II.

Scarce had the fun dried up the dewy morn3,
And scarce the herd gone to the hedge for fhade,
When Cytherea, all in love forlorn,

A longing tarriance for Adonis made,
Under an ofier growing by a brook,

A brook, where Adon us'd to cool his fpleen:
Hot was the day; fhe hotter that did look
For his approach, that often there had been.
Anon he comes, and throws his mantle by,
And stood ftark naked on the brook's green brim ;
The fun look'd on the world with glorious eye,
Yet not fo wiftly, as this queen on him:

He spying her, bounc'd in, whereas he flood;
O Jove, quoth fhe, why was not I a flood?

III.

Fair was the morn, when the fair queen of love,

Paler for forrow than her milk-white dove,
For Adon's fake, a youngster proud and wild;

3 Scarce bad the fun dried up the dewy morn, &c.] Of this Sonnet the following tranflation was made by the late Mr. Vincent Bourne : Vix matutinum ebiberat de gramine rorem

Umbrofa invitans Phœbus ad antra boves,
Cum fecum placidi Cytherea ad fluminis undas
Adventum expectans fedit, Adoni, tuum.
Sub falicis fedit ramis, ubi fæpe folebat
Procumbens faftum depofuiffe puer.

Aftus erat gravis; at gravior fub pectore divæ
Qui fuit, et longe fævior, æftus erat.
Mox puer advenit, pofuitque a corpore veftem,
Tam prope vix Venerem delituiffe ratus;
Utque deam vidit recubantem in margine ripæ,
Attonitus mediis infiliebat aquis.

Crudelem decepta dolum fraudemque fuperbum
Ut videt, his mæftis ingemit illa modis:
Cur ex æquoreæ fpumâ cum nafcerer undæ,

Non ipfa, o inquit Jupiter! unda fui! MALONE.

4 Paler for forrow than ber milk-white dove,] The line preceding this is loft. MALONE.

Y 2

Her

Her stand she takes upon a fteep-up hill":
Anon Adonis comes with horn and hounds;
She filly queen, with more than love's good will,
Forbade the boy he fhould not pafs thofe grounds;
Once, quoth fhe, did I fee a fair sweet youth
Here in these brakes deep-wounded with a boar,
Deep in the thigh, a spectacle of ruth!

See, in my thigh, quoth fhe, here was the fore":
She fhowed hers; he faw more wounds than one,
And blufhing fled, and left her all alone.

IV.

Fair Venus with Adonis fitting by her7,
Under a myrtle fhade, began to woo him;

She told the youngling how god Mars did try her,
And as he fell to her, she fell to him.

Even

5-upon a fleep-up-bill:] It has been fuggefted to me that this ought to be printed-upon a steep up-bill; but the other regulation is undoubtedly right. So, in a former fonnet:

"And having climb'd the fleep-up heavenly bill,—”.

MALONE.

6 See, in my thigh, quoth she, bere was the fore, &c.] Rabelais hath fported with the fame thought in a chapter where he relateth the story of the Old Woman and the Lian. La Fontaine alfo indulgeth himself in Le Diable Papefiguiere, after a manner no whit more chaftifed: "Bref auffi tôt qu'il apperçut l'enorme

"Solution de continuité,

"Il demeura fi fort épouvanté,

"Qu'il prit la fuite, et laiffa-la Perrette."

The varlet Shakspeare, however. on this occafion might have remembered the ancient ballad of the Gelding of the Devil, which beginneth thus:

"A merry jeft I will you tell," &c.

And now 1 bethink me, fomewhat like the fame fancy occurreth in the Speculum Majus of Vincentius Bellovacenfis, otherwife Vincent de Beauvais. AMNER.

7 Fair Venus with Adonis fitting by her,] The old copy reads: Venus with Adonis fitting by her.

The defect of the metre fhows that a word was omitted at the prefs. This remark I owe to Dr. Farmer. MALONE.

She told the youngling bot god Mars did try ber,] See Venus and Adonis, ante, p. 18:

Even thus, quoth fhe, the warlike god embrac'd me ;
And then the clipp'd Adonis in her arms :
Even thus, quoth fhe, the warlike god unlac'd me,
As if the boy fhould ufe like loving charms:
Even thus, quoth fhe, he feized on my lips,
And with her lips on his did act the seizure;
And as the fetched breath, away he skips,
And would not take her meaning nor her pleasure.
Ah! that I had my lady at this bay,
To kifs and clip me till I run away!

