第 4 节
作者:淘气      更新:2024-11-30 11:16      字数:9322
  And pay them at thy leisure; one by one。
  What is ten hundred touches unto thee?
  Are they not quickly told and quickly gone?
  Say for non…payment that the debt should double;
  Is twenty hundred kisses such a trouble?'
  'Fair queen;' quoth he; 'if any love you owe me;
  Measure my strangeness with my unripe years;
  Before I know myself; seek not to know me;
  No fisher but the ungrown fry forbears。
  The mellow plum doth fall; the green sticks fast;
  Or being early plucked is sour to taste。
  'Look; the world's comforter; with weary gait;
  His day's hot task hath ended in the west;
  The owl; night's herald; shrieks 'tis very late;
  The sheep are gone to fold; birds to their nest;
  And coal…black clouds that shadow heaven's light
  Do summon us to part; and bid good night。
  'Now let me say 〃Good night〃; and so say you;
  If you will say so; you shall have a kiss。'
  'Good night'; quoth she; and; ere he says 'Adieu';
  The honey fee of parting tend'red is:
  Her arms do lend his neck a sweet embrace;
  Incorporate then they seem; face grows to face。
  Till breathless he disjoined; and backward drew
  The heavenly moisture; that sweet coral mouth;
  Whose precious taste her thirsty lips well knew;
  Whereon they surfeit; yet complain on drouth。
  He with her plenty pressed; she faint with dearth;
  Their lips together glued; fall to the earth。
  Now quick desire hath caught the yielding prey;
  And glutton…like she feeds; yet never filleth;
  Her lips are conquerors; his lips obey;
  Paying what ransom the insulter willeth;
  Whose vulture thought doth pitch the price so high
  That she will draw his lips' rich treasure dry。
  And having felt the sweetness of the spoil;
  With blindfold fury she begins to forage;
  Her face doth reek and smoke; her blood doth boil;
  And careless lust stirs up a desperate courage。
  Planting oblivion; beating reason back;
  Forgetting shame's pure blush and honour's wrack。
  Hot; faint and weary; with her; hard embracing;
  Like a wild bird being tamed with too much handling;
  Or as the fleet…foot roe that's tired with chasing;
  Or like the froward infant stilled with dandling;
  He now obeys and now no more resisteth;
  While she takes all she can; not all she listeth。
  What wax so frozen but dissolves with temp'ring;
  And yields at last to every light impression?
  Things out of hope are compass'd oft with vent'ring;
  Chiefly in love; whose leave exceeds commission:
  Affection faints not like a pale…face coward;
  But then woos best when most his choice is froward。
  When he did frown; O; had she then gave over;
  Such nectar from his lips she had not sucked。
  Foul words and frowns must not repel a lover;
  What though the rose have prickles; yet 'tis plucked。
  Were beauty under twenty locks kept fast;
  Yet love breaks through; and picks them all at last。
  For pity now she can no more detain him;
  The poor fool prays her that he may depart。
  She is resolved no longer to restrain him;
  Bids him farewell; and look well to her heart;
  The which by Cupid's bow she doth protest
  He carries thence incaged in his breast。
  'Sweet boy;' she says; 'this night I'll waste in sorrow;
  For my sick heart commands mine eyes to watch。
  Tell me; love's master; shall we meet to…morrow?
  Say; shall we? shall we? wilt thou make the match?'
