rONNETS
THE DRYDEN LIBRARY
THE SONN ETS
OF
WILLIAM SHAKSPERE
I
I
■HE
S O N N
OF
WILLIAM SHAKSPERE
Edited by Edward Dr
LL.D. (dUBLIn), HON. I.L.P. (eDINW (oxford), HON. LL.D. (prince ' ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE f ■
LO>3DON ^
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER, & CO., LTD. MCMV
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(0I«lJ,t
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THE
SONNETS
OF
WILLIAM SHAKSPERE
Edited, by Edward Dowden
LL.D. (dUBLIn), HON. LL.D. (eDINBURGh), HON. D.C.I.. (oxford), HON. LL.D. (pRINCETOn) J PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN
\^
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER, & CO., LTD. XICMV
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. From faireft creatures we defire increafe . i
II. When forty winters ftiall befiege thy brow . 2
III. Look in thy glafs, and tell the face thou viewed 3
IV. Unthrifty lovelinefs, why doft thou fpend . 4 V. Thofe hours, that with gentle work did frame 5
VI. Then let not winter's ragged hand deface . 6
VII. Lo, in the orient when the gracious light . 7
VIII. Mufic to hear, why hear'ft thou mufic fadly . 8
IX. Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye ... g
X. For fhame ! deny that thou bear'ft love to any 10
XI. As faft as thou fhalt wane, fo .'aft thou grow'ft 11
XII. When I do count the clock that tells the time 12
XIII. O, that you were yourfelf ! but, love, you are 13
XIV. Not from the ftars do I my judgment pluck . 14 XV. When I confider every thing that grows . 15
XVI. But wherefore do not you a mightier way . 16
XVII. Who will believe my verfe in time to come . 17
xvili. Shall I compare thee to a fummer's day 18
XIX. Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws . 19
XX. A woman's face, with Nature's own hand painted 20
XXI. So is it not with me as with that Mufe . . 21
XXII. My glafs fliall not perfuade me I am old . 22
XXIII. As an unperfedl aftor on the ftage ... 23
iv CONTENTS.
PAGE
XXIV. Mine eye hath pla/d the painter, and hath
ftell'd 24
XXV. Let thofe who are in favour with their ftars . 25
XXVI. Lord of my love, to whom in vaflfalage . . 26
XXVII. Weary with toil, I hafte me to my bed . . 27
xxviii. How can I then return in happy plight . . 28
XXIX. When, in difgrace with fortune and men's eyes 29
XXX. When to the feffions of fweet filent thought . 30
XXXI. Thy bofom is endeared with all hearts . . 31
XXXII. If thou furvive my well-contented day . . 32
XXXIII. Full many a glorious morning have I feen . 33
XXXIV. Why didft thou promife fuch a beauteous day 34 XXXV. No more be grieved at that which thou haft done 35
xxxvi. Let me confefs that we two muft be twain . 36
XXXVII. As a decrepit father takes delight . . • 37
xxxvili. How can my Mufe want fubject to invent . 38
XXXIX. O, how thy worth with manners may I fmg . 39
XL. Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all 40
XLI. Thofe pretty wrongs that liberty commits . 41
• XLII. That thou haft her, it is not all my grief . 42
XLIII. When moft I wink, then do mine eyes beft fee 43
Xi.iv. If the dull fubftance of my flefti were thought 44
XLV. The other two, flight air and purging fire . 45
XLVi. Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war . 46
XLVii. Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took 47
XLVlll. How careful was I, when I took my way . 48
XLix. Againft that time, if ever that time come . 49
L. How heavy do I journey on the way . . 50
LI. Thus can my love excufe the flow offence . 51
Lii. So am I as the rich, whofe blefled key . . 52
LilL What is your fubftance, whereof are you made 53
LIV. O, how much more doth beauty beauteous feem 54
CONTENTS. V
PAGE
Lv. Not marble, nor the gilded monuments . . 55
LVI. Sweet love, renew thy force ; be It not faid . 56
LVli. Being your flave, what (hould I do but tend . 57
LVIII. That God forbid that made me firft your flave 58
Lix. If there be nothing new, but that which is . 59
LX. Like as the waves make towards the pebbled
fhore 60
LXi. Is it thy will thy image fliould keep open . 61
LXii. Sin of felf-love pofrefleth all mine eye . . 62
Lxni. Againft my love fhall be, as I am now . . 63
Lxiv. NVTien I have feen by Time's fell hand defaced 64
Lxv. Since brafs, nor ftone, nor earth, nor bound-
lefs fea 65
LXVi. Tir'd with all thefe, for reftful death I crj' . 66
LXVll. Ah, wherefore wth infe<5Hon ftiould he live . 67
Lxviii. Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn . 68 LXix. Thofe parts of thee that the world's eye doth
view 69
LXX. That thou art blam'd (hall not be thy defedl . 70
LXXI. No longer mourn for me when I am dead . 71
LXXli. O, left the world (hould taflc you to recite . 72
Lxxiii. That time of year thou mayft in me behold . 73
LXXIV. But be contented : when that fell arreft . 74
Lxxv. So are you to my thoughts as food to life . 75
Lxxvi. Why is my verfe fo barren of new pride . 76
Lxxvii. Thy glafs will fhow thee how thy beauties wear 77
Lxxviii. So oft have I invok'd thee for my Mufe . 78
LXXIX. Whilft I alone did call upon thy aid . . 79
Lxxx. O, how I faint when I of you do write . . 80
Lxxxi. Or I (hall live your epitaph to make . . 8x
Lxxxil. I grant thou wert not married to my Mufe . 82
Lxxxill. I never faw that you did painting need . . 83
vi CONTENTS.
PAGE
LXXXIV. Who is it that fays moft ? which can fay more 84
Lxxxv. My tongue-tied Mufe in manners holds her ftill 85
Lxxxvi. Was it the proud full fail of his great verfe . 86
Lxxxvii. Farewell ! thou art too dear for my poflefling 87
Lxxxviii. When thou fhalt be difpoPd to fet me light 88
Lxxxix. Say that thou didft forfake me for feme fault 89
xc. Then hate me when thou wilt ; if ever, now . go
xci. Some glory in their birth, fome in their (kill . 91
xcii. But do thy worft to fteal thyfelf away . . 92
xcin. So fhall I live, fuppofmg thou art true . . 93
xciv. They that have power to hurt and will do none 94
xcv. How fweet and lovely doft thou mal:e the fhame 95
XCVI. Some fay, thy fault is youth, fome wantonnefs 96
xcvli. How like a winter hath my abfence been . 97
xcviii. From you have I been abfent in the fpring . 98
XCIX. The forward violet thus did I chide . . 99
c. Where art thou, Mufe, that thou forget'ft fo
long 100
CI. O truant Mufe, what fhall be thy amends . 101 cil. My love is ftrengthen'd, though more weak in
feeming ....... 102
cm. Alack, what poverty my Mufe brings forth . 103
CIV. To me, fair friend, you never can be old . 104
cv. Let not my love be call'd idolatry . . . 105
cvi. When in the chronicle of wafted time . . 106
cvil. Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic foul . 107
cvili. What 's in the brain that ink may characfler . 108
cix. O, never fay that I was falfe of heart . . 109
ex. Alas, 'tis true, I have gone here and there . 110
CXI. O, for my fake do you with Fortune chide . iii
CXli. Your love and pity doth the impreflion fill . J12
cxiii, Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind . 113
CONTEXTS. vii
PAGE
CXiv. Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with
you 114
cxv. Thofe lines that I before have writ do lie . 115
cxvi. Let me not to the marriage of true minds . 116
cxvii. Accufe me thus: that I have fcanted all 117
cxviii. Like as, to make our appetites more keen . n8
cxix. What potions have I drunk of Siren tears 119
cxx. That you were once unkind befriends me now 120
cxxi. 'Tis better to be vile than vile efteem'd . 121
cxxn. Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain . 122
CXXlii. No, Time, thou flialt not boaft that I do
change ....... 123
cxxiv. If my dear love v/ere but the child of ftate 124
cxxv. Were't aught to me I bore the canopy . . 125
cxxvi. O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power . 126
cxxvii. In the old age black was not counted fair . 127
cxxvm. How oft, when thou, my muiic, mufic play'ft 128
cxxix. The expenfe of fpirit in a wafte of (hame . 129
cxxx. My miftrefs' eyes are nothing like the fim . 130
cxxxi. Thou art as tyrannous, fo as thou art . . 131
cxxxii. Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me . 132
cxxxiii. Beflirew that heart, that makes my heart to
groan 133
cxxxiv. So now I have confeff'd that he is thine . 134
cxxxv. \Vhoever hath her wifli, thou haft thy JViil . 13s
cxxxvi. If thy foul check thee that I come fo near . 136 cxxxvii. Thou blind fool. Love, what doft thou to mine
eyes 137
cxxxviii. When my love fwears that fhe is made of truth 138
cxxxix. O, call not me to juftify the wrong . . 139
CXL. Be wife as thou art cruel ; do not prefs . , J40
CXLI. In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes 1 141
viu CONTENTS.
PAGE
CXLll. Love is my fm, and thy dear virtue hate . 142
cxLiri. Lo, as a careful houfewife runs to catch 143
— cxLiv. Two loves I have of comfort and defpair . 144
CXLV. Thofe lips that Love's own hand did make . 145
cxLVi. Poor foul, the centre of my fmful earth . . 146
cxLVii. My love is as a fever, longing ftill . . 147
cXLViii. O me, what ej'es hath Love put in my head . 148
CXLIX. Canft thou, O cruel ! fay I love thee not . 149
CL. O, from what power haft thou this powerful
might 150
CLI. Love is too young to know what confcience is 151
CLII. In loving thee thou know'ft I am forfwom . 152
CLiil. Cupid laid by his brand, and fell alleep . . 153
CUV. The little Love-god lying once afleep . 154
INTRODUCTION.
No edition of Shakfpere's Sonnets,^ apart from his other writings, with fufficient explanatory notes, has hitherto appeared. Notes are an evil, but in the cafe of the Sonnets a neceffary evil, for many paffages are hard to underftand. I have kept befide me for feveral years an inter- leaved copy of Dyce's text, in which I fet down from time to time anything that feemed to throw light on a difficult paffage. From thefe jottings, and from the Variorum Shakfpeare of 1821,* my annotations have been chiefly drawn. I have had before me in preparing this volume the
' The poet's name is rightly written Shakefpeare ; rightly alfo Shakfpere. If I err in choofing the form Shakfpere, I err with the owner of the name.
* To which this general reference may fuffice. I often found it convenient to alter flightly the notes of the Variorum Shakfpere, and I have not made it a rule to refer each note from that edition to its individual writer.
X INTRODUCTION.
editions of Bell, Clark and Wright, Collier, Delius, Dyce, Halliwell, Hazlitt, Knight, Pal- grave, Staunton, Grant White ; the tranflations of Fran^ois-Vidor Hugo, Bodenftedt, and others, and the greater portion of the extenfive Shakfpere Sonnets literature, Englifh and German. It is forrowful to confider of how fmall worth the contribution I make to the knowledge of thefe poems is, in proportion to the time and pains beftowed.
To render Shakfpere's meaning clear has been my aim. I do not make his poetry an occafion for giving leffbns in etymology. It would have been eafy, and not ufelefs, to have enlarged the notes with parallels from other Elizabethan writers ; but they are already bulky. I have been fparing of fuch parallel paffages, and have illuftrated Shakfpere chiefly from his own writ- ings. Repeated perufals have convinced me that the Sonnets ftand in the right order, and that fonnet is conneded with fonnet in more inftances than have been obferved. My notes on each fonnet commonly begin with an attempt to point
INTRODUCTION. xi
out the little links or articulations in thought and word, which conned it with its predecefTor or the group to which it belongs. I frankly warn the reader that I have pulhed this kind of criticifm far, perhaps too far. I have perhaps in fome inftances fancied points of connexion which have no real exiftence ; some I have fet down, which feem to myfelf conjectural. After this warning, I afk the friendly reader not to grow too foon impatient ; and if, going through the text care- fully, he will confider for himfelf the points which I have noted, I have a hope that he will in many inftances fee reafon to agree with what I have faid.
The text here prefented is that of a conferva- tive editor, oppofed to conjedure, unlefs con- jefture be a necelTity, and defirous to abide by the Quarto (1609) unlefs ftrong reafons appear for a departure from it.
The portrait etched as frontifpiece is a living face reftored by Mr. L. Lowenftam from the celebrated death-mafk found by Ludwig Becker. The artift clofely follows his original. The
XH INTRODUCTION.
evidence in fupport of the opinion that this mafk was caft from a wax-mould taken from Shak- fpere's face is ftrong enough to fatiffy a good many careful inveftigators ; not ftrong enough to fatiffy all. The portrait, then, may be viewed as poiTeffing a real and curious intereft, while yet of doubtful authenticity.^
Sonnets by Shakfpere are firft mentioned in Meres's Palladis Tantia, 1598: 'The fweete wittie foule of Ovid lives in mellifluous and hony- tongued Shakefpeare, witnes . . . his fugred Sonnets among his private friends'. In the following year, 1599, Sonnets cxxxviii. and cxLiv. were printed in the bookfeller Jaggard's furreptitious mifcellany The PaJJionate Pilgrim (fee Notes, p. 239 and p. 242). Both of thefe
^ ' I muft candidly fay I am not able to fpot a fingle fufpiclous fadl in the brief hiftory of this moft curious relic'. — C. M. Ingleby, Shakefpeare the Man and the Book, Part I. p. 84. See on the death-ma/k articles by J. S. Hart in Scribner's Monthly, July 1 8 74; by Dr. SchafF- haufen in Shakefpeare Jahrbuch 1875; and by Lord Ronald Gower in The Antiquary, vol. ii., all of whom accept it as the veritable death-ma/k of Shakfpere.
INTRODUCTION. xiii
refer to a woman beloved by the writer ; the fecond is that remarkable poem beginning Two loves I have of comfort and defpair. For ten years we hear no more of the Son- nets. On May 20, 1609, 'a book called Shake- fpeares Sonnettes ' was entered on the Stationers' Regifter by Thomas Thorpe, and in the fame year the Quarto edition appeared : ' Shake- fpeares Sonnets. Never before Imprinted. At London by G. Eld for T. T. [Thomas Thorpe] and to be folde by William Apfley. 1609'.^ Edward Alleyn notes in that year that he bought a copy for fivepence. The Sonnets had not the popularity of Shakfpere's other poems. No fecond edition was publifhed until 1 640 (printed 1639), when they formed part of 'Poems: written by Wil. Shake-fpeare. Gent', a volume containing many pieces not by Shakfpere. Here the Sonnets are printed with fmall regard to their order in the edition of 1609, in groups, with the poems of Tlie Paffionate Pilgrim inter-
1 Some copies inftead of ' William Apfley ' have ' lohn Wright dwelling at Chrift Churchgate '.
xiv INTRODUCTION.
fperfed, each group bearing a fanciful title. The bookfeller Benfon introduced the Poems with an addrefs to The Reader, in which he afferts that they are ' of the fame purity the Authour then living avouched', and that the reader will find them 'feren, clear and elegantly plain'. The titles given to the groups carry the fuggeftion that the Sonnets, with few exceptions, were ad- drefTed by a lover to his lady.
This edition of 1640 was reprinted feveral times in the eighteenth century ; the text of the quarto 1609, by Lintott 1711, in Steevens's 'Twenty Plays', 1766, and by Malone. Gildon and Sewell, editors of the firft half of the cen- tury, having the 1640 text before them, affumed that the Sonnets were addrefled to Shakfpere's miftrefs. It remained for the editors and critics of the fecond half of the century to difcover that the greater number were written for a young man. To a careful reader of the original it needed fmall refearch to afcertain that a friend is addreffed in the firft hundred and twenty-five fonnets, to which the poem in twelve lines,
INTRODUCTION. xv
numbered cxxvi., is an Envoy ; while the Sonnets cxxvii.-CLiv. either addrefs a miftrefs, or have reference to her and to the poet's paffion for her. The ftudent of Shakfpere is drawn to the Sonnets not alone by their ardour and depth of feeling, their fertility and condenfation of thought, their exquifite felicities of phrafe, and their fre- quent beauty of rhythmical movement, but in a peculiar degree by the poffibility that here, if nowhere elfe, the greateft of Englifli poets may — as Wordfworth puts it — have 'unlocked his heart '.1 It were ftrange if his filence, deep as
1 Poets differ in the interpretation of the Sonnets as
widely as critics :
" ' JVith this fame key
Shakefpeare unlocked hh heart ' once more '
Did Shakefpeare ? If fo the lefs Shakefpeare he ! "
So, Mr. Browning ; to whom replies Mr. Swinburne, * No
whit the lefs like Shakefpeare, but undoubtedly the lefs
like Browning.' Some of Shelley's feeling with reference
to the Sonnets may be gueffed from certain lines to be
found among the ' Studies for Epipfychidion and Cancelled
Paflages' (Poetical Works: ed. Forman, vol. ii. pp. 392,
393), to which my attention has been called by Mr. E. W.
Goffe :—
If any fhould be curious to difcover
Whether to you I am a friend or lover.
xvi INTRODUCTION.
that of the fecrets of Nature, never once knew interruption. The moment^ however, we regard the Sonnets as autobiographical, we find our- felves in the prefence of doubts and difficulties, exaggerated, it is true, by many writers, yet certainly real.
If we muft efcape from them, the fimpleft mode is to afTume that the Sonnets are ' the free outcome of a poetic imagination ' (Delius). It is an ingenious fuggeftion of Delius that certain groups may be offfets from other poetical works of Shakfpere ; thofe urging a beautiful youth to perpetuate his beauty in otffpring may be a derivative from Venus & Adonis ; thofe declaring love for a dark complexioned woman may re-
Let them read Shakfpeare's sonnets, taking thence
A whetftone for their dull intelligence
That tears and will not cut, or let them guefs
How Diotima, the wife prophetefs,
Inftrufted the inftruftor, and why he
Rebuked the infant fpirlt of melody
On Agathon's fweet lips, which as he fpoke
Was as the lovely ftar when morn has broke
The roof of darknefs, in the golden dawn,
Half-hidden and yet beautiful.
