"And more than so, presenteth to mine eye "The picture of an angry-chafing boar, "Under whose sharp fangs on his back doth lie "An image like thyself, all stain'd with gore; "Whose blood upon the fresh flowers being shed, "Doth make them droop with grief, and hang the head. "What should I do, seeing thee so indeed, "That tremble at the imagination? And fear doth teach it divination : "I prophesy thy death, my living sorrow, "If thou encounter with the boar to-morrow. "But if thou needs will hunt, be rul'd by me; "Or at the fox, which lives by subtilty, "Pursue these fearful creatures o'er the downs, "And on thy well-breath'd horse keep with thy hounds. "And when thou hast on foot the purblind hare, Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot28 his troubles, "How he outruns the wind, and with what care 28 overshoot] Malone absurdly gives in the text, and attempts to defend in a note, the reading of the old copy overshut " "He cranks and crosses, with a thousand doubles: "The many musits30 through the which he goes, "Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes. Sometime he runs among a flock of sheep, "To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell, "And sometime where earth-delving conies keep, "To stop the loud pursuers in their yell; "And sometime sorteth with a herd of deer; "Danger deviseth shifts; wit waits on fear: "For there his smell with others being mingled, "The hot scent-snuffing-hounds are driven to doubt, Ceasing their clamorous cry till they have singled, With much ado the cold fault cleanly out; "Then do they spend their mouths: Echo replies, "As if another chase were in the skies. "By this, poor Wat, far off upon a hill, "And now his grief may be compared well 29 cranks] i. e. winds. 30 musits] i. e. gaps in hedges or thickets, through which the hare is wont to pass. L "Then shalt thou see the dew-bedabbled wretch For misery is trodden on by many, [stay; “And being low, never reliev'd by any. "Lie quietly, and hear a little more; "For love can comment upon every woe. "Where did I leave?"-"No matter where," Leave me, and then the story aptly ends: "I am," quoth he, "expected of my friends; "But if thou fall, O then imagine this, "The earth in love with thee thy footing trips, And all is but to rob thee of a kiss. [lips Rich preys make true32 men thieves; so do thy H H "Now, of this dark night I perceive the reason: "And therefore hath she brib'd the Destinies, "To cross the curious workmanship of nature, "To mingle beauty with infirmities, "And pure perfection with impure defeature; 'Making it subject to the tyranny "Of mad mischances and much misery; "As burning fevers, agues, pale and faint, 83 "Swear nature's death for framing thee so fair. "And not the least of all these maladies, "But in one minute's fight brings beauty under : 66 Both favour, savour, hue, and qualities, "Whereat the impartial gazer late did wonder, 33 wood] i. e. mad. "Therefore, despite of fruitless chastity, 66 Be prodigal: the lamp that burns by night "Dries up his oil, to lend the world his light. What is thy body but a swallowing grave, "Seeming to bury that posterity "Which by the rights of time thou needs must have, "If thou destroy them not in dark obscurity? "If so, the world will hold thee in disdain, "Sith in thy pride so fair a hope is slain. "So in thyself thyself art made away; "A mischief worse than civil home-bred strife, Or butcher-sire, that reaves his son of life. "Foul cankering rust the hidden treasure frets, "But gold that's put to use, more gold begets." Nay, then," quoth Adon, "you will fall again "Into your idle over-handed theme; “The kiss I gave you is bestow'd in vain, "And all in vain you strive against the stream; "For by this black'd-fac'd night, desire's foul nurse, "Your treatise makes me like you worse and worse. |