8
COMUS
Whom therfore she brought up and Comus nam’d;
Who ripe and frolick of his full grown age,
Roaving the Celtick and Iberian fields,
At last betakes him to this ominous Wood,
And in thick shelter of black shades imbowr’d,
Excells his Mother at her mighty Art,
Offring to every weary Travailer
His orient liquor in a Crystal Glasse,
To quench the drouth of Phœbus; which as they taste
(For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst),
Soon as the Potion works, their human count’nance,
Th’ express resemblance of the gods, is chang’d
Into som brutish form of Woolf, or Bear,
Or Ounce or Tiger, Hog, or bearded Goat,
All other parts remaining as they were;
And they, so perfect is their misery,
Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,
But boast themselves more comely then before;
And all their friends and native home forget,
To roule with pleasure in a sensual stie.
Therfore, when any favour’d of high Jove
Chances to pass through this adventrous glade,
Swift as the Sparkle of a glancing Star
I shoot from Heav’n, to give him safe convoy,
As now I do. But first I must put off
Who ripe and frolick of his full grown age,
Roaving the Celtick and Iberian fields,
At last betakes him to this ominous Wood,
And in thick shelter of black shades imbowr’d,
Excells his Mother at her mighty Art,
Offring to every weary Travailer
His orient liquor in a Crystal Glasse,
To quench the drouth of Phœbus; which as they taste
(For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst),
Soon as the Potion works, their human count’nance,
Th’ express resemblance of the gods, is chang’d
Into som brutish form of Woolf, or Bear,
Or Ounce or Tiger, Hog, or bearded Goat,
All other parts remaining as they were;
And they, so perfect is their misery,
Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,
But boast themselves more comely then before;
And all their friends and native home forget,
To roule with pleasure in a sensual stie.
Therfore, when any favour’d of high Jove
Chances to pass through this adventrous glade,
Swift as the Sparkle of a glancing Star
I shoot from Heav’n, to give him safe convoy,
As now I do. But first I must put off