INTRODUCTION. xvii
handle the theme fet forth in Berowne's paffion for the dark Rofaline of Love's Labour's Loft; thofe which tell of a miftrefs refigned to a friend may be a non-dramatic treatment of the theme of love and friendfhip prefented in the later fcenes of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Per- haps a few fonnets, as ex. cxi., refer to circum- ftances of Shakfpere's life (Dyce) ; the main body of thefe poems may flill be regarded as mere exercifes of the fancy.
Such an explanation of the Sonnets has the merit of fimplicity ; it unties no knots but cuts all at a blow ; if the coUeftion confifts of dif- connefted exercifes of the fancy, we need not try to reconcile difcrepancies, nor fhape a ftory, nor afcertain a chronology, nor identify perfons. And what indeed was a fonneteer's paffion but a painted fire ? What was the form of verfe but an exotic curioufly trained and tended, in which an artificial fentiment imported from Italy gave perfume and colour to the flower?
And yet, in this as in other forms, the poetry
of the time, which poffefTes an enduring vitality,
h
xviii INTRODUCTION.
was not commonly caught out of the air, but — however large the conventional element in it may have been — was born of the union of heart and imagination ; in it real feelings and real experience, fubmitting to the poetical fafhions of the day, were raifed to an ideal expreffion. Spenfer wooed and wedded the Elizabeth of his Amoretti. The AJlrophel & Stella tells of a veritable tragedy, fatal perhaps to two bright lives and paffionate hearts. And what poems of Drummond do we remember as we remember thofe which record how he loved and lamented Mary Cunningham?
Some ftudents of the Sonnets who refufe to trace their origin to real incidents of Shakfpere's life, allow that they form a conneSed poem, or at moft two connefted poems, and thefe, they affure us, are of deeper fignificance than any mere poetical exercifes can be. They form a ftupendous allegory ; they exprefs a profound philofophy. The young friend whom Shakfpere addreffes is in truth the poet's Ideal Self, or Ideal Manhood, or the Spirit of Beauty, or the
INTRODUCTION. xix
Reafon, or the Divine Logos ; his dark miftrefs, whom a profaic German tranflator (Jordan) takes for a mulatto or quadroon, is indeed Dramatic Art, or the Catholic Church, or the Bride of the Canticles, black but comely, p^et us not fmile too foon at the pranks of Puck among the critics ; it is more prudent to move apart and feel gently whether that fleek nole with fair large ears, may not have been flipped upon our own fliouldersT? When we queftion faner critics why SHak- fpere's Sonnets may not be at once Dichtung und Wahrheit, poetry and truth, their anfwer amounts to this : Is it likely that Shakfpere would fo have rendered extravagant homage to a boy patron ? Is it likely that one, who fo deeply felt the moral order of the world, would have jnelded, as the poems to his dark lady acknow- ledge, to a vulgar temptation of the fenfes ? or yielding, would have told his fhame in verfe? Objedions are brought forward againft identify- ing the youth of the Sonnets with Southampton or with Pembroke ; it is pointed out that the writer fpeaks of himfelf as old, and that in a
XX INTRODUCTION.
fonnet publiflied in Shakfpere's thirty-fifth year ; here evidently he cannot have fpoken in his own perfon, and if not here, why elfewhere ? Finally, it is afferted that the poems lack internal harmony ; no real perfon can be, what Shakfpere's friend is defcribed as being — true and falfe, conflant and fickle, virtuous and vicious, of hopeful expeSa- tion and publicly blamed for carelefs living.
Shakfpere fpeaks of himfelf as old ; true, but in the fonnet publifhed in The PaJJionate Pilgrim (cxxxviii.), he fpeaks as a lover, contrafting himfelf fkilled in the lore of life with an inex- perienced youth ; doubtlefs at thirtj'-five he was not a Florizel nor a Ferdinand. In the poems to his friend, Shakfpere is addreffing a young man perhaps of twenty years, in the frefli bloom of beauty ; he celebrates with delight the floral grace of youth, to which the firfi; touch of time will be a taint ; thofe Hnes of thought and care, which his own mirror fhows, bear witnefs to time's ravage. It is as a poet that Shakfpere writes, and his flatiftics are thofe not of arith- metic but of poetry.
INTRODUCTION. xxi
That he fhould have given admiration and love without meafure to a youth highborn, brilliant, accomplifhed, who fingled out the player for peculiar favour, will feem wonderful only to thofe who keep a conftant guard upon their aflfeftions, and to thofe who have no need to keep a guard at all. In the Renafcence epoch among natural produfts of a time when life ran fwift and free, touching with its current high and difficuh places, the ardent friendfhip of man with man was one. To elevate it above mere perfonal regard a kind of Neo-Platonifm was at hand, which reprefented Beauty and Love incarnated in a human creature as earthly vice-gerents of the Divinity. ' It was then not uncommon', obferves the fober Dyce, ' for one man to write verfes to another in a drain of fuch tender affeftion as fully warrants us in terming them amatory'. Montaigne, not prone to take up extreme pofitions, writes of his dead Eftienne de la Boetie with paffionate tendernefs which will not hear of moderation. The haughtieft fpirit of Italy, Michael Angelo, does homage to
xxii INTRODUCTION.
the worth and beauty of young Tommafo Cava- lieri in fuch words as thefe :
Heavenward your fpirit Jlirreth me to Jlrain ; E'en as you will I hlufh and blanch again, Free:!^e in the fun, hum 'neath a frojly Jky, Your will includes and is the lord of mine.
The learned Languet writes to young Philip Sidney : ' Your portrait I kept with me fome hours to feaft my eyes on it, but my appetite was rather increafed than diminifhed by the fight '. And Sidney to his guardian friend : ' The chief objeft of my life, next to the ever- lafting bleflednefs of heaven, will always be the enjoyment of true friendfhip, and there you fhall have the chiefeft place'. 'Some', faid Jeremy Taylor, ' live under the line, and the beams of friendfhip in that pofition are imminent and per- pendicular '. * Some have only a dark day and a long night from him [the Sun], fnows and white cattle, a miferable life and a perpetual harvefl of Catarrhes and Confumptions, apo- plexies and dead palfies ; but fome have fplendid fires and aromatick fpices, rich wines and well
INTRODUCTION. xxiii
digefted fruits, great wit and great courage, becaufe they dwell in his eye and look in his face and are the Courtiers of the Sun, and wait upon him in his Chambers of the Eaft ; juft fo it is in friendfhip'. Was Shakfpere lefs a cour- tier of the fun than Languet or Michael Angelo ? If we accept the obvious reading of the Son- nets, we muft believe that Shakfpere at fome time of his life was fnared by a woman, the reverfe of beautiful according to the conven- tional Elizabethan ftandard — dark-haired, dark- eyed, pale-cheeked (cxxxii.) ; fldUed in touching the virginal (cxxviii.) ; fkilled alfo in playing on the heart of man ; who could attraft and repel, irritate and foothe, join reproach with carefs (cxLV.) ; a woman faitlilefs to her vow in wed- lock (cLii.). Through her no calm of joy came to him ; his life ran quicker but more troubled through her fpell, and fhe mingled ftrange bitter- nefs with its waters. Miftrefs of herlelf and of her art, (he turned when it pleafed her from the player to capture a more diftinguifhed prize, his friend. For a whUe Shakfpere was kept in the
xxiv INTRODUCTION.
torture of doubt and fufpicion ; then confeffion and tears were offered by the youth. The wound had gone deep into Shakfpere's heart: —
Love knows it is a greater grief To hear love's wrong than hate's known injury.
But, delivering himfelf from the intemperance of wrath, he could forgive a young man beguiled and led aftray. Through further difficulties and eflrangements their friendfhip travelled on to a fortunate repofe. The feries of Sonnets, which is its record, climbs to a high funlit refting- place. The other feries, which records his paf- fion for a dark temptrefs, is a whirl of moral chaos. Whether to difmifs him, or to draw him farther on, the woman had urged upon him the claims of confcience and duty ; in the lateft fon- nets — if this feries be arranged in chronological order — Shakfpere's paffion, grown bitter and fcornful (cLi., clii.), flrives, once for all, to defy and wreftle down his better will.
Shakfpere of the Sonnets is not the Shakfpere ferenely vidorious, infinitely charitable, wife with
INTRODUCTION xxv
all wifdom of the intelleft and the heart, whom we know through The Tempefi and King Henry VIII. He is the Shakfpere of Venus & Adonis and Romeo & Juliet, on his way to acquire fome of the dark experience of Meafure for Meafure, and the bitter learning of Troilus & CreJJida. Shakfpere's writings affure us that in the main his eye was fixed on the true ends of life ; but they do not lead us to believe that he was in- acceflible to temptations of the fenfes, the heart, and the imagination. We can only guefs the frailty that accompanied fuch ftrength, the rifles that attended fuch high powers ; immenfe de- mands on life, vaft ardours, and then the void hour, the deep dejedion. There appears to have been a time in his life when the fprings of faith and hope had almoft ceafed to flow ; and he recovered thefe not by flying from reality and life, but by driving his fliafts deeper towards the centre of things. So UlylTes was tranfformed into Profpero, worldly wifdom into fpiritual in- fight. Such ideal purity as Milton's was not pofTeffed nor fought by Shakfpere ; among thefe
xxvi INTRODUCTION.
Sonnets, one or two might be fpoken by Mer- cutio, when his wit of cheveril was ftretched to an ell broad. To compenfate — Shakfpere knew men and women a good deal better than did Milton, and probably no patches of his life are quite as unprofitably ugly as fome which dif- figured the life of the great idealift. His daughter could love and honour Shakfpere's memory. Lamentable it is, if he was taken in the toils, but at leaft we know that he efcaped all toils before the end. May we dare to conjefture that Cleopatra, queen and courtefan, black from ' Phoebus' amorous pinches ', a ' lafs unparal- leled ', has fome kinfhip through the imagination with our dark lady of the virginal ? ' Would I had never feen her ', fighs out Antony, and the flirewd onlooker Enobarbus replies, ' O, fir, you had then left unfeen a wonderful piece of work ; which not to have been bleft withal would have difcredited your travel '.
Shakfpere did not, in Byron's manner, invite the world to gaze upon his trefpafs and his griefs. Setting afide tu'O pieces printed by a
INTRODUCTION. xxvii
pirate in 1399, not one of thefe poems, as far as we know, faw the light until long after they were written, according to the moft probable chronology, and when in 1609 the volume entitled ' Shake-fpeares Sonnets ' was iffued, it had, there is reafon to believe, neither the fuper- intendence nor the confent of the author.^ Yet their literary merits entitled thefe poems to pub- lication, and Shakfpere's verfe was popular. If they were written on fanciful themes, why were the Sonnets held fo long in referve ? If, on the other hand, they were connefted with real per- fons, and painful incidents, it was natural that they fliould not pafs beyond the private friends of their poffeffor.
But the Sonnets of Shakfpere, it is faid, lack inward unity. Some might well be addreffed to Queen Elizabeth, fome to Anne Hathaway, fome to his boy Hamnet, fome to the Earl of Pem- broke or the Earl of Southampton ; it is impof- fible to make all thefe poems (i.-cxxvi.) apply
* The (Quarto of 1609, though not careleffly printed, is far lefs accurate than Fenus & Adonh. See note on cxxvi.
xxviii INTR OD UCTION.
to a llngle perfon. Difficulties of this kind may perplex a painful commentator, but would hardly occur to a lover or a friend living * where the beams of friendfhip are imminent '. The youth addreffed by Shakfpere is ' the mafter-miflrefs of his paffion ' (xx.) ; fumming up the perfeftions of man and woman, of Helen and Adonis (liii.) ; a liege, and yet through love a comrade; in years a boy, cherifhed as a fon might be ; in will a man, with all the power which rank and beauty give. Love, aching with its own mono- tony, invites imagination to inveft it in changeful forms. Befides, the varying feelings of at leaft three years (civ.) — three years of lofs and gain, of love, wrong, wrath, forrow, repentance, for- givenefs, perfefted union — are uttered in the Sonnets. When Shakfpere began to write, his friend had the untried innocence of boyhood and an unfpotted fame ; afterwards came the offence and the difhonour. And the loving heart praftifed upon itfelf the piteous frauds of wounded affeftion : now it can credit no evil of the beloved, now it muft believe the worft.
INTROD UCTIO N. xxix
While the world knows nothing but praife of one fo dear, a private injury goes deep into the foul; when the world affails his reputation, ftraightway loyalty revives, and even puts a flrain upon itfelf to hide each imperfedion from view.
A painftaking ftudent of the Sonnets, Henry Brown, was of opinion that Shakfpere intended in thefe poems to fatirize the fonnet-writers of his time, and in particular his contemporaries, Drayton and John Davies of Hereford. Pro- feffor Minto, while accepting the feries i.-cxxvi. as of ferious import, regards the fonnets ad- drefTed to a woman, cxxvii.-clii. as ' exercifes of fkill undertaken in a fpirit of wanton defiance and derifion of commonplace '. Certainly if Shakfpere is a fatirift in i.-cxxvi., his irony is deep ; the malicious fmile was not noticed during two centuries and a half. The poems are in the tafte of the time ; lefs extravagant and lefs full of conceits than many other Elizabethan coUedions, more diftinguifhed by exquifite ima- gination, and all that betokens genuine feeling ;
XXX INTRODUCTION.
they are, as far as manner goes, fuch fonnets as Daniel might have chofen to write if he had had the imagination and the heart of Shakfpere. All that is quaint or contorted or ' conceited ' in them can be paralleled from paffages of early plays of Shakfpere, fuch as Romeo & Juliet, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, where affuredly no fatirical intention is difcoverable. In the Sonnets cxxvii.-cLiv. Shakfpere addreffes a woman to whom it is impoffible to pay the con- ventional homage of fonneteers ; he cannot tell her that her cheeks are lilies and rofes, her breaft is of fnow, her heart is chafte and cold as ice. Yet he loves her, and will give her tribute of verfe. He praifes her precifely as a woman who without beauty is clever and charming, and a coquette, would choofe to be praifed. True, fhe owns no commonplace attractions ; She is no pink and white goddefs ; all her imperfeftions he fees ; yet fhe can fafcinate by fome namelefs fpell ; fhe can turn the heart hot or cold ; if fhe is not beautiful, it is becaufe fomething more rare and fine takes the place of beauty. She
INTRODUCTION. xxxi
angers her lover ; he declares to her face that flie is odious, and at the fame moment he is at her feet.
A writer whofe diftinftion it is to have pro- duced the largeft book upon the Sonnets, Mr. Gerald MaiTey, holds that he has refcued Shak- fpere's memory from fhame by the difcovery of a fecret hiftory legible in thefe poems to rightly illuminated eyes. 1 In 1592, according to this theory, Shakfpere began to addrefs pieces in fonnet-form to his patron Southampton. Pre- fently the Earl engaged the poet to write love fonnets on his behalf to Elizabeth Vernon; affuming alfo the feelings of Elizabeth Vernon, Shakfpere wrote dramatic fonnets, as if in her perfon, to the Earl. The table-book containing Shakfpere's autograph fonnets was given by Southampton to Pembroke, and at Pembroke's requeft was written the dark-woman feries ; for Pembroke, although authentic hiftory knows nothing of the fafts, was enamoured of Sidney's Stella, now well advanced in years, the unhappy ^ The firft hint of this theory was given by Mrs. Jamefon.
xxxii INTRODUCTION.
Lady Rich. A few of the fonnets which pafs for Shakfpere's are really by Herbert, and he, the ' Mr. W. H.' of Thorpe's dedication, is the 'only begetter', that is, procurer of thefe pieces for the publiftier. The Sonnets require rearrangement, and are grouped in an order of his own by Mr. MafTey.
Mr. MafTey writes with zeal ; with a faith in his own opinions which finds fcepticifm hard to explain except on feme theory of inteUeftual or moral obliquity ; and he exhibits a wide, mif- cellaneous reading. The one thing Mr. Maffey's elaborate theory feems to me to lack is fome evidence in its fupport. His arguments may well remain unanfwered. One hardly knows how to tug at the other end of a rope of fand.
With Wordfworth, Sir Henry Taylor, and Mr. Swinburne, with Frangois-Viftor Hugo, with Kreyffig, Ulrici, Gervinus, and Hermann Ifaac,i
* A learned and thoughtful ftudent of the fonnets, to whom I am indebted for fome valuable notes. See his articles in Arckiv fur das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, 1878-79.
INTRODUCTION. xxxiii
with Boaden, Armitage Brown, and Hallam, with Furnivall, Spalding, Roffetti, and Palgrave, I believe that Shakfpere's Sonnets exprefs his own feelings in his own perfon. To whom they were addreffed is unknown. We fliall never difcover the name of that woman who for a feafon could found, as no one elfe, the inftrument in Shakfpere's heart from the loweft note to the top of the compafs. To the eyes of no diver among the wrecks of time will that curious talifman gleam. Already when Thorpe dedicated ihefe poems to their ' only begetter', fhe perhaps was loft in the quick-moving life of London, to all but a few in whofe memory were ftirred as by a forlorn, fmall wind the grey afhes of a fire gone out. As to the name of Shakfpere's youthful friend and patron, we conjedure on flender evidence at the beft. Set- ting claimants afide on whofe behalf the evidence is abfolutely none, except that their Chriftian name and furname begin with a W and an H, two remain whofe pretenfions have been fup- ported by accomplifhed advocates. Drake
Txxiv INTRODUCTION.
