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data/examples/dgrep/data/shakespeare/poetry/venusandadonis

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