Penny Dreadfuls, 1812 · page 29 of 258
Psyche, and other poems — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 11 of a Victorian Penny Dreadful This is a page of running verse prose, numbered 11, containing poetic dialogue. The visible text presents a goddess (apparently Venus, based on references to "beauty's queen") pleading with her son for vengeful intervention against a rival—identified as Psyche. The goddess demands that her rival be made to suffer through love's arrows and humiliation, stripped of honor and fame. The passage draws on classical mythology, depicting Venus's rage at a mortal woman who has challenged her supremacy in beauty and devotion. The verse is composed in a dramatic, melodramatic style typical of sensational Victorian literature.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
11 Bathed in those tears which vanquish human hearts, Oh, son beloved!” (the suppliant goddess cried,) “If e’er thy too indulgent mother’s arts . ** Subdued for thee the potent deities ** Who rule my native deep, or haunt the skies ; Or if to me the orateful praise be due, _ “That to thy sceptre bow the great and wise, _ Now let thy fierce revenge my foe pursue, | ** And let my rival scorned her vain presumption rue. * For what to me avails my former boast » * That, fairer than the wife of Jove confest, « ©] gained the prize thus basely to be lost? “ With me the world’s devotion to contest ®B ehold a mortal dares; though on my breast ‘ Still vainly brilliant shines the magic zone. Yet, yet I reign: by you my wrongs redrest, © The world with humbled Psyche soon shall own ‘¢ That Venus, beauty’s queen, shall be adored alone. “ “Deep let her drink of that dark, bitter spring, “ Which flows so near thy bright and crystal tide ; * Deep let her heart thy sharpest arrow sting, “ Its tempered barb in that black poison dyed. * Let her, for whom contending princes sighed, “ Feel all the fury of thy fiercest flame « For some base wretch to foul disgrace allied, “ Porgetful of her birth and her fair fame, “‘ Her honours all defiled, and sacrificed to shame.” , connicloooks.comn