The Whole Works of William Browne of Tavistock ... Now first collected and edited, with a memoir of the poet, and notes, by W. Carew Hazlitt, of the Inner Temple |
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 | The Whole Works of William Browne |  |
The sable mantle of the silent night
Shut from the world the euer-ioysome light;
Care fled away, and softest slumbers please
To leaue the Court for lowly Cottages;
Wilde beasts forsooke their dens on wooddy hils,
And sleightfull Otters left the purling Rils;
Rookes to their Nests in high woods now were flung
And with their spread wings shield their naked yong.
When theeues from thickets to the crosse-wayes stir,
And terror frights the loanely passenger.
When nought was heard but now & then the howle
Of some vilde Curre, or whooping of the Owle.
Pan, that the day before was farre away
At shepherds sports, return'd; and as he lay
Within the bowre wherein he most delighted,
Was by a gastly vision thus affrighted:
Heart-thrilling grones first heard he round his bowre,
And then the Schrich-owle with her vtmost powre
Labour'd her loathed note, the forrests bending
With winds, as Hecate had beene ascending.
Hereat his curled hayres on end doe rise,
And chilly drops trill o're his staring eyes.
Faine would he call, but knew not who, nor why,
Yet getting heart at last would vp and try
If any diuellish Hag were come abroad
With some kinde Mothers late deliuer'd load,
A ruthlesse bloudy sacrifice to make
To those infernall Powres that by the Lake
Of mighty Styx and blacke Cocytus dwell,
Aiding each Witches Charme and misticke Spell.
But as he rais'd himselfe within his bed,
A sudden light about his lodging spread,
And therewithall his Loue, all ashie pale
As euening mist from vp a watry Vale,
Appear'd; and weakly neere his bed she prest,
A rauell'd wound distain'd her purer brest
(Brests softer farre then tufts of vnwrought silke):
Whence had she liu'd to giue an infant milke,
The vertue of that liquor (without ods)
Had made her babe immortall as the Gods.
Pan would haue spoke, but him she thus preuents:
Wonder not that the troubled Elements
Speake my approach; I draw no longer breath,
But am inforced to the shades of death.
My exequies are done, and yet before
I take my turne to be transported o're
The neather floods among the shades of Dis
To end my iourney in the fields of blisse:
I come to tell thee that no humane hand
Made me seeke waftage on the Stygian strand;
It was an hungry Wolfe that did imbrue
Himselfe in my last bloud. And now I sue
In hate to all that kinde, and shepherds good
To be reuenged on that cursed brood.
Pan vow'd, and would haue clipt her, but she fled,
And as she came, so quickly vanished.
Shut from the world the euer-ioysome light;
Care fled away, and softest slumbers please
To leaue the Court for lowly Cottages;
Wilde beasts forsooke their dens on wooddy hils,
And sleightfull Otters left the purling Rils;
Rookes to their Nests in high woods now were flung
And with their spread wings shield their naked yong.
When theeues from thickets to the crosse-wayes stir,
And terror frights the loanely passenger.
When nought was heard but now & then the howle
Of some vilde Curre, or whooping of the Owle.
Pan, that the day before was farre away
At shepherds sports, return'd; and as he lay
80
Was by a gastly vision thus affrighted:
Heart-thrilling grones first heard he round his bowre,
And then the Schrich-owle with her vtmost powre
Labour'd her loathed note, the forrests bending
With winds, as Hecate had beene ascending.
Hereat his curled hayres on end doe rise,
And chilly drops trill o're his staring eyes.
Faine would he call, but knew not who, nor why,
Yet getting heart at last would vp and try
If any diuellish Hag were come abroad
With some kinde Mothers late deliuer'd load,
A ruthlesse bloudy sacrifice to make
To those infernall Powres that by the Lake
Of mighty Styx and blacke Cocytus dwell,
Aiding each Witches Charme and misticke Spell.
But as he rais'd himselfe within his bed,
A sudden light about his lodging spread,
And therewithall his Loue, all ashie pale
As euening mist from vp a watry Vale,
Appear'd; and weakly neere his bed she prest,
A rauell'd wound distain'd her purer brest
(Brests softer farre then tufts of vnwrought silke):
Whence had she liu'd to giue an infant milke,
The vertue of that liquor (without ods)
Had made her babe immortall as the Gods.
Pan would haue spoke, but him she thus preuents:
Wonder not that the troubled Elements
Speake my approach; I draw no longer breath,
But am inforced to the shades of death.
My exequies are done, and yet before
I take my turne to be transported o're
The neather floods among the shades of Dis
To end my iourney in the fields of blisse:
I come to tell thee that no humane hand
Made me seeke waftage on the Stygian strand;
81
Himselfe in my last bloud. And now I sue
In hate to all that kinde, and shepherds good
To be reuenged on that cursed brood.
Pan vow'd, and would haue clipt her, but she fled,
And as she came, so quickly vanished.
| The Whole Works of William Browne | |