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Speeches (Lines) for Shakespeare
in "Venus and Adonis"

Total: 201

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# Act, Scene, Line
(Click to see in context)
Speech text

1

I,0,1

'Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi flavus Apollo
Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua.'

2

I,0,3

TO THE
RIGHT HONORABLE HENRY WRIOTHESLY,...

3

I,0,6

RIGHT HONORABLE,
I KNOW not how I shall offend in dedicating my...

4

I,0,19

Your honour's in all duty,
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

5

I,1,27

'Thrice-fairer than myself,' thus she began,
'The field's chief flower, sweet above compare,...

6

I,1,33

'Vouchsafe, thou wonder, to alight thy steed,
And rein his proud head to the saddle-bow;...

7

I,1,39

'And yet not cloy thy lips with loathed satiety,
But rather famish them amid their plenty,...

8

I,1,45

With this she seizeth on his sweating palm,
The precedent of pith and livelihood,...

9

I,1,51

Over one arm the lusty courser's rein,
Under her other was the tender boy,...

10

I,1,57

The studded bridle on a ragged bough
Nimbly she fastens:—O, how quick is love!—...

11

I,1,63

So soon was she along as he was down,
Each leaning on their elbows and their hips:...

12

I,1,69

He burns with bashful shame: she with her tears
Doth quench the maiden burning of his cheeks;...

13

I,1,75

Even as an empty eagle, sharp by fast,
Tires with her beak on feathers, flesh and bone,...

14

I,1,81

Forced to content, but never to obey,
Panting he lies and breatheth in her face;...

15

I,1,87

Look, how a bird lies tangled in a net,
So fasten'd in her arms Adonis lies;...

16

I,1,93

Still she entreats, and prettily entreats,
For to a pretty ear she tunes her tale;...

17

I,1,99

Look how he can, she cannot choose but love;
And by her fair immortal hand she swears,...

18

I,1,105

Upon this promise did he raise his chin,
Like a dive-dapper peering through a wave,...

19

I,1,111

Never did passenger in summer's heat
More thirst for drink than she for this good turn....

20

I,1,117

'I have been woo'd, as I entreat thee now,
Even by the stern and direful god of war,...

21

I,1,123

'Over my altars hath he hung his lance,
His batter'd shield, his uncontrolled crest,...

22

I,1,129

'Thus he that overruled I oversway'd,
Leading him prisoner in a red-rose chain:...

23

I,1,135

'Touch but my lips with those fair lips of thine,—
Though mine be not so fair, yet are they red—...

24

I,1,147

'The tender spring upon thy tempting lip
Shows thee unripe; yet mayst thou well be tasted:...

25

I,1,153

'Were I hard-favour'd, foul, or wrinkled-old,
Ill-nurtured, crooked, churlish, harsh in voice,...

26

I,1,159

'Thou canst not see one wrinkle in my brow;
Mine eyes are gray and bright and quick in turning:...

27

I,1,165

'Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear,
Or, like a fairy, trip upon the green,...

28

I,1,171

'Witness this primrose bank whereon I lie;
These forceless flowers like sturdy trees support me;...

29

I,1,177

'Is thine own heart to thine own face affected?
Can thy right hand seize love upon thy left?...

30

I,1,183

'Torches are made to light, jewels to wear,
Dainties to taste, fresh beauty for the use,...

31

I,1,189

'Upon the earth's increase why shouldst thou feed,
Unless the earth with thy increase be fed?...

32

I,1,195

By this the love-sick queen began to sweat,
For where they lay the shadow had forsook them,...

33

I,1,201

And now Adonis, with a lazy spright,
And with a heavy, dark, disliking eye,...

34

I,1,207

'Ay me,' quoth Venus, 'young, and so unkind?
What bare excuses makest thou to be gone!...

35

I,1,213

'The sun that shines from heaven shines but warm,
And, lo, I lie between that sun and thee:...

36

I,1,219

'Art thou obdurate, flinty, hard as steel,
Nay, more than flint, for stone at rain relenteth?...

37

I,1,225

'What am I, that thou shouldst contemn me this?
Or what great danger dwells upon my suit?...

38

I,1,231

'Fie, lifeless picture, cold and senseless stone,
Well-painted idol, image dun and dead,...

39

I,1,237

This said, impatience chokes her pleading tongue,
And swelling passion doth provoke a pause;...

40

I,1,243

Sometimes she shakes her head and then his hand,
Now gazeth she on him, now on the ground;...

