From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Ægle break his faith,
With Ariadne, and Antiopa?80
Tita. These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And never, since the middle summer's spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,84
Or in the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,88
As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
Contagious fogs; which, falling in the land,
Hath every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents:92
The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard:
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,96
And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable:100
The human mortals want their winter here:
No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,104
That rheumatic diseases do abound:
78 Perigenia; cf. n.
79, 80 Ægle . . . Antiopa; cf. n.
81 forgeries: idle inventions
82 spring: beginning
84 paved fountain: spring with pebble-covered bottom
85 margent: margin
86 ringlets: circular dances
90 Contagious: noxious
91 pelting: petty
92 continents: boundaries
97 murrion: diseased
98 nine men's morris; cf. n.
99 wanton: luxuriant
101-103 Cf. n.
105 rheumatic diseases: colds, etc.
