Penny Dreadfuls, 1812 · page 149 of 258
Psyche, and other poems — page 149: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 131 of a Victorian Penny Dreadful This is a page of running verse poetry (numbered 131), not a title page or illustration. The text describes a ship stuck fast in shallow waters; while the pilot and an anxious knight named Constance attempt to free the vessel, a fair lady (apparently named Glacella or guarded by someone named Hymen) falls into an enchanted sleep induced by mist. While her guardian knight remains unaware, treacherous slaves emerge from the darkness and abduct her. The passage combines nautical peril with supernatural kidnapping—typical melodramatic elements of Victorian sensation fiction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
131 Even while he speaks, behold the vessel stands Immovable tin vain the pilot tries The helm to turn; fixed in the shallow strands, No more obedient to his hand, it lies, The disappointed oar no aid supplies While sweeping o’er the sand it mocks their force: The anxious knight to Constance now applies, To his oft tried assistance has recour se, And bids his active mind design some swift resource. Debating doubtfully awhile they stood, At length on their united strength rely, To force the bark on the supporting flood ; They rouse the seamen, who half slumbering lie, Subdued and loaded by the oppressive sky. Then wading mid the fog, with care explore What side the deepest waters may supply, And where the shallows least protect the shore, ‘While through their darksome search the star sheds light before. Mean time deep s!umbers of the vaporous mist Hang on the heavy eye-lids of the fair ; And Hymen too, unable to resist The drowsy force of the o’erwhelming air, Laid ; at eh feet at length forgets his care. o! Glacella’s treacherous slaves advance, a ap ‘in thickest gloom; the sleeping fair They seize, and bear away in heedless trance, Long ere her guardian knight suspects the bitter chance. comnicloooks.conn