Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Hardy M. Cook
Peer Reviewed

Venus and Adonis (Modern)

"'Tis true, 'tis true; thus was Adonis slain.
He ran upon the boar with his sharp spear,
Who did not whet his teeth at him again,
But by a kiss thought to persuade him there;
1115 And, nuzzling in his flank the loving swine,
Sheathed unaware the tusk in his soft groin.
"Had I been toothed like him, I must confess,
With kissing him I should have killed him first;
But he is dead, and never did he bless
1120My youth with his, the more am I accurst."
With this she falleth in the place she stood
And stains her face with his congealèd blood.
She looks upon his lips, and they are pale;
She takes him by the hand, and that is cold;
1125She whispers in his ears a heavy tale,
As if they heard the woeful words she told;
She lifts the coffer-lids that close his eyes,
Where, lo, two lamps burnt out in darkness lies;
Two glasses where herself herself beheld
1130A thousand times, and now no more reflect;
Their virtue lost, wherein they late excelled;
And every beauty robbed of his effect.
"Wonder of time," quoth she, "this is my spite,
That, thou being dead, the day should yet be light.
1135"Since thou art dead, lo, here I prophesy,
Sorrow on love hereafter shall attend.
It shall be waited on with jealousy,
Find sweet beginning, but unsavory end;
Ne'er settled equally, but high or low,
1140 That all love's pleasure shall not match his woe.