41

I,1,249

'Fondling,' she saith, 'since I have hemm'd thee here
Within the circuit of this ivory pale,...

42

I,1,255

Within this limit is relief enough,
Sweet bottom-grass and high delightful plain,...

43

I,1,261

At this Adonis smiles as in disdain,
That in each cheek appears a pretty dimple:...

44

I,1,267

These lovely caves, these round enchanting pits,
Open'd their mouths to swallow Venus' liking....

45

I,1,273

Now which way shall she turn? what shall she say?
Her words are done, her woes are more increasing;...

46

I,1,279

But, lo, from forth a copse that neighbors by,
A breeding jennet, lusty, young and proud,...

47

I,1,285

Imperiously he leaps, he neighs, he bounds,
And now his woven girths he breaks asunder;...

48

I,1,291

His ears up-prick'd; his braided hanging mane
Upon his compass'd crest now stand on end;...

49

I,1,297

Sometime he trots, as if he told the steps,
With gentle majesty and modest pride;...

50

I,1,303

What recketh he his rider's angry stir,
His flattering 'Holla,' or his 'Stand, I say'?...

51

I,1,309

Look, when a painter would surpass the life,
In limning out a well-proportion'd steed,...

52

I,1,315

Round-hoof'd, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long,
Broad breast, full eye, small head and nostril wide,...

53

I,1,321

Sometime he scuds far off and there he stares;
Anon he starts at stirring of a feather;...

54

I,1,327

He looks upon his love and neighs unto her;
She answers him as if she knew his mind:...

55

I,1,333

Then, like a melancholy malcontent,
He veils his tail that, like a falling plume,...

56

I,1,339

His testy master goeth about to take him;
When, lo, the unback'd breeder, full of fear,...

57

I,1,345

All swoln with chafing, down Adonis sits,
Banning his boisterous and unruly beast:...

58

I,1,351

An oven that is stopp'd, or river stay'd,
Burneth more hotly, swelleth with more rage:...

59

I,1,357

He sees her coming, and begins to glow,
Even as a dying coal revives with wind,...

60

I,1,363

O, what a sight it was, wistly to view
How she came stealing to the wayward boy!...

61

I,1,369

Now was she just before him as he sat,
And like a lowly lover down she kneels;...

62

I,1,375

O, what a war of looks was then between them!
Her eyes petitioners to his eyes suing;...

63

I,1,381

Full gently now she takes him by the hand,
A lily prison'd in a gaol of snow,...

64

I,1,387

Once more the engine of her thoughts began:
'O fairest mover on this mortal round,...

65

I,1,393

'Give me my hand,' saith he, 'why dost thou feel it?'
'Give me my heart,' saith she, 'and thou shalt have it:...

66

I,1,399

'For shame,' he cries, 'let go, and let me go;
My day's delight is past, my horse is gone,...

67

I,1,405

Thus she replies: 'Thy palfrey, as he should,
Welcomes the warm approach of sweet desire:...

68

I,1,411

'How like a jade he stood, tied to the tree,
Servilely master'd with a leathern rein!...

69

I,1,417

'Who sees his true-love in her naked bed,
Teaching the sheets a whiter hue than white,...

70

I,1,423

'Let me excuse thy courser, gentle boy;
And learn of him, I heartily beseech thee,...

71

I,1,429

I know not love,' quoth he, 'nor will not know it,
Unless it be a boar, and then I chase it;...

72

I,1,435

'Who wears a garment shapeless and unfinish'd?
Who plucks the bud before one leaf put forth?...

73

I,1,441

'You hurt my hand with wringing; let us part,
And leave this idle theme, this bootless chat:...

74

I,1,447

'What! canst thou talk?' quoth she, 'hast thou a tongue?
O, would thou hadst not, or I had no hearing!...

75

I,1,453

'Had I no eyes but ears, my ears would love
That inward beauty and invisible;...

76

I,1,459

'Say, that the sense of feeling were bereft me,
And that I could not see, nor hear, nor touch,...

77

I,1,466

'But, O, what banquet wert thou to the taste,
Being nurse and feeder of the other four!...

78

I,1,472

Once more the ruby-colour'd portal open'd,
Which to his speech did honey passage yield;...

79

I,1,478

This ill presage advisedly she marketh:
Even as the wind is hush'd before it raineth,...

80

I,1,484

And at his look she flatly falleth down,
For looks kill love and love by looks reviveth;...

