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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:16:24 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:16:24 -0700 |
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diff --git a/1045-h/1045-h.htm b/1045-h/1045-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f921056 --- /dev/null +++ b/1045-h/1045-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1906 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Venus and Adonis, by William Shakespeare</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.left {text-indent: 0%; + text-align: left; + margin-left: 20%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.right {text-align: right; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1045 ***</div> + +<h1>VENUS AND ADONIS</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by William Shakespeare</h2> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p class="left"> +<i>Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi flavus Apollo<br /> +Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua.</i> +</p> + +<h4> +TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE<br /> +HENRY WRIOTHESLEY, EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON,<br /> +and Baron of Titchfield. +</h4> + +<p> +Right Honourable, I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolished +lines to your lordship, nor how the world will censure me for choosing so +strong a prop to support so weak a burthen: only, if your honour seem but +pleased, I account myself highly praised, and vow to take advantage of all +idle hours, till I have honoured you with some graver labour. But if the +first heir of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sorry it had so noble +a godfather, and never after ear so barren a land, for fear it yield me +still so bad a harvest. I leave it to your honourable survey, and your +honour to your heart’s content; which I wish may always answer your own +wish and the world’s hopeful expectation. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +Your honour’s in all duty,<br /> +WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. +</p> + +<hr /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>VENUS AND ADONIS</h2> + +<p class="noindent"><br/> +Even as the sun with purple-colour’d face<br/> +Had ta’en his last leave of the weeping morn,<br/> +Rose-cheek’d Adonis hied him to the chase;<br/> +Hunting he lov’d, but love he laugh’d to scorn; 4<br/> + Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him,<br/> + And like a bold-fac’d suitor ’gins to woo him.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Thrice fairer than myself,” thus she began,<br/> +“The field’s chief flower, sweet above compare, 8<br/> +Stain to all nymphs, more lovely than a man,<br/> +More white and red than doves or roses are:<br/> + Nature that made thee, with herself at strife,<br/> + Saith that the world hath ending with thy life. 12<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Vouchsafe, thou wonder, to alight thy steed,<br/> +And rein his proud head to the saddle-bow;<br/> +If thou wilt deign this favour, for thy meed<br/> +A thousand honey secrets shalt thou know: 16<br/> + Here come and sit, where never serpent hisses,<br/> + And being set, I’ll smother thee with kisses.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“And yet not cloy thy lips with loath’d satiety,<br/> +But rather famish them amid their plenty, 20<br/> +Making them red, and pale, with fresh variety:<br/> +Ten kisses short as one, one long as twenty:<br/> + A summer’s day will seem an hour but short,<br/> + Being wasted in such time-beguiling sport.” 24<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +With this she seizeth on his sweating palm,<br/> +The precedent of pith and livelihood,<br/> +And trembling in her passion, calls it balm,<br/> +Earth’s sovereign salve to do a goddess good: 28<br/> + Being so enrag’d, desire doth lend her force<br/> + Courageously to pluck him from his horse.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Over one arm the lusty courser’s rein,<br/> +Under her other was the tender boy, 32<br/> +Who blush’d and pouted in a dull disdain,<br/> +With leaden appetite, unapt to toy;<br/> + She red and hot as coals of glowing fire,<br/> + He red for shame, but frosty in desire. 36<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The studded bridle on a ragged bough<br/> +Nimbly she fastens;—O! how quick is love!—<br/> +The steed is stalled up, and even now<br/> +To tie the rider she begins to prove: 40<br/> + Backward she push’d him, as she would be thrust,<br/> + And govern’d him in strength, though not in lust.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +So soon was she along, as he was down,<br/> +Each leaning on their elbows and their hips: 44<br/> +Now doth she stroke his cheek, now doth he frown,<br/> +And ’gins to chide, but soon she stops his lips,<br/> + And kissing speaks, with lustful language broken,<br/> + “If thou wilt chide, thy lips shall never open.” 48<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He burns with bashful shame, she with her tears<br/> +Doth quench the maiden burning of his cheeks;<br/> +Then with her windy sighs and golden hairs<br/> +To fan and blow them dry again she seeks. 52<br/> + He saith she is immodest, blames her miss;<br/> + What follows more, she murders with a kiss.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as an empty eagle, sharp by fast,<br/> +Tires with her beak on feathers, flesh and bone, 56<br/> +Shaking her wings, devouring all in haste,<br/> +Till either gorge be stuff’d or prey be gone:<br/> + Even so she kiss’d his brow, his cheek, his chin,<br/> + And where she ends she doth anew begin. 60<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Forc’d to content, but never to obey,<br/> +Panting he lies, and breatheth in her face.<br/> +She feedeth on the steam, as on a prey,<br/> +And calls it heavenly moisture, air of grace, 64<br/> + Wishing her cheeks were gardens full of flowers<br/> + So they were dew’d with such distilling showers.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Look how a bird lies tangled in a net,<br/> +So fasten’d in her arms Adonis lies; 68<br/> +Pure shame and aw’d resistance made him fret,<br/> +Which bred more beauty in his angry eyes:<br/> + Rain added to a river that is rank<br/> + Perforce will force it overflow the bank. 72<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Still she entreats, and prettily entreats,<br/> +For to a pretty ear she tunes her tale.<br/> +Still is he sullen, still he lours and frets,<br/> +’Twixt crimson shame and anger ashy pale; 76<br/> + Being red she loves him best, and being white,<br/> + Her best is better’d with a more delight.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Look how he can, she cannot choose but love;<br/> +And by her fair immortal hand she swears, 80<br/> +From his soft bosom never to remove,<br/> +Till he take truce with her contending tears,<br/> + Which long have rain’d, making her cheeks all wet;<br/> + And one sweet kiss shall pay this countless debt.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Upon this promise did he raise his chin, 85<br/> +Like a dive-dapper peering through a wave,<br/> +Who, being look’d on, ducks as quickly in;<br/> +So offers he to give what she did crave, 88<br/> + But when her lips were ready for his pay,<br/> + He winks, and turns his lips another way.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Never did passenger in summer’s heat<br/> +More thirst for drink than she for this good turn. 92<br/> +Her help she sees, but help she cannot get;<br/> +She bathes in water, yet her fire must burn:<br/> + “O! pity,” ’gan she cry, “flint-hearted boy,<br/> + ’Tis but a kiss I beg; why art thou coy? 96<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“I have been woo’d as I entreat thee now,<br/> +Even by the stern and direful god of war,<br/> +Whose sinewy neck in battle ne’er did bow,<br/> +Who conquers where he comes in every jar; 100<br/> + Yet hath he been my captive and my slave,<br/> + And begg’d for that which thou unask’d shalt have.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Over my altars hath he hung his lance,<br/> +His batter’d shield, his uncontrolled crest, 104<br/> +And for my sake hath learn’d to sport and dance,<br/> +To toy, to wanton, dally, smile, and jest;<br/> + Scorning his churlish drum and ensign red<br/> + Making my arms his field, his tent my bed. 108<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Thus he that overrul’d I oversway’d,<br/> +Leading him prisoner in a red rose chain:<br/> +Strong-temper’d steel his stronger strength obey’d,<br/> +Yet was he servile to my coy disdain. 112<br/> + Oh be not proud, nor brag not of thy might,<br/> + For mast’ring her that foil’d the god of fight.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Touch but my lips with those fair lips of thine,<br/> +Though mine be not so fair, yet are they red, 116<br/> +The kiss shall be thine own as well as mine:<br/> +What see’st thou in the ground? hold up thy head,<br/> + Look in mine eyeballs, there thy beauty lies;<br/> + Then why not lips on lips, since eyes in eyes? 120<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Art thou asham’d to kiss? then wink again,<br/> +And I will wink; so shall the day seem night.