A Lover's Complaint and

The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

 

I definitely prefer the Bard's plays over his sonnets and poems, but I am devoted to this year long project, so I ventured on to meet the Lover and the Pilgrim.

A Lover's Complaint is a fairly short narrative poem about a young woman lamenting that she was seduced and then abandoned by a lover, yet if he returned with his charms she would fall for him again.

Play or poem, I still do fall for the language charms of 'ole Will:

"Some beauty peeped through lattice of seared age."

"And comely-distant sits he by her side." (Ah, social distancing of the 1600's)

"Loved lacked a dwelling and made him her place

And when in his fair parts she did abide,

She was new lodged and newly deified."

"O, that infected moisture of his eye,

O, that false fire which in his cheek so glowed,

O, that forced thunder from his heart did fly,

O, that sad breath his spongy, lungs bestowed,

O' all that borrowed motion seeming owed,

Would yet again betray the fore-betrayed

And new pervert a reconciled maid."

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The Passionate Pilgrim is a series of poems, similar to the sonnets (only 20 this time) though they were not all authored by Shakespeare.

One in particular appears here in a brief form but has been attributed and published separately by Christopher Marlowe

#19

"Live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove."

A common theme in Shakespeare's plays appears here - lies and love.

#1

"When my love swears that she is made of truth,

I do believe her, though I know she lies,

***

Therefore I'll lie with love and love with me,

Since that our faults in love thus smothered be."

And why is the bad angel the woman??

#2

"My better angel is a man right fair,

My worser spirit a woman coloured ill,

To win me soon to hell, my female evil

Tempteth my better angel from my side."

And yet again a disappointing lover (though this may not be the Bard's work)

#7

"Fair is my love but not so fair as fickle,

Mild as a dove, but neither true nor trusty.

Brighter than glass and yet as glass is brittle,

Softer than wax and yet as iron rusty:

***

She burnt with love as straw with fire flameth,

She burnt out love as soon as straw out-burneth:

She framed the love and yet she foiled the framing,

She bade love last and yet she fell a-turning,

Was this a lover or a lecher, whether

Bad in the best, though excellent in neither."

Lamenting youth (again, unknown if Will's work)

#12

"Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather,

Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare.

Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short,

Youth is nimble, age is lame;

Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold,

Youth is wild and age is tame."

Beauty is fleeting (Will? Who knows?)

#13

"Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good,

A shining glass that fadeth suddenly,

A flower that dies when first it 'gins to bud,

A brittle glass that's broken presently,

A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,

Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour."

#20 is most likely by Richard Barnfield about friendship

"Every one that flatters thee

Is no friend in misery.

Words are easy like the wind,

Faithful friends are hard to find:

Every man will be thy friend

Whilst thou hast wherewith to spend,

***

But if Fortune once do frown,

Then farewell his great renown:

They that fawned on him before

Use his company no more.

He that is thy friend indeed,

He will help thee in thy need:

***

These are certain signs to know

Faithful friend from flatt'ring foe."