AMORET. No mercy do I crave;

Thou canst not give a worse blow than I have.
Tell him that gave me this,—who loved him, too;
He struck my soul, and not my body through, —
Tell him, when I am dead, my soul shall be

At peace, if he but think he injured me.

SULL. SHEP. In this fount be thy grave. Thou wert not

meant

Sure for a woman, thou art so innocent.

[Flings her into the well

She cannot 'scape, for, underneath the ground,
In a long hollow the clear spring is bound,
Till on yon side, where the morn's sun doth look,
The struggling water breaks out in a brook.

The GOD OF THE RIVER rises with AMORET in his arms.

[Exit.

GOD OF THE RIVER. What powerful charms my streams do

bring

Back again unto their spring,

With such force that I, their god,

Three times striking with my rod,
Could not keep them in their ranks ?
My fishes shoot into the banks;
There's not one that stays and feeds,
All have hid them in the weeds.
Here's a mortal almost dead,
Fall'n into my river-head,
Hallowed so with many a spell,
That till now none ever fell.
"T is a female young and clear,
Cast in by some ravisher:
See, upon her breast a wound,
On which there is no plaster bound.
Yet, she 's warm, her pulses beat,
"T is a sign of life and heat. --
If thou be'st a virgin pure,

I can give a present cure:

Take a drop into thy wound,

From my watery locks, more round
Than Orient pearl, and far more pure
Than unchaste flesh may endure. -
See, she pants, and from her flesh

The warm blood gusheth out afresh;
She is an unpolluted maid;

I must have this bleeding stayed.
From my banks I pluck this flower
With holy hand, whose virtuous power
Is at once to heal and draw.

The blood returns. I never saw
A fairer mortal. Now doth break

Her deadly slumber. - Virgin, speak.

AMORET. Who hath restored my sense, given me new breath, And brought me back out of the arms of death?

GOD OF THE RIVER. I have healed thy wounds.

AMORET. Aye, me!

GOD OF THE RIVER. Fear not him that succored thee.

I am this fountain's god: below,

My waters to a river grow,

And 'twixt two banks with osiers set,

That only prosper in the wet,

Through the meadows do they glide,

Wheeling still on every side,
Sometimes winding round about,
To find the evenest channel out.
And if thou wilt go with me,
Leaving mortal company,

In the cool streams shalt thou lie,
Free from harm as well as I:

I will give thee for thy food

No fish that useth in the mud;

But trout and pike, that love to swim

Where the gravel from the brim

Through the pure streams may be seen;

Orient pearl fit for a queen,

Will I give, thy love to win,
And a shell to keep them in;
Not a fish in all my brook
That shall disobey thy look,

But, when thou wilt, come sliding by,
And from thy white hand take a fly:
And, to make thee understand
How I can my waves command,
They shall bubble, whilst I sing,
Sweeter than the silver string,

Do not fear to put thy feet

Naked in the river sweet;

Think not leech, or newt, or toad,
Will bite thy foot when thou hast trod;
Nor let the water, rising high,

As thou wad'st in, make thee cry
And sob; but ever live with me,

And not a wave shall trouble thee.

AMORET. Immortal power, that rul'st this holy flood, I know myself unworthy to be wooed By thee, a god; for ere this, but for thee, I should have shown my weak mortality: Besides, by holy oath betwixt us twain, I am betrothed unto a shepherd-swain, Whose comely face, I know, the gods above May make me leave to see, but not to love.

GOD OF THE RIVER. May he prove to thee as true! Fairest virgin, now adieu:

I must make my waters fly,

Lest they leave their channels dry,

And beasts that come unto the spring
Miss their morning's watering;
Which I would not; for of late
All the neighbor-people sate
On my banks, and from the fold
Two white lambs of three weeks old
Offered to my deity;

For which this year they shall be free
From raging floods, that as they pass
Leave their gravel in the grass;
Nor shall their meads be overflown
When their grass is newly mown.

AMORET. For thy kindness to me shown,
Never from thy banks be blown
Any tree, with windy force,

Cross thy streams, to stop thy course;
May no beast that comes to drink,
With his horns cast down thy brink;

May none that for thy fish do look,
Cut thy banks to dam thy brook;
Barefoot may no neighbor wade
In thy cool streams, wife nor maid,

When the spawns on stones do lie,

To wash their hemp, and spoil the fry!

GOD OF THE RIVER. Thanks, virgin. I must down again.

Thy wound will put thee to no pain:

Wonder not so soon 't is gone;

A holy hand was laid upon.

AMORET. And I, unhappy born to be,

Must follow him that flies from me.

[Descends.

[Exit.

TO MY DEAR FRIEND, MASTER BENJAMIN JONSON, UPON 66 HIS "FOX."

IF it might stand with justice to allow
The swift conversion of all follies, now
Such is my mercy, that I could admit

All sorts should equally approve the wit

Of this thy even work, whose growing fame

Shall raise thee high, and thou it, with thy name;

And did not manners and my love command
Me to forbear to make those understand

VOL. II.-35

Whom thou, perhaps, hast in thy wiser doom
Long since firmly resolved, shall never come
To know more than they do, I would have shown
To all the world the art which thou alone

Hast taught our tongue, the rules of time, of place,
And other rites, delivered with the grace
Of comic style, which only is far more
Than any English stage hath known before.
But since our subtle gallants think it good
To like of naught that may be understood,
Lest they should be disproved, or have, at best,
Stomachs so raw, that nothing can digest
But what's obscene, or barks, let us desire
They may continue, simply to admire

Fine clothes and strange words, and may live, in age To see themselves ill brought upon the stage,

And like it; whilst thy bold and knowing Muse Contemns all praise, but such as thou wouldst choose.

LEANDRO'S SONG.

DEAREST, do not you delay me,

Since thou know'st I must be gone;

Wind and tide, 't is thought, doth stay me,

But 't is wind that must be blown

From that breath, whose native smell
Indian odors far excel.

Oh, then speak, thou fairest fair!

Kill not him that vows to serve thee;

But perfume this neighboring air,

Else dull silence, sure, will starve me:
"T is a word that's quickly spoken,
Which being restrained, a heart is broken.