<br/> +Love keeps his revels where there are but twain;<br/> +Be bold to play, our sport is not in sight, 124<br/> + These blue-vein’d violets whereon we lean<br/> + Never can blab, nor know not what we mean.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“The tender spring upon thy tempting lip 127<br/> +Shows thee unripe; yet mayst thou well be tasted,<br/> +Make use of time, let not advantage slip;<br/> +Beauty within itself should not be wasted,<br/> + Fair flowers that are not gather’d in their prime<br/> + Rot, and consume themselves in little time. 132<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Were I hard-favour’d, foul, or wrinkled old,<br/> +Ill-nurtur’d, crooked, churlish, harsh in voice,<br/> +O’erworn, despised, rheumatic, and cold,<br/> +Thick-sighted, barren, lean, and lacking juice, 136<br/> + Then mightst thou pause, for then I were not for thee;<br/> + But having no defects, why dost abhor me?<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Thou canst not see one wrinkle in my brow, 139<br/> +Mine eyes are grey and bright, and quick in turning;<br/> +My beauty as the spring doth yearly grow,<br/> +My flesh is soft and plump, my marrow burning,<br/> + My smooth moist hand, were it with thy hand felt,<br/> + Would in thy palm dissolve, or seem to melt. 144<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear,<br/> +Or like a fairy, trip upon the green,<br/> +Or like a nymph, with long dishevell’d hair,<br/> +Dance on the sands, and yet no footing seen. 148<br/> + Love is a spirit all compact of fire,<br/> + Not gross to sink, but light, and will aspire.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Witness this primrose bank whereon I lie: 151<br/> +These forceless flowers like sturdy trees support me;<br/> +Two strengthless doves will draw me through the sky,<br/> +From morn till night, even where I list to sport me.<br/> + Is love so light, sweet boy, and may it be<br/> + That thou shouldst think it heavy unto thee? 156<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Is thine own heart to thine own face affected?<br/> +Can thy right hand seize love upon thy left?<br/> +Then woo thyself, be of thyself rejected,<br/> +Steal thine own freedom, and complain on theft. 160<br/> + Narcissus so himself himself forsook,<br/> + And died to kiss his shadow in the brook.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Torches are made to light, jewels to wear,<br/> +Dainties to taste, fresh beauty for the use, 164<br/> +Herbs for their smell, and sappy plants to bear;<br/> +Things growing to themselves are growth’s abuse,<br/> + Seeds spring from seeds, and beauty breedeth beauty;<br/> + Thou wast begot; to get it is thy duty. 168<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Upon the earth’s increase why shouldst thou feed,<br/> +Unless the earth with thy increase be fed?<br/> +By law of nature thou art bound to breed,<br/> +That thine may live when thou thyself art dead; 172<br/> + And so in spite of death thou dost survive,<br/> + In that thy likeness still is left alive.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +By this the love-sick queen began to sweat,<br/> +For where they lay the shadow had forsook them, 176<br/> +And Titan, tired in the midday heat,<br/> +With burning eye did hotly overlook them,<br/> + Wishing Adonis had his team to guide,<br/> + So he were like him and by Venus’ side. 180<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And now Adonis with a lazy spright,<br/> +And with a heavy, dark, disliking eye,<br/> +His louring brows o’erwhelming his fair sight,<br/> +Like misty vapours when they blot the sky, 184<br/> + Souring his cheeks, cries, “Fie, no more of love:<br/> + The sun doth burn my face; I must remove.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Ay me,” quoth Venus, “young, and so unkind!<br/> +What bare excuses mak’st thou to be gone! 188<br/> +I’ll sigh celestial breath, whose gentle wind<br/> +Shall cool the heat of this descending sun:<br/> + I’ll make a shadow for thee of my hairs;<br/> + If they burn too, I’ll quench them with my tears. 192<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“The sun that shines from heaven shines but warm,<br/> +And lo I lie between that sun and thee:<br/> +The heat I have from thence doth little harm,<br/> +Thine eye darts forth the fire that burneth me; 196<br/> + And were I not immortal, life were done,<br/> + Between this heavenly and earthly sun.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Art thou obdurate, flinty, hard as steel?<br/> +Nay more than flint, for stone at rain relenteth: 200<br/> +Art thou a woman’s son and canst not feel<br/> +What ’tis to love, how want of love tormenteth?<br/> + O had thy mother borne so hard a mind,<br/> + She had not brought forth thee, but died unkind. 204<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“What am I that thou shouldst contemn me this?<br/> +Or what great danger dwells upon my suit?<br/> +What were thy lips the worse for one poor kiss?<br/> +Speak, fair; but speak fair words, or else be mute: 208<br/> + Give me one kiss, I’ll give it thee again,<br/> + And one for int’rest, if thou wilt have twain.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Fie, lifeless picture, cold and senseless stone,<br/> +Well-painted idol, image dull and dead, 212<br/> +Statue contenting but the eye alone,<br/> +Thing like a man, but of no woman bred:<br/> + Thou art no man, though of a man’s complexion,<br/> + For men will kiss even by their own direction.” 216<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This said, impatience chokes her pleading tongue,<br/> +And swelling passion doth provoke a pause;<br/> +Red cheeks and fiery eyes blaze forth her wrong;<br/> +Being judge in love, she cannot right her cause. 220<br/> + And now she weeps, and now she fain would speak,<br/> + And now her sobs do her intendments break.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Sometimes she shakes her head, and then his hand,<br/> +Now gazeth she on him, now on the ground; 224<br/> +Sometimes her arms infold him like a band:<br/> +She would, he will not in her arms be bound;<br/> + And when from thence he struggles to be gone,<br/> + She locks her lily fingers one in one. 228<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Fondling,” she saith, “since I have hemm’d thee here<br/> +Within the circuit of this ivory pale,<br/> +I’ll be a park, and thou shalt be my deer;<br/> +Feed where thou wilt, on mountain or in dale: 232<br/> + Graze on my lips, and if those hills be dry,<br/> + Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Within this limit is relief enough,<br/> +Sweet bottom grass and high delightful plain, 236<br/> +Round rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough,<br/> +To shelter thee from tempest and from rain:<br/> + Then be my deer, since I am such a park, 239<br/> + No dog shall rouse thee, though a thousand bark.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +At this Adonis smiles as in disdain,<br/> +That in each cheek appears a pretty dimple;<br/> +Love made those hollows, if himself were slain,<br/> +He might be buried in a tomb so simple; 244<br/> + Foreknowing well, if there he came to lie,<br/> + Why there love liv’d, and there he could not die.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +These lovely caves, these round enchanting pits,<br/> +Open’d their mouths to swallow Venus’ liking. 248<br/> +Being mad before, how doth she now for wits?<br/> +Struck dead at first, what needs a second striking?<br/> + Poor queen of love, in thine own law forlorn,<br/> + To love a cheek that smiles at thee in scorn! 252<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now which way shall she turn? what shall she say?<br/> +Her words are done, her woes the more increasing;<br/> +The time is spent, her object will away,<br/> +And from her twining arms doth urge releasing: 256<br/> + “Pity,” she cries; “some favour, some remorse!”<br/> + Away he springs, and hasteth to his horse.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But lo from forth a copse that neighbours by,<br/> +A breeding jennet, lusty, young, and proud, 260<br/> +Adonis’ tramping courser doth espy,<br/> +And forth she rushes, snorts and neighs aloud:<br/> + The strong-neck’d steed, being tied unto a tree,<br/> + Breaketh his rein, and to her straight goes he. 264<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Imperiously he leaps, he neighs, he bounds,<br/> +And now his woven girths he breaks asunder;<br/> +The bearing earth with his hard hoof he wounds,<br/> +Whose hollow womb resounds like heaven’s thunder;<br/> + The iron bit he crusheth ’tween his teeth, 269<br/> + Controlling what he was controlled with.