O, what a sight it was, wistly to view
How she came stealing to the wayward boy!
To note the fighting conflict of her hue,
How white and red each other did destroy!

But now her cheek was pale, and by and by
It flash'd forth fire, as lightning from the sky.

Now was she just before him as he sat,
And like a lowly lover down she kneels;
With one fair hand she heaveth up his hat,
Her other tender hand his fair cheek feels:

His tenderer cheek receives her soft hand's print,
As apt as new-fall'n snow takes any dint.

O, what a war of looks was then between them!
Her eyes petitioners to his eyes suing;
His eyes saw her eyes as they had not seen them;
Her eyes woo'd still, his eyes disdain'd the wooing:

And all this dumb play had his acts made plain
With tears, which chorus-like her eyes did rain.

Full gently now she takes him by the hand,
A lily prison'd in a gaol of snow,

Or ivory in an alabaster band;

So white a friend engirts so white a foe:

343 wistly] wistfully, eagerly.

...

346 How white and red . . . destroy] Cf. Lucrece, 71, and T. of Shrew, IV, v, 30: "Such war of white and red within her cheeks! 359-360 dumb play . chorus-like] Reference is here made to the early devices of the dumb-show and the chorus which characterised the early drama. "His acts" (i. e., its acts) forms part of the theatrical imagery. 362–363 A lily . . . alabaster band] Cf. Ovid, Metam., iv, 354–355:

350

360

This beauteous combat, wilful and unwilling,
Show'd like two silver doves that sit a-billing.

Once more the engine of her thoughts began: "O fairest mover on this mortal round, Would thou wert as I am, and I a man,

My heart all whole as thine, thy heart my wound;

For one sweet look thy help I would assure thee, Though nothing but my body's bane would cure thee."

"Give me my hand," saith he; "why dost thou feel it ?"
"Give me my heart," saith she, "and thou shalt have it;
O, give it me, lest thy hard heart do steel it,
And being steel'd, soft sighs can never grave it:

Then love's deep groans I never shall regard,
Because Adonis' heart hath made mine hard."

“In liquidis translucet aquis, ut eburnea siquis Signa tegat claro, vel candida lilia, vitro" ("The boy's white body shines in the transparent water, like ivory images or white lilies encased in clear glass”). So line 980, infra: "like pearls in glass."

367 the engine of her thoughts] the tongue. Cf. Tit. Andr., III, i, 82: “O, that delightful engine of her thoughts.”

368 mover on this mortal round] active agent (or being) on this earthly globe. "Movers" is similarly found in Cor., I, v, 4. The line curiously resembles the first line of Sonnet iii in a French collection, Le Tombeau de Robert et Antoine Le Chevalier (Caen, 1591, p. 54): "Le Souuerain moteur de la ronde machine."

370 thy heart my wound] thy heart wounded as mine is. 376 And being steel'd. grave] The figure is from the art of engraving

on metal plates "grave" being used in the sense of "engrave” which is best effected on a surface that is softer than steel. Cf. Lucrece, 755.

370

་

"For shame," he cries, "let go, and let me go;
My day's delight is past, my horse is gone,
And 't is your fault I am bereft him so:

I pray you hence, and leave me here alone;
For all my mind, my thought, my busy care,
Is how to get my palfrey from the mare."
Thus she replies: "Thy palfrey, as he should,
Welcomes the warm approach of sweet desire:
Affection is a coal that must be cool'd;
Else, suffer'd, it will set the heart on fire:

The sea hath bounds, but deep desire hath none;
Therefore no marvel though thy horse be gone.

"How like a jade he stood, tied to the tree,
Servilely master'd with a leathern rein!

But when he saw his love, his youth's fair fee,
He held such petty bondage in disdain;

Throwing the base thong from his bending crest,
Enfranchising his mouth, his back, his breast.

"Who sees his true-love in her naked bed,
Teaching the sheets a whiter hue than white,

388 Else, suffer'd] Otherwise, if it be suffered (to blaze), if it be not checked.

389 The sea hath none] Cf. Macb., IV, iii, 60-61: "but there's no bottom, none, In my voluptuousness.'

393 fee] property in full ownership.

397 her naked bed] the bed where she lies naked. Kyd's Ieronimo (1592) supplied the Elizabethan populace with many cant phrases, of which the best remembered is "What outcry calls me from my naked bed.” 398 Teaching . . . than white] Cf. Cymb., II, ii, 16: “whiter than the sheets," and Lucrece, 472: "Who o'er the white sheets peers her whiter

880

390

But, when his glutton eye so full hath fed,
His other agents aim at like delight?

Who is so faint, that dares not be so bold
To touch the fire, the weather being cold?
"Let me excuse thy courser, gentle boy;
And learn of him, I heartily beseech thee,
To take advantage on presented joy;

Though I were dumb, yet his proceedings teach thee:
O, learn to love; the lesson is but plain,
And once made perfect, never lost again."

"I know not love," quoth he, "nor will not know it,
Unless it be a boar, and then I chase it;

"T is much to borrow, and I will not owe it; My love to love is love but to disgrace it;

For I have heard it is a life in death,

That laughs, and weeps, and all but with a breath. "Who wears a garment shapeless and unfinish'd? Who plucks the bud before one leaf put forth? If springing things be any jot diminish'd, They wither in their prime, prove nothing worth: The colt that's back'd and burthen'd being young Loseth his pride, and never waxeth strong.

"You hurt my hand with wringing; let us part, And leave this idle theme, this bootless chat:

chin." So Constable's Diana (1592), Sonnet iv, 7: “whiter skin with white sheet covered" (ed. 1594, Decade II, Sonnet iii, 7).

412 My love .. disgrace it] My inclination towards love is only a desire to make it contemptible.

400

410

420

Remove your siege from my unyielding heart;
To love's alarms it will not ope the gate:

Dismiss your vows, your feigned tears, your flattery;
For where a heart is hard they make no battery."

"What! canst thou talk?" quoth she, "hast thou a tongue?

O, would thou hadst not, or I had no hearing!
Thy mermaid's voice hath done me double wrong;
I had my load before, now press'd with bearing:
Melodious discord, heavenly tune harsh-sounding,
Ear's deep-sweet music, and heart's deep-sore
wounding.

"Had I no eyes but ears, my ears would love
That inward beauty and invisible;

Or were I deaf, thy outward parts would move
Each part in me that were but sensible:

Though neither eyes nor ears, to hear nor see,
Yet should I be in love by touching thee.

"Say, that the sense of feeling were bereft me,
And that I could not see, nor hear, nor touch,
And nothing but the very smell were left me,
Yet would my love to thee be still as much;

429 Thy mermaid's voice] The mermaid was commonly credited with the qualities of a siren. Cf. 777, infra, and Lucrece, 1411.

430 now press'd with bearing] Now weighted, made heavier, by suffering. 434-436 invisible . . . sensible] This somewhat awkward rhyme is repeated in L. L. L., V, ii, 257-259.

430

440