Texts:Shakespeare/cw162340: Difference between revisions

A plaintful story from a sist'ring vale,<br/>

My spirits t'attend this double voice accorded,<br/>

And down I laid to list the sad-tun'd tale;<br/>

Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,<br/>

Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain,<br/>

Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Upon her head a platted hive of straw,<br/>

Which fortified her visage from the sun,<br/>

Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw<br/>

The carcass of a beauty spent and done;<br/>

Time had not scythed all that youth begun,<br/>

Nor youth all quit, but spite of heaven's fell rage<br/>

Some beauty peeped through lattice of sear'd age.<br/>

</p>

Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,<br/>

Which on it had conceited characters,<br/>

Laund'ring the silken figures in the brine<br/>

That seasoned woe had pelleted in tears,<br/>

And often reading what contents it bears;<br/>

As often shrieking undistinguish'd woe,<br/>

In clamours of all size, both high and low.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride,<br/>

As they did batt'ry to the spheres intend;<br/>

Sometime diverted their poor balls are tied<br/>

To th'orbed earth; sometimes they do extend<br/>

Their view right on; anon their gazes lend<br/>

To every place at once, and nowhere fix'd,<br/>

The mind and sight distractedly commix'd.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat,<br/>

Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride;<br/>

For some untuck'd descended her sheav'd hat,<br/>

Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside;<br/>

Some in her threaden fillet still did bide,<br/>

And, true to bondage, would not break from thence,<br/>

Though slackly braided in loose negligence.<br/>

</p>

<p>

A thousand favours from a maund she drew,<br/>

Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,<br/>

Which one by one she in a river threw,<br/>

Upon whose weeping margent she was set,<br/>

Like usury applying wet to wet,<br/>

Or monarchs' hands, that lets not bounty fall<br/>

Where want cries 'some,' but where excess begs 'all'.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Of folded schedules had she many a one,<br/>

Which she perus'd, sigh'd, tore and gave the flood;<br/>

Crack'd many a ring of posied gold and bone,<br/>

Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud;<br/>

Found yet mo letters sadly penn'd in blood,<br/>

With sleided silk, feat and affectedly<br/>

Enswath'd, and seal'd to curious secrecy.<br/>

</p>

<p>

These often bath'd she in her fluxive eyes,<br/>

And often kiss'd, and often gave to tear;<br/>

Cried, 'O false blood, thou register of lies,<br/>

What unapproved witness dost thou bear!<br/>

Ink would have seem'd more black and damned here!'<br/>

This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,<br/>

Big discontent so breaking their contents.<br/>

</p>

<p>

A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh,<br/>

Sometime a blusterer, that the ruffle knew<br/>

Of court, of city, and had let go by<br/>

The swiftest hours observed as they flew,<br/>

Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew;<br/>

And, privileg'd by age, desires to know<br/>

In brief the grounds and motives of her woe.<br/>

</p>

<p>

So slides he down upon his grained bat,<br/>

And comely distant sits he by her side,<br/>

When he again desires her, being sat,<br/>

Her grievance with his hearing to divide:<br/>

If that from him there may be aught applied<br/>

Which may her suffering ecstasy assuage,<br/>

'Tis promised in the charity of age.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'Father,' she says, 'though in me you behold<br/>

The injury of many a blasting hour,<br/>

Let it not tell your judgement I am old,<br/>

Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power.<br/>

I might as yet have been a spreading flower,<br/>

Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied<br/>

Love to myself, and to no love beside.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'But woe is me! Too early I attended<br/>

A youthful suit; it was to gain my grace;<br/>

O one by nature's outwards so commended,<br/>

That maiden's eyes stuck over all his face,<br/>

Love lack'd a dwelling and made him her place;<br/>

And when in his fair parts she did abide,<br/>

She was new lodg'd and newly deified.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'His browny locks did hang in crooked curls,<br/>

And every light occasion of the wind<br/>

Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls,<br/>

What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find,<br/>

Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind:<br/>

For on his visage was in little drawn,<br/>

What largeness thinks in paradise was sawn.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'Small show of man was yet upon his chin;<br/>

His phoenix down began but to appear,<br/>

Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin,<br/>

Whose bare out-bragg'd the web it seemed to wear.<br/>

Yet show'd his visage by that cost more dear,<br/>

And nice affections wavering stood in doubt<br/>

If best were as it was, or best without.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'His qualities were beauteous as his form,<br/>

For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free;<br/>

Yet if men mov'd him, was he such a storm<br/>

As oft 'twixt May and April is to see,<br/>

When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be.<br/>

His rudeness so with his authoriz'd youth<br/>

Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'Well could he ride, and often men would say<br/>

