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Text File  |  1989-11-03  |  4KB  |  104 lines
  1. $Unique_ID{SSP01857}
  2. $Title{The Phoenix and the Turtle}
  3. $Author{Shakespeare, William}
  4. $Subject{}
  5. $Log{}
  6.  
  7.                 Portions copyright (c) CMC ReSearch, Inc., 1989
  8.  
  9.                    The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
  10.  
  11.                            THE PHOENIX AND THE TURTLE
  12.                               (written about 1601)
  13.  
  14.  
  15. ..............................................................................
  16.  
  17.                      LET the bird of loudest lay,
  18.                      On the sole Arabian tree,
  19.                      Herald sad and trumpet be,
  20.                      To whose sound chaste wings obey.
  21.  
  22.                      But thou shrieking harbinger,
  23.                      Foul precurrer of the fiend,
  24.                      Augur of the fever's end,
  25.                      To this troop come thou not near!
  26.  
  27.                      From this session interdict
  28.                      Every fowl of tyrant wing,                              10
  29.                      Save the eagle, feather'd king:
  30.                      Keep the obsequy so strict.
  31.  
  32.                      Let the priest in surplice white,
  33.                      That defunctive music can,
  34.                      Be the death-divining swan,
  35.                      Lest the requiem lack his right.
  36.  
  37.                      And thou treble-dated crow,
  38.                      That thy sable gender makest
  39.                      With the breath thou givest and takest,
  40.                      'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.                     20
  41.  
  42.                      Here the anthem doth commence:
  43.                      Love and constancy is dead;
  44.                      Phoenix and the turtle fled
  45.                      In a mutual flame from hence.
  46.  
  47.                      So they loved, as love in twain
  48.                      Had the essence but in one;
  49.                      Two distincts, division none:
  50.                      Number there in love was slain.
  51.  
  52.                      Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
  53.                      Distance, and no space was seen                         30
  54.                      'Twixt the turtle and his queen:
  55.                      But in them it were a wonder.
  56.  
  57.                      So between them love did shine,
  58.                      That the turtle saw his right
  59.                      Flaming in the phoenix' sight;
  60.                      Either was the other's mine.
  61.  
  62.                      Property was thus appalled,
  63.                      That the self was not the same;
  64.                      Single nature's double name
  65.                      Neither two nor one was called.                         40
  66.  
  67.                      Reason, in itself confounded,
  68.                      Saw division grow together,
  69.                      To themselves yet either neither,
  70.                      Simple were so well compounded,
  71.  
  72.                      That it cried, How true a twain
  73.                      Seemeth this concordant one!
  74.                      Love hath reason, reason none,
  75.                      If what parts can so remain.
  76.  
  77.                      Whereupon it made this threne
  78.                      To the phoenix and the dove,                            50
  79.                      Co-supremes and stars of love,
  80.                      As chorus to their tragic scene.
  81.  
  82.  
  83.                                THRENOS.
  84.  
  85.                      Beauty, truth, and rarity,
  86.                      Grace in all simplicity,
  87.                      Here enclosed in cinders lie.
  88.  
  89.                      Death is now the phoenix' nest
  90.                      And the turtle's loyal breast
  91.                      To eternity doth rest,
  92.  
  93.                      Leaving no posterity:
  94.                      'Twas not their infirmity,                              60
  95.                      It was married chastity.
  96.  
  97.                      Truth may seem, but cannot be:
  98.                      Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;
  99.                      Truth and beauty buried be.
  100.  
  101.                      To this urn let those repair
  102.                      That are either true or fair
  103.                      For these dead birds sigh a prayer.
  104.