Antony and Cleopatra. Cymbeline. Pericles. Poems

Sweet rose, fair flower, untimely pluck'd, soon vaded,*

*Faded.

Pluck'd in the bud, and vaded in the spring!
Bright orient pearl, alack, too timely shaded!
Fair creature, kill'd too soon by death's 'sharp
sting!

Like a green plum that hangs upon a tree,

And falls, through wind, before the fall should be.

weep for thee, and yet no cause I have;
For why thou left'st me nothing in thy will:
And yet thou left'st me more than I did crave;
For why I craved nothing of thee still:

O yes, dear friend, I pardon crave of thee,
Thy discontent thou didst bequeath to me.

XI.

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Venus, with young Adonis sitting by her
Under a myrtle shade, began to woo him:
She told the youngling how god Mars did try
her,

And as he fell to her, so fell she to him.

'Even thus,' quoth she, 'the warlike god embraced me,'

And then she clipp'd* Adonis in her arms;

'Even thus,' quoth she, 'the warlike god unlaced

me,'

*Embraced.

150

As if the boy should use like loving charms;
'Even thus,' quoth she, 'he seized on my lips,'
And with her lips on his did act the seizure:
And as she fetched breath, away he skips,
And would not take her meaning nor her pleasure.
Ah, that I had my lady at this bay,
To kiss and clip me till I run away!

XII.

Crabbed age and youth cannot live together: Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather; Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare.

Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short; 161
Youth is nimble, age is lame;

Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold;
Youth is wild, and age is tame.

Age, I do abhor thee; youth, I do adore thee;
O, my love, my love is young!

Age, I do defy thee: O, sweet shepherd, hie thee,
For methinks thou stay'st too long.

XIII.

Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good;
A shining gloss that vadeth* suddenly;
A flower that dies when first it gins to bud;
A brittle glass that's broken presently:

A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour.

*Fadeth.

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And as goods lost are seld* or never found, *Seldom.
As vaded gloss no rubbing will refresh,
As flowers dead lie wither'd on the ground,
As broken glass no cement can redress,

So beauty blemish'd once's for ever lost,

In spite of physic, painting, pain and cost. 180

XIV.

Good night, good rest. Ah, neither be my share:
She bade good night that kept my rest away;
And daff'd* me to a cabin hang'd with care,
To descant on the doubts of my decay.

* Put me off.

'Farewell,' quoth she, 'and come again to

morrow:

Fare well I could not, for I supp'd with sorrow.

Yet at my parting sweetly did she smile,
In scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether:
'T may be, she joy'd to jest at my exile,

'T may be, again to make me wander thither:
'Wander,' a word for shadows like myself, 191
As take the pain, but cannot pluck the pelf.

XV.

Lord, how mine eyes throw gazes to the east!
My heart doth charge the watch; the morning rise

Doth cite* each moving sense from idle rest. *Urge. Not daring trust the office of mine eyes,

While Philomela sits and sings, I sit and mark,
And wish her lays were tuned like the lark;

For she doth welcome daylight with her ditty,
And drives away dark dismal-dreaming night:
The night so pack'd, I post unto my pretty;
Heart hath his hope, and eyes their wished sight;
Sorrow changed to solace, solace mix'd with

sorrow;

201

For why, she sigh'd and bade me come to

morrow.

Were I with her, the night would post too soon;
But now are minutes added to the hours;

To spite me now, each minute seems a moon;
Yet not for me, shine sun to succour flowers!
Pack night, peep day; good day, of night now
borrow:

Short, night, to-night, and length thyself to

morrow.

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SONNETS TO SUNDRY NOTES

OF MUSIC.

[XVI.]

It was a lording's daughter, the fairest one of three,

That liked of her master as well as well might be, Till looking on an Englishman, the fair'st that eye could see,

Her fancy fell a-turning.

Long was the combat doubtful that love with love did fight,

To leave the master loveless, or kill the gallant knight:

To put in practice either, alas, it was a spite

Unto the silly damsel!

But one must be refused; more mickle was the pain

That nothing could be used to turn them both to

gain,

220

For of the two the trusty knight was wounded with disdain:

Alas, she could not help it!

Thus art with arms contending was victor of the day,

Which by a gift of learning did bear the maid

away:

Then, lullaby, the learned man hath got the lady gay;

For now my song is ended.

XVII.

On a day, alack the day!

Love, whose month was ever May,

Spied a blossom passing fair,

Playing in the wanton air:

230

Through the velvet leaves the wind,

All unseen, gan passage find;

That the lover, sick to death,

Wish'd himself the heaven's breath,

'Air,' quoth he, 'thy cheeks may blow;
Air, would I might triumph so!"
But, alas! my hand hath sworn

Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn:
Vow, alack! for youth unmeet:
Youth, so apt to pluck a sweet.

240

Thou for whom Jove would swear
Juno but an Ethiope were;
And deny himself for Jove,
Turning mortal for thy love.'

[xvIII.]

My flocks feed not,
My ewes breed not,
My rams speed not,

All is amiss:
Love's denying,
Faith's defying,

Heart's renying,

Causer of this.

250

All my merry jigs are quite forgot,
All my lady's love is lost, God wot:
Where her faith was firmly fix'd in love,
There a nay is placed without remove.
One silly cross

Wrought all my loss;

O frowning Fortune, cursed, fickle dame! For now I see

Inconstancy

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