(1817), a learned and refined writer, was the firft to suggeft that the friend addreffed in Shak- fpere's Sonnets was Henry Wriothefley, Earl of Southampton, to whom Venus & Adonis was dedicated in 1593, and in the following year Lucrece, in words of ftrong devotion refembling thofe of the twenty-fixth Sonnet.* B. Hey wood Bright (18 1 9), and James Boaden (1832), in- dependently arrived at the conclufion that the Mr. W. H. of the dedication, the ' begetter ' or infpirer of the Sonnets, was William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, to whom with his brother, as two well-known patrons of the great drama- tift, his fellows Heminge and Condell dedicated the Firft Folio. Wriothefley was born in 1573, nine years after Shakfpere ; Herbert in 15 80. Wriothefley at an early age became the lover of Elizabeth Vernon, needing therefore no entreaties to marry (i.-xvii.); he was not beautiful; he
^ Drake did not, as is fometimes ftated, fuppofe that Mr. W. H. was Southampton. He took ' begetter ' to mean ohtainer ; and left Mr. W. H, unidentified. Others hold that ' W. H.' are the initials of Southampton's names reverfed as a blind to the public.
INTRODUCTION. xxxv
bore no refemblance to his mother (m. 9) ; his life was adive, with varying fortunes, to which allufions might be looked for in the Sonnets, fuch as may be found in the verfes of his other poet, Daniel. Further, it appears from the punning Sonnets (cxxxv. and cxLiii., fee Notes), that the Chriftian name of Shakfpere's friend was the fame as his own, Will, but Wriothefley's name was Henry. To Herbert the punning Sonnets and the ' Mr. W. H.' of the dedication can be made to apply. He was indeed a noble- man in 1609, but a nobleman might be ftyled Mr. ; ' Lord Buckhurft is entered as M. Sackville in * England's Parnaffus ' (Minto) ; or the Mr. may have been meant to difguife the truth. Herbert was beautiful ; was like his illuftrious mother ; was brilliant, accomplifhed, licentious ; * the moft univerfally beloved and efteemed', fays Clarendon, 'of any man of his age'. Like Southampton he was a patron of poets, and he loved the theatre. In 1599 attempts were un- fuccefffully made to induce him to become a fuitor for the hand of the Lord Admiral's
xxxvi INTRODUCTION.
daughter. So far the balance leans towards Herbert. But his father lived until 1601 (fee XIII. and Notes) ; Southampton's father died while his fon was a boy ; and the date of Herbert's birth (1580), taken in connedion with Meres's mention of Sonnets, and the ' Two loves' of the PaJJionate Pilgrim Sonnet (1599), cxLiv., may well caufe a doubt.
A clue, which promifes to lead us to clearnefs, and then deceives us into deeper twilight, is the charafterifation (lxxviii.-lxxxvi.) of a rival poet who for a time fupplanted Shakfpere in his patron's regard. This rival, the ' better fpirit ' of Lxxx., was learned (lxxviii.) ; dedicated a book to Shakfpere's patron (lxxxii. and Notes) ; celebrated his beauty and knowledge (lxxxii.); in ' hymns ' (lxxxv.) ; was remarkable for ' the full proud fail of his great verfe ' (lxxxvi., lxxx.) ; was taught ' by fpirits ' to write ' above a mortal pitch', was nightly vifited by ' an affable familiar ghoft ' who ' gulled him with intelli- gence ' (lxxxvi.). Here are allufions and charafteriftics which ought to lead to identifica-
INTRODUCTION. xxxvii
tion. Yet in the end we are forced to confefs that the poet remains as dim a figure as the patron.
Is it Spenfer? He was learned, but what ghoft was that which gulled him ? Is it Mar- lowe ? His verfe was proud and full, and the creator of Fauilus may well have had dealings with his own Mephiftophelis, but Marlowe died in May 1593, the year of Venus & Adonis. Is it Drayton, or Nafh, or John Davies of Here- ford ? Perfons in fearch of an ingenioufly im- probable opinion may choofe any one of thefe. Is it Daniel ? Daniel's reputation ftood high ; he was regarded as a matter by Shakfpere in his early poems ; he was brought up at "Wilton, the feat of the Pembrokes, and in 1601 he infcribed his Defence of Ryme to William Herbert ; the Pembroke family favoured aftrologers, and the ghoft that gulled Daniel may have been the fame that gulled Allen, Sandford, and Dr. Dee, and through them gulled Herbert. Here is at leaft a clever guefs, and Boaden is again the gueffer. But Profeffor Minto makes a guefs
xxxviii INTRODUCTION.
even more fortunate. No Elizabethan poet wrote ampler verfe, none fcorned * ignorance ' more, or more haughtily afferted his learning than Chapman. In The Tears of Peace (1609), Homer as a fpirit vifits and infpires him ; the claim to fuch infpiration may have been often made by the tranflator of Homer in earlier years. Chapman was pre-eminently the poet of Night. ' The Shadow of Night', with the motto Verjus mei hahehint aliqiiantum Nodis, appeared in 1594; the title-page defcribes it as contain- ing ' two poeticall Hymnes\ In the dedication Chapman afTails unlearned ' paffion-driven men', * hide-bound with affeftion to great men's fancies', and ridicules the alleged eternity of their 'idolatrous platts for riches'. ' Now what a fupererogation in wit this is, to think Skill fo mightily pierced with their loves, that fhe fhould proftitutely fhow them her fecrets, when fhe will fcarcely be looked upon by others, but with in- vocation, farting, watching ; yea not without having drops of their fouls like a heavenly fami- liar''. Of Chapman's Homer a part appeared
\
INTRODUCTION. xxxix
in 1596; dedicatory fonnets in a later edition are addreffed to both Southampton and Pem- broke.
Mr. W. H., the only begetter of the Sonnets, remains unknown. Even the meaning of the word ' begetter ' is in difpute. ' I have fome coufm-germans at court ', writes Decker in Satiromajlix, 'fliall beget you the reverfion of the mafter of the king's revels ', where beget evidently means procure. Was the ' begetter ' of the Sonnets, then, the perfon who procured them for Thorpe ? I cannot think fo ; there is fpecial point in the choice of the word ' be- getter', if the dedication be addreffed to the per- fon who infpired the poems and for whom they were written. Eternity through offfpring is what Shakfpere moft defires for his friend ; if he will not beget a child, then he is promifed eternity in verfe by his poet, — in verfe 'whofe influence is thine, and born of thee ' (lxxviii.). Thus was Mr. W. H. the begetter of thefe poems, and from the point of view of a complimentary dedication he might well be termed the only begetter.
xl INTRODUCTION.
I have no fpace to confider fuggeftions which feem to me of little weight, — that W. H. is a mifprint for W. S., meaning William Shakfpere; that ' W. H. aU ' fliould be read ' W. Hall'; that a fuU flop fliould be placed after ' wifheth ', making Mr. W. H., perhaps William Herbert or William Hathaway, the wifher of happinefs to Southampton, the only begetter (Ph. Chafles and Bolton Corney) ; nor do I think we need argue for or againlt the fuppofition of a painful German commentator (Barnftorff), that Mr. W. H. is none other than Mr. William Himfelf. When Thorpe ufes the words ' the adventurer in fetting forth,' perhaps he meant to compare himfelf to one of the young volunteers in the days of Elizabeth and James, who embarked on naval enterprifes, hoping to make their fortunes by difcovery or conqueft ; fo he with good wifhes took his rifk on the fea of public favour in this light venture of the Sonnets.^
The date at which the Sonnets were written, like their origin, is uncertain. In Willoiie's * See Dr. Grofart's Donne, vol. ii. pp. 45-46.
INTRODUCTION. xli
Avifa, 1594, in commendatory verfe prefixed to which occurs the earlieft printed mention of Shakfpere by name, H. W. (Henry Willobie) pining with love for Avifa bewrays his difeafe to his familiar friend W. S., ' who not long before had tried the curtefy of the like paffion, and was now newly recovered of the like infection'. W. S. encourages his friend in a paffion which he knows muft be hopelefs, intending to view this ' loving Comedy ' from far off, in order to learn 'whether it would fort to a happier end for this new aftor than it did for the old player'. From Canto xliv. to xlviii. of Avifa, W. S. ad- dreffes H. W. on his love-affair, and H. W. replies. It is remarkable that Canto xlvii. in form and fubftance bears refemblance to the ftanzas in ' The Paffionate Pilgrim ' beginning ' When as thine eye hath chofe the dame'. Affuming that W. S. is William Shakfpere, we learn that he had loved unwifely, been laughed at, and recovered from the infeftion of his paffion before the end of 1 594. It feemed impoffible to pafs by a poem which has been defcribed as
xlii INTRODUCTION.
'the one contemporary book which has ever been fuppofed to throw any direft or indired light on the myftic matter ' of the Sonnets. But akhough the reference to W. S., his paffion for Avifa fair and chafte, and his recovery, be matter of intereft to inquirers after Shakfpere's life, WilloUe's Avifa feems to me to have no point of connexion with the Sonnets of Shak- fpere.^
Individual fonnets have been indicated as help- ing to afcertain the date :
I. It has been confidently ftated that cvii. con- taining the line
The mortal moon hath her eclipfe endured muft refer to the death of Elizabeth (1603), the poets' Cynthia ; but the line may well bear another interpretation. (See Notes.)
II. Mr. Tyler (Athenaum, Sept. 11, 1880)
ingenioufly argues that the thought and phraf-
* The force of the allufion to tragedy and comedy is weakened by the fadl that we find in Alalia (1595) the courfe of love fpoken of as a tragl-comedy, where no reference to a real aftor on the ftage is intended : Sk incifit Jiullorum Tragicomoedia.
INTRODUCTION. xliii
ing of lines in Sonnet lv. are derived from a paffage in Meres's Palladis Tamia, 1598, where Shakfpere among others is mentioned with honour :
' As Ovid faith of his worke ;
Jamque opus exegi, quod nee Jovis ira, nee ignis. Nee poterit ferrum, nee edax aholere vctujlas ;
And as Horace faith of his,
Exegi vionumentum aere perennius, Regalique fitu pyramidum altitis ; Quod non itnber edax, non Aquilo impotens PoJJit diruere, aiit innumerabilis Annorum Jeries et fuga temporum :
So fay I feverally of Sir Philip Sidney's, Spen- fer's, Daniel's, Drayton's, Shakefpeare's and Warner's workes ;
Nee Jovis ira, imbres, Mars, ferrum,flamma,fene6lus. Hoc opus unda, lues, turbo, venena riient.
Et quanquam ad pulcherrimum hoc opus evertendum tres illi Dii confpirabunt, Chronus, Vulcanus, et Pater ipfe gentis ;
Nee tamen annorum feries, non flamma, nee enjis, Aeternum potuit hoc abolere deeus\
xliv INTRODUCTION.
III. The laft line of Sonnet xciv.
Lilies that fejler fmell far worfe than weeds
occurs alfo in the play King Edward iii. (printed 1596), in a part of tlie play afcribed by fome critics to Shakfpere. We cannot fay for certain whether the play borrows from the fonnet, or the fonnet from the play. The latter feems to me the more likely fuppofition of the two.
The argument for this or that date from coin- cidences in expreffion between the Sonnets and certain plays of Shakfpere has no decifive force. Coincidences may often be found between Shak- fpere's late and early plays. But the general charaderiftics of ftyle may lead us to believe that fome Sonnets, as i.-xxiv., belong to a period not later than Romeo & Juliet ; others, as Lxiv.-Lxxiv., feem to echo the fadder tone heard in Hamlet and Meafure for Meafure. I cannot think that any of the Sonnets are earlier than Daniel's 'Delia' (i 592), which, I believe, fup- plied Shakfpere with a model for this form of verfe ; and^ though I can allege no ftrong evi-
INTRODUCTION. xlv
dence for the opinion, I fliould not be difpofed to place any later than 1605.
Various attempts have been made by Englifh, French, and German ftudents to place the Son- nets in a new and better order, of which at- tempts no two agree between themfelves. That the Sonnets are not printed in the duarto, 1609, at haphazard, is evident from the fad that the Envoy, cxxvi. is rightly placed ; that poems addreffed to a miftrefs follow thofe addreffed to a friend ; and that the two Cupid and Dian Son- nets ftand together at the clofe. A nearer view makes it apparent that in the firftferies, i.-cxxvi., a continuous ftory is conduced through various ftages to its termination; a more minute in- fpeftion difcovers points of contaft or connexion between fonnet and fonnet, and a natural fe- quence of thought, paffion and imagery. We are in the end convinced that no arrangement which has been propofed is as good as that of the Quarto. But the force of this remark feems to me to apply with certainty only to Sonnets I.-CXXVI. The fecond feries, cxxvii.-CLiv., al-
xlvi INTRODUCTION.
though fome of its pieces are evidently con- neded with thofe which ftand near them, does not exhibit a Hke intelligible fequence ; a better arrangement may perhaps be found ; or, it may be, no poffible arrangement can educe order out of the ftruggles between will and judgement, between blood and reafon ; tumult and chaos are perhaps a portion of their life and being.
A piece of evidence confirming the opinion here advanced will be found in the ufe of thou and you by Shakfpere as a mode of addrefs to his friend. Why thou or you is chofen, is not always explicable ; fometimes the choice feems to be determined by confiderations of euphony ; fometimes of rhyme; fometimes intimate affec- tion feems to indicate the ufe of you, and refpeft- ful homage that of tJwu ; but this is by no means invariable. What I would call attention to, however, as exhibiting fomething like order and progrefs in the arrangement of 1609 is this : that in the firft fifty fonnets, you is of extremely rare occurrence, in the fecond fifty you and thou alternate in little groups of fonnets,
INTRODUCTION. xlvii
thou having ftill a preponderance, but now only a flight preponderance ; in the remaining twenty- fix, you becomes the ordinary mode of addrefs, and thou the exception. In the fonnets to a miftrefs, thou is invariably employed. A few fonnets of the firft feries as lxiii.-lxviii. have 'my love', and the third perfon throughout.^
Whether idealifmg reality or wholly fanciful, an Elizabethan book of fonnets was — not always, but in many inftances — made up of a chain or feries of poems, in a defigned or natural fequence, viewing in various afpefts a fmgle
' 1 cannot here prefent detailed ftatlftics TAou and you Sre to be confidered only when addrefling friend or lover, not Time, the Mufe, etc. Five fets of fonnets may then be diftinguifhed : i. Ufing r^oa. 2. Ufing^ow. 3. Ufing neither, but belonging to a tAou group. /^. Ufing neither, but belonging to a you group. 5. Ufing both (xxiv.). 1 had hoped that this inveftigation was left to form one of my gleanings. But Profeffor Goedeke in the Deutjche Rundjchau, March 1877, looked into the matter; his refults feem to me vitiated by an arbitrary divifion of the fonnets ufing neither thou nor you into groups of eleven and twelve, and by a fantaftic theory that Shak- fpere wrote his fonnets in books or groups of fourteen each.
xlviii INTRODUCTION.
theme, or carrying on a love-ftory to its iffue, profperous or the reverfe. Sometimes advance is made through the need of difcovering new points of view, and the movement, always delayed, is rather in a circuit than ftraight for- ward. In Spenfer's Amoretti we read the pro- grefs of love from humility through hope to conqueft. In Aftrophel & Stella, we read the ftory of pafTion ftruggling with untoward fate, yet at laft mattered by the refolve to do high deeds :
Sweet ! for a while give refpite to my heart IVlnch pants as though itjlill would leap to thee ; And on my thoughts give thy Lieutenancy To this great Caufe.
In Parthenophil & Parthenophe the ftory is of a new love fupplanting an old, of hot and cold fevers, of defpair, and, as laft effort of the defper- ate lover, of an imagined attempt to fubdue the affections of his cruel lady by magic art. But in reading Sidney, Spenfer, Barnes, and ftill more Watfon, Conftable, Drayton, and others, although a large element of the art-poetry of the Renafcence
INTRODUCTION. xlix
is common to them and Shakfpere, the ftudent of Shakfpere's fonnets does not feel at home. It is when we open Daniel's ' Delia ' that we recognife clofe kinfhip. The manner is the fame, though the mafter proves himfelf of tardier imagination and lefs ardent temper. Didion, imagery, rhymes, and, in fonnets of like form, verfification diftinftly refemble thofe of Shakfpere. Malone was furely right when he recognifed in Daniel the mafter of Shakfpere as a writer of fonnets — a mafter quickly excelled by his pupil. And it is in Daniel that we find fonnet ftarting from fonnet almoft in Shakfpere's manner, only that Daniel often links poem with poem in more formal wife, the laft or the penultimate line of one poem fupplying the firft line of that which immediately follows.
Let us attempt to trace briefly the fequence of incidents and feelings in the Sonnets i.-cxxvi. A young man, beautiful, brilliant, and accom- plifhed, is the heir of a great houfe ; he is expofed to temptations of youth, and wealth, and rank. Poffibly his mother defires to fee him married ; certainly it is the defire of his
1 INTRODUCTION.
friend. 'I fliould be glad if you were caught', writes Languet to Philip Sidney, * that fo you might give to your country fons like yourfelf '. ' If you marry a wife, and if you beget children like yourfelf, you will be doing better fervice to your country than if you were to cut the throats of a thoufand Spaniards and Frenchmen'. '"Sir", faid Croefus to Cambyfes', Languet writes to Sidney, now aged twenty-four, "1 confider your father muft be held your better, becaufe he was the father of an admirable prince, whereas you have as yet no fon hke yourfelf".' It is in the manner of Sidney's own Cecropia that Shakfpere urges marriage upon his friend.^ ' Nature when you were firfl: born, vowed you a woman, and as fhe made j'ou child of a mother, fo to do your beft to be mother of a child' (Sonnet xiii. 14); 'fhe gave you beauty to move love ; fhe gave you wit to know love ; ftie gave you an excellent body to reward love ;
^ Arcadia, Lib. in. Noticed by Mr. Mafley in his ' Shakefpeare's Sonnets and his Private Friends ', pp. 36- 37.
