Page 15 - GALIET EMBERS & SAPPHIRE: Milton IV

protection, as poetry is the only medium to subsume fear and to reveal what is concealed. Thus, she sings:
“Sweet Echo, sweetest Nymph that liv'st unseen Within thy airy shell
By slow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet imbroider'd vale Where the love-lorn Nightingale Nightly to thee her sad Song mourneth well. Canst thou not tell me of a gentle Pair That likest thy Narcissus are?
O if thou have
Hid them in som flowry Cave,
Tell me but where
Sweet Queen of Parly, Daughter of the Sphear!
So maist thou be translated to the skies,
And give resounding grace to all Heav'ns Harmonies!” (230-43)
Comus’ being, made of semen and vines, of watering, rivering myth, swoons upon hearing Lady Chastity’s sweetest song to Echo sung. Myth echoes myth. It mirrors it. Her sweetest song seduces him to yearn for Lady Chastity as his Queen. Her sweetest song, too, beckons him to soliloquy:
“Can any mortal mixture of Earth’s mold Breathe such Divine enchanting ravishment? Sure something holy lodges in that breast, And with these raptures moves the vocal air To testify his hidd’n residence;
How sweetly did they float upon the wings
Of Silence, through the empty-vaulted night...”
(244-50)
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