81

I,1,490

And all amazed brake off his late intent,
For sharply he did think to reprehend her,...

82

I,1,496

He wrings her nose, he strikes her on the cheeks,
He bends her fingers, holds her pulses hard,...

83

I,1,502

The night of sorrow now is turn'd to day:
Her two blue windows faintly she up-heaveth,...

84

I,1,508

Whose beams upon his hairless face are fix'd,
As if from thence they borrow'd all their shine....

85

I,1,514

'O, where am I?' quoth she, 'in earth or heaven,
Or in the ocean drench'd, or in the fire?...

86

I,1,520

'O, thou didst kill me: kill me once again:
Thy eyes' shrewd tutor, that hard heart of thine,...

87

I,1,526

'Long may they kiss each other, for this cure!
O, never let their crimson liveries wear!...

88

I,1,532

'Pure lips, sweet seals in my soft lips imprinted,
What bargains may I make, still to be sealing?...

89

I,1,538

'A thousand kisses buys my heart from me;
And pay them at thy leisure, one by one....

90

I,1,544

'Fair queen,' quoth he, 'if any love you owe me,
Measure my strangeness with my unripe years:...

91

I,1,550

'Look, the world's comforter, with weary gait,
His day's hot task hath ended in the west;...

92

I,1,556

'Now let me say 'Good night,' and so say you;
If you will say so, you shall have a kiss.'...

93

I,1,562

Till, breathless, he disjoin'd, and backward drew
The heavenly moisture, that sweet coral mouth,...

94

I,1,568

Now quick desire hath caught the yielding prey,
And glutton-like she feeds, yet never filleth;...

95

I,1,574

And having felt the sweetness of the spoil,
With blindfold fury she begins to forage;...

96

I,1,580

Hot, faint, and weary, with her hard embracing,
Like a wild bird being tamed with too much handling,...

97

I,1,586

What wax so frozen but dissolves with tempering,
And yields at last to every light impression?...

98

I,1,592

When he did frown, O, had she then gave over,
Such nectar from his lips she had not suck'd....

99

I,1,598

For pity now she can no more detain him;
The poor fool prays her that he may depart:...

100

I,1,604

'Sweet boy,' she says, 'this night I'll waste in sorrow,
For my sick heart commands mine eyes to watch....

101

I,1,610

'The boar!' quoth she; whereat a sudden pale,
Like lawn being spread upon the blushing rose,...

102

I,1,616

Now is she in the very lists of love,
Her champion mounted for the hot encounter:...

103

I,1,622

Even as poor birds, deceived with painted grapes,
Do surfeit by the eye and pine the maw,...

104

I,1,628

But all in vain; good queen, it will not be:
She hath assay'd as much as may be proved;...

105

I,1,634

'Thou hadst been gone,' quoth she, 'sweet boy, ere this,
But that thou told'st me thou wouldst hunt the boar....

106

I,1,640

'On his bow-back he hath a battle set
Of bristly pikes, that ever threat his foes;...

107

I,1,646

'His brawny sides, with hairy bristles arm'd,
Are better proof than thy spear's point can enter;...

108

I,1,652

'Alas, he nought esteems that face of thine,
To which Love's eyes pay tributary gazes;...

109

I,1,658

'O, let him keep his loathsome cabin still;
Beauty hath nought to do with such foul fiends:...

110

I,1,664

'Didst thou not mark my face? was it not white?
Saw'st thou not signs of fear lurk in mine eye?...

111

I,1,670

'For where Love reigns, disturbing Jealousy
Doth call himself Affection's sentinel;...

112

I,1,676

'This sour informer, this bate-breeding spy,
This canker that eats up Love's tender spring,...

113

I,1,682

'And more than so, presenteth to mine eye
The picture of an angry-chafing boar,...

114

I,1,688

'What should I do, seeing thee so indeed,
That tremble at the imagination?...

115

I,1,694

'But if thou needs wilt hunt, be ruled by me;
Uncouple at the timorous flying hare,...

116

I,1,701

'And when thou hast on foot the purblind hare,
Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles...

117

I,1,707

'Sometime he runs among a flock of sheep,
To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell,...

118

I,1,713

'For there his smell with others being mingled,
The hot scent-snuffing hounds are driven to doubt,...

119

I,1,719

'By this, poor Wat, far off upon a hill,
Stands on his hinder legs with listening ear,...

120

I,1,725

'Then shalt thou see the dew-bedabbled wretch
Turn, and return, indenting with the way;...

