Internet Shakespeare Editions

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

Venus and Adonis (Quarto 1, 1593)

Fy, fy, fond loue, thou art as full of feare,
As one with treasure laden, hem'd with theeues,
Trifles vnwitnessed with eye, or eare,
Thy coward heart with false bethinking greeues.
1025 Euen at this word she heares a merry horne,
Whereat she leaps, that was but late forlorne.
As Faulcons to the lure, away she flies,
The grasse stoops not, she treads on it so light,
And in her hast, vnfortunately spies,
1030The foule boares conquest, on her faire delight,
Which seene, her eyes are murdred with the view,
Like stars asham'd of day, themselues withdrew.
Or as the snaile, whose tender hornes being hit,
Shrinks backward in his shellie caue with paine,
1035And, there all smoothred vp, in shade doth sit,
Long after fearing to creepe forth againe:
So at his bloodie view her eyes are fled,
Into the deep-darke cabbins of her head.
Where they resigne their office, and their light,
1040To the disposing of her troubled braine,
Who bids them still consort with ougly night,
And neuer wound the heart with lookes againe,
Who like a king perplexed in his throne,
By their suggestion, giues a deadly grone.
1045Whereat ech tributarie subiect quakes,
As when the wind imprisond in the ground,
Struggling for passage, earths foundation shakes,
Which with cold terror, doth mens minds confoūd:
This mutinie ech part doth so surprise,
1050 That frō their dark beds once more leap hereies.