IX.

THE PROPHECY OF VENUS.

'SINCE thou art dead, lo, here I prophesy :
Sorrow on love hereafter shall attend;
It shall be waited on with jealousy,
Find sweet beginning, but unsavoury end,
Ne'er settled equally, but high or low,

That all love's pleasure shall not match his woe.

'It shall be fickle, false, and full of fraud,
Bud and be blasted in a breathing-while;
The bottom poison, and the top o'er-strawed
With sweets that shall the truest sight beguile:
The strongest body shall it make most weak,
Strike the wise dumb, and teach the fool to speak.

It shall be sparing, and too full of riot,
Teaching decrepit age to tread the measures:
The staring ruffian shall it keep in quiet,
Pluck down the rich, enrich the poor

with treasures.

It shall be raging-mad, and silly-mild,
Make the young old, the old become a child.

It shall suspect where is no cause of fear,
It shall not fear where it should most mistrust;
It shall be merciful, and too severe,
And most deceiving when it seems most just;
Perverse it shall be, where it shows most toward,
Put fear to valour, courage to the coward.

'It shall be cause of war, and dire events, And set dissension 'twixt the son and sire; Subject and servile to all discontents,

As dry combustious matter is to fire:

Sith in his prime Death doth my love destroy,
They that love best their loves shall not enjoy.'
Venus and Adonis, 1138-1164.

E MORTE VITA.

By this, the boy that by her side lay killed
Was melted like a vapour from her sight,
And in his blood, that on the ground lay spilled,
A purple flower sprung up, chequered with white,
Resembling well his pale cheeks and the blood
Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood.
She bows her head, the new-sprung flower to smell,
Comparing it to her Adonis' breath,

And says, within her bosom it shall dwell,
Since he himself is reft from her by death:

She crops the stalk, and in the breach appears
Green-dropping sap, which she compares to tears.

'Poor flower,' quoth she, 'this was thy father's guiseSweet issue of a more sweet-smelling sireFor every little grief to wet his eyes:

To grow unto himself was his desire,

And so 'tis thine; but know, it is as good
To wither in my breast as in his blood.

Here was thy father's bed, here in my breast;
Thou art the next of blood, and 'tis thy right:
Lo, in this hollow cradle take thy rest,

My throbbing heart shall rock thee day and night.:
There shall not be one minute in an hour

Wherein I will not kiss my sweet love's flower.'

Thus weary of the world, away she hies,

And yokes her silver doves; by whose swift aid Their mistress, mounted through the empty skies, In her light chariot quickly is conveyed;

Holding their course to Paphos, where their queen Means to immure herself and not be seen.

Id. 1165-1194.

MARLOWE.

1562-1593.

PRINCIPAL WORKS: Tamburlaine the Great (tragedy), 1586 (?); the turgid style of parts of which has been immortalised by the parody of the verse 'Holla! ye pampered jades of Asia,' placed in the mouth of Pistol in Henry IV. Passages in it, however, have been much praised for a certain grandeur as well as for their superior versification.-The Life and Death of Dr. Faustus, the best known and most interesting of his works, containing many passages of true tragic feeling. It has also an extrinsic interest as the prototype of Goethe's Faust.-The Jew of Malta, and Edward II., published before the year 1593.

Marlowe is by far the most considerable of the dramatists who wrote immediately preceding, and partly contemporaneously with, Shakespeare. Tamburlaine appeared before the year 1587. The Second Part of King Henry VI., the first reputed authentic drama of Shakespeare, about 1590, and it is an interesting inquiry how far Shakespeare may have been originally indebted for some of his plots and scenes to Marlowe and others of the older school. That he was indebted to others not only for the plots of many of his plays, but also for nearly 2,000 entire verses directly borrowed, besides nearly twice that number, adopted with some alteration, is well known. The Passionate Shepherd to his Love is one of Marlowe's miscellaneous pieces.

LOVE'S PLEADING.

'Perduto è tutto il tempo che in amar non si spende.'

COME live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove

That valleys, groves, and hills, and fields,
Woods or steepy mountains yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,

Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies;
A cap of flowers and a kirtle,
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle:

A gown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold:

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing,
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.

The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.