s: But she hath lost a dearer thing than life,


s: And he hath won what he would lose again:


s: This forced league doth force a further strife;


s: This momentary joy breeds months of pain;


s: This hot desire converts to cold disdain:


s: And Lust, the thief, far poorer than before.


s: Look, as the full-fed hound or gorged hawk,


s: Unapt for tender smell or speedy flight,


s: The prey wherein by nature they delight;


s: So surfeit-taking Tarquin fares this night:


s: His taste delicious, in digestion souring,


s: Devours his will, that lived by foul devouring.


s: While Lust is in his pride, no exclamation


s: Can curb his heat or rein his rash desire,


s: Till like a jade Self-will himself doth tire.


s: And then with lank and lean discolour'd cheek,


s: With heavy eye, knit brow, and strengthless pace,


s: Feebly Desire, all recreant, poor, and meek,


s: Like to a bankrupt beggar wails his case:


s: The flesh being proud, Desire doth fight with Grace,


s: For there it revels; and when that decays,


s: So fares it with this faultful lord of Rome,


s: Who this accomplishment so hotly chased;


s: For now against himself he sounds this doom,


s: That through the length of times he stands disgraced:


s: Besides, his soul's fair temple is defaced;


s: To whose weak ruins muster troops of cares,


s: To ask the spotted princess how she fares.


s: She says, her subjects with foul insurrection


s: Have batter'd down her consecrated wall,


s: And by their mortal fault brought in subjection


s: Which in her prescience she controlled still,


s: But her foresight could not forestall their will.


s: Even in this thought through the dark night he stealeth,


s: A captive victor that hath lost in gain;


s: Bearing away the wound that nothing healeth,


s: The scar that will, despite of cure, remain;


s: Leaving his spoil perplex'd in greater pain.


s: She hears the load of lust he left behind,


s: He like a thievish dog creeps sadly thence;


s: She like a wearied lamb lies panting there;


s: He scowls and hates himself for his offence;


s: She, desperate, with her nails her flesh doth tear;


s: He faintly flies, sweating with guilty fear;


s: She stays, exclaiming on the direful night;


s: He runs, and chides his vanish'd, loathed delight.


s: He in his speed looks for the morning light;


s: 'For day,' quoth she, 'night's scapes doth open lay,


s: And my true eyes have never practised how


s: 'They think not but that every eye can see


s: The same disgrace which they themselves behold;


s: And therefore would they still in darkness be,


s: For they their guilt with weeping will unfold,


s: And grave, like water that doth eat in steel,


s: Upon my cheeks what helpless shame I feel.'


s: Here she exclaims against repose and rest,


s: And bids her eyes hereafter still be blind.


s: She wakes her heart by beating on her breast,


s: And bids it leap from thence, where it may find


s: Some purer chest to close so pure a mind.


s: Frantic with grief thus breathes she forth her spite


s: 'O comfort-killing Night, image of hell!


s: Black stage for tragedies and murders fell!


s: Vast sin-concealing chaos! nurse of blame!


s: Blind muffled bawd! dark harbour for defame!


s: Grim cave of death! whispering conspirator


s: With close-tongued treason and the ravisher!


s: Since thou art guilty of my cureless crime,


s: Muster thy mists to meet the eastern light,


s: Make war against proportion'd course of time;


s: His wonted height, yet ere he go to bed,


s: Knit poisonous clouds about his golden head.


s: 'With rotten damps ravish the morning air;


s: Let their exhaled unwholesome breaths make sick


s: Ere he arrive his weary noon-tide prick;


s: And let thy misty vapours march so thick,


s: That in their smoky ranks his smother'd light


s: May set at noon and make perpetual night.


s: 'Were Tarquin Night, as he is but Night's child,


s: The silver-shining queen he would distain;


s: Her twinkling handmaids too, by him defiled,


s: Through  Night's  black  bosom  should  not peep again:


s: So should I have co-partners in my pain;


s: As palmers' chat makes short their pilgrimage.


s: 'Where now I have no one to blush with me,


s: To cross their arms and hang their heads with mine,


s: To mask their brows and hide their infamy;


s: Seasoning the earth with showers of silver brine,


s: Mingling my talk with tears, my grief with groans,


s: Poor wasting monuments of lasting moans.


s: 'O Night, thou furnace of foul-reeking smoke,


s: Let not the jealous Day behold that face


s: Which underneath thy black all-hiding cloak


s: Keep still possession of thy gloomy place,


s: That all the faults which in thy reign are made


s: May likewise be sepulchred in thy shade!


s: 'Make me not object to the tell-tale Day!


s: The light will show, character'd in my brow,


s: To cipher what is writ in learned books,


s: Will quote my loathsome trespass in my looks.


s: 'The nurse, to still her child, will tell my story


s: And fright her crying babe with Tarquin's name;


s: Will couple my reproach to Tarquin's shame;


s: Feast-finding minstrels, tuning my defame,


s: Will tie the hearers to attend each line,


s: 'Let my good name, that senseless reputation,


s: For Collatine's dear love be kept unspotted:


s: If that be made a theme for disputation,


s: That is as clear from this attaint of mine


s: O unfelt sore crest-wounding, private scar!


s: Reproach is stamp'd in Collatinus' face,


s: And Tarquin's eye may read the mot afar,


s: Alas, how many bear such shameful blows,


s: Which not themselves, but he that gives them knows!


s: But robb'd and ransack'd by injurious theft:


s: In thy weak hive a wandering wasp hath crept,


s: And suck'd the honey which thy chaste bee kept.


s: Coming from thee, I could not put him back,


s: For it had been dishonour to disdain him:


s: Besides, of weariness he did complain him,


s: And talk'd of virtue: O unlook'd-for evil,


s: When virtue is profaned in such a devil!


s: 'Why should the worm intrude the maiden bud?


s: Or hateful cuckoos hatch in sparrows' nests?


s: Or toads infect fair founts with venom mud?


s: Or kings be breakers of their own behests?


s: Is plagued with cramps and gouts and painful fits;


s: And scarce hath eyes his treasure to behold,


s: And useless barns the harvest of his wits;


s: But torment that it cannot cure his pain.


s: 'So then he hath it when he cannot use it,


s: And leaves it to be master'd by his young;


s: Who in their pride do presently abuse it:


s: Their father was too weak, and they too strong,


s: To hold their cursed-blessed fortune long.


s: The sweets we wish for turn to loathed sours


s: Even in the moment that we call them ours.


s: 'Unruly blasts wait on the tender spring;


s: Unwholesome weeds take root with precious flowers;


s: The adder hisses where the sweet birds sing;


s: We have no good that we can say is ours,


s: 'Tis thou that executest the traitor's treason:


s: Thou set'st the wolf where he the lamb may get;


s: Whoever plots the sin, thou point'st the season;


s: 'Tis thou that spurn'st at right, at law, at reason;


s: And in thy shady cell, where none may spy him,


s: Sits Sin, to seize the souls that wander by him.


s: 'Thou makest the vestal violate her oath;


s: Thou blow'st the fire when temperance is thaw'd;


s: Thou smother'st honesty, thou murder'st troth;


s: Thou plantest scandal and displacest laud:


s: Thou ravisher, thou traitor, thou false thief,


s: Thy honey turns to gall, thy joy to grief!


s: 'Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame,


s: Thy sugar'd tongue to bitter wormwood taste:


s: Being so bad, such numbers seek for thee?


s: 'When wilt thou be the humble suppliant's friend,


s: And bring him where his suit may be obtain'd?


s: When wilt thou sort an hour great strifes to end?


s: Or free that soul which wretchedness hath chain'd?


s: Give physic to the sick, ease to the pain'd?


s: The poor, lame, blind, halt, creep, cry out for thee;


s: 'The patient dies while the physician sleeps;


s: The orphan pines while the oppressor feeds;


s: Justice is feasting while the widow weeps;


s: Advice is sporting while infection breeds:


s: Thou grant'st no time for charitable deeds:


s: Wrath, envy, treason, rape, and murder's rages,


s: Thy heinous hours wait on them as their pages.


s: 'When Truth and Virtue have to do with thee,


s: A thousand crosses keep them from thy aid:


s: They buy thy help; but Sin ne'er gives a fee,


s: He gratis comes; and thou art well appaid


s: As well to hear as grant what he hath said.


s: When Tarquin did, but he was stay'd by thee.


s: 'Guilty thou art of murder and of theft,


s: To all sins past, and all that are to come,


s: 'Mis-shapen Time, copesmate of ugly Night,


s: Swift subtle post, carrier of grisly care,


s: Eater of youth, false slave to false delight,


s: Base watch of woes, sin's pack-horse, virtue's snare;


s: Thou nursest all and murder'st all that are:


s: O, hear me then, injurious, shifting Time!


s: Be guilty of my death, since of my crime.


s: Betray'd the hours thou gavest me to repose,


s: Time's office is to fine the hate of foes;


s: 'Time's glory is to calm contending kings,


s: To unmask falsehood and bring truth to light,


s: To stamp the seal of time in aged things,


s: To wake the morn and sentinel the night,


s: To wrong the wronger till he render right;


s: To ruinate proud buildings with thy hours,


s: And smear with dust their glittering golden towers;


s: 'To fill with worm-holes stately monuments,


s: To blot old books and alter their contents,


s: To pluck the quills from ancient ravens' wings,


s: To dry the old oak's sap and cherish springs,


s: And turn the giddy round of Fortune's wheel;


s: 'To show the beldam daughters of her daughter,


s: To make the child a man, the man a child,


s: To slay the tiger that doth live by slaughter,


s: To mock the subtle in themselves beguiled,


s: To cheer the ploughman with increaseful crops,


s: And waste huge stones with little waterdrops.


s: 'Why work'st thou mischief in thy pilgrimage,


s: Unless thou couldst return to make amends?


s: Would purchase thee a thousand thousand friends,


s: Lending him wit that to bad debtors lends:


s: O, this dread night, wouldst thou one hour come back,


s: I could prevent this storm and shun thy wrack!


s: With some mischance cross Tarquin in his flight:


s: To make him curse this cursed crimeful night:


s: Let ghastly shadows his lewd eyes affright;


s: And the dire thought of his committed evil


s: Shape every bush a hideous shapeless devil.


s: 'Disturb his hours of rest with restless trances,


s: Afflict him in his bed with bedrid groans:


s: Let there bechance him pitiful mischances,


s: To make him moan; but pity not his moans:


s: Stone him with harden'd hearts, harder than stones;


s: And let mild women to him lose their mildness,


s: Wilder to him than tigers in their wildness.


s: 'Let him have time to tear his curled hair,


s: Let him have time against himself to rave,


s: Let him have time of Time's help to despair,


s: Let him have time to live a loathed slave,


s: Let him have time a beggar's orts to crave,


s: And time to see one that by alms doth live


s: Disdain to him disdained scraps to give.


s: 'Let him have time to see his friends his foes,


s: Let him have time to mark how slow time goes


s: In time of sorrow, and how swift and short


s: His time of folly and his time of sport;


s: Have time to wail th' abusing of his time.


