And,as the old swain said,she can unlock The clasping charm,and thaw the numbing spell,If she be right invoked in warbled song;For maidenhood she loves,and will be swift To aid a virgin,such as was herself,In hard-besetting need.This will I try,And add the power of some adjuring verse.
SONG.
Sabrina fair,Listen where thou art sitting Under the glassy,cool,translucent wave,In twisted braids of lilies knitting The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;Listen for dear honour's sake,Goddess of the silver lake,Listen and save!
Listen,and appear to us,In name of great Oceanus.
By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace,And Tethys'grave majestic pace;By hoary Nereus'wrinkled look,And the Carpathian wizard's hook;By scaly Triton's winding shell,And old soothsaying Glaucus'spell;By Leucothea's lovely hands,And her son that rules the strands;By Thetis'tinsel-slippered feet,And the songs of Sirens sweet;By dead Parthenope's dear tomb,And fair Ligea's golden comb,Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks Sleeking her soft alluring locks;By all the Nymphs that nightly dance Upon thy streams with wily glance;Rise,rise,and heave thy rosy head From thy coral-paven bed,And bridle in thy headlong wave,Till thou our summons answered have.
Listen and save!
SABRINA rises,attended by water-nymphs,and sings.
By the rushy-fringed bank,Where grows the willow and the osier dank,My sliding chariot stays,Thick set with agate,and the azurn sheen Of turkis blue,and emerald green,That in the channel strays;Whilst from off the waters fleet Thus I set my printless feet O'er the cowslip's velvet head,That bends not as I tread.
Gentle swain,at thy request I am here!
SPIR.Goddess dear,We implore thy powerful hand To undo the charmed band Of true virgin here distressed Through the force and through the wile Of unblessed enchanter vile.
SABR.Shepherd,'t is my office best To help ensnared chastity.
Brightest Lady,look on me.
Thus I sprinkle on thy breast Drops that from my fountain pure I have kept of precious cure;Thrice upon thy finger's tip,Thrice upon thy rubied lip:
Next this marble venomed seat,Smeared with gums of glutinous heat,I touch with chaste palms moist and cold.
Now the spell hath lost his hold;
And I must haste ere morning hour To wait in Amphitrite's bower.
SABRINA descends,and the LADY rises out of her seat.
SPIR.Virgin,daughter of Locrine,Sprung of old Anchises'line,May thy brimmed waves for this Their full tribute never miss From a thousand petty rills,That tumble down the snowy hills:
Summer drouth or singed air Never scorch thy tresses fair,Nor wet October's torrent flood Thy molten crystal fill with mud;May thy billows roll ashore The beryl and the golden ore;May thy lofty head be crowned With many a tower and terrace round,And here and there thy banks Upon With groves of myrrh and cinnamon.
Come,Lady;while Heaven lends us grace,Let us fly this cursed place,Lest the sorcerer us entice With some other new device.
Not a waste or needless sound Till we come to holier ground.
I shall be your faithful guide Through this gloomy covert wide;And not many furlongs thence Is your Father's residence,Where this night are met in state Many a friend to gratulate His wished presence,and beside All the swains that there abide With jigs and rural dance resort.
We shall catch them at their sport,And our sudden coming there Will double all their mirth and cheer.
Come,let us haste;the stars grow high,But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky.
The Scene changes,presenting Ludlow Town,and the PresidentUs Castle:then come in Country Dancers;after them the ATTENDANTSPIRIT,with the two BROTHERS and the LADY.
SONG.
SPIR.Back,shepherds,back!Enough your play Till next sun-shine holiday.
Here be,without duck or nod,Other trippings to be trod Of lighter toes,and such court guise As Mercury did first devise With the mincing Dryades On the lawns and on the leas.
The second Song presents them to their Father and Mother.
Noble Lord and Lady bright,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.
The dances ended,the SPIRIT epiloguizes.
SPIR.To the ocean now I fly,And those happy climes that lie Where day never shuts his eye,Up in the broad fields of the sky.
There I suck the liquid air,All amidst the gardens fair Of Hesperus,and his daughters three That sing about the golden tree.
Along the crisped shades and bowers Revels the spruce and jocund Spring;The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours Thither all their bounties bring.
There eternal Summer dwells;
And west winds with musky wing About the cedarn alleys fling Nard and cassia's balmy smells.
Iris there with humid bow Waters the odorous banks,that blow Flowers of more mingled hue Than her purfled scarf can shew,And drenches with Elysian dew (List,mortals,if your ears be true)Beds of hyacinth and roses,Where young Adonis oft reposes,Waxing well of his deep wound,In slumber soft,and on the ground Sadly sits the Assyrian queen.
But far above,in spangled sheen,Celestial Cupid,her famed son,advanced Holds his dear Psyche,sweet entranced After her wandering labours long,Till free consent the gods among Make her his eternal bride,And from her fair unspotted side Two blissful twins are to be born,Youth and Joy;so Jove hath sworn.
But now my task is smoothly done:
I can fly,or I can run,Quickly to the green earth's end,Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend,And from thence can soar as soon To the corners of the moon.
Mortals,that would follow me,Love virtue;she alone is free.
She can teach ye how to climb Higher than the sphery chime;Or,if Virtue feeble were,Heaven itself would stoop to her.