SALICIO.
'Tis strange,
And passing sad, to see the utter change
In this once sprightly youth, with whom we two,
My Nemoroso, have had much to do;
Mild, pleasant, good, wise, sociable, and kind,
The sweetest temper and sincerest mind.
ALBANIO.
I will find witness, or small power is left
Me 'gainst the man that did commit the theft,
And though my body's absent, as a foe
Will drive him on to death; ah, dost thou know
Aught of the thief, my gentle fountain fair?
Speak, if thou dost! so may the swart star ne'er
Sear thy fresh shades, or scorch thy silver spring,
But still green fairies round thee dance and sing.
There stands a man at bottom of the brook,
With laurel crowned, and in his hand a crook
Shaped like mine own, of oak: ho! who goes there?
Answer, my friend! Heaven help me! I declare
Thou' art deaf or dumb, some mortal foe I fear
To life's humanities; holla! give ear;
I am a disembodied soul; I seek
My body, which, in a malicious freak,
Some cruel thief has stol'n, it much has stirred me;
Deaf or not deaf I care not—have you heard me?
O gracious God! either my wayward brain
Wanders, or I behold my shape again;
Ha, my loved body! I no longer doubt thee,
I clearly see thy image; whilst without thee
I have been most unhappy—come, draw nigher,
End both thy exile and my lorn desire.
NEMOROSO.
I much suspect that his continual thought
And dreams of death, have in his fancy wrought
This pictured separation.
SALICIO.
As in sleep,
Ills which awake perpetually we weep,
Fraught with the grief that haunts the soul, remain,
And print their shadowy species on the brain.
ALBANIO.
If thou art not in chains, come forth to' endow
Me with the true form of a man, who now
Have but the title left; but if thou' art bound
By magic art, and rooted to the ground,
I pray thee speak! for if my piteous pleading
Should fail to touch the ear of Heaven unheeding,
I to the bowers of Tartarus will depart,
And storm fierce Pluto's adamantine heart,
As for his absent consort, unalarmed,
Did the fond lover, who with music charmed
Hell's grisly maids, and hushed, sweet harmonist,
The raging snakes that round their temples hissed!