s: 'O Time, thou tutor both to good and bad,


s: Teach me to curse him that thou taught'st this ill!


s: At his own shadow let the thief run mad,


s: Himself himself seek every hour to kill!


s: Such wretched hands such wretched blood should spill;


s: For who so base would such an office have


s: As slanderous deathsman to so base a slave?


s: To shame his hope with deeds degenerate:


s: The mightier man, the mightier is the thing


s: That makes him honour'd, or begets him hate;


s: For greatest scandal waits on greatest state.


s: The moon being clouded presently is miss'd,


s: But little stars may hide them when they list.


s: 'The crow may bathe his coal-black wings in mire,


s: And unperceived fly with the filth away;


s: But if the like the snow-white swan desire,


s: The stain upon his silver down will stay.


s: Poor grooms are sightless night, kings glorious day:


s: 'Out, idle words, servants to shallow fools!


s: Busy yourselves in skill-contending schools;


s: Debate where leisure serves with dull debaters;


s: Since that my case is past the help of law.


s: At Time, at Tarquin, and uncheerful Night;


s: In vain I spurn at my confirm'd despite:


s: This helpless smoke of words doth me no right.


s: 'Poor hand, why quiver'st thou at this decree?


s: But if I live, thou livest in my defame:


s: Since thou couldst not defend thy loyal dame,


s: And wast afeard to scratch her wicked foe,


s: Kill both thyself and her for yielding so.'


s: This said, from her be-tumbled couch she starteth,


s: To find some desperate instrument of death:


s: But this no slaughterhouse no tool imparteth


s: To make more vent for passage of her breath;


s: Which, thronging through her lips, so vanisheth


s: As smoke from Aetna, that in air consumes,


s: Or that which from discharged cannon fumes.


s: 'In vain,' quoth she, 'I live, and seek in vain


s: I fear'd by Tarquin's falchion to be slain,


s: Yet for the self-same purpose seek a knife:


s: Of that true type hath Tarquin rifled me.


s: 'O, that is gone for which I sought to live,


s: And therefore now I need not fear to die.


s: To clear this spot by death, at least I give


s: Poor helpless help, the treasure stol'n away,


s: To burn the guiltless casket where it lay!


s: 'Well, well, dear Collatine, thou shalt know


s: He shall not boast who did thy stock pollute


s: That thou art doting father of his fruit.


s: Nor shall he smile at thee in secret thought,


s: Nor laugh with his companions at thy state;


s: But thou shalt know thy interest was not bought


s: Basely with gold, but stol'n from forth thy gate.


s: And with my trespass never will dispense,


s: Till life to death acquit my forced offence.


s: 'I will not poison thee with my attaint,


s: Nor fold my fault in cleanly-coin'd excuses;


s: My sable ground of sin I will not paint,


s: To hide the truth of this false night's abuses:


s: My tongue shall utter all; mine eyes, like sluices,


s: As from a mountain-spring that feeds a dale,


s: Shall gush pure streams to purge my impure tale.'


s: The well-tuned warble of her nightly sorrow,


s: And solemn night with slow sad gait descended


s: To ugly hell; when, lo, the blushing morrow


s: Lends light to all fair eyes that light will borrow:


s: But cloudy Lucrece shames herself to see,


s: And therefore still in night would cloister'd be.


s: Revealing day through every cranny spies,


s: And seems to point her out where she sits weeping;


s: To whom she sobbing speaks: 'O eye of eyes,


s: Why pry'st thou through my window? leave thy peeping:


s: Mock with thy tickling beams eyes that are sleeping


s: Brand not my forehead with thy piercing light,


s: For day hath nought to do what's done by night.'


s: Thus cavils she with every thing she sees:


s: True grief is fond and testy as a child,


s: Who wayward once, his mood with nought agrees:


s: Old woes, not infant sorrows, bear them mild;


s: Continuance tames the one: the other wild,


s: Like an unpractised swimmer plunging still,


s: With too much labour drowns for want of skill.


s: Holds disputation with each thing she views,


s: No object but her passion's strength renews;


s: And as one shifts, another straight ensues:


s: Sometime 'tis mad and too much talk affords.


s: The little birds that tune their morning's joy


s: Make her moans mad with their sweet melody:


s: For mirth doth search the bottom of annoy;


s: Grief best is pleased with grief's society:


s: When with like semblance it is sympathized.


s: 'Tis double death to drown in ken of shore;


s: He ten times pines that pines beholding food;


s: To see the salve doth make the wound ache more;


s: Great grief grieves most at that would do it good;


s: Deep woes roll forward like a gentle flood;


s: Who, being stopp'd, the bounding banks o'erflows;


s: Grief dallied with nor law nor limit knows.


s: 'You mocking birds,' quoth she, 'your tunes entomb


s: Within your hollow-swelling feather'd breasts,


s: My restless discord loves no stops nor rests;


s: A woeful hostess brooks not merry guests:


s: Relish your nimble notes to pleasing ears;


s: Distress likes dumps when time is kept with tears.


s: 'Come, Philomel, that sing'st of ravishment,


s: Make thy sad grove in my dishevell'd hair:


s: As the dank earth weeps at thy languishment,


s: So I at each sad strain will strain a tear,


s: For burden-wise I'll hum on Tarquin still,


s: While thou on Tereus descant'st better skill.


s: 'And whiles against a thorn thou bear'st thy part,


s: To keep thy sharp woes waking, wretched I,


s: Will fix a sharp knife to affright mine eye;


s: Who, if it wink, shall thereon fall and die.


s: These means, as frets upon an instrument,


s: Shall tune our heart-strings to true languishment.


s: 'And for, poor bird, thou sing'st not in the day,


s: Some dark deep desert, seated room the way,


s: That knows not parching heat nor freezing cold,


s: Will we find out; and there we will unfold


s: To creatures stern sad tunes, to change their kinds:


s: Since men prove beasts, let beasts bear gentle minds.'


s: As the poor frighted deer, that stands at gaze,


s: To live or die which of the twain were better,


s: When life is shamed, and death reproach's debtor.


s: 'To kill myself,' quoth she, 'alack, what were it,


s: But with my body my poor soul's pollution?


s: They that lose half with greater patience bear it


s: Than they whose whole is swallow'd in confusion.


s: That mother tries a merciless conclusion


s: Who, having two sweet babes, when death takes one,


s: Will slay the other and be nurse to none.


s: 'My body or my soul, which was the dearer,


s: When the one pure, the other made divine?


s: Whose love of either to myself was nearer,


s: When both were kept for heaven and Collatine?


s: Ay me! the bark peel'd from the lofty pine,


s: His leaves will wither and his sap decay;


s: So must my soul, her bark being peel'd away.


s: 'Her house is sack'd, her quiet interrupted,


s: Her sacred temple spotted, spoil'd, corrupted,


s: If in this blemish'd fort I make some hole


s: Through which I may convey this troubled soul.


s: Have heard the cause of my untimely death;


s: That he may vow, in that sad hour of mine,


s: Revenge on him that made me stop my breath.


s: My stained blood to Tarquin I'll bequeath,


s: Which by him tainted shall for him be spent,


s: 'Tis honour to deprive dishonour'd life;


s: The one will live, the other being dead:


s: So of shame's ashes shall my fame be bred;


s: For in my death I murder shameful scorn:


s: My shame so dead, mine honour is newborn.


s: My resolution, love, shall be thy boast,


s: By whose example thou revenged mayst be.


s: How Tarquin must be used, read it in me:


s: Myself, thy friend, will kill myself, thy foe,


s: And for my sake serve thou false Tarquin so.


s: 'This brief abridgement of my will I make:


s: My soul and body to the skies and ground;


s: Mine honour be the knife's that makes my wound;


s: My shame be his that did my fame confound;


s: To those that live, and think no shame of me.


s: 'Thou, Collatine, shalt oversee this will;


s: How was I overseen that thou shalt see it!


s: My blood shall wash the slander of mine ill;


s: My life's foul deed, my life's fair end shall free it.


s: Faint not, faint heart, but stoutly say "So be it:"


s: Yield to my hand; my hand shall conquer thee:


s: Thou dead, both die, and both shall victors be.'


s: This plot of death when sadly she had laid,


s: And wiped the brinish pearl from her bright eyes,


s: With untuned tongue she hoarsely calls her maid


s: Whose swift obedience to her mistress hies;


s: For fleet-wing'd duty with thought's feathers flies.


s: Poor Lucrece' cheeks unto her maid seem so


s: As winter meads when sun doth melt their snow.


s: Her mistress she doth give demure good-morrow,


s: With soft-slow tongue, true mark of modesty,


s: And sorts a sad look to her lady's sorrow,


s: Why her two suns were cloud-eclipsed so,


s: Nor why her fair cheeks over-wash'd with woe.


s: But as the earth doth weep, the sun being set,


s: Each flower moisten'd like a melting eye;


s: Even so the maid with swelling drops gan wet


s: Of those fair suns set in her mistress' sky,


s: Who in a salt-waved ocean quench their light,


s: Which makes the maid weep like the dewy night.


s: A pretty while these pretty creatures stand,


s: Like ivory conduits coral cisterns filling:


s: One justly weeps; the other takes in hand


s: No cause, but company, of her drops spilling:


s: Their gentle sex to weep are often willing;


s: Grieving themselves to guess at others' smarts,


s: And then they drown their eyes or break their hearts.


s: For men have marble, women waxen, minds,


s: And therefore are they form'd as marble will;


s: The weak oppress'd, the impression of strange kinds


s: Is form'd in them by force, by fraud, or skill:


s: Then call them not the authors of their ill,


s: No more than wax shall be accounted evil


s: Wherein is stamp'd the semblance of a devil.


s: Their smoothness, like a goodly campaign plain,


s: Lays open all the little worms that creep;


s: In men, as in a rough-grown grove, remain


s: Cave-keeping evils that obscurely sleep:


s: Through crystal walls each little mote will peep:


s: Though men can cover crimes with bold stern looks,


s: Poor women's faces are their own faults' books.


s: No man inveigb against the wither'd flower,


s: But chide rough winter that the flower hath kill'd:


s: Not that devour'd, but that which doth devour,


s: Poor women's faults, that they are so fulfill'd


s: With men's abuses: those proud lords, to blame,


s: Make weak-made women tenants to their shame.


s: Assail'd by night with circumstances strong


s: Of present death, and shame that might ensue


s: By that her death, to do her husband wrong:


s: The dying fear through all her body spread;


s: By this, mild patience bid fair Lucrece speak


s: To the poor counterfeit of her complaining:


s: 'My girl,' quoth she, 'on what occasion break


s: Those tears from thee, that down thy cheeks are raining?


s: If thou dost weep for grief of my sustaining,


s: Know gentle wench, it small avails my mood:


s: If tears could help, mine own would do me good.


s: 'But tell me, girl, when went' -- and there she stay'd


s: Till after a deep groan -- 'Tarquin from, hence?'


s: 'Madam, ere I was up.' replied the maid,


s: 'The more to blame my sluggard negligence:


s: Yet with the fault I thus far can dispense;


s: Myself was stirring ere the break of day,


s: 'But, lady, if your maid may be so bold,


s: She would request to know your heaviness.'


