William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.
Orpheus I Am, Come from the Deeps belowJohn Fletcher (15791625)
From “The Mad Lover,” Act IV. Scene 1
O
To thee, fond man, the plagues of love to show,
To the fair fields where loves eternal dwell
There’s none that come, but first they pass through hell:
Hark, and beware! unless thou hast loved, ever
Beloved again, thou shalt see those joys never.
Oh, take heed, then!
Hark how they howl for over-daring!
All these were men.
They lose their name;
And they that bleed,
Hark how they speed!
They sit, and curse their lost desires;
Nor shall these souls be free from pains and fears,
Till women waft them over in their tears.