Venus and Adonis (Modern)
Peer Reviewed
¶"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.
1145_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,
1150Pluck 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;
1155It 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 valor, courage to the coward.
