Drunk with idolatry, drunk with wine, Among them he a spirit of phrensy sent, And urged them on with mad desire Their own destruction to come speedy upon them. Fallen into wrath divine, As their own ruin on themselves to invite, And with blindness internal struck. 2 Semichor. But he, though blind of sight, Despised, and thought extinguished quite, With inward eyes illuminated, His fiery virtue roused From under ashes into sudden flame; And as an evening dragon came, Assailant on the perched roosts And nests in order ranged Of tame villatic fowl; but as an eagle His cloudless thunder bolted on their heads. So virtue, given for lost, Depressed, and overthrown, as seemed, Like that self-begotten bird In the Arabian woods embost, That no second knows, nor third, And lay erewhile a holocaust, From out her ashy womb now teemed, Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most When most unactive deemed; And though her body die, her fame survives, A secular bird, ages of lives. Man. Come, come; no time for lamentation now, Nor much more cause; Samson hath quit himself Like Samson, and heroically hath finished A life heroic, on his enemies Fully revenged; hath left them years of mourning, And lamentation to the sons of Caphtor Through all Philistian bounds, to Israël Honour hath left, and freedom, let but them Or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt, Soaked in his enemies' blood; and from the stream, Will send for all my kindred, all my friends, With silent obsequy, and funeral train, Home to his father's house: there will I build him A monument, and plant it round with shade Of highest Wisdom brings about, Oft he seems to hide his face, But unexpectedly returns, And to his faithful champion hath in place Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza mourns, His uncontrollable intent; His servants he, with new acquist Of true experience, from this great event, And calm of mind, all passion spent. COMUS: A MASK. PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634. BEFORE JOHN EARL OF BRIDGEWATER, THEN PRESIDENT OF WALES. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN LORD VISCOUNT BRACKLEY, SON AND HEIR APPARENT TO THE EARL OF BRIDGEWATER, &c. MY LORD, THIS Poem, which received its first occasion of birth from yourself and others of your noble family, and much honour from your own person in the performance, now returns again to make a final dedication of itself to you. Although not openly acknowledged by the author, yet it is a legitimate offspring, so lovely, and so much desired, that the often copying of it hath tired my pen to give my several friends satisfaction, and brought me to a necessity of producing it to the public view; and now to offer it up in all rightful devotion to those fair hopes, and rare endowments of your much promising youth, which give a full assurance, to all that know you, of a future excellence. Live, sweet Lord, to be the honour of your name, and receive this as your own, from the hands of him, who hath by many favours been long obliged to your most honoured parents, and as in this representation your attendant Thyrsis, so now in all real expression, Your faithful and most humble servant, H. LAWES. COMUS. The first Scene discovers a wild wood. The ATTENDANT SPIRIT descends or enters. BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court Which men call earth; and, with low-thoughted care To such my errand is; and, but for such, But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns, The greatest and the best of all the main, He quarters to his blue-haired deities; |