Iris. Just match this shew, or m[y] inventio[n] fail[es],
Had it been worthier, I would have invok'd
The blazing Comets, Clouds, and falling Stars,
And all my kindred Meteors of the air,
To have excell'd it; but I now must strive
To imitate confusion; therefore thou
Delightful Flora; if thou ever feltst
Increase of sweetness in those blooming Plants,
On which the horns of my fair Bow decline,
Send hither all th[e] rural company,
Which deck the May-games with their [Countrey] sports;
Juno will have it so.
[The second Anti-Masque [rush] in, [dance] their measure, and as rudely depart.
Merc. Iris, we strive
Like winds at liberty, who should do worst
E'r we return. If Juno be the Queen
Of Marriages, let her give happy way
To what is done in honor of the State
She governs.
Iris. Hermes, so it may be done
Meerly in honor of the State, and th[e]se
That now have prov'd it; not to satisfy
The lust of Jupiter, in having thanks
More than his Juno; if thy Snaky rod
Have power to search the Heaven, or sound the Sea,
Or call together all the ends of earth,
To bring [in] any thing that may do grace
To us, and these, do it, we shall be pleas'd.
Merc. Then know that from the mouth of Jove himself,
Whose words have wings, and need not to be born,
I took a message, and I b[a]re it through
A thousand yielding clouds, and never staid
Till his high Will was done: the Olympian games,
Which long ha[ve] slept, at these wish'd Nuptials,
He pleas'd to have renew'd, and all his Knights
Are gather'd hither, who within their Tents
Rest on this hill, upon whose rising head
[The Altar is discovered with the Pri[e]sts about it, and the Statues under it, and the Knights lying in their Tents on each side, near the top of the hill.
Behold Jove's Altar, and his blessed Priests
Moving about it; come you Holy men,
And with your voices draw these youths along,
That till Jove's Musick call them to their games.
Their active sports may give a blest content
To those, for whom they are again begun.
The first Song, when the Priests descend, and the Knights follow them.
Shake off your heavy trance,
and leap into a dance,
Such as no mortals use to tread,
fit only for Apollo
To play to, for the Moon to lead,
And all the Stars to follow.
The second Song at the end of the first Dance.