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1134

SONG OF THE SPIRIT IN COMUS

'OBLE Lord, and Lady bright,

NOB

I have brought ye new delight:

here behold so goodly grown

three fair branches of your own.
Heaven hath timely tried their youth,
their faith, their patience, and their truth,
and sent them here through hard assays,
with a crown of deathless praise,

to triumph in victorious dance

o'er sensual folly and intemperance.

J. MILTON

1135 ECHO MOURNING THE DEATH OF NARCISSUS

LOW, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt

SLOW,

tears:

yet, slower, yet, O faintly, gentle springs:

list to the heavy part the music bears,

woe weeps out her division when she sings.
Droop herbs and flowers;

fall grief in showers,

our beauties are not ours;
O, I could still

like melting snow upon some craggy hill,
drop, drop, drop, drop,

since nature's pride is now a withered daffodil.

B. JONSON

1136 CHORUS OF MESSENIAN MAIDENS—Merope

Ch.

NOT

OT to thee only hath come
sorrow, O Queen, of mankind.

Had not Electra to haunt

a palace defiled by a death unavenged,
for years, in silence, devouring her heart?
But her nursling, her hope came at last.
Thou, too, rearest in joy,

far 'mid Arcadian hills,

somewhere in safety a nursling, a light.
Yet, yet, shall Zeus bring him home!

Yet shall he dawn on this land!

1137 Mer. Him in secret, in tears,

month after month, through the slow-dragging year,

longing, listening, I wait, I implore.
But he comes not. What dell,

O Erymanthus ! from sight

of his mother, which of thy glades,
O Lycæus! conceals

the happy hunter? He basks

in youth's pure morning, nor thinks on the blood-stained home of his birth. 1138 Ch. Give not thy heart to despair. No lamentation can loose

prisoners of death from the grave:

but Zeus, who accounteth thy quarrel his own,
still rules, still watches, and numbers the hours
till the sinner, the vengeance, be ripe.

Still by Acheron stream

terrible deities throned

sit, and make ready the serpent, the scourge.
Still, still the Dorian boy,

exiled, remembers his home.

1139 Mer. Him if high-ruling Zeus

bring to his mother, the rest I commit

willing, patient, to Zeus, to his care.
Blood I ask not. Enough

sated, and more than enough,

are mine eyes with blood.

O my comforters! strays

amiss from Justice, the Gods

forgive my folly, and work

But if this,

what they will!-but to me give my son!

M. ARNOLD

1140 W

E have been o'er land and sea
seeking lovely dreams for thee:
where is there we have not been,
gathering gifts for our sweet Queen?
We are come with sound and sight
fit for fairy's sleep to-night;
and around thy couch shall sweep
odours, such as roses weep,
when the earliest spring rain
calls them into life again.

L. E. LANDON

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ALCIDES thus his race began,

o'er infancy he swiftly ran;

the future god at first was more than man:
dangers and toils, and Juno's hate,

even o'er his cradle lay in wait,

and there he grappled first with fate:

in his young hands the hissing snakes he press'd; so early was the deity confessed:

thus by degrees he rose to Jove's imperial seat; thus difficulties prove a soul legitimately great.

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1144 REFLECTIONS OF THE CHORUS ON THE QUARREL BETWEEN FERREX AND PORREX

WHEN youth not bridled with a guiding stay

WHEN

is left to randon of their own delight,

and weldes whole realmes by force of sovereign sway,
great is the daunger of unmaistred might,

lest skillesse rage throwe downe with headlong fall
their lands, their states, their lives, themselves and all.
When growing pride doth fill the swelling brest,
and greedy lust doth rayse the climbing minde,
Oh hardlie maye the perill be represt.

Ne feare of angrie goddes, ne lawes kinde,
ne countries care can fired hartes restrayne
whan force hath armed envie and disdaine.

1145 When kings of foresette will neglect the rede
of best advise, and yelde to pleasing tales
that do their fansies noysome humour feede,
ne reason, nor regarde of right availes;
succeding heapes of plagues shall teach too late
to learne the mischiefes of misguided state.
Foule fall the traitour false that undermines
the love of brethren, to destroye them both.
Wo to the prince, that pliant eare enclynes

and yeldes his minde to poysonous tale that floweth from flattering mouth; and woe to wretched land that wastes itselfe with civill sworde in hande!

SACKVILLE AND NORTON

1146 REFLECTIONS on GorboDuC'S DIVISION of his

KINGDOM BETWEEN HIS TWO SONS

WHEN

HEN settled stay doth hold the royall throne in stedfast place by knowen and doubtles right:

and chiefly when descent on one alone

makes single and unparted reigne to light:
ech chaunge of course unjoints the whole estate
and yeldes it thrall to ruine by debate.

The strength, that knit by faste accorde in one
against all forrein power of mightie foes

could of itselfe defend itselfe alone,

disjoyned once, tho former force doth lose.

The stickes, that sondred brake so soone in twaine, in faggot bounde attempted were in vaine.

SACKVILLE AND NORTON

1147

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SONG IN ARCADES

'ER the smooth enamelled green,
where no print of step hath been,
follow me, as I sing

and touch the warbled string;

under the shady roof

of branching elm star-proof
follow me.

I will bring you where she sits,
clad in splendour as befits
her deity.

Such a rural queen

all Arcadia hath not seen.

1148 Nymphs and shepherds, dance no more
by sandy Ladon's lilied banks:
on old Lycæus or Cyllene hoar
trip no more in twilight ranks;
though Erymanth your loss deplore,

a better soil shall give ye thanks.
From the stony Mænalus

bring your flocks, and live with us;
there ye shall have greater grace,

to serve the lady of this place.

Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were,
yet Syrinx well might wait on her.

Such a rural queen

all Arcadia hath not seen.

1149

J. MILTON

ASIA

Y soul is an enchanted boat,

M which, like a sleeping swan, doth float

upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing;
and thine doth like an angel sit
beside the helm conducting it,

whilst all the winds with melody are ringing.
Meanwhile thy spirit lifts its pinions
in music's most serene dominions;

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