Languages & literature > Alfred: a masque

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M A S Q. U E
ACT I. SCENE I.
Cor in and Emma appear at the door of their cottage.
Two Shepherdesses.
Firfi Shepherdes's [mgs.
PEACE, the fair eft child of heaven,
To whom the fyhan reign was given.
The vale, the fountain, and the grove.
With every fofter fcene of love ;
Return, fweet peace, to chear the weeping fwain :
Return, with eafe and pleafure in thy train.
Emma, coming forward.
Shepherd, Vis he. Againft yon aged oak,
Penfive and loll in thought, he leans his head.
Corin. Soft: let us not difturb him. Gentle Emma,
Poor tho’ he be, unfriended and unknown,
My pity waits with reverence on his fortune.
Modeft of carriage, and of fpeech moft gracious,
1 As if fome faint or angel in difguife
! Had grac’d our lowly cottage with his prelence,
i He fteais, I know not how, into the heart,
i And makes it pant to ferve him. Truft me, Emma,
He is no common man.
I Emma. Some lord, perhaps,
, Or valiant chief, that from our deadly foe, '
The haughty, cruel, unbelieving Dane,
i Seeks Ihelter here.
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