Proserpine

DRAMATIS PERSONAE (Persons Represented):


 * CERES
 * PROSERPINE


 * INO, EUNOE, Nymphs attendant upon Proserpine.
 * IRIS
 * ARETHUSA, Naiad of a Spring.


 * Shades from Hell, among which ASCALAPHUS.

Scene.—The plain of Enna, in Sicily.

Act I.
[Scene;—a beautiful plain, shadowed on one side by an overhanging rock, on the other a chesnut wood. Etna at a distance.]

PROSERPINE.
 * Dear Mother, leave me not! I love to rest
 * Under the shadow of that hanging cave
 * And listen to your tales. Your Proserpine
 * Entreats you stay; sit on this shady bank,
 * And as I twine a wreathe tell once again
 * The combat of the Titans and the Gods;
 * Or how the Python fell beneath the dart
 * Of dread Apollo; or of Daphne's change,–
 * That coyest Grecian maid, whose pointed leaves
 * Now shade her lover's brow. And I the while
 * Gathering the starry flowers of this fair plain
 * Will weave a chaplet, Mother, for thy hair.
 * But without thee, the plain I think is vacant,
 * Its blossoms fade,–its tall fresh grasses droop,
 * Nodding their heads like dull things half asleep;–
 * Go not, dear Mother, from your Proserpine.

CERES.
 * My lovely child, it is high Jove's command:–
 * The golden self-moved seats surround his throne,
 * The nectar is poured out by Ganymede,
 * And the ambrosia fills the golden baskets;
 * They drink, for Bacchus is already there,
 * But none will eat till I dispense the food.
 * I must away–dear Proserpine, farewel!–
 * Eunoe can tell thee how the giants fell;
 * Or dark-eyed Ino sing the saddest change
 * Of Syrinx or of Daphne, or the doom
 * Of impious Prometheus, and the boy
 * Of fair Pandora, Mother of mankind.
 * This only charge I leave thee and thy nymphs,–
 * Depart not from each other; be thou circled
 * By that fair guard, and then no earth-born Power
 * Would tempt my wrath, and steal thee from their sight
 * But wandering alone, by feint or force,
 * You might be lost, and I might never know
 * Thy hapless fate. Farewel, sweet daughter mine,
 * Remember my commands.

PROSERPINE.
 * –Mother, farewel!
 * Climb the bright sky with rapid wings; and swift
 * As a beam shot from great Apollo's bow
 * Rebounds from the calm mirror of the sea
 * Back to his quiver in the Sun, do thou
 * Return again to thy loved Proserpine.

[Exit CERES.]


 * And now, dear Nymphs, while the hot sun is high
 * Darting his influence right upon the plain,
 * Let us all sit beneath the narrow shade
 * That noontide Etna casts.–And, Ino, sweet,
 * Come hither; and while idling thus we rest,
 * Repeat in verses sweet the tale which says
 * How great Prometheus from Apollo's car
 * Stole heaven's fire–a God-like gift for Man!
 * Or the more pleasing tale of Aphrodite;
 * How she arose from the salt Ocean's foam,
 * And sailing in her pearly shell, arrived
 * On Cyprus sunny shore, where myrtles bloomed
 * And sweetest flowers, to welcome Beauty's Queen;
 * And ready harnessed on the golden sands
 * Stood milk-white doves linked to a sea-shell car,
 * With which she scaled the heavens, and took her seat
 * Among the admiring Gods.

EUNOE.
 * Proserpine's tale
 * Is sweeter far than Ino's sweetest song.

PROSERPINE.
 * Ino, you knew erewhile a River-God,
 * Who loved you well and did you oft entice
 * To his transparent waves and flower-strewn banks.
 * He loved high poesy and wove sweet sounds,
 * And would sing to you as you sat reclined
 * On the fresh grass beside his shady cave,
 * From which clear waters bubbled, dancing forth,
 * And spreading freshness in the noontide air.
 * When you returned you would enchant our ears
 * With tales and songs which did entice the fauns,
 * With Pan their King from their green haunts, to hear.
 * Tell me one now, for like the God himself,
 * Tender they were and fanciful, and wrapt
 * The hearer in sweet dreams of shady groves,
 * Blue skies, and clearest, pebble-paved streams.

