1603-4 by Shakespeare 

A Lover's Complaint 

1	From off a hill whose concave womb re-worded
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-tuned 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 plaited 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 scythèd all that youth begun,
13	Nor youth all quit# but spite of heaven’s fell rage,
14	Some beauty peeped through lattice of seared 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 undistinguished woe
21	In clamours of all size, both high and low.
22	Sometimes her levelled 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’ orbèd earth# sometimes they do extend
26	Their view right on# anon their gazes lend
27	To every place at once, and nowhere fixed,
28	The mind and sight distractedly commixed.
29	Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plait,
30	Proclaimed in her a careless hand of pride#
31	For some, untucked, descended her sheaved hat,
32	Hanging her pale and pinèd 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 margin she was set#
40	Like usury applying wet to wet,
41	Or monarch’s 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 perused, sighed, tore, and gave the flood#
45	Cracked many a ring of posied gold and bone,
46	Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud#
47	Found yet more letters sadly penned in blood,
48	With sleided silk feat and affectedly
49	Enswathed and sealed to curious secrecy.
50	These often bathed she in her fluxive eyes,
51	And often kissed, and often ’gan to tear#
52	Cried “O false blood, thou register of lies,
53	What unapprovèd witness dost thou bear!
54	Ink would have seemed more black and damnèd 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 observèd as they flew,
61	Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew,
62	And, privileged by age, desires to know
63	In brief the grounds and motives of her woe.
64	So slides he down upon his grainèd 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 maidens’ eyes stuck over all his face.
82	Love lacked a dwelling and made him her place,
83	And when in his fair parts she did abide
84	She was new-lodged and newly deified.
85	“His browny locks did hang in crookèd 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 outbragged the web it seemed to wear#
96	Yet showed 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 moved 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 authorized 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 manège 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	Accomplished in himself, not in his case.
117	All aids, themselves made fairer by their place,
118	Came for additions# yet their purposed trim
119	Pieced not his grace, but were all graced 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	Consents bewitched, ere he desire, have granted,
132	And dialogued for him what he would say,
133	Asked 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 assigned,
139	And labour in more pleasures to bestow them
140	Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them.
141	“So many have, that never touched his hand,
142	Sweetly supposed 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 charmèd power,
147	Reserved the stalk and gave him all my flower.
148	“Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
149	Demand of him, nor being desirèd 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 remained the foil
154	Of this false jewel and his amorous spoil.
155	“But ah, who ever shunned by precedent
156	The destined ill she must herself assay,
157	Or forced examples ’gainst her own content
158	To put the by-past 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 forbod 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 beguilling#
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 called 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 warmèd
192	Or my affection put to th’ smallest teen,
193	Or any of my leisures ever charmèd.
194	Harm have I done to them, but ne’er was harmèd#
195	Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free,
196	And reigned 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 encrimsoned mood 
202	Effects of terror and dear modesty,
203	Encamped in hearts, but fighting outwardly.
204	“ ““And lo, behold, these talents of their hair,
205	With twisted mettle amorously impleached,
206	I have received from many a several fair,
207	Their kind acceptance weepingly beseeched,
208	With th’ annexations of fair gems enriched,
209	And deep-brained sonnets that did amplify
210	Each stone’s dear nature, worth, and quality.
211	“ ““The diamond? why, ’twas beautiful and hard,
212	Whereto his invised properties did tend#
213	The deep-green em’rald, 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 blazoned, smiled or made some moan.
218	“ ““Lo, all these trophies of affections hot,
219	Of pensived and subdued desires the tender,
220	Nature hath charged 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 enpatron 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 combinèd sums.
232	“ ““Lo, this device was sent me from a nun,
233	A 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 unconstrainèd 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 cagèd cloister fly.
250	Religious love put out religion’s eye.
251	Not to be tempted would she be immured,
252	And now, to tempt, all liberty procured.
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 power to charm a sacred nun,
261	Who disciplined, ay dieted in grace,
262	Believed 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 you 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 levelled 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 glazed 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 warmèd 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 resolved my reason into tears.
297	There my white stole of chastity I daffed,
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 poisoned 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, veiled in them, did win whom he would maim.
313	Against the thing he sought he would exclaim#
314	When he most burned in heart-wished luxury,
315	He preached pure maid and praised cold chastity.
316	“Thus merely with the garment of a grace
317	The naked and concealèd fiend he covered,
318	That th’ unexperient gave the tempter place,
319	Which like a cherubin above them hovered.
320	Who, young and simple, would not be so lovered?
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 glowed,
325	O that forced thunder from his heart did fly,
326	O that sad breath his spongy lungs bestowed,
327	O all that borrowed motion seeming owed
328	Would yet again betray the fore-betrayed,
329	And new pervert a reconcilèd maid.”