  He tells her; no; to…morrow he intends
  To hunt the boar with certain of his friends。
  'The boar!' quoth she: whereat a sudden pale;
  Like lawn being spread upon the blushing rose;
  Usurps her cheek; she trembles at his tale;
  And on his neck her yoking arms she throws。
  She sinketh down; still hanging by his neck;
  He on her belly falls; she on her back。
  Now is she in the very lists of love;
  Her champion mounted for the hot encounter。
  All is imaginary she doth prove;
  He will not manage her; although he mount her;
  That worse than Tantalus' is her annoy;
  To clip Elysium and to lack her joy。
  Even so poor birds; deceived with painted grapes;
  Do surfeit by the eye and pine the maw;
  Even so she languisheth in her mishaps
  As those poor birds that helpless berries saw。
  The warm effects which she in him finds missing
  She seeks to kindly with continual kissing。
  But all in vain; good queen; it will not be。
  She hath assayed as much as may be proved;
  Her pleading hath deserved a greater fee;
  She's Love; she loves; and yet she is not loved。
  'Fie; fie;' he says; 'you crush me; let me go;
  You have no reason to withhold me so。'
  'Thou hadst been gone;' quoth she; 'sweet boy; ere this;
  But that thou told'st me thou wouldst hunt the boar。
  O; be advised: thou know'st not what it is
  With javelin's point a churlish swine to gore;
  Whose tushes never sheathed he whetteth still;
  Like to a mortal butcher bent to kill。
  'On his bow…back he hath a battle set
  Of bristly pikes that ever threat his foes;
  His eyes like glow…worms shine when he doth fret;
  His snout digs sepulchres where'er he goes;
  Being moved; he strikes whate'er is in his way;
  And whom he strikes his crooked tushes slay。
  'His brawny sides; with hairy bristles armed;
  Are better proof than thy spear's point can enter;
  His short thick neck cannot be easily harmed;
  Being ireful; on the lion he will venter:
  The thorny brambles and embracing bushes;
  As fearful of him; part; through whom he rushes。
  'Alas; he nought esteems that face of thine;
  To which Love's eyes pays tributary gazes;
  Nor thy soft hands; sweet lips; and crystal eyne;
  Whose full perfection all the world amazes;
  But having thee at vantage… wondrous dread!…
  Would root these beauties as he roots the mead。
  'O; let him keep his loathsome cabin still;
  Beauty hath nought to do with such foul fiends。
  Come not within his danger by thy will;
  They that thrive well take counsel of their friends。
  When thou didst name the boar; not to dissemble;
  I feared thy fortune; and my joints did tremble。
  'Didst thou not mark my face? was it not white?
  Saws't thou not signs of fear lurk in mine eye?
  Grew I not faint? and fell I not downright?
  Within my bosom; whereon thou dost lie;
  My boding heart pants; beats; and takes no rest;
  But; like an earthquake; shakes thee on my breast。
  'For where Love reigns; disturbing Jealousy
  Doth call himself Affection's sentinel;
  Gives false alarms; suggesteth mutiny;
  And in a peaceful hour doth cry 〃Kill; kill!〃
  Distemp'ring gentle Love in his desire;
  As air and water do abate the fire。
  'This sour informer; this bate…breeding spy;
  This canker that eats up Love's tender spring;
  This carry…tale; dissentious Jealousy;
  That sometime true news; sometime false doth bring;
  Knocks at my heart; and whispers in mine ear
  That if I love thee I thy death should fear;
  'And more than so; presenteth to mine eye
  The picture of an angry chafing boar
  Under whose sharp fangs on his back doth lie
  An image like thyself; all stained with gore;
  Whose blood upon the fresh flowers being shed
  Doth make them droop with grief and hang the head。
  'What should I do; seeing thee so indeed;
  That tremble at th'imagination?
  The thought of it doth make my faint heart bleed;
  And fear doth teach it divination:
  I prophesy thy death; my living sorrow;
  If thou encounter with the boar to…morrow。
  'But if thou needs wilt hunt; be ruled by me;
  Uncouple at the timorous flying hare;
  Or at the fox which lives by subtlety;
  Or at the roe which no encounter dare。
  Pursue these fearful creatures o'er the downs;
  And on thy well…breathed horse keep with thy hounds。
  'And when thou hast on foot the purblind hare;
  Mark the poor wretch; to overshoot his troubles;
  How he outruns the wind; and with what care
  He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles。
  The many musits through the which he goes
  Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes。
  'Sometime he runs among a flock of sheep;
  To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell;
  And sometime where earth…delving conies keep;
  To stop the loud pursuers in their yell;
  And sometime sorteth with a herd of deer。
  Danger deviseth shifts; wit waits on fear。
  'For there his smell with others being mingled;
  The hot scent…snuffing hounds are driven to doubt;
  Ceasing their clamorous cry till they have singled
  With much ado the cold fault cleanly out。
  Then do they spend their mouths; Echo replies;
  As if another chase were in the skies。
  'By this; poor Wat; far off upon a hill;
  Stands on his hinder legs with lis