TO THE

RIGHT-HONOURABLE HENRY WRIOTHESLY,

EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON, AND BARON OF TICHFIELD.'

RIGHT-HONOURABLE: I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolished lines to your lordship, nor how the world will censure me for choosing so strong a prop to support so weak a burden: only, if your Honour seem but pleased, I account myself highly praised, and vow to take advantage of all idle hours, till I have honoured you with some graver labour. But, if the

1 This nobleman, the third Earl of Southampton, was born the 6th of October, 1573, became a student of St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1585, and proceeded Master of Arts in 1589. Three years later, he was admitted to the same degree at Oxford. At the time of this dedication, 1593, he was twenty years of age. He was early distinguished for his attachment to literature, his patronage of Shakespeare having begun before the taking of his degree at Oxford. In his dedication of The Rape of Lucrece, 1594, the Poet delicately intimates the favours he had already received from his youthful patron. In 1597 Southampton embarked as a volunteer in the expedition against Spain, under Essex, being appointed captain of one of the principal ships. He afterwards had the command of a squadron, and was knighted by Essex for his gallantry in a situation of great peril. The next year he went with Essex into Ireland, and was there made General of the Horse; but the Queen would not suffer him to hold the place, as he had married a cousin of Essex without her consent. On the fall of Essex, he was sent to the Tower, where he was kept during the rest of Elizabeth's reign. Not long after his release, he was made governor of the Isle of Wight; but, being secretly accused of too great intimacy with the Queen, King James had him arrested: the accusation, however, being unsustained, he was discharged, and afterwards retired in disgust to Spa. He was with Lord Herbert of Cherbury at the siege of Rees; returned to England in 1619, and was appointed a member of the Privy Council: but he again incurred the royal displeasure by going with the popular party, and was for a short time in the custody of the Dean of Westminster. In 1624, he had the command of a small force against the Spaniards in the Low Countries, and died

first heir of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sorry it had so noble a god-father, and never after ear2 so barren a land, for fear it yield me still so bad a harvest. I leave it to your honourable survey, and your Honour to your heart's content; which I wish may always answer your own wish, and the world's hopeful expectation. Your Honour's in all duty,

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

of a fever at Bergen-op-Zoom, on the 10th of November that year. He received many tributes and testimonies of honour from the scholars and higher wits of his time; but his friendship for Shakespeare has given his name and character an abiding interest. Camden tells us that he was as well known for his love of letters as for his military exploits; and Sir John Beaumont, after commending his public and private virtues, speaks of his liberality to men of genius and learning as his highest praise:

I keep that glory last which is the best,—
The love of learning which he oft express'd
By conversation, and respect to those

Who had a name in arts, in verse or prose.

2 To ear is an old word for to plough, or till. See vol. xvi, page 16, note 9.

VENUS AND ADONIS.

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

[OVID, I. Am. xv. 35.]

EVEN as the Sun with purple-colour'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 favour, 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,

1 Stain to them by comparison, or by throwing them into the shade. See vol. xvi. page 79, note 3.

Making them red and pale with fresh variety,-
Ten kisses short as one, one long as twenty:

A Summer's day will seem an hour but short,
Being wasted in such time — beguiling sport."

With this she seizeth on his sweating palm,
The precedent of pith and livelihood,2
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 raggèd bough
Nimbly she fastens : O, how quick is love! -
The steed is stallèd 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."

2 Precedent here means indication or prognostic, and pith is vigour. A moist palm was regarded as a sign of the things here mentioned.

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; 3
What follows more she murders with a kiss.

Even as an empty eagle, sharp by fast,
Tires 4 with her beak on feathers, flesh, and bone,
Shaking her wings, devouring all in haste,
Till either gorge be stuff'd, or prey be gone;
Even so she kiss'd his brow, his cheek, his chin,
And where she ends she doth anew begin.

Forced to content,5 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 6

Perforce will force it overflow the bank.

3 Amiss used as a noun for fault or misbehaviour. So in the 35th Sonnet: "Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss." And in the 151st Sonnet: "Urge not my amiss." See, also, vol. xiv. page 267, note 5.

4 To tire is to pluck, to tear, to peck eagerly. See vol. xviii. page 76,

note II.

5 Meaning, compelled to acquiescence, forced to be content.

6 Rank, here, is brimful, swollen to the brim. So Drayton in his Barons' Wars: "Fetching full tides, luxurious, high, and rank."