ARCADES PART OF AN ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTED TO THE COUNTESS DOWAGER OF DERBY AT HAREFIELD BY SOME NOBLE PERSONS OF HER FAMILY; WHO APPEAR ON THE SCENE IN PASTORAL HABIT, MOVING TOWARD THE SEAT OF STATE, WITH THIS SONG: I. Song. Look, Nymphs and Shepherds, look! Is that which we from hence descry, Too divine to be mistook? This, this is she To whom our vows and wishes bend : Fame, that her high worth to raise Less than half we find expressed ; Mark what radiant state she spreads, Sitting like a goddess bright Might she the wise Latona be, Who had thought this clime had held ΙΟ 20 As they come forward, THE GENIUS OF THE WOOD appears, and, turning toward them, speaks. Gen. Stay, gentle Swains, for, though in this disguise, 30 40 50 Awakes the slumbering leaves, or tasselled horn That sit upon the nine infolded spheres, On which the fate of gods and men is wound. And the low world in measured motion draw бо 70 80 And so attend ye toward her glittering state; Where ye may all, that are of noble stem, Approach, and kiss her sacred vesture's hem. II. Song. O'er the smooth enamelled green, And touch the warbled string; Of branching elm star-proof I will bring you where she sits, Clad in splendour as befits Such a rural Queen All Arcadia hath not seen. 90 III. Song. Nymphs and Shepherds, dance no more Trip no more in twilight ranks ; To serve the Lady of this place. Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were, Such a rural Queen All Arcadia hath not seen. 100 COMUS. A MASQUE PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634, &c." (For the title-pages of the Editions of 1637 and 1645 see Introduction at p. 244 and p. 246.) DEDICATION OF THE ANONYMOUS EDITION OF 1637. (Reprinted in the Edition of 1645, but omitted in that of 1673.) "To the Right Honourable John, Lord Brackley, son and heirapparent to the Earl of Bridgewater, &c. "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, VOL. II. F F "H. LAWES." |