INO.
 * I will repeat the tale which most I loved;
 * Which tells how lily-crowned Arethusa,
 * Your favourite Nymph, quitted her native Greece,
 * Flying the liquid God Alpheus, who followed,
 * Cleaving the desarts of the pathless deep,
 * And rose in Sicily, where now she flows
 * The clearest spring of Enna's gifted plain.


 * Arethusa arose
 * From her couch of snows,
 * In the Acroceraunian mountains,–
 * From cloud, and from crag,
 * With many a jag,
 * Shepherding her bright fountains.
 * She leapt down the rocks
 * With her rainbow locks,
 * Streaming among the streams,–
 * Her steps paved with green
 * The downward ravine,
 * Which slopes to the Western gleams:–
 * And gliding and springing,
 * She went, ever singing
 * In murmurs as soft as sleep;
 * The Earth seemed to love her
 * And Heaven smiled above her,
 * As she lingered towards the deep.


 * Then Alpheus bold
 * On his glacier cold,
 * With his trident the mountains strook;
 * And opened a chasm
 * In the rocks;–with the spasm
 * All Erymanthus shook.
 * And the black south wind
 * It unsealed behind
 * The urns of the silent snow,
 * And earthquake and thunder
 * Did rend in sunder
 * The bars of the springs below:–
 * And the beard and the hair
 * Of the river God were
 * Seen through the torrent's sweep
 * As he followed the light
 * Of the fleet nymph's flight
 * To the brink of the Dorian deep.


 * Oh, save me! oh, guide me!
 * And bid the deep hide me,
 * For he grasps me now by the hair!
 * The loud ocean heard,
 * To its blue depth stirred,
 * And divided at her prayer,
 * And under the water
 * The Earth's white daughter
 * Fled like a sunny beam,
 * Behind her descended
 * Her billows unblended
 * With the brackish Dorian stream:–
 * Like a gloomy stain
 * On the Emerald main
 * Alpheus rushed behind,
 * As an eagle pursueing
 * A dove to its ruin,
 * Down the streams of the cloudy wind.


 * Under the bowers
 * Where the Ocean Powers
 * Sit on their pearled thrones,
 * Through the coral woods
 * Of the weltering floods,
 * Over heaps of unvalued stones;
 * Through the dim beams,
 * Which amid the streams
 * Weave a network of coloured light,
 * And under the caves,
 * Where the shadowy waves
 * Are as green as the forest's night:–
 * Outspeeding the shark,
 * And the sword fish dark,
 * Under the Ocean foam,
 * And up through the rifts
 * Of the mountain clifts,
 * They passed to their Dorian Home.


 * And now from their fountains
 * In Enna's mountains,
 * Down one vale where the morning basks,
 * Like friends once parted,
 * Grown single hearted
 * They ply their watery tasks.
 * At sunrise they leap
 * From their cradles steep
 * In the cave of the shelving hill,–
 * At noontide they flow
 * Through the woods below
 * And the meadows of asphodel,–
 * And at night they sleep
 * In the rocking deep
 * Beneath the Ortygian shore;–
 * Like spirits that lie
 * In the azure sky,
 * When they love, but live no more.

PROSERPINE.
 * Thanks, Ino dear, you have beguiled an hour
 * With poesy that might make pause to list
 * The nightingale in her sweet evening song.
 * But now no more of ease and idleness,
 * The sun stoops to the west, and Enna's plain
 * Is overshadowed by the growing form
 * Of giant Etna:–Nymphs, let us arise,
 * And cull the sweetest flowers of the field,
 * And with swift fingers twine a blooming wreathe
 * For my dear Mother's rich and waving hair.

