See the Introduction to this presentation of early poems by Edward de Vere. Click here to go to the next poem or the previous poem in the series. All the poems, and a printable pdf version of the entire presentation, may also be accessed from the Introduction. See also Note on Sources, Titles, and Presentation of Parallels, Key to Abbreviations, and Bibliography of Works Cited.
Poem No. 14: “These Beauties Make Me Die”
1 What cunning can express
2 The favour of her face,
3 To whom in this distress
4 I do appeal for grace?
5 A thousand Cupids fly
6 About her gentle eye.
7 From whence each throws a dart,
8 That kindleth soft sweet fire,
9 Within my sighing heart,
10 Possessed by desire;
11 No sweeter life I try,
12 Than in her love to die.
13 The Lily in the field,
14 That glories in his white,
15 For pureness now must yield
16 And render up his right;
17 Heaven pictured in her face
18 Doth promise joy and grace.
19 Fair Cynthia’s silver light,
20 That beats on running streams,
21 Compares not with her white,
22 Whose hairs are all sunbeams;
23 Her virtues so do shine,
24 As day unto mine eyne.
25 With this there is a Red
26 Exceeds the Damask Rose,
27 Which in her cheeks is spread,
28 Whence every favour grows;
29 In sky there is no star
30 That she surmounts not far.
31 When Phoebus from the bed
32 Of Thetis doth arise,
33 The morning, blushing red,
34 In fair carnation wise,
35 He shows it in her face
36 As Queen of every grace.
37 This pleasant Lily white,
38 This taint of roseate red,
39 This Cynthia’s silver light,
40 This sweet fair Dea spread,
41 These sunbeams in mine eye,
42 These beauties make me die.
Textual sources: No. 14 was first published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and is also preserved in Harleian MS 4286 (British Library). See Grosart (417-19) (not in Hannah); Looney (1921, 5-6, Miller ed. 1975, 1: 563-64); May (#14) (1980, 35-37, 78, 120-21; 1991, 280-81).
No. 14’s date of composition is uncertain, but there appears no reason to date it later than the mid-1580s. It could easily have been written well before then. May (1991, 270) commented generally that “[t]here is little reason” to date any of these de Vere poems “later than the 1580s.”
Structure: Seven six-line stanzas in iambic trimeter rhyming ABABCC.
Looney’s title: “What Cunning Can Express”
Past commentaries on parallels: Looney (1920, 141-45); Sobran (254-57, 586-87); May (2004, 224).
Clarifications of the text:
(5) Cupid, in classical mythology, is the god of love and desire.
(19, 39) Cynthia refers to the moon. The name is sometimes used as an epithet for Selene, the Greek goddess of the moon (or her Roman counterpart, Diana).
(24) The phrase mine eyne means my eyes, eyne being an archaic plural form (OED 5: 625).
(31-32) Phoebus (see also Nos. 17.24, 19.8, and 20.4) is an epithet for Apollo (see No. 3.6), Greco-Roman god of the sun. Thetis is a mythological Greek sea-nymph.
(40) Dea is a general Latin term for “goddess.”
Strongest parallels to No. 14:
(21, 23, 25-27) Compares not with her white,
…
Her virtues so do shine
…
With this there is a Red
Exceeds the Damask Rose,
Which in her cheeks is spread
This play of red and white imagery, comparing the blush to a rose (specifically the damask rose), becomes a leitmotif in Shakespeare. See also parallels below to lines 13-14 and to line 33.
See the Introduction (Evaluating the Poetic Parallels) for more discussion of the damask rose references (see also No. 17.5-6).
Compare, e.g., the following lines in Lucrece:
To praise the clear unmatched red and white
Which triumphed in that sky of his delight
(11-12)
When Beauty boasted blushes, in despite
Virtue would stain that o’er with silver white
(55-56)
This heraldry in Lucrece’ face was seen,
Argued by Beauty’s red and Virtue’s white.
Of either’s colour was the other queen
(64-66)
This silent war of lilies and roses
Which Tarquin viewed in her fair face’s field
(71-72)
Her lily hand her rosy cheek lies under
(386)
See also, e.g.: ‘Upon the blushing rose usurps her cheek’ (Venus, 591); ‘The air hath starved the roses in her cheeks’ (Two Gent., 4.4.154); ‘Meantime your cheeks do counterfeit our roses’ (1 Hen. VI, 2.4.62); ‘[Armado:] My love is most immaculate white and red … [Moth:] If she be made of white and red, Her faults will ne’er be known, For blushing cheeks by faults are bred, And fears by pale white shown’ (LLL, 1.2.86, 93-96); ‘The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade’ (R&J, 4.1.99); ‘as those cheek-roses Proclaim you are no less!’ (Meas., 1.4.16); ‘Our veiled dames Commit the war of white and damask in Their nicely gawded cheeks’ (Cor., 2.1.204-06); ‘rosy lips and cheeks’ (Sonnets, 116.9).
