Venus and Adonis (Quarto 1, 1592-3)
Author: William ShakespeareEditor: Hardy M. CookPeer Reviewed


¶A thou
sand ki
sses buyes my heart from me,
¶And pay them at thy lei
sure, 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 ki
sses
such a trouble?
¶Faire Queene (quoth he) if anie loue you owe me,
¶Mea
sure my
strangene
sse with my vnripe yeares,
525Before I know my
selfe,
seeke not to know me,
¶No fi
sher but the vngrowne frie forbeares,
¶_The mellow plum doth fall, the greene
sticks fa
st,
¶_Or being early pluckt, is
sower tota
st.
¶Looke the worlds comforter with wearie gate,
530His dayes hot taske hath ended in the we
st,
¶The owle (nights herald)
shreeks, tis verie late,
¶The
sheepe are gone to fold, birds to their ne
st,
¶_And cole-black clouds, that
shadow heauens light,
¶_Do
summon vs to part, and bid good night.
535Now let me
say goodnight, and
so
say you,
¶If you will
say
so, you
shall haue a kis;
¶Goodnight (quoth
she) and ere he
sayes adue,
¶The honie fee of parting tendred is,
¶_Her armes do lend his necke a
sweet imbrace,
540_Incorporate then they
seeme, face growes to face.
¶Till breathle
sse he di
sioynd, and backward drew,
¶The heauenly moi
sture that
sweet corall mouth,
¶VVho
se precious ta
st, her thir
stie lips well knew,
¶VVhereon they
surfet, yet complaine on drouth,
545_He with her plentie pre
st,
she faint with dearth,
¶_Their lips together glewed, fall to the earth.

