As I hope

For quiet days, fair issue, and long life,

With such love as 'tis now; the murkiest den,

The most opportune place, the strong'st suggestion 3 Our worser Genius can, shall never melt

Mine honour into lust; to take away

The edge of that day's celebration,

When I shall think, or Phœbus' steeds are founder'd, Or night kept chain'd below.

Pro.

Fairly spoke; Sit then, and talk with her, she is thine own.— What, Ariel; my industrious servant Ariel!

Enter ARIEL.

Ari. What would my potent master? here I am. Pro. Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service Did worthily perform; and I must use you In such another trick: go, bring the rabble, O'er whom I give thee power, here, to this place: Incite them to quick motion; for I must Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple Some vanity of mine art; it is my promise, And they expect it from me.

Ari.

Pro. Ay, with a twink.

'Presently?

Ari. Before you can say, Come, and go,

And breathe twice; and cry, so, so;

Each one, tripping on his toe,

Will be here with mop and mowe:

Do

you love me, master? no.

3 Suggestion here means temptation or wicked prompting. "Some vanity of mine art" is some illusion. Thus in a passage, quoted by Warton, in his Dissertation on the Gesta Romanorum, from EMARE, a Metrical Romance:

"The Emperor said on high
Sertes thys is a fayry

Or ellys a vanite."

Pro. Dearly, my delicate Ariel: Do not approach, Till thou dost hear me call.

Ari.

Well I conceive. [Exit. Pro. Look, thou be true; do not give dalliance Too much the rein; the strongest oaths are straw To the fire i' the blood: be more abstemious,

Or else, good night, your vow!

Fer.

I warrant you,

The white-cold virgin snow upon my heart
Abates the ardour of my liver.

Pro.

Well.

Now come, my Ariel; bring a corollary 5,
Rather than want a spirit; appear, and pertly.-
No tongue; all eyes; be silent.

A Masque. Enter IRIS.

sir;

[Soft musick.

Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and peas; Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep; Thy banks with peonied and lilied brims7, Which spungy April at thy hest betrims,

5 That is, bring more than are sufficient. "Corollary the addition or vantage above measure, an overplus, or surplusage.”

Blount.

6 Stover is fodder for cattle, as hay, straw, and the like: estovers is the old law term, it is from estouvier, old French.

7 The old editions read PIONED and TWILLED brims. In Ovid's Banquet of Sense, by Geo. Chapman, 1595, we meet with Cuplike twill-pants strew'd in Bacchus bowers," if twill be the name of any flower, the old reading may stand. Mr. Henley strongly contends for the old reading, and explains pioned to mean faced up with mire in the manner that ditchers trim the banks of ditches: twilled he derives from the French verb touiller, which Cotgrave interprets filthily to mix, to mingle, confound, or shuffle together." He objects to peonied and lillied because these flowers never blow in April. But Mr. Boaden has pointed out a passage in Lord Bacon's Essay on Gardens which supports the reading in the text. "In April follow the double

To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom

groves,

Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,
Being lass-lorn 8; thy pole-clipt vineyard;
And thy sea-marge, steril, and rocky-hard,
Where thou thyself dost air: The queen o' the sky,
Whose watery arch, and messenger, am I,
Bids thee leave these; and with her sovereign grace,
Here on this grass-plot, in this very place,
To come and sport: her peacocks fly amain;
Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain.

Enter CEREs.

Cer. Hail, many-colour'd messenger, that ne'er Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter;

Who, with thy saffron wings, upon my flowers
Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing showers 9:
And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown
My bosky 10 acres, and my unshrubb'd down.

white violet, the wall-flower, the stock-gilly-flower, the cowslip,
flower-de-luces, and lillies of all natures; rose-mary flowers, the
tulippe, the double piony, &c." Lyte, in his Herbal, says one
kind of peonie is called by some, maiden or virgin peonie. And
Pliny mentions the water-lilly as a preserver of chastity, B. xxvi.
C. 10. Edward Fenton, in his "Secret Wonders of Nature,"
1569, 4to. B. vi. asserts that "the water-lilly mortifieth altoge-
ther the appetite of sensuality and defends from unchaste thoughts
and dreams of venery." The passage certainly gains by the read-
ing of Mr. Steevens, which I have, for these reasons, retained.
8 That is, forsaken by his lass.

9 Mr. Douce remarks that this is an elegant expansion of the following lines in Phaer's Virgil Æneid, Lib. iv.

"Dame rainbow down therefore with safron wings of dropping showres,

Whose face a thousand sundry hues against the sun devoures, From heaven descending came."

10 Bosky acres are woody acres, fields intersected by luxuriant hedge-rows and copses.

Rich scarf to my proud earth: Why hath thy queen
Summon'd me hither, to this short-grass'd green?
Iris. A contract of true love to celebrate;
And some donation freely to estate

On the bless'd lovers.

Cer.

Tell me, heavenly bow,

If Venus, or her son, as thou dost know,
Do now attend the queen? since they did plot
The means, that dusky Dis my daughter got,
Her and her blind boy's scandal'd company
I have forsworn.

Be not afraid: I met her deity

Cutting the clouds towards Paphos; and her son
Dove-drawn with her: here thought they to have done
Some wanton charm upon this man and maid,
Whose vows are, that no bed-rite shall be paid
Till Hymen's torch be lighted: but in vain;
Mars's hot minion is return'd again;

Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows,
Swears he will shoot no more, but play with

And be a boy right out.

Cer.

sparrows,

Highest queen of state, Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait.

Enter JUNO.

Juno. How does my bounteous sister? Go with me, To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be, And honour'd in their issue.

SONG.

Juno. Honour, riches, marriage-blessing,
Long continuance, and increasing,
Hourly joys be still upon you!
Juno sings her blessings on you.

Cer. Earth's increase, and foison11 plenty ;
Barns and garners never empty;

Vines, with clust'ring bunches growing;
Plants, with goodly burden bowing;
Spring come to you, at the farthest,
In the very end of harvest!

Scarcity and want shall shun you ;
Ceres' blessing so is on you.

Fer. This is a most majestic vision, and Harmonious charmingly 12: May I be bold To think these spirits?

Pro.

I have from their confines call'd to enact

My present fancies.

Fer.

Spirits, which by mine art

Let me live here ever;

So rare a wonder'd 13 father, and a wife,

Make this place Paradise.

[JUNO and CERES whisper, and send IRIS on

Pro.

employment.

Sweet now, silence:

Juno and Ceres whisper seriously;

There's something else to do: hush, and be mute, Or else our spell is marr'd.

Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the wand'ring brooks,

With your sedg'd crowns, and ever harmless looks,
Leave your crisp 14 channels, and on this green land
Answer your summons; Juno does command:
Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate
A contract of true love; be not too late.

11 Foison is abundance, particularly of harvest corn.
12 For charmingly harmonious.

13 So rare a wonder'd father," is a father able to produce such wonders.

14 Crisp channels; i. e. curled, from the curl raised by a breeze on the surface of the water. So in 1 K. Hen. IV. Act i. Sc. 3. - Hid his crisp head in the hollow bank."