The Works of Christopher Marlowe Volume III Part 43

[642] Old ed. "wash'd."

[643] Portendeth.

[644] Here Marlowe quite deserts the original--

"pars aegra et marcida pendet, _Pars micat, et celeri venas movet improba pulsu_."

[645] "Numerisque moventibus astra."--The word "planeting" was, I suppose, coined by Marlowe. I have never met it elsewhere.

[646] So Dyce.--Old ed. "radge." (The original has "et incerto _discurrunt_ sidera motu.")

[647] "Omnis an effusis miscebitur unda _venenis_."--Dyce suggests that Marlowe's copy read "pruinis."

[648] The original has "Aquarius."--Ganymede was changed into the sign Aquarius: see Hyginus' _Poeticon Astron._ II. 29.

[649] Claws.

[650] A Maenad.--Old ed. "Maenus."

[651] The original has "Nubiferae."

[652] Old ed. "hence."

THE Pa.s.sIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE.

THE Pa.s.sIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE.[653]

Come[654] live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That hills and vallies, dales and fields,[655]

Woods or steepy mountain yields.[656]

And we will[657] sit upon the rocks, Seeing[658] the shepherds feed their[659] flocks By shallow rivers to whose falls Melodious birds sing[660] madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses[661]

And[662] a thousand fragrant posies, A cup of flowers and a kirtle Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle.

A gown[663] made of the finest wooll Which from our pretty lambs we pull; Fair-lined[664] slippers for the cold, With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy-buds, With coral clasps and amber studs; An if these pleasures may thee move, Come[665] live with me, and be my love.

The shepherd-swains[666] shall dance and sing For thy delight each May-morning: If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me, and be my love.

FOOTNOTES:

[653] This delightful pastoral song was first published, without the fourth and sixth stanzas, in _The Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim_, 1599. It appeared complete in _England's Helicon_, 1600, with Marlowe's name subscribed.

By quoting it in the _Complete Angler_, 1653, Izaak Walton has made it known to a world of readers.

[654] Omitted in P. P.

[655] So P. P.--E. H. "That vallies, groves, hills and fieldes."--Walton "That vallies, groves, or hils or fields."

[656] So E. H.--P. P. "And the craggy mountain yields."--Walton "Or, woods and steepie mountains yeelds."

[657] So E. H.--P. P. "There will we."--Walton "Where we will."

[658] So E. H.--P. P. and Walton "And see."

[659] So E. H. and P. P.--Walton "our."

[660] So P. P. and Walton.--E. H. "sings."

[661] So E. H. and Walton.--P. P. "There will I make thee a bed of roses."

[662] So E. H.--P. P. "With."--Walton "And then."

[663] This stanza is omitted in P. P.

[664] So E. H.--Walton "Slippers lin'd choicely."

[665] So E. H. and Walton.--P. P. "Then."--After this stanza there follows in the second edition of the _Complete Angler_, 1655, an additional stanza:--

"Thy silver dishes for thy meat As precious as the G.o.ds do eat, Shall on an ivory table be Prepar'd each day for thee and me."

[666] This stanza is omitted in P. P.--E. H. and Walton "The sheep-heards swaines."

[In _England's Helicon_ Marlowe's song is followed by the "Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" and "Another of the same Nature made since."

Both are signed _Ignoto_, but the first of these pieces has been usually ascribed to Sir Walter Raleigh[667]--on no very substantial grounds.]

THE NYMPH'S REPLY TO THE SHEPHERD.

If all the world and love were young, And truth in every Shepherd's tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move To live with thee, and be thy love.

Times drives the flocks from field to fold, When rivers rage and rocks grow cold, And Philomel becometh dumb, The rest complains of cares to come.

The flowers do fade and wanton fields To wayward winter reckoning yields; A honey tongue, a heart of gall, Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies, Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten; In folly ripe, in reason rotten.