Midnight shout and revelry, Tipsy dance and jollity. Braid your locks with rosy twine,1 Dropping odors, dropping wine. And Advice with scrupulous head, With their grave saws,2 in slumber lie. IIO We, that are of purer fire, Imitate the starry quire,3 Who, in their nightly watchful spheres, The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves. Night hath better sweets to prove; 'Tis only daylight that makes sin, Which these dun shades will ne'er report. — Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport, 1 Roses twined together. 120 2 Wise sayings; sober rules. 3 Choir. Used here, perhaps, with its original signification, a band of choral dancers. The poet has also in mind the ancient notion of the music of the spheres. 4 The morris, or Moorish dance, was introduced into England in the reign of Edward III. It was a prominent feature of the May Day and other outdoor festivities. 5 Nocturnal amusements. Originally a "wake" was the watch or sitting up till late before one of the church holidays. 6 Goddess of love and beauty. 2 Dark-veiled Cotytto,1 to whom the secret flame Wherein thou ridest with Hecat', and befriend Of all thy dues be done, and none left out; Ere the blabbing eastern scout, The nice Morn on the Indian steep, From her cabined loophole peep,5 And to the telltale Sun descry Our concealed solemnity. Come, knit hands, and beat the ground In a light fantastic round. 130 140 [The Measure. Break off, break off! I feel the different pace Of some chaste footing near about this ground. Run to your shrouds 8 within these brakes and trees; Benighted in these woods! Now to my charms, And to my wily trains:9 I shall ere long 150 1 A Thracian goddess whose licentious festivals were celebrated at night. 'Stygian darkness,” i.e., the darkness of the infernal regions. See note on L'Allegro, line 3. 3 Spits; ejects. 4 Hecate, the goddess of sorcery, supposed to preside over all nocturnal horrors. 5" Nice Morn," etc., i.e., the fastidious dawn peeps from among the clouds on the eastern (Indian) horizon. 6 Dance; measure. 8 Hiding places. 7" Break off," i.e., cease dancing. 10 Absorbent. Of power to cheat the eye with blear1 illusion, I, under fair pretense of friendly ends, Wind me into the easy-hearted man, And hug him into snares. When once her eye I shall appear some harmless villager, Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear.4- And hearken, if I may, her business here. 160 The LADY enters. Lady. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, 170 Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe 6 3 Peculiar power. 180 With this long way, resolving here to lodge They left me then when the gray-hooded Even, Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain.2 To the misled and lonely traveler? This is the place, as well as I may guess, Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, 5 190 200 210 1 "Votarist in palmer's weed," i.e., a pilgrim clad in the garb of one returning from the Holy Sepulcher. 2" Phoebus' wain," i.e., the sun car. See note on line 66. 3" 'Engaged,” etc., i.e., had undertaken to go too far. O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, I see ye visibly, and now believe That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill Would send a glistering guardian, if need were, Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud I did not err: there does a sable cloud Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest 220 SONG. Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen 230 By slow Meander's3 margent green, And in the violet-embroidered vale Where the lovelorn nightingale Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well: Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair 1 Encouraged. That likest thy Narcissus are? O, if thou have Hid them in some flowery cave, Tell me but where, 240 2 The nymph Echo loved Narcissus; as her love was not returned, she pined away until nothing remained but her beautiful voice. 3 A winding river in Asia Minor. |