Eros1.0101_Shakespeare

William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616. (Oberon describes how Cupid imbued a flower with a love potion, in) A Midsummer Night's Dream 2.1.155-74. Comedy. c. 1595-96? Published London:1600, collected in First Folio, London: Jaggard.

From the text:

OBERON: That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took
At a fair vestal throned by the west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.