“But love, first learnèd in a lady's eyes,
Lives not alone immurèd in the brain,
But, with the motion of all elements,
Courses as swift as thought in every power,
And gives to every power a double power,
Above their functions and their offices.
It adds a precious seeing to the eye;
A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind;
A lover's ears will hear the lowest sound,
When the suspicious head of theft is stopped:
Love's feeling is more soft and sensible
Than are the tender horns of cockled snails:
Love's tongue proves dainty Baccus gross in taste.
For valour, is not love a Hercules,
Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?
Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical
As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair;
And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.
Never durst poet touch a pen to write
Until his ink were tempered with Love's sighs.”
The Arkangel production from 1998. The word games and love games of the 'Court of Love'. When the play was written (c.1593) early modern sophisticates were just beginning to tire of the ritual. Kindly seed.
William Shakespeare - 38 - Loves Labours Lost - bbc 1979
(I have just finished reconstructing 'Current Poetry Torrents'. It should now be significantly more useful. My own seeding tends to be fitful. But keep trying as eventually you will get a seed. And many thanks to the seeders)
