Nakar. Hark, my Damilcar, we are call'd below!
Damilcar. Let us go, let us go!
Go to relieve the care
Of longing lovers in despair!
Nakar. Merry, merry, merry, we sail from the east, Half tippled at a rainbow feast.
Dam. In the bright moonshine while winds whistle loud, Tivy, tivy, tivy, we mount and we fly,
All racking along in a downy white cloud:
And lest our leap from the sky should prove too far,
We slide on the back of a new-falling star.
Dam. But now the sun's down, and the element's red, The spirits of fire against us make head!
Nakar. They muster, they muster, like gnats in the air: Alas! I must leave thee, my fair;
And to my light horsemen repair.
Dam. O stay, for you need not to fear them to-night; The wind is for us, and blows full in their sight:
And o'er the wide ocean we fight!
Like leaves in the autumn our foes will fall down,
And hiss in the water
Both. And hiss in the water, and drown.
Nakar. But their men lie securely intrench'd in a cloud: And a trumpeter hornet to battle sounds loud.
Dam. Now mortals that spy
How we tilt in the sky,
With wonder will gaze,
And fear such events as will ne'er come to pass!
Nakar. Stay you to perform what the men will have done.
Dam. Then call me again when the battle is won.
Both. So ready and quick is a spirit of air
To pity the lover, and succour the fair,
That, silent and swift, the little soft god
Is here with a wish, and is gone with a nod.
Amariel. From the bright empire of eternal day, Where waiting minds for Heav'n's commission stay, Amariel flies: a darted mandate came
From that great Will which moves this mighty frame,
Bid me to thee, my royal charge, repair,
To guard thee from the demons of the air;
My flaming sword above 'em to display,
(All keen and ground upon the edge of day;)
The flat to sweep the visions from thy mind,
The edge to cut them through that stay behind.
Vain spirits, you that shunning heav'n's high noon,
Swarm here beneath the concave of the moon,
What folly, or what rage your duty blinds,
To violate the sleep of holy minds?
Hence, to the task assign'd you here below:
Upon the ocean make loud tempests blow:
Into the wombs of hollow clouds repair,
And crush out thunder from the bladder'd air.
From pointed sunbeams take the mists they drew,
And scatter them again in pearly dew:
And of the bigger drops they drain below,
Some mould in hail, and others stamp in snow.
Dam. Mercy, bright spirit; I already feel
The piercing edge of thy immortal steel:
Thou, prince of day, from elements art free:
And I all body when compar'd to thee.
Thou tread'st th' abyss of light!
And where it streams, with open eyes canst go:
We wander in the fields of air below:
Changelings and fools of heav'n; and thence shut out,
Wildly we roam in discontent about:
Gross-heavy-fed, next man in ignorance and sin,
And spotted all without, and dusky all within.
Without thy sword I perish by thy sight,
I reel, and stagger, and am drunk with light.
Amar. If e'er again thou on this place art found,
Full fifty years I'll chain thee under ground;
The damps of earth shall be thy daily food:
All swoln and bloated like a dungeon toad:
And when thou shalt be freed, yet thou shalt lie
Gasping upon the ground, too faint to fly;
And lag below thy fellows in the sky.
Plac. How doubtfully these spectres fate foretel! In double sense, and twilight truth they dwell: Like fawning courtiers for success they wait, And then come smiling, and declare for fate.
St. Cath. Your mind should first the remedy begin; You seek, without, the cure that is within. The vain experiments you make each day, To find content, still finding it decay, Without attempting more, should let you see That you have sought it where it ne'er could be. But when you place your joys on things above, You fix the wand'ring planet of your love:
Thence you may see
Poor human kind all daz'd in open day,
Err after bliss, and blindly miss their way:
Ber. As some faint pilgrim, standing on the shore,
First views the torrent he would venture o'er;
And then his inn upon the farther ground,
Loth to wade through, and lother to go
Then, dipping in his staff, does trial make,
How deep it is; and, sighing, pulls it back:
Sometimes resolv'd to fetch his leap: and then
Runs to the bank, but there stops short again;
So I at once
Both heav'nly faith, and human fear obey;
And feel before me in an unknown way.
For this blest voyage I with joy prepare;
Yet am asham'd to be a stranger there.
Felicia. My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall;
[Kneeling.
Hear, oh yet hear, your wretched mother's call.
Think, at your birth, ah think what pains I bore,
And can your eyes behold me suffer more?
You were the child which from your infancy
I still lov'd best, and then you best lov'd me.
About my neck your little arms you spread,
Nor could you sleep without me in the bed;
But sought my bosom when you went to rest,
And all night long would lie across my breast.
Nor without cause did you that fondness show:
You may remember when our Nile did flow,
While on the bank you innocently stood,
And with a wand made circles in the flood,
That rose, and just was hurrying you to death,
When I, from far, all pale and out of breath
Ran and rush'd in
And from the waves my floating pledge did bear,
So much
my love was stronger than my fear.
Valerius. Betwixt her guards she seem'd by bridemen led,
Her cheeks with cheerful blushes were o'erspread,
When, smiling, to the axe she bow'd her head.
Just at the stroke-
Etherial music did her death prepare,
Like joyful sounds of spousals in the air.
A radiant light did her crown'd temples gild,
And all the place with fragrant scents was fill'd.
The balmy mist came thick'ning to the ground,
And sacred silence cover'd all around.
But when (its work perform'd) the cloud withdrew,
And day restor❜d us to each other's view,
I sought her head to bring it on my spear;
In vain I sought it, for it was not there.
No part remain'd; but from afar our sight
Discover'd in the air long tracks of light;
Of charming notes we heard the last rebounds,
And music dying in remoter sounds.
THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA. 1669 or 1670.
Boabdelin. Thus, in the triumphs of soft peace, I reign; And, from my walls, defy the pow'rs of Spain;
With pomp and sports my love I celebrate,
While they keep distance, and attend my state.
Parent to her whose eyes my soul enthral; [To ABENAMAR.
Whom I, in hope, already father call:
Abenamar, thy youth these sports has known,
Of which thy age is now spectator grown:
Judge-like thou sit'st, to praise or to arraign
The flying skirmish of the darted cane:
But, when fierce bulls run loose upon
the place,
And our bold Moors their loves with danger grace,
Then heat new-bends thy slacken'd nerves again,
And a short youth runs warm through ev'ry vein.
Abdelmelech. Castile could never boast, in all its pride,
A pomp so splendid; when the lists set wide,
Gave room to the fierce bulls, which wildly ran
In Sierra Ronda, ere the war began;
Who, with high nostrils, snuffing up the wind,
Now stood the champions of the savage kind.
Just opposite, within the circled place,
Ten of our bold Abencerrages' race
(Each brandishing his bull-spear in his hand),
Did their proud jennets gracefully command.
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