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Shakespeare on Stage
SIP Editors, King Henry VIII. To Aug. 4, 2013.
Original Shakespeare Company, Comedie of Errors. To Jun. 22, 2013.
Original Shakespeare Company, As You Like It. To Jun. 23, 2013.
SIP Editors, Measure for Measure. To Aug. 4, 2013.
American Shakespeare Center, All's Well That Ends Well. To Nov. 29, 2013.

Venus and Adonis (Modern)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Hardy M. Cook
Peer Reviewed

"Now of this dark night I perceive the reason.
Cynthia, for shame, obscures her silver shine
Till forging nature be condemned of treason
730For stealing molds from heaven that were divine,
Wherein she framed thee, in high heaven's despite,
To shame the sun by day and her by night.
"And therefore hath she bribed the destinies
To cross the curious workmanship of nature,
735To 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,
740Life-poisoning pestilence, and frenzies wood,
The marrow-eating sickness whose attaint
Disorder breeds by heating of the blood;
Surfeits, impostumes, grief, and damned despair
Swear nature's death for framing thee so fair.
745"And not the least of all these maladies
But in one minute's fight brings beauty under.
Both favor, savor, hue, and qualities,
Whereat th' impartial gazer late did wonder,
Are on the sudden wasted, thawed, and done,
750As mountain snow melts with the midday sun.
"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,
755Be prodigal: the lamp that burns by night
Dries up his oil to lend the world his light.