Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/163

 EDMUND SPENSER

From feare of perrill and foule horror free.

Let no false treason seeke us to entrap,

Nor any dread disquiet once annoy

The safety of our joy;

But Jet the night be calme, and quietsome,

Without tempestuous storms or sad afray:

Lykc as when Jove with fayre Alcmena lay,

When he begot the great Tirynthian groome:

Or lyke as when he with thy selfe did lie

And begot Majesty.

And let the mayds and yong men cease to sing,

Nc let the woods them answer nor theyr eccho ring.

Let no lamenting cryes, nor dolefull teares,

Be heard all night within, nor yet without.

Ne let false whispers, breeding hidden feares,

Breake gentle sleepe with misconceived dout.

Let no deluding dreames, nor dreadfull sights,

Make budden sad affrights,

Ne let house-fyres, nor lightnings helpclesse harmes,

Ne let the Poukc, nor other evill sprights,

Ne let mischivous witches with theyr charmes,

Ne let hob Goblins, names whose sence we see not,

Fray us with things that be not.

Let not the shriech Oule nor the Storke be heard,

Nor the night Raven, that still deadly yels;

Nor damned ghosts, cald up with mighty spels,

Nor griesly vultures, make us once affeard:

Ne let th' unpleasant Quyre of Frogs still croking

Make us to wish theyr choking.

Let none of these theyr drery accents sing;

Ne let the woods them answer, nor theyr eccho ring.

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