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +His ears up-prick’d; his braided hanging mane<br/> +Upon his compass’d crest now stand on end; 272<br/> +His nostrils drink the air, and forth again,<br/> +As from a furnace, vapours doth he send:<br/> + His eye, which scornfully glisters like fire,<br/> + Shows his hot courage and his high desire. 276<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Sometime he trots, as if he told the steps,<br/> +With gentle majesty and modest pride;<br/> +Anon he rears upright, curvets and leaps,<br/> +As who should say, “Lo thus my strength is tried;<br/> + And this I do to captivate the eye 281<br/> + Of the fair breeder that is standing by.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +What recketh he his rider’s angry stir,<br/> +His flattering “Holla”, or his “Stand, I say”? 284<br/> +What cares he now for curb or pricking spur?<br/> +For rich caparisons or trappings gay?<br/> + He sees his love, and nothing else he sees,<br/> + For nothing else with his proud sight agrees. 288<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Look when a painter would surpass the life,<br/> +In limning out a well-proportion’d steed,<br/> +His art with nature’s workmanship at strife,<br/> +As if the dead the living should exceed: 292<br/> + So did this horse excel a common one,<br/> + In shape, in courage, colour, pace and bone.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Round-hoof’d, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long,<br/> +Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostril wide,<br/> +High crest, short ears, straight legs and passing strong,<br/> +Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide:<br/> + Look, what a horse should have he did not lack,<br/> + Save a proud rider on so proud a back. 300<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Sometimes he scuds far off, and there he stares;<br/> +Anon he starts at stirring of a feather:<br/> +To bid the wind a base he now prepares,<br/> +And where he run or fly they know not whether; 304<br/> + For through his mane and tail the high wind sings,<br/> + Fanning the hairs, who wave like feather’d wings.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He looks upon his love, and neighs unto her;<br/> +She answers him as if she knew his mind, 308<br/> +Being proud, as females are, to see him woo her,<br/> +She puts on outward strangeness, seems unkind,<br/> + Spurns at his love and scorns the heat he feels,<br/> + Beating his kind embracements with her heels. 312<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Then like a melancholy malcontent,<br/> +He vails his tail that like a falling plume,<br/> +Cool shadow to his melting buttock lent:<br/> +He stamps, and bites the poor flies in his fume. 316<br/> + His love, perceiving how he was enrag’d,<br/> + Grew kinder, and his fury was assuag’d.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +His testy master goeth about to take him,<br/> +When lo the unback’d breeder, full of fear, 320<br/> +Jealous of catching, swiftly doth forsake him,<br/> +With her the horse, and left Adonis there:<br/> + As they were mad, unto the wood they hie them,<br/> + Outstripping crows that strive to overfly them. 324<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +All swoln with chafing, down Adonis sits,<br/> +Banning his boisterous and unruly beast;<br/> +And now the happy season once more fits<br/> +That love-sick love by pleading may be blest; 328<br/> + For lovers say, the heart hath treble wrong,<br/> + When it is barr’d the aidance of the tongue.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +An oven that is stopp’d, or river stay’d,<br/> +Burneth more hotly, swelleth with more rage: 332<br/> +So of concealed sorrow may be said,<br/> +Free vent of words love’s fire doth assuage;<br/> + But when the heart’s attorney once is mute,<br/> + The client breaks, as desperate in his suit. 336<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He sees her coming, and begins to glow,<br/> +Even as a dying coal revives with wind,<br/> +And with his bonnet hides his angry brow,<br/> +Looks on the dull earth with disturbed mind, 340<br/> + Taking no notice that she is so nigh,<br/> + For all askance he holds her in his eye.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O what a sight it was, wistly to view<br/> +How she came stealing to the wayward boy, 344<br/> +To note the fighting conflict of her hue,<br/> +How white and red each other did destroy:<br/> + But now her cheek was pale, and by and by<br/> + It flash’d forth fire, as lightning from the sky. 348<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now was she just before him as he sat,<br/> +And like a lowly lover down she kneels;<br/> +With one fair hand she heaveth up his hat,<br/> +Her other tender hand his fair cheek feels: 352<br/> + His tend’rer cheek receives her soft hand’s print,<br/> + As apt as new-fall’n snow takes any dint.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Oh what a war of looks was then between them,<br/> +Her eyes petitioners to his eyes suing, 356<br/> +His eyes saw her eyes, as they had not seen them,<br/> +Her eyes woo’d still, his eyes disdain’d the wooing:<br/> + And all this dumb play had his acts made plain<br/> + With tears, which, chorus-like, her eyes did rain.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Full gently now she takes him by the hand, 361<br/> +A lily prison’d in a gaol of snow,<br/> +Or ivory in an alabaster band,<br/> +So white a friend engirts so white a foe: 364<br/> + This beauteous combat, wilful and unwilling,<br/> + Show’d like two silver doves that sit a-billing.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Once more the engine of her thoughts began:<br/> +“O fairest mover on this mortal round, 368<br/> +Would thou wert as I am, and I a man,<br/> +My heart all whole as thine, thy heart my wound,<br/> + For one sweet look thy help I would assure thee,<br/> + Though nothing but my body’s bane would cure thee.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Give me my hand,” saith he, “why dost thou feel it?”<br/> +“Give me my heart,” saith she, “and thou shalt have it.<br/> +O give it me lest thy hard heart do steel it,<br/> +And being steel’d, soft sighs can never grave it. 376<br/> + Then love’s deep groans I never shall regard,<br/> + Because Adonis’ heart hath made mine hard.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“For shame,” he cries, “let go, and let me go,<br/> +My day’s delight is past, my horse is gone, 380<br/> +And ’tis your fault I am bereft him so,<br/> +I pray you hence, and leave me here alone,<br/> + For all my mind, my thought, my busy care,<br/> + Is how to get my palfrey from the mare.” 384<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus she replies: “Thy palfrey as he should,<br/> +Welcomes the warm approach of sweet desire,<br/> +Affection is a coal that must be cool’d;<br/> +Else, suffer’d, it will set the heart on fire, 388<br/> + The sea hath bounds, but deep desire hath none;<br/> + Therefore no marvel though thy horse be gone.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“How like a jade he stood tied to the tree,<br/> +Servilely master’d with a leathern rein! 392<br/> +But when he saw his love, his youth’s fair fee,<br/> +He held such petty bondage in disdain;<br/> + Throwing the base thong from his bending crest,<br/> + Enfranchising his mouth, his back, his breast. 396<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Who sees his true-love in her naked bed,<br/> +Teaching the sheets a whiter hue than white,<br/> +But when his glutton eye so full hath fed,<br/> +His other agents aim at like delight? 400<br/> + Who is so faint that dare not be so bold<br/> + To touch the fire, the weather being cold?<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Let me excuse thy courser, gentle boy,<br/> +And learn of him, I heartily beseech thee, 404<br/> +To take advantage on presented joy,<br/> +Though I were dumb, yet his proceedings teach thee.<br/> + O learn to love, the lesson is but plain,<br/> + And once made perfect, never lost again.” 408<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“I know not love,” quoth he, “nor will not know it,<br/> +Unless it be a boar, and then I chase it;<br/> +’Tis much to borrow, and I will not owe it;<br/> +My love to love is love but to disgrace it; 412<br/> + For I have heard, it is a life in death,<br/> + That laughs and weeps, and all but with a breath.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Who wears a garment shapeless and unfinish’d?<br/> +Who plucks the bud before one leaf put forth? 416<br/> +If springing things be any jot diminish’d,<br/> +They wither in their prime, prove nothing worth;<br/> + The colt that’s back’d and burden’d being young,<br/> + Loseth his pride, and never waxeth strong. 420<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“You hurt my hand with wringing. Let us part,<br/> +And leave this idle theme, this bootless chat:<br/> +Remove your siege from my unyielding heart,<br/> +To love’s alarms it will not ope the gate: 424<br/> + Dismiss your vows, your feigned tears, your flatt’ry;<br/> + For where a heart is hard they make no batt’ry.