EUNOE.
 * Violets blue and white anemonies
 * Bloom on the plain,–but I will climb the brow
 * Of that o'erhanging hill, to gather thence
 * That loveliest rose, it will adorn thy crown;
 * Ino, guard Proserpine till my return.

[Exit.]

INO.
 * How lovely is this plain!–Nor Grecian vale,
 * Nor bright Ausonia's ilex bearing shores,
 * The myrtle bowers of Aphrodite's sweet isle,
 * Or Naxos burthened with the luscious vine,
 * Can boast such fertile or such verdant fields
 * As these, which young Spring sprinkles with her stars;–
 * Nor Crete which boasts fair Amalthea's horn
 * Can be compared with the bright golden fields
 * Of Ceres, Queen of plenteous Sicily.

PROSERPINE.
 * Sweet Ino, well I know the love you bear
 * My dearest Mother prompts your partial voice,
 * And that love makes you doubly dear to me.
 * But you are idling,–look, my lap is full
 * Of sweetest flowers;–haste to gather more,
 * That before sunset we may make our crown.
 * Last night as we strayed through that glade, methought
 * The wind that swept my cheek bore on its wings
 * The scent of fragrant violets, hid
 * Beneath the straggling underwood; Haste, sweet,
 * To gather them; fear not–I will not stray.

INO.
 * Nor fear that I shall loiter in my task.

[Exit.]

PROSERPINE. [Sings as she gathers her flowers.]
 * Sacred Goddess, Mother Earth,
 * Thou from whose immortal bosom
 * Gods, and men, and beasts have birth,
 * Leaf, and blade, and bud, and blossom,
 * Breathe thine influence most divine
 * On thine own child Proserpine.


 * If with mists of evening dew
 * Thou dost nourish these young flowers
 * Till they grow in scent and hue
 * Fairest children of the hours,
 * Breathe thine influence most divine
 * On thine own child Proserpine.

[she looks around.]


 * My nymphs have left me, neglecting the commands
 * Of my dear Mother. Where can they have strayed?
 * Her caution makes me fear to be alone;–
 * I'll pass that yawning cave and seek the spring
 * Of Arethuse, where water-lilies bloom
 * Perhaps the nymph now wakes tending her waves,
 * She loves me well and oft desires my stay,–
 * The lilies shall adorn my mother's crown.

[Exit.]

[After a pause enter EUNOE.]

EUNOE.
 * I've won my prize! look at this fragrant rose!
 * But where is Proserpine? Ino has strayed
 * Too far I fear, and she will be fatigued,
 * As I am now, by my long toilsome search.

[Enter INO.]


 * Oh! you here, Wanderer! Where is Proserpine?

INO.
 * My lap's heaped up with sweets; dear Proserpine,
 * You will not chide me now for idleness;–
 * Look here are all the treasures of the field,–
 * First these fresh violets, which crouched beneath
 * A mossy rock, playing at hide and seek
 * With both the sight and sense through the high fern;
 * Star-eyed narcissi & the drooping bells
 * Of hyacinths; and purple polianthus,
 * Delightful flowers are these; but where is she,
 * The loveliest of them all, our Mistress dear?

EUNOE.
 * I know not, even now I left her here,
 * Guarded by you, oh Ino, while I climbed
 * Up yonder steep for this most worthless rose:–
 * Know you not where she is? Did you forget
 * Ceres' behest, and thus forsake her child?

INO.
 * Chide not, unkind Eunoe, I but went
 * Down that dark glade, where underneath the shade
 * Of those high trees the sweetest violets grow,–
 * I went at her command. Alas! Alas!
 * My heart sinks down; I dread she may be lost;–
 * Eunoe, climb the hill, search that ravine,
 * Whose close, dark sides may hide her from our view:–
 * Oh, dearest, haste! Is that her snow-white robe?

EUNOE.
 * No;–'tis a fawn beside its sleeping Mother,
 * Browsing the grass;–what will thy Mother say,
 * Dear Proserpine, what will bright Ceres feel,
 * If her return be welcomed not by thee?