"I have been woo'd, as I entreat thee now,

"Even by the ftern and direful god of war," &c. MALONE. -bow god Mars did try her,] So, Prior:

"By Mars himself that armour has been try'd." STERVENS, 9 Crabbed age and youth, &c.] This little poem is likewife found in the Garland of Good Will, Part III. Dr. Percy thinks that it was intended for the mouth of Venus, weighing the comparative merits of youthful Adonis and aged Vulcan." See the Reliques of Anc. Poet. vol. I. P. 337- 2d edit.

This fong is alluded to in The Woman's Prize, or the Tamer tam'd, by B. and Fletcher:

-Thou fond man,

"Haft thou forgot the ballad, Crabbed age?

"Can May and January match together,
"And never a storm between them? MALONE.

Age, I do abhor thee,

Youth, I do adore thee;

O, my love, my love is young;
Age, I do defy thee';

O fweet fhepherd, hie thee,

For methinks thou ftay'ft too long.

VI.

Sweet rofe, fair flower, untimely pluck'd, foon faded,
Pluck'd in the bud, and faded in the fpring!
Bright orient pearl, alack! too timely shaded!
Fair creature, kill'd too foon by death's sharp fting!
Like a green plumb that hangs upon a tree,

I

And falls, through wind, before the fall fhould be.

weep for thee, and yet no cause I have;
For why thou left'ft me nothing in thy will.
And yet thou left'ft me more than I did crave;
For why? I craved nothing of thee ftill:

O yes, dear friend, I pardon crave of thee:
Thy difcontent thou didst bequeath to me.

As we know not that Vulcan was much more aged than his brethren, Mars, Mercury, or Phœbus, and especially as the fabled deities were fuppofed to enjoy a perpetuity of health, life, and pleasure, I am unwilling to admit that the laughter-loving dame disliked her husband on any other account than his ungraceful form and his lameness. He who could forge the thunderbolts of Jove, was furely in full strength, and equal to the task of difcharging the highest claims and moft terrifying exactions even of Venus herself. I do not, in fhort, perceive how this little poem could have been put, with any fingular propriety, into the mouth of the queen of Love, if due regard were paid to the claffical fituation of her and her husband. STEEVENS.

Age, I do defy thee;] I defpife or reject thee. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"I do defy thy conjuration." MALONE.

2 Sweet rofe, &c.] This feems to have been intended for a dirge to be fung by Venus on the death of Adonis. MALONE.

3-faded in the Spring.] The verb fade throughout these little fragments, &c. is always fpelt vaded, either in compliance with ancient pronunciation, or in confequence of a primitive which perhaps modern lexicographers may feel fome reluctance to acknowledge. They tell us that we owe this word to the French fade; but I fee no reason why we may not as well impute its origin to the Latin vado, which equally ferves to indicate departure, motion, and evanefcence. STEEVENS.

VII. Fair

VII.

Fair is my love, but not so fair as fickle,
Mild as a dove, but neither true nor trusty;
Brighter than glass, and yet, as glass is, brittle+,
Softer than wax, and yet, as iron, rusty:

A lily pale*, with damask die to grace her,
None fairer, nor none falfer to deface her.

Her lips to mine how often hath fhe join'd,
Between each kifs her oaths of true love swearing!
How many tales to please me hath fhe coin'd,
Dreading my love, the lofs thereof ftill fearing!
Yet in the midst of all her pure protestings,

Her faith, her oaths, her tears, and all were jeftings.

She burn'd with love, as ftraw with fire flameth;
She burn'd out love, as soon as straw out-burneth 3 ;
She fram'd the love, and yet she foil'd the framing;
She bade love last, and yet she fell a turning.

Was this a lover, or a lecher whether?
Bad in the best, though excellent in neither.

VIII.

Did not the heavenly rhetorick of thine eye,
'Gainft whom the world cannot hold argument,

4 Brighter than glass, and yet, as glass is, brisle,] Quam digna infcribi vitro, cum lubrica, lævis, Pellucens, fragilis, vitrea tota nites!

Written under a lady's name on an inn window. STEEVENS. * A lily pale, with damask die to grace ber,] So, in Venus and Adonis : 66 a fudden pale,

"Like lawn being laid upon the blushing rose."

Again, in the Rape of Lucrece:

"This filent war of lilies and of rojes-." MALONE.

5 Sbe burn'd out love, as foon as ftraw out-burnetb;] So, in King Henry IV. P. I:

❝ ——rash bavin wits, "Soon kindled and foon burnt." 6-cannot bold argument,] This is Loft, where this Sonnet is alfo found. could not hold argument. MALONE.

STIEVENS.

the reading in Love's Labour's The Paffionate Pilgrim has:—

Perfuade