Christopher Marlowe

“ As thou art fair, would thou wert fortunate!
Wert thou rich, poor should not be my state.
Th' opposèd star of Mars hath done thee harm;
Now Mars is gone, Venus thy side doth warm,30
And brings good fortune; a rich lover plants
His love on thee, and can supply thy wants.
Such is his form as may with thine compare,
Would he not buy thee, thou for him should'st care." [174]
She blushed: "Red shame becomes white cheeks; but this
If feigned, doth well; if true, it doth amiss.
When on thy lap thine eyes thou dost deject,
Each one according to his gifts respect. ”

“ Under whose shade the wood-gods love to be.
And in the midst a silver altar stood:
There Hero, sacrificing turtles' blood,
Vailed [11] to the ground, veiling her eyelids close;
And modestly they opened as she rose:160
Thence flew Love's arrow with the golden head;
And thus Leander was enamourèd.
Stone-still he stood, and evermore he gaz'd,
Till with the fire, that from his countenance blaz'd,
Relenting Hero's gentle heart was strook:
Such force and virtue hath an amorous look.
It lies not in our power to love or hate,
For will in us is over-rul'd by fate. ”

“ It is more safe to sleep, to read a book,
The Thracian harp with cunning to have strook.
But if my words with wingèd storm hence slip,
Yet, Galatea, favour thou her ship.
The loss of such a wench much blame will gather,
Both to the sea-nymphs and the sea-nymphs' father.
Go, minding to return with prosperous wind,
Whose blast may hither strongly be inclined. ”

“ Knowing her scapes, thine honour shall increase;
And what less labour than to hold thy peace?
Let him please, haunt the house, be kindly used,
Enjoy the wench; let all else be refused.30
Vain causes feign of him, the true to hide,
And what she likes, let both hold ratified.
When most her husband bends the brows and frowns,
His fawning wench with her desire he crowns. ”

“ Ne'er felt before—am I transported thus?
My fingers paddle, too, in blood—is't mine? Jacconot.
O, content you, Master Marplot—it's you that's down, drunk or sober; and that's your own blood on your fingers, running from a three-inch groove in your ribs for the devil's imps to slide into you. Ugh! cry gramercy! for it's all over with your rhyming!
Heywood.
O, heartless mischief! Middleton.
Hence, thou rabid cur! Marlowe.
What demon in the air with unseen arm
Hath turn'd my unchain'd fury against myself? ”

“ Jacconot.
And to me, too! Bethink thee, I say, when last year, after the dance at Hampton, thou wert enraged against the noble that slighted thee; and, flushed with wine, thou took'st me by the ear, and mad'st me hand thee into thy coach, and get in beside thee, with a drawn sword in my hand and a dripping trencher on my head, singing such songs, until——
Cecilia.
Earthworms and stone walls!
Jacconot.
Hey! what of them? ”

“ How fare you? Thou'st been reading much of late,
By the moon's light, I fear me? Marlowe.
Why so, lady? Cecilia.
The reflex of the page is on thy face. Marlowe.
But in my heart the spirit of a shrine
Burns, with immortal radiation crown'd. Cecilia.
[Pg 321] Nay, primrose gentleman, think'st me a saint? Marlowe.
I feel thy power. Cecilia.
I exercise no arts—
Whence is my influence? Marlowe.
From heaven, I think.
Madam, I love you—ere to-day you've seen it,
Although my lips ne'er breathed the word before ”

“ OVIDII NASONIS AMORUM. LIBER PRIMUS. Elegia I. Quemadmodum a Cupidine, pro bellis amoris scribere coactus sit.
We which were Ovid's five books, now are three,
For these before the rest preferreth he:
If reading five thou plain'st of tediousness,
Two ta'en away, thy [128] labour will be less;
With Muse prepared, [129] I meant to sing of arms,
Choosing a subject fit for fierce alarms:
Both verses were alike till Love (men say)
Began to smile and took one foot away.
Rash boy, who gave thee power to change a line?
We are the Muses' prophets, none of thine. [Pg 106]
What, if thy mother take Diana's ”

