Desire of union with the thing beloved. Lov. I meant a definition. For I make But larger, if you 'll have it, by description: Is both the parent and the nurse of love. Unto the body; circular, eternal; 10 Not feign'd, or made, but born: and then, so precious, As nought can value it, but itself. So free, As nothing can command it but itself. And in itself so round and liberal, As, where it favours, it bestows itself. But we must take and understand this love Not pleasure. True love hath no unworthy thought, no light Beau. I relish not these philosophical feasts; Lov. They are the earthly, lower form of lovers, 20 30 40 Apparel, gesture, building, or what not? An eye, lip, nose, hand, foot, or other part, The body's love is frail, subject to change, One and the same, proceedeth first from weighing, Benevolence breeds friendship, friendship love: 11 21 A lost, oblique, deprav'd affection, Nor do they trespass within bounds of pardon, 30 That giving way and license to their love, Which are his modesty and shamefac'dness: And what's a more dishonour, than defacing Another's good with forfeiting mine own, 40 From note of which, though for a while we may Be both kept safe by caution, yet the conscience Cannot be cleans'd. For what was hitherto [These and the preceding extracts may serve to shew the poetical fancy and elegance of mind of the supposed rugged old Bard. A thousand beautiful passages might be adduced from those numerous court masques and entertainments which he was in the daily habit of furnishing, to prove the same thing. But they do not come within my plan. That which follows is a specimen of that talent for comic humour, and the assemblage of ludicrous images, on which his reputation chiefly rests. It may serve for a variety after so many serious extracts.] XL. THE SAD SHEPHERD: OR, A TALE OF BY THE SAME. ALKEN, an old Shepherd, instructs ROBIN HOOD'S Men how to find a Witch, and how she is to be hunted. ROBIN HOOD. TUCK. LITTLE JOHN. SCARLET. Tuck. Hear you how Poor Tom, the cook, is taken! all his joints Cla. This is an argument Both of her malice, and her power, we see. 10 Alk. She must by some device restrained be, Or she'll go far in mischief. Rob. Advise how, Sage shepherd; we shall put it straight in practice. Alk. Send forth your woodmen then into the walks, Or let them prick her footing hence; a witch Is sure a creature of melancholy, And will be found, or sitting in her fourm, Or else at relief, like a hare. Cla. You speak, Alken, as if you knew the sport of witch-hunting, Or starting of a hag. Rob. Go, Sirs, about it, 10 Take George here with you, he can help to find her. John. Rare sport, I swear, this hunting of the witch Will make us. Scar. Let's advise upon 't, like huntsmen. Geo. An we can spy her once, she is our own. Scath. First think which way she fourmeth, on what wind: Or north, or south. Geo. For, as the shepherd said, A witch is a kind of hare. Scath. And marks the weather, As the hare does. John. Where shall we hope to find her? Scar. No more than I do know the walks of hell. Alk. Within a gloomy dimble she doth dwell, Down in a pit o'ergrown with brakes and briars, Close by the ruins of a shaken abbey, 30 Torn with an earthquake down unto the ground, She is about; with caterpillars' kells, The house-wife's tun not work, nor the milk churn! Writhe children's wrists, and suck their breath in sleep! Get vials of their blood! and where the sea Casts up his slimy ooze, search for a weed Geo. I thought, a witch's banks Had inclosed nothing but the merry pranks Scar. Yes, her malice more. 10 Scath. As it would quickly appear, had we the store Of his collects. Geo. Aye, this good learned man Can speak her right. Scar. He knows her shifts and haunts. Alk. And all her wiles and turns. The venom'd plants 19 Wherewith she kills! where the sad mandrake grows, Whose groans are deathful! the dead-numbing night-shade! The stupifying hemlock! adder's tongue, And martagan! the shrieks of luckless owls, We hear! and croaking night-crows in the air! 30 |