s: 'O, peace!' quoth Lucrece: 'if it should be told,


s: And that deep torture may be call'd a hell


s: When more is felt than one hath power to tell.


s: Yet save that labour, for I have them here.


s: What should I say?  One of my husband's men


s: The cause craves haste, and it will soon be writ.'


s: Her maid is gone, and she prepares to write,


s: First hovering o'er the paper with her quill:


s: Conceit and grief an eager combat fight;


s: What wit sets down is blotted straight with will;


s: This is too curious-good, this blunt and ill:


s: Throng her inventions, which shall go before.


s: At last she thus begins: 'Thou worthy lord


s: Of that unworthy wife that greeteth thee,


s: Health to thy person! next vouchsafe t' afford --


s: Of ever, love, thy Lucrece thou wilt see --


s: Some present speed to come and visit me.


s: So, I commend me from our house in grief:


s: My woes are tedious, though my words are brief.'


s: Here folds she up the tenour of her woe,


s: By this short schedule Collatine may know


s: Her grief, but not her grief's true quality:


s: Lest he should hold it her own gross abuse,


s: Ere she with blood had stain'd her stain'd excuse.


s: Besides, the life and feeling of her passion


s: She hoards to spend when he is by to hear her:


s: When sighs and groans and tears may grace the fashion


s: Of her disgrace, the better so to clear her


s: From that suspicion which the world my might bear her.


s: To shun this blot, she would not blot the letter


s: With words, till action might become them better.


s: To see sad sights moves more than hear them told:


s: When every part a part of woe doth bear.


s: Deep sounds make lesser noise than shallow fords,


s: And sorrow ebbs, being blown with wind of words.


s: Her letter now is seal'd, and on it writ


s: 'At Ardea to my lord with more than haste.'


s: Charging the sour-faced groom to hie as fast


s: As lagging fowls before the northern blast:


s: Speed more than speed but dull and slow she deems:


s: The homely villain court'sies to her low;


s: And, blushing on her, with a steadfast eye


s: Receives the scroll without or yea or no


s: And forth with bashful innocence doth hie.


s: But they whose guilt within their bosoms lie


s: For Lucrece thought he blush'd to see her shame:


s: When, silly groom! God wot, it was defect


s: Such harmless creatures have a true respect


s: Promise more speed, but do it leisurely:


s: Even so this pattern of the worn-out age


s: Pawn'd honest looks, but laid no words to gage.


s: That two red fires in both their faces blazed;


s: She thought he blushed, as knowing Tarquin's lust,


s: And, blushing with him, wistly on him gazed;


s: Her earnest eye did make him more amazed:


s: The more saw the blood his cheeks replenish,


s: The more she thought he spied in her some blemish.


s: But long she thinks till he return again,


s: And yet the duteous vassal scarce is gone.


s: For now 'tis stale to sigh, to weep, to groan:


s: So woe hath wearied woe, moan tired moan,


s: That she her plaints a little while doth stay,


s: Pausing for means to mourn some newer way.


s: At last she calls to mind where hangs a piece


s: Of skilful painting, made for Priam's Troy;


s: Before the which is drawn the power of Greece,


s: Threatening cloud-kissing Ilion with annoy;


s: Which the conceited painter drew so proud,


s: As heaven, it seem'd, to kiss the turrets bow'd.


s: In scorn of nature, art gave lifeless life:


s: Shed for the slaughter'd husband by the wife:


s: The red blood reek'd, to show the painter's strife;


s: The dying eyes gleam'd forth their ashy lights,


s: Like dying coals burnt out in tedious nights.


s: There might you see the labouring pioner


s: Begrimed with sweat, and smeared all with dust;


s: And from the towers of Troy there would appear


s: The very eyes of men through loop-holes thrust,


s: Gazing upon the Greeks with little lust:


s: Such sweet observance in this work was had,


s: That one might see those far-off eyes look sad.


s: You might behold, triumphing in their faces;


s: And here and there the painter interlaces


s: Pale cowards, marching on with trembling paces;


s: Which heartless peasants did so well resemble,


s: That one would swear he saw them quake and tremble.


s: The face of either cipher'd either's heart;


s: Their face their manners most expressly told:


s: In Ajax' eyes blunt rage and rigour roll'd;


s: But the mild glance that sly Ulysses lent


s: Show'd deep regard and smiling government.


s: There pleading might you see grave Nestor stand,


s: As 'twere encouraging the Greeks to fight;


s: That it beguiled attention, charm'd the sight:


s: In speech, it seem'd, his beard, all silver white,


s: Wagg'd up and down, and from his lips did fly


s: Thin winding breath, which curl'd up to the sky.


s: Which seem'd to swallow up his sound advice;


s: All jointly listening, but with several graces,


s: As if some mermaid did their ears entice,


s: Some high, some low, the painter was so nice;


s: To jump up higher seem'd, to mock the mind.


s: Here one man's hand lean'd on another's head,


s: His nose being shadow'd by his neighbour's ear,


s: Here one being throng'd bears back, all boll'n and red;


s: Another smother'd seems to pelt and swear;


s: And in their rage such signs of rage they bear,


s: As, but for loss of Nestor's golden words,


s: It seem'd they would debate with angry swords.


s: That for Achilles' image stood his spear,


s: Griped in an armed hand; himself, behind,


s: Was left unseen, save to the eye of mind:


s: And from the walls of strong-besieged Troy


s: When their brave hope, bold Hector, march'd to field,


s: To see their youthful sons bright weapons wield;


s: And to their hope they such odd action yield,


s: That through their light joy seemed to appear,


s: Like bright things stain'd, a kind of heavy fear,


s: And from the strand of Dardan, where they fought,


s: To Simois' reedy banks the red blood ran,


s: Whose waves to imitate the battle sought


s: With swelling ridges; and their ranks began


s: To break upon the galled shore, and than


s: Retire again, till, meeting greater ranks,


s: They join and shoot their foam at Simois' banks.


s: To this well-painted piece is Lucrece come,


s: To find a face where all distress is stell'd.


s: Many she sees where cares have carved some,


s: But none where  all  distress and dolour dwell'd,


s: Staring on Priam's wounds with her old eyes,


s: Which bleeding under Pyrrhus' proud foot lies.


s: Time's ruin, beauty's wreck, and grim cares reign:


s: Her cheeks with chops and wrinkles were disguised;


s: Of what she was no semblance did remain:


s: Her blue blood changed to black in every vein,


s: Wanting the spring that those shrunk pipes had fed,


s: On this sad shadow Lucrece spends her eyes,


s: And shapes her sorrow to the bedlam's woes,


s: Who nothing wants to answer her but cries,


s: The painter was no god to lend her those;


s: And therefore Lucrece swears he did her wrong,


s: To give her so much grief and not a tongue.


s: 'Poor instrument,' quoth she, 'without a sound,


s: I'll tune thy woes with my lamenting tongue;


s: And drop sweet balm in Priam's painted wound,


s: And rail on Pyrrhus that hath done him wrong;


s: And with my tears quench Troy that burns so long;


s: And with my knife scratch out the angry eyes


s: Of all the Greeks that are thine enemies.


s: 'Show me the strumpet that began this stir,


s: That with my nails her beauty I may tear.


s: This load of wrath that burning Troy doth bear:


s: Thy eye kindled the fire that burneth here;


s: And here in Troy, for trespass of thine eye,


s: The sire, the son, the dame, and daughter die.


s: 'Why should the private pleasure of some one


s: Upon his head that hath transgressed so;


s: Let guiltless souls be freed from guilty woe:


s: For one's offence why should so many fall,


s: 'Lo, here weeps Hecuba, here Priam dies,


s: Here manly Hector faints, here Troilus swounds,


s: Here friend by friend in bloody channel lies,


s: And friend to friend gives unadvised wounds,


s: And one man's lust these many lives confounds:


s: Had doting Priam check'd his son's desire,


s: Troy had been bright with fame and not with fire.'


s: Here feelingly she weeps Troy's painted woes:


s: Once set on ringing, with his own weight goes;


s: Then little strength rings out the doleful knell:


s: So Lucrece, set a-work, sad tales doth tell


s: To pencill'd pensiveness and colour'd sorrow:


s: She lends them words, and she their looks doth borrow.


s: She throws her eyes about the painting round,


s: And whom she finds forlorn she doth lament.


s: At last she sees a wretched image bound,


s: That piteous looks to Phrygian shepherds lent:


s: His face, though full of cares, yet show'd content;


s: Onward to Troy with the blunt swains he goes,


s: So mild, that Patience seem'd to scorn his woes.


s: In him the painter labour'd with his skill


s: To hide deceit, and give the harmless show


s: An humble gait, calm looks, eyes wailing still,


s: A brow unbent, that seem'd to welcome woe;


s: Cheeks neither red nor pale, but mingled so


s: That blushing red no guilty instance gave,


s: Nor ashy pale the fear that false hearts have.


s: But, like a constant and confirmed devil,


s: And therein so ensconced his secret evil,


s: False-creeping craft and perjury should thrust


s: Into so bright a day such black-faced storms,


s: Or blot with hell-born sin such saint-like forms.


s: The well-skill'd workman this mild image drew


s: For perjured Sinon, whose enchanting story


s: Whose words like wildfire burnt the shining glory


s: Of rich-built Ilion, that the skies were sorry,


s: And little stars shot from their fixed places,


s: When their glass fell wherein they view'd their faces.


s: And chid the painter for his wondrous skill,


s: Saying, some shape in Sinon's was abused;


s: So fair a form lodged not a mind so ill:


s: And still on him she gazed; and gazing still,


s: Such signs of truth in his plain face she spied,


s: That she concludes the picture was belied.


s: 'It cannot be,  quoth she,  'that  so much guile' --


s: She would have said 'can lurk in such a look;'


s: But Tarquin's shape came in her mind the while,


s: And from her tongue 'can lurk' from 'cannot' took:


s: 'It cannot be' she in that sense forsook,


s: And turn'd it thus, 'It cannot be, I find,


s: But such a face should bear a wicked mind:


s: 'For even as subtle Sinon here is painted,


s: As if with grief or travail he had fainted,


s: With inward vice: as Priam him did cherish,


s: So did I Tarquin; so my Troy did perish.


s: 'Look, look, how listening Priam wets his eyes,


s: To see those borrow'd tears that Sinon sheds!


s: Priam, why art thou old and yet not wise?


s: For every tear he falls a Trojan bleeds:


s: His eye drops fire, no water thence proceeds;


s: Those round clear pearls of his, that move thy pity,


s: Are balls of quenchless fire to burn thy city.


s: 'Such devils steal effects from lightless hell;


s: For Sinon in his fire doth quake with cold,


s: And in that cold hot-burning fire doth dwell;


s: Only to flatter fools and make them bold:


s: So Priam's trust false Sinon's tears doth flatter,


s: That he finds means to burn his Troy with water.'


s: Here, all enraged, such passion her assails,


s: That patience is quite beaten from her breast.


