637. And by occafion foretells the ruine of our corrupted Clergie then in their height.
ET once more, O ye Laurels, and once
more
Ye Myrtles brown, with Ivy never sear, I com to pluck your Berries harsh and crude, And with forc'd fingers rude,
Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. Bitter constraint, and fad occafion dear, Compells me to disturb your season due : For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer : Who would not fing for Lycidas? he knew Himself to fing, and build the lofty rhyme. He must not flote upon his watry bear Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, Without the meed of fom melodious tear.
Begin then, Sifters of the facred well, That from beneath the feat of Jove doth spring, Begin, and fomewhat loudly fweep the ftring.
« AnteriorContinuar » |