THE PERSONS. THE ATTENDANT SPIRIT, AFTERWARDS IN THE HABIT OF THYRSIS. COMUS WITH HIS CREW. THE LADY. FIRST BROther. SECOND BROTHER. SABRINA THE NYMPH. THE CHIEF PERSONS, WHO PRESENTED, WERE THE LORD BRACKLEY. MR. THOMAS EGERTON, HIS Brother. THE LADY ALICE EGERTON. COMU S. THE FIRST SCENE DISCOVERS A WILD WOOD. The Attendant Spirit descends or enters. BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court In regions mild of calm and serene air, Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot, Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care Confin'd and pester'd in this pin-fold here, To such my errand is; and, but for such, I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould. But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway Of every salt flood, and each ebbing stream, Took in by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove Imperial rule of all the sea girt isles, That like to rich and various gems inlay The unadorned bosom of the deep: Which he, to grace his tributary gods, By course commits to several government, And gives them leave to wear their saphire crowns, And wield their little tridents: but this isle, The greatest and the best of all the main, He quarters to his blue-hair'd deities; And all this tract that fronts the falling sun A noble peer of mickle trust and power Has in his charge, with temper'd awe to guide An old and haughty nation, proud in arms: Where his fair offspring, nurs'd in princely lore, Are coming to attend their father's state, And new-intrusted scepter: but their way Lies through the perplex'd paths of this drear wood, The nodding horror of whose shady brows Threats the forlorn and wand'ring passenger; And here their tender age might suffer peril, But that by quick command from sovran Jove. I was dispatch'd for their defence and guard; Much like his father, but his mother more, At last betakes him to this ominous wood, And, in thick shelter of black shades imbower'd, Excels his mother at her mighty art, Offering to every weary traveller His orient liquor in a crystal glass, To quench the drought of Phœbus, which as they taste, E (For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst) 1 9. bis Therefore, when any favour'd of high Jove Chances to pass through this advent'rous glade, Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star 5 bas I shoot from heav'n, to give him safe convoy, As now I do: But first I must put off These my sky robes spun out of Iris' woof, |