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Home  »  library  »  poem  »  From ‘Cynthia’s Revels’

C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

From ‘Cynthia’s Revels’

By Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

Enter Hesperus, Cynthia, Arete, Timè, Phronesis, and Thauma.Music accompanied.Hesperus sings

QUEEN and huntress, chaste and fair,

Now the sun is laid to sleep,

Seated in thy silver chair,

State in wonted manner keep.

Hesperus entreats thy light,

Goddess excellently bright.

Earth let not thy envious shade

Dare itself to interpose;

Cynthia’s shining orb was made

Heaven to clear, when day did close:

Bless us then with wishèd sight,

Goddess excellently bright.

Lay thy bow of pearl apart,

And thy crystal shining quiver,

Give unto the flying hart

Space to breathe, how short soever:

Thou that mak’st a day of night,

Goddess excellently bright.