The Shadow Of Night

Hymnus in Noctem

Original Text

George Chapman. The Shadow of Night. London: R. F[ield]. for W. Ponsonby, 1594. STC 4990.

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255 Fall, Hercules, from heaven, in tempests hurl'd,

256And cleanse this beastly stable of the world;

257Or bend thy brazen bow against the Sun,

258As in Tartessus, when thou hadst begun

259Thy task of oxen: heat in more extremes

260Than thou wouldst suffer, with his envious beams.

261Now make him leave the world to Night and dreams.

262Never were virtue's labours so envied

263As in this light: shoot, shoot, and stoop his pride.

264Suffer no more his lustful rays to get

265The Earth with issue: let him still be set

266In Somnus' thickets: bound about the brows,

267With pitchy vapours, and with ebon boughs.

268 Rich taper'd sanctuary of the blest,

269Palace of Ruth, made all of tears, and rest,

270To thy black shades and desolat{.i}on

271I consecrate my life; and living moan,

272Where furies shall for ever fighting be,

273And adders hiss the world for hating me;

274Foxes shall bark, and night ravens belch in groans,

275And owls shall hollo my confus{.i}ons

276There will I furnish up my funeral bed,

277Strew'd with the bones and relics of the dead.

278Atlas shall let th' Olympic burthen fall,

279To cover my untombed face withal.

280And when as well, the matter of our kind,

281As the material substance of the mind,

282Shall cease their revolutions, in abode

283Of such impure and ugly period,

284As the old essence, and insensive prime:

285Then shall the ruins of the fourfold time,

286Turn'd to that lump (as rapting torrents rise),

287For ever murmur forth my miseries.

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Publication Start Year

1594

RPO poem Editors

N. J. Endicott

RPO Edition

2RP.1.213.