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Elegia VIII. Ad Cypassim ancillam Corinnæ. - 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 VIII.1
Ad Cypassim ancillam Corinnæ.

  • Cypassis, that a thousand ways trim'st hair,
  • Worthy to kemb none but a goddess fair,
  • Our pleasant scapes show thee no clown to be,
  • Apt to thy mistress, but more apt to me.
  • Who that our bodies were comprest bewrayed?
  • Whence knows Corinna that with thee I played?
  • Yet blushed I not, nor used I any saying,
  • That might be urged to witness our false playing.
  • What if a man with bondwomen offend,
  • To prove him foolish did I e'er contend?

    10

  • Achilles burnt with face of captive Briseis,
  • Great Agamemnon loved his servant Chrysëis.2
  • Greater than these myself I not esteem:
  • What gracèd kings, in me no shame I deem.
  • But when on thee her angry eyes did rush,
  • In both thy1 cheeks she did perceive thee2 blush.
  • But being present,3 might that work the best,
  • By Venus deity how did I protest!
  • Thou goddess dost command a warm south blast,
  • My self oaths in Carpathian seas to cast.

    20

  • For which good turn my sweet reward repay,
  • Let me lie with thee, brown Cypass, to-day.
  • Ungrate, why feign'st new fears, and dost refuse?
  • Well may'st thou one thing for thy mistress use.4
  • If thou deniest, fool, I'll our deeds express,
  • And as a traitor mine own faults confess;
  • Telling thy mistress where I was with thee,
  • How oft, and by what means, we did agree.

[1]Not in Isham copy or ed. A.

[2]“Serva Phœbas” (i.e., Cassandra).

[1]Old eds. “my.”

[2]So ed. B.—Ed. C “the.”

[3]“At quanto, si forte refers, præsentior ipse, Per Veneris feci numina magna fidem.”

[4]The original has “Unum est e dominis emeruisse satis.”