On the damask rose, see: ‘as sweet as damask roses’ (Win., 4.4.220); ‘I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks’ (Sonnets, 130.5-6); ‘With cherry lips and cheeks of damask roses’ (Kins., 4.1.74); cf. ‘feed on her damask cheek’ (Twelfth, 2.4.112).
(37-42) This pleasant Lily white,
This taint of roseate red,
This Cynthia’s silver light,
This sweet fair Dea spread,
These sunbeams in mine eye,
These beauties make me die
As noted above, Cynthia refers to the moon and Dea is a general Latin term for “goddess.” Recalling that Thetis (line 32) is a nymph — and noting that the writer of each passage clearly felt that great human beauty is (in modern parlance) “to die for” — compare these lines in Venus and Adonis:
The field’s chief flower, sweet above compare,
Stain to all nymphs, more lovely than a man,
More white and red than doves or roses are;
Nature that made thee with herself at strife
Saith that the world hath ending with thy life.
(8-12)
Additional parallels to No. 14:
(1) What cunning can express
‘My tongue cannot express my grief’ (Venus, 1069); ‘more it is than I can well express’ (Lucrece, 1286).
(5) A thousand Cupids
‘armed with thousand Cupids’ (Kins., 2.2.31).
(8) That kindleth soft sweet fire
‘his love-kindling fire’ (Sonnets, 153.3); ‘the raging fire of fever bred’ (Errors, 5.1.75); ‘Therefore let Benedick, like covered fire, Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly’ (Much, 3.1.78); cf. ‘let virtue be as wax And melt in her own fire’ (Ham., 3.4.85).
According to Eric Sams (297): “Among Tudor dramatists, it is [Shakespeare] who notices how fire behaves and converts that knowledge into proverbs and sayings of his own ….” This parallel suggests that de Vere was in fact the innovator.
(13-14) The Lily in the field, That glories in his white
The lily is one of Shakespeare’s favorite flowers, with around 25 allusions in the canonical plays and poems (Spevack 723), e.g.:
‘most lily–white of hue’ (Dream, 3.1.84); ‘Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white, Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose’ (Sonnets, 98.9-10); ‘The lily I condemned for thy hand … The roses fearfully on thorns did stand, One blushing shame, another white despair’ (Sonnets, 99.6, 8-9).
See also parallels above to lines 21, 23 & 25-27.
(19) Cynthia’s silver light
‘Cynthia for shame obscures her silver shine’ (Venus, 728); ‘Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia’s brow’ (R&J, 3.5.20); ‘Cynthia with her borrowed light’ (Kins., 4.1.153). Cynthia, as noted above, refers to the moon.
(29-30) there is no star That she surmounts not far
‘The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars’ (R&J, 2.2.19).
(31-32) When Phoebus from the bed Of Thetis doth arise
‘And Phoebus ’gins arise’ (Cym., 2.3.20).
Shakespeare refers six times to Thetis, the Greek sea-nymph (Spevack 1310). See also No. 8.5-6 (When that Aurora, blushing red, Descried the guilt of Thetis’ bed). Aurora refers to the dawning sun.
Phoebus (also referenced in Nos. 17.24, 19.8, and 20.4) is an epithet for Apollo, Greco-Roman god of the sun. The quotation above from Cymbeline is one of 23 references to Phoebus (including one spelled “Phibbus”) in canonical Shakespeare (Spevack 976-77). Apollo is referenced once in these de Vere poems (No. 3.6) and 29 times in canonical Shakespeare (Spevack 54).
On Thetis and Phoebus, see also the parallels to No. 8 (lines 1-2 and 5-6). On the amours of the gods generally (a common interest of these de Vere poems and Shakespeare), see also No. 3.6 and No. 6 (lines 7-10, 17-18, and 23-24).
(33) The morning, blushing red
‘When lo the blushing morrow Lends light to all’ (Lucrece, 1082); ‘King Richard doth himself appear, As doth the blushing discontented sun From out the fiery portal of the east’ (Rich. II, 3.3.63); ‘a blush Modest as morning’ (Troil., 1.3.229); cf. ‘To blush and beautify the cheek’ (2 Hen. VI, 3.2.167); ‘His treasons will sit blushing in his face’ (Rich. II, 3.2.51).
See also No. 8.5 (that Aurora [i.e., dawning sun] blushing red).
(34) In fair carnation wise
‘the fairest flowers o’ th’ season Are our carnations and streaked gillyvors’ (Win., 4.4.81-82); cf. ‘how much carnation ribbon may a man buy … ?’ (LLL, 3.1.135-36); ‘[Hostess Quickly:] ’A could never abide carnation; ’twas a color he [Falstaff] never liked’ (Hen. V, 2.3.30).
De Vere employs here another flower (in addition to lilies and roses) referenced by Shakespeare (on the three occasions quoted above, Spevack 183).
Continue to Poem No. 15, return to Poem No. 13, or return to the Introduction.
[published June 22, 2018, updated 2021]
