44
COMUS
Lean on it safely; not a period
Shall be unsaid for me: against the threats
Of malice or of sorcery, or that power
Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm:
Vertue may be assail’d, but never hurt,
Surpriz’d by unjust force, but not enthrall’d;
Yea, even that which mischief meant most harm,
Shall in the happy trial prove most glory.
But evil on it self shall back recoyl,
And mix no more with goodness, when, at last
Gather’d like scum, and setl’d to it self,
It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed and self-consum’d. If this fail,
The pillar’d firmament is rott’nness,
And earths base built on stubble. But com, let’s on
Against th’opposing will and arm of Heav’n
May never this just sword be lifted up;
But for that damn’d magician, let him be girt
With all the greisly legions that troop
Under the sooty flag of Acheron,
Harpyies and Hydra’s, or all the monstrous forms
’Twixt Africa and Inde, Ile find him out,
And force him to restore his purchase back,
Or drag him by the curls, to a foul death,
Curs’d as his life.
Shall be unsaid for me: against the threats
Of malice or of sorcery, or that power
Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm:
Vertue may be assail’d, but never hurt,
Surpriz’d by unjust force, but not enthrall’d;
Yea, even that which mischief meant most harm,
Shall in the happy trial prove most glory.
But evil on it self shall back recoyl,
And mix no more with goodness, when, at last
Gather’d like scum, and setl’d to it self,
It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed and self-consum’d. If this fail,
The pillar’d firmament is rott’nness,
And earths base built on stubble. But com, let’s on
Against th’opposing will and arm of Heav’n
May never this just sword be lifted up;
But for that damn’d magician, let him be girt
With all the greisly legions that troop
Under the sooty flag of Acheron,
Harpyies and Hydra’s, or all the monstrous forms
’Twixt Africa and Inde, Ile find him out,
And force him to restore his purchase back,
Or drag him by the curls, to a foul death,
Curs’d as his life.
