She wildly breaketh from their strict embrace,

  Like a milch doe whose swelling dugs do ache,

  Hasting to feed her fawn hid in some brake.

  By this she hears the hounds are at a bay,

  Whereat she starts, like one that spies an adder

  Wreathed up in fatal folds just in his way,

  The fear whereof doth make him shake and shudder;

  Even so the timorous yelping of the hounds

  Appals her senses, and her spirit confounds.

  For now she knows it is no gentle chase,

  But the blunt boar, rough bear, or lion proud,

  Because the cry remaineth in one place,

  Where fearfully the dogs exclaim aloud.

  Finding their enemy to be so curst,

  They all strain court’sy who shall cope him first.

  This dismal cry rings sadly in her ear,

  Through which it enters to surprise her heart,

  Who, overcome by doubt and bloodless fear,

  With cold-pale weakness numbs each feeling part;

  Like soldiers when their captain once doth yield,

  They basely fly, and dare not stay the field.

  Thus stands she in a trembling ecstasy,

  Till, cheering up her senses all dismayed,

  She tells them ’tis a causeless fantasy

  And childish error that they are afraid;

  Bids them leave quaking, bids them fear no more;

  And with that word she spied the hunted boar,

  Whose frothy mouth, bepainted all with red,

  Like milk and blood being mingled both together,

  A second fear through all her sinews spread,

  Which madly hurries her, she knows not whither.

  This way she runs, and now she will no further,

  But back retires to rate the boar for murder.

  A thousand spleens bear her a thousand ways.

  She treads the path that she untreads again.

  Her more than haste is mated with delays,

  Like the proceedings of a drunken brain,

  Full of respects, yet naught at all respecting;

  In hand with all things, naught at all effecting.

  Here kennelled in a brake she finds a hound,

  And asks the weary caitiff for his master;

  And there another licking of his wound,

  ’Gainst venomed sores the only sovereign plaster.

  And here she meets another, sadly scowling,

  To whom she speaks; and he replies with howling.

  When he hath ceased his ill-resounding noise,

  Another flap-mouthed mourner, black and grim,

  Against the welkin volleys out his voice.

  Another, and another, answer him,

  Clapping their proud tails to the ground below,

  Shaking their scratched ears, bleeding as they go.

  Look how the world’s poor people are amazed

  At apparitions, signs, and prodigies,

  Whereon with fearful eyes they long have gazed,

  Infusing them with dreadful prophecies:

  So she at these sad signs draws up her breath,

  And, sighing it again, exclaims on death.

  ‘Hard-favoured tyrant, ugly, meagre, lean,

  Hateful divorce of love’—thus chides she death;

  ‘Grim-grinning ghost, earth’s worm: what dost thou mean

  To stifle beauty, and to steal his breath

  Who, when he lived, his breath and beauty set

  Gloss on the rose, smell to the violet?

  ‘If he be dead—O no, it cannot be,

  Seeing his beauty, thou shouldst strike at it.

  O yes, it may; thou hast no eyes to see,

  But hatefully, at random dost thou hit.

  Thy mark is feeble age; but thy false dart

  Mistakes that aim, and cleaves an infant’s heart.

  ‘Hadst thou but bid beware, then he had spoke,

  And, hearing him, thy power had lost his power.

  The destinies will curse thee for this stroke.

  They bid thee crop a weed; thou pluck’st a flower.

  Love’s golden arrow at him should have fled,

  And not death’s ebon dart to strike him dead.

  ‘Dost thou drink tears, that thou provok’st such weeping?

  What may a heavy groan advantage thee?

  Why hast thou cast into eternal sleeping

  Those eyes that taught all other eyes to see?

  Now nature cares not for thy mortal vigour,

  Since her best work is ruined with thy rigour.’

  Here overcome, as one full of despair,

  She vailed her eyelids, who like sluices stopped

  The crystal tide that from her two cheeks fair

  In the sweet channel of her bosom dropped.

  But through the flood-gates breaks the silver rain,

  And with his strong course opens them again.