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“What! canst thou talk?” quoth she, “hast thou a tongue?<br/> +O would thou hadst not, or I had no hearing; 428<br/> +Thy mermaid’s voice hath done me double wrong;<br/> +I had my load before, now press’d with bearing:<br/> + Melodious discord, heavenly tune, harsh-sounding,<br/> + Ear’s deep sweet music, and heart’s deep sore wounding.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Had I no eyes but ears, my ears would love 433<br/> +That inward beauty and invisible;<br/> +Or were I deaf, thy outward parts would move<br/> +Each part in me that were but sensible: 436<br/> + Though neither eyes nor ears, to hear nor see,<br/> + Yet should I be in love by touching thee.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Say that the sense of feeling were bereft me,<br/> +And that I could not see, nor hear, nor touch, 440<br/> +And nothing but the very smell were left me,<br/> +Yet would my love to thee be still as much;<br/> + For from the stillitory of thy face excelling<br/> + Comes breath perfum’d, that breedeth love by smelling.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“But oh what banquet wert thou to the taste, 445<br/> +Being nurse and feeder of the other four;<br/> +Would they not wish the feast might ever last,<br/> +And bid suspicion double-lock the door,<br/> + Lest jealousy, that sour unwelcome guest,<br/> + Should by his stealing in disturb the feast?” 448<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Once more the ruby-colour’d portal open’d,<br/> +Which to his speech did honey passage yield, 452<br/> +Like a red morn that ever yet betoken’d<br/> +Wrack to the seaman, tempest to the field,<br/> + Sorrow to shepherds, woe unto the birds,<br/> + Gusts and foul flaws to herdmen and to herds. 456<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This ill presage advisedly she marketh:<br/> +Even as the wind is hush’d before it raineth,<br/> +Or as the wolf doth grin before he barketh,<br/> +Or as the berry breaks before it staineth, 460<br/> + Or like the deadly bullet of a gun,<br/> + His meaning struck her ere his words begun.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And at his look she flatly falleth down<br/> +For looks kill love, and love by looks reviveth; 464<br/> +A smile recures the wounding of a frown;<br/> +But blessed bankrout, that by love so thriveth!<br/> + The silly boy, believing she is dead,<br/> + Claps her pale cheek, till clapping makes it red. 468<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And all amaz’d brake off his late intent,<br/> +For sharply he did think to reprehend her,<br/> +Which cunning love did wittily prevent:<br/> +Fair fall the wit that can so well defend her! 472<br/> + For on the grass she lies as she were slain,<br/> + Till his breath breatheth life in her again.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +He wrings her nose, he strikes her on the cheeks,<br/> +He bends her fingers, holds her pulses hard, 476<br/> +He chafes her lips; a thousand ways he seeks<br/> +To mend the hurt that his unkindness marr’d:<br/> + He kisses her; and she, by her good will,<br/> + Will never rise, so he will kiss her still. 480<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +The night of sorrow now is turn’d to day:<br/> +Her two blue windows faintly she up-heaveth,<br/> +Like the fair sun when in his fresh array<br/> +He cheers the morn, and all the world relieveth: 484<br/> + And as the bright sun glorifies the sky,<br/> + So is her face illumin’d with her eye.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whose beams upon his hairless face are fix’d,<br/> +As if from thence they borrow’d all their shine. 488<br/> +Were never four such lamps together mix’d,<br/> +Had not his clouded with his brow’s repine;<br/> + But hers, which through the crystal tears gave light<br/> + Shone like the moon in water seen by night. 492<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O where am I?” quoth she, “in earth or heaven?<br/> +Or in the ocean drench’d, or in the fire?<br/> +What hour is this? or morn or weary even?<br/> +Do I delight to die, or life desire? 496<br/> + But now I liv’d, and life was death’s annoy;<br/> + But now I died, and death was lively joy.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O thou didst kill me; kill me once again:<br/> +Thy eyes’ shrewd tutor, that hard heart of thine, 500<br/> +Hath taught them scornful tricks, and such disdain,<br/> +That they have murder’d this poor heart of mine;<br/> + And these mine eyes, true leaders to their queen,<br/> + But for thy piteous lips no more had seen. 504<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Long may they kiss each other for this cure!<br/> +Oh never let their crimson liveries wear,<br/> +And as they last, their verdure still endure,<br/> +To drive infection from the dangerous year: 508<br/> + That the star-gazers, having writ on death,<br/> + May say, the plague is banish’d by thy breath.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Pure lips, sweet seals in my soft lips imprinted,<br/> +What bargains may I make, still to be sealing? 512<br/> +To sell myself I can be well contented,<br/> +So thou wilt buy, and pay, and use good dealing;<br/> + Which purchase if thou make, for fear of slips,<br/> + Set thy seal manual on my wax-red lips. 516<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“A thousand kisses buys my heart from me;<br/> +And pay them at thy leisure, one by one,<br/> +What is ten hundred touches unto thee?<br/> +Are they not quickly told and quickly gone? 520<br/> + Say, for non-payment that the debt should double,<br/> + Is twenty hundred kisses such a trouble?”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Fair queen,” quoth he, “if any love you owe me,<br/> +Measure my strangeness with my unripe years: 524<br/> +Before I know myself, seek not to know me;<br/> +No fisher but the ungrown fry forbears:<br/> + The mellow plum doth fall, the green sticks fast,<br/> + Or being early pluck’d, is sour to taste. 528<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Look the world’s comforter, with weary gait<br/> +His day’s hot task hath ended in the west;<br/> +The owl, night’s herald, shrieks, ’tis very late;<br/> +The sheep are gone to fold, birds to their nest, 532<br/> + And coal-black clouds that shadow heaven’s light<br/> + Do summon us to part, and bid good night.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Now let me say good night, and so say you;<br/> +If you will say so, you shall have a kiss.” 536<br/> +“Good night,” quoth she; and ere he says adieu,<br/> +The honey fee of parting tender’d is:<br/> + Her arms do lend his neck a sweet embrace;<br/> + Incorporate then they seem, face grows to face. 540<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Till breathless he disjoin’d, and backward drew<br/> +The heavenly moisture, that sweet coral mouth,<br/> +Whose precious taste her thirsty lips well knew,<br/> +Whereon they surfeit, yet complain on drouth, 544<br/> + He with her plenty press’d, she faint with dearth,<br/> + Their lips together glued, fall to the earth.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now quick desire hath caught the yielding prey,<br/> +And glutton-like she feeds, yet never filleth; 548<br/> +Her lips are conquerors, his lips obey,<br/> +Paying what ransom the insulter willeth;<br/> + Whose vulture thought doth pitch the price so high,<br/> + That she will draw his lips’ rich treasure dry. 552<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And having felt the sweetness of the spoil,<br/> +With blindfold fury she begins to forage;<br/> +Her face doth reek and smoke, her blood doth boil,<br/> +And careless lust stirs up a desperate courage, 556<br/> + Planting oblivion, beating reason back,<br/> + Forgetting shame’s pure blush and honour’s wrack.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Hot, faint, and weary, with her hard embracing,<br/> +Like a wild bird being tam’d with too much handling,<br/> +Or as the fleet-foot roe that’s tir’d with chasing, 561<br/> +Or like the froward infant still’d with dandling:<br/> + He now obeys, and now no more resisteth,<br/> + While she takes all she can, not all she listeth. 564<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +What wax so frozen but dissolves with temp’ring,<br/> +And yields at last to every light impression?<br/> +Things out of hope are compass’d oft with vent’ring,<br/> +Chiefly in love, whose leave exceeds commission: 568<br/> + Affection faints not like a pale-fac’d coward,<br/> + But then woos best when most his choice is froward.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When he did frown, O had she then gave over,<br/> +Such nectar from his lips she had not suck’d. 572<br/> +Foul words and frowns must not repel a lover;<br/> +What though the rose have prickles, yet ’tis pluck’d.<br/> + Were beauty under twenty locks kept fast,<br/> + Yet love breaks through, and picks them all at last.