That musing Meditation most affects

The pensive secrecy of desert cell,

Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds,
And sits as safe as in a senate-house;

For who would rob a hermit of his weeds,

His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,

Or do his grey hairs any violence?

But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree

Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard
Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye

To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit,
From the rash hand of bold Incontinence.

You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps

Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den,

And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope
Danger will wink on Opportunity,
And let a single helpless maiden pass
Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste.
Of night or loneliness it recks me not;

I fear the dread events that dog them both,

Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person
Of our unowned sister.

390

400

Secure without all doubt or controversy;

Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear

410

Does arbitrate the event, my nature is

That I incline to hope rather than fear,
And gladly banish squint suspicion.
My sister is not so defenceless left

As you imagine; she has a hidden strength,
Which you remember not.

Sec. Bro.

What hidden strength,

Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that?

Eld. Bro. I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength,

Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own.

'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity:

She that has that is clad in complete steel,

And, like a quivered nymph with arrows keen,
May trace huge forests, and unharboured heaths,
Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds;
Where, through the sacred rays of chastity,
No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer,
Will dare to soil her virgin purity.

420

Yea, there where very desolation dwells,

By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades,
She may pass on with unblenched majesty,

430

Be it not done in pride, or in presumption.
Some say no evil thing that walks by night,
In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen,
Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost,
That breaks his magic chains at curfew time,
No goblin or swart faery of the mine,
Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.
Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call
Antiquity from the old schools of Greece
To testify the arms of chastity?

Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow,
Fair silver-shafted queen for ever chaste,
Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness
And spotted mountain-pard, but set at nought
The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men

Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the woods.
What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield

That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin,

Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone,

But rigid looks of chaste austerity,

And noble grace that dashed brute violence
With sudden adoration and blank awe?
So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity
That, when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lackey her,
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
And in clear dream and solemn vision

Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear;
Till oft converse with heavenly habitants

440

450

Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,

460

And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence,
Till all be made immortal. But, when lust,

By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,

Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave,
As loth to leave the body that it loved,
And linked itself by carnal sensualty

To a degenerate and degraded state.

Sec. Bro. 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 nectared sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns.

Eld. Bro.

Some far-off hallo break the silent air.

List! list! I hear

480

For certain,

Sec. Bro. Methought so too; what should it be?
Eld. Bro.

Either some one, like us, night-foundered here,
Or else some neighbour woodman, or, at worst,
Some roving robber calling to his fellows.

Sec. Bro. Heaven keep my sister! Again, again, and near! Best draw, and stand upon our guard.

Eld. Bro.

I'll hallo.
If he be friendly, he comes well if not,
Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us!

The ATTENDANT SPIRIT, habited like a shepherd.

That hallo I should know. What are you? speak.
Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes else.

490

Spir. What voice is that? my young Lord? speak again. Sec. Bro. O brother, 'tis my father's Shepherd, sure.

Eld. Bro. Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed The huddling brook to hear his madrigal,

And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale.

How camest thou here, good swain? Hath any ram
Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam,
Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook?
How couldst thou find this dark sequestered nook?
Spir. O my loved master's heir, and his next joy,

I came not here on such a trivial toy

As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth
Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth

That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought

To this my errand, and the care it brought.

But, oh my virgin Lady, where is she?
How chance she is not in your company?

Eld. Bro. To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, without blame

Or our neglect, we lost her as we came.

Spir. Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true.

500

510

Eld. Bro. What fears, good Thyrsis? Prithee briefly shew.

Spir. I'll tell ye. 'Tis not vain or fabulous

(Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance)

What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse,
Storied of old in high immortal verse

Of dire Chimeras and enchanted isles,

And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell;
For such there be, but unbelief is blind.
Within the navel of this hideous wood,
Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells,
Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus,
Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries,
And here to every thirsty wanderer

By sly enticement gives his baneful cup,

With many murmurs mixed, whose pleasing poison
The visage quite transforms of him that drinks,
And the inglorious likeness of a beast

520

Fixes instead, unmoulding reason's mintage
Charactered in the face. This have I learnt
Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts

530

That brow this bottom glade; whence night by night

He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl
Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey,
Doing abhorred rites to Hecate

In their obscurèd haunts of inmost bowers.
Yet have they many baits and guileful spells
To inveigle and invite the unwary sense
Of them that pass unweeting by the way.
This evening late, by then the chewing flocks
Had ta'en their supper on the savoury herb
Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold,
I sat me down to watch upon a bank
With ivy canopied, and interwove
With flaunting honeysuckle, and began,
Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy,
To meditate my rural minstrelsy,

540

Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close
The wonted roar was up amidst the woods,
And filled the air with barbarous dissonance;
At which I ceased, and listened them a while,

550

Till an unusual stop of sudden silence
Gave respite to the drowsy-flighted steeds
That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep.

At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound

Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes,

And stole upon the air, that even Silence

Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might

Deny her nature, and be never more,

Still to be so displaced. I was all ear,

560

And took in strains that might create a soul

Under the ribs of Death. But, oh! ere long
Too well I did perceive it was the voice
Of my most honoured Lady, your dear sister.

Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear;

And O poor hapless nightingale,' thought I,

Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste,

'How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly snare!'

Through paths and turnings often trod by day,
Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place
Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise
(For so by certain signs I knew), had met
Already, ere my best speed could prevent,
The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey;
Who gently asked if he had seen such two,
Supposing him some neighbour villager.
Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed
Ye were the two she meant; with that I sprung
Into swift flight, till I had found you here;
But further know I not.

Sec. Bro.

O night and shades,
How are ye joined with hell in triple knot
Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin,
Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence
You gave me, brother?

Eld. Bro.

Yes, and keep it still;

Lean on it safely; not a period

Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats

Of malice or of sorcery, or that power

570

580

Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm :
Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt,

Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled;

590

Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm

Shall in the happy trial prove most glory.
But evil on itself shall back recoil,

And mix no more with goodness, when at last,
Gathered like scum, and settled to itself,

Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,

The pillared firmament is rottenness,

Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven

It shall be in eternal restless change

And earth's base built on stubble. But come, let's on!

May never this just sword be lifted up;

But, for that damned magician, let him be girt
With all the griesly legions that troop
Under the sooty flag of Acheron,

Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous forms
'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out,
And force him to return his purchase back,
Or drag him by the curls to a foul death,
Cursed as his life.

600