His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,
Or do his gray hairs any violence?

But beauty, like the fair Hefperian tree

Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard
Of dragon-watch with uninchanted eye,
To fave her bloffoms, and defend her fruit
From the rafh hand of bold incontinence.
You
may as well spread out the unfunn'd heaps
Of misers' treasure by an out-law's den,
And tell me it is fafe, as bid me hope
Danger will wink on opportunity,
And let a fingle helpless maiden pafs
Uninjur'd in this wild furrounding waste.
Of night, or loneliness it recks me not;

I fear the dread events that dog them both,

Left fome ill-greeting touch attempt the perfon
Of our unowned Sifter.

I BRO. I do not, Brother,

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Infer, as if I thought my Sifter's state
Secure without all doubt, or controversy:

Yet where an equal poife of hope and fear
Does arbitrate th' event, my nature is

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That I incline to hope, rather than fear,
And gladly bauifh fquint fufpicion.
My Sifter is not fo defenfelefs left

As you imagin; 'the' has a hidden strength

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Which you remember not.

2 BRO. What hidden strength,

Unless the strength of Heav'n, if you mean that?

1 BRO. I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength,

Which if Heav'n gave it, may be term'd her own:

'Tis chastity, my Brother, chastity:

She that has that, is clad in cómplete steel,

And like a quiver'd nymph with arrows keen
May trace huge forefts, and unharbour'd heaths,
Infamous hills, and fandy perilous wilds,
Where, through the facred rays of chastity,
No favage fierce, bandite, or mountaneer
Will dare to foil her virgin purity:

Yea there, where very defolation dwells,

By grots, and caverns fhagg'd with horrid shades,
She may pafs on with unblench'd majesty,

Be it not done in pride, or in prefumption.
Some fay no evil thing that walks by night,
In fog, or fire, by lake, or moorish fen,
Blue meager hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost,
That breaks his magic chains at Curfeu time,
No goblin, or fwart 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 teftify the arms of Chastity?

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Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow,
Fair filver-fhafted queen, for ever chaste,
Wherewith fhe tam'd the brinded lioness
And spotted mountain pard, but fet at nought
The frivolous bolt of Cupid; Gods and men 44-5
Fear'd her ftern frown, and she was queen o'th' woods.
What was that fnaky-headed Gorgon shield,

That wife Minerva wore, unconquer'd virgin,

Wherewith

Wherewith she freez'd her foes to congeal'd stone,

But rigid looks of chafte aufterity,

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And noble grace that dash'd brute violence

With fudden adoration, and blank awe ?
So dear to Heav'n is faintly chastity,
That when a foul is found fincerely fo,
A thousand liveried Angels lacky her,
Driving far off each thing of fin and guilt,
And in clear dream, and folemn vision,
Tell her of things that no grofs ear can hear,
Till oft converse with heav'nly habitants
Begin to caft a beam on th' outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,

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And turns it by degrees to the soul's effence,

Till all be made immortal: but when luft,

By unchafte looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,

But moft by leud and lavish act of fin,

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Lets in defilement to the inward parts,

The foul grows clotted by contagion,

Imbodies, and imbrutes, till fhe quite lofe

The divine property of her first being.

Such are thofe thick and gloomy fhadows damp. 47
Oft feen in charnel vaults, and fepulchers,
Lingering, and fitting by a new-made grave,
As loath to leave the body that it lov'd,
And link'd itself by carnal fenfuality
To a degenerate and degraded state.

2 BRO. How charming is divine philosophy ! Not harsh, and crabbed, as dull fools fuppofe, But mufical as is Apollo's lute,

475

And

And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets,
Where no crude furfeit reigns.

I BRO. Lift, lift, I hear

Some far off hallow break the silent air.

2 BRO. Methought fo too; what should it be?

I BRO. For certain

Either fome one like us night-founder'd here,

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Or elfe fome neighbour wood-man, or, at worst,
Some roving robber calling to his fellows.

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2 BRO. Heav'n keep my Sister! Again, again, and Beft draw, and stand upon our guard.

1 BRO. I'll hallow;

If he be friendly, he comes well; if not,
Defense is a good cause, and Heav'n be for us.

[near;

The attendent Spirit, habited like a shepherd.

That hallow I fhould know, what are you? speak ; 490
Come not too near, you fall on iron stakes else.
SPI. What voice is that? my young Lord? speak

again.

2 BRO. O brother, 'tis my father's fhepherd, fure. 1 BRO. Thyrfis? whofe artful strains have oft de

lay'd

The huddling brook to hear his madrigal,

And sweeten'd every muskrose of the dale.

How cam'st thou here, good Swain? hath any ram
Slipt from the fold, or young kid lost his dam,

Or ftraggling wether the pent flock forfook ?

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How could'st thou find this dark sequester'd nook? 500

SPI. O my lov'd master's heir, and his next joy,

I came not here on fuch a trivial toy

As a stray'd ewe, or to pursue the stealth

Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth

That doth enrich thefe downs, is worth a thought 505

To this my errand, and the care it brought.

But, O my virgin Lady, where is she ?

How chance he is not in your company

?

I BRO. To tell thee fadly, Shepherd, without blame, Or our neglect, we loft her as we came.

510

SPI. Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true.
I BRO. What fears, good Thyrfis? Pr'ythee briefly
SPI. I'll tell you; 'tis not vain or fabulous, [fhew.
(Though so esteem'd by fhallow ignorance)

What the fage poets, taught by th' heav'nly Muse, 515
Story'd of old in high immortal verse,

Of dire chimera's and inchanted iles,

And rifted rocks whofe entrance leads to Hell;

For fuch there be, but unbelief is blind.

Within the navel of this hideous wood,
Immur'd in cypress shades, a forcerer 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 fly enticement gives his baneful cup,

With many murmurs mix'd, whofe pleasing poison
The visage quite transforms of him that drinks,
And the inglorious likeness of a beast
Fixes inftead, unmolding reafon's mintage
Character'd in the face; this have I learnt

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