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For pity now she can no more detain him; 577<br/> +The poor fool prays her that he may depart:<br/> +She is resolv’d no longer to restrain him,<br/> +Bids him farewell, and look well to her heart, 580<br/> + The which by Cupid’s bow she doth protest,<br/> + He carries thence encaged in his breast.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Sweet boy,” she says, “this night I’ll waste in sorrow,<br/> +For my sick heart commands mine eyes to watch. 584<br/> +Tell me, love’s master, shall we meet tomorrow<br/> +Say, shall we? shall we? wilt thou make the match?”<br/> + He tells her no, tomorrow he intends<br/> + To hunt the boar with certain of his friends. 588<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“The boar!” quoth she; whereat a sudden pale,<br/> +Like lawn being spread upon the blushing rose,<br/> +Usurps her cheek, she trembles at his tale,<br/> +And on his neck her yoking arms she throws. 592<br/> + She sinketh down, still hanging by his neck,<br/> + He on her belly falls, she on her back.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now is she in the very lists of love,<br/> +Her champion mounted for the hot encounter: 596<br/> +All is imaginary she doth prove,<br/> +He will not manage her, although he mount her;<br/> + That worse than Tantalus’ is her annoy,<br/> + To clip Elysium and to lack her joy. 600<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Even as poor birds, deceiv’d with painted grapes,<br/> +Do surfeit by the eye and pine the maw:<br/> +Even so she languisheth in her mishaps,<br/> +As those poor birds that helpless berries saw. 604<br/> + The warm effects which she in him finds missing,<br/> + She seeks to kindle with continual kissing.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But all in vain, good queen, it will not be,<br/> +She hath assay’d as much as may be prov’d; 608<br/> +Her pleading hath deserv’d a greater fee;<br/> +She’s love, she loves, and yet she is not lov’d.<br/> + “Fie, fie,” he says, “you crush me; let me go;<br/> + You have no reason to withhold me so.” 612<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Thou hadst been gone,” quoth she, “sweet boy, ere this,<br/> +But that thou told’st me thou wouldst hunt the boar.<br/> +Oh be advis’d; thou know’st not what it is,<br/> +With javelin’s point a churlish swine to gore, 616<br/> + Whose tushes never sheath’d he whetteth still,<br/> + Like to a mortal butcher, bent to kill.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“On his bow-back he hath a battle set<br/> +Of bristly pikes, that ever threat his foes; 620<br/> +His eyes like glow-worms shine when he doth fret;<br/> +His snout digs sepulchres where’er he goes;<br/> + Being mov’d, he strikes whate’er is in his way,<br/> + And whom he strikes his crooked tushes slay. 624<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“His brawny sides, with hairy bristles armed,<br/> +Are better proof than thy spear’s point can enter;<br/> +His short thick neck cannot be easily harmed;<br/> +Being ireful, on the lion he will venture: 628<br/> + The thorny brambles and embracing bushes,<br/> + As fearful of him, part, through whom he rushes.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Alas! he naught esteems that face of thine,<br/> +To which love’s eyes pay tributary gazes; 632<br/> +Nor thy soft hands, sweet lips, and crystal eyne,<br/> +Whose full perfection all the world amazes;<br/> + But having thee at vantage, wondrous dread!<br/> + Would root these beauties as he roots the mead.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Oh let him keep his loathsome cabin still, 637<br/> +Beauty hath naught to do with such foul fiends:<br/> +Come not within his danger by thy will;<br/> +They that thrive well, take counsel of their friends.<br/> + When thou didst name the boar, not to dissemble,<br/> + I fear’d thy fortune, and my joints did tremble.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Didst thou not mark my face, was it not white?<br/> +Saw’st thou not signs of fear lurk in mine eye? 644<br/> +Grew I not faint, and fell I not downright?<br/> +Within my bosom, whereon thou dost lie,<br/> + My boding heart pants, beats, and takes no rest,<br/> + But like an earthquake, shakes thee on my breast.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“For where love reigns, disturbing jealousy 649<br/> +Doth call himself affection’s sentinel;<br/> +Gives false alarms, suggesteth mutiny,<br/> +And in a peaceful hour doth cry “Kill, kill!” 652<br/> + Distemp’ring gentle love in his desire,<br/> + As air and water do abate the fire.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“This sour informer, this bate-breeding spy,<br/> +This canker that eats up love’s tender spring, 656<br/> +This carry-tale, dissentious jealousy,<br/> +That sometime true news, sometime false doth bring,<br/> + Knocks at my heart, and whispers in mine ear,<br/> + That if I love thee, I thy death should fear. 660<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“And more than so, presenteth to mine eye<br/> +The picture of an angry chafing boar,<br/> +Under whose sharp fangs on his back doth lie<br/> +An image like thyself, all stain’d with gore; 664<br/> + Whose blood upon the fresh flowers being shed,<br/> + Doth make them droop with grief and hang the head.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“What should I do, seeing thee so indeed,<br/> +That tremble at th’imagination? 668<br/> +The thought of it doth make my faint heart bleed,<br/> +And fear doth teach it divination:<br/> + I prophesy thy death, my living sorrow,<br/> + If thou encounter with the boar tomorrow. 672<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“But if thou needs wilt hunt, be rul’d by me;<br/> +Uncouple at the timorous flying hare,<br/> +Or at the fox which lives by subtilty,<br/> +Or at the roe which no encounter dare: 676<br/> + Pursue these fearful creatures o’er the downs,<br/> + And on thy well-breath’d horse keep with thy hounds.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“And when thou hast on foot the purblind hare,<br/> +Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles 680<br/> +How he outruns the wind, and with what care<br/> +He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles:<br/> + The many musits through the which he goes<br/> + Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes. 684<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Sometime he runs among a flock of sheep,<br/> +To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell,<br/> +And sometime where earth-delving conies keep,<br/> +To stop the loud pursuers in their yell, 688<br/> + And sometime sorteth with a herd of deer;<br/> + Danger deviseth shifts, wit waits on fear.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“For there his smell with others being mingled, 691<br/> +The hot scent-snuffing hounds are driven to doubt,<br/> +Ceasing their clamorous cry, till they have singled<br/> +With much ado the cold fault cleanly out;<br/> + Then do they spend their mouths: echo replies,<br/> + As if another chase were in the skies. 696<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“By this, poor Wat, far off upon a hill,<br/> +Stands on his hinder legs with list’ning ear,<br/> +To hearken if his foes pursue him still.<br/> +Anon their loud alarums he doth hear; 700<br/> + And now his grief may be compared well<br/> + To one sore sick that hears the passing bell.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Then shalt thou see the dew-bedabbled wretch<br/> +Turn, and return, indenting with the way, 704<br/> +Each envious briar his weary legs do scratch,<br/> +Each shadow makes him stop, each murmur stay:<br/> + For misery is trodden on by many,<br/> + And being low never reliev’d by any. 708<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Lie quietly, and hear a little more;<br/> +Nay, do not struggle, for thou shalt not rise:<br/> +To make thee hate the hunting of the boar,<br/> +Unlike myself thou hear’st me moralize, 712<br/> + Applying this to that, and so to so,<br/> + For love can comment upon every woe.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Where did I leave?” “No matter where,” quoth he<br/> +“Leave me, and then the story aptly ends: 716<br/> +The night is spent.” “Why, what of that?” quoth she.<br/> +“I am,” quoth he, “expected of my friends;<br/> + And now ’tis dark, and going I shall fall.”<br/> + “In night,” quoth she, “desire sees best of all.” 720<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +But if thou fall, oh then imagine this,<br/> +The earth, in love with thee, thy footing trips,<br/> +And all is but to rob thee of a kiss. 723<br/> +Rich preys make true men thieves; so do thy lips<br/> + Make modest Dian cloudy and forlorn,<br/> + Lest she should steal a kiss and die forsworn.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Now of this dark night I perceive the reason:<br/> +Cynthia for shame obscures her silver shine 728<br/> +Till forging nature be condemn’d of treason,<br/> +For stealing moulds from heaven, that were divine;<br/> + Wherein she fram’d thee, in high heaven’s despite,<br/> + To shame the sun by day and her by night. 