i

Or if the earlier feafon lead

To the tann'd haycock in the mead.
Sometimes with fecure delight
The upland hamlets will invite,
When the merry bells ring round,
And the jocond rebecs found

To many a youth, and many a maid,
Dancing in the chequer'd hade:

And young and old come forth to play
On a funfhine holy-day,

Till the live-long day-light fail;
Then to the fpicy nut-brown ale,
With ftories told of many a feat,
How faery Mab the junkets eat,
She was pincht, and pull'd she said,
And he by friers lanthorn led
Tells how the drudging Goblin fwet,
To earn his cream-bowl duly fet,
When in one night, ere glimpte of morn,
His fhadowy flale hath thresh'd the corn,
That ten day lab'rers could not end
Then lies him down the lubbar fiend,
And stretch'd out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy ftrength,
And crop-full out of doors he flings,
Ere the first cock his matin rings.
Thus done the tales, to bed they creep,
By whifp'ring winds foon lull'd asleep.
Towred cities please us then,
And the bufy hum of men,

;

Where throngs of knights and barons bold
In weeds of peace high triumphs hold,
With ftore of ladies, whole bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize
Of wit, or ams, while both contend
To win her grace, whom all commend.

90

95

100

105

ΤΙ

120

There

There let Hymen oft appear

In faffron robe, with taper clear,
And pomp, and feast, and revelry,
With mark, and antique pageantry,
Such fights as youthful poets dream
On fummer eves by haunted stream.
Then to the well-trod stage anon,
If Johnson's learned fock be on,
Or sweetest Shakespear, fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.
And ever against eating cares,
Lap me in foft Lydian airs,
Married to immortal verse,

Such as the meeting foul may pierce
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 ty

The hidden foul of harmony;

That Orpheus felf may heave his head

145

From golden flumber on a bed

Of heapt Elyfian flow'rs, and hear

Such ftrains as would have won the ear
Of Pluto, to have quite set free
His half regain'd Eurydice.
Thefe delights, if thou canst give,
Mirth, with thee I mean to live.

H

XIV.

IL PENSEROSO.

ENCE vain deluding joys,

The brood of folly without father bred How little you bested,

Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys?

Dwell

Dwell in fome idle brain,

And fancies fond with gaudy fhapes poffefs, As thick and numberless

As the

gay motes that people the fun-beams, Or likeft hovering dreams

The fickle penfioners of Morpheus train. But hail thou Goddess, fage and holy, Hail divineft Melancholy,

Whofe faintly visage is too bright

To hit the fenfe of human fight,

And therefore to our weaker view

O'er laid with black, ftaid wisdom's hue;
Black, but fuch as in esteem

Prince Memnon's fifter might beseem,

Or that starred Ethiop queen that strove
To fet her beauties praise above

The Sea-Nymphs, and their pow'rs offended:
Yet thou art higher far defcended,

Thee bright-hair'd Vesta long of yore
To folitary Saturn bore;

pure,

His daughter fhe (in Saturn's reign,
Such mixture was not held a stain).
Oft in glimmering bow'rs and glades
He met her, and in fecret fhades
Of woody Ida's inmost grove,
While yet there was no fear of Jove.
Come penfive Nun, devout and
Sober, ftedfaft, and demure,
All in a robe of darkest grain,
Flowing with majestic train,
And fable stole of Cyprus lawn,
Over thy decent fhoulders drawn.
Come, but keep thy wonted state,
With even step, and mufing gate,
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt foul fitting in thine eyes:

5

ΤΟ

15

20

25

30

35

4.0

There

There held in holy paffion ftill,

Forget thyfelf to marble, till

With a fad leaden downward caft
Thou fix them on the earth as fait:

And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet,
Spare Faft, that oft with Gods doth diet,
And hears the Muses in a ring

Ay round about Jove's altar fing:
And add to thefe retired Leifure,
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure ;
But firft, and chiefeft, with thee bring,
Him that yon foars on golden wing,
Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne,
The Cherub Contemplation;
And the mute Silence hift along,
'Lefs Philomel will deign a fong,
In her fweeteft, faddeft plight,
Smoothing the rugged brow of night,
While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke,
Gently o'er th' accustom'd oak;
Sweet bird that fhunn'ft the noife of folly,
Moft mufical, most melancholy!
Thee chauntress oft the woods among
I woo to hear thy even-fong;
And miffing thee, I walk unfeen
On the dry finooth-fhaven green,
To behold the wand'ring moon,
Riding near her highest noon,
Like one that had been led aftray
Through the Heav'n's wide pathlefs way,
And oft, as if her head the bow'd,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
Oft on a plat of rifing ground,
I hear the far-off Curfeu found,
Over fome wide-water'd fhore,
Swinging flow with fullen roar;

Or if the air will not permit,

Some still removed place will fit,

Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom,
Far from all resort of mirth,

Save the cricket on the hearth,
Or the belman's droufy charm,

To bless the doors from nightly harm :
Or let my lamp at midnight hour,
Be feen in fome high lonely tow'r,
Where I may oft out-watch the Bear,
With thrice great Hermes, or unfphere
The fpirit of Plato to unfold

What worlds, or what vaft regions hold
The immortal mind that hath forfook
Her mansion in this fleshly nook :
And of thofe Demons that are found
In fire, air, flood, or under ground,
Whofe power hath a true confent
With planet, or with element.
Sometime let gorgeous tragedy
In fcepter'd 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 buskin'd stage.
But, O fad Virgin, that thy power
Might raise Mufæus from his bower,
Or bid the foul of Orpheus fing
Such notes, as warbled to the string,
Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek,
And made Hell grant what love did feek.
Or call up him that left half told
The story of Cambuscan bold,
Of Camball, and of Algarfife,

And who had Canace to wife,