s: She tears the senseless Sinon with her nails,


s: Whose deed hath made herself herself detest:


s: At last she smilingly with this gives o'er;


s: 'Fool, fool!' quoth she, 'his wounds will not be sore.'


s: Thus ebbs and flows the current of her sorrow,


s: And time doth weary time with her complaining.


s: She looks for night, and then she longs for morrow,


s: And both she thinks too long with her remaining:


s: Short time seems long in sorrow's sharp sustaining:


s: Though woe be heavy, yet it seldom sleeps;


s: And they that watch see time how slow it creeps.


s: Which all this time hath overslipp'd her thought,


s: That she with painted images hath spent;


s: Being from the feeling of her own grief brought


s: It easeth some, though none it ever cured,


s: To think their dolour others have endured.


s: But now the mindful messenger, come back,


s: Who finds his Lucrece clad in mourning black:


s: Blue circles stream'd, like rainbows in the sky:


s: Foretell new storms to those already spent.


s: Which when her sad-beholding husband saw,


s: Her eyes, though sod in tears, look'd red and raw,


s: Her lively colour kill'd with deadly cares.


s: He hath no power to ask her how she fares:


s: Both stood, like old acquaintance in a trance,


s: Met far from home, wondering each other's chance.


s: At last he takes her by the bloodless hand,


s: And thus begins: 'What uncouth ill event


s: Hath thee befall'n, that thou dost trembling stand?


s: Sweet love, what spite hath thy fair colour spent?


s: Why art thou thus attired in discontent?


s: Unmask, dear dear, this moody heaviness,


s: And tell thy grief, that we may give redress.'


s: Three times with sighs she gives her sorrow fire,


s: Ere once she can discharge one word of woe:


s: At length address'd to answer his desire,


s: Her honour is ta'en prisoner by the foe;


s: With sad attention long to hear her words.


s: And now this pale swan in her watery nest


s: Begins the sad dirge of her certain ending;


s: 'Few words,' quoth she, 'shall fit the trespass best,


s: Where no excuse can give the fault amending:


s: In me moe woes than words are now depending;


s: And my laments would be drawn out too long,


s: To tell them all with one poor tired tongue.


s: 'Then be this all the task it hath to say:


s: Dear husband, in the interest of thy bed


s: Where thou wast wont to rest thy weary head;


s: By foul enforcement might be done to me,


s: From that, alas, thy Lucrece is not free.


s: 'For in the dreadful dead of dark midnight,


s: With shining falchion in my chamber came


s: A creeping creature, with a flaming light,


s: And softly cried "Awake, thou Roman dame,


s: And entertain my love; else lasting shame


s: On thee and thine this night I will inflict,


s: '"For some hard-favour'd groom of thine," quoth he,


s: "Unless thou yoke thy liking to my will,


s: I'll murder straight, and then I'll slaughter thee


s: And swear I found you where you did fulfil


s: The loathsome act of lust, and so did kill


s: The lechers in their deed: this act will be


s: 'With this, I did begin to start and cry;


s: And then against my heart he sets his sword,


s: I should not live to speak another word;


s: So should my shame still rest upon record,


s: Th' adulterate death of Lucrece and her groom.


s: Mine enemy was strong, my poor self weak,


s: And far the weaker with so strong a fear:


s: My bloody judge forbade my tongue to speak;


s: No rightful plea might plead for justice there:


s: That my poor beauty had purloin'd his eyes;


s: And when the judge is robb'd the prisoner dies.


s: 'O, teach me how to make mine own excuse!


s: Or at the least this refuge let me find;


s: Though my gross blood be stain'd with this abuse,


s: That was not forced; that never was inclined


s: Doth in her poison'd closet yet endure.'


s: Lo, here, the hopeless merchant of this loss,


s: With head declined, and voice damm'd up with woe,


s: With sad set eyes, and wretched arms across,


s: The grief away that stops his answer so:


s: But, wretched as he is, he strives in vain;


s: What he breathes out his breath drinks up again.


s: As through an arch the violent roaring tide


s: Outruns the eye that doth behold his haste;


s: Back to the strait that forced him on so fast;


s: In rage sent out, recall'd in rage, being past:


s: Even so his sighs, his sorrows, make a saw.


s: To push grief on, and back the same grief draw.


s: Which speechless woe of his poor she attendeth,


s: 'Dear Lord, thy sorrow to my sorrow lendeth


s: Another power; no flood by raining slaketh.


s: More feeling-painful: let it then suffice


s: To drown one woe, one pair of weeping eyes.


s: 'And for my sake, when I might charm thee so


s: For she that was thy Lucrece, now attend me:


s: Thine, mine, his own: suppose thou dost defend me


s: From what is past: the help that thou shalt lend me


s: Comes all too late, yet let the traitor die;


s: 'But ere I name him, you fair lords,' quoth she,


s: Speaking to those that came with Collatine,


s: 'Shall plight your honourable faiths to me,


s: With swift pursuit to venge this wrong of mine;


s: To chase injustice with revengeful arms:


s: Knights, by their oaths, should right poor ladies' harms.'


s: As bound in knighthood to her imposition,


s: Longing to hear the hateful foe bewray'd.


s: But she, that yet her sad task hath not said,


s: The protestation stops.  'O, speak,' quoth she,


s: 'How may this forced stain be wiped from me?


s: Being constrain'd with dreadful circumstance?


s: May my pure mind with the foul act dispense,


s: May any terms acquit me from this chance?


s: The poison'd fountain clears itself again;


s: And why not I from this compelled stain?


s: With this, they all at once began to say,


s: Her body's stain her mind untainted clears;


s: While with a joyless smile she turns away


s: The face, that map which deep impression bears


s: Of hard misfortune, carved in it with tears.


s: 'No, no,' quoth she, 'no dame, hereafter living,


s: By my excuse shall claim excuses giving.


s: Here with a sigh, as if her heart would break,


s: She throws forth Tarquin's name: 'He, he,' she says,


s: But more than 'he' her poor tongue could not speak;


s: Untimely breathings, sick and short assays,


s: She utters this, 'He, he, fair lords, 'tis he,


s: That guides this hand to give this wound to me.'


s: Even here she sheathed in her harmless breast


s: A harmful knife, that thence her soul unsheathed:


s: That blow did bail it from the deep unrest


s: Of that polluted prison where it breathed:


s: Her contrite sighs unto the clouds bequeathed


s: Her winged sprite, and through her wounds doth fly


s: Life's lasting date from cancell'd destiny.


s: Stone-still, astonish'd with this deadly deed,


s: Stood Collatine and all his lordly crew;


s: Till Lucrece' father, that beholds her bleed,


s: Himself on her self-slaughter'd body threw;


s: And from the purple fountain Brutus drew


s: The murderous knife, and, as it left the place,


s: Her blood, in poor revenge, held it in chase;


s: And bubbling from her breast, it doth divide


s: In two slow rivers, that the crimson blood


s: Who, like a late-sack'd island, vastly stood


s: Bare and unpeopled in this fearful flood.


s: Some of her blood still pure and red remain'd,


s: And some look'd black, and that false Tarquin stain'd.


s: Of that black blood a watery rigol goes,


s: Which seems to weep upon the tainted place:


s: And ever since, as pitying Lucrece' woes,


s: Corrupted blood some watery token shows;


s: And blood untainted still doth red abide,


s: 'Daughter, dear daughter,' old Lucretius cries,


s: 'That life was mine which thou hast here deprived.


s: If in the child the father's image lies,


s: Where shall I live now Lucrece is unlived?


s: Thou wast not to this end from me derived


s: We are their offspring, and they none of ours.


s: In thy sweet semblance my old age new born;


s: But now that fair fresh mirror, dim and old,


s: Shows me a bare-boned death by time outworn:


s: O, from thy cheeks my image thou hast torn,


s: And shiver'd all the beauty of my glass,


s: 'O time, cease thou thy course and last no longer,


s: If they surcease to be that should survive.


s: Shall rotten death make conquest of the stronger


s: And leave the faltering feeble souls alive?


s: The old bees die, the young possess their hive:


s: Then live, sweet Lucrece, live again and see


s: Thy father die, and not thy father thee!'


s: By this, starts Collatine as from a dream,


s: And bids Lucretius give his sorrow place;


s: And then in key-cold Lucrece' bleeding stream


s: He falls, and bathes the pale fear in his face,


s: And counterfeits to die with her a space;


s: Till manly shame bids him possess his breath


s: Who, mad that sorrow should his use control,


s: Or keep him from heart-easing words so long,


s: Begins to talk; but through his lips do throng


s: Weak words, so thick come in his poor heart's aid,


s: That no man could distinguish what he said.


s: Yet sometime 'Tarquin' was pronounced plain,


s: But through his teeth, as if the name he tore.


s: This windy tempest, till it blow up rain,


s: Held back his sorrow's tide, to make it more;


s: At last it rains, and busy winds give o'er:


s: Then son and father weep with equal strife


s: Who should weep most, for daughter or for wife.


s: The one doth call her his, the other his,


s: Yet neither may possess the claim they lay.


s: The father says 'She's mine.' 'O, mine she is,'


s: My sorrow's interest; let no mourner say


s: He weeps for her, for she was only mine,


s: 'O,' quoth Lucretius, 'I did give that life


s: Which she too early and too late hath spill'd.'


s: 'Woe, woe,' quoth Collatine, 'she was my wife,


s: I owed her, and 'tis mine that she hath kill'd.'


s: 'My daughter' and 'my wife' with clamours fill'd


s: The dispersed air, who, holding Lucrece' life,


s: Answer'd their cries, 'my daughter' and 'my wife.'


s: Brutus, who pluck'd the knife from Lucrece' side,


s: Began to clothe his wit in state and pride,


s: Burying in Lucrece' wound his folly's show.


s: For sportive words and uttering foolish things:


s: But now he throws that shallow habit by,


s: 'Thou wronged lord of Rome,' quoth he, 'arise:


s: Now set thy long-experienced wit to school.


s: 'Why, Collatine, is woe the cure for woe?


s: Do wounds help wounds, or grief help grievous deeds?


s: For his foul act by whom thy fair wife bleeds?


s: Such childish humour from weak minds proceeds:


s: Thy wretched wife mistook the matter so,


s: To slay herself, that should have slain her foe.


s: 'Courageous Roman, do not steep thy heart


s: But kneel with me and help to bear thy part,


s: To rouse our Roman gods with invocations,


s: That they will suffer these abominations,


s: Since Rome herself in them doth stand disgraced,


s: By our strong arms from forth her fair streets chased.


s: And by this chaste blood so unjustly stain'd,


s: By heaven's fair sun that breeds the fat earth's store,


s: By all our country rights in Rome maintain'd,


s: And by chaste Lucrece' soul that late complain'd


s: Her wrongs to us, and by this bloody knife,


s: We will revenge the death of this true wife.'


s: This said, he struck his hand upon his breast,


s: And kiss'd the fatal knife, to end his vow;


s: Who, wondering at him, did his words allow:


s: Then jointly to the ground their knees they bow;


s: And that deep vow, which Brutus made before,


s: He doth again repeat, and that they swore.