732<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“And therefore hath she brib’d the destinies,<br/> +To cross the curious workmanship of nature,<br/> +To mingle beauty with infirmities,<br/> +And pure perfection with impure defeature, 736<br/> + Making it subject to the tyranny<br/> + Of mad mischances and much misery.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“As burning fevers, agues pale and faint,<br/> +Life-poisoning pestilence and frenzies wood, 740<br/> +The marrow-eating sickness, whose attaint<br/> +Disorder breeds by heating of the blood;<br/> + Surfeits, imposthumes, grief, and damn’d despair,<br/> + Swear nature’s death, for framing thee so fair. 744<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“And not the least of all these maladies<br/> +But in one minute’s fight brings beauty under:<br/> +Both favour, savour, hue and qualities,<br/> +Whereat th’impartial gazer late did wonder, 748<br/> + Are on the sudden wasted, thaw’d and done,<br/> + As mountain snow melts with the midday sun.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Therefore despite of fruitless chastity,<br/> +Love-lacking vestals and self-loving nuns, 752<br/> +That on the earth would breed a scarcity<br/> +And barren dearth of daughters and of sons,<br/> + Be prodigal: the lamp that burns by night<br/> + Dries up his oil to lend the world his light. 756<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“What is thy body but a swallowing grave,<br/> +Seeming to bury that posterity,<br/> +Which by the rights of time thou needs must have,<br/> +If thou destroy them not in dark obscurity? 760<br/> + If so, the world will hold thee in disdain,<br/> + Sith in thy pride so fair a hope is slain.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“So in thyself thyself art made away;<br/> +A mischief worse than civil home-bred strife, 764<br/> +Or theirs whose desperate hands themselves do slay,<br/> +Or butcher sire that reeves his son of life.<br/> + Foul cank’ring rust the hidden treasure frets,<br/> + But gold that’s put to use more gold begets.” 768<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Nay then,” quoth Adon, “you will fall again<br/> +Into your idle over-handled theme;<br/> +The kiss I gave you is bestow’d in vain,<br/> +And all in vain you strive against the stream; 772<br/> + For by this black-fac’d night, desire’s foul nurse,<br/> + Your treatise makes me like you worse and worse.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“If love have lent you twenty thousand tongues,<br/> +And every tongue more moving than your own, 776<br/> +Bewitching like the wanton mermaid’s songs,<br/> +Yet from mine ear the tempting tune is blown;<br/> + For know, my heart stands armed in mine ear,<br/> + And will not let a false sound enter there. 780<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Lest the deceiving harmony should run<br/> +Into the quiet closure of my breast,<br/> +And then my little heart were quite undone,<br/> +In his bedchamber to be barr’d of rest. 784<br/> + No, lady, no; my heart longs not to groan,<br/> + But soundly sleeps, while now it sleeps alone.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“What have you urg’d that I cannot reprove?<br/> +The path is smooth that leadeth on to danger; 790<br/> +I hate not love, but your device in love<br/> +That lends embracements unto every stranger.<br/> + You do it for increase: O strange excuse!<br/> + When reason is the bawd to lust’s abuse. 792<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Call it not love, for love to heaven is fled,<br/> +Since sweating lust on earth usurp’d his name;<br/> +Under whose simple semblance he hath fed<br/> +Upon fresh beauty, blotting it with blame; 796<br/> + Which the hot tyrant stains and soon bereaves,<br/> + As caterpillars do the tender leaves.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,<br/> +But lust’s effect is tempest after sun; 800<br/> +Love’s gentle spring doth always fresh remain,<br/> +Lust’s winter comes ere summer half be done.<br/> + Love surfeits not, lust like a glutton dies;<br/> + Love is all truth, lust full of forged lies. 804<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“More I could tell, but more I dare not say;<br/> +The text is old, the orator too green.<br/> +Therefore, in sadness, now I will away;<br/> +My face is full of shame, my heart of teen, 808<br/> + Mine ears, that to your wanton talk attended<br/> + Do burn themselves for having so offended.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +With this he breaketh from the sweet embrace 811<br/> +Of those fair arms which bound him to her breast,<br/> +And homeward through the dark laund runs apace;<br/> +Leaves love upon her back deeply distress’d.<br/> + Look how a bright star shooteth from the sky,<br/> + So glides he in the night from Venus’ eye. 816<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Which after him she darts, as one on shore<br/> +Gazing upon a late embarked friend,<br/> +Till the wild waves will have him seen no more,<br/> +Whose ridges with the meeting clouds contend: 820<br/> + So did the merciless and pitchy night<br/> + Fold in the object that did feed her sight.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whereat amaz’d, as one that unaware<br/> +Hath dropp’d a precious jewel in the flood, 824<br/> +Or ’stonish’d as night-wanderers often are,<br/> +Their light blown out in some mistrustful wood;<br/> + Even so confounded in the dark she lay,<br/> + Having lost the fair discovery of her way. 828<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And now she beats her heart, whereat it groans,<br/> +That all the neighbour caves, as seeming troubled,<br/> +Make verbal repetition of her moans;<br/> +Passion on passion deeply is redoubled: 832<br/> + “Ay me!” she cries, and twenty times, “Woe, woe!”<br/> + And twenty echoes twenty times cry so.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +She marking them, begins a wailing note,<br/> +And sings extemporally a woeful ditty; 836<br/> +How love makes young men thrall, and old men dote,<br/> +How love is wise in folly foolish witty:<br/> + Her heavy anthem still concludes in woe,<br/> + And still the choir of echoes answer so. 840<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Her song was tedious, and outwore the night,<br/> +For lovers’ hours are long, though seeming short,<br/> +If pleas’d themselves, others they think, delight<br/> +In such like circumstance, with such like sport: 844<br/> + Their copious stories oftentimes begun,<br/> + End without audience, and are never done.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For who hath she to spend the night withal,<br/> +But idle sounds resembling parasites; 848<br/> +Like shrill-tongu’d tapsters answering every call,<br/> +Soothing the humour of fantastic wits?<br/> + She says, “’Tis so:” they answer all, “’Tis so;”<br/> + And would say after her, if she said “No.” 852<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Lo here the gentle lark, weary of rest,<br/> +From his moist cabinet mounts up on high,<br/> +And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast<br/> +The sun ariseth in his majesty; 856<br/> + Who doth the world so gloriously behold,<br/> + That cedar tops and hills seem burnish’d gold.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Venus salutes him with this fair good morrow:<br/> +“Oh thou clear god, and patron of all light, 860<br/> +From whom each lamp and shining star doth borrow<br/> +The beauteous influence that makes him bright,<br/> + There lives a son that suck’d an earthly mother,<br/> + May lend thee light, as thou dost lend to other.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This said, she hasteth to a myrtle grove, 865<br/> +Musing the morning is so much o’erworn,<br/> +And yet she hears no tidings of her love;<br/> +She hearkens for his hounds and for his horn. 868<br/> + Anon she hears them chant it lustily,<br/> + And all in haste she coasteth to the cry.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And as she runs, the bushes in the way<br/> +Some catch her by the neck, some kiss her face, 872<br/> +Some twine about her thigh to make her stay:<br/> +She wildly breaketh from their strict embrace,<br/> + Like a milch doe, whose swelling dugs do ache,<br/> + Hasting to feed her fawn hid in some brake. 876<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +By this she hears the hounds are at a bay,<br/> +Whereat she starts like one that spies an adder<br/> +Wreath’d up in fatal folds just in his way,<br/> +The fear whereof doth make him shake and shudder; 880<br/> + Even so the timorous yelping of the hounds<br/> + Appals her senses, and her spirit confounds.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +For now she knows it is no gentle chase,<br/> +But the blunt boar, rough bear, or lion proud, 884<br/> +Because the cry remaineth in one place,<br/> +Where fearfully the dogs exclaim aloud,<br/> + Finding their enemy to be so curst,<br/> + They all strain court’sy who shall cope him first. 