INO.
 * These are wild thoughts,–& we are wrong to fear
 * That any ill can touch the child of heaven;
 * She is not lost,–trust me, she has but strayed
 * Up some steep mountain path, or in yon dell,
 * Or to the rock where yellow wall-flowers grow,
 * Scaling with venturous step the narrow path
 * Which the goats fear to tread;–she will return
 * And mock our fears.

EUNOE.
 * The sun now dips his beams
 * In the bright sea; Ceres descends at eve
 * From Jove's high conclave; if her much-loved child
 * Should meet her not in yonder golden field,
 * Where to the evening wind the ripe grain waves
 * Its yellow head, how will her heart misgive.
 * Let us adjure the Naiad of yon brook,
 * She may perchance have seen our Proserpine,
 * And tell us to what distant field she's strayed:–
 * Wait thou, dear Ino, here, while I repair
 * To the tree-shaded source of her swift stream.

[Exit EUNOE.]

INO.
 * Why does my heart misgive? & scalding tears,
 * That should but mourn, now prophecy her loss?
 * Oh, Proserpine! Where'er your luckless fate
 * Has hurried you,–to wastes of desart sand,
 * Or black Cymmerian cave, or dread Hell,
 * Yet Ino still will follow! Look where Eunoe
 * Comes, with down cast eyes and faltering steps,
 * I fear the worst;–

[Re-enter EUNOE.]


 * Has she not then been seen?

EUNOE.
 * Alas, all hope is vanished! Hymera says
 * She slept the livelong day while the hot beams
 * Of Phoebus drank her waves;–nor did she wake
 * Until her reed-crowned head was wet with dew;–
 * If she had passed her grot she slept the while.

INO.
 * Alas! Alas! I see the golden car,
 * And hear the flapping of the dragons wings,
 * Ceres descends to Earth. I dare not stay,
 * I dare not meet the sorrow of her look,
 * The angry glance of her severest eyes.

EUNOE.
 * Quick up the mountain! I will search the dell,
 * She must return, or I will never more.

[Exit.]

INO.
 * And yet I will not fly, though I fear much
 * Her angry frown and just reproach, yet shame
 * Shall quell this childish fear, all hope of safety
 * For her lost child rests but in her high power,
 * And yet I tremble as I see her come.

[Enter CERES.]

CERES.
 * Where is my daughter? have I aught to dread?
 * Where does she stray? Ino, you answer not;–
 * She was aye wont to meet me in yon field,–
 * Your looks bode ill;–I fear my child is lost.

INO.
 * Eunoe now seeks her track among the woods;
 * Fear not, great Ceres, she has only strayed.

CERES.
 * Alas! My boding heart,–I dread the worst.
 * Oh, careless nymphs! oh, heedless Proserpine!
 * And did you leave her wandering by herself?
 * She is immortal,–yet unusual fear
 * Runs through my veins. Let all the woods be sought,
 * Let every dryad, every gamesome faun
 * Tell where they last beheld her snowy feet
 * Tread the soft, mossy paths of the wild wood.
 * But that I see the base of Etna firm
 * I well might fear that she had fallen a prey
 * To Earth-born Typheus, who might have arisen
 * And seized her as the fairest child of heaven,
 * That in his dreary caverns she lies bound;
 * It is not so: all is as safe and calm
 * As when I left my child. Oh, fatal day!
 * Eunoe does not return: in vain she seeks
 * Through the black woods and down the darksome glades,
 * And night is hiding all things from our view.
 * I will away, and on the highest top
 * Of snowy Etna, kindle two clear flames.
 * Night shall not hide her from my anxious search,
 * No moment will I rest, or sleep, or pause
 * Till she returns, until I clasp again
 * My only loved one, my lost Proserpine.

END OF ACT FIRST.

Act II.
Scene; -the Plain of Enna as before.]

[Enter Ino & Eunoe.]

EUNOE.
 * How weary am I! and the hot sun flushes
 * My cheeks that else were white with fear and grief.
 * E'er since that fatal day, dear sister nymph,
 * On which we lost our lovely Proserpine,
 * I have but wept and watched the livelong night
 * And all the day have wandered through the woods.

