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Salmacis
and Hermaphroditus
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There loue playes liuely, there
the little god
Hath a cleare cristall Palace of
abode.
O barre him not from playing in
thy heart,
That sports himselfe vpon eche
outward part.
Thus much she spake, & then her
tongue was husht.
At her loose speach Hermaphroditus
blusht:
He knew not what loue was, yet
loue did shame him,
Making him blush, and yet his blush
became him:
Then might a man his shamefast
colour see,
Like the ripe apple on the sunny
tree,
Or Iuory dide o're with a pleasing
red,
Or like the pale Moone being shadowed.
By this, the Nymph recouer'd had
her tongue,
That to her thinking lay in silence
long,
And sayd, Thy cheeke is milde,
O be thou so,
Thy cheeke, saith I, then do not
answere no,
Thy cheeke doth shame, then doe
thou shame, she sayd,
It is a mans shame to deny a mayd.
Thou look'st to sport with Venus
in her towre,
And be belou'd of euery heauenly
powre.
Men are but mortals, so are women
too,
Why should your thoughts aspire
more then ours doo?
For sure they doe aspire: Else
could a youth,
Whose count'nance is so full of
spotlesse truth,
Be so relentlesse to a virgins
tongue?
Let me be woo'd by thee but halfe
so long,
With halfe those tearmes doe but
my loue require,
And I will easly graunt thee thy
desire.
Ages are bad, when men become so
slow,
That poore vnskilfull mayds are
forc't to woo. |
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| © Twilight
Pictures,
September
2000. This text is freely available for educational, non-profit uses
only. Please report any errors or suggestions to
Drew Whitehead. |
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