The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Most readers remember “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” because of its first line: “Come live with me and be my love” (Line 1). Written by Christopher Marlowe, the poem was published in 1599, six years after Marlowe’s death. The poem is considered one of the best-known English language poems. It is one of the earliest examples of the British pastoral style. Pastorals focused on the sheepherding lifestyle in which shepherds lived in open areas of land according to the seasons. Pastorals also have their initial roots in the Greek and Roman poetic traditions. Marlowe wrote the poem during the late Renaissance, a period of time characterized by a revival and surpassing of ideas from classical antiquity. Marlowe’s poem is actually the precursor to and inspiration for Walter Raleigh’s “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd.” When read together, the poems display an interplay between Raleigh and Marlowe, despite Marlowe’s poem being published posthumously in 1599 and Raleigh’s “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” being published in 1600. Marlowe, young and romantic, used rhythm in his poem to idolize the object—Raleigh’s nymph. Raleigh, older and an accomplished poet, possessed a more jaded attitude, and “The Nymph’s Reply” acts as a jaded rebuttal to Marlowe’s poem.

Poet Biography

English poet Christopher Marlowe lived from February 1564 to May 1593. During his short life, he was a playwright, poet, and translator. He is among the most famous Elizabethan playwrights. For years, Marlowe was London’s foremost dramatist. William Shakespeare greatly influenced Marlowe’s work, and Shakespeare eventually succeeded Marlowe as the Elizabethan era’s preeminent playwright.

Marlowe was born to a Canterbury shoemaker, and he was the second oldest of nine children. At age 14, Marlowe attended Canterbury’s The King’s School on a scholarship. Two years later, he attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree. He mastered Latin, and he read and translated the works of Ovid. In 1587, after the rumor circulated that Marlowe intended to become a Roman Catholic priest, the university hesitated to award him his degree. At the time, it was a criminal offense for any English citizen to be ordained in the Roman Catholic Church. However, the university awarded Marlowe his degree.

Little is known about Marlowe’s adult life. However, scholars have alleged that Marlowe was a government spy, recruited during his Cambridge years. During his years at the university, Marlowe had a surprising number of lengthy absences which technically violated the university’s attendance policies. Surviving records show that Marlowe lived rather lavishly, despite his scholarship status. In 1592, authorities arrested Marlowe in the English garrison town of Flushing in the Netherlands on counterfeiting charges. No charge or imprisonment followed, and the arrest may have been made to disrupt the activities of seditious Catholics. The arrest may also have disrupted one of Marlowe’s spying missions.

Marlowe took exceptional risks with his reputation as an atheist. Authorities and officials regarded associations with atheism as disloyalty. However, Marlowe’s supposed atheism may have been a ruse, just like his supposed Catholicism. Scholars also speculate that Marlowe was a homosexual, while others assert that the evidence of this is inconsequential.

In 1593, several threats to Protestant refugees from France and the Netherlands emerged. Some were written in iambic pentameter and signed “Tamburlaine,” the name of Marlowe’s play. The Privy Council ordered those responsible arrested, and the authorities searched the residence and belongings of Thomas Kyd, one of Marlowe’s close acquaintances. The authorities arrested Kyd, who denounced Marlowe and described Marlowe as blasphemous. The authorities issued a warrant for Marlowe’s arrest, and Marlowe presented himself on May 20, 1593. He was killed ten days later on May 30, 1593. His death’s circumstances remained mysterious, and for many years after it, theories and rumors continued to shroud his true cause of death.

Poem Text

Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove,

That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the Rocks,

Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow Rivers to whose falls

Melodious birds sing Madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of Roses

And a thousand fragrant posies,

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroidered all with leaves of Myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool

Which from our pretty Lambs we pull;

Fair lined slippers for the cold,

With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and Ivy buds,

With Coral clasps and Amber studs:

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me, and be my love.

The Shepherds’ Swains shall dance and sing

For thy delight each May-morning:

If these delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me, and be my love.

Marlowe, Christopher. “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.” 1599. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

The poem describes the speaker’s life as a shepherd as well as what they want to offer their significant other. The poem opens with the speaker’s plea “Come live with me and be my love” (Line 1). They are asking their significant other to come live with them forever. In the second stanza, the speaker asserts that if the significant other does this, the couple will experience joy and pleasure for the rest of their lives.

In the third stanza, the speaker promises lovely items to the significant other. They promise “beds of Roses” (Line 9) and “a thousand fragrant posies” (Line 10). The speaker also promises to use flowers and other plants to craft “a cap” (Line 11). In the fourth stanza, the speaker tells the significant other that they will use the wool from their own lambs to make the significant other’s fine gown, as well as “Fair line slippers” (Line 15) with “buckles of the purest gold” (Line 16). Despite the reality that a humble shepherd would not be able to afford or obtain these items, the speaker uses the promise of these luxuries to try and persuade the significant other. By the fifth stanza, the speaker is not only dreamy and unrealistic, but also desperate. They conclude their list of promises by telling the significant other they will fashion a “belt of straw and Ivy buds” (Line 17) and “Coral clasps and Amber studs” (Line 18). Again, the speaker employs lofty promises to try and persuade the significant other. They conclude the poem with the poem’s opening plea, and they let the significant other know they are awaiting an answer.