  O, how her eyes and tears did lend and borrow!

  Her eye seen in the tears, tears in her eye,

  Both crystals, where they viewed each other’s sorrow:

  Sorrow, that friendly sighs sought still to dry,

  But, like a stormy day, now wind, now rain,

  Sighs dry her cheeks, tears make them wet again.

  Variable passions throng her constant woe,

  As striving who should best become her grief.

  All entertained, each passion labours so

  That every present sorrow seemeth chief,

  But none is best. Then join they all together,

  Like many clouds consulting for foul weather.

  By this, far off she hears some huntsman hollo;

  A nurse’s song ne’er pleased her babe so well.

  The dire imagination she did follow

  This sound of hope doth labour to expel;

  For now reviving joy bids her rejoice

  And flatters her it is Adonis’ voice.

  Whereat her tears began to turn their tide,

  Being prisoned in her eye like pearls in glass;

  Yet sometimes falls an orient drop beside,

  Which her cheek melts, as scorning it should pass

  To wash the foul face of the sluttish ground,

  Who is but drunken when she seemeth drowned.

  O hard-believing love—how strange it seems

  Not to believe, and yet too credulous!

  Thy weal and woe are both of them extremes.

  Despair, and hope, makes thee ridiculous.

  The one doth flatter thee in thoughts unlikely;

  In likely thoughts the other kills thee quickly.

  Now she unweaves the web that she hath wrought.

  Adonis lives, and death is not to blame.

  It was not she that called him all to naught.

  Now she adds honours to his hateful name.

  She clepes him king of graves, and grave for kings,

  Imperious supreme of all mortal things.

  ‘No, no,’ quoth she, ‘sweet death, I did but jest.

  Yet pardon me, I felt a kind of fear

  Whenas I met the boar, that bloody beast,

  Which knows no pity, but is still severe.

  Then, gentle shadow—truth I must confess—

  I railed on thee, fearing my love’s decease.

  “Tis not my fault; the boar provoked my tongue.

  Be wreaked on him, invisible commander.

  ’Tis he, foul creature, that hath done thee wrong.

  I did but act; he’s author of thy slander.

  Grief hath two tongues, and never woman yet

  Could rule them both, without ten women’s wit.’

  Thus, hoping that Adonis is alive,

  Her rash suspect she doth extenuate,

  And, that his beauty may the better thrive,

  With death she humbly doth insinuate;

  Tells him of trophies, statues, tombs; and stories

  His victories, his triumphs, and his glories.

  ‘O Jove,’ quoth she, ‘how much a fool was I

  To be of such a weak and silly mind

  To wail his death who lives, and must not die

  Till mutual overthrow of mortal kind!

  For he being dead, with him is beauty slain,

  And beauty dead, black chaos comes again.

  ‘Fie, fie, fond love, thou art as full of fear

  As one with treasure laden, hemmed with thieves.

  Trifles unwitnessèd with eye or ear

  Thy coward heart with false bethinking grieves.’

  Even at this word she hears a merry horn,

  Whereat she leaps, that was but late forlorn.

  As falcons to the lure, away she flies.

  The grass stoops not, she treads on it so light;

  And in her haste unfortunately spies

  The foul boar’s conquest on her fair delight;

  Which seen, her eyes, as murdered with the view,

  Like stars ashamed of day, themselves withdrew.

  Or as the snail, whose tender horns being hit

  Shrinks backward in his shelly cave with pain,

  And there, all smothered up, in shade doth sit,

  Long after fearing to creep forth again;

  So at his bloody view her eyes are fled

  Into the deep dark cabins of her head,

  Where they resign their office and their light

  To the disposing of her troubled brain,

  Who bids them still consort with ugly night,

  And never wound the heart with looks again,

  Who, like a king perplexed in his throne,

  By their suggestion gives a deadly groan,

  Whereat each tributary subject quakes,

  As when the wind, imprisoned in the ground,

  Struggling for passage, earth’s foundation shakes,

  Which with cold terror doth men’s minds confound.

