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"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?

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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;
"Uncouple at the timorous flying hare,

"Or at the fox, which lives by subtilty,
"Or at the roe, which no encounter dare:

"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,
"Stands on his hinder legs with listening ear,
"To hearken if his foes pursue him still;
"Anon their loud alarums he doth hear;

"And now his grief may be compared well
"To one sore-sick, that hears the passing bell

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
"Turn, and return, indenting with the way;
"Each envious briar his weary legs doth scratch,
"Each shadow makes him stop, each murmur

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For misery is trodden on by many, [stay; “And being low, never reliev'd by any.

"Lie quietly, and hear a little more;
"Nay, do not struggle, for thou shalt not rise:
To make thee hate the hunting of the boar,
"Unlike myself thou hear'st me moralize, 31
"Applying this to that, and so to so;

"For love can comment upon every woe.

"Where did I leave?"-"No matter where,"
quoth he;

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Leave me, and then the story aptly ends:
"The night is spent." "Why, what of that,"
quoth she?

"I am," quoth he, "expected of my friends;
"And now 'tis dark, and going I shall fall.”—
"In night," quoth she," desire sees best of all.

"But if thou fall, O then imagine this,

"The earth in love with thee thy footing trips,

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And all is but to rob thee of a kiss.

[lips

Rich preys make true32 men thieves; so do thy
"Make modest Dian cloudy and forlorn,
"Lest she should steal a kiss, and die forsworn
81 moralize] i. e. comment. 82 true] i. e. hone t

H

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"Now, of this dark night I perceive the reason:
"Cynthia for shame obscures her silver shine,
"Till forging nature be condemn'd of treason,
"For stealing moulds from heaven that were
divine,
[despite,
"Wherein she fram'd thee in high heaven's
"To shame the sun by day, and her by night.

"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

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"Of mad mischances and much misery;

"As burning fevers, agues, pale and faint,
"Life-poisoning pestilence, and frenzies wood,
"The marrow-eating sickness, whose attaint
"Disorder breeds by heating of the blood:
"Surfeits, imposthumes, grief, and damn'd
despair,

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,
"Are on the sudden wasted, thaw'd and done.
"As mountain-snow melts with the midday sun

33 wood] i. e. mad.

"Therefore, despite of fruitless chastity,
"Love-lacking vestals, and self-loving nuns,
"That on the earth would breed a scarcity,
And barren dearth of daughters and of sons,

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,

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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.

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