and take the weeds and likeness of a swain, that to the service of this house belongs, who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song, well knows to still the wild winds when they roar, and hush the waving woods; nor of less faith, and, in this office of his mountain watch, likeliest and nearest to the present aid of this occasion. But I hear the tread of hateful steps, I must be viewless now. 1032 Lady. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, my best guide now. Methought it was the sound of riot and ill-managed merriment,
such as the jocund flute, or gamesome pipe
stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds,
when, for their teeming flocks and granges full,
in wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan,
and thank the gods amiss. I should be loath
to meet the rudeness and swilled insolence
of such late wassailers; yet oh! where else
shall I inform my unacquainted feet,
in the blind mazes of this tangled wood?—
What might this be? A thousand fantasies
begin to throng into my memory,
of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire,
and airy tongues, that syllable men's names
on sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses.
These thoughts may startle well, but not astound
the virtuous mind, that ever walks attended
by a strong-siding champion, Conscience.—
Oh! welcome pure-eyed Faith; white-handed Hope,
thou hovering Angel, girt with golden wings,
and thou unblemished form of Chastity!
I see ye visibly, and now believe
that He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill
are but as slavish officers of vengeance,
would send a glistering guardian, if need were,
to keep my life and honour unassailed.-
Was I deceived? or did a sable cloud
turn forth her silver lining on the night?
I did not err; there does a sable cloud
turn forth her silver lining on the night,
and cast a gleam over this tufted grove.
I cannot halloo to my brothers, but
such noise as I can make to be heard furthest
I'll venture; for my new-enlivened spirits
prompt me; and they perhaps are not far off.
1033 Com. Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould
breathe such divine enchanting ravishment?
Sure something holy lodges in that breast,
and with these raptures moves the vocal air
to testify his hidden residence.
How sweetly did they float upon the wings
of Silence, through the empty-vaulted night,
at every fall smoothing the raven-down
of Darkness, till it smiled! I have oft heard
my mother Circe with the Sirens three,
amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades,
culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs,
who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul
and lap it in Elysium: Scylla wept,
and chid her barking waves into attention,
and fell Charybdis murmured soft applause.
Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense,
and in sweet madness robbed it of itself;
but such a sacred and home-felt delight,
such sober certainty of waking bliss,
I never heard till now. I'll speak to her,
and she shall be my queen.-Hail, foreign wonder! whom certain these rough shades did never breed, unless the goddess that in rural shrine
dwellest here with Pan or Sylvan, by blest song forbidding every bleak unkindly fog
to touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood.1034 Lady. Gentle villager,
what readiest way would bring me to that place? Com. Due west it rises from this shrubby point. Lady. To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose, in such a scant allowance of starlight, would overtask the best land-pilot's art, without the sure guess of well-practised feet. Com. I know each lane, and every alley green, dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood, and every bosky bourn from side to side, my daily walks and ancient neighbourhood; and if your stray attendance be yet lodged, or shroud within these limits, I shall know
ere' morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark
from her thatched pallat rouse.
I can conduct you, Lady, to a low
but loyal cottage, where you may be safe
till further quest. La. Shepherd, I take thy word, and trust thy honest offered courtesy,
which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds
with smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls
and courts of princes, where it first was named,
and yet is most pretended. In a place
less warranted than this, or less secure,
I cannot be, that I should fear to change it.— [Enter the Two Brothers seeking their Sister] 1035 Se. B. But oh! that hapless virgin, our lost sister, where may she wander now, whither betake her from the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles? Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now, or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears. What, if in wild amazement and affright, or while we speak, within the direful grasp of savage hunger, or of savage heat!... El. B. Peace, Brother; be not over-exquisite to cast the fashion of uncertain evils;
for, grant they be so, while they rest unknown
what need a man forestall his date of grief,
and run to meet what he would most avoid?
or if they be but false alarms of fear,
how bitter is such self-delusion!
I do not think my sister so to seek,
or so unprincipled in Virtue's book,
and the sweet peace that Goodness bosoms ever,
as that the single want of light and noise
-not being in danger, as I trust she is not-
could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts,
and put them into misbecoming plight.
Virtue could see to do what Virtue would
by her own radiant light, though sun and moon
were in the flat sea sunk: and Wisdom's self
oft seeks to sweet retiréd solitude,
where, with her best nurse Contemplation,
she plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, that, in the various bustle of resort,
were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired.
He that has light within his own clear breast
may sit i' th' centre, and enjoy bright day;
but he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts,
benighted walks under the midday sun;
himself is his own dungeon.—
1036 My sister is not so defenceless left
as you imagine; she has a hidden strength,
which you remember not.
What hidden strength, unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that? El. B. I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength,
which, if Heaven gave it, may be term'd her own.
'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity.
She that has that is clad in complete steel,
and, like a quivered nymph with arrows keen,
may trace huge forests and unharboured heaths
infamous hills, and sandy, perilous wilds;
where, through the sacred rays of chastity,
no savage fierce, bandite or mountaineer
will dare to soil her virgin purity:
yea there, where very Desolation dwells,
by grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades,
she may pass on with unblenched majesty,
be it not done in pride or in presumption.
Some say no evil thing that walks by night,
in fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen,
blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost
that breaks his magic chains at curfew-time,.
no goblin or swart faery of the mine,
hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.
Do ye believe me yet? or shall I call
antiquity from the old schools of Greece,
to testify the arms of chastity?
1037 Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow,
fair silver-shafted queen, for ever chaste,
wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness
and spotted mountain-pard, and set at nought
the frivolous bolt of Cupid: gods and men
feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the
What was that snaky-headed Gorgon-shield,
that wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin,
wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone,
but rigid looks of chaste austerity,
and noble grace that dashed brute violence
with sudden adoration and blank awe?
So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity,
that, when a soul is found sincerely so,
a thousand liveried angels lackey her,
driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
and, in clear dream and solemn vision,
tell her of things that no gross ear can hear;
till oft converse with heavenly habitants
begin to cast a beam on the outward shape,
the unpolluted temple of the mind,
and turns it by degrees to the soul's essence,
till all be made immortal. But when lust,
by unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,
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, till she quite lose
the divine property of her first being.
Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp
oft seen in charnel-vaults and sepulchres
lingering, and sitting by a new-made grave,
as loth to leave the body that it loved,
and linked itself by carnal sensuality
to a degenerate and degraded state.—
List! list! I hear
some far-off halloo break the silent air. 1038 Se. B. O night, and shades!
how are ye joined with Hell in triple knot,
against the unarmed weakness of one virgin,
alone and helpless! Is this the confidence
you gave me, Brother?
Yes, and keep it still;
lean on it safely; not a period
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,— virtue may be assailed but never hurt,
surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled; yea even that which Mischief meant most harm shall in the happy trial prove most glory.
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