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Elegia IX. Tibulli mortem deflet. - 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.3
Tibulli mortem deflet.

  • If Thetis and the Morn their sons did wail,
  • And envious Fates great goddesses assail;
  • Sad Elegy,4 thy woful hairs unbind:
  • Ah, now a name too true thou hast I find.
  • Tibullus, thy work's poet, and thy fame,
  • Burns his dead body in the funeral flame.
  • Lo, Cupid brings his quiver spoilèd quite,
  • His broken bow, his firebrand without light
  • How piteously with drooping wings he stands,
  • And knocks his bare breast with self-angry hands.

    10

  • The locks spread on his neck receive his tears,
  • And shaking sobs his mouth for speeches bears.
  • So5 at æneas' burial, men report,
  • Fair-faced Iülus, he went forth thy court.
  • And Venus grieves, Tibullus' life being spent,
  • As when the wild boar Adon's groin had rent.
  • The gods' care we are called, and men of piety,
  • And some there be that think we have a deity.
  • Outrageous death profanes all holy things,
  • And on all creatures obscure darkness brings.

    20

  • To Thracian Orpheus what did parents good?
  • Or songs amazing wild beasts of the wood?
  • Where1 Linus by his father Phœbus laid,
  • To sing with his unequalled harp is said.
  • See Homer from whose fountain ever filled
  • Pierian dew to poets is distilled:
  • Him the last day in black Avern hath drowned:
  • Verses alone are with continuance crowned.
  • The work of poets lasts: Troy's labour's fame,
  • And that slow web night's falsehood did unframe.

    30

  • So Nemesis, so Delia famous are,
  • The one his first love, th' other his new care.
  • What profit to us hath our pure life bred?
  • What to have lain alone in empty bed?
  • When bad Fates take good men, I am forbod
  • By secret thoughts to think there is a God.
  • Live godly, thou shalt die; though honour heaven,
  • Yet shall thy life be forcibly bereaven.
  • Trust in good verse, Tibullus feels death's pains,
  • Scarce rests of all what a small urn contains.

    40

  • Thee, sacred poet, could sad flames destroy?
  • Nor fearèd they thy body to annoy?
  • The holy god's gilt temples they might fire,
  • That durst to so great wickedness aspire.
  • Eryx' bright empress turned her looks aside,
  • And some, that she refrained tears, have denied.
  • Yet better is't, than if Corcyra's Isle,
  • Had thee unknown interred in ground most vile.
  • Thy dying eyes here did thy mother close,
  • Nor did thy ashes her last offerings lose.

    50

  • Part of her sorrow here thy sister bearing,
  • Comes forth, her unkembed1 locks asunder tearing.
  • Nemesis and thy first wench join their kisses
  • With thine, nor this last fire their presence misses.
  • Delia departing, “Happier loved,” she saith,
  • “Was I: thou liv'dst, while thou esteem'dst my faith.”
  • Nemesis answers, “What's my loss to thee?
  • His fainting hand in death engraspèd me.”
  • If aught remains of us but name and spirit,
  • Tibullus doth Elysium's joy inherit.

    60

  • Their youthful brows with ivy girt to meet him,
  • With Calvus learned Catullus comes, and greet him;
  • And thou, if falsely charged to wrong thy friend,
  • Gallus, that car'dst2 not blood and life to spend.
  • With these thy soul walks: souls if death release,
  • The godly3 sweet Tibullus doth increase.
  • Thy bones, I pray, may in the urn safe rest,
  • And may th' earth's weight thy ashes naught molest.

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

[4]Ed. B “Eeliga”—Ed. C “Elegia.”

[5]“Fratris in Aeneae sic illum funere dicunt Egressum tectis, pulcher Iule, tuis.”

[1]The original has—

  • “Aelinon in silvis idem pater, aelinon, altis Dicitur invita concinuisse lyra.”

In Marlowe's copy the couplet must have been very different.

[1]Old eds. “vnkeembe” and “unkeem'd.”

[2]Old eds. “carst.”

[3]“Auxisti numeros, culte Tibulle, pios.”