s: When they had sworn to this advised doom,


s: They did conclude to bear dead Lucrece thence;


s: To show her bleeding body thorough Rome,


s: And so to publish Tarquin's foul offence:


s: From off a hill whose concave womb re-worded


s: A plaintful story from a sistering vale,


s: My spirits to attend this double voice accorded,


s: And down I laid to list the sad-tun'd tale;


s: Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,


s: Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain,


s: Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.


s: Which fortified her visage from the sun,


s: Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw


s: Time had not scythed all that youth begun,


s: Nor youth all quit; but, spite of Heaven's fell rage


s: Some beauty peeped through lattice of sear'd age.


s: Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,


s: Laund'ring the silken figures in the brine


s: That season'd woe had pelleted in tears,


s: And often reading what contents it bears;


s: In clamours of all size, both high and low.


s: Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride;


s: As they did battery to the spheres intend;


s: Sometime diverted their poor balls are tied


s: To th' orbed earth; sometimes they do extend


s: Their view right on; anon their gazes lend


s: To every place at once, and nowhere fix'd,


s: The mind and sight distractedly commix'd.


s: Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat,


s: Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride;


s: For some, untuck'd, descended her sheav'd hat,


s: Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside;


s: Some in her threaden fillet still did bide,


s: And, true to bondage, would not break from thence,


s: Though slackly braided in loose negligence.


s: A thousand favours from a maund she drew


s: Or monarchs' hands, that lets not bounty fall


s: Where want cries 'some,' but where excess begs all.


s: Which she perus'd, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood;


s: Crack'd many a ring of posied gold and bone,


s: Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud;


s: Found yet mo letters sadly penn'd in blood,


s: Enswath'd, and seal'd to curious secrecy.


s: These often bath'd she in her fluxive eyes,


s: And often kiss'd, and often 'gan to tear;


s: Cried, 'O false blood, thou register of lies,


s: Ink would have seem'd more black and damned here!'


s: This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,


s: Big discontent so breaking their contents.


s: A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh,


s: Sometime a blusterer, that the ruffle knew


s: The swiftest hours, observed as they flew,


s: Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew;


s: In brief, the grounds and motives of her woe.


s: Her grievance with his hearing to divide:


s: If that from him there may be aught applied


s: Which may her suffering ecstasy assuage,


s: 'Father,' she says, 'though in me you behold


s: Let it not tell your judgement I am old;


s: Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power:


s: I might as yet have been a spreading flower,


s: A youthful suit (it was to gain my grace)


s: Of one by nature's outwards so commended,


s: That maiden's eyes stuck over all his face:


s: Love lack'd a dwelling and made him her place;


s: And when in his fair parts she did abide,


s: 'His browny locks did hang in crooked curls;


s: Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls.


s: What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find:


s: Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind;


s: What largeness thinks in paradise was sawn.


s: 'Small show of man was yet upon his chin;


s: Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin,


s: Whose bare out-bragg'd the web it seemed to wear:


s: Yet show'd his visage by that cost more dear;


s: And nice affections wavering stood in doubt


s: If best were as it was, or best without.


s: His qualities were beauteous as his form,


s: For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free;


s: Yet if men mov'd him, was he such a storm


s: When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be.


s: His rudeness so with his authoriz'd youth


s: Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.


s: 'Well could he ride, and often men would say


s: That horse his mettle from his rider takes:


s: What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop he makes!


s: Whether the horse by him became his deed,


s: Or he his manage by the well-doing steed.


s: 'But quickly on this side the verdict went;


s: Accomplish'd in himself, not in his case,:


s: All aids, themselves made fairer by their place,


s: Came for additions; yet their purpos'd trim


s: Pierc'd not his grace, but were all grac'd by him.


s: All kind of arguments and question deep,


s: All replication prompt, and reason strong,


s: For his advantage still did wake and sleep:


s: To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,


s: Catching all passions in his craft of will;


s: Of young, of old; and sexes both enchanted,


s: To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain


s: In personal duty, following where he haunted:


s: Consents bewitch'd, ere he desire, have granted;


s: And dialogued for him what he would say,


s: Ask'd their own wills, and made their wills obey.


s: 'Many there were that did his picture get,


s: To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind;


s: The goodly objects which abroad they find


s: Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assign'd;


s: And labouring in mo pleasures to bestow them,


s: Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them:


s: 'So many have, that never touch'd his hand,


s: Sweetly suppos'd them mistress of his heart.


s: My woeful self, that did in freedom stand,


s: And was my own fee-simple, (not in part,)


s: What with his heart in youth, and youth in art,


s: Threw my affections in his charmed power,


s: Reserv'd the stalk, and gave him all my flower.


s: Demand of him, nor being desired yielded;


s: With safest distance I mine honour shielded:


s: Of proofs new-bleeding, which remain'd the foil


s: The destin'd ill she must herself assay?


s: Or force'd examples, 'gainst her own content,


s: Counsel may stop awhile what will not stay;


s: By blunting us to make our wills more keen.


s: 'Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,


s: That we must curb it upon others' proof,


s: To be forbod the sweets that seems so good,


s: For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.


s: The one a palate hath that needs will taste,


s: Though reason weep, and cry It is thy last.


s: 'For further I could say, This man's untrue,


s: And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling;


s: Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew,


s: Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling;


s: Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling;


s: Thought characters and words, merely but art,


s: 'And long upon these terms I held my city,


s: Till thus he 'gan besiege me: Gentle maid,


s: Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity,


s: That's to you sworn, to none was ever said;


s: For feasts of love I have been call'd unto,


s: Till now did ne'er invite, nor never woo.


s: Are errors of the blood, none of the mind;


s: Love made them not; with acture they may be,


s: Where neither party is nor true nor kind:


s: They sought their shame that so their shame did find;


s: And so much less of shame in me remains,


s: By how much of me their reproach contains.


s: 'Among the many that mine eyes have seen,


s: Not one whose flame my heart so much as warm'd,


s: Or my affection put to the smallest teen,


s: Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmed;


s: Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free,


s: And reign'd, commanding in his monarchy.


s: 'Look here what tributes wounded fancies sent me,


s: Of paled pearls and rubies red as blood;


s: Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me


s: In bloodless white and the encrimson'd mood;


s: Encamp'd in hearts, but fighting outwardly.


s: 'And, lo! behold these talents of their hair,


s: With twisted metal amorously empleach'd,


s: I have receiv'd from many a several fair,


s: (Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd,)


s: With the annexions of fair gems enrich'd,


s: And deep-brain'd sonnets that did amplify


s: Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality.


s: 'The diamond, why 'twas beautiful and hard,


s: Whereto his invis'd properties did tend;


s: The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard


s: Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend;


s: The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend


s: With objects manifold; each several stone,


s: With wit well blazon'd, smil'd, or made some moan.


s: 'Lo! all these trophies of affections hot,


s: Of pensiv'd and subdued desires the tender,


s: Nature hath charg'd me that I hoard them not,


s: But yield them up where I myself must render,


s: For these, of force, must your oblations be,


s: 'O then advance of yours that phraseless hand,


s: Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise;


s: Take all these similes to your own command,


s: Hallow'd with sighs that burning lungs did raise;


s: Works under you; and to your audit comes


s: Their distract parcels in combined sums.


s: 'Lo! this device was sent me from a nun,


s: Which late her noble suit in court did shun,


s: Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote;


s: For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,


s: But kept cold distance, and did thence remove


s: 'But O, my sweet, what labour is't to leave


s: The thing we have not, mastering what not strives?


s: Paling the place which did no form receive,


s: Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves:


s: She that her fame so to herself contrives,


s: The scars of battle 'scapeth by the flight,


s: And makes her absence valiant, not her might.


s: The accident which brought me to her eye,


s: And now she would the caged cloister fly:


s: Not to be tempted, would she be immur'd,


s: And now, to tempt all, liberty procur'd.


s: 'How mighty then you are, O hear me tell!


s: Have emptied all their fountains in my well,


s: I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong,


s: As compound love to physic your cold breast.


s: 'My parts had pow'r to charm a sacred nun,


s: Believ'd her eyes when they t oassail begun,


s: All vows and consecrations giving place.


s: O most potential love! vow, bond, nor space,


s: In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine,


s: For thou art all, and all things else are thine.


s: 'When thou impressest, what are precepts worth


s: Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame,


s: How coldly those impediments stand forth,


s: Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame!


s: Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense, 'gainst


s: And sweetens, in the suffering pangs it bears,


s: The aloes of all forces, shocks and fears.


s: 'Now all these hearts that do on mine depend,


s: Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine,


s: And supplicant their sighs to your extend,


s: To leave the battery that you make 'gainst mine,


s: Lending soft audience to my sweet design,


s: And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath,


s: That shall prefer and undertake my troth.


s: 'This said, his watery eyes he did dismount,


s: Whose sights till then were levell'd on my face;


s: With brinish current downward flow'd apace:


s: O, how the channel to the stream gave grace!


s: Who, glaz'd with crystal, gate the glowing roses


s: That flame through water which their hue encloses.


s: 'O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies


s: In the small orb of one particular tear!


s: What rocky heart to water will not wear?


s: What breast so cold that is not warmed here?


s: O cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath,


s: Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath.


s: 'For lo! his passion, but an art of craft,


s: Even there resolv'd my reason into tears;


s: There my white stole of chastity I daff'd,


s: Shook off my sober guards, and civil fears;


s: All melting; though our drops this difference bore:


s: His poison'd me, and mine did him restore.


s: Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives,


s: Or swooning paleness; and he takes and leaves,


s: In either's aptness, as it best deceives,


s: To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes,


s: Or to turn white and swoon at tragic shows;


s: 'That not a heart which in his level came


s: Could scape the hail of his all-hurting aim,


s: Showing fair nature is both kind and tame;


s: And, veil'd in them, did win whom he would maim:


s: Against the thing he sought he would exclaim;


s: When he most burned in heart-wish'd luxury,


s: He preach'd pure maid and prais'd cold chastity.


s: 'Thus merely with the garment of a Grace


s: The naked and concealed fiend he cover'd,


s: That the unexperienc'd gave the tempter place,


s: Which, like a cherubin, above them hover'd.


s: Who, young and simple, would not be so lover'd?


s: O, that false fire which in his cheek so glow'd,


s: O, that forc'd thunder from his heart did fly,


s: O, that sad breath his spongy lungs bestow'd,


s: O, all that borrow'd motion, seeming ow'd,


s: Would yet again betray the fore-betray'd,


s: Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye,


s: 'Gainst whom the world could not hold argument,


s: Persuade my heart to this false perjury?


s: Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment.


s: Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee:


s: My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;


s: Thy grace being gain'd cures all disgrace in me.


s: My vow was breath, and breath a vapour is;


s: Then, thou fair sun, that on this earth doth shine,


s: If by me broke, what fool is not so wise


s: With young Adonis, lovely, fresh, and green,


s: Did court the lad with many a lovely look,


s: Such looks as none could look but beauty's queen.


