VENUS AND ADONIS.

ARGUMENT.

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

EVEN as the sun with purple-color'd face
Had ta'en his last leave of the weeping morn,
Rose-cheek'd Adonis hied him to the chase;
Hunting he loved, but love he laugh'd to scorn:
Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him,
And like a bold-faced suitor 'gins to woo him.

Thrice fairer than myself,' thus she began,
• The field's chief flower, sweet above compare,
Stain to all nymphs, more lovely than a man,
More white and red than doves or roses are;

Nature that made thee, with herself at strife,
Saith that the world hath ending with thy life.

:

Vouchsafe, thou wonder, to alight thy steed, And rein his proud head to the saddle-bow If thou wilt deign this favor, for thy meed, A thousand honey secrets shalt thou know. Here come and sit, where never serpent hisses; And, being set, I'll smother thee with kisses;

And yet not cloy thy lips with loathed satiety, But rather famish them amid their plenty, Making them red and pale with fresh variety, Ten kisses short as one, one long as twenty: A summer's day will seem an hour but short, Being wasted in such time-beguiling sport.'

With this, she seiseth on his sweating palm,
The precedent of pith and livelihood,

And, trembling in her passion, calls it balm,
Earth's sovereign salve to do a goddess good:
Being so enraged, desire doth lend her force,
Courageously to pluck him from his horse.

Over one arm the lusty courser's rein,
Under her other was the tender boy,
Who blush'd and pouted in a dull disdain,
With leaden appetite, unapt to toy;

She red and hot, as coals of glowing fire;
He red for shame, but frosty in desire.

The studded bridle on a ragged bough
Nimbly she fastens; (O, how quick is love!)

The steed is stalled up, and even now
To tie the rider she begins to prove :

Backward she push'd him, as she would be thrust;

And govern'd him in strength, though not in lust.

So soon was she along, as he was down,
Each leaning on their elbows and their hips:
Now doth she stroke his cheek, now doth he frown,
And 'gins to chide, but soon she stops his lips;

And kissing speaks, with lustful language broken,

If thou wilt chide, thy lips shall never open.'

He burns with bashful shame; she with her tears
Doth quench the maiden burning of his cheeks;
Then with her windy sighs and golden hairs,
To fan and blow them dry again she seeks :

He saith, she is immodest, blames her 'miss; 1
What follows more, she murders with a kiss.

Even as an empty eagle, sharp by fast,

Tires with her beak on feathers, flesh, and bone, Shaking her wings, devouring all in haste,

Till either gorge be stuff'd, or prey he gone;

Even so she kiss'd his brow, his cheek, his

chin;

And where she ends, she doth anew begin.

i. e. misbehavior.

2 Tears, pecks.

Forced to content, but never to obey,
Panting he lies, and breatheth in her face:
She feedeth on the steam, as on a prey;
And calls it heavenly moisture, air of grace;
Wishing her cheeks were gardens full of flowers,
So they were dew'd with such distilling showers.

Look, how a bird lies tangled in a net,

So fasten'd in her arms Adonis lies;

Pure shame and awed resistance made him fret,
Which bred more beauty in his angry eyes:
Rain, added to a river that is rank,1
Perforce will force it overflow the bank.

Still she entreats, and prettily entreats,
For to a pretty ear she tunes her tale;
Still is he sullen, still he lowers and frets,
"Twixt crimson shame, and anger ashy-pale:

Being red, she loves him best; and being white,
Her best is better'd with a more delight.

Look how he can, she cannot choose but love;
And by her fair immortal hand she swears
From his soft bosom never to remove,

Till he take truce with her contending tears,

Which long have rain'd, making her cheeks all

wet;

And one sweet kiss shall pay this countless debt.

1 i. e. full.