That horse his mettle from his rider takes,<br/>

Proud of subjection, noble by the sway,<br/>

What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop he makes!<br/>

And controversy hence a question takes,<br/>

Whether the horse by him became his deed,<br/>

Or he his manage by th' well-doing steed.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'But quickly on this side the verdict went,<br/>

His real habitude gave life and grace<br/>

To appertainings and to ornament,<br/>

Accomplish'd in himself, not in his case;<br/>

All aids, themselves made fairer by their place,<br/>

Came for additions; yet their purpos'd trim<br/>

Piec'd not his grace, but were all grac'd by him.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'So on the tip of his subduing tongue<br/>

All kind of arguments and question deep,<br/>

All replication prompt, and reason strong,<br/>

For his advantage still did wake and sleep,<br/>

To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep:<br/>

He had the dialect and different skill,<br/>

Catching all passions in his craft of will.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'That he did in the general bosom reign<br/>

Of young, of old, and sexes both enchanted,<br/>

To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain<br/>

In personal duty, following where he haunted,<br/>

Consent's bewitch'd, ere he desire, have granted,<br/>

And dialogued for him what he would say,<br/>

Ask'd their own wills, and made their wills obey.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'Many there were that did his picture get<br/>

To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind,<br/>

Like fools that in th' imagination set<br/>

The goodly objects which abroad they find<br/>

Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assign'd,<br/>

And labouring in moe pleasures to bestow them,<br/>

Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'So many have, that never touch'd his hand,<br/>

Sweetly suppos'd them mistress of his heart.<br/>

My woeful self that did in freedom stand,<br/>

And was my own fee-simple (not in part)<br/>

What with his art in youth, and youth in art,<br/>

Threw my affections in his charmed power,<br/>

Reserv'd the stalk and gave him all my flower.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'Yet did I not, as some my equals did,<br/>

Demand of him, nor being desired yielded,<br/>

Finding myself in honour so forbid,<br/>

With safest distance I mine honour shielded.<br/>

Experience for me many bulwarks builded<br/>

Of proofs new-bleeding, which remain'd the foil<br/>

Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'But ah! Who ever shunn'd by precedent<br/>

The destin'd ill she must herself assay,<br/>

Or force'd examples 'gainst her own content,<br/>

To put the by-pass'd perils in her way?<br/>

Counsel may stop a while what will not stay:<br/>

For when we rage, advice is often seen<br/>

By blunting us to make our wills more keen.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,<br/>

That we must curb it upon others' proof,<br/>

To be forbode the sweets that seems so good,<br/>

For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.<br/>

O appetite, from judgement stand aloof!<br/>

The one a palate hath that needs will taste,<br/>

</p>

<p>

And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling;<br/>

Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew,<br/>

Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling;<br/>

Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling;<br/>

Thought characters and words merely but art,<br/>

And bastards of his foul adulterate heart.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'And long upon these terms I held my city,<br/>

Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity,<br/>

And be not of my holy vows afraid:<br/>

That's to ye sworn, to none was ever said,<br/>

For feasts of love I have been call'd unto,<br/>

Till now did ne'er invite, nor never woo.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Are errors of the blood, none of the mind:<br/>

Love made them not; with acture they may be,<br/>

Where neither party is nor true nor kind,<br/>

They sought their shame that so their shame did find,<br/>

And so much less of shame in me remains,<br/>

By how much of me their reproach contains.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Not one whose flame my heart so much as warmed,<br/>

Or my affection put to th' smallest teen,<br/>

Or any of my leisures ever charmed:<br/>

Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmed;<br/>

Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free,<br/>

And reign'd commanding in his monarchy.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Of pallid pearls and rubies red as blood,<br/>

Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me<br/>

Of grief and blushes, aptly understood<br/>

In bloodless white and the encrimson'd mood;<br/>

Effects of terror and dear modesty,<br/>

Encamp'd in hearts, but fighting outwardly.<br/>

</p>

<p>

With twisted metal amorously empleach'd,<br/>

I have receiv'd from many a several fair,<br/>

Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd,<br/>

With th' annexions of fair gems enrich'd,<br/>

And deep-brain'd sonnets that did amplify<br/>

Each stone's dear nature, worth and quality.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Whereto his invis'd properties did tend,<br/>

The deep green emerald, in whose fresh regard<br/>

Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend;<br/>

The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend<br/>

With objects manifold; each several stone,<br/>

With wit well blazon'd smil'd, or made some moan.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Of pensiv'd and subdued desires the tender,<br/>

