The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Volume 20

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 Excerpt: ...piteous clamours in her head, Cooling his hot face in the chastest tears That ever modest eyes with sorrow shed. O, that prone lust should stain so pure a bed! 677-679 The wolf... sweet fold Shakespeare here seems to follow Ovid's Fasti, II, 799-800: "Sed tremit, ut quondam stabulis deprensa relictis Parva sub infesto cum jacet agna lupo." The word "fold" may be a reminiscence of Ovid's "stabulis." Chaucer in his Legend of Good Women, lines 1798-1799, strips the simile of all detail "as a wolfe that fynt a lambe alone." 684 prone headstrong, forward. The spots whereof could weeping purify, Her tears should drop on them perpetually. But she hath lost a dearer thing than life, And he hath won what he would lose again: This forced league doth force a further strife; This momentary joy breeds months of pain; «w This hot desire converts to cold disdain: Pure Chastity is rifled of her store, And Lust, the thief, far poorer than before. Look, as the full-fed hound or gorged hawk, Unapt for tender smell or speedy flight, Make slow pursuit, or altogether balk The prey wherein by nature they delight, So surfeit-taking Tarquin fares this night: His taste delicious, in digestion souring, Devours his will, that lived by foul devouring. 700 O, deeper sin than bottomless conceit Can comprehend in still imagination! Drunken Desire must vomit his receipt, 688 he hath won what he would lose again Cf. Ovid's Fasti, II, 811: "Quid, victor, gaudes? haec te victoria perdet." 691 This hot desire... cold disdain Cf. Sonnet cxxix, 2-5: "lust in action... Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight." For the intransitive use of "convert" cf. line 592. 696 balk miss or turn from. 701 conceit fancy, thought. 703 hi...