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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Elegia XII. Exultat, quod amica potitus sit. - The Works of Christopher Marlowe, vol. 3 (Poems)

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Elegia XII. Exultat, quod amica potitus sit. - 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 XII.1
Exultat, quod amica potitus sit.

  • About my temples go, triumphant bays!
  • Conquered Corinna in my bosom lays.
  • She whom her husband, guard, and gate, as foes,
  • Lest art should win her, firmly did enclose:
  • That victory doth chiefly triumph merit,
  • Which without bloodshed doth the prey inherit.
  • No little ditchèd towns, no lowly walls,
  • But to my share a captive damsel falls.
  • When Troy by ten years' battle tumbled down.
  • With the Atrides many gained renown:

    10

  • But I no partner of my glory brook,
  • Nor can another say his help I took.
  • I, guide and soldier, won the field and wear her.
  • I was both horseman, footman, standard-bearer.
  • Nor in my act hath fortune mingled chance
  • O care-got2 triumph hitherwards advance!
  • Nor is my war's cause new; but for a queen,
  • Europe and Asia in firm peace had been;
  • The Lapiths and the Centaurs, for a woman,
  • To cruel arms their drunken selves did summon;

    20

  • A woman forced the Trojans new to enter
  • Wars, just Latinus, in thy kingdom's centre,
  • A woman against late-built Rome did send
  • The Sabine fathers, who sharp wars intend.
  • I saw how bulls for a white heifer strive,
  • She looking on them did more courage give.
  • And me with many, but me1 without murther,
  • Cupid commands to move his ensigns further.

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

[2]“Cura parte triumphe mea.”

[1]Ed. B “but yet me.”—Ed. C “but yet without”