INTRODUCTION. U
which kind of liberal rewarding is crowned with an unfpeakable felicity. For this as it bindeth the receiver, fo it makes happy the beflower ; this doth not impoverifh, but enrich the giver (vi. 6). O the comfort of comforts, to fee your children grow up, in whom you are as it were eternifed I . . . Have you ever feen a pure Rofe- water kept in a cryftal glafs, how fine it looks, how fweet it fmells, while that beautiful glafs imprifons it I Break the prifon and let the water take his own courfe, doth it not embrace duft, and lofe all his former fweetnefs and fair- nefs ; truly fo are we, if we have not the (lay, rather than the reftraint of Cryftalline marriage (v.) ; . . . And is a folitary Hfe as good as this ? then, can one ftring make as good mufic as a confort (vm.)'.
In like manner Shakfpere urges the youth to perpetuate his beauty in offfpring (i-xvii.).^ But if Will refufes, then his poet will make war againft Time and Decay, and confer immortality
1 In what follows, to avoid the confufion of /le, and Aim, I call Shakfpere's friend, as he is called in cxxxv., ff^i/L
iii INTRODUCTION.
upon his beloved one by Verfe (xv.-xix.). JVtU is the pattern and exemplar of human beauty (xix.), so uniting in himfelf the perfedions of man and woman (xx.) ; this is no extravagant praife but fimple truth (xxi.). And fuch a being has exchanged love with Shakfpere (xxii.), who muft needs be filent with excefs of paffion (xxiii.), cherifhing in his heart the image of his friend's beauty (xxiv.), but holding ftill more dear the love from which no unkind fortune can ever feparate him (xxv.). Here affairs of his own compel Shakfpere to a journey which re- moves him from Will (xxvi., xxvii.). Sleeplefs at night, and toiling by day, he thinks of the abfent one (xxvir. xxviii.) ; grieving for his own poor eftate (xxix.), and the death of friends, but finding in the one beloved amends for all (xxx., XXXI.) ; and fo Shakfpere commends to his friend his poor verfes as a token of affeftion which may furvive if he himfelf fhould die (xxxii.). At this point the mood changes — in his abfence his friend has been falfe to friend- fhip (xxxiii.) ; now, indeed, Will would let the
INTRODUCTION. liii
funfhine of his favour beam out again, but that will not cure the difgrace ; tears and penitence are fitter (xxxiv.) ; and for fake of fuch tears Will fhall be forgiven (xxxv.) ; but henceforth their lives muft run apart (xxxvi.) ; Shakfpere, feparated from Will, can look on and rejoice in his friend's happinefs and honour (xxxvii.), fmging his praife in verfe (xxxvm.), which he could not do if they were fo united that to praife his friend were felf-praife (xxxix.) ; fep- arated they muft be, and even their loves be no longer one ; Shakfpere can now give his love, even her he loved, to the gentle thief; wronged though he is, he will ftill hold Will dear (xl.) ; what is he but a boy whom a woman has beguiled (xli.) ? and for both, for friend and miftrefs, in the midft of his pain, he will try to feign excufes (xlii.). Here there feems to be a gap of time. The Sonnets begin again in abfence, and fome ftudents have called this, perhaps rightly, the Second Abfence (xLiii., fqq.). His friend continues as dear as ever, but confidence is fliaken, and a deep diftruft begins
liv INTRODUCTION.
to grow (xLviii.). What right indeed has a poor player to claim conftancy and love (xlix.) ? He is on a journey which removes him from IFill (l. LI.). His friend perhaps profefles un- fliaken loyalty, for Shakfpere now takes heart, and praifes JVilFs truth (liii. liv.)— takes heart, and believes that his own verfe will for ever keep that truth in mind. He will endure the pain of abfence, and have no jealous thoughts (Lvn. LViii.) ; ftriving to honour his friend in fong better than ever man was honoured before (lix.) ; in fong which fhall outlaft the revolu- tions of time (lx.). Still he cannot quite get rid of jealous fears (lxi.) ; and yet, what right has one fo worn by years and care to claim all a young man's love (lxii.) ? mu, too, in his turn muft fade, but his beauty will furvive in verfe (lxiii.). Alas! to think that death will take away the beloved one (lxiv.) ; nothing but Verfe can defeat time and decay (lxv.). For his own part Shakfpere would willingly die, were it not that, dying, he would leave his friend alone in an evil world (lxvi.). Why
INTRODUCTION. Iv
fliould one fo beautiful live to grace this ill world (lxvii.) except as a furvival of the genuine beauty of the good old times (lxviii.) ; yet beautiful as he is, he is blamed for carelefs living (lix.), but furely tliis muft be flander (lxx.). Shakfpere here returns to the thought of his own death ; when I leave tliis vile world, he fays, let me be forgotten (lxxi. lxxii.) ; and my death is not very far off (lxxiii.) ; but when I die my fpirit ftill lives in my verfe (lxxiv.). A new group feems to begin with Lxxv. Shak- fpere loves his friend as a mifer loves his gold, fearing it may be ftolen (fearing a rival poet?). His verfe is monotonous and old-fafhioned (not like the rival's verfe ?) (lxxvi.) ; fo he fends IVill his manufcript book unfilled, which Will may fill, if he pleafe, with verfe of his own ; Shakfpere choofes to fing no more of Beauty and of Time ; Will's glafs and dial may inform him henceforth on thefe topics (lxxvii.) The rival poet has now won the firft place in Will's efteem (lxxviii.-lxxxvi.). Shakfpere muft bid his friend farewell (lxxxvii.). If Will fhould fcorn
Ivi INTRODUCTION.
him, Shakfpere will fide againft himfelf (Lxxxvin. Lxxxix.). But if his friend is ever to hate him, let it be at once, that the bitternefs of death may foon be part (xc). He has dared to fay fare- well, yet his friend's love is all the world to Shakfpere, and the fear of lofing him is mifery (xci.) ; but he cannot really lofe his friend, for death would come quickly to fave him from fuch grief ; and yet fViU may be falfe and Shakfpere never know it (xcii.) ; fo his friend, fair in feeming, falfe within, would be like Eve's apple (xciii.) ; it is to fuch felf-contained, paffionlefs perfons that nature entrufts her rareft gifts of grace and beauty ; yet vicious felf-indulgence will fpoil the fairefl human foul (xciv.). So let Will beware of his youthful vices, already whifpered by the lips of men (xcv.) ; true, he makes graces out of fauhs, yet this fhould be kept within bounds (xcvi.). Here again, per- haps, is a gap of time.i Sonnets xcvii.-xcix.
' The laft two lines of xcvi. — not very appropriate I think in that fonnet — are identical with the laft two lines of XXXVI. It occurs to me as a poflibility that the ms. in Thorpe's hands may here have been imperfect, and that
INTRODUCTION. Ivii
are written in abfence, which fome ftudents, perhaps rightly, call Third Abfence. Thele three fonnets are full of tender aflfedion, but at the clofe of xcix. allufion is made to IViU's vices, the canker in the rofe. After this followed a period of filence. In c. love begins to renew itfelf, and fong awakes. Shakfpere excufes his filence (ci.) ; his love has grown while he was filent (cii.) ; his friend's lovelinefs is better than all fong (cm.) ; three years have paffed fmce firft acquaintance ; Will looks as young as ever, yet time muft infenfibly be altering his beauty (civ.). Shakfpere fmgs with a monotony of love (cv.). All former fingers praifmg knights and ladies only prophefied concerning Will (cvi.) ; grief and fear are paft ; the two friends are reconciled again; and both live for ever united in Shakfpere's verfe (cvii.). Love has conquered time and age, which deftroy mere beauty of face (cviii.). Shakfpere confeffes his errors, but now he has returned to his home
he filled it up fo far as to complete xcvi. with a couplet from an earlier fonnet.
Iviii INTR OD UCTION.
of love (cix.), he will never wander again (ex.) ; and his part faults were partly caufed by his temptations as a player (cxi.) ; he cares for no blame and no praife now except thofe of his friend (cxii.). Once more he is abfent from his friend (Fourth Abfence?), but full of loving thought of him (cxiii. cxiv.). Love has grown and wiU grow yet more (cxv.). Love is uncon- querable by Time (cxvi.). Shakfpere confeffes again his wanderings from his friend ; they were tefts of IFilJ's conftancy (cxvn.) ; and they quickened his own appetite for genuine love (cxviii.). Ruined love rebuilt is ftronger than at firft (cxix.) ; there were wrongs on both fides and muft now be mutual forgivenefs (cxx.)- Shakfpere is not to be judged by the report of malicious cenfors (cxxi.) ; he has given away his friend's prefent of a table-book, becaufe he needed no remembrancer (cxxii.) ; records and regifters of time are falfe ; only a lover's memory is to be wholly trufled, recognifing old things in what feem new (cxxiii.) ; Shakfpere's love is not bafed on felf-intereft, and therefore is
INTRODUCTION. Hx
uninfluenced by fortune (cxxiv.) ; nor is it founded on external beauty of form or face, but is fimple love for love's fake (cxxv.). IVill is ftill young and fair, yet he fhould remember that the end muft come at laft (cxxvi.).
Thus the feries of poems addreifed to his friend clofes gravely with thoughts of love and death. The Sonnets may be divided at pleafure into many fmaller groups, but I find it poffible to go on without interruption from I. to xxxii. ; from XXXIII. to XLii. ; from XLiil. to lxxiv. ; from Lxxv. to xcvi. ; from xcvii. to xcix. ; from c. to cxxvi.^
I do not here attempt to trace a continuous fequence in the Sonnets addreffed to the dark- haired woman cxxvii.-CLiv. ; I doubt whether fuch continuous fequence is to be found in them ; but in the Notes fome points of con- nexion between fonnet and fonnet are pointed out.
^ Perhaps there is a break at lviii. The moft careful ftudies of the fequence of the Sonnets are Mr. Furnivairs in his preface to the Leopold Shakfpere, and Mr. Spalding's in The Gentleman i Magazine, March 1878.
Ix INTRODUCTION.
If Shakfpere ' unlocked his heart ' in ihefe Sonnets, what do we learn from them of that great heart? I cannot anfwer otherwife than in words of my own formerly written. ' In the Sonnets we recognife three things : that Shakfpere was capable of meafurelefs perfonal devotion ; that he was tenderly fenfitive, fenfitive above all to every diminution or alteration of that love his heart fo eagerly craved ; and that, when wronged, although he fuffered anguifh, he tranfcended his private injury, and learned to forgive. . . . The errors of his heart originated in his fenfitivenefs, in his imagination (not at firft inured to the hardnefs of fidelity to the fad), in his quick confcioufnefs of exiftence, and in the felf- abandoning devotion of his heart. There are fome noble lines by Chapman in which he piftures to himfelf the life of great energy, enthufiafms and paffions, which for ever ftands upon the edge of utmoft danger, and yet for ever remains in abfolute fecurity : —
Give me a fpirit that on this life's rough fea Loves to have his fails filVd zvith a lujiy luind
INTRODUCTION. Ixi
Even till his fail-yards tremble, his map crack. And his rapt fbip runs on her fide Jo low That fhe drinks luater, and her keel ploughs air ; There is no danger to a man that knows What life and death is, — there's not any law Exceeds his knowledge ; neither is it lawful That he Jlould Jioop to any other law.
Such a mafter-fpirit, preffing forward under ftrained canvas was Shakfpere. If the fhip dipped and drank water, fhe rofe again ; and at length we behold her within view of her haven failing under a large, calm wind, not without tokens of ftrefs of weather, but if^ battered, yet unbroken by the waves'. The laft plays of Shakfpere, The Tempeft, Cymheline, Winter's Tale, Henry viii., illuminate the Sonnets and juftify the moral genius of their writer.
I thank Profefibr Atkinfon for help given in reading the proof-fheets of my Introduftion ; Mr. W. J. Craig, for illuftrations of obfolete words ; Mr. Furnivall, for hints given from time to time in our difcuffion by letter of the group- ing of the Sonnets. Mr. Edmund Goffe and
Ixii INTRODUCTION.
Dr. Grofart, for the loan of valuable books ; Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, for a note on the date of Lintott's reprint ; Mr. Hart, for feveral ingenious fuggeftions ; Dr. Ingleby, for fome guidance in the matter of Shakfpere portraiture ; and Mr. L. C. Purfer, for tranflations of the Greek epi- grams conneded with Sonnets cliii., cliv.
<
TO THE. ONLIE. BEGETTER. OF
THESE . INSVING . SONNETS .
M''. W. H. ALL. HAPPINESSE.
AND . THAT • ETERNITIE .
PROMISED .
BY.
OVR EVER-LIVING POET.
WISHETH .
THE WELL-WISHING.
ADVENTVRER .IN .
SETTING .
FORTH .
T. T.
i
SONNETS
I.
From faireft creatures we defire increafe, That thereby beauty's rofe might never die, But as the riper fliould by time deceafe, His tender heir might bear his memory : But thou, contraded to thine own bright eyes, Feed'ft thy light's flame with felf-fubftantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance hes, Thyfelf thy foe, to thy fweet felf too cruel. Thou that art now the world's frefh ornament And only herald to the gaudy fpring, Within thine own bud buried thy content And, tender churl, makefl; wafte in niggarding. Pity the world, or elfe this glutton be. To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.
SONNETS.
11.
When forty winters fliall befiege thy brow And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, Thy youth's proud livery, lb gazed on now, Will be a tatter'd weed, of fmall worth held : Then being afk'd where all thy beauty lies. Where all the treafure of thy lufty days. To fay, within thine own deep-funken eyes, Were an all-eating fhame and thriftlefs praise. How much more praife deferved thy beauty's use. If thou couldfl anfwer ' This fair child of mine Shall fum my count and make my old excufe,' Proving his beauty by fucceffion thine !
This were to be new made when thou art old, And fee thy blood warm when thou feel'ft it cold.
SONNETS.
ni.
Look in thy glafs, and tell the face thou vieweft Now is the time that face fhould form another ; Whofe frefh repair if now thou not renewefi:, Thou dofl: beguile the world, unblefs fome mother. For where is fhe fo fair whofe unear'd womb Difdains the tillage of thy hufbandry ? Or who is he fo fond will be the tomb Of his felf-love, to flop pofterity ? Thou art thy mother's glafs, and fhe in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime ; So thou through windows of thine age (halt fee, Defpite of wrinkles, this thy golden time. But if thou live, rememb'red not to be, Die fmgle, and thine image dies with thee.
SOIUNETS.
IV.
Unthrifty lovelinefs, why doft thou fpend Upon thyfelf thy beauty's legacy? Nature's bequeft gives nothing, but doth lend, And being frank, fhe lends to thofe are free : Then, beauteous niggard, why doft thou abufe The bounteous largefs given thee to give ? Profitlefs ufurer, why doft thou ul'e So great a fum of fums, yet canft not live ? For having traffic with thyfelf alone. Thou of thyfelf thy fweet felf doft deceive : Then how, when Nature calls thee to be gone, What acceptable audit canft thou leave ?
Thy unufcd beauty muft be tomb'd with thee, Which, ufed, hves th' executor to be.
SONNETS.
Thofe hours, that with gentle work did frame The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell, WiD play the tyrants to the very fame And that unfair which fairly doth excel ; For never-refting time leads fummer on To hideous winter, and confounds him there ; Sap chcck'd with froft, and lufty leaves quite gone. Beauty o'erfnow'd and barenefs every where : Then, were not fummer's diftillation left, A liquid prifoner pent in walls of glafs, Beauty's effeft with beauty were bereft. Nor it, nor no remembrance what it was :
But flowers diftill'd, though they with winter meet, Leefe but their fliow ; their fubftance ftill lives fweet.
SONNETS.
VI.
Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
In thee thy fummer, ere thou be diftill'd :
Make fweet fome vial ; treafure thou feme place
With beauty's treafure, ere it be felf-kill'd.
That ufe is not forbidden ufury,
Which happies thofe that pay the willing loan ;
That 's for thyfelf to breed another thee,
Or ten times happier, be it ten for one ;
Ten times thyfelf were happier than thou art,
If ten of thine ten times refigured thee ;
Then what could death do, if thou fhouldfl; depart,
Leaving thee living in poflerity ?
Be not felf-will'd, for thou art much too fair
To be death's conqueft and make worms thine heir.
SONNETS.
vn.
Lo, in the orient when the gracious light Lifts up his burning head, each under eye Doth homage to his new-appearing fight, Serving with looks his facred majefty ; And having climb'd the fteep-up heavenly hill, Refembling ftrong youth in his middle age. Yet mortal looks adore his beauty ftill, Attending on his golden pilgrimage ; But when from highmoft pitch, with weary car, Like feeble age, he reeleth from the day. The eyes, 'fore duteous, now converted are From his low trad, and look another way : So thou, thyfelf outgoing in thy noon, Unlook'd on dieft, unlefs thou get a fon.
SONNETS.
VIII.
Mufic to hear, why hear'ft thou mufic fadly? Sweets with fweets war not, joy delights in joy : Why loveft thou that which thou receiveft not gladly, Or elfe receiveft with pleafure thine annoy ? If the true concord of well-tuned founds. By unions married, do offend thine ear. They do but fweetly chide thee, who confounds In finglenefs the parts that thou fhouldft bear. Mark how one ftring, fweet hufband to another, Strikes each in each by mutual ordering ; Refembling fire and child and happy mother, Who, all in one, one pleafing note do fing :
Whofe fpeechlefs fong, being many, feeming one, Sings this to thee : ' Thou fingle wilt prove none.'
SONNETS.
IX.
Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye That thou confumeft thyfelf in fingle Hfe ? Ah ! if thou iffuelefs (halt hap to die, The world will wail thee, like a makelefs wife ; The world will be thy widow, and ftill weep That thou no form of thee haft left behind, When every private widow well may keep By children's eyes her hufband's fhape in mind. Look, what an unthrift in the world doth fpend Shifts but his place, for ftill the world enjoys it ; But beauty's wafte hath in the world an end, And, kept unufed, the ufer fo dcftroys it. No love toward others in that bofom fits That on himfelf fuch murderous fhame commits.
10 SONNETS.
X.
