Good night," quoth she; and, ere he says " adieu,' The honey fee of parting tendered is; Her arms do lend his neck a sweet embrace ; Incorporate then they seem; face grows to face. Till, breathless, he disjoined, and backward drew He with her plenty pressed, she faint with dearth, (Their lips together glued,) fall to the earth. Now quick Desire hath caught the yielding prey. Paying what ransom the insulter willeth ; Whose vulture thought doth pitch the price so high, That she will draw his lips' rich treasure dry And having felt the sweetness of the spoil, With blindfold fury she begins to forage; Her face doth reek and smoke, her blood doth boil, And careless lust stirs up a desperate courage; Forgetting shame's pure blush, and honor's wrack. Hot, faint, and weary, with her hard embracing, dling, Or as the fleet-foot roe that's tired with chasing, He now obeys, and now no more resisteth, What wax so frozen but dissolves with tempering, But then woos best when most his choice is froward. When he did frown, O, had she then gave over, Yet love breaks through, and picks them all at last. For pity now she can no more detain him ; "Sweet boy," she says, "this night I'll waste in sorrow, For my sick heart commands mine eyes to watch. Tell me, love's master, shall we meet to-morrow? Say, shall we? shall we? wilt thou make the match ?" 1 The soft wax upon which the seal attached to a legal instrument was impressed, required to be tempered before the impression was made upon it. So Falstaff says of Justice Shallow, have him already tempering between my finger and my thumb and shortly will I seal with him.” 2 Leave, license. 3 No reader of Shakspeare can forget the pathos with which he has employed this expression in another place: "And my poor fool is hanged He tells her no; to-morrow he intends To hunt the boar with certain of his friends. 'The boar!" quoth she; whereat a sudden pale, Now is she in the very lists of love, He will not manage her, although he mount her; To clip Elysium, and to lack her joy. Even as poor birds, deceived with painted grapes,' As those poor birds that helpless 2 berries saw: But all in vain; good queen, it will not be : 1 The allusion is to the picture of Zeuxis, mentioned by Pliny. We may observe that there was no English translation of Pliny so early as the date of this poem. 2 Helpless, that afford no help. "Thou hadst been gone," quoth she, "sweet boy, ere this, But that thou told'st me thou wouldst hunt boar. O, be advised! thou know'st not what it is "On his bow-back he hath a battle set Being moved, he strikes whate'er is in his way, "His brawny sides, with hairy bristles armed, the The thorny brambles and embracing bushes, "Alas! he nought esteems that face of thine, But having thee at vantage, (wondrous dread!) "O, let him keep his loathsome cabin still! Beauty hath nought to do with such foul fiends: 1 Mortal, deadly. Come not within his danger' by thy will; They that thrive well take counsel of their friends. When thou didst name the boar, not to dissemble, I feared thy fortune, and my joints did tremble. "Didst thou not mark my face? Was it not white? Saw'st thou not signs of fear lurk in mine eye? Grew I not faint? And fell I not downright? Within my bosom, whereon thou dost lie, My boding heart pants, beats, and takes no rest, But like an earthquake, shakes thee on my breast. "For where Love reigns, disturbing Jealousy "This sour informer, this bate-breeding 2 spy, This canker that eats up love's tender spring, This carry-tale, dissentious jealousy, That sometime true news, sometime false doth bring, Knocks at my heart, and whispers in mine ear, That if I love thee I thy death should fear: 66 And, more than so, presenteth to mine eye The picture of an angry-chafing boar, 1 Danger, power of doing harm. So in the Merchant of Venice, Act IV. Sc. 1.: "You stand within his danger." See note on that passage. 2 Bate signifies strife. Mrs. Quickly says that John Rugby 19 no breed-bate. |