INO.
 * How all is changed since that unhappy eve!
 * Ceres forever weeps, seeking her child,
 * And in her rage has struck the land with blight;
 * Trinacria mourns with her;–its fertile fields
 * Are dry and barren, and all little brooks
 * Struggling scarce creep within their altered banks;
 * The flowers that erst were wont with bended heads,
 * To gaze within the clear and glassy wave,
 * Have died, unwatered by the failing stream.–
 * And yet their hue but mocks the deeper grief
 * Which is the fountain of these bitter tears.
 * But who is this, that with such eager looks
 * Hastens this way?–

EUNOE.
 * 'Tis fairest Arethuse,
 * A stranger naiad, yet you know her well.

INO.
 * My eyes were blind with tears.

[Enter ARETHUSA.]


 * Dear Arethuse,
 * Methinks I read glad tidings in your eyes,
 * Your smiles are the swift messengers that bear
 * A tale of coming joy, which we, alas!
 * Can answer but with tears, unless you bring
 * To our grief solace, Hope to our Despair.
 * Have you found Proserpine? or know you where
 * The loved nymph wanders, hidden from our search?

ARETHUSA.
 * Where is corn-crowned Ceres? I have hastened
 * To ease her anxious heart.

EUNOE.
 * Oh! dearest Naiad,
 * Herald of joy! Now will great Ceres bless
 * Thy welcome coming & more welcome tale.

INO.
 * Since that unhappy day when Ceres lost
 * Her much-loved child, she wanders through the isle;
 * Dark blight is showered from her looks of sorrow;–
 * And where tall corn and all seed-bearing grass
 * Rose from beneath her step, they wither now
 * Fading under the frown of her bent brows:
 * The springs decrease;–the fields whose delicate green
 * Was late her chief delight, now please alone,
 * Because they, withered, seem to share her grief.

ARETHUSA.
 * Unhappy Goddess! how I pity thee!

INO.
 * At night upon high Etna's topmost peak
 * She lights two flames, that shining through the isle
 * Leave dark no wood, or cave, or mountain path,
 * Their sunlike splendour makes the moon-beams dim,
 * And the bright stars are lost within their day.
 * She's in yon field,–she comes towards this plain,
 * Her loosened hair has fallen on her neck,
 * Uncircled by the coronal of grain:–
 * Her cheeks are wan,–her step is faint & slow.

[Enter CERES.]

CERES.
 * I faint with weariness: a dreadful thirst
 * Possesses me! Must I give up the search?
 * Oh! never, dearest Proserpine, until
 * I once more clasp thee in my vacant arms!
 * Help me, dear Arethuse! fill some deep shell
 * With the clear waters of thine ice-cold spring,
 * And bring it me;–I faint with heat and thirst.

ARETHUSA.
 * My words are better than my freshest waves:
 * I saw your Proserpine–

CERES.
 * Arethusa, where?
 * Tell me! my heart beats quick, & hope and fear
 * Cause my weak limbs to fail me.–

ARETHUSA.
 * Sit, Goddess,
 * Upon this mossy bank, beneath the shade
 * Of this tall rock, and I will tell my tale.
 * The day you lost your child, I left my source.
 * With my Alpheus I had wandered down
 * The sloping shore into the sunbright sea;
 * And at the coast we paused, watching the waves
 * Of our mixed waters dance into the main:–
 * When suddenly I heard the thundering tread
 * Of iron hoofed steeds trampling the ground,
 * And a faint shriek that made my blood run cold.
 * I saw the King of Hell in his black car,
 * And in his arms he bore your fairest child,
 * Fair as the moon encircled by the night,–
 * But that she strove, and cast her arms aloft,
 * And cried, "My Mother!"–When she saw me near
 * She would have sprung from his detested arms,
 * And with a tone of deepest grief, she cried,
 * "Oh, Arethuse!" I hastened at her call–
 * But Pluto when he saw that aid was nigh,
 * Struck furiously the green earth with his spear,
 * Which yawned,–and down the deep Tartarian gulph
 * His black car rolled–the green earth closed above.