For fliame ! deny that thou bear'ft love to any, Who for thyfelf art fo unprovident. Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many, But that thou none loveft is moft evident ; For thou art fo poffeff'd with murderous hate That 'gainft thyfelf thou ftick'ft not to confpire. Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate Which to repair fhould be thy chief defire. O, change thy thought, that I may change my mind ! Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love ? Be, as thy prefence is, gracious and kind, Or to thyfelf at leaft kind-hearted prove : Make thee another felf, for love of me, That beauty ftill may live in thine or thee.
SONNETS. 1 1
XI.
As faft as thou fhalt wane, fo faft thou grow'ft In one of thine, from that which thou departed; ; And that frefh blood which youngly thou befl:ow'ft Thou mayft call thine when thou from youth con- Herein lives wifdom, beauty and increafe ; [verteft. Without this, folly, age and cold decay : If all were minded fo, the times fhould ceafe And threefcore year would make the world away. Let thofe whom Nature hath not made for ftore, Harfh, featurelefs and rude, barrenly perifli : Look, whom fhe beft endow'd flie gave the more ; Which bounteous gift thou fhouldft in bounty cherifh: She carved thee for her feal, and meant thereby Thou fliouldft print more, nor let that copy die.
12 SONNETS.
XII.
When I do count the clock that tells the time, And fee the brave day funk in hideous night ; When I behold the violet paft prime. And fable curls all filver'd o'er with white ; When lofty trees I fee barren of leaves, Which erft from heat did canopy the herd, And fummer's green all girded up in fheaves, Borne on the bier with white and briftly beard, Then of thy beauty do I queflion make, That thou among the waftes of time muft go, Since fweets and beauties do themfelves forfake And die as faft as they fee others grow ; [fence
And nothing 'gainft Time's fcythe can make de- Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
SONNETS.
13
XIII.
O, that you were yourfelf ! but, love, you are No longer yours than you yourfelf here live : Againft this coming end you fhould prepare, And your fweet femblance to fome other give : So fhould that beauty which you hold in leafe Find no determination ; then you were Yourfelf again, after yourfelf 's deceafe. When your fweet iflue your fweet form fliould bear. Who lets fo fair a houfe fall to decay, Which hufbandry in honour might uphold Againft the ftormy gufts of winter's day And barren rage of death's eternal cold ?
O, none but unthrifts ! Dear my love, you know You had a father : let your fon fay fo.
14 SONNETS.
XIV.
Not from the ftars do I my judgemem pluck ;
And yet methinks I have aftronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or feafons' quality ;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell.
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind.
Or fay with princes if it fhall go well,
By oft predift that I in heaven find :
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive.
And, conftant ftars, in them I read fuch art
As ' Truth and beauty ftiall together thrive.
If from thyfelf to ftore thou wouldft convert ; '
Or elfe of thee this I prognofticate :
' Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.'
SONNETS. I S
XV.
When I confider every thing that grows Holds in perfedion but a little nwment, That this huge ftage prefenteth nought but fhows Whereon the ftars in fecret influence comment ; When I perceive that men as plants increafe, Cheered and check'd even by the felf-fame fky, Vaunt in their youthful fap, at height decreafe, And wear their brave ftate out of memory ; Then the conceit of this inconftant flay Sets you moft rich in youth before my fight, Where wafteful Time debateth with Decay, To change your day of youth to fullied night ; And all in war with Time for love of you. As he takes from you, I engraft you new.
1 6 SONNETS.
XVI.
But wherefore do not you a mightier way
Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time ?
And fortify yourfelf in your decay
With means more bleffed than my barren rime ?
Now ftand you on the top of happy hours,
And many maiden gardens, yet unfet,
With virtuous wifh would bear your living flowers
Much liker than your painted counterfeit :
So fhould the lines of life that life repair,
Which this, Time's pencil, or my pupil pen,
Neither in inward worth nor outward fair,
Can make you live yourfelf in eyes of men.
To give away yourfelf keeps yourfelf ftill ;
And you muft live, drawn by your own fweet fkill.
SONNETS. 17
xvn.
Who will believe my verfe in time to come, If it were fill'd with your moft high deferts ? Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tomb Which hides your life and fhows not half your parts. If I could write the beauty of your eyes And in frefh numbers number all your graces, The age to come would fay ' This poet lies ; Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.' So fhould my papers, yellowed with their age. Be fcorn'd, hke old men of lefs truth than tongue, And your true rights be term'd a poet's rage And flretched metre of an antique fong :
But were fome child of yours alive that time. You (hould live twice, in it and in mv rime.
1 8 SONNETS.
XVIII.
Shall I compare thee to a fummer's day ? Thou art more lovely and more temperate : Rough winds do fhake the darling buds of May, And fummer's leafe hath all too fhort a date : Sometime too hot the eye of heaven fhines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd ; And every fair from fair fometime declines, By chance or nature's changing courfe untrimm'd ; But thy eternal fummer fhall not fade. Nor lofe poffeffion of that fair thou oweft, Nor fhall death brag thou wander'ft in his fhade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'ft ; So long as men can breathe, or eyes can fee. So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
SONNETS. 19
XIX.
Devouring Time, blunt thou tlie lion's paws, And make the earth devour her own fweet brood ; Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws, And burn tlie long-lived phoenix in her blood ; Make glad and forry feafons as thou fleets, And do whate'er thou wilt, fwift-footed Time, To the wide world and all her fading fweets ; But I forbid thee one moft heinous crime : O, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow. Nor draw no lines- tliere with tliine antique pen ; Him in thy courfe untainted do allow For beauty's pattern to fucceeding men.
Yet do thy word, old Time : defpite thy wrong. My love fhall in my verfe ever live young.
20 SONNETS.
XX.
A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted
Haft thou, the mafter-miftrefs of my paffion ;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With fhifting change, as is falfe women's fafhion ;
An eye more bright than theirs, lefs falfe in rolling,
Gilding the objeft whereupon it gazeth ;
A man in hue all hues in his controlling,
Which fteals men's eyes and women's fouls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou firft created ;
Till Nature, as fhe wrought thee, fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpofe nothing.
But fmce fhe prick'd thee out for women's pleafure. Mine be thy love, and thy love's ufe their treasure.
SONNETS. 21
XXI.
So is it not with me as with that Mufe
Stirr'd by a painted beauty to his verfe,
Who heaven itfelf for ornament doth ufe
And every fair with his fair doth rehearfe,
Making a couplement of proud compare,
With fun and moon, with earth and fea's rich gems,
With April's firft-born flowers, and all things rare
That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems.
O, let me, true in love, but truly write,
And then believe me, my love is as fair
As any mother's child, though not fo bright
As thofe gold candles fix'd in heaven's air :
Let them fay more that like of hear-fay well ;
I will not praife that purpofe not to fell.
2 2 SONNETS.
XXII.
M)' glafs fhall not perfuade me I am old, So long as youth and thou are of one date ; But when in thee time's furrows I behold, Then look I death my days fhould expiate. For all that beauty that doth cover thee Is but the feemly raiment of my heart, Which in thy breaft doth live, as thine in me : How can I then be elder than thou art ? O, therefore, love, be of thyfelf fo wary As I, not for myfelf, but for thee will ; Bearing thy heart, which I will keep fo chary As tender nurfe her babe from faring ill.
Prefume not on thy heart when mine is flain ;
Thou gaveft me thine, not to give back again.
SONNETS. 23
XXIII.
As an unperfed aftor on the ftage, Who with his fear is put befides his part, Or fome fierce thing replete with too much rage, Whofe ftrength's abundance weakens his own heart ; So I, for fear of truft, forget to fay The perfeft ceremony of love's rite, And in mine own love's f^rength feem to decay, O'ercharged with burthen of mine own love's might. O, let my books be then the eloquence And dumb prefagers of my fpeaking breaft, Who plead for love, and look for recompenfe, More than that tongue that more hath more exprefT'd. O, learn to read what filent love hath writ : To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.
24 SONNETS.
xxrv.
Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath ftcll'd Thy beauty's form in table of my heart ; My body is the frame wherein 'tis held, And perfpeftive it is beft painter's art. For through the painter muft you fee his fkill, To find where your true image piftured lies, Which in my bofom's fhop is hanging ftill, That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes. Now fee what good turns eyes for eyes have done : Mine eyes have drawn thy fhape, and thine for me Are windows to my breafl, where-through the sun Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee ;
Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art, They draw but what they fee, know not the heart.
SONNETS. 2S
XXV.
Let thofe who are in favour with their ftars Of pubHc honour and proud titles boaft, Whilft I, whom fortune of fuch triumph bars, Unlook'd for joy in that I honour moft. Great princes' favourites their fair leaves fpread But as the marigold at the fun's eye, And in themfelves their pride lies buried, For at a frown they in their glory die. The painful vi^arrior famoufed for fight, After a thoufand victories once foil'd. Is from the book of honour razed quite, And all the reft forgot for which he toil'd : Then happy I, that love and am beloved Where I may not remove nor be removed.
2 6 SONKETS.
XXVI.
Lord of my love, to whom in vaffalage
Thy merit hath my duty ftrongly knit,
To thee I lend this written ambaffage,
To witnefs duty, not to fhow my wit :
Duty lb great, which wit fo poor as mine
May make feem bare, in wanting words to ftiow it.
But that I hope fome good conceit of thine
In thy foul's thought, all naked, will beftow it ;
Till whatfoever ftar that guides my moving
Points on me gracioufly with fair afpeft,
And puts apparel on my tatter'd loving,
To fhow me worthy of thy fweet refpeft :
Then may I dare to boaft how I do love thee ;
Till then not fhow my head where thou mayfl prove mc.
SONNETS. 27
XXVII.
Weary with toil, I hafte me to my bed, The dear repofe for Hmbs with travel tired ; But then begins a journey in my head To work my mind, when body's work 's expired : For then my thoughts, from far where I abide, Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee, And keep my drooping eyelids open wide, Looking on darknefs which the blind do fee : Save that my foul's imaginarj' fight Prefents thy fhadow to my fightlefs view, Which, like a jewel hung in ghaftly night. Makes black night beauteous and her old face new. Lo, thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind, For thee, and for myfelf no quiet find.
2 8 SONNETS.
XXVIII,
How can I then return in happy plight, That am debarr'd the benefit of reft ? When day's oppreffion is not eafed by night, But day by niglit, and night by day, oppreff'd ; And each, though enemies to cither's reign. Do in confent (hake hands to torture me. The one by toil, the other to complain How far I toil, ftill farther off from thee ? I tell the day, to pleafe him, thou art bright And doft him grace when clouds do blot the heaven : So flatter I the fwart-complexion'd night ; When fparkling ftars twire not thou gild'ft the even. But day doth daily draw my forrows longer, And night doth nightly make grief's length seem ftronger.
SONNETS. 29
XXIX.
When, in difgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcaft ftate, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootlefs cries, And look upon myfelf, and curfe my fate, Wifhing me like to one more rich in hope. Featured like him, like him with friends poffeff'd, Defiring this man's art, and that man's fcope, With what I moft enjoy contented leaft ; Yet in thefe thoughts myfelf almoft defpifing, Haply I think on thee, and then my ftate. Like to the lark at break of day arifmg From fullen earth, fmgs hymns at heaven's gate : For thy fweet love rememb'red fuch wealth brings That then I fcorn to change mv ftate with kings.
30 SONNETS.
XXX.
When to the feffions of fweet filent thought
I fummon up remembrance of things part,
I figh the lack of many a thing I fought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's wafte
Then can I drown an eye, unufed to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's datelefs night,
And weep afrefh love's long fmce cancell'd woe,
And moan the expenfe of many a vanifh'd fight :
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The fad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
VVhich I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All loffes are reflored and forrows end.
SONNETS. 31
XXXI.
Thy bofom is endeared with all hearts, Which I by lacking have fuppofed dead ; And tliere reigns Love, and all Love's loving parts, And all thofe friends which I thought buried. How many a holy and obfequious tear Hath dear religious love ftol'n from mine eye, As intereft of the dead, which now appear But things removed that hidden in thee lie ! Thou art the grave where buried love doth live, Hung with the trophies of my lovers gone. Who all their parts of me to thee did give ; That due of many now is thine alone : Their images I loved I view in thee. And thou, all they, haft all the all of me.
SONNETS.
XXXII.
If thou furvive my well-contented day, When that churl Death my bones with duft fhall And {halt by fortune once more re-furvey [cover, Thefe poor rude lines of thy deceafed lover, Compare them with the bettering of the time. And though they be outftripp'd by every pen, Referve them for my love, not for their rime. Exceeded by the height of happier men. O, then vouchfafe me but this loving thought : ' Had my friend's Mufe grown with this growing A dearer birth than this his love had brought, [age, To march in ranks of better equipage : But fince he died, and poets better prove, Theirs for their ftyle I '11 read, his for his love.'
SONNETS. 3 J
XXXIII,
Full many a glorious morning have I feen Flatter the mountain tops with fovereign eye, Kiffing with golden face the meadows green, Gilding pale dreams with heavenly alchemy ; Anon permit the bafeft clouds to ride With ugly rack on his celeftial face, And from the forlorn world his vifage hide. Stealing unfeen to wefl: with this difgracc : Even fo my fun one early morn did fhine With all-triumphant fplendour on my brow ; But, out, alack ! he was but one hour mine, The region cloud hath mafk'd him from me now.
Yet him for this my love no whit difdaineth ;
Suns of the world may ftain when heaven's fun ftaineth.
34 SONNETS.
XXXIV.
Why didft thou promife fuch a beauteous day,
And make me travel forth without my cloak,
To let bafe clouds o'ertake me in my way,
Hiding thy bravery in their rotten fmoke ?
'Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break.
To dry the rain on my ftorm-beaten face,
For no man well of fuch a falve can fpeak
That heals the wound and cures not the difgrace :
Nor can thy fhame give phyfic to my grief;
Though thou repent, yet I have ftill the lofs :
The offender's forrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the ftrong offence's crofs.
Ah, but thofe tears are pearl which thy love fheds. And they are rich and ranfom all ill deeds.
SONNETS. 35
XXXV.
No more be grieved at that which thou haft done Rofes have thorns, and filver fountains mud ; Clouds and eclipfes ftain both moon and fun, And loathfome canker lives in fweeteft bud. All men make faults, and even I in this, Authorizing thy trefpafs with compare, Myfelf corrupting, falving thy amifs, Excufmg thy fins more than thy fins are ; For to thy fenfual fault I bring in fenfe — Thy adverfe party is thy advocate— And 'gainft myfelf a lawful plea commence : Such civil war is in my love and hate.
That I an acceffary needs muft be
To that fweet thief which lourly robs from me.
36 SONNETS.
XXXVI.
Let me confefs that we two niuft be twain, Although our undivided loves are one : So fhall thole blots that do with me remain, Without thy help, by me be borne alone. In our two loves there is but one refpeft, Though in our lives a feparable fpite. Which, though it alter not love's fole effed. Yet doth it fteal fweet hours from love's delight. I may not evermore acknoM'ledge thee, Left my bewailed guilt fhould do thee fhame. Nor thou with public kindnefs honour me, Unlefs thou take that honour from thy name : But do not fo ; I love thee in fuch fort As, thou bemg mine, mine is thy good report.
SONNETS. 37
xxxvn.
As a decrepit father takes delight
To lee his adive child do deeds of youth,
So I, made lame by fortune's dearefl; fpite,
Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth ;
For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wil.
Or any of thefe all, or all, or more.
Entitled in thy parts do crowned fit,
I make my love engrafted to this ftore ;
So then I am not lame, poor, nor defpifed,
Whilft that this fhadow doth fuch fubftance give
That I in thy abundance am fufficed
And by a part of all thy glory live.
Look, what is beft, that beft I wifh in thee : This wifh I have ; then ten times happy me !
38 SONNETS.
XXXVIII.
How can my Mufe want fubjed to invent,
While thou doft breathe, that pour'lt into my verfe
Thine own fweet argument, too excellent
For every vulgar paper to rehearl'e ?
O, give thyfelf the thanks, if aught in me
Worthy perufal ftand againft thy fight ;
For who's fo dumb that cannot write to thee.
When thou thyfelf doft give invention light ?
Be thou the tenth Mufe, ten times more in \\'orth
Than thofe old nine which rimers invocate ;
And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth
Eternal numbers to outlive long date.
If my flight Mufe do pleafe thefe curious days, The pain be mine, but thine fhall be the praife.
SONNETS. 39
XXXIX,
O, how thy worth with manners may I fing, When thou art all the better part of me ? What can mine own praife to mine own felf bring ? And what is 't but mine own when I praife thee ? Even for this let us divided live, And our dear love lofe name of fingle one, That by this feparation I may give That due to thee which thou deferveft: alone. O abfence, what a torment wouldft thou prove. Were it not thy four leifure gave fweet leave To entertain the time with thoughts of love, Which time and thoughts fo fweetly doth deceive, And that thou teacheft how to make one twain, By praifing him here who doth hence remain !
40 SONNETS.
XL.
Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all ; What haft thou then more than thou hadft before? No love, my love, that tliou may ft true love call ; All mine was thine before thou hadft this more. Then if for my love thou my love receiveft, I cannot blame thee for my love thou ufeft ; But yet be blamed, if thou thyfelf deceiveft By wilful tafte of what thyfelf refufeft. I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief. Although thou fteal thee all my poverty ; And yet love knows it is a greater grief To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury. Lafcivious grace, in whom all ill well fhows, Kill me \vith fpites ; yet we muft not be foes.
SONNETS. 41
XLI.
Thofe pretty wrongs that liberty commits, When I am fometime abfent from thy heart, Thy beauty and thy years full well befits, For ftill temptation follows where thou art. Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won, Beauteous thou art, therefore to be affailed ; And when a woman woos, what woman's fon Will fourly leave her till fhe have prevailed ? Ay me ! hut yet thou mightfl my feat forbear. And chide thy beauty and thy ftraying youth, Who lead thee in their riot even there Where thou art forced to break a twofold truth, - Hers, by thy beauty tempting her to thee, Thine, by thy beauty being falfe to me.