s: She told him stories to delight his ear;


s: She show'd him favours to allure his eye;


s: To win his heart, she touch'd him here and there:


s: But whether unripe years did want conceit,


s: Or he refus'd to take her figur'd proffer,


s: The tender nibbler would not touch the bait,


s: But smile and jest at every gentle offer:


s: Then fell she on her back, fair queen, and toward;


s: He rose and ran away; ah, fool too froward!


s: If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?


s: O never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd:


s: Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll constant prove;


s: Those thoughts, to me like oaks, to thee like osiers bow'd.


s: Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine eyes,


s: Where all those pleasures live that art can comprehend.


s: If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice;


s: Well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend;


s: All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder;


s: Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts admire:


s: Thy eye Jove's lightning seems, thy voice his dreadful thunder,


s: Which (not to anger bent) is music and sweet fire.


s: Celestial as thou art, O do not love that wrong,


s: To sing heavens' praise with such an earthly tongue.


s: Scarce had the sun dried up the dewy morn,


s: And scarce the herd gone to the hedge for shade,


s: A brook where Adon used to cool his spleen.


s: Hot was the day; she hotter that did look


s: For his approach, that often there had been.


s: Anon he comes, and throws his mantle by,


s: And stood stark naked on the brook's green brim;


s: The sun look'd on the world with glorious eye,


s: He, spying her, bounc'd in, whereas he stood;


s: O Jove, quoth she, why was not I a flood?


s: Fair is my love, but not so fair as fickle;


s: Mild as a dove, but neither true nor trusty;


s: Brighter than glass, and yet, as glass is, brittle;


s: Softer than wax, and yet, as iron, rusty:


s: A lily pale, with damask die to grace her,


s: None fairer, nor none falser to deface her.


s: Her lips to mine how often hath she join'd,


s: Between each kiss her oaths of true love swearing!


s: How many tales to please me hath she coin'd,


s: Dreading my love, the loss thereof still fearing!


s: Yet in the midst of all her pure protestings,


s: Her faith, her oaths, her tears, and all were jestings.


s: She burn'd with love, as straw with fire flameth;


s: She burn'd out love, as soon as straw outburneth;


s: She fram'd the love, and yet she foil'd the framing;


s: She bade love last, and yet she fell a turning.


s: Bad in the best, though excellent in neither.


s: As they must needs, the sister and the brother,


s: Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me,


s: Because thou lovest the one, and I the other.


s: Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch


s: Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such


s: As, passing all conceit, needs no defence.


s: Thou lov'st to hear the sweet melodious sound


s: That Phoebus' lute, the queen of music, makes;


s: And I in deep delight am chiefly drown'd


s: One knight loves both, and both in thee remain.


s: Fair was the morn when the fair queen of love,


s: Paler for sorrow than her milk-white dove,


s: For Adon's sake, a youngster proud and wild;


s: Her stand she takes upon a steep-up hill:


s: She, silly queen, with more than love's good will,


s: Forbade the boy he should not pass those grounds;


s: Once, quoth she, did I see a fair sweet youth


s: Here in these brakes deep-wounded with a boar,


s: See, in my thigh, quoth she, here was the sore.


s: She showed hers: he saw more wounds than one,


s: And blushing fled, and left her all alone.


s: Sweet rose, fair flower, untimely pluck'd, soon vaded,


s: Pluck'd in the bud, and vaded in the spring!


s: Bright orient pearl, alack! too timely shaded!


s: Fair creature, kill'd too soon by death's sharp sting!


s: Like a green plum that hangs upon a tree,


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


s: I weep for thee, and yet no cause I have;


s: For why? thou left'st me nothing in thy will:


s: And yet thou left'st me more than I did crave;


s: For why? I craved nothing of thee still:


s: O yes, dear friend, I pardon crave of thee,


s: Thy discontent thou didst bequeath to me.


s: Venus, with young Adonis sitting by her,


s: She told the youngling how god Mars did try her,


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


s: Even thus, quoth she, the warlike god embrac'd me,


s: And then she clipp'd Adonis in her arms;


s: Even thus, quoth she, the warlike god unlaced me;


s: As if the boy should use like loving charms;


s: Even thus, quoth she, he seized on my lips,


s: And with her lips on his did act the seizure;


s: And as she fetched breath, away he skips,


s: And would not take her meaning nor her pleasure.


s: A flower that dies when first it 'gins to bud;


s: A brittle glass, that's broken presently:


s: A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,


s: Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour.


s: And as goods lost are seld or never found,


s: As flowers dead lie wither'd on the ground,


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


s: In spite of physic, painting, pain and cost.


s: Good night, good rest.  Ah! neither be my share:


s: She bade good night that kept my rest away;


s: And daff'd me to a cabin hang'd with care,


s: Farewell, quoth she, and come again tomorrow:


s: Fare well I could not, for I supp'd with sorrow;


s: Yet at my parting sweetly did she smile,


s: In scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether:


s: 'T may be, she joy'd to jest at my exile,


s: 'T may be, again to make me wander thither:


s: 'Wander,' a word for shadows like myself,


s: As take the pain, but cannot pluck the pelf.


s: Lord, how mine eyes throw gazes to the east!


s: My heart doth charge the watch; the morning rise


s: Doth cite each moving sense from idle rest.


s: Not daring trust the office of mine eyes,


s: While Philomela sits and sings, I sit and mark,


s: And wish her lays were tuned like the lark;


s: For she doth welcome daylight with her ditty,


s: And drives away dark dismal-dreaming night:


s: The night so pack'd, I post unto my pretty;


s: Heart hath his hope, and eyes their wished sight;


s: Sorrow chang'd to solace, solace mix'd with sorrow;


s: For why, she sigh'd and bade me come tomorrow.


s: Were I with her, the night would post too soon;


s: To spite me now, each minute seems a moon;


s: Yet not for me, shine sun to succour flowers!


s: Pack night, peep day; good day, of night now borrow:


s: Short, night, to-night, and length thyself to-morrow.


s: When my love swears that she is made of truth,


s: I do believe her, though I know she lies,


s: That she might think me some untutor'd youth,


s: Unskilful in the world's false forgeries,


s: Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,


s: Although I know my years be past the best,


s: I smiling credit her false-speaking tongue,


s: Outfacing faults in love with love's ill rest.


s: But wherefore says my love that she is young?


s: O, love's best habit is a soothing tongue,


s: And age, in love, loves not to have years told.


s: Therefore, I'll lie with love, and love with me,


s: Since that our faults in love thus smother'd be.


s: Two loves I have, of comfort and despair,


s: That like two spirits do suggest me still;


s: And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,


s: And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend,


s: For being both to me, both to each friend,


s: The truth I shall not know, but live in doubt,


s: Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye,


s: 'Gainst whom the world could not hold argument.


s: Persuade my heart to this false perjury?


s: Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment.


s: Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee:


s: My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love:


s: Thy grace being gain'd cures all disgrace in me.


s: My vow was breath, and breath a vapour is;


s: Then, thou fair sun, that on this earth doth shine,


s: If by me broke, what fool is not so wise


s: With young Adonis, lovely, fresh, and green,


s: Did court the lad with many a lovely look,


s: Such looks as none could look but beauty's queen,


s: She told him stories to delight his ear;


s: She show'd him favours to allure his eye;


s: To win his heart, she touch'd him here and there, --


s: But whether unripe years did want conceit,


s: Or he refused to take her figured proffer,


s: The tender nibbler would not touch the bait,


s: But smile and jest at every gentle offer:


s: Then fell she on her back, fair queen, and toward:


s: He rose and ran away; ah, fool too froward!


s: If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?


s: O never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd:


s: Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll constant prove;


s: Those thoughts, to me like oaks, to thee like osiers bow'd.


s: Study his bias leaves, and make his book thine eyes,


s: Where all those pleasures live that art can comprehend.


s: If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice;


s: Well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend;


s: All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder;


s: Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts admire:


s: Thy eye Jove's lightning seems, thy voice his dreadful thunder,


s: Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet fire.


s: Celestial as thou art, O do not love that wrong,


s: To sing heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue.


s: Scarce had the sun dried up the dewy morn,


s: And scarce the herd gone to the hedge for shade,


s: A brook where Adon used to cool his spleen:


s: Hot was the day; she hotter that did look


s: For his approach, that often there had been.


s: Anon he comes, and throws his mantle by,


s: And stood stark naked on the brook's green brim:


s: The sun look'd on the world with glorious eye,


s: He, spying her, bounced in, whereas he stood:


s: 'O Jove,' quoth she, 'why was not I a flood!'


s: Fair is my love, but not so fair as fickle;


s: Mild as a dove, but neither true nor trusty;


s: Brighter than glass, and yet, as glass is brittle;


s: Softer than wax, and yet, as iron, rusty:


s: A lily pale, with damask dye to grace her,


s: None fairer, nor none falser to deface her.


s: Her lips to mine how often hath she joined,


s: Between each kiss her oaths of true love swearing!


s: How many tales to please me bath she coined,


s: Dreading my love, the loss thereof still fearing!


s: Yet in the midst of all her pure protestings,


s: Her faith, her oaths, her tears, and all were jestings.


s: She burn'd with love, as straw with fire flameth;


s: She burn'd out love, as soon as straw outburneth;


s: She framed the love, and yet she foil'd the framing;


s: She bade love last, and yet she fell a-turning.


s: Bad in the best, though excellent in neither.


s: As they must needs, the sister and the brother,


s: Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me,


s: Because thou lovest the one, and I the other.


s: Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch


s: Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such


s: As, passing all conceit, needs no defence.


s: Thou lovest to bear the sweet melodious sound


s: That Phoebus' lute, the queen of music, makes;


s: And I in deep delight am chiefly drown'd


s: One knight loves both, and both in thee remain.


s: Fair was the morn when the fair queen of love,


s: Paler for sorrow than her milk-white dove,


s: For Adon's sake, a youngster proud and wild;


s: Her stand she takes upon a steep-up hill:


s: She, silly queen, with more than love's good will,


s: Forbade the boy he should not pass those grounds:


s: 'Once,' quoth she, 'did I see a fair sweet youth


s: Here in these brakes deep-wounded with a boar,


s: See, in my thigh,' quoth she, 'here was the sore.


s: She showed hers: he saw more wounds than one,


s: And blushing fled, and left her all alone.


s: Sweet rose, fair flower, untimely pluck'd, soon vaded,


s: Pluck'd in the bud, and vaded in the spring!


s: Bright orient pearl, alack, too timely shaded!


s: Fair creature, kill'd too soon by death's sharp sting!


s: Like a green plum that hangs upon a tree,


s: And falls, through wind, before the fall should he.


s: I weep for thee, and yet no cause I have;


s: For why thou left'st me nothing in thy will:


s: And yet thou left'st me more than I did crave;


s: O yes, dear friend, I pardon crave of thee,


s: Thy discontent thou didst bequeath to me.


s: She told the youngling how god Mars did try her,


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


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


s: And then she clipp'd Adonis in her arms;


s: 'Even thus,' quoth she, 'the warlike god unlaced me,'


s: As if the boy should use like loving charms;


s: 'Even thus,' quoth she, 'he seized on my lips


s: And with her lips on his did act the seizure


s: And as she fetched breath, away he skips,


s: And would not take her meaning nor her pleasure.


