The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  Venus and Adonis is a mythological poem whose landscape is inhabited by none but the lovers and those members of the animal kingdom—the lustful stallion, the timorous hare (679-708), the sensitive snail (I033-6), and the savage boar—which reflect their passions. The boar’s disruption of the harmony that existed between Adonis and the animals will, says Venus, result in eternal discord: ‘Sorrow on love hereafter shall attend’ (II36).

  In Shakespeare’s own time, Venus and Adonis was his most frequently reprinted work, with at least ten editions during his life, and another half-dozen by I636. Like his other non-dramatic works, it was not included in the Folio of I623. It fell out of fashion until Coleridge wrote enthusiastically about it in Biographia Literaria (I8I7). Though its conscious artifice may limit its appeal, it is a brilliantly sophisticated erotic comedy, a counterpart in verbal ingenuity to Love’s Labour’s Lost; the comedy of the poem, like that of the play, is darkened and deepened in its later stages by the shadow of sudden death.

  Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi flavus Apollo Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua.

  TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY WRIOTHESLEY, EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON, AND BARON OF TITCHFIELD

  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 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 Shakespeare

  Venus and Adonis

  Even 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.

  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 fields’ 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 sat, 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.

  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 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.

  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 lours 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 divedapper peering through a wave

  Who, being looked 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 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 overswayed,

  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 mast’ring 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.

  Love keeps his revels where there are but twain.

  Be bold to play—our sport is not in sight.

  These blue-veined 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 gathered in their prime

  Rot, and consume themselves in little time.

  ‘Were I hard-favoured, foul, or wrinkled-old,

  Ill-nurtured, crooked, churlish, harsh in voice,

  O’er-worn, 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 grey, 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, dishevelled 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 should 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 lovesick queen began to sweat,

  For where they lay the shadow had forsook them,

  And Titan, tired in the midday 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 sprite

  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 mak’st 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 int’rest, if thou wilt have twain.

  ‘Fie, lifeless picture, cold and senseless stone,

  Well painted idol, image dull 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 her 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.

  Sometime she shakes her head, and then his hand;

  Now gazeth she on him, now on the ground.

  Sometime her arms enfold 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 hemmed 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, t
hese round enchanting pits,

  Opened 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 the 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 neighbours by

  A breeding jennet, lusty, young, and proud,

  Adonis’ trampling courser doth espy,

  And forth she rushes, snorts, and neighs aloud.

  The strong-necked steed, being tied unto a tree,

  Breaketh his rein, and to her straight goes he.