Finding Shakespeare

A Lover’S Complaint

1 From off a hill whose concave womb reworded
2 A plaintful story from a sist’ring vale,
3 My spirits t’attend this double voice accorded,
4 And down I laid to list the sad-tun’d tale;
5 Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,
6 Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain,
7 Storming her world with sorrow’s wind and rain.

8 Upon her head a platted hive of straw,
9 Which fortified her visage from the sun,
10 Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw
11 The carcass of a beauty spent and done;
12 Time had not scythed all that youth begun,
13 Nor youth all quit, but spite of heaven’s fell rage
14 Some beauty peeped through lattice of sear’d age.

15 Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,
16 Which on it had conceited characters,
17 Laund’ring the silken figures in the brine
18 That seasoned woe had pelleted in tears,
19 And often reading what contents it bears;
20 As often shrieking undistinguish’d woe,
21 In clamours of all size, both high and low.

22 Sometimes her levell’d eyes their carriage ride,
23 As they did batt’ry to the spheres intend;
24 Sometime diverted their poor balls are tied
25 To th’orbed earth; sometimes they do extend
26 Their view right on; anon their gazes lend
27 To every place at once, and nowhere fix’d,
28 The mind and sight distractedly commix’d.

29 Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat,
30 Proclaim’d in her a careless hand of pride;
31 For some untuck’d descended her sheav’d hat,
32 Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside;
33 Some in her threaden fillet still did bide,
34 And, true to bondage, would not break from thence,
35 Though slackly braided in loose negligence.

36 A thousand favours from a maund she drew,
37 Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,
38 Which one by one she in a river threw,
39 Upon whose weeping margent she was set,
40 Like usury applying wet to wet,
41 Or monarchs’ hands, that lets not bounty fall
42 Where want cries ‘some,’ but where excess begs ‘all’.

43 Of folded schedules had she many a one,
44 Which she perus’d, sigh’d, tore and gave the flood;
45 Crack’d many a ring of posied gold and bone,
46 Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud;
47 Found yet mo letters sadly penn’d in blood,
48 With sleided silk, feat and affectedly
49 Enswath’d, and seal’d to curious secrecy.

50 These often bath’d she in her fluxive eyes,
51 And often kiss’d, and often gave to tear;
52 Cried, ‘O false blood, thou register of lies,
53 What unapproved witness dost thou bear!
54 Ink would have seem’d more black and damned here!’
55 This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,
56 Big discontent so breaking their contents.

57 A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh,
58 Sometime a blusterer, that the ruffle knew
59 Of court, of city, and had let go by
60 The swiftest hours observed as they flew,
61 Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew;
62 And, privileg’d by age, desires to know
63 In brief the grounds and motives of her woe.

64 So slides he down upon his grained bat,
65 And comely distant sits he by her side,
66 When he again desires her, being sat,
67 Her grievance with his hearing to divide:
68 If that from him there may be aught applied
69 Which may her suffering ecstasy assuage,
70 ’Tis promised in the charity of age.

71 ‘Father,’ she says, ‘though in me you behold
72 The injury of many a blasting hour,
73 Let it not tell your judgement I am old,
74 Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power.
75 I might as yet have been a spreading flower,
76 Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied
77 Love to myself, and to no love beside.

78 ‘But woe is me! Too early I attended
79 A youthful suit; it was to gain my grace;
80 O one by nature’s outwards so commended,
81 That maiden’s eyes stuck over all his face,
82 Love lack’d a dwelling and made him her place;
83 And when in his fair parts she did abide,
84 She was new lodg’d and newly deified.

85 ‘His browny locks did hang in crooked curls,
86 And every light occasion of the wind
87 Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls,
88 What’s sweet to do, to do will aptly find,
89 Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind:
90 For on his visage was in little drawn,
91 What largeness thinks in paradise was sawn.

92 ‘Small show of man was yet upon his chin;
93 His phoenix down began but to appear,
94 Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin,
95 Whose bare out-bragg’d the web it seemed to wear.
96 Yet show’d his visage by that cost more dear,
97 And nice affections wavering stood in doubt
98 If best were as it was, or best without.

99 ‘His qualities were beauteous as his form,
100 For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free;
101 Yet if men mov’d him, was he such a storm
102 As oft ’twixt May and April is to see,
103 When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be.
104 His rudeness so with his authoriz’d youth
105 Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.

106 ‘Well could he ride, and often men would say
107 That horse his mettle from his rider takes,
108 Proud of subjection, noble by the sway,
109 What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop he makes!
110 And controversy hence a question takes,
111 Whether the horse by him became his deed,
112 Or he his manage by th’ well-doing steed.

