Torquato Tasso

“ This ruddy sanguine visage, these broad shoulders,
This hairy breast, and these my shaggy thighs,
Are marks of strength and manhood. If thou dost not
Believe them, try them. What dost thou expect
Of those young dainty ones, whose girlish cheeks
Are scarcely tinged with down, and who dispose
Their pretty locks in order,—girls indeed
In strength as well as look? ”

“ Hide with their lovely leaves, lions, and bears,
And snakes; and thou in thy fair bosom hidest
Hate, and disdain, and hard impiety;
Things wilder far than lions, bears, and snakes;
For those are tameable, but to tame thee
Defies the power of present and of prayer. ”

“ In learning love, is to unlearn respect.
The scholar then must dare, demand, intreat,
Importune, run away with; and if that
Be not sufficient, there is one thing more.
Knowest thou not the stuff that woman's made of? ”

“ And Persians drink the Soane, and Gauls the Tigris.
DAPHNE.
Truly thou fliest high. Now please descend
A little to our work.
THYRSIS.
⁠The point is this;
That thou should'st go into the fountain with her,
And try to awake her tenderness. Meanwhile
I will persuade Amyntas to come after.
And I suspect my task is not less difficult
Than thine, so let us go.
DAPHNE.
⁠I will; but mind;
Forget not that we have a task besides. ”

“ Must answer for me. At my heart he speaks,
At my heart's core; but I cannot repeat it.
Custom has made thee talk of love too lightly.
Thou art too used in art, to talk of love.
What ties my heart, ties up my tongue.
THYRSIS.
⁠Thou wilt
Not go then? ”