121

I,1,731

'Lie quietly, and hear a little more;
Nay, do not struggle, for thou shalt not rise:...

122

I,1,737

'Where did I leave?' 'No matter where,' quoth he,
'Leave me, and then the story aptly ends:...

123

I,1,743

'But if thou fall, O, then imagine this,
The earth, in love with thee, thy footing trips,...

124

I,1,749

'Now of this dark night I perceive the reason:
Cynthia for shame obscures her silver shine,...

125

I,1,755

'And therefore hath she bribed the Destinies
To cross the curious workmanship of nature,...

126

I,1,761

'As burning fevers, agues pale and faint,
Life-poisoning pestilence and frenzies wood,...

127

I,1,767

'And not the least of all these maladies
But in one minute's fight brings beauty under:...

128

I,1,773

'Therefore, despite of fruitless chastity,
Love-lacking vestals and self-loving nuns,...

129

I,1,779

'What is thy body but a swallowing grave,
Seeming to bury that posterity...

130

I,1,785

'So in thyself thyself art made away;
A mischief worse than civil home-bred strife,...

131

I,1,791

'Nay, then,' quoth Adon, 'you will fall again
Into your idle over-handled theme:...

132

I,1,797

'If love have lent you twenty thousand tongues,
And every tongue more moving than your own,...

133

I,1,803

'Lest the deceiving harmony should run
Into the quiet closure of my breast;...

134

I,1,809

'What have you urged that I cannot reprove?
The path is smooth that leadeth on to danger:...

135

I,1,815

'Call it not love, for Love to heaven is fled,
Since sweating Lust on earth usurp'd his name;...

136

I,1,821

'Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,
But Lust's effect is tempest after sun;...

137

I,1,827

'More I could tell, but more I dare not say;
The text is old, the orator too green....

138

I,1,833

With this, he breaketh from the sweet embrace,
Of those fair arms which bound him to her breast,...

139

I,1,839

Which after him she darts, as one on shore
Gazing upon a late-embarked friend,...

140

I,1,845

Whereat amazed, as one that unaware
Hath dropp'd a precious jewel in the flood,...

141

I,1,851

And now she beats her heart, whereat it groans,
That all the neighbour caves, as seeming troubled,...

142

I,1,857

She marking them begins a wailing note
And sings extemporally a woeful ditty;...

143

I,1,863

Her song was tedious and outwore the night,
For lovers' hours are long, though seeming short:...

144

I,1,869

For who hath she to spend the night withal
But idle sounds resembling parasites,...

145

I,1,875

Lo, here the gentle lark, weary of rest,
From his moist cabinet mounts up on high,...

146

I,1,881

Venus salutes him with this fair good-morrow:
'O thou clear god, and patron of all light,...

147

I,1,887

This said, she hasteth to a myrtle grove,
Musing the morning is so much o'erworn,...

148

I,1,893

And as she runs, the bushes in the way
Some catch her by the neck, some kiss her face,...

149

I,1,899

By this, she hears the hounds are at a bay;
Whereat she starts, like one that spies an adder...

150

I,1,905

For now she knows it is no gentle chase,
But the blunt boar, rough bear, or lion proud,...

151

I,1,911

This dismal cry rings sadly in her ear,
Through which it enters to surprise her heart;...

152

I,1,917

Thus stands she in a trembling ecstasy;
Till, cheering up her senses all dismay'd,...

153

I,1,923

Whose frothy mouth, bepainted all with red,
Like milk and blood being mingled both together,...

154

I,1,929

A thousand spleens bear her a thousand ways;
She treads the path that she untreads again;...

155

I,1,935

Here kennell'd in a brake she finds a hound,
And asks the weary caitiff for his master,...

156

I,1,941

When he hath ceased his ill-resounding noise,
Another flap-mouth'd mourner, black and grim,...

157

I,1,947

Look, how the world's poor people are amazed
At apparitions, signs and prodigies,...

158

I,1,953

'Hard-favour'd tyrant, ugly, meagre, lean,
Hateful divorce of love,'—thus chides she Death,—...

159

I,1,959

'If he be dead,—O no, it cannot be,
Seeing his beauty, thou shouldst strike at it:—...

160

I,1,965

'Hadst thou but bid beware, then he had spoke,
And, hearing him, thy power had lost his power....

161

I,1,971

'Dost thou drink tears, that thou provokest such weeping?
What may a heavy groan advantage thee?...

162

I,1,977

Here overcome, as one full of despair,
She vail'd her eyelids, who, like sluices, stopt...