  This mutiny each part doth so surprise

  That from their dark beds once more leap her eyes,

  And, being opened, threw unwilling light

  Upon the wide wound that the boar had trenched

  In his soft flank, whose wonted lily-white

  With purple tears that his wound wept was drenched.

  No flower was nigh, no grass, herb, leaf, or weed,

  But stole his blood, and seemed with him to bleed.

  This solemn sympathy poor Venus noteth.

  Over one shoulder doth she hang her head.

  Dumbly she passions, franticly she doteth.

  She thinks he could not die, he is not dead.

  Her voice is stopped, her joints forget to bow,

  Her eyes are mad that they have wept till now.

  Upon his hurt she looks so steadfastly

  That her sight, dazzling, makes the wound seem three;

  And then she reprehends her mangling eye,

  That makes more gashes where no breach should be.

  His face seems twain; each several limb is doubled;

  For oft the eye mistakes, the brain being troubled.

  ‘My tongue cannot express my grief for one,

  And yet,’ quoth she, ‘behold two Adons dead!

  My sighs are blown away, my salt tears gone,

  Mine eyes are turned to fire, my heart to lead.

  Heavy heart’s lead, melt at mine eyes’ red fire!

  So shall I die by drops of hot desire.

  ‘Alas, poor world, what treasure hast thou lost,

  What face remains alive that’s worth the viewing?

  Whose tongue is music now? What canst thou boast

  Of things long since, or anything ensuing?

  The flowers are sweet, their colours fresh and trim;

  But true sweet beauty lived and died with him.

  ‘Bonnet nor veil henceforth no creature wear:

  Nor sun nor wind will ever strive to kiss you.

  Having no fair to lose, you need not fear.

  The sun doth scorn you, and the wind doth hiss you.

  But when Adonis lived, sun and sharp air

  Lurked like two thieves to rob him of his fair;

  ‘And therefore would he put his bonnet on,

  Under whose brim the gaudy sun would peep.

  The wind would blow it off, and, being gone,

  Play with his locks; then would Adonis weep,

  And straight, in pity of his tender years,

  They both would strive who first should dry his tears.

  ‘To see his face the lion walked along

  Behind some hedge, because he would not fear him.

  To recreate himself when he hath sung,

  The tiger would be tame, and gently hear him.

  If he had spoke, the wolf would leave his prey,

  And never fright the silly lamb that day.

  ‘When he beheld his shadow in the brook,

  The fishes spread on it their golden gills.

  When he was by, the birds such pleasure took

  That some would sing, some other in their bills

  Would bring him mulberries and ripe-red cherries.

  He fed them with his sight, they him with berries.

  ‘But this foul, grim, and urchin-snouted boar,

  Whose downward eye still looketh for a grave,

  Ne’er saw the beauteous livery that he wore:

  Witness the entertainment that he gave:

  If he did see his face, why then, I know

  He thought to kiss him, and hath killed him so.

  “Tis true, ’tis true; thus was Adonis slain;

  He ran upon the boar with his sharp spear,

  Who did not whet his teeth at him again,

  But by a kiss thought to persuade him there,

  And, nuzzling in his flank, the loving swine

  Sheathed unaware the tusk in his soft groin.

  ‘Had I been toothed like him, I must confess

  With kissing him I should have killed him first;

  But he is dead, and never did he bless

  My youth with his, the more am I accursed.’

  With this she falleth in the place she stood,

  And stains her face with his congealed blood.

  She looks upon his lips, and they are pale.

  She takes him by the hand, and that is cold.

  She whispers in his ears a heavy tale,

  As if they heard the woeful words she told.

  She lifts the coffer-lids that close his eyes,

  Where lo, two lamps burnt out in darkness lies;

  Two glasses, where herself herself beheld

  A thousand times, and now no more reflect,

  Their virtue lost, wherein they late excelled,

  And every beauty robbed of his effect.

  ‘Wonder of time,’ quoth she, ‘this is my spite,

  That, thou being dead, the day should yet be light.

  ‘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’erstrawed

  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.’

  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 guise—