“ Gnaws at the root of being, and doth hang
A heavy sickness on the beams of day,
Making the atmosphere, which should exalt
Our contemplations, press us down to earth,
As though our breath had made it thick with plague.
Cursed! accursed be the freaks of Nature,
That mar us from ourselves, and make our acts
The scorn and loathing of our afterthoughts—
The finger mark of Conscience, who, most treacherous,
Wakes to accuse, but slumber'd o'er the sin. Exit.
SCENE III. A Room in the Triple Tun, Blackfriars.
Marlowe, Middleton, and Gentlemen. ”

“ Elegia V. [259] Ad amicam corruptam.
No love is so dear,—quivered Cupid, fly!—
That my chief wish should be so oft to die. [Pg 148]
Minding thy fault, with death I wish to revel;
Alas! a wench is a perpetual evil.
No intercepted lines thy deeds display,
No gifts given secretly thy crime bewray.
O would my proofs as vain might be withstood!
Ay me, poor soul, why is my cause so good?
He's happy, that his love dares boldly credit;
To whom his wench can say, "I never did it."10
He's cruel, and too much his grief doth favour,
That seeks the conquest by her loose behaviour. ”

“ Jove knows with such-like prayers I daily move her.
Accept him that shall serve thee all his youth,
Accept him that shall love with spotless truth.
If lofty titles cannot make [141] me thine,
That am descended but of knightly line,
(Soon may you plough the little land I have;
I gladly grant my parents given to save; [142] ) 10
Apollo, Bacchus, and the Muses may;
And Cupid who hath marked me for thy prey;
My spotless life, which but to gods gives place,
Naked simplicity, and modest grace.
I love but one, and her I love change never,
If men have faith, I'll live with thee for ever. ”

“ Chase Phœbus, and enrag'd affect his place,
And strive to shine by day and full of strife
Dissolve the engines of the broken world.80
All great things crush themselves; such end the gods
Allot the height of honour; men so strong
By land and sea, no foreign force could ruin.
O Rome, thyself art cause of all these evils,
Thyself thus shiver'd out to three men's shares!
Dire league of partners in a kingdom last not. ”

“ Thou deign'st unequal lines should thee rehearse;
Thou fight'st against me using mine own verse.
Thy lofty style with mine I not compare,
Small doors unfitting for large houses are.40
Light am I, and with me, my care, light Love;
Not stronger am I, than the thing I move.
Venus without me should be rustical:
This goddess' company doth to me befal. ”

“ Urging his fortune, trusting in the gods,
Destroying what withstood his proud desires,150
And glad when blood and ruin made him way:
So thunder, which the wind tears from the clouds,
With crack of riven air and hideous sound
Filling the world, leaps out and throws forth fire,
Affrights poor fearful men, and blasts their eyes
With overthwarting flames, and raging shoots
Alongst the air, and, not resisting it,
Falls, and returns, and shivers where it lights. ”

“ But this new term will many questions breed;
Therefore at first I will express at full,
Who is a true and perfect gull indeed.
A gull is he who fears a velvet gown,
And, when a wench is brave, dares not speak to her ”

“ I clasp thy form—I feel thy breath, my love—
And know thee for a sweet saint come to save me!
Save!—is it death I feel—it cannot be death? [Pg 348] Jacconot (half aside.)
Marry, but it can!—or else your sword's a foolish dog that dar'n't bite his owner.
Marlowe.
O friends—dear friends—this is a sorry end—
A most unworthy end! To think—O God!—
To think that I should fall by the hand of one
Whose office, like his nature, is all baseness,
Gives Death ten thousand stings, and to the Grave
A damning victory! Fame sinks with life! ”

“ TO THE RIGHT-WORSHIPFUL SIR THOMAS WALSINGHAM, KNIGHT. Sir, we think not ourselves discharged of the duty we owe to our friend when we have brought the breathless body to the earth; for albeit the eye there taketh his ever-farewell of that beloved object, yet the impression of the man that hath been dear unto us, living an after-life in our memory, there putteth us in mind of farther obsequies due unto the deceased; and namely of the performance of whatsoever we may judge shall make to his living credit and to the effecting of his determinations prevented by the stroke of death. ”

“ Jove throws down woods and castles with his fire,
But bids his darts from perjured girls retire.
Poor Semele among so many burned,
Her own request to her own torment turned.
But when her lover came, had she drawn back,
The father's thigh should unborn Bacchus lack.40
Why grieve I? and of heaven reproaches pen?
The gods have eyes, and breasts as well as men. ”

