Hang down about her shoulders, which she shakes Into disorder; on her furrowed brow One might perceive Time had been long at plough. Her eyes, like candle-snuffs, by age sunk quite Into their sockets, yet like cats' eyes bright: And in the darkest night like fire they shined, The ever-open windows of her mind. Her swarthy cheeks, Time, that all things consumes, Had hollowed flat into her toothless gums. Her hairy brows did meet above her nose, That like an eagle's beak so crooked grows, It well-nigh kissed her chin; thick bristled hair Grew on her upper lip, and here and there A rugged wart with grisly hairs behung; Her breasts shrunk up, her nails and fingers long; Her left leant on a staff, in her right hand She always carried her enchanting wand. Splay-footed, beyond nature, every part So patternless deformed, 'twould puzzle art To make her counterfeit; only her tongue, Nature had that most exquisitely strung, Her oily language came so smoothly from her, And her quaint action did so well become her, Her winning rhetoric met with no trips, But chained the dull'st attention to her lips. With greediness he heard, and though he strove To shake her off, the more her words did move. She wooed him to her cell, called him her son, And with fair promises she quickly won Him to her beck; or rather he, to try What she could do, did willingly comply, With her request. * * * Her cell was hewn out of the marble rock By more than human art; she did not knock, The door stood always open, large and wide, Grown o'er with woolly moss on either side, And interwove with ivy's nattering twines, Through which the carbuncle and diamond shines. Not set by Art, but there by Nature sown At the world's birth, so star-like bright they shone. They served instead of tapers to give light To the dark entry, where perpetual Night, Friend to black deeds, and sire of Ignorance, Shuts out all knowledge, lest her eye by chance Might bring to light her follies: in they went, The ground was strewed with flowers, whose sweet scent, Mixed with the choice perfumes from India brought, Intoxicates his brain, and quickly caught His credulous sense; the walls were gilt, and set With precious stones, and all the roof was fret With a gold vine, whose straggling branches spread All o'er the arch; the swelling grapes were red; This Art had made of rubies, clustered so, To the quick'st eye they more than seemed to grow; About the wall lascivious pictures hung, Such as were of loose Ovid sometimes sung. On either side a crew of dwarfish elves Held waxen tapers, taller than themselves: Yet so well shaped unto their little stature, So angel-like in face, so sweet in feature; Their rich attire so differing; yet so well Becoming her that wore it, none could tell Which was the fairest, which the handsomest decked, Or which of them desire would soon'st affect. After a low salute they all 'gan sing, And circle in the stranger in a ring. Orandra to her charms was stepped aside,