42 SONNETS.
XLII.
That thou haft htr, it is not all my grief,
And yet it may be f;iid I loved her dearly ;
That fhe hath thee, is of my wailing chief,
A lofs in love that touches me more nearly.
Loving offenders, thus I will excufe ye :
Thou doft love her, becaufe thou know'ft I love her ;
And for my fake even fo doth fhe abufe me.
Suffering my friend for my fake to approve her.
If I lofe thee, my lofs is my love's gain,
And lofmg her, my friend hath found that lofs ;
Both find each other, and I lofe both twain.
And both for my fake lay on me this crofs :
But here 's the joy ; my friend and I are one ;
Sweet flattery ! then fhe loves but me alone.
I
SONNETS. 43
XLIII.
When moft: I wink, then do mine eyes beft fee, For all the day they view things unrefpeded ; But when I fleep, in dreams they look on thee, And, darkly bright, are bright in dark direded. Then thou, whofe fhadow fliadows doth make bright, How would thy fhadow's form form happy fhow To the clear day with thy much clearer light, When to unfeeing eyes thy fhade fliines fo ! How would, I fay, mine eyes be bleffed made By looking on thee in the living day. When in dead night thy fair imperfed fhade Through heavy fleep on fightlefs eyes doth ftay !
All days are nights to fee till I fee thee.
And nights bright days when dreams do fhow thee me.
44 SONNETS.
XLIV.
If the dull fubftance of my flefh were thought, Injurious diftance fhould not ftop my way ; For then, defpite of fpace, I would be brought, From limits far remote, where thou doft ftay. No matter then although my foot did ftand Upon the fartheft earth removed from thee ; For nimble thought can jump both fea and land. As foon as think the place where he would be. But, ah, thought kills me that I am not thought. To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone. But that, fo much of earth and water wrought, I muft attend time's leifure with my moan ; Receiving nought by elements fo flow But heavy tears, badges of cither's woe.
SONNETS. 45
XLV.
The other two, flight air and purging fire, Are both with thee, wherever I abide ; The firft my thought, the other my defire, Thefe prefent-abfent with fwift motion Aide. For when thefe quicker elements are gone hi tender embaffy of love to thee, My life, being made of four, with two alone Sinks down to death, oppreflT'd with melancholy ; Until life's compofition be recured By thofe fwift meflengers return'd from thee, Who even but now come back again, aflfured Of thy fair health, recounting it to me : This told, I joy ; but then no longer glad, I fend them back again, and ftraight grow fad.
46 SONNETS.
XL VI.
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war, How to divide the conqueft of thy fight ; Mine eye my heart thy pifture's fight would bar, My heart mine eye the freedom of that right. My heart doth plead that thou in him doft lie, A clofet never pierced with cryflal eyes, But the defendant doth that plea deny. And fays in him thy fair appearance Hes. To 'cide this title is impannelled A queft of thoughts, all tenants to the heart ; And by their verdift is determined The clear eye's moiety and the dear heart's part : As thus ; mine eye's due is thine outward part, And my heart's right thine inward love of heart.
SONNETS. 47
XLvri.
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took, And each doth good turns now unto the other : When that mine eye is famifh'd for a look, Or heart in love with fighs himfelf doth fmother, With my love's pidure then my eye doth feaft. And to the painted banquet bids my heart ; Another time mine eye is my heart's gueft. And in his thoughts of love dotli fhare a part : So, either by thy pidure or my love, Thyfelf away art prefent ftill with me ; For thou not farther than my thoughts canft move. And I am ftill with them and they with thee ; Or, if they fleep, thy pidure in my fight Awakes my heart to heart's and eye's delight
48 SONNETS.
XLVin.
How careful was I, when I took my way, Each trifle under trueft bars to thruft, That to my ufe it might unufed (lay From hands of falfehood, in fure wards of truft But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are, Moft worthy comfort, now my greateft grief, Thou, beft of deareft and mine only care. Art left the prey of every vulgar thief. Thee have I not locl^'d up in any cheft, Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art. Within the gentle clofure of my breaft. From whence at pleafure thou niayft come and part ; And even thence thou wilt be ftol'n, I fear, For truth proves thievifh for a prize fo dear.
SONNETS. 49
XLIX.
Againft that time, if ever that time come, When I fhall fee thee frown on mv defects. When as thy love hath caft his utmoft fum, Call'd to that audit by advifed refpe£ts ; Againft that time when thou fhaJt ftrangely pafs. And fcarcely greet me with that fun, thine eye. When love, converted from the thing it was. Shall reafons find of fettled gravity; Againft that time do I enfconce me here Within the knowledge of mine own defert, And this my hand againft myfelf uprear. To guard the lawful reafons on thy part :
To leave poor me thou haft the ftrength of laws. Since why to love I can allege no caufe.
so SONNETS.
L.
How hea\'y do I journey on the way,
When what I feek, my weary travel's end,
Doth teach that eafe and that repofe to fay,
' Thus far the miles are meafured from thy friend ! '
The bead that bears me, tired with my woe,
Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me,
As if by fome inftinft the wretch did know
His rider loved not fpeed, being made from thee :
The bloody fpur cannot provoke him on
That fometimes anger thrufls into his hide.
Which heavily he anfwers with a groan
More fharp to me than fpurring to his fide ;
For that fame groan doth put this in my mind : My grief lies onward, and my joy behind.
SONNETS. 5 1
LI.
Thus can my love excufe the flow offence Of my dull bearer when from thee I fpeed : From where thou art why fhould I hafl;e me thence? Till I return, of porting is no need. O, what excufe will my poor beaft then find, When fwift extremity can feem but flow ? Then fhould I fpur, though mounted on the wind, In winged fpeed no motion fhall I know : Then can no horfe with my defire keep pace ; Therefore defire, of perfed'ft love being made, Shall neigh, no dull flefh in his fiery race ; But love, for love, thus (hall excufe my jade, — ' Since from thee going he went wilful-flow, Towards thee I '11 run and give him leave to go.'
52 SONNETS.
LII.
So am I as the rich, whofe bleffed key Can bring him to his fweet up-locI<ed treafure, The which he will not every hour furvey, For blunting the fine point of feldom pleafure. Therefore are feafts fo folemn and fo rare, Since, feldom coming, in the long year fet, Like flones of worth they thinly placed are. Or captain jewels in the carcanet. So is the time that keeps you as my chefl. Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide. To make fome fpecial inftant fpecial bleft. By new unfolding his imprifon'd pride.
Bleffed are you, whofe worthinefs gives fcope. Being had, to triumph ; being lack'd, to hope.
SONNETS. 5 3
LIII.
What is your fuhftance, whereof are you made, That milHons of flrange fhadows on you tend ? Since every one hath, every one, one fhade, And you, but one, can every fhadow lend. Defcribe Adonis, and the counterfeit Is poorly imitated after you ; On Helen's cheek all art of beauty fet. And you in Grecian tires are painted new : Speak of the fpring and foifon of the year, The one doth fhadow of your beauty fhow. The other as your bounty doth appear ; And you in every bleffed fhape we know. In all external grace you have fome part. But you hke none, none you, for conftant heart.
S4 SONNETS.
LIV.
O, how much more doth beauty beauteous feem By thai fweet ornament which truth doth give ! The rofe looks fair, but fairer we it deem For that fweet odour which doth in it Hve. The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye As the perfumed tinSure of the rofes, Hang on fuch thorns, and play as wantonly When fummer's breath their maflced buds difclofes But, for their virtue only is their fhow. They live unwoo'd and unrefpeded fade ; Die to themfelves. Sweet rofes do not fo ; Of their fweet deaths are fweeteft odours made : And fo of you, beauteous and lovely youth. When that fliall vade, by verfe diftils your truth.
SONNETS. 55
LV.
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, (hall outlive this powerful rime ; But you {hall (hine more bright in thefe contents Than unfwept ftone, befmear'd with fluttifh time. When wafteful war Ihall ftatues overturn, And broils root out the work of mafonry, Nor Mars his fword nor war's quick fire fhall burn The living record of your memory. 'Gainft death and all-oblivious enmity Shall you pace forth ; your praife fhall flill find room Even in the eyes of all pofterity That wear this world out to the ending doom. So, till the judgement that yourfelf arife, You live in tliis, and dwell in lovers' eyes.
$6 SONNETS.
LVI.
Sweet love, renew thy force ; be it not faid Thy edge fhould blunter be than appetite. Which but to-day by feeding is allay'd, To-morrow ftiarp'ned in his former might : So, love, be thou ; although to-day thou fill Thy hungry eyes even till they wink with fullnefs, To-morrow fee again, and do not kill The fpirit of love with a perpetual dullnefs. Let this fad interim hke the ocean be Which parts the (hore, where two contraded new Come daily to the banks, that, when they fee Return of love, more bleft may be the view ; Or call it winter, which, being full of care, Makes fummer's welcome thrice more wifh'd, more rare.
SONNETS. 57
LVII.
Being your Have, what fhould I do but tend Upon the hours and times of your defire ? I have no precious time at all to fpend, Nor ferviccs to do, till you require. Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour Whilft I, my fovereign, watch the clock for you, Nor think the bitternefs of abfence four When you have bid your fervant once adieu ; Nor dare I queftion with my jealous thought Where you may be, or your affairs fuppofe, But, like a fad Have, flay and think of nought Save, where you are how happy you make thoA; So true a fool is love that in your will, Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.
58 SONNETS.
LVIII.
That god forbid that made me firft your flave, I fhould in thought control your times of pleafure, Or at your hand the account of hours to crave, Being your vaffal, bound to ftay your leifure ! O, let me fuffer, being at your beck, The imprifon'd abfence of your liberty ; And patience, tame to fufferance, bide each check. Without accufmg you of injury. Be where you lift, your charter is fo ftrong That you yourfelf may privilege your time To what you will ; to you it doth belong Yourfelf to pardon of felf-doing crime. I am to wait, though waiting fo be hell. Not blame your pleafure, be it ill or well.
SONNETS. 59
LIX.
If there be nothing new, but that which is Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled, Which, labouring for invention, bear amifs The fecond burthen of a former child ! O, that record could with a backward look. Even of five hundred courfes of the fun, Show me your image in fome antique book. Since mind at firft in charader was done ! That I might fee what the old world could fay To this compofed wonder of your frame ; Whether we are mended, or whe'r better they, Or whether revolution be the fame. O, fure I am, the wits of former days To fubjeds worfe have given admiring praife.
6o SONNETS.
LX.
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled fhore, So do our minutes haften to their end ; Each changing place with that which goes before, In fequent toil all forwards do contend. Nativity, once in the main of light, Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd, Crooked eclipfes 'gainfi: his glory fight, And Time that gave doth now his gift confound. Time doth tranffix the flourifh fet on youth And delves the parallels in beauty's brow, Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth, And nothing ftands but for his fcythe to mow : And yet to times in hope my verfe fhall ftand, Praifing thy worth, defpite his cruel hand.
SONNETS. 6i
LXI,
Is it thy will thy image fhould keep open
My heavy eyelids to the weary night ?
Dofl; thou defire my {lumbers fhould be broken,
While fhadows like to thee do mock my fight ?
Is it thy fpirit that thou fend'ft from thee
So far from home into my deeds to pry,
To fmd out fhames and idle hours in me,
The fcope and tenour of thy jealoufy ?
O, no ! thy love, though much, is not fo great :
It is my love that keeps mine eye awake ;
Mine own true love that doth my reft defeat.
To play the watchman ever for thy fake :
For thee watch I whilft thou doft wake elfewhere. From me far off, with others all too near.
62 SONNETS.
LXII.
Sin of felf-love poffeffeth all mine eye And all my foul and all my every part ; And for this fin there is no remedy, It is fo grounded inward in my heart. •Methinks no face fo gracious is as mine, No fhape fo true, no truth of fuch account ; And for myfelf mine own worth do define, As I all other in all worths furmount. But when my glafs (hows me myfelf indeed, Beated and chopp'd with tann'd antiquity, Mine own felf-love quite contrary I read ; Self fo felf-loving were iniquity.
'Tis thee, myfelf, that for myfelf I praife, Painting my age with beauty of thy days.
SONNETS. 63
LXIII.
Againft my love (hall be, as I am now, With Time's injurious hand crufh'd and o'erworn ; When hours have drain'd his blood and fill'd his brow With lines and wrinkles ; when his youthful morn Hath travell'd on to age's fteepy night ; And all thofe beauties whereof now he 's king Are vanifhing or vanifh'd out of fight. Stealing away the treafure of his fpring ; For fuch a time do I now fortify Againft confounding age's cruel knife. That he fhall never cut from memory My fweet love's beauty, though my lover's life : His beauty (hall in thefe black lines be feen, And they (hall live, and he in them ftill green.
64 SONNETS.
LXIV.
When I have feen by Time's fell hand defaced The rich-proud cofl: of outworn buried age ; When fometime lofty towers I fee down-razed, And brafs eternal flave to mortal rage ; When I have feen the hungry ocean gain Advantage on the kingdom of the fhore, And the firm foil win of the watery main, Increafmg ftore with lofs and lofs with ftore ; When I have feen fuch interchange of ftate, Or ftate itfelf confounded to decay ; Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate. That Time will come and take my love away. This thought is as a death, which cannot choofe But weep to have tliat which it fears to lofe.
SONNETS. 6$
LXV.
Since brafs, nor ftone, nor earth, nor boundlefs fea, But fad mortality o'erfways their power, How with this rage fliall beauty hold a plea, Whofe aftion is no ftronger than a flower ? O, how (hall fummer's honey breath hold out Againft the wreckful fiege of battering days, When rocks impregnable are not fo ftout, Nor gates of fteel fo ftrong, but Time decays ? O fearful meditation ! where, alack, Shall Time's beft jewel from Time's cheft lie hid ? Or what ftrong hand can hold his fwift foot back ? Or who his fpoil of beauty can forbid ? O, none, unlefs this miracle have might, That in black ink my love may ftill (hine bright.
66 SONNETS.
LXVI.
Tired with all thefe, for reftful death I cry As, to behold defert a beggar born, And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity, And pureft faith unhappily forfworn, And gilded honour fhamefully mifplaced, And maiden virtue rudely ftrumpeted, And right perfedion wrongfully difgraced, And ftrength by limping fway difabled, And art made tongue-tied by authority, And folly, dodor-like, controlling fkill, And fimple truth mifcaUed fimplicity, And captive good attending captain ill :
Tired with all thefe, from thefe would I be gone, Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.
SONNETS. 67
LXVII.
Ah, wherefore with infedion fhould he hve And with his prefence grace impiety, That fin by him advantage fhould achieve And lace itfelf with his fociety ? Why fhould falfe painting imitate his cheek, And fteal dead feeing of his living hue ? Why fhould poor beauty indiredly feek Rofes of (hadow, fince his rofe is true ? Why fhould he live, now Nature bankrupt is, Beggar'd of blood to blufh through lively veins ? For fhe hath no exchequer now but his, And, proud of many, lives upon his gains.
O, him fhe flores, to fhow what wealth flic had In days long fince, before thefe lafl fo bad
68 SONNETS.
Lxviir.
Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn, When beauty lived and died as flowers do now, Before thefe baftard figns of fair were born, Or durft inhabit on a living brow ; Before the golden trefles of the dead, The right of fepulchres, were fhorn away, To live a fecond life on fecond head ; Ere beauty's dead fleece made another gay : In him thofe holy antique hours are feen. Without all ornament, itfelf and true. Making no fummer of another's green, Robbing no old to drefs his beauty new ; And him as for a map doth Nature ftore, To fhow falfe Art what beauty was of yore.
SONNETS. 69
LXIX.
Thofe parts of thee that the world's eye doth view Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend ; All tongues, the voice of fouls, give thee that due. Uttering bare truth, even fo as foes commend. Thy outward thus with outward praife is crown'd ; But thofe fame tongues, that give thee fo thine own, In other accents do tliis praife confound By feeing farther than the eye hath fhown. They look into the beauty of thy mind. And that, in guefs, they meafure by thy deeds ; Then, churls, their thoughts, aUhough their eyes
were kind, To thy fair flower add the rank fmell of weeds : But why thy odour matcheth not thy fhow. The foil is this, that thou doft common grow.
70 SONNETS.
LXX.
That thou art blamed fhall not be thy defed, For flander's mark was ever yet the fair ; The ornament of beauty is fufped, A crow that flies in heaven's fweetefl: air. So thou be good, flander doth but approve Thy worth the greater, being woo'd of time ; For canlvcr vice the fweetefl: buds doth love. And thou prefent'ft a pure, unftained prime. Thou haft paflT'd by the ambufh of young days, Either not afl'ail'd, or vi£lor being charged ; Yet this thj' praife cannot be fo thy praife. To tie up envy evermore enlarged :
If fome fufpeft of ill mafk'd not thy fhow, Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts fhouldft owe.
SONNETS. 71
LXXI.
No longer mourn for me when I am dead Than you fhall hear the furly fullen bell Give warning to the world that I am fled From this vile world, with vileft worms to dwell : Nay, if you read this line, remember not The hand that writ it ; for I love you fo, That I in your fweet thoughts would be forgot, If thinking on me then fhould make you woe. O, if, I lay, you look upon this verfe When I perhaps compounded am with clay, Do not fo much as my poor name rehearfe, But let your love even with my life decay ;
Left the wife world fhould look into your moan, And mock you with me after I am gone.
72 SONNETS.
LXXII.
O, left the world fliould tafk you to recite What merit lived in me, that you (hould love After my death, dear love, forget me quite, For you in me can nothing worthy prove ; Unlefs you would devife fome virtuous lie, To do more for me than mine own defert, And hang more praife upon deceafed I Than niggard truth would willingly impart : O, left your true love may feem falfe in this, That you for love fpeak well of me untrue. My name be buried where my body is. And live no more to fhame nor me nor you. For I am fhamed by that which I bring forth, And fo fhould }'0u, to love things nothing worth.
