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Elegia IX. Ad Cupidinem. - 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 IX.5
Ad Cupidinem.

  • O Cupid, that dost never cease my smart!
  • O boy, that liest so slothful in my heart!
  • Why me that always was thy soldier found,
  • Dost harm, and in thy6 tents why dost me wound?
  • Why burns thy brand, why strikes thy bow thy friends
  • More glory by thy vanquished foes ascends.
  • Did not Pelides whom his spear did grieve,
  • Being required, with speedy help relieve?
  • Hunters leave taken beasts, pursue the chase,
  • And than things found do ever further pace.

    10

  • We people wholly given thee, feel thine arms,
  • Thy dull hand stays thy striving enemies' harms.
  • Dost joy to have thy hookèd arrows shaked
  • In naked bones? love hath my bones left naked.
  • So many men and maidens without love,
  • Hence with great laud thou may'st a triumph move.
  • Rome, if her strength the huge world had not filled,
  • With strawy cabins now her courts should build.
  • The weary soldier hath the conquered fields,
  • His sword, laid by, safe, tho' rude places yields;1

    20

  • The dock inharbours ships drawn from the floods,
  • Horse freed from service range abroad the woods.
  • And time it was for me to live in quiet,
  • That have so oft served pretty wenches' diet.
  • Yet should I curse a God, if he but said,
  • “Live without love;” so sweet ill is a maid.
  • For when my loathing it of heat deprives me,
  • I know not whither my mind's whirlwind drives me.
  • Even as a headstrong courser bears away
  • His rider, vainly striving him to stay;

    30

  • Or as a sudden gale thrusts into sea
  • The haven-touching bark, now near the lea;
  • So wavering Cupid brings me back amain,
  • And purple Love resumes his darts again.
  • Strike, boy, I offer thee my naked breast,
  • Here thou hast strength, here thy right hand doth rest.
  • Here of themselves thy shafts come, as if shot;
  • Better than I their quiver knows them not:
  • Hapless is he that all the night lies quiet,
  • And slumbering, thinks himself much blessèd by it.

    40

  • Fool, what is sleep but image of cold death,
  • Long shalt thou rest when Fates expire thy breath.
  • But me let crafty damsel's words deceive,
  • Great joys by hope I inly shall conceive.
  • Now let her flatter me, now chide me hard,
  • Let me1 enjoy her oft, oft be debarred.
  • Cupid, by thee, Mars in great doubt doth trample,
  • And thy stepfather fights by thy example.
  • Light art thou, and more windy than thy wings;
  • Joys with uncertain faith thou tak'st and brings:

    50

  • Yet Love, if thou with thy fair mother hear,
  • Within my breast no desert empire bear;
  • Subdue the wandering wenches to thy reign,
  • So of both people shalt thou homage gain.

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

[6]So ed. B.—Ed. C “my.”

[1]Insome strange fashion Marlowe has mistaken the substantive “rudis” (the staff received by the gladiator on his discharge) with the adjective “rudis” (rude). The original has “Tutaque deposito poscitur ense rudis.”

[1]Old eds. “Let her enjoy me;” but the original has “Saepe fruar domina.”