Page:Comus and other poems - Milton (1906).djvu/41

 The Brothers rush in with Swords drawn, wrest his Glass
 * out of his hand, and break it against the ground; his 
 * rout make signe of resistance, but are all driven in;
 * The attendant Spirit comes in.


 * Spir.What, have you let the false enchanter scape?

O ye mistook, ye should have snatcht his wand And bound him fast; without his rod revers't, And backward mutters of dissevering power, We cannot free the Lady that sits here In stony fetters fixt and motionless; Yet stay, be not disturb'd, now I bethink me, Som other means I have which may be us'd, Which once of Melibæus old I learnt The soothest Shepherd that ere pip't on plains.
 * There is a gentle Nymph not farr from hence,

That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream, Sabrina is her name, a Virgin pure, Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine, That had the Scepter from his father Brute. The guiltless damsell flying the mad pursuit Of her enraged stepdam Guendolen, Commended her innocence to the flood That stay'd her flight with his cross-flowing course, The water Nymphs that in the bottom plaid, Held up their pearled wrists and took her in, Bearing her straight to aged Nereus Hall, Who piteous of her woes, rear'd her lank head, And gave her to his daughters to imbathe In nectar'd lavers strew'd with Asphodil, And through the porch and inlet of each sense Dropt in Ambrosial Oils till she reviv'd, And underwent a quick immortal change Made Goddess of the River; still she retains Her maid'n gentlenes, and oft at Eeve Visits the herds along the twilight meadows, Rh