s: Crabbed age and youth cannot live together


s: Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care;


s: Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather;


s: Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare;


s: Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short;


s: Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold;


s: Age, I do abhor thee; youth, I do adore thee;


s: Age, I do defy thee: O, sweet shepherd, hie thee,


s: A flower that dies when first it gins to bud;


s: A brittle glass that's broken presently:


s: A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,


s: Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour.


s: And as goods lost are seld or never found,


s: As flowers dead lie wither'd on the ground,


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


s: In spite of physic, painting, pain and cost.


s: Good night, good rest.  Ah, neither be my share:


s: She bade good night that kept my rest away;


s: And daff'd me to a cabin hang'd with care,


s: 'Farewell,' quoth she, 'and come again tomorrow:


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


s: Yet at my parting sweetly did she smile,


s: In scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether:


s: 'T may be, she joy'd to jest at my exile,


s: 'T may be, again to make me wander thither:


s: 'Wander,' a word for shadows like myself,


s: As take the pain, but cannot pluck the pelf.


s: Lord, how mine eyes throw gazes to the east!


s: My heart doth charge the watch; the morning rise


s: Doth cite each moving sense from idle rest.


s: Not daring trust the office of mine eyes,


s: While Philomela sits and sings, I sit and mark,


s: And wish her lays were tuned like the lark;


s: For she doth welcome daylight with her ditty,


s: And drives away dark dismal-dreaming night:


s: The night so pack'd, I post unto my pretty;


s: Heart hath his hope, and eyes their wished sight;


s: Sorrow changed to solace, solace mix'd with sorrow;


s: For why, she sigh'd and bade me come tomorrow.


s: Were I with her, the night would post too soon;


s: To spite me now, each minute seems a moon;


s: Yet not for me, shine sun to succour flowers!


s: Pack night, peep day; good day, of night now borrow:


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


s: Tamisel Qui coule si pres du Spectateur.


s: Ils ont vu les Pays-Bas, ils rentrent à Terre Haute;


s: Mais une nuit d'été, les voici à Ravenne,


s: De quatre jambes molles tout gonflées de morsures.


s: On relève le drap pour mieux égratigner.


s: Moins d'une lieue d'ici est Saint Apollinaire


s: In Classe, basilique connue des amateurs


s: De chapitaux d'acanthe que touraoie le vent.


s: Ils vont prendre le train de huit heures


s: Prolonger leurs misères de Padoue à Milan


s: Ou se trouvent le Cène, et un restaurant pas cher.


s: Lui pense aux pourboires, et redige son bilan.


s: Ils auront vu la Suisse et traversé la France.


s: Et Saint Apollinaire, raide et ascétique,


s: Vieille usine désaffectée de Dieu, tient encore


s: Dans ses pierres ècroulantes la forme precise de Byzance.


s: Similiter et omnes revereantur Diaconos, ut


s: mandatum Jesu Christi; et Episcopum, ut Jesum


s: Christum, existentem filium Patris; Presbyteros


s: autem, ut concilium Dei et conjunctionem


s: Apostolorum. Sine his Ecclesia non vocatur; de


s: And when this epistle is read among you, cause


s: that it be read also in the church of the


s: Que de se gratter les doigts et se pencher sur mon épaule:


s: Du vent, du grand soleil, et de la pluie;


s: C'est ce qu'on appelle le jour de lessive des gueux."


s: Je te prie, au moins, ne bave pas dans la soupe).


s: "Les saules trempés, et des bourgeons sur les ronces--


s: C'est là, dans une averse, qu'on s'abrite.


s: J'avais septtans, elle était plus petite.


s: Elle etait toute mouillée, je lui ai donné des primavères."


s: Les tâches de son gilet montent au chiffre de trente-huit.


s: "Je la chatouillais, pour la faire rire.


s: J'éprouvais un instant de puissance et de délire."


s: Mais alors, vieux lubrique, a cet âge...


s: Il est venu, nous peloter, un gros chien;


s: Moi j'avais peur, je l'ai quittee a mi-chemin.


s: Va t'en te décrotter les rides du visage;


s: Tiens, ma fourchette, décrasse-toi le crâne.


s: De quel droit payes-tu des expériences comme moi?


s: Tiens, voilà dix sous, pour la salle-de-bains.


s: Phlébas, le Phénicien, pendant quinze jours noyé,


s: Oubliait les cris des mouettes et la houle de Cornouaille,


s: Et les profits et les pertes, et la cargaison d'etain:


s: Un courant de sous-mer l'emporta tres loin,


s: Le repassant aux étapes de sa vie antérieure.


s: Figurez-vous donc, c'etait un sort penible;


s: Cependant, ce fut jadis un bel homme, de haute taille.


s: He knew that thought clings round dead limbs


s: Look, look, master, here comes two religious


s: Superfetation of [Greek text inserted here],


s: Are veiled; and hushed the shrunken seas;


s: Tears at the grapes with murderous paws;


s: When the evening is spread out against the sky


s: Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,


s: Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels


s: And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:


s: Streets that follow like a tedious argument


s: To lead you to an overwhelming question....


s: The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,


s: The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes


s: Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,


s: Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,


s: Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,


s: Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,


s: And seeing that it was a soft October night,


s: Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.


s: For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,


s: To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet


s: There will be time to murder and create,


s: And time for all the works and days of hands


s: That lift and drop a question on your plate;


s: And for a hundred visions and revisions,


s: To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"


s: Time to turn back and descend the stair,


s: With a bald spot in the middle of my hair--


s: (They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!")


s: My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,


s: My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin--


s: (They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!")


s: For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.


s: For I have known them all already, known them all:


s: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,


s: I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;


s: I know the voices dying with a dying fall


s: And I have known the eyes already, known them all--


s: The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,


s: And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,


s: When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,


s: To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?


s: And I have known the arms already, known them all--


s: Arms that are braceleted and white and bare


s: (But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)


s: Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.


s: Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets


s: And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes


s: Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?


s: I should have been a pair of ragged claws


s: Scuttling across the doors of silent seas.


s: And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!


s: Stretched on on the floor, here beside you and me.


s: Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?


s: But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,


s: I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,


s: And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,


s: And would it have been worth it, after all,


s: Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,


s: To have bitten off the matter with a smile,


s: To have squeezed the universe into a ball


s: To roll it toward some overwhelming question,


s: To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,


s: Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"--


s: Should say: "That is not what I meant at all;


s: After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,


s: It is impossible to say just what I mean!


s: If one, settling a  pillow or throwing off a shawl,


s: And turning toward the window, should say:


s: No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;


s: To swell a progress, start a scene or two,


s: Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,


s: Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;


s: I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.


s: Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?


s: I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.


s: I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.


s: I do not think that they will sing to me.


s: I have seen them riding seaward on the waves


s: Combing the white hair of the waves blown back


s: When the wind blows the water white and black.


s: We have lingered in the chambers of the sea


s: By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown


s: Till human voices wake us, and we drown.


s: Fornication: but that was in another country


s: Among the smoke and fog of a December afternoon


s: You have the scene arrange itself--as it will seem to do--


s: With "I have saved this afternoon for you";


s: And four wax candles in the darkened room,


s: Four rings of light upon the ceiling overhead,


s: Prepared for all the things to be said, or left unsaid.


s: We have been, let us say, to hear the latest Pole


s: Transmit the Preludes, through his hair and finger-tips.


s: "So intimate, this Chopin, that I think his soul


s: Should be resurrected only among friends


s: Some two or three, who will not touch the bloom


s: That is rubbed and questioned in the concert room."


s: Among velleities and carefully caught regrets


s: "You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends,


s: And how, how rare and strange it is, to find


s: In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends,


s: (For indeed I do not love it... you knew? you are not blind!


s: To find a friend who has these qualities,


s: Those qualities upon which friendship lives.


s: How much it means that I say this to you--


s: Without these friendships--life, what cauchemar!"


s: Absurdly hammering a prelude of its own,


s: That is at least one definite "false note."


s: --Let us take the air, in a tobacco trance,


s: Correct our watches by the public clocks.


s: Then sit for half an hour and drink our bocks.


s: And twists one in her fingers while she talks.


s: "Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know


s: What life is, you should hold it in your hands";


s: "You let it flow from you, you let it flow,


s: And smiles at situations which it cannot see."


s: "Yet with these April sunsets, that somehow recall


s: My buried life, and Paris in the Spring,


s: I feel immeasurably at peace, and find the world


s: To be wonderful and youthful, after all."


s: The voice returns like the insistent out-of-tune


s: Of a broken violin on an August afternoon:


s: Sure that across the gulf you reach your hand.


s: You are invulnerable, you have no Achilles' heel.


s: You will go on, and when you have prevailed


s: You can say: at this point many a one has failed.


s: But what have I, but what have I, my friend,


s: To give you, what can you receive from me?


s: Of one about to reach her journey's end.


s: I shall sit here, serving tea to friends...."


s: I take my hat: how can I make a cowardly amends


s: Reading the comics and the sporting page.


s: Particularly I remark An English countess goes upon the stage.


s: I keep my countenance, I remain self-possessed


s: Except when a street piano, mechanical and tired


s: With the smell of hyacinths across the garden


s: Recalling things that other people have desired.


s: The October night comes down; returning as before


s: Except for a slight sensation of being ill at ease


s: I mount the stairs and turn the handle of the door


s: And feel as if I had mounted on my hands and knees.


s: "And so you are going abroad; and when do you return?


s: You hardly know when you are coming back,


s: My smile falls heavily among the bric-à-brac.


s: My self-possession flares up for a second;


s: "I have been wondering frequently of late


s: (But our beginnings never know our ends!)


s: Why we have not developed into friends."


s: I feel like one who smiles, and turning shall remark


s: My self-possession gutters; we are really in the dark.


s: "For everybody said so, all our friends,


s: They all were sure our feelings would relate


s: So closely! I myself can hardly understand.


s: I shall sit here, serving tea to friends."


s: Let us take the air, in a tobacco trance--


s: Well! and what if she should die some afternoon,


s: Afternoon grey and smoky, evening yellow and rose;


s: Should die and leave me sitting pen in hand


s: With the smoke coming down above the housetops;


s: Not knowing what to feel or if I understand


s: Would she not have the advantage, after all?


s: This music is successful with a "dying fall"


s: You dozed, and watched the night revealing


s: And the light crept up between the shutters,


s: And you heard the sparrows in the gutters,


s: His soul stretched tight across the skies


s: And short square fingers stuffing pipes,


s: Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;


s: Who hesitates toward you in the light of the door


s: Rust that clings to the form that the strength has left


s: "Remark the cat which flattens itself in the gutter,


s: Slipped out and pocketed a toy that was running along


s: I could see nothing behind that child's eye.


s: Trying to peer through lighted shutters,


s: Gripped the end of a stick which I held him.


s: She is alone With all the old nocturnal smells


s: The little lamp spreads a ring on the stair,


s: The bed is open; the tooth-brush hangs on the wall,


s: Put your shoes at the door, sleep, prepare for life."