113 ‘But quickly on this side the verdict went,
114 His real habitude gave life and grace
115 To appertainings and to ornament,
116 Accomplish’d in himself, not in his case;
117 All aids, themselves made fairer by their place,
118 Came for additions; yet their purpos’d trim
119 Piec’d not his grace, but were all grac’d by him.

120 ‘So on the tip of his subduing tongue
121 All kind of arguments and question deep,
122 All replication prompt, and reason strong,
123 For his advantage still did wake and sleep,
124 To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep:
125 He had the dialect and different skill,
126 Catching all passions in his craft of will.

127 ‘That he did in the general bosom reign
128 Of young, of old, and sexes both enchanted,
129 To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain
130 In personal duty, following where he haunted,
131 Consent’s bewitch’d, ere he desire, have granted,
132 And dialogued for him what he would say,
133 Ask’d their own wills, and made their wills obey.

134 ‘Many there were that did his picture get
135 To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind,
136 Like fools that in th’ imagination set
137 The goodly objects which abroad they find
138 Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assign’d,
139 And labouring in moe pleasures to bestow them,
140 Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them.

141 ‘So many have, that never touch’d his hand,
142 Sweetly suppos’d them mistress of his heart.
143 My woeful self that did in freedom stand,
144 And was my own fee-simple (not in part)
145 What with his art in youth, and youth in art,
146 Threw my affections in his charmed power,
147 Reserv’d the stalk and gave him all my flower.

148 ‘Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
149 Demand of him, nor being desired yielded,
150 Finding myself in honour so forbid,
151 With safest distance I mine honour shielded.
152 Experience for me many bulwarks builded
153 Of proofs new-bleeding, which remain’d the foil
154 Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil.

155 ‘But ah! Who ever shunn’d by precedent
156 The destin’d ill she must herself assay,
157 Or force’d examples ’gainst her own content,
158 To put the by-pass’d perils in her way?
159 Counsel may stop a while what will not stay:
160 For when we rage, advice is often seen
161 By blunting us to make our wills more keen.

162 ‘Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,
163 That we must curb it upon others’ proof,
164 To be forbode the sweets that seems so good,
165 For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.
166 O appetite, from judgement stand aloof!
167 The one a palate hath that needs will taste,
168 Though reason weep and cry, “It is thy last.”

169 ‘For further I could say, “This man’s untrue”,
170 And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling;
171 Heard where his plants in others’ orchards grew,
172 Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling;
173 Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling;
174 Thought characters and words merely but art,
175 And bastards of his foul adulterate heart.

176 ‘And long upon these terms I held my city,
177 Till thus he ’gan besiege me: “Gentle maid,
178 Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity,
179 And be not of my holy vows afraid:
180 That’s to ye sworn, to none was ever said,
181 For feasts of love I have been call’d unto,
182 Till now did ne’er invite, nor never woo.

183 ‘“All my offences that abroad you see
184 Are errors of the blood, none of the mind:
185 Love made them not; with acture they may be,
186 Where neither party is nor true nor kind,
187 They sought their shame that so their shame did find,
188 And so much less of shame in me remains,
189 By how much of me their reproach contains.

190 ‘“Among the many that mine eyes have seen,
191 Not one whose flame my heart so much as warmed,
192 Or my affection put to th’ smallest teen,
193 Or any of my leisures ever charmed:
194 Harm have I done to them, but ne’er was harmed;
195 Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free,
196 And reign’d commanding in his monarchy.

197 ‘“Look here what tributes wounded fancies sent me,
198 Of pallid pearls and rubies red as blood,
199 Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me
200 Of grief and blushes, aptly understood
201 In bloodless white and the encrimson’d mood;
202 Effects of terror and dear modesty,
203 Encamp’d in hearts, but fighting outwardly.

204 ‘“And, lo! behold these talents of their hair,
205 With twisted metal amorously empleach’d,
206 I have receiv’d from many a several fair,
207 Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech’d,
208 With th’ annexions of fair gems enrich’d,
209 And deep-brain’d sonnets that did amplify
210 Each stone’s dear nature, worth and quality.

211 ‘“The diamond, why ’twas beautiful and hard,
212 Whereto his invis’d properties did tend,
213 The deep green emerald, in whose fresh regard
214 Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend;
215 The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend
216 With objects manifold; each several stone,
217 With wit well blazon’d smil’d, or made some moan.

218 ‘“Lo, all these trophies of affections hot,
219 Of pensiv’d and subdued desires the tender,
220 Nature hath charg’d me that I hoard them not,
221 But yield them up where I myself must render,
222 That is, to you, my origin and ender:
223 For these of force must your oblations be,
224 Since I their altar, you empatron me.