SONNETS. 73
LXXIII.
That time of year thou mayft in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon thofe boughs which fhake againft the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the fweet birds fang. In me thou fee'ft the twilight of fuch day As after funfet fadeth in the weft ; Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's fecond felf, that feals up all in refl. In me thou fee'ft the glowing of fuch fire. That on the afhes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it muft expire, Confumed with that which it was nourifh'd by.
This thou perceiveft, which makes thy love more ftrong.
To love that well which thou muft leave ere long.
74 SONNETS.
Lxxrv.
But be contented : when that fell arreft Without all bail fhall carry me away. My life hath in this line fome intereft, Which for memorial ftill with thee fhall ftay. When thou revieweft this, thou doft review The very part was confecrate to thee : The earth can have but earth, which is his due ; My fpirit is thine, the better part of me : So then thou haft but loft the dregs of life, The prey of worms, my body being dead ; The coward conqueft of a wretch's knife, Too bafe of thee to be remembered.
The worth of that is that which it contains, And that is this, and this with thee remains.
SONNETS. 7S
LXXV.
So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as fweet-feafon'd fhowers are to the ground ;
And for the peace of you I hold fuch ftrife
As 'twixt a mifer and his wealth is found ;
Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon
Doubting the filching age will fteal his treafure ;
Now counting beft to be with you alone,
Then better'd that the world may fee my plealure
Sometime, all full with feafting on your fight,
And by and by clean ftarved for a look ;
PofTeffmg or purfuing no delight.
Save what is had or muft from you be took.
Thus do I pine and furfeit day by day,
Or gluttoniug on all, or all away.
iS SONNETS.
LXXVI.
Why is my verfe fo barren of new pride, So far from variation or quick change? Why with the time do I not glance afide To new-found methods and to compounds ftrange ? Why write I ftill all one, ever the fame, And keep invention in a noted weed, That every word doth almoft tell my name, Showing their birth and where they did proceed? O, know, fweet love, I always write of you, And you and love are ftill my argument ; So all my beft is dreffing old words new, Spending again what is already fpent ; For as the fun is daily new and old. So is my love ftill telling what is told.
SONNETS. 77
LXXVII.
Thy glafs will fhow thee how thy beauties wear, Thy dial how thy precious minutes wafte ; The vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear, And of this book this learning mayft thou tafte. The wrinkles which thy glafs will truly fhow Of mouthed graves will give thee memory ; Thou by thy dial's (hady ftealth mayft know Time's thievifh progrefs to eternity. Look, what thy memory cannot contain Commit to thefe wafte blanks, and thou fhalt find Thofe children nurfed, deliver'd from thy brain, To take a new acquaintance of thy mind. Thefe offices, fo oft as thou wilt look, Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book.
78 SONNETS.
LXXVIII.
So oft have I invoked thee for my Mufe And found fuch fair afiiflance in my verfe As every alien pen hath got my ufe And under thee their poefy difperfe. Thine eyes, that taught the dumb on high to fmg And heavy ignorance aloft to fly, Have added feathers to the learned's wing And given grace a double majefty. Yet be mofl: proud of that which I compile, Whofe influence is thine and born of thee : In others' works thou doft but mend the ftyle, And arts with thy fweet graces graced be ; But thou art all my art, and doft advance As high as learning my rude ignorance.
SONNETS. 79
LXXIX.
Whilft I alone did call upon thy aid, My verfe alone had all thy gentle grace ; But now my gracious numbers are decay'd, And my fick Mufe doth give another place. I grant, fweet love, thy lovely argument Deferves the travail of a worthier pen ; Yet what of thee thy poet doth invent He robs thee of, and pays it thee again. He lends thee virtue, and he ftole that word From thy behaviour ; beauty doth he give, And found it in thy cheek ; he can afford No praife to thee but what in thee doth live.
Then thank him not for that which he doth faj;
Since what he owes thee thou thyfelf doft pay.
8o SONNETS.
LXXX.
O, how I faint when I of you do write, Knowing a better fpirit doth ufe j'our name, And in the praife thereof fpends all his might, To make me tongue-tied, fpeaking of your fame ! But fmce your worth, wide as the ocean is, The humble as the proudeft fail doth bear, My faucy bark, inferior far to his, On your broad main doth wilfully appear. Your fhalloweft help will hold me up afloat, Whilft he upon your foundlefs deep doth ride ; Or, being wreck'd, I am a worthlefs boat, He of tall building and of goodly pride : Then if he thrive and I be cafl: away, The worft was this ; my love was my decay.
SONNETS. 8 1
LXXXI.
Or I fhall live your epitaph to make, Or you furvive when I in earth am rotten ; From hence your memory death cannot take, Although in me each part will be forgotten. Your name from hence immortal life fhall have. Though I, once gone, to all the world muit die : The earth can yield me but a common grave. When you entombed in men's eyes fhall lie. Your monument fhall be my gentle verfe Which eyes not yet created fhall o'er-read ; And tongues to be your being fhall rehearfe. When all the breathers of this world are dead ; You ftill fliall live— fuch virtue hath my pen — Where breath moft breathes, even in the mouths of men.
82 SONNETS.
LXXXII.
I grant thou wert not married to my Mufe, And therefore mayft without attaint o'erlook The dedicated words which writers ufe Of their fair fubjed, bleffing every book. Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue, Finding thy worth a limit paft my praife ; And therefore art enforced to feek anew Some frefher ftamp of the time-bettering days. And do fo, love ; yet when they have devifed What (trained touches rhetoric can lend, Thou truly fair wert truly fympathifed In true plain words by thy true-telling friend ; And their grofs painting might be better ufed Where cheeks need blood ; in thee it is abufed.
SONNETS. 83
LXXXIII.
I never faw that you did painting need, And therefore to your fair no painting fet ; I found, or thought I found, you did exceed The barren tender of a poet's debt : And therefore have I (lept in your report, That you yourfelf, being extant, well might (how How far a modern quill doth come too fhort. Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow. This filence for my fin you did impute, Which ftiall be moft my glory, being dumb ; For I impair not beauty being mute, When others would give life and bring a tomb. There lives more life in one of your fair eyes Than both your poets can in praife devife.
84 SONNETS.
LXXXIV.
Who is it that faj^s moft ? which can fay more Than this rich praife, that you alone are you ? In whofe confine immured is the ftore Which fhould example where your equal grew. Lean penury within that pen doth dwell That to his fubjeft lends not fomc fmall glory ; But he that writes of you, if he can tell That you are you, fo dignifies his ftory, Let him but copy what in you is writ, Not making worfe what nature made fo clear, And fuch a counterpart fhall fame his wit, Making his ftyle admired every where.
You to your beauteous bleffings add a curfe. Being fond on praife, which makes your praifes worfe.
SONNETS. 8 s
LXXXV.
My tongue-tied Mufe in manners holds her ftill, While comments of your praife, richly compiled, Referve their charafter with golden quill, And precious phrafe by all the Mufes filed. I think good thoughts, whilft other write good words, And, like unlettered clerk, ftill cry ' Amen ' To every hymn that able fpirit affords. In polifti'd form of well-refined pen. Hearing you praifed, I fay ' 'Tis fo, 'tis true,' And to the moft of praife add fomething more ; But that is in my thought, whofe love to you, Though words comehindmoft, holds his rank before. Then others for the breath of words refpe£l, Me for my dumb thoughts, fpeaking in effed.
W F P'
84
SONNETS.
LXXXIV.
Who is it that (ays moft ? which can fay more Than this rich praife, that you alone are you ? In whofe confine immured is the ftore Which fhould example where your equal grew. Lean penury within that pen doth dwell That to his fubjed lends not fomc fmall glory ; But he that writes of you, if he can tell That you are you, (0 dignifies his ftory, Let him but copy what in you is writ, Notniaking worfe what nature made fo clear, And fuch a counterpart fhall fame his wit. Making his ftyle admired every where.
You to your beauteous blefllngs add a curfe, Being fond on praiie, which makes your praifes worfe.
M)'1011{llMti>
Refenttoii Anil predon fin
y, like dan Toe?0]ilr
Hear:. A!iil;:_.. Bddiitisi: TkoojIiTO. HxDolkr
^^ V
SONNETS.
85
LXXXV.
latt.
My tongue-tied Mufe in manners holds her ftill, While comments of your praife, richly compiled, Referve their charafter with golden quill, And precious phrafe by all the Mufes filed. I think good thoughts, whilft other write good words. And, like unlettered clerk, ftill cry ' Amen ' To every hymn that able fpirit affords. In polifh'd form of well-refined pen. Hearing you praifed, I fay ' 'Tis fo, 'tis true,' And to the moft of praife add fomething more ; But that is in my thought, whofe love to you, Though words come hindmoft, holds his rank before. Then others for the breath of words refped. Me for my dumb thoughts, fpeaking in effed.
86 SONNETS.
LXXXVI.
Was it the proud full fail of his great verfe, Bound for the prize of all too precious you, That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearfe, Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew ? Was it his fpirit, by fpirits taught to write Above a mortal pitch, that ftruck me dead ? No, neither he, nor his compeers by night Giving him aid, my verfe aftonifhed. He, nor that affable familiar ghoft Which nightly gulls him with intelligence. As victors, of my filence cannot boaft ; I was not fick of any fear from thence :
But when your countenance fill'd up his line, Then lack'd I matter ; that enfeebled mine.
SONNETS. 87
LXXXVII.
Farewell ! thou art too dear for my poffefling, And like enough thou know'ft thy eftimate : The charter of thy worth gives thee releafmg ; My bonds in thee are all determinate. For how do I hold thee but by thy granting ? And for that riches where is my deferving ? The caufe of this fair gift in me is wanting, And fo my patent back again is fwerving. [ing,
Thyfelf thou gaveft, thy own worth then not know- Or me, to whom thou gaveft it, elfe miftaking ; So thy great gift, upon mifprifion growing, Comes home again, on better judgement making. Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter. In fleep a king, but waking no fuch matter.
88 SONNETS.
LXXXVIII.
When thou fhah be difpofed to set me light, And place my merit in the eye of fcorn, Upon thy fide againft myfelf I '11 fight, And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forfworn. With mine own weaknefs being beft acquainted, Upon thy part I can fet down a ftory Of faults conceal'd, wherein I am attainted ; That thou in lofing me fhalt win much glory : And I by this will be a gainer too ; For bending all my loving thoughts on thee. The injuries that to myfelf I do, Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me. Such is my love, to thee I fo belong, That for thy right myfelf will bear all wrong.
SONNETS. 89
LXXXIX.
Say that thou didft forfake me for fome fault, And I will comment upon that offence : Speak of my lamenefs, and I ftraight will halt, Againfl thy reafons making no defence. Thou canft not, love, difgrace me half fo ill, To fet a form upon defired change. As I'll myfelf difgrace ; knowing thy will, I will acquaintance flrangle and look ftrange ; Be abfent from thy walks ; and in my tongue Thy fweet beloved name no more fliall dwell, Left I, too much profane, fhould do it wrong. And haply of our old acquaintance tell. For thee, againft myfelf I '11 vow debate, For I muft ne'er love liim whom thou doft hate.
90 SONNETS.
xc.
Then hate me when thou wilt ; if ever, now ;
Now, while the world is bent my deeds to crofs,
Join with the fpite of fortune, make me bow.
And do not drop in for an after-lofs :
Ah, do not, when my heart hath 'fcaped this forrow.
Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe ;
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purpofed overthrow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me laft,
When other petty griefs have done their fpite,
But in the onfet come : fo fhall I tafte
At firft the very worft of fortune's might ;
And other drains of woe, which now feem woe. Compared with lofs of thee will not feem fo.
SONNETS. 91
xci.
Some glory in their birth, fome in their (kill, Some in their wealth, fome in their body's force ; Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill ; Some in their hawks and hounds, fome in their horfe ; And every humour hath his adjund pleafure, Wherein it finds a joy above the reft : But thefe particulars are not my meafure ; All thefe I better in one general beft. Thy love is better than high birth to me, Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' coft, Of more delight than hawks or horfes be ; And having thee, of all men's pride I boaft : Wretched in this alone, that thou mayft take All this away and me moft wretched make.
92 SONNETS.
XCII.
But do thy worft to ileal thyfelf away, For term of life thou art affured mine ; And life no longer than thy love will ftay, For it depends upon that love of thine. Then need I not to fear the worft: of wrongs, When in the leaft of them my life hath end. I fee a better ftate to me belongs Than that which on thy humour doth depend : Thou canfl: not vex me with inconftant mind, Since that my life on thy revolt doth lie. O, what a happy title do I find, Happy to have thy love, happy to die !
But what's fo bleffed-fair that fears no blot?
Thou mayfl be falfe, and yet I know it not.
SONNETS.
93
XCIII.
So (hall I live, fuppofing thou art true, Like a deceived hufband ; fo love's face May ftill feem love to me, though alter'd new ; Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place : For there can live no hatred in thine eye, Therefore in that I cannot know thy change. In many's looks the falfe heart's hiftory Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles ftrange. But heaven in thy creation did decree That in thy face fweet love fhould ever dwell ; Whate'er thy thoughts or thy heart's workings be. Thy looks fhould nothing thence but fweetnefs tell. How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow, If thy fweet virtue anfwer not thy fhow !
94 SONNETS.
XCIV.
They that have power to hurt and will do nonC; That do not do the thing they moft do (how, Who, moving others, are themfelves as ftone, Unmoved, cold, and to temptation flow ; They rightly do inherit heaven's graces And hufband nature's riches from expenfe ; They are the lords and owners of their faces, Others but ftewards of their excellence. The fummer's flower is to the fummer fweet, Though to itfelf it only live and die. But if that flower with bafe infeftion meet. The bafeft weed outbraves his dignity :
For fweetefl: things turn soureft by their deeds ;
Lilies that fefter fmell far worfe than weeds.
SONNETS. 95
xcv.
How fweet and lovely doft thou make the (hame Which, like a canker in the fragrant rofe, Doth fpot the beauty of thy budding name ! O, in what fweets doft thou thy fins inclofe ! That tongue that tells the ftory of thy days, Making lafcivious comments on thy fport, Cannot difpraife but in a kind of praife ; Naming thy name bleffes an ill report. O, what a manfion have thofe vices got Which for their habitation chofe out thee, Where beauty's veil doth cover every blot And all things turn to fair that eyes can fee !
Take heed, dear heart, of this large privilege ;
The hardeft knife ill-ufed doth lofe his edge.
G
96. SONNETS.
XCVI.
Some fay, thy fault is youth, fome wantonnefs ; Some fay, thy grace is youth and gentle fport ; Both grace and faults are loved of more and lefs : Thou makeft faults graces that to thee refort. As on the finger of a throned queen The bafeft jewel will be well efteem'd, So are thofe errors that in thee are feen To truths tranflated and for true things deem'd. How many lambs might the ftern wolf betray, If like a Iamb he could his looks tranflate ! How many gazers niightft thou lead away, If thou wouldft ufe the ftrength of all thy ftate ! But do not fo ; I love thee in fuch fort, As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
I
SONNETS.
97
xcvn.
How like a winter hath my abfence been From thee, the pleafure of the fleeting j^ear ! What freezings have I felt, what dark days feen ! What old December's barenefs every where ! And yet this time removed was fummer's time ; The teeming autumn, big with rich increaf^ Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime, Like widow'd wombs after their lords' deceafe; Yet this abundant iffue feem'd to me But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit ; For fummer and his pleafures wait on thee, And, thou away, the very birds are mute : Or, if they fmg, 'tis with fo dull a cheer That leaves look pale, dreading the winter 's near.
-.^v
I
96
SONNETS.
XCVI.
Some fay, thy fault is youth, feme wantonnefs ; Some fay, thy grace is youth and gentle fport ; Both grace and faults are loved of more and lefs : Thou makefl; faults graces that to thee refort. As on the finger of a throned queen The bafeft jewel will be well efteem'd, So are thofe errors that in thee are feen To truths tranflated and for true things deem'd. How many lambs might the ftern wolf betray, If like a lamb he could his looks tranflate ! How many gazers mightft thou lead away, If thou wouldft ufe the ftrength of all thy ftate ! But do not fo ; I love thee in fuch fort, As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
FrointlKt,^fi[
Oi,
h.
SONNETS.
97
xcvn.
ftfon; iidon.
ftfknr,
How like a ^^nnter hath my abfence been From thee, the pleafure of the fleeting year ! What freezings have I felt, what dark days feen ! What old December's barenefs every where ! And yet this time removed was fummer's time ; The teeming autumn, big with rich increaf^ Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime. Like widow'd wombs after their lords' deceafe: Yet this abundant iffue feem'd to me But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit ; For fummer and his pleafures wait on thee. And, thou away, the very birds are mute : Or, if they fmg, 'tis with fo dull a cheer That leaves look pale, dreading the winter 's near.
I
98 SONNETS.
XCVIII.
From you have I been abfent in the fpring, "When proud-pied April, dreff'd in all his trim, Hath put a fpirit of youth in every thing, That heavy Saturn laugh'd and leap'd with him. Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the fweet fmell Of different flowers in odour and in hue, Could make me any fummer's ftory tell. Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew: Nor did I wonder at the lily's white, Nor praife the deep vermilion in the rofe ; They were but fweet, but figures of delight, Drawn after you, you pattern of all thofe. Yet feem'd it winter ftill, and, you away, As with your fhadow I with thefe did play.
SONNETS. 99
XCIX.
The forward violet thus did I chide : [fmells,
Sweet thief, whence didft thou fteal thy fweet that If not from my love's breath ? The purple pride Which on thy foft cheek for complexion dwells In my love's veins thou haft too groffly dyed. The lily I condemned for thy hand, And buds of marjoram had ftol'n thy hair ; The rofes fearfully on thorns did ftand, One bluftiing fhame, another white defpair ; A third, nor red nor white, had ftol'n of both, And to his robbery had annex'd thy breath ; But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth A vengeful canker eat him up to death. More flowers I noted, yet I none could fee But fweet or colour it had ftol'n from thee.