“ Marlowe.
Thou art too beautiful ever to die!
I look upon thee, and can ne'er believe it. Cecilia.
O, sir—but passion, circumstance, and fate,
Can do far worse than kill: they can dig graves,
And make the future owners dance above them,
Well knowing how 'twill end. Why look you sad? ”

“ The following verses in imitation of Marlowe are by Donne:—
THE BAIT.
Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasure prove
Of golden sands and christal brooks
With silken lines and silver hooks.
There will the river whispering run,
Warm'd by thine eyes more than the sun;
And there th' enamoured fish will stay
Begging themselves they may betray. ”

“ And quite confound Nature's sweet harmony.
Well therefore by the gods decreed it is,
We human creatures should enjoy that bliss.
One is no number; [16] maids are nothing, then,
Without the sweet society of men.
Wilt thou live single still? one shalt thou be,
Though never-singling Hymen couple thee.
Wild savages, that drink of running springs
Think water far excels all earthly things;260
But they, that daily taste neat [17] wine, despise it:
Virginity, albeit some highly prize it,
Compar'd with marriage, had you tried them both,
Differs as much as wine and water doth. ”

“ To leave gods in profession and in thought,
Than in her love and life; for therein lies
Most of her duties and their dignities; [Pg 65]
And, rail the brain-bald world at what it will,190
That's the grand atheism that reigns in it still.
Yet singularity she would use no more,
For she was singular too much before;
But she would please the world with fair pretext:
Love would not leave her conscience perplext:
Great men that will have less do for them, still
Must bear them out, though th' acts be ne'er so ill;
Meanness must pander be to Excellence ”

“ Guiding the harmless pigeons with thy hand.
Young men and women shalt thou lead as thrall,
So will thy triumph seem magnifical;
I, lately caught, will have a new-made wound,
And captive-like be manacled and bound:30
Good meaning, Shame, and such as seek Love's wrack
Shall follow thee, their hands tied at their back.
Thee all shall fear, and worship as a king
Iö triumphing shall thy people sing.
Smooth speeches, Fear and Rage shall by thee ride,
Which troops have always been on Cupid's side;
Thou with these soldiers conquer'st gods and men,
Take these away, where is thine honour then? ”

“ Marlowe.
Not so: we write from the full heart within,
And leave posterity to find her own.
Health, sir!—your good deeds laurel you in heaven. Middleton.
'Twere best men left their fame to chance and fashion,
As birds bequeath their eggs to the sun's hatching,
Since Genius can make no will. Marlowe. ”

“ Venus is faint; swift Hermes retrograde;
Mars only rules the heaven. Why do the planets
Alter their course, and vainly dim their virtue?
Sword-girt Orion's side glisters too bright:
War's rage draws near; and to the sword's strong hand
Let all laws yield, sin bears the name of virtue:
Many a year these furious broils let last:
Why should we wish the gods should ever end them?
War only gives us peace. O Rome, continue
The course of mischief, and stretch out the date670
Of slaughter! only civil broils make peace. ”

“ And Venus grieves, Tibullus' life being spent,
As when the wild boar Adon's groin had rent.
The gods' care we are called, and men of piety,
And some there be that think we have a deity.
Outrageous death profanes all holy things,
And on all creatures obscure darkness brings.20
To Thracian Orpheus what did parents good?
Or songs amazing wild beasts of the wood?
Where [411] Linus by his father Phœbus laid,
To sing with his unequalled harp is said. ”

“ While Mars doth take the Aonian harp to play?
Great are thy kingdoms, over-strong and large,
Ambitious imp, why seek'st thou further charge?
Are all things thine? the Muses' Tempe thine?
Then scarce can Phœbus say, "This harp is mine." ”

“ He had not been that conquering Rome bid build.
Had Venus spoiled her belly's Trojan fruit,
The earth of Cæsars had been destitute.
Thou also that wert born fair, had'st decayed,
If such a work thy mother had assayed.20
Myself, that better die with loving may,
Had seen, my mother killing me, no [310] day.
Why tak'st increasing grapes from vinetrees full?
With cruel hand why dost green apples pull?
Fruits ripe will fall; let springing things increase;
Life is no light price of a small surcease. ”