225 ‘“O then advance of yours that phraseless hand,
226 Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise;
227 Take all these similes to your own command,
228 Hallowed with sighs that burning lungs did raise:
229 What me, your minister for you, obeys,
230 Works under you; and to your audit comes
231 Their distract parcels in combined sums.

232 ‘“Lo, this device was sent me from a nun,
233 Or sister sanctified of holiest note,
234 Which late her noble suit in court did shun,
235 Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote;
236 For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,
237 But kept cold distance, and did thence remove
238 To spend her living in eternal love.

239 ‘“But O, my sweet, what labour is’t to leave
240 The thing we have not, mast’ring what not strives,
241 Planing the place which did no form receive,
242 Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves,
243 She that her fame so to herself contrives,
244 The scars of battle ’scapeth by the flight,
245 And makes her absence valiant, not her might.

246 ‘“O pardon me, in that my boast is true,
247 The accident which brought me to her eye,
248 Upon the moment did her force subdue,
249 And now she would the caged cloister fly:
250 Religious love put out religion’s eye:
251 Not to be tempted would she be immur’d,
252 And now to tempt all, liberty procur’d.

253 ‘“How mighty then you are, O hear me tell!
254 The broken bosoms that to me belong
255 Have emptied all their fountains in my well,
256 And mine I pour your ocean all among:
257 I strong o’er them, and you o’er me being strong,
258 Must for your victory us all congest,
259 As compound love to physic your cold breast.

260 ‘“My parts had pow’r to charm a sacred nun,
261 Who, disciplin’d and dieted in grace,
262 Believ’d her eyes when they t’assail begun,
263 All vows and consecrations giving place.
264 O most potential love! Vow, bond, nor space,
265 In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine,
266 For thou art all and all things else are thine.

267 ‘“When thou impressest, what are precepts worth
268 Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame,
269 How coldly those impediments stand forth,
270 Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame!
271 Love’s arms are peace, ’gainst rule, ’gainst sense, ’gainst shame,
272 And sweetens, in the suff’ring pangs it bears,
273 The aloes of all forces, shocks and fears.

274 ‘“Now all these hearts that do on mine depend,
275 Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine,
276 And supplicant their sighs to your extend,
277 To leave the batt’ry that you make ’gainst mine,
278 Lending soft audience to my sweet design,
279 And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath,
280 That shall prefer and undertake my troth.”

281 ‘This said, his wat’ry eyes he did dismount,
282 Whose sights till then were levell’d on my face;
283 Each cheek a river running from a fount
284 With brinish current downward flowed apace.
285 O how the channel to the stream gave grace!
286 Who, glaz’d with crystal gate the glowing roses
287 That flame through water which their hue encloses.

288 ‘O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies
289 In the small orb of one particular tear!
290 But with the inundation of the eyes
291 What rocky heart to water will not wear?
292 What breast so cold that is not warmed here?
293 O cleft effect! Cold modesty, hot wrath,
294 Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath.

295 ‘For lo, his passion, but an art of craft,
296 Even there resolv’d my reason into tears;
297 There my white stole of chastity I daff’d,
298 Shook off my sober guards, and civil fears,
299 Appear to him as he to me appears,
300 All melting, though our drops this diff’rence bore:
301 His poison’d me, and mine did him restore.

302 ‘In him a plenitude of subtle matter,
303 Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives,
304 Of burning blushes, or of weeping water,
305 Or swooning paleness; and he takes and leaves,
306 In either’s aptness, as it best deceives,
307 To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes,
308 Or to turn white and swoon at tragic shows.

309 ‘That not a heart which in his level came
310 Could ’scape the hail of his all-hurting aim,
311 Showing fair nature is both kind and tame;
312 And veil’d in them, did win whom he would maim.
313 Against the thing he sought he would exclaim;
314 When he most burned in heart-wish’d luxury,
315 He preach’d pure maid, and prais’d cold chastity.

316 ‘Thus merely with the garment of a grace,
317 The naked and concealed fiend he cover’d,
318 That th’unexperient gave the tempter place,
319 Which, like a cherubin, above them hover’d.
320 Who, young and simple, would not be so lover’d?
321 Ay me! I fell, and yet do question make
322 What I should do again for such a sake.

323 ‘O, that infected moisture of his eye,
324 O, that false fire which in his cheek so glow’d!
325 O, that forc’d thunder from his heart did fly,
326 O, that sad breath his spongy lungs bestow’d,
327 O, all that borrowed motion, seeming owed,
328 Would yet again betray the fore-betrayed,
329 And new pervert a reconciled maid.’