CERES. [Starting up]
 * Is this thy doom, great Jove? & shall Hell's king
 * Quitting dark Tartarus, spread grief and tears
 * Among the dwellers of your bright abodes?
 * Then let him seize the earth itself, the stars,–
 * And all your wide dominion be his prey!–
 * Your sister calls upon your love, great King!
 * As you are God I do demand your help!–
 * Restore my child, or let all heaven sink,
 * And the fair world be chaos once again!

INO.
 * Look! in the East that loveliest bow is formed;
 * Heaven's single-arched bridge, it touches now
 * The Earth, and 'mid the pathless wastes of heaven
 * It paves a way for Jove's fair Messenger;–
 * Iris descends, and towards this field she comes.

ARETHUSA.
 * Sovereign of Harvests, 'tis the Messenger
 * That will bring joy to thee. Thine eyes light up
 * With sparkling hope, thy cheeks are pale with dread.

[Enter Iris.]

CERES.
 * Speak, heavenly Iris! let thy words be poured
 * Into my drooping soul, like dews of eve
 * On a too long parched field.–Where is my Proserpine?

IRIS.
 * Sister of Heaven, as by Joves throne I stood
 * The voice of thy deep prayer arose,–it filled
 * The heavenly courts with sorrow and dismay:
 * The Thunderer frowned, & heaven shook with dread
 * I bear his will to thee, 'tis fixed by fate,
 * Nor prayer nor murmur e'er can alter it.
 * If Proserpine while she has lived in hell
 * Has not polluted by Tartarian food
 * Her heavenly essence, then she may return,
 * And wander without fear on Enna's plain,
 * Or take her seat among the Gods above.
 * If she has touched the fruits of Erebus,
 * She never may return to upper air,
 * But doomed to dwell amidst the shades of death,
 * The wife of Pluto and the Queen of Hell.

CERES.
 * Joy treads upon the sluggish heels of care!
 * The child of heaven disdains Tartarian food.
 * Pluto, give up thy prey! restore my child!

IRIS.
 * Soon she will see again the sun of Heaven,
 * By gloomy shapes, inhabitants of Hell,
 * Attended, and again behold the field
 * Of Enna, the fair flowers & the streams,
 * Her late delight,–& more than all, her Mother.

INO.
 * Our much-loved, long-lost Mistress, do you come?
 * And shall once more your nymphs attend your steps?
 * Will you again irradiate this isle–
 * That drooped when you were lost?
 * & once again
 * Trinacria smile beneath your Mother's eye?

[CERES and her companions are ranged on one side in eager
 * expectation; from, the cave on the other, enter PROSERPINE,
 * attended by various dark & gloomy shapes bearing
 * torches; among which ASCALAPHUS. CERES & PROSERPINE
 * embrace;–her nymphs surround her.]

CERES.
 * Welcome, dear Proserpine! Welcome to light,
 * To this green earth and to your Mother's arms.
 * You are too beautiful for Pluto's Queen;
 * In the dark Stygian air your blooming cheeks
 * Have lost their roseate tint, and your bright form
 * Has faded in that night unfit for thee.

PROSERPINE.
 * Then I again behold thee, Mother dear:–
 * Again I tread the flowery plain of Enna,
 * And clasp thee, Arethuse, & you, my nymphs;
 * I have escaped from hateful Tartarus,
 * The abode of furies and all loathed shapes
 * That thronged around me, making hell more black.
 * Oh! I could worship thee, light giving Sun,
 * Who spreadest warmth and radiance o'er the world.
 * Look at the branches of those chesnut trees,
 * That wave to the soft breezes, while their stems
 * Are tinged with red by the sun's slanting rays.
 * And the soft clouds that float 'twixt earth and sky.
 * How sweet are all these sights! There all is night!
 * No God like that [pointing to the sun]
 * smiles on the Elysian plains,
 * The air is windless, and all shapes are still.

