And all combined in beauty’s worthiness,
Yet should there hover in their restless heads
One thought, one grace, one wonder, at the least,
Which into words no virtue can digest.”
Marlowe made snatches at this forbidden fruit with vigorous leaps, and not without bringing away a prize now and then such as only the fewest have been able to reach. Of fine single verses I give a few as instances of this:—
“Sometimes a lovely boy in Dian’s shape,
With hair that gilds the water as it glides,
Shall bathe him in a spring.”
Here is a couplet notable for dignity of poise describing Tamburlaine:—
“Of stature tall and straightly fashioned,