From The Devil's Law-case ("All the flowers of the spring")
From The Devil's Law-case ("All the flowers of the spring")
Original Text
The Devil’s Law-case (London: Printed by A.M. for John Grismand, 1623) sig. Lv / STC (2nd ed.) 25173
2Meet to perfume our burying;
3These have but their growing prime,
4And man does flourish but his time.
5Survey our progress from our birth:
6We are set, we grow, we turn to earth.
7Courts adieu, and all delights,
8All bewitching appetites.
9Sweetest breath and clearest eye
10Like perfumes go out and die,
11And consequently this is done
12As shadows wait upon the sun.
13Vain the ambition of kings
14Who seek, by trophies and dead things,
15To leave a living name behind,
16And weave but nets to catch the wind.
Notes
1] Romelio’s dirge, delivered in the play’s final scene, is accompanied by soft music and spoken before coffins and winding sheets strewn with flowers. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1623
RPO poem Editors
Christopher Matusiak
RPO Edition
2011
Form