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.-Your honour's in all duty,

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

Vilia miretur vulgus, mihi flavus Apollo
Poculo Castalia plena ministret aqua.-OVID.

ARGUMENT. Venus in vain endeavours to inspire her favourite Adonis with a mutual passion, and to dissuade him from a too eager pursuit of the pleasures of the chase. The youth rejects the overtures, and disregards the advice of the goddess, and is mortally wounded by a wild boar: his body is changed into a flower called anemone by his disconsolate mistress, who, after tenderly lamenting his untimely death, is conveyed in the clouds to Paphos.

E

VEN as the sun with purple-coloured face

Had ta'en his last leave of the weeping morn, Rose-cheeked Adonis† hied him to the chase; Hunting he loved, but love he laughed to scorn;

after which he retired in disgust to Spa. During his residence abroad he was engaged with Lord Herbert of Cherbury at the siege of Rees; and in 1619 returned to England, and was appointed a privy councillor. Joining the popular party, he again incurred the anger of the Court, and was committed for a short time to the custody of the Dean of Westminster. In 1624 he obtained the command of a small force which was sent into the Low Countries to act against the Spaniards, when he was seized by a fever at Bergen-op-Zoom, and died on the roth Nov. in that year. Southampton is known to posterity chiefly by his friendship for Shakspeare, a circumstance which has invested his name with permanent interest. He was a zealous supporter of the players, and appears to have been on intimate terms with most of the celebrated persons of his time. Camden says that he was as much distinguished by his love of literature as by his military exploits; and Sir John Beaumont, after exhausting the language of panegyric upon his public and domestic virtues, refers to his patronage of men of merit as the noblest attribute of his character:

I keep that glory last, which is the best;
The love of learning, which he oft expressed
By conversation, and respect to those
Who had a name in arts, in verse or prose.
* Till.-See note, post, p. 154.

† For his sake whom their goddess held so dear,
Rose-cheeked Adonis, kept a solemn feast, &c.

MARLOWE.-Hero and Leander,

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 blushed and pouted in a dull disdain,
With leaden appetite, unapt to toy;

Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I cannot scratch mine ear.—Antony and Cleopatra, i. 2.

Oth. Give me your hand: this hand is moist, my lady.

Des. It yet has felt no age, nor known no sorrow.

Oth. This argues fruitfulness, and liberal heart;

Hot, hot, and moist.-Othello, iii. 4.

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; (0, how quick is love!)
The steed is stalled up, and even now
To tie the rider she begins to prove:

Backward she pushed him, as she would be thrust;
And governed 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 stuffed, or prey be gone;
Even so she kissed his brow, his cheek, his chin;
And where she ends, she doth anew begin.

*Wet with my tears, and dried again with sighs. MARLOWE.-Edward II.

+ Misbehaviour.

A term in falconry, from tirer, Fr., to draw, drag, tear. The hawk is said to tire on its prey when it is thrown to her, and she tears it. Here, and in the following passage, the word is applied to the hungry eagle :

Whose haughty spirit, wingèd with desire,

Will cost my crown, and, like an empty eagle,

Tire on the flesh of me and of my son.

3 Henry VI. i. 1.

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 dewed with such distilling showers.
Look, how a bird lies tangled in a net,

So fastened 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 lowers and frets,
"Twixt crimson shame, and anger ashy-pale:

Being red, she loves him best; and being white,
Her best is bettered 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 rained, 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 looked on, ducks as quickly in;
So offers he to give what she did crave;

*To be content, to submit, to acquiesce. Malone observes that content is a substantive, and means acquiescence. But it is also a verb, in which application it seems to be used here, as in many other places.

Basta, content thee.-Taming of a Shrew, i. 1.

Pray you, content you.-Troilus and Cress. iii. 2.
It doth much content me.-Hamlet, ii. 2.

† Abounding, full.

The dabchick or didapper, a species of Colymbus.

pay,

But when her lips were ready for his
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 wooed, 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 begged for that which thou unasked shalt have.

'Over my altars hath he hung his lance,

His battered shield, his uncontrolled crest;

And for my sake hath learned 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 over-ruled, I over-swayed,
Leading him prisoner in a red-rose chain:
Strong-tempered steel his stronger strength obeyed,
Yet was he servile to my coy disdain.

O, be not proud, nor brag not of thy might,
For mastering her that foiled 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 eyeballs; 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: