TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY WRIOTHESLY, EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON, AND BARON OF TICHFIELD. 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 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. VENUS AND ADONIS. EVEN as the sun with purple-colour'd face Thrice fairer than myself, (thus she began) Nature that made thee, with herself at strife, Vouchsafe, thou wonder, to alight thy steed, Here come and sit, where never serpent hisses, And yet not cloy thy lips with loath'd satiety, With this she seizeth on his sweating palm, Being so enrag'd, desire doth lend her force Over one arm the lusty courser's rein, She red and hot as coals of glowing fire, The studded bridle on a ragged bough To tie the rider she begins to prove : Backward she push'd him, as she would be thrust, So soon was she along, as he was down, And kissing speaks, with lustful language broken, He burns with bashful shame, she with her tears He saith she is immodest, blames her 'miss; Even as an empty eagle, sharp by fast, blames her 'MISS; What follows more she MURDERS with a kiss.] The word "amiss" was not unfrequently used as a substantive in the time of Shakespeare. "She murders with a kiss" is the reading of the editions of 1593, 1594, and 1596: the editions of 1600 and 1620, as well as that printed at Edinburgh in 1627, have smothers for "murders." Fore'd to content', but never to obey, Look how a bird lies tangled in a net, So fasten'd in her arms Adonis lies; Pure shame and aw'd resistance made him fret, Still she entreats, and prettily entreats, Still is he sullen, still he lowers and frets, Being red, she loves him best; and being white, Look how he can, she cannot choose but love; Till he take truce with her contending tears, Which long have rain'd, making her cheeks all wet; Upon this promise did he raise his chin, But when her lips were ready for his pay, Never did passenger in summer's heat, More thirst for drink than she for this good turn. 2 Forc'd to content,] i. e. Forc'd to be content, or compell'd to acquiescence. 3 - a river that is RANK,] "A river that is rank " is a river that is already full. See Vol. vii. p. 49. Drayton, in his " Barons' Wars," b. i. has 66 Fetching full tides, luxurious, high and rank." For to a pretty EAR she tunes her tale ;] So all the old copies; but possibly "ear" was originally a misprint for air. |