888<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This dismal cry rings sadly in her ear,<br/> +Through which it enters to surprise her heart;<br/> +Who overcome by doubt and bloodless fear,<br/> +With cold-pale weakness numbs each feeling part; 892<br/> + Like soldiers when their captain once doth yield,<br/> + They basely fly and dare not stay the field.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus stands she in a trembling ecstasy,<br/> +Till cheering up her senses sore dismay’d, 896<br/> +She tells them ’tis a causeless fantasy,<br/> +And childish error, that they are afraid;<br/> + Bids them leave quaking, bids them fear no more:<br/> + And with that word, she spied the hunted boar. 900<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whose frothy mouth bepainted all with red,<br/> +Like milk and blood being mingled both together,<br/> +A second fear through all her sinews spread,<br/> +Which madly hurries her she knows not whither: 904<br/> + This way she runs, and now she will no further,<br/> + But back retires, to rate the boar for murther.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +A thousand spleens bear her a thousand ways,<br/> +She treads the path that she untreads again; 908<br/> +Her more than haste is mated with delays,<br/> +Like the proceedings of a drunken brain,<br/> + Full of respects, yet naught at all respecting,<br/> + In hand with all things, naught at all effecting.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Here kennel’d in a brake she finds a hound, 913<br/> +And asks the weary caitiff for his master,<br/> +And there another licking of his wound,<br/> +’Gainst venom’d sores the only sovereign plaster. 916<br/> + And here she meets another sadly scowling,<br/> + To whom she speaks, and he replies with howling.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +When he hath ceas’d his ill-resounding noise,<br/> +Another flap-mouth’d mourner, black and grim, 920<br/> +Against the welkin volleys out his voice;<br/> +Another and another answer him,<br/> + Clapping their proud tails to the ground below,<br/> + Shaking their scratch’d ears, bleeding as they go.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Look how the world’s poor people are amazed 925<br/> +At apparitions, signs, and prodigies,<br/> +Whereon with fearful eyes they long have gazed,<br/> +Infusing them with dreadful prophecies; 928<br/> + So she at these sad signs draws up her breath,<br/> + And sighing it again, exclaims on death.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Hard-favour’d tyrant, ugly, meagre, lean, 931<br/> +Hateful divorce of love,” thus chides she death,<br/> +“Grim-grinning ghost, earth’s worm, what dost thou mean?<br/> +To stifle beauty and to steal his breath,<br/> + Who when he liv’d, his breath and beauty set<br/> + Gloss on the rose, smell to the violet. 936<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“If he be dead, O no, it cannot be,<br/> +Seeing his beauty, thou shouldst strike at it,<br/> +O yes, it may, thou hast no eyes to see,<br/> +But hatefully at random dost thou hit. 940<br/> + Thy mark is feeble age, but thy false dart<br/> + Mistakes that aim, and cleaves an infant’s heart.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Hadst thou but bid beware, then he had spoke,<br/> +And hearing him, thy power had lost his power. 944<br/> +The destinies will curse thee for this stroke;<br/> +They bid thee crop a weed, thou pluck’st a flower.<br/> + Love’s golden arrow at him should have fled,<br/> + And not death’s ebon dart to strike him dead. 948<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Dost thou drink tears, that thou provok’st such weeping?<br/> +What may a heavy groan advantage thee?<br/> +Why hast thou cast into eternal sleeping<br/> +Those eyes that taught all other eyes to see? 952<br/> + Now nature cares not for thy mortal vigour,<br/> + Since her best work is ruin’d with thy rigour.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Here overcome, as one full of despair,<br/> +She vail’d her eyelids, who like sluices stopp’d 956<br/> +The crystal tide that from her two cheeks fair<br/> +In the sweet channel of her bosom dropp’d<br/> + But through the flood-gates breaks the silver rain,<br/> + And with his strong course opens them again. 960<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O how her eyes and tears did lend and borrow;<br/> +Her eyes seen in the tears, tears in her eye;<br/> +Both crystals, where they view’d each other’s sorrow,<br/> +Sorrow that friendly sighs sought still to dry; 964<br/> + But like a stormy day, now wind, now rain,<br/> + Sighs dry her cheeks, tears make them wet again.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Variable passions throng her constant woe,<br/> +As striving who should best become her grief; 968<br/> +All entertain’d, each passion labours so,<br/> +That every present sorrow seemeth chief,<br/> + But none is best, then join they all together,<br/> + Like many clouds consulting for foul weather. 972<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +By this, far off she hears some huntsman holla;<br/> +A nurse’s song ne’er pleas’d her babe so well:<br/> +The dire imagination she did follow<br/> +This sound of hope doth labour to expel; 976<br/> + For now reviving joy bids her rejoice,<br/> + And flatters her it is Adonis’ voice.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whereat her tears began to turn their tide,<br/> +Being prison’d in her eye, like pearls in glass; 980<br/> +Yet sometimes falls an orient drop beside,<br/> +Which her cheek melts, as scorning it should pass<br/> + To wash the foul face of the sluttish ground,<br/> + Who is but drunken when she seemeth drown’d.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O hard-believing love, how strange it seems 985<br/> +Not to believe, and yet too credulous;<br/> +Thy weal and woe are both of them extremes;<br/> +Despair and hope make thee ridiculous, 988<br/> + The one doth flatter thee in thoughts unlikely,<br/> + In likely thoughts the other kills thee quickly.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Now she unweaves the web that she hath wrought,<br/> +Adonis lives, and death is not to blame; 992<br/> +It was not she that call’d him all to naught;<br/> +Now she adds honours to his hateful name.<br/> + She clepes him king of graves, and grave for kings,<br/> + Imperious supreme of all mortal things. 996<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“No, no,” quoth she, “sweet death, I did but jest;<br/> +Yet pardon me, I felt a kind of fear<br/> +Whenas I met the boar, that bloody beast,<br/> +Which knows no pity, but is still severe; 1000<br/> + Then, gentle shadow,—truth I must confess—<br/> + I rail’d on thee, fearing my love’s decease.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“’Tis not my fault, the boar provok’d my tongue;<br/> +Be wreak’d on him, invisible commander; 1004<br/> +’Tis he, foul creature, that hath done thee wrong;<br/> +I did but act, he’s author of my slander.<br/> + Grief hath two tongues, and never woman yet,<br/> + Could rule them both, without ten women’s wit.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus hoping that Adonis is alive, 1009<br/> +Her rash suspect she doth extenuate;<br/> +And that his beauty may the better thrive,<br/> +With death she humbly doth insinuate; 1012<br/> + Tells him of trophies, statues, tombs and stories<br/> + His victories, his triumphs and his glories.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“O love!” quoth she, “how much a fool was I,<br/> +To be of such a weak and silly mind, 1016<br/> +To wail his death who lives, and must not die<br/> +Till mutual overthrow of mortal kind;<br/> + For he being dead, with him is beauty slain,<br/> + And beauty dead, black Chaos comes again. 1020<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Fie, fie, fond love, thou art as full of fear<br/> +As one with treasure laden, hemm’d with thieves,<br/> +Trifles unwitnessed with eye or ear,<br/> +Thy coward heart with false bethinking grieves.” 1024<br/> + Even at this word she hears a merry horn,<br/> + Whereat she leaps that was but late forlorn.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +As falcon to the lure, away she flies;<br/> +The grass stoops not, she treads on it so light, 1028<br/> +And in her haste unfortunately spies<br/> +The foul boar’s conquest on her fair delight;<br/> + Which seen, her eyes, as murder’d with the view,<br/> + Like stars asham’d of day, themselves withdrew.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Or as the snail, whose tender horns being hit, 1033<br/> +Shrinks backwards in his shelly cave with pain,<br/> +And there all smother’d up, in shade doth sit,<br/> +Long after fearing to creep forth again: 1036<br/> + So at his bloody view her eyes are fled<br/> + Into the deep dark cabins of her head.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Where they resign their office and their light<br/> +To the disposing of her troubled brain, 1040<br/> +Who bids them still consort with ugly night,<br/> +And never wound the heart with looks again;<br/> + Who like a king perplexed in his throne,<br/> + By their suggestion gives a deadly groan. 