Venus and Adonis (Modern)
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.