IRIS.
 * And must I interpose in this deep joy,
 * And sternly cloud your hopes? Oh! answer me,
 * Art thou still, Proserpine, a child of light?
 * Or hast thou dimmed thy attributes of Heaven
 * By such Tartarian food as must for ever
 * Condemn thee to be Queen of Hell & Night?

PROSERPINE.
 * No, Iris, no,–I still am pure as thee:
 * Offspring of light and air, I have no stain
 * Of Hell. I am for ever thine, oh, Mother!

CERES. [to the shades from Hell]
 * Begone, foul visitants to upper air!
 * Back to your dens! nor stain the sunny earth
 * By shadows thrown from forms so foul–Crouch in!
 * Proserpine, child of light, is not your Queen!

[to the nymphs]


 * Quick bring my car,–we will ascend to heaven,
 * Deserting Earth, till by decree of Jove,
 * Eternal laws shall bind the King of Hell
 * To leave in peace the offspring of the sky.

ASCALAPHUS.
 * Stay, Ceres! By the dread decree of Jove
 * Your child is doomed to be eternal Queen
 * Of Tartarus,–nor may she dare ascend
 * The sunbright regions of Olympian Jove,
 * Or tread the green Earth 'mid attendant nymphs.
 * Proserpine, call to mind your walk last eve,
 * When as you wandered in Elysian groves,
 * Through bowers for ever green, and mossy walks,
 * Where flowers never die, nor wind disturbs
 * The sacred calm, whose silence soothes the dead,
 * Nor interposing clouds, with dun wings, dim
 * Its mild and silver light, you plucked its fruit,
 * You ate of a pomegranate's seeds–

CERES.
 * Be silent,
 * Prophet of evil, hateful to the Gods!
 * Sweet Proserpine, my child, look upon me.
 * You shrink; your trembling form & pallid cheeks
 * Would make his words seem true which are most false.
 * Thou didst not taste the food of Erebus;–
 * Offspring of Gods art thou,–nor Hell, nor Jove
 * Shall tear thee from thy Mother's clasping arms.

PROSERPINE.
 * If fate decrees, can we resist? farewel!
 * Oh! Mother, dearer to your child than light,
 * Than all the forms of this sweet earth & sky,
 * Though dear are these, and dear are my poor nymphs,
 * Whom I must leave;–oh! can immortals weep?
 * And can a Goddess die as mortals do,
 * Or live & reign where it is death to be?
 * Ino, dear Arethuse, again you lose
 * Your hapless Proserpine, lost to herself
 * When she quits you for gloomy Tartarus.

CERES.
 * Is there no help, great Jove? If she depart
 * I will descend with her–the Earth shall lose
 * Its proud fertility, and Erebus
 * Shall bear my gifts throughout th' unchanging year.
 * Valued till now by thee, tyrant of Gods!
 * My harvests ripening by Tartarian fires
 * Shall feed the dead with Heaven's ambrosial food.
 * Wilt thou not then repent, brother unkind,
 * Viewing the barren earth with vain regret,
 * Thou didst not shew more mercy to my child?

INO.
 * We will all leave the light and go with thee,
 * In Hell thou shalt be girt by Heaven-born nymphs,
 * Elysium shall be Enna,–thou'lt not mourn
 * Thy natal plain, which will have lost its worth
 * Having lost thee, its nursling and its Queen.

ARETHUSA.
 * I will sink down with thee;–my lily crown
 * Shall bloom in Erebus, portentous loss
 * To Earth, which by degrees will fade & fall
 * In envy of our happier lot in Hell;–
 * And the bright sun and the fresh winds of heaven
 * Shall light its depths and fan its stagnant air.

[They cling round Proserpine; the Shades of Hell seperate and stand between them.]

ASCALAPHUS.
 * Depart! She is our Queen! Ye may not come!
 * Hark to Jove's thunder! shrink away in fear
 * From unknown forms, whose tyranny ye'll feel
 * In groans and tears if ye insult their power.