Nature hath charg'd me that I hoard them not,<br/>

But yield them up where I myself must render,<br/>

That is, to you, my origin and ender:<br/>

For these of force must your oblations be,<br/>

Since I their altar, you empatron me.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise;<br/>

Take all these similes to your own command,<br/>

Hallowed with sighs that burning lungs did raise:<br/>

What me, your minister for you, obeys,<br/>

Works under you; and to your audit comes<br/>

Their distract parcels in combined sums.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Or sister sanctified of holiest note,<br/>

Which late her noble suit in court did shun,<br/>

Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote;<br/>

For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,<br/>

But kept cold distance, and did thence remove<br/>

To spend her living in eternal love.<br/>

</p>

<p>

The thing we have not, mast'ring what not strives,<br/>

Planing the place which did no form receive,<br/>

Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves,<br/>

She that her fame so to herself contrives,<br/>

The scars of battle 'scapeth by the flight,<br/>

And makes her absence valiant, not her might.<br/>

</p>

<p>

The accident which brought me to her eye,<br/>

Upon the moment did her force subdue,<br/>

And now she would the caged cloister fly:<br/>

Religious love put out religion's eye:<br/>

Not to be tempted would she be immur'd,<br/>

And now to tempt all, liberty procur'd.<br/>

</p>

<p>

The broken bosoms that to me belong<br/>

Have emptied all their fountains in my well,<br/>

And mine I pour your ocean all among:<br/>

I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong,<br/>

Must for your victory us all congest,<br/>

As compound love to physic your cold breast.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Who, disciplin'd and dieted in grace,<br/>

Believ'd her eyes when they t'assail begun,<br/>

All vows and consecrations giving place.<br/>

O most potential love! Vow, bond, nor space,<br/>

In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine,<br/>

For thou art all and all things else are thine.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame,<br/>

How coldly those impediments stand forth,<br/>

Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame!<br/>

Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense, 'gainst shame,<br/>

And sweetens, in the suff'ring pangs it bears,<br/>

The aloes of all forces, shocks and fears.<br/>

</p>

<p>

Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine,<br/>

And supplicant their sighs to your extend,<br/>

To leave the batt'ry that you make 'gainst mine,<br/>

Lending soft audience to my sweet design,<br/>

And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath,<br/>

</p>

<p>

'This said, his wat'ry eyes he did dismount,<br/>

Whose sights till then were levell'd on my face;<br/>

Each cheek a river running from a fount<br/>

With brinish current downward flowed apace.<br/>

O how the channel to the stream gave grace!<br/>

Who, glaz'd with crystal gate the glowing roses<br/>

That flame through water which their hue encloses.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies<br/>

In the small orb of one particular tear!<br/>

But with the inundation of the eyes<br/>

What rocky heart to water will not wear?<br/>

What breast so cold that is not warmed here?<br/>

O cleft effect! Cold modesty, hot wrath,<br/>

Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'For lo, his passion, but an art of craft,<br/>

Even there resolv'd my reason into tears;<br/>

There my white stole of chastity I daff'd,<br/>

Shook off my sober guards, and civil fears,<br/>

Appear to him as he to me appears,<br/>

All melting, though our drops this diff'rence bore:<br/>

His poison'd me, and mine did him restore.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'In him a plenitude of subtle matter,<br/>

Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives,<br/>

Of burning blushes, or of weeping water,<br/>

Or swooning paleness; and he takes and leaves,<br/>

In either's aptness, as it best deceives,<br/>

To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes,<br/>

Or to turn white and swoon at tragic shows.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'That not a heart which in his level came<br/>

Could 'scape the hail of his all-hurting aim,<br/>

Showing fair nature is both kind and tame;<br/>

And veil'd in them, did win whom he would maim.<br/>

Against the thing he sought he would exclaim;<br/>

When he most burned in heart-wish'd luxury,<br/>

He preach'd pure maid, and prais'd cold chastity.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'Thus merely with the garment of a grace,<br/>

The naked and concealed fiend he cover'd,<br/>

That th'unexperient gave the tempter place,<br/>

Which, like a cherubin, above them hover'd.<br/>

Who, young and simple, would not be so lover'd?<br/>

Ay me! I fell, and yet do question make<br/>

What I should do again for such a sake.<br/>

</p>

<p>

'O, that infected moisture of his eye,<br/>

O, that false fire which in his cheek so glow'd!<br/>

O, that forc'd thunder from his heart did fly,<br/>

O, that sad breath his spongy lungs bestow'd,<br/>

O, all that borrowed motion, seeming owed,<br/>

Would yet again betray the fore-betrayed,<br/>

And new pervert a reconciled maid.'<br/>

</p>