s: They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,


s: And along the trampled edges of the street


s: I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids


s: Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,


s: And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts


s: And vanishes along the level of the roofs.


s: The readers of the Boston Evening Transcript


s: Sway in the wind like a field of ripe corn.


s: When evening quickens faintly in the street,


s: And to others bringing the Boston Evening Transcript,


s: I mount the steps and ring the bell, turning


s: Wearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye to Rochefoucauld,


s: If the street were time and he at the end of the street,


s: And lived in a small house near a fashionable square


s: Cared for by servants to the number of four.


s: Now when she died there was silence in heaven


s: The shutters were drawn and the undertaker wiped his feet--


s: He was aware that this sort of thing had occurred before.


s: But shortly afterwards the parrot died too.


s: The Dresden clock continued ticking on the mantelpiece,


s: And the footman sat upon the dining-table


s: Holding the second housemaid on his knees--


s: Who had always been so careful while her mistress lived.


s: Miss Nancy Ellicott Strode across the hills and broke them,


s: And her aunts were not quite sure how they felt about it,


s: Matthew and Waldo, guardians of the faith,


s: When Mr. Apollinax visited the United States


s: I thought of Fragilion, that shy figure among the birch-trees,


s: In the palace of Mrs. Phlaccus, at Professor Channing-Cheetah's


s: He laughed like an irresponsible foetus.


s: HWith your aid indiffeis laughter was submarine and profound


s: I looked for the head of Mr. Apollinax rolling under a chair


s: I heard the beat of centaur's hoofs over the hard turf


s: As his dry and passionate talk devoured the afternoon.


s: "He is a charming man"--"But after all what did he mean?"--


s: "His pointed ears... He must be unbalanced,"--


s: "There was something he said that I might have challenged."


s: Of dowager Mrs. Phlaccus, and Professor and Mrs. Cheetah


s: I remember a slice of lemon, and a bitten macaroon.


s: As she laughed I was aware of becoming involved in her


s: laughter and being part of it, until her teeth were


s: only accidental stars with a talent for squad-drill. I


s: was drawn in by short gasps, inhaled at each momentary


s: recovery, lost finally in the dark caverns of her


s: throat, bruised by the ripple of unseen muscles. An


s: elderly waiter with trembling hands was hurriedly


s: spreading a pink and white checked cloth over the rusty


s: green iron table, saying: "If the lady and gentleman


s: wish to take their tea in the garden, if the lady and


s: gentleman wish to take their tea in the garden..." I


s: decided that if the shaking of her breasts could be


s: stopped, some of the fragments of the afternoon might


s: be collected, and I concentrated my attention with


s: I observe: "Our sentimental friend the moon!


s: To light poor travellers to their distress."


s: And I then: "Some one frames upon the keys


s: That exquisite nocturne, with which we explain


s: The night and moonshine; music which we seize


s: Giving our vagrant moods the slightest twist!


s: At a stroke our mad poetics to confute--"


s: Stand on the highest pavement of the stair--


s: Weave, weave the sunlight in your hair--


s: Clasp your flowers to you with a pained surprise--


s: With a fugitive resentment in your eyes:


s: But weave, weave the sunlight in your hair.


s: So I would have had her stand and grieve,


s: As the soul leaves the body torn and bruised,


s: As the mind deserts the body it has used.


s: Simple and faithless as a smile and shake of the hand.


s: She turned away, but with the autumn weather


s: Her hair over her arms and her arms full of flowers.


s: And I wonder how they should have been together!


s: I should have lost a gesture and a pose.


s: The troubled midnight and the noon's repose.


s: The ways of Death are soothing and serene


s: A late lark twitters from the quiet skies


s: It came with the threat of a waning moon


s: displeased by the result, I can but submit that my verses are my


s: own, and that this is how I would have them read.


s: spending the better part of my life in the pursuit of poetry, I


s: next ten years.  Came the production by my old friend, Mr. H. B.


s: impressions of the Old Edinburgh Infirmary.  They had long since


s: entreated me to look for more.  I did as I was told; old dusty


s: instinct had slept--not died; I ventured (in brief) 'A Book of


s: Verses.'  It was received with so much interest that I took heart


s: For the matter of my book, it is there to speak for itself:-


s: On ne saurait dire e quel point un homme,


s: seul dans son lit et malade, devient personnel. -


s: The morning mists still haunt the stony street;


s: The northern summer air is shrill and cold;


s: Where Life and Death like friendly chafferers meet.


s: Thro' the loud spaciousness and draughty gloom


s: A small, strange child--so aged yet so young! -


s: Precedes me gravely to the waiting-room.


s: The grey-haired soldier-porter waves me on,


s: And on I crawl, and still my spirits fail:


s: These corridors and stairs of stone and iron,


s: Cold, naked, clean--half-workhouse and half-jail.


s: A square, squat room (a cellar on promotion),


s: Drab to the soul, drab to the very daylight;


s: Plasters astray in unnatural-looking tinware;


s: Scissors and lint and apothecary's jars.


s: Here, on a bench a skeleton would writhe from,


s: Wait till my heart is lead upon my stomach,


s: While at their ease two dressers do their chores.


s: One has a probe--it feels to me a crowbar.


s: A small boy sniffs and shudders after bluestone.


s: A poor old tramp explains his poor old ulcers.


s: Life is (I think) a blunder and a shame.


s: There is nothing of home in the noisy kettle,


s: Suggests the trail of a ghostly druggist.


s: Dressings and lint on the long, lean table -


s: Or lie as in training for shroud and coffin.


s: A nurse in the corridor scolds and wrangles.


s: The bad burn waits with his head unbandaged.


s: My neighbour chokes in the clutch of chloral . . .


s: Behold me waiting--waiting for the knife.


s: The drunken dark, the little death-in-life.


s: The gods are good to me:  I have no wife,


s: No innocent child, to think of as I near


s: The fateful minute; nothing all-too dear


s: Unmans me for my bout of passive strife.


s: And, face to face with chance, I shrink a little:


s: My hopes are strong, my will is something weak.


s: Here comes the basket?  Thank you.  I am ready.


s: But, gentlemen my porters, life is brittle:


s: You carry Caesar and his fortunes--steady!


s: So through the anaesthetic shows my life;


s: So flashes and so fades my thought, at strife


s: With the strong stupor that I heave and choke


s: Faces look strange from space--and disappear.


s: Far voices, sudden loud, offend my ear -


s: And hush as sudden.  Then my senses fleet:


s: All were a blank, save for this dull, new pain


s: That grinds my leg and foot; and brokenly


s: Time and the place glimpse on to me again;


s: I wake--relapsing--somewhat faint and fain,


s: Glows like a kiln, while the bedclothes -


s: Lurch to the leap of the flame.  The next man to me


s: Gasps, gurgles, snorts himself free, as the night-nurse,


s: (Whispering me, 'Are ye no sleepin' yet?'),


s: REMBRANDT and good SIR WALTER--only these


s: Could paint her all to you:  experienced ease


s: And antique liveliness and ponderous grace;


s: The depth and malice of her sly, grey eyes;


s: The broad Scots tongue that flatters, scolds, defies;


s: The thick Scots wit that fells you like a mace.


s: These thirty years has she been nursing here,


s: Some of them under SYME , her hero still.


s: Much is she worth, and even more is made of her.


s: Patients and students hold her very dear.


s: The doctors love her, tease her, use her skill.


s: They say 'The Chief' himself is half-afraid of her.


s: Some three, or five, or seven, and thirty years;


s: Dark eyes and shy that, ignorant of sin,


s: Are yet acquainted, it would seem, with tears;


s: A comely shape; a slim, high-coloured hand,


s: Graced, rather oddly, with a signet ring;


s: Her plain print gown, prim cap, and bright steel chain


s: Absorbed in her, as in a pleasant mystery.


s: Quick, skilful, quiet, soft in speech and touch . . .


s: 'Do you like nursing?'  'Yes, Sir, very much.'


s: Somehow, I rather think she has a history.


s: Blue-eyed and bright of face but waning fast


s: The plainest cap is somehow touched with caste.


s: She talks BEETHOVEN; frowns disapprobation


s: At BALZAC'S name, sighs it at 'poor GEORGE SAND'S';


s: Knows that she has exceeding pretty hands;


s: And gives at need (as one who understands)


s: Draught, counsel, diagnosis, exhortation.


s: From the broad, white brows the kind eyes


s: Soothing yet nerving you.  Here at his elbow,


s: Louts, duffers, exquisites, students, and prigs -


s: Whiskers and foreheads, scarf-pins and spectacles -


s: Hustles the Class!  And they ring themselves


s: High shoulders, low shoulders, broad shoulders, narrow ones,


s: Round, square, and angular, serry and shove;


s: Dripped his hair; his feet looked rigid;


s: Shadow by night and as light in the day,


s: His brow spreads large and placid, and his eye


s: Is deep and bright, with steady looks that still.


s: Soft lines of tranquil thought his face fulfill -


s: His face at once benign and proud and shy.


s: His faultless patience, his unyielding will,


s: Beautiful gentleness and splendid skill,


s: His wise, rare smile is sweet with certainties,


s: Such love and faith as failure cannot quell.


s: Battling with custom, prejudice, disease,


s: As once the son of Zeus with Death and Hell.


s: Exceeding tall, but built so well his height


s: Half-disappears in flow of chest and limb;


s: Moustache and whisker trooper-like in trim;


s: Frank-faced, frank-eyed, frank-hearted; always bright


s: And always punctual--morning, noon, and night;


s: Humorous, and yet without a touch of whim;


s: His piety, though fresh and true in strain,


s: Has not yet whitewashed up his common mood


s: To the dead blank of his particular Schism.


s: Sweet, unaggressive, tolerant, most humane,


s: Here in this dim, dull, double-bedded room,


s: Bedfast but brilliant yet with health and bloom.


s: Blue-eyed, snub-nosed, chubby, and fair of face.


s: Willie's but six, and seems to like the place,


s: They eat, and laugh, and sing, and fight, all day;


s: All night they sleep like dormice.  See them play


s: Saws, lectures, takes the artery up, and ties;


s: Willie, self-chloroformed, with half-shut eyes,


s: Holding the limb and moaning--Case and Dresser.


s: She's tall and gaunt, and in her hard, sad face


s: There lowers the fixed and peevish resignation


s: Bred of a past where troubles came apace.


s: She tells me that her husband, ere he died,


s: Her kin dispersed, her friends forgot and gone,


s: Scolding her spoiled young saint, she labours on:


s: Telling her dreams, taking her patients' part,


s: Trailing her coat sometimes:  and you shall find


s: No rougher, quainter speech, nor kinder heart.


s: With wrinkling lines; her soft, white hair adorns


s: Her withered brows in quaint, straight curls, like horns;


s: And all about her clings an old, sweet smell.


s: Prim is her gown and quakerlike her shawl.


s: Well might her bonnets have been born on her.


s: In snow or shine, from bed to bed she runs,


s: All twinkling smiles and texts and pious tales,


s: Her mittened hands, that ever give or pray,