IRIS.
 * Behold Jove's balance hung in upper sky;
 * There are ye weighed,–to that ye must submit.

CERES.
 * Oh! Jove, have mercy on a Mother's prayer!
 * Shall it be nought to be akin to thee?
 * And shall thy sister, Queen of fertile Earth,
 * Derided be by these foul shapes of Hell?
 * Look at the scales, they're poized with equal weights!
 * What can this mean? Leave me not, Proserpine
 * Cling to thy Mother's side! He shall not dare
 * Divide the sucker from the parent stem.

[embraces her]

ASCALAPHUS.
 * He is almighty! who shall set the bounds
 * To his high will? let him decide our plea!
 * Fate is with us, & Proserpine is ours!

[He endeavours to part Ceres & Proserpine, the nymphs prevent him.]

CERES.
 * Peace, ominous bird of Hell & Night! Depart!
 * Nor with thy skriech disturb a Mother's grief,
 * Avaunt! It is to Jove we pray, not thee.

IRIS.
 * Thy fate, sweet Proserpine, is sealed by Jove,
 * When Enna is starred by flowers, and the sun
 * Shoots his hot rays strait on the gladsome land,
 * When Summer reigns, then thou shalt live on Earth,
 * And tread these plains, or sporting with your nymphs,
 * Or at your Mother's side, in peaceful joy.
 * But when hard frost congeals the bare, black ground,
 * The trees have lost their leaves, & painted birds
 * Wailing for food sail through the piercing air;
 * Then you descend to deepest night and reign
 * Great Queen of Tartarus, 'mid shadows dire,
 * Offspring of Hell,–or in the silent groves
 * Of, fair Elysium through which Lethe runs,
 * The sleepy river; where the windless air
 * Is never struck by flight or song of bird,–
 * But all is calm and clear, bestowing rest,
 * After the toil of life, to wretched men,
 * Whom thus the Gods reward for sufferings
 * Gods cannot know; a throng of empty shades!
 * The endless circle of the year will bring
 * Joy in its turn, and seperation sad;
 * Six months to light and Earth,–six months to Hell.

PROSERPINE.
 * Dear Mother, let me kiss that tear which steals
 * Down your pale cheek altered by care and grief.
 * This is not misery; 'tis but a slight change
 * Prom our late happy lot. Six months with thee,
 * Each moment freighted with an age of love:
 * And the six short months in saddest Tartarus
 * Shall pass in dreams of swift returning joy.
 * Six months together we shall dwell on earth,
 * Six months in dreams we shall companions be,
 * Jove's doom is void; we are forever joined.

CERES
 * Oh, fairest child! sweet summer visitor!
 * Thy looks cheer me, so shall they cheer this land
 * Which I will fly, thou gone. Nor seed of grass,
 * Or corn shall grow, thou absent from the earth;
 * But all shall lie beneath in hateful night
 * Until at thy return, the fresh green springs,
 * The fields are covered o'er with summer plants.
 * And when thou goest the heavy grain will droop
 * And die under my frown, scattering the seeds,
 * That will not reappear till your return.
 * Farewel, sweet child, Queen of the nether world,
 * There shine as chaste Diana's silver car
 * Islanded in the deep circumfluous night.
 * Giver of fruits! for such thou shalt be styled,
 * Sweet Prophetess of Summer, coming forth
 * From the slant shadow of the wintry earth,
 * In thy car drawn by snowy-breasted swallows!
 * Another kiss, & then again farewel!
 * Winter in losing thee has lost its all,
 * And will be doubly bare, & hoar, & drear,
 * Its bleak winds whistling o'er the cold pinched ground
 * Which neither flower or grass will decorate.
 * And as my tears fall first, so shall the trees
 * Shed their changed leaves upon your six months tomb:
 * The clouded air will hide from Phoebus' eye
 * The dreadful change your absence operates.
 * Thus has black Pluto changed the reign of Jove,
 * He seizes half the Earth when he takes thee.

THE END