I fairly731 step aside

And hearken, if I may, her business here.

 

The lady enters.

 

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 jocund732 flute or gamesome 733 pipe

Stirs up amongst the loose, unlettered hinds,734

When for their teeming flocks and granges full

In wanton735 dance they praise the bounteous Pan

And thank the gods amiss.736 I should be loath

To meet the rudeness 737 and swill’d insolence

Of such late wassailers.738 Yet where else

Shall I inform my unacquainted feet

In the blind maze of this tangled Wood?

My brothers, when they saw me wearied out

With this long way, resolving here to lodge

Under the spreading favor of these pines,

Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket side,

To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit

As the kind, hospitable woods provide.

They left me then, when the gray-hooded ev’n

Like a sad votarist 739 in palmer’s 740 weeds 741

Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus’ wain.742

But where they are, and why they came not back,

Is now the labor of my thoughts. ’Tis likeliest

They had engaged their wand’ring steps too far,

And envious darkness, ere they could return,

Had stol’n them from me—else, O thievish night!

Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end,

In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars

That Nature hung in Heav’n, and filled their lamps

With everlasting oil, to give due light

To the misled and lonely traveller?

This is the place, as well as I may guess,

Whence ev’n now the tumult of loud mirth

Was rife 743 and perfect 744 in my list’ning ear.

Yet nought but single 745 darkness do I find.

What might this be? A thousand fantasies

Begin to throng into my memory,

Of calling shapes and beck’ning 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 746 champion, conscience—

O welcome, pure-eyed faith, white-handed hope,

Thou flittering Angel girt with golden wings!

And thou, unblemished form of chastity,

see ye visibly, and now believe

That He, the supreme good, t’ whom all things ill

Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,

Would send a glist’ring 747 guardian, if need were,

To keep my life and honor 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 casts a gleam over this tufted grove.

I cannot halloo to my brothers, but

Such noise as I can make, to be heard farthest,

I’ll venture, for my new-enlivened spirits

Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off.

SONG

Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph that liv’st unseen

Within thy airy cell

By slow Maeander’s 748 margent green,

And in the violet-embroidered vale

Where the love-lorn nightingale

Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well,

Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair

That likest thy Narcissus 749 are?

O if thou have

Hid them in some flow’ry cave,

Tell me but where,

Sweet queen of parley,750 daughter of the sphere,

So may’st thou be translated to the skies,

And give resounding grace to all Heav’n’s harmonies.

 

COMUS. 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 751 air

To testify his hidden residence!

How sweetly did they float upon the wings

Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night,

At every fall 752 smoothing the raven down753

Of darkness, till she smiled. I have oft heard

My mother, Circe, with the Sirens three,

Amidst the flow’ry-kirtled Naiades,754

Culling their potent 755 herbs and baleful drugs,

Who as they sung would take the prisoned soul

And lap it in Elysium. Scylla 756 wept

And chid her barking waves into attention,

And fell Charybdis 757 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 758 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

Dwell’st here with Pan 759 or Silvan,760 by blest song

Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog

To touch the prosperous growth of this tall Wood!

LADY. Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise

That is addressed to unattending ears.

Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift761

How to regain my severed company

Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo

To give me answer from her mossy couch.

COMUS. What chance, good lady, hath bereft you thus?

LADY. Dim darkness, and this leafy labyrinth.

COMUS. Could that divide you from near-ushering 762

guides?

LADY. They left me, weary, on a grassy turf.

COMUS. By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why?

LADY. To seek i’ th’ valley some cool friendly spring.

COMUS. And left your fair side all unguarded, lady?

LADY. They were but twain, and purposed quick return.

COMUS. Perhaps forestalling night prevented them?

LADY. How easy my misfortune is to hit! 763

COMUS. Imports 764 their loss, beside the present need?

LADY. No less than if I should my brothers lose.

COMUS. Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom?

LADY. As smooth as Hebe’s,765 their unrazored lips.

COMUS. Two such I saw, what time the labored ox

In his loose traces766 from the furrow came,

And the swinked 767 hedger 768 at his supper sat.

I saw ’em under a green mantling 769 vine

That crawls along the side of yon small hill,

Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots.

Their port 770 was more than human, as they stood:

I took it for a fairy vision

Of some gay 771 creatures of the element

That in the colors of the rainbow live

And play i’ th’ pleated clouds. I was awe-struck,

And as I passed I worshipped! If those you seek,

It were a journey like the path to Heav’n

To help you find them.

LADY. Gentle villager,

What readiest way would bring me to that place?

COMUS. Due west it rises, from this shrubby point.

LADY. To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose,

In such a scant allowance of star-light,

Would overtask the best land-pilot’s art,

Without the sure guess of well-practiced feet.

COMUS. I know each lane, and every alley green,

Dingle772 or bushy dell773 of this wide wood,

And every bosky774 bourn,775 from side to side

My daily walks and ancient neighborhood,

And if your stray attendance776 be yet lodged777

Or shroud778 within these limits, I shall know

Ere morrow wake or the low-roosted lark

From her thatched pallet 779 rouse. If otherwise,

I can conduct you, lady, to a low780

But loyal781 cottage, where you may be safe

Till further quest.

LADY.