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Elegia III. Ad amicam. - Christopher Marlowe, The Works of Christopher Marlowe, vol. 3 (Poems) [1598]

Edition used:

The Works of Christopher Marlowe, ed. A.H. Bullen (London: John C. Nimmo, 1885). Vol. 3.

Part of: The Works of Christopher Marlowe, 3 vols.

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Elegia III.

Ad amicam.

  • I ask but right, let her that caught me late,
  • Either love, or cause that I may never hate;
  • I crave3 too much—would she but let me love her
  • Jove knows with such-like prayers I daily move her.
  • Accept him that will serve thee all his youth,
  • Accept him that will love with spotless truth.
  • If lofty titles cannot make4 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;5 )

    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.
  • The years that fatal Destiny shall give
  • I'll live with thee, and die ere thou shalt grieve.
  • Be thou the happy subject of my books
  • That I may write things worthy thy fair looks.

    20

  • By verses, hornèd Io got her name;
  • And she to whom in shape of swan1 Jove came,
  • And she that on a feigned Bull swam to land,
  • Griping his false horns with her virgin hand.
  • So likewise we will through the world be rung
  • And with my name shall thine be always sung.

[3]Isham copy “aske.”

[4]Ed. A “cause me to be thine.”

[5]“Temperat et sumptus parcus uterque parens.'

[1]Isham copy and ed. A “Bull.”