1044<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Whereat each tributary subject quakes,<br/> +As when the wind imprison’d in the ground,<br/> +Struggling for passage, earth’s foundation shakes,<br/> +Which with cold terror doth men’s minds confound.<br/> + This mutiny each part doth so surprise 1049<br/> + That from their dark beds once more leap her eyes.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +And being open’d, threw unwilling light<br/> +Upon the wide wound that the boar had trench’d<br/> +In his soft flank, whose wonted lily white 1053<br/> +With purple tears that his wound wept, was drench’d.<br/> + No flower was nigh, no grass, herb, leaf or weed,<br/> + But stole his blood and seem’d with him to bleed.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +This solemn sympathy poor Venus noteth, 1057<br/> +Over one shoulder doth she hang her head,<br/> +Dumbly she passions, franticly she doteth;<br/> +She thinks he could not die, he is not dead: 1060<br/> + Her voice is stopp’d, her joints forget to bow,<br/> + Her eyes are mad, that they have wept till now.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Upon his hurt she looks so steadfastly,<br/> +That her sight dazzling makes the wound seem three;<br/> +And then she reprehends her mangling eye, 1065<br/> +That makes more gashes, where no breach should be:<br/> + His face seems twain, each several limb is doubled,<br/> + For oft the eye mistakes, the brain being troubled.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“My tongue cannot express my grief for one, 1069<br/> +And yet,” quoth she, “behold two Adons dead!<br/> +My sighs are blown away, my salt tears gone,<br/> +Mine eyes are turn’d to fire, my heart to lead: 1072<br/> + Heavy heart’s lead, melt at mine eyes’ red fire!<br/> + So shall I die by drops of hot desire.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Alas poor world, what treasure hast thou lost!<br/> +What face remains alive that’s worth the viewing?<br/> +Whose tongue is music now? what canst thou boast<br/> +Of things long since, or anything ensuing? 1078<br/> + The flowers are sweet, their colours fresh and trim,<br/> + But true sweet beauty liv’d and died with him.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Bonnet nor veil henceforth no creature wear! 1081<br/> +Nor sun nor wind will ever strive to kiss you:<br/> +Having no fair to lose, you need not fear;<br/> +The sun doth scorn you, and the wind doth hiss you.<br/> + But when Adonis liv’d, sun and sharp air 1085<br/> + Lurk’d like two thieves, to rob him of his fair.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“And therefore would he put his bonnet on,<br/> +Under whose brim the gaudy sun would peep; 1088<br/> +The wind would blow it off, and being gone,<br/> +Play with his locks; then would Adonis weep;<br/> + And straight, in pity of his tender years,<br/> + They both would strive who first should dry his tears.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“To see his face the lion walk’d along 1093<br/> +Behind some hedge, because he would not fear him;<br/> +To recreate himself when he hath sung,<br/> +The tiger would be tame and gently hear him. 1096<br/> + If he had spoke, the wolf would leave his prey,<br/> + And never fright the silly lamb that day.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“When he beheld his shadow in the brook,<br/> +The fishes spread on it their golden gills; 1100<br/> +When he was by, the birds such pleasure took,<br/> +That some would sing, some other in their bills<br/> + Would bring him mulberries and ripe-red cherries,<br/> + He fed them with his sight, they him with berries.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“But this foul, grim, and urchin-snouted boar, 1105<br/> +Whose downward eye still looketh for a grave,<br/> +Ne’er saw the beauteous livery that he wore;<br/> +Witness the entertainment that he gave. 1108<br/> + If he did see his face, why then I know<br/> + He thought to kiss him, and hath kill’d him so.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“’Tis true, ’tis true; thus was Adonis slain:<br/> +He ran upon the boar with his sharp spear, 1112<br/> +Who did not whet his teeth at him again,<br/> +But by a kiss thought to persuade him there;<br/> + And nuzzling in his flank, the loving swine<br/> + Sheath’d unaware the tusk in his soft groin. 1116<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Had I been tooth’d like him, I must confess,<br/> +With kissing him I should have kill’d him first;<br/> +But he is dead, and never did he bless<br/> +My youth with his; the more am I accurst.” 1120<br/> + With this she falleth in the place she stood,<br/> + And stains her face with his congealed blood.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +She looks upon his lips, and they are pale;<br/> +She takes him by the hand, and that is cold, 1124<br/> +She whispers in his ears a heavy tale,<br/> +As if they heard the woeful words she told;<br/> +She lifts the coffer-lids that close his eyes,<br/> +Where lo, two lamps burnt out in darkness lies.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Two glasses where herself herself beheld 1129<br/> +A thousand times, and now no more reflect;<br/> +Their virtue lost, wherein they late excell’d,<br/> +And every beauty robb’d of his effect. 1132<br/> + “Wonder of time,” quoth she, “this is my spite,<br/> + That thou being dead, the day should yet be light.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Since thou art dead, lo here I prophesy,<br/> +Sorrow on love hereafter shall attend: 1136<br/> +It shall be waited on with jealousy,<br/> +Find sweet beginning, but unsavoury end;<br/> + Ne’er settled equally, but high or low,<br/> + That all love’s pleasure shall not match his woe.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“It shall be fickle, false and full of fraud, 1141<br/> +Bud, and be blasted in a breathing while;<br/> +The bottom poison, and the top o’erstraw’d<br/> +With sweets that shall the truest sight beguile. 1144<br/> + The strongest body shall it make most weak,<br/> + Strike the wise dumb, and teach the fool to speak.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“It shall be sparing, and too full of riot,<br/> +Teaching decrepit age to tread the measures; 1148<br/> +The staring ruffian shall it keep in quiet,<br/> +Pluck down the rich, enrich the poor with treasures;<br/> + It shall be raging mad, and silly mild,<br/> + Make the young old, the old become a child. 1152<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“It shall suspect where is no cause of fear,<br/> +It shall not fear where it should most mistrust;<br/> +It shall be merciful, and too severe,<br/> +And most deceiving when it seems most just; 1156<br/> + Perverse it shall be, where it shows most toward,<br/> + Put fear to valour, courage to the coward.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“It shall be cause of war and dire events,<br/> +And set dissension ’twixt the son and sire; 1160<br/> +Subject and servile to all discontents,<br/> +As dry combustious matter is to fire,<br/> + Sith in his prime death doth my love destroy,<br/> + They that love best their love shall not enjoy.” 1164<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +By this the boy that by her side lay kill’d<br/> +Was melted like a vapour from her sight,<br/> +And in his blood that on the ground lay spill’d,<br/> +A purple flower sprung up, chequer’d with white, 1168<br/> + Resembling well his pale cheeks, and the blood<br/> + Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +She bows her head, the new-sprung flower to smell,<br/> +Comparing it to her Adonis’ breath; 1172<br/> +And says within her bosom it shall dwell,<br/> +Since he himself is reft from her by death;<br/> + She crops the stalk, and in the breach appears<br/> + Green-dropping sap, which she compares to tears.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Poor flower,” quoth she, “this was thy father’s guise,<br/> +Sweet issue of a more sweet-smelling sire,<br/> +For every little grief to wet his eyes,<br/> +To grow unto himself was his desire, 1180<br/> + And so ’tis thine; but know, it is as good<br/> + To wither in my breast as in his blood.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +“Here was thy father’s bed, here in my breast;<br/> +Thou art the next of blood, and ’tis thy right: 1184<br/> +Lo in this hollow cradle take thy rest,<br/> +My throbbing heart shall rock thee day and night:<br/> + There shall not be one minute in an hour<br/> + Wherein I will not kiss my sweet love’s flower.”<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Thus weary of the world, away she hies, 1189<br/> +And yokes her silver doves; by whose swift aid<br/> +Their mistress mounted through the empty skies,<br/> +In her light chariot quickly is convey’d; 1192<br/> + Holding their course to Paphos, where their queen<br/> + Means to immure herself and not be seen.<br/><br/> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +FINIS +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1045 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + |