Christopher Marlowe, Dedication to Mary Countess of Pembroke (ed. Mark Eccles)

TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS NOBLE LADY,
ADORNED WITH ALL GIFTS BOTH OF MIND
AND BODY, MARY COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE

Delia born of a laurel-crowned race, true sister of Sidney the bard of
Apollo, fostering parent of letters, to whose immaculate embrace
virtue, outraged by the assault of barbarism and ignorance, flieth for

5

refuge, as once Philomela from the Thracian tyrant; Muse of the
Poets of our time, and of all most happily burgeoning wits; descen-
dant of the gods, who impartest now to my rude pen breathings of a
lofty rage, whereby my poor self hath, methinks, power to surpass
what my unripe talent is wont to bring forth: Deign to be patron to

10

this posthumous Amyntas, as to thine adoptive son: the rather that
his dying father had most humbly bequeathed to thee his keeping.
And though thy glorious name is spread abroad not only among us
but even among foreign nations, too far ever to be destroyed by the
rusty antiquity of Time, or added to by the praise of mortals (for

15

how can anything be greater than what is infinite?), yet, crowned as
thou art by the songs of many as by a starry diadem Ariadne, scorn
not this pure priest of Phoebus bestowing another star upon thy
crown: but with that sincerity of mind which Jove the father of men
and of gods hath linked as hereditary to thy noble family, receive

20

and watch over him. So shall I, whose slender wealth is but the sea-
shore myrtle of Venus, and Daphne's evergreen laurel, on the fore-
most page of every poem invoke thee as Mistress of the Muses to my
aid: to sum up all, thy virtue, which shall overcome virtue herself,
shall likewise overcome even eternity.

C.M.

This text is based on the following book(s):
OCLC: 702733
ISBN: 0521073235

Buy a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com.