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IN AFRUM. XL. - 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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IN AFRUM. XL.

  • The smell-feast1 Afer travels to the Burse
  • Twice every day, the flying news to hear;
  • Which, when he hath no money in his purse,
  • To rich men's tables he doth ever2 bear.
  • He tells how Groni[n]gen3 is taken in4
  • By the brave conduct of illustrious Vere,
  • And how the Spanish forces Brest would win,
  • But that they do victorious Norris5 fear.
  • No sooner is a ship at sea surpris'd,
  • But straight he learns the news, and doth disclose it;

    10

  • No1 sooner hath the Turk a plot devis'd
  • To conquer Christendom, but straight he knows it.
  • Fair-written in a scroll he hath the names
  • Of all the widows which the plague hath made;
  • And persons, times, and places, still he frames
  • To every tale, the better to persuade.
  • We call him Fame, for that the wide-mouth slave
  • Will eat as fast as he will utter lies;
  • For fame is said an hundred mouths to have,
  • And he eats more than would five-score suffice.

    20

[1]This word is found in Chapman, Harington, and others.

[2]So MS.—Old eds. “often.”

[3]Groningen was taken by Maurice of Nassau. Vere was present at the siege.

[4]The expression “take in” (in the sense of “conquer, capture”) is very common.

[5]An English expedition, under Sir John Norris, was sent to Brittany in 1594

[1]This line and the next are found only in Isham copy and MS.