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Venus and Adonis (Quarto 1, 1592-3)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Hardy M. Cook
Peer Reviewed
VENVS AND ADONIS.

O thou didst kill me, kill me once againe,
500Thy eyes shrowd tutor, that hard heart of thine,
Hath taught them scornfull tricks, & such disdaine,
That they haue murdred this poore heart of mine,
And these mine eyes true leaders to their queene,
But for thy piteous lips no more had seene.

505Long may they kisse ech other for this cure,
Oh neuer let their crimson liueries weare,
And as they last, their verdour still endure,
To driue infection from the dangerous yeare:
That the star-gazers hauing writ on death,
510May say, the plague is banisht by thy breath.

Pure lips, sweet seales in my soft lips imprinted,
VVhat bargaines may I make still to be sealing?
To sell my selfe I can be well contented,
So thou wilt buy, and pay, and vse good dealing,
515VVhich purchase if thou make, for feare of slips,
Set thy seale manuell, on my wax-red lips.

A thousand kisses buyes my heart from me,
And pay them at thy leisure, one by one,
VVhat is ten hundred touches vnto thee,
520Are they not quickly told, and quickly gone?
Say for non-paimet, that the debt should double,
Is twentie hundred kisses such a trouble?
Faire