The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (19 page)

In stony fetters fixed and motionless.

Yet stay,
⁹⁷⁷
be not disturbed. Now I bethink me:

Some other means I have which may be used,

Which once of Melibaeus
⁹⁷⁸
old I learned—

The soothest
⁹⁷⁹
shepherd that e’er piped
⁹⁸⁰
on plains.

There is a gentle nymph, not far from hence,

That with moist curb
⁹⁸¹
sways
⁹⁸²
the smooth Severn
⁹⁸³
stream.

Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure.

Whilom
⁹⁸⁴
she was the daughter of Locrine,
⁹⁸⁵

That had the scepter from his father Brute.
⁹⁸⁶

She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit

Of her enragèd stepdam, Gwendolen,

Commended her fair innocence to the flood
⁹⁸⁷

That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course.

The water nymphs that in the bottom
⁹⁸⁸
played

Held up their pearlèd wrists, and took her in,

Bearing her straight to agèd Nereus
⁹⁸⁹
hall,

Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank
⁹⁹⁰
head

And gave her to his daughters to embathe

In nectared lavers,
⁹⁹¹
strewn with asphodil,

And through the porch
⁹⁹²
and inlet of each sense

Dropped in ambrosial oils, till she revived

And underwent a quick immortal change,

Made goddess of the river. Still she retains

Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve

Visits the herds along the twilight meadows,

Helping all urchin
⁹⁹³
blasts
⁹⁹⁴
and ill luck signs

That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make,

Which she with precious vialed liquors heals.

For which the shepherds at their festivals

Carol
⁹⁹⁵
her goodness, loud in rustic lays,
⁹⁹⁶

And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream,

Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.

And, as the old swain said, she can unlock

The clasping
⁹⁹⁷
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
⁹⁹⁸
need. This will I try

And add the power of some adjuring
⁹⁹⁹
verse.

SONG

Sabrina, fair,

Listen where thou are sitting

Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,

In twisted braids of lillies knitting

The loose train of the amber-dropping hair.

Listen for dear honor’s sake,

Goddess of the silver lake,

Listen and save.

Listen and appear to us

In name of great Oceanus
¹⁰⁰⁰
—

By th’ 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
¹⁰⁰¹
shell,

And old sooth-saying Glaucus’ spell—

By Leucothea’s
¹⁰⁰²
lovely hands,

And her son that rules the strands
¹⁰⁰³
—

By Thetis’ tinsel-slippered feet,

And the songs of Sirens’ sweet—

By dead Parthenope’s
¹⁰⁰⁴
dear tomb,

And fair Ligéa’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
¹⁰⁰⁵
glance!

Rise, rise, and heave
¹⁰⁰⁶
thy rosy head

From thy coral-paven bed,

And bridle
¹⁰⁰⁷
in thy headlong wave

Till thou our summons answered have.

Listen and save.

Sabrina rises, attended by water-nymphs, and sings:

By the rushy-fringèd bank,

Where grows the willow and the osier dank,

My sliding chariot stays,

Thick set with agate and the azure sheen

Of turquoise blue, and emerald green

That in the channel strays,

Whilst from off the waters fleet
¹⁰⁰⁸

Thus I set my printless feet

O’er the cowslips’ velvet head,

That bends not as I tread.

Gentle swain, at thy request

I am here.

SPIRIT. Goddess dear,

We implore thy powerful hand

To undo the charmèd band
¹⁰⁰⁹

Of true virgin, here distressed
¹⁰¹⁰

Through the force and through the wile

Of unblessed enchanter vile.

SABRINA. Shepherd, it is my office
¹⁰¹¹
best

To help ensnarèd chastity.

Brightest lady, look on me!

Thus I sprinkle on thy breast

Drops that from my fountain pure

I have kept, of precious cure.
¹⁰¹²

Thrice upon thy finger’s tip,

Thrice upon thy rubied lip!

Next, this marble-venomed seat

Smeared with gums
¹⁰¹³
of glutinous
¹⁰¹⁴
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
¹⁰¹⁵
in Amphitrite’s
¹⁰¹⁶
bow’r.

Sabrina descends, and the lady rises out of her seat.

SPIRIT. Virgin, daughter of Locrine,

Sprung of old Anchises’
¹⁰¹⁷
line,

May thy brimmèd waves, for this,

Their full tribute never miss

From a thousand petty
¹⁰¹⁸
rills
¹⁰¹⁹

That tumble down the snowy hills.

Summer drought or singèd air

Never scorch thy tresses fair,

Nor wet October’s torrent flood

Thy molten crystal fill
¹⁰²⁰
with mud.

May thy billows roll ashore

The beryl
¹⁰²¹
and the golden ore.

May thy lofty head be crowned

With many a tow’r and terrace round,

And here and there thy banks upon

With groves of myrrh and cinnamon.

Come lady, while Heav’n lends us grace

Let us fly this cursèd place,

Lest the sorcerer us entice

With some other new device.

Not a taste or needless sound

Till we come to holier ground.

I shall be your faithful guide

Through this gloomy covert
¹⁰²²
wide,

And not many furlongs thence

Is your father’s residence,

Where this night are met in state

Many a friend to gratulate

His wishèd presence, and beside

All the swains that there abide,

With jigs and rural dance resort.
¹⁰²³

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 [Lord] President’s castle. Then come in country dancers. After them, the attendant spirit, with the two brothers and the lady.

SONG

SPIRIT. Back, shepherds, back! Enough, your play,

Till next sunshine holiday.

Here be, without duck
¹⁰²⁴
or nod,

Other trippings to be trod

Of lighter toes, and such court guise
¹⁰²⁵

As Mercury did first devise
¹⁰²⁶

With the mincing
¹⁰²⁷
Dryades,
¹⁰²⁸

On the lawns and on the leas.
¹⁰²⁹

This second song presents them to their father and mother:

[SONG 2]

Noble lord, and lady bright,

I have brought ye new delight.

Here behold so goodly grown

Three fair branches of your own.

Heav’n hath timely tried their youth,

Their faith, their patience, and their truth,

And sent them here, through hard assays,
¹⁰³⁰

With a crown of deathless praise,

To triumph in victorious dance

O’er sensual folly and intemperance.

The dances ended, the spirit epiloguizes:

SPIRIT. 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 crispèd
¹⁰³¹
shades and bow’rs

Revels the spruce
¹⁰³²
and jocund spring.

The Graces, and the rosy-bosomed Hours,

Thither all their bounties bring,

That
¹⁰³³
there eternal summer dwells,

And west winds, with musky wing,

About the cedarn alleys
¹⁰³⁴
fling

Nard,
¹⁰³⁵
and cassia’s balmy smells.

Iris
¹⁰³⁶
there with humid bow

Waters the odorous banks that blow
¹⁰³⁷

Flowers of more mingled hue

Than her purflèd
¹⁰³⁸
scarf can shew,

And drenches with Elysian dew

(List, mortals, if your ears be true)

Beds of hyacinth and roses,

Where young Adonis
¹⁰³⁹
oft reposes,

Waxing
¹⁰⁴⁰
well of his deep wound

In slumber soft, and on the ground

Sadly sits the Assyrian queen.
¹⁰⁴¹

But far above, in spangled sheen,

Celestial Cupid, her fair son advanced,
¹⁰⁴²

Holds his dear Psyche,
¹⁰⁴³
sweet
¹⁰⁴⁴
entranced

After her wand’ring labors 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
¹⁰⁴⁵
done.

I can fly or I can run

Quickly to the green earth’s end,

Where the bowed welkin
¹⁰⁴⁶
slow doth bend,