Where through the sacred rays of chastity, Yea there, where very desolation dwells, 425 430 By grots, and caverns shagg'd with horrid shades, Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow, 433 440 745 426 bandite] Tickell changed 'bandite' into 'banditti,' and 'Dian' into 'Diana.' 429 shagg'd] Benlowes's Theophila, p. 226. 'Embost with trees, with bushes shagg'd.' 482 Some say] Hamlet, act 1, sc. 1. But then, they say, no spirit walks abroad.' 488 fog] Milton here had his eye on Fletcher's F. Shepherdess, act 1. 'I have heard, (my mother told it me),' &c. Newton. Fear'd her stern frown, and she was queen o' th' woods. What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield, And noble grace that dash'd brute violence The soul grows clotted by contagion, 450 455 460 465 449 freez'd] Dante Inferno, c. ix. Che se 'l Gorgon si mostra. 455 liveried] Nabbes's Microcosmus, p. 22. 469 divine] Hor. Sat. ii. ii. 79. 'Atque affigit humo divinæ particulam auræ!' Todd. Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp To a degenerate and degraded state. 2 BR. How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh, and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo's lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, 1 B. List, list, I hear Some far off halloo break the silent air. 2 B. Methought so too; what should it be? 1 B. For certain Either some one like us night-founder'd here, Or else some neighbour woodman, or, at worst, Some roving robber calling to his fellows. 475 480 485 2 B. Heav'n keep my Sister. Again, again, and Best draw, and stand upon our guard. 1 B. I'll halloo; [near! If he be friendly, he comes well; if not, Defence is a good cause, and Heav'n be for us. Enter the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, habited like a shepherd. That halloo I should know, what are you? speak; 478 Apollo's] Love's Lab. Lost, act iv. sc. iii. Come not too near, you fall on iron stakes else. SPIR. What voice is that? my young Lord? speak again. 2 B. O brother, 'tis my father's shepherd, sure. 1 B. Thyrsis? Whose artful strains have oft delay'd The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, 496 And sweeten'd every muskrose of the dale. 506 As a stray'd ewe, or to pursue the stealth 510 SPIR. Aye me unhappy! then my fears are true. 1 BR. What fears, good Thyrsis? Prithee briefly show. SPIR. I'll tell ye; 'tis not vain or fabulous, Though so esteem'd by shallow ignorance, What the sage poets, taught by th' heavenly Muse, 509 sadly Soberly, seriously. P. L. vi. 541. Newton Storied of old in high immortal verse, Of dire chimeras, and inchanted isles, And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell; For such there be, but unbelief is blind. 516 520 Within the navel of this hideous wood, Immur'd in cypress shades a sorcerer dwells, Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus, Deep skill'd in all his mother's witcheries; And here to every thirsty wanderer By sly enticement gives his baneful cup, With many murmurs mix'd, whose pleasing poison The visage quite transforms of him that drinks, And the inglorious likeness of a beast Fixes instead, unmoulding reason's mintage Charácter'd in the face: this I have learnt 525 530 Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts, That brow this bottom-glade, whence, night by night, He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl, In their obscur'd haunts of inmost bowers. 535 540 520 navel] Etolos, qui umbilicum Græciæ incolerent.' Liv. lib. xxxv. c. 18. |