163

I,1,983

O, how her eyes and tears did lend and borrow!
Her eyes seen in the tears, tears in her eye;...

164

I,1,989

Variable passions throng her constant woe,
As striving who should best become her grief;...

165

I,1,995

By this, far off she hears some huntsman hollo;
A nurse's song ne'er pleased her babe so well:...

166

I,1,1001

Whereat her tears began to turn their tide,
Being prison'd in her eye like pearls in glass;...

167

I,1,1007

O hard-believing love, how strange it seems
Not to believe, and yet too credulous!...

168

I,1,1013

Now she unweaves the web that she hath wrought;
Adonis lives, and Death is not to blame;...

169

I,1,1019

'No, no,' quoth she, 'sweet Death, I did but jest;
Yet pardon me I felt a kind of fear...

170

I,1,1025

'Tis not my fault: the boar provoked my tongue;
Be wreak'd on him, invisible commander;...

171

I,1,1031

Thus hoping that Adonis is alive,
Her rash suspect she doth extenuate;...

172

I,1,1037

'O Jove,' quoth she, 'how much a fool was I
To be of such a weak and silly mind...

173

I,1,1043

'Fie, fie, fond love, thou art so full of fear
As one with treasure laden, hemm'd thieves;...

174

I,1,1049

As falcon to the lure, away she flies;
The grass stoops not, she treads on it so light;...

175

I,1,1055

Or, as the snail, whose tender horns being hit,
Shrinks backward in his shelly cave with pain,...

176

I,1,1061

Where they resign their office and their light
To the disposing of her troubled brain;...

177

I,1,1067

Whereat each tributary subject quakes;
As when the wind, imprison'd in the ground,...

178

I,1,1073

And, being open'd, threw unwilling light
Upon the wide wound that the boar had trench'd...

179

I,1,1079

This solemn sympathy poor Venus noteth;
Over one shoulder doth she hang her head;...

180

I,1,1085

Upon his hurt she looks so steadfastly,
That her sight dazzling makes the wound seem three;...

181

I,1,1091

'My tongue cannot express my grief for one,
And yet,' quoth she, 'behold two Adons dead!...

182

I,1,1097

'Alas, poor world, what treasure hast thou lost!
What face remains alive that's worth the viewing?...

183

I,1,1103

'Bonnet nor veil henceforth no creature wear!
Nor sun nor wind will ever strive to kiss you:...

184

I,1,1109

'And therefore would he put his bonnet on,
Under whose brim the gaudy sun would peep;...

185

I,1,1115

'To see his face the lion walk'd along
Behind some hedge, because he would not fear him;...

186

I,1,1121

'When he beheld his shadow in the brook,
The fishes spread on it their golden gills;...

187

I,1,1127

'But this foul, grim, and urchin-snouted boar,
Whose downward eye still looketh for a grave,...

188

I,1,1133

'Tis true, 'tis true; thus was Adonis slain:
He ran upon the boar with his sharp spear,...

189

I,1,1139

'Had I been tooth'd like him, I must confess,
With kissing him I should have kill'd him first;...

190

I,1,1145

She looks upon his lips, and they are pale;
She takes him by the hand, and that is cold;...

191

I,1,1151

Two glasses, where herself herself beheld
A thousand times, and now no more reflect;...

192

I,1,1157

'Since thou art dead, lo, here I prophesy:
Sorrow on love hereafter shall attend:...

193

I,1,1163

'It shall be fickle, false and full of fraud,
Bud and be blasted in a breathing-while;...

194

I,1,1169

'It shall be sparing and too full of riot,
Teaching decrepit age to tread the measures;...

195

I,1,1175

'It shall suspect where is no cause of fear;
It shall not fear where it should most mistrust;...

196

I,1,1181

'It shall be cause of war and dire events,
And set dissension 'twixt the son and sire;...

197

I,1,1187

By this, the boy that by her side lay kill'd
Was melted like a vapour from her sight,...

198

I,1,1193

She bows her head, the new-sprung flower to smell,
Comparing it to her Adonis' breath,...

199

I,1,1199

'Poor flower,' quoth she, 'this was thy fathers guise—
Sweet issue of a more sweet-smelling sire—...

200

I,1,1205

'Here was thy father's bed, here in my breast;
Thou art the next of blood, and 'tis thy right:...

201

I,1,1211

Thus weary of the world, away she hies,
And yokes her silver doves; by whose swift aid...

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