SCENE THE FIRST.

A SECLUDED spot in a wood, with a cottage on one side, and a little river running under the trees in the back-ground. A kind of twilight is in the air. Enter three Shepherds, looking cautiously about, and listening.

I think it turn'd along the willows there.

3d Shep. Most likely: sound delights itself in water,

As I have noticed often :-let's pursue it.

1st Shep. No, better not; remember what a road

It led us yester eve ;-'twill play no more.

These spirits, bad or good (by what I've heard
From my old grandam, and have read in books)
Seem to delight in playing tricks with us,

As if they made them merry with the awkwardness
And grave mistakes of our inferior nature.

Besides, the stream, you know, runs through the

grounds

Of fine old Eunomus, who used to set

So rare a lesson to the former court,

But now shuts up his sorrows in this corner;

And 'twere amiss to startle his grey head

E'en with a footstep.

2d Shep.

'Twere so yet methinks

He might be pleased to hear of this new sound,

The first, of any comfortable breath,

Our wood has heard for years. I know not why,
But there is such a sweetness in the touch

Of this mysterious pipe that's come among us,
Something so full of trilling gladsomeness,
As if the heart were at the lip that fill'd it,
Or went a rippling to the fingers' ends,
That it forebodes, to me, some blessed change.
There!

All. There!

3d Shep.

(a flourish of a small pipe heard.) 'Tis overhead-I heard it plainly.

1st Shep. It comes no more.

2d Shep.

But it was louder then

Than it has ever been;-'twas curious too,

It should return just as I spoke of change.

1st Shep. I think, with you, there must be some

thing in it.

Feel you no alteration?

2d Shep.

What? In the air?

"Tis lighter, fresher ;-I perceiv'd it yesterday.
Oh, my dear friends, what if this gloomy weight,

That sick and dim, like a disease of nature,
Has visited so long our weary land,

Should at the last be going? Nay,-to speak it,
What if this curs'd Enchanter-

3d Shep.

Hush! Be cautious;

You know what ears he has in every corner.

2d Shep. I care not :—who is there, among us, cares?

Has not he robb'd us all of something dear,

Some father, brother, son, to go and do

His devilish work in countries of all climate,

In fainting heats, and powerless, cramping colds,

Wasting away in one, stiff'ning in t'other

With horrid sleep, besides a world of toils,

Of sore and starting bones, fevers, and frenzies,

Sharp swords from hands unlook'd for, all the while, Glancing about their ears, and killing thousands?

Look at old Eunomus-from first to last

A lover of us all both high and low,

And one that would have all live well together,
The high in rank, the low in liberty,
Gracing each other like the trees in spring,
The tufted by the tall :-how has he suffer'd?
Both his sons gone,-the first one by his death
Breaking the mother's heart, the second now
Torn from his bride, and dead too as they say,—
She only left him to perform all parts,

And keep back her own tears to save him his.

Let's tell him of this pipe; I do believe,

It brings us comfort.

1st Shep.

Heaven send it may!

At all events, 'twere well perhaps to tell him;

For now I recollect, I have heard often,

These hovering spirits may not keep their secret

From unpolluted men; but when they're by,
And the occasion's good, will yield their voices
To the still air. I'll knock directly, shall I?
All. Do, do.

Eun.

(Goes to knock at the cottage door.)

Enter EUNOMUS with MYRTILLA.

How now, my friends? I saw you stop

With hush'd and anxious gestures, and was coming

To learn your news. Heard ye this sound in the air
My daughter speaks of? for of late, my ear
Seems closing up to every sound but her's.

2d Shep. We came, Sir, to inform you of it,

Since from it's strange delightfulness, and something Of a new freshness in the air about us,

We thought it boded good.

Has a young fancy, and will convert the sound