Internet Shakespeare Editions

About this text

  • Title: Venus and Adonis (Modern)
  • Editor: Hardy M. Cook
  • ISBN: 978-1-55058-411-0

    Copyright Internet Shakespeare Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-proift purposes; for all other uses contact the Coordinating Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: Hardy M. Cook
    Peer Reviewed

    Venus and Adonis (Modern)

    "And, more than so, presenteth to mine eye
    The picture of an angry chafing boar,
    Under whose sharp fangs on his back doth lie
    An image like thyself, all stained with gore,
    665 Whose blood upon the fresh flowers being shed
    Doth make them droop with grief and hang the head.
    "What should I do, seeing thee so indeed,
    That tremble at th' imagination?
    The thought of it doth make my faint heart bleed,
    670And fear doth teach it divination.
    I prophesy thy death, my living sorrow,
    If thou encounter with the boar tomorrow.
    "But if thou needs wilt hunt, be ruled by me;
    Uncouple at the timorous flying hare,
    675Or at the fox which lives by subtlety,
    Or at the roe which no encounter dare.
    Pursue these fearful creatures o'er the downs,
    And on thy well-breathed horse keep with thy hounds.
    "And when thou hast on foot the purblind hare,
    680Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles,
    How he outruns the wind and with what care
    He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles.
    The many musits through the which he goes
    Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes.
    685"Sometime he runs among a flock of sheep
    To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell,
    And sometime where earth-delving conies keep
    To stop the loud pursuers in their yell;
    And sometime sorteth with a herd of deer.
    690 Danger deviseth shifts; wit waits on fear.