Sabrina fair,

Song.

Listen where thou art sitting
Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,

In twisted braids of lilies knitting

The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;

Listen for dear honour's sake,

Goddess of the silver lake,

Listen, and save.

Listen, and appear to us,

In name of great Oceanus;

1

By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace,

And Tethys' grave majestic pace,

By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look,

And the Carpathian wizard's hook,44

By scaly Triton's winding shell,
And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell,
By Leucothea's lovely hands,
And her son that rules the strands,
By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet,

And the songs of sirens sweet,
By dead Parthenope's 45 dear tomb,

Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks,
Sleeking her soft alluring locks;
By all the nymphs that nightly dance
Upon thy streams with wily glance,
Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head
From thy coral-paven bed,

And bridle in thy headlong wave,

Till thou our summons answered have.

Listen, and save.

[SABRINA rises, attended by water-nymphs, and sings.]

By the rushy-fringed bank,
Where grows the willow and the osier dank,

My sliding chariot stays,

Thick set with agate, and the azure sheen
Of turkis blue, and emerald green,

That in the channel strays;
Whilst from off the waters fleet
Thus I set my printless feet
O'er the cowslip's velvet head,
That bends not as I tread;
Gentle swain, at thy request

I am here.

We implore thy powerful hand

To undo the charmed band

Of true virgin here distressed,

Through the force, and through the wile,

Of unblest enchanter vile.

SABRINA.

Shepherd, 'tis my office best

To help ensnaréd chastity:
Brightest lady, look on me;
Thus I sprinkle on thy breast
Drops, that from my fountain pure
I have kept, of precious cure;
Thrice upon thy finger's tip,
Thrice upon thy rubied lip;
Next this marble venomed seat,

Smeared with gums of glutinous heat,
I touch with chaste palms, moist and cold :

Now the spell hath lost his hold;

And I must haste, ere morning hour,

To wait in Amphitrite's bower.

[SABRINA descends, and the LADY rises out of her seat.]