I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolished lines to your lordship, nor how the world will censure me for choosing so strong a prop to support so weak a burden: only, if your honour seem but pleased, I account myself highly praised, and vow to take advantage of all idle hours, till I have honoured you with some graver labour. But if the first heir of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sorry it had so noble a god-father, and never after ear so barren a land, for fear it yield me still so bad a harvest. I leave it to your honourable survey, and your honour to your heart's content; which I wish may always answer your own wish, and the world's hopeful expectation. Your honour's in all duty, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. and never after ear so barren a land,-] To ear is to plough or till: So in "All's Well That Ends Well," Act I. Sc. 3,-" He that ears my land, spares my team," &c. Again in "King Richard II." Act III. Sc. 2, 66 and let them go To ear the land that hath some hope to grow." VOL. VI. A A VENUS AND ADONIS. THIS poem, if we are to accept the expression in the introductory epistle"the first heir of my invention "-literally, was Shakespeare's earliest composition. Some critics conceive it to have been written, indeed, before he quitted Stratford; but the question when and where it was produced has yet to be decided. It was entered on the Stationers' Registers by Richard Field, as "licensed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Wardens," in 1593, and the first edition was printed in the same year.* This edition was speedily exhausted, and a second by the same printer was put forth in 1594. This again was followed by an octavo impression in 1596, and so much was the poem in demand that it had reached a fifth edition by 1602. After this date it was often reprinted, and copies of 1616, 1620, 1624, and 1627 are still extant. Its popularity, as Mr. Collier observes, is established also by the frequent mention of it in early writers. "In the early part of Shakspeare's life, his poems seem to have gained him more reputation than his plays;-at least they are oftener mentioned or alluded to. Thus the author of an old comedy, called The Return from Parnassus, written about 1602, in his review of the poets of the time, says not a word of his dramatick compositions, but allots him his portion of fame solely on account of the poems that he had produced."-MALONE. The text adopted in the present reprint of "Venus and Adonis" is that of the first quarto, 1593, collated with the best of the later editions. EVEN as the sun with purple-colour'd face "Thrice fairer than myself," thus she began, * Entitled : "VENUS and ADONIS. Vilia miretur vulgus: mihi flavus Apollo London Imprinted by Richard Field, and are to be sold at the signe of the white Greyhound in Paules Church-yard. 1593." Rose-cheek'd Adonis-] Malone has noticed the same compound epithet in "Hero and Leander,""The men of wealthy Sestos every year For his sake whom their goddess held so dear, Rose-cheek'd Adonis, kept a solemn feast," &c. "Vouchsafe, thou wonder, to alight thy steed, "And yet not cloy thy lips with loath'd satiety, A summer's day will seem an hour but short, With this she seizeth on his sweating palm, And, trembling in her passion, calls it balm, Over one arm the lusty courser's rein, She red and hot as coals of glowing fire, The studded bridle on a ragged bough To tie the rider she begins to prove: Backward she push'd him, as she would be thrust, So soon was she along, as he was down, And kissing, speaks, with lustful language broken, He burns with bashful shame; she with her tears He saith she is immodest, blames her 'miss ;b precedent-] Precedent appears to be used here in the sense of sign, or indicator. b- blames her 'miss;] Amiss is elsewhere employed by Shakespeare as a substantive; thus in "Hamlet," Act IV. Sc. 5,— Even as an empty eagle, sharp by fast, Forc'd to content, but never to obey, Wishing her cheeks were gardens full of flowers, Look, how a bird lies tangled in a net, Still she entreats, and prettily entreats,. Being red, she loves him best; and being white, Look how he can, she cannot choose but love; Till he take truce with her contending tears, Which long have rain'd, making her cheeks all wet; Upon this promise did he raise his chin, But when her lips were ready for his pay, Tires-] To tire is to peck, to tear, to prey. b Forc'd to content,-] To acquiescence. c - a river that is rank,-] "Rank" meant brimming, full, &c. Thus in "Julius Cæsar," Act III. Sc. 1, "Who else must be let blood, who else is rank;" unless in that passage "rank" expresses too luxuriant, too high-topped. So, too, in Drayton's "Barons' Wars," 1603, "Fetching full tides, luxurious, high, and rank." Never did passenger in summer's heat More thirst for drink than she for this good turn: "I have been woo'd, as I entreat thee now, And begg'd for that which thou unask'd shalt have. "Over my altars hath he hung his lance, Scorning his churlish drum, and ensign red, "Thus he that overrul'd I oversway'd, O, be not proud, nor brag not of thy might, "Touch but my lips with those fair lips of thine,— "Art thou asham'd to kiss? then wink again, These blue-vein'd violets whereon we lean "The tender spring upon thy tempting lip Beauty within itself should not be wasted: Fair flowers that are not gather'd in their prime ⚫ yet her fire must burn:] So read the editions, 1593, 1594, 1593; the later copies have," yet in fire must burn." To toy,-] The reading of the two earliest copies. The later ones have, "To coy," &c. |