100 SONNETS.
Where art thou, Mufe, that thou forget'ft fo long To fpeak of that which gives thee all thy might ? Spend'ft thou thy fury on fome worthlefs fong, Darkening thy power to lend bafe fubjeds light ? Return, forgetful Mufe, and ftraight redeem In gentle numbers time fo idly fpent ; Sing to the ear that doth thy lays efleem And gives thy pen both (kill and argument. Rife, refty Mufe, my love's fweet face furvey, If Time have any wrinkle graven there ; If any, be a fatire to decay, And make Time's fpoils defpifed every where.
Give my love fame fafter than Time waftes life ;
So thou prevent'ft his fcythe and crooked knife.
SONNETS. loi
a.
O truant Mufe, what fhall be thy amends
For thy negled of truth in beauty dyed ?
Both truth and beauty on my love depends ;
So doft thou too, and therein dignified.
Make anfwer, Mufe : wilt thou not haply fay,
' Truth needs no colour, with his colour fix'd ;
Beauty no pencil, beauty's truth to lay ;
But beft is beft, if never interraix'd '?
Becaufe he needs no praife, wilt thou be dumb ?
Excule not filence fo ; for 't lies in thee
To make him much outlive a gilded tomb
And to be praifed of ages yet to be.
Then do thy office, Mufe ; I teach thee how To make him feem long hence as he fhows now.
I02 SONNETS.
CII.
My love is ftrengthen'd, though more weak in feem- I love not lefs, though lefs the fhow appear : [ing ; That love is merchandized whofe rich efteeming The owner's tongue doth publifh every where. Our love was new, and then but in the fpring, When I was wont to greet it with my lays ; As Philomel in fummer's front doth fing, And ftops her pipe in growth of riper days : Not that the fummer is lefs pleafant now Than when her mournful hymns did hufh the night, But that wild mufic burthens every bough, And fweets grown common lofe their dear delight. Therefore, like her, I fometime hold my tongue, Becaufe I would not dull you with my fong.
SONNETS. 103
cm.
Alack, what poverty my Mufe brings forth, That having fuch a fcope to fhow her pride, The argument, all bare, is of more worth Than when it hath my added praife befide ! O, blame me not, if I no more can write ! Look in your glafs, and there appears a face That over-goes my blunt invention quite, Dulling my lines and doing me difgrace. Were it not fmful then, ftriving to mend. To mar the fubjeft that before was well ? For to no other pafs my verfes tend Than of your graces and your gifts to tell ;
And more, much more, than in my verfe can fit, Your own glafs fhows you when you look in it.
104 SONNETS.
CIV.
To me, fair friend, you never can be old, For as you were when firft your eye I eyed, Such feems your beauty ftill. Three winters cold Have from the forefts fhook three fummers' pride, Three beauteous fprings to yellow autumn turn'd In procefs of the feafons have I feen. Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd, Since firft I faw you frefh, which yet are green. Ah, yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand, Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived ; So your fweet hue, which methinks ftill doth ftand. Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived : For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred : Ere you were born was beauty's fummer dead.
I
^
SONNETS. 105
cv.
Let not my love be call'd idolatry, Nor my beloved as an idol (how, Since all alike my fongs and praifes be To one, of one, ftill inch, and ever fo. Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind. Still conftant in a wondrous excellence ; Therefore my verfe, to conftancy confined. One thing expreffing, leaves out difference. ' Fair, kind, and true,' is all my argument, ' Fair, kind, and true,' varying to other words ; And in this change is my invention fpent, Three themes in one, which wondrous fcope affords. ' Fair, kind, and true,' have often lived alone. Which three till now never kept feat in one.
io6 SONNETS.
cvi.
When in the chronicle of wafted time I fee defcriptions of the fairefl: wights, And beauty making beautiful old rime In praife of ladies dead and lovely knights. Then, in the blazon of fweet beauty's beft, Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow, I fee their antique pen would have expreff'd Even fuch a beauty as you mafter now. So all their praifes are but prophecies Of this our time, all you prefiguring ; And, for they look'd but with divining eyes. They had not fkill enough your worth to fmg : For we, which now behold thefe prefent days. Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praife.
SONNETS. 107
CVII.
Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic foul Of the wide world dreaming on things to come, Can yet the leafe of my true love control, Suppofed as forfeit to a confined doom. The mortal moon hath her eclipfe endured, And the fad augurs mock their own prefage ; Incertainties now crown themfelves affured, And peace proclaims olives of endlefs age. Now with the drops of this moft balmy time My love looks frefti, and Death to me fubfcribes, Since, fpite of him, I '11 live in this poor rime. While he infults o'er dull and fpeechlefs tribes : And thou in this (halt find thy monument. When tyrants' crefts and tombs of brafs are spent.
io8 SONNETS.
CVIII.
What's in the brain, that ink may charader, Which hath not figured to thee my true fpirit ? What's new to fpeak, what new to regifter, That may exprefs my love, or thy dear merit ? Nothing, fweet boy ; but yet, like prayers divine, I muft each day fay o'er the very fame ; Counting no old thing old, thou mine, I thine, Even as when firft I hallow'd thy fair name. So that eternal love in love's frefti cafe Weighs not the duft and injury of age. Nor gives to neceffary wrinkles place, But makes antiquity for aye his page ;
Finding the firft conceit of love there bred, Where time and outward form would fhow it dead.
SONNETS. 109
cix.
O, never fay that I was falfe of heart, Though abfence feem'd my flame to qualify. As eafy might I from myfelf depart As from my foul, which in thy breaft doth lie : That is my home of love : if I have ranged. Like him that travels, I return again ; Juft to the time, not with the time exchanged, So that myfelf bring water for my ftain. Never believe, though in my nature reign'd All frailties that befiege all kinds of blood, That it could fo prepofteroufly be ftain'd. To leave for nothing all thy fum of good ; For nothing this wide univerfe I call, Save thou, my rofe ; in it thou art my all.
no SONNETS.
ex..
Alas, 'tis true I have gone here and there, And made myfelf a motley to the view, Gored mine own thoughts, fold cheap what is mod Made old offences of affeftions new ; [dear,
Moft true it is that I have look'd on truth Afkance and ftrangely ; but, by all above, Thefe blenches gave my heart another youth, And worfe effays proved thee my beft of love. Now all is done, have what fhall have no end : Mine appetite I never more will grind On newer proof, to try an older friend, A god in love, to whom I am confined.
Then give me welcome, next my heaven the beft, Even to thy pure and moft moft loving breaft.
SONNETS. 1 1 1
CXI.
O, for my fake do you with Fortune chide, The guihy goddefs of my harmful deeds. That did not better for my life provide Than public means which public manners breeds. Thence comes it that my name receives a brand. And almoft thence my nature is fubdued To what it works in, like the dyer's hand : Pity me then and wifh I were renew'd ; WTiilft, like a willing patient, I will drink Potions of eifel, 'gainft my ftrong infeftion ; No bitternefs that I will bitter think, Nor double penance, to corred correftion. Pity me then, dear friend, and I affure ye Even that your pity is enough to cure me.
112 SONNETS.
CXII.
Your love and pity doth the impreflion fill Which vulgar fcandal ftamp'd upon my brow ; For what care I who calls me well or ill, So you o'er-green my bad, my good allow ? You are my all the world, and I muft ftrive To know my fhames and praifes from your tongue ; None elfe to me, nor I to none alive, That my fteel'd fenfe or changes right or wrong. In To profound abyfm I throw all care Of others' voices, that my adder's fenfe To critic and to flatterer flopped are. Mark how with my negleft I do difpenfe : • You are fo ftrongly in my purpofe bred That all the world befides methinks they 're dead.
SONNETS. 1 1 3
CXIII,
Since I left you mine eye is in my mind, And that which governs me to go about Doth part his fundion and is partly blind, Seems feeing, but effedually is out ; For it no form delivers to the heart Of bird, of flower, or fliape, which it doth latch : Of his quick objefts hath the mind no part, Nor his own vifion holds what it doth catch ; For if it fee the rudeft or gentleft fight, The moft fweet favour or deformed'ft creature. The mountain or the fea, the day or night. The crow or dove, it fhapes them to your feature Incapable of more, replete with you, My moft true mind thus maketh mine untrue.
114 SONNETS.
CXIV.
Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you, Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery ? Or whether fhall I fay, mine eye faith true. And that your love taught it this alchemy. To make of monfters and things indigeft Such cherubins as your fweet felf refemble, Creating every bad a perfeft beft, As faft as objefts to his beams afl'emble ? O, 'tis the firfi: ; 'tis flattery in my feeing, And my great mind moft kingly drinks it up : Mine eye well knows what with his guft is 'greeing, And to his palate doth prepare the cup : If it be poifon'd, 'tis the leffer fm That mine eye loves it and doth tirft begin.
SONNETS. lis
cxv.
Thofe lines that I before have writ do He, Even thofe that faid I could not love you dearer : Yet then my judgement knew no reafon why My moft full flame fhould afterwards burn clearer. But reckoning Time, whofe million'd accidents Creep in 'twixt vows, and change decrees of kings. Tan facred beauty, blunt the fliarp'ft intents, Divert flrong minds to the courfe of altering things ; Alas, why, fearing of Time's tyranny. Might I not then fay * Now I love you beft,' When I was certain o'er incertainty. Crowning the prefent, doubting of the reft ? Love is a babe ; then might I not fay fo. To give full growth to that which ftill doth grow ?
:i6 SONNETS.
cxvi.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove : O, no ! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempefts and is never fhaken ; It is the ftar to every wandering bark, [taken.
Whofe worth's unknown, although his height be Love's not Time's fool, though rofy lips and cheeks Within liis bending Tickle's compafs come ; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
SONNETS. 117
CXVII.
Accufe me thus : that I have fcanted all Wherein I fhould your great deferts repay, Forgot upon your deareft love to call, Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day ; That I have frequent been with unknown minds, And given to time your own dear-purchafed right; That I have hoifted lail to all the winds Which fliould tranfport me fartheft from your fight. Book both my wilfulnefs and errors down, And on juft proof furmife accumulate ; Bring me within the level of your frown, But fhoot not at me in your waken'd hate ; Since my appeal fays I did ftrive to prove The conftancy and virtue of your love-
■ I
Ii8 SONNETS.
CXVIII.
Like as, to make our appetites more keen, With eager compounds we our palate urge ; As, to prevent our maladies unfeen, We ficken to fliun ficknefs when we purge ; Even Co, being full of your ne'er-cloying fweetnefs. To bitter fauces did I frame my feeding ; And fick of welfare found a kind of meetnefs To be difeafed, ere that there was true needing. Thus policy in love, to anticipate The ills that were not, grew to faults aflured, And brought to medicine a healthful ftate. Which, rank of goodnefs, would by ill be cured : But thence I learn, and find the lefTon true, Drugs poifon him that fo fell fick of you.
SONNETS. 119
CXIX.
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears, Diftill'd from limbecks foul as hell within. Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears, Still lofmg when I faw myfelf to win ! What wretched errors hath my heart committed, Whilft it hath thought itfelf fo bleffed never ! How have mine eyes out of their fpheres been fitted. In the diftraftion of this madding fever ! O benefit of ill ! now I find true That better is by evil ftill made better ; And ruin'd love, when it is built anew. Grows fairer than at firft, more ftrong, far greater. So I return rebuked to my content, And gain by ills thrice more than I have fpent.
^2o SONNETS.
cxx.
That you were once unkind befriends me now, And for that forrow which I then did feel Needs muft I under my tranfgreffion bow, Unlefs my nerves were brafs or hammer'd ftcel. For if you were by my unkindnefs fhaken, As I by yours, you 've paff'd a hell of time ; And I, a tyrant, have no leifure taken To weigh how once I fuffer'd in your crime. O, that our night of woe might have remember'd My deepeft fenfe, how hard true forrow hits, And foon to you, as you to me, then tender'd The humble falve which wounded bofoms fits !
But that your trefpafs now becomes a fee ;
Mine ranfoms yours, and yours muft ranfom me.
SONNETS. 121
CXXI.
'Tis better to be vile than vile efteemed, When not to be receives reproach of being ; And the juft pleafure loft, which is fo deemed Not by our feeling, but by others' feeing : For why fliould others' falfe adulterate eyes Give falutation to my fportive blood ? Or on my frailties why are frailer fpies, Which in their wills count bad what I think good ? No, I am that I am, and they that level At my abufes reckon up their own : I may be ftraight, though they themfelves be bevel ; By their rank thoughts my deeds muft not be fhown ; Unlefs this general evil they maintain, All men are bad and in their badnefs reign.
122 SONNETS.
CXXII.
Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
Full charafter'd with lafting memory,
Which (hall above that idle rank remain,
Beyond all date, even to eternity :
Or, at the leaft, fo long as brain and heart
Have facuhy by nature to fubfift ;
Till each to razed oblivion yield his part
Of thee, thy record never can be miff'd.
That poor retention could not fo much hold,
Nor need I tallies thy dear love to fcore ; |
Therefore to give them from me was I bold,
To truft thofe tables that receive thee more :
To keep an adjund to remember thee
Were to import forgetfulnefs in me.
^
SONNETS. 123
CXXIII.
No, Time, thou fhalt not boaft that I do change : Thy pyramids built up with newer might To me are nothing novel, nothing ftrange ; They are but dreffings of a former fight. Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire What thou doft foift upon us that is old ; And rather maliC them born to our defire Than think that we before have heard them told. Thy regifters and thee I both defy. Not wondering at the prefent nor the paft. For thy records and what we fee doth lie, Made more or lefs by thy continual hafte. This I do vow, and this fhall ever be, I will be true, defpite thy fcythe and thee.
124 SONNETS.
CXXIV.
If my dear love were but the child of ftate, It might for Fortune's baftard be unfather'd, As fubjed to Time's love or to Time's hate, Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowert No, it was builded far from accident ; [gather'd. It fuffers not in fmiling pomp, nor falls Under the blow of thralled difcontent, Whereto th' inviting time our fafhion calls : It fears not policy, that heretic. Which works on leafes of fliort number'd hours, But all alone ftands hugely politic, [fhowers.
That it nor grows with heat nor drowns with To this I witnefs call the fools of time, Which die for goodnefs, who have lived for crime.
I
SONNETS. 125
cxxv.
"Were 't aught to me I bore the canopy. With my extern the outward honouring, Or laid great bafes for eternity, Which prove more ftiort than wafte or ruining ? Have I not feen dwellers on form and favour Lofe all, and more, by paying too much rent, For compound fweet foregoing fimple favour, Pitiful thrivers, in their gazing fpent ? No, let me be obfequious in thy heart, And take thou my oblation, poor but free. Which is not mix'd with feconds, knows no art But mutua/ render, only me for thee.
Hence, thou fuborn'd informer ! a true foul When moft impeach'd ftands leaft in thy control.
126 SONNETS.
CXXVI.
O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
Doft hold Time's fickle glafs, his fickle, hour ;
Who haft by waning grown, and therein fhow'ft
Thy lovers withering as thy fweet felf grow'ft ;
If Nature, fovereign miftrefs over wrack,
As thou goeft onwards, ftill will pluck thee back.
She keeps thee to this purpole, that her Ikill
May time difgrace and wretched minutes kill.
Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleafure ! 1
She may detain, but not ftill keep, her treafure :
Her audit, though delay'd, anfwer'd muft be,
And her quietus is to render thee.
SONNETS. 127
CXXVII.
In the old age black was not counted fair, Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name ; But now is black beauty's fucceffive heir, And beauty flander'd with a baftard fhame ; For fince each hand hath put on nature's power, Fairing the foul with art's falfe borrow'd face, Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower, But is profaned, if not lives in difgrace. Therefore my miftrefs' eyes are raven black, Her eyes fo fuited, and they mourners feem At fuch who, not born fair, no beauty lack, Slandering creation with a falfe efteem : Yet fo they mourn, becoming of their woe, That every tongue fays beauty fliould look fo.
128 SONNETS.
CXXVIII.
How oft, when thou, my mufic, mufic play'ft Upon that bleffed wood whofe motion founds With thy fweet fingers, when thou gently fway'ft The wiry concord that mine ear confounds, Do I envy thofe jacks that nimble leap To kifs the tender inward of thy hand, Whilft my poor lips, which fhould that harvefl reap, At the wood's boldnefs by thee blufhing ftand ! To be fo tickled, they would change their ftate And fituation with thofe dancing chips. O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait. Making dead wood more bleft than living lips. Since fancy jacks fo happy are in this, Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kifs.
SONNETS.
129
CXXIX.
The expenfe of fpirit in a wafte of (hame Is lull in aftion ; and till adion, luft Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trufl ; Enjoy'd no fooner but defpifed ftraight ; Pad reafon hunted , and no fooner had, Paft reafon hated, as a fwallow'd bait, On purpofe laid to make the taker mad : Mad in purfuit, and m poffeffion fo , Had, having, and in quefl to have, extreme ; A blifs in proof, and proved, a very woe ; Before, a joy propofed ; behind, a dream. [well
All this the world well knows ; yet none knows To fhun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
130 SONNETS.
cxxx.
My miftrefs' eyes are nothing like the fun ;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red :
If fnow be white, why then her breafts are dun ;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have feen rofes damafli'd, red and white,
But no fuch rofes fee I in her cheeks ;
And in fome perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my miftrefs reeks.
I love to hear her fpeak, yet well I know
That mufic hath a far more pleafing found :
I grant I never faw a goddefs go,
My miftrefs, when fhe walks, treads on the ground And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any fhe belied with falfe compare.
SONNETS. 131
CXXXI.
Thou art as tyrannous, fo as thou art, As thofe whole beauties proudly make them cruel: For well thou know'ft to my dear doting heart Thou art the faireft and moft precious jewel. Yet, in good faith, fome fay that thee behold, Thy face hath not the power to make love groan . To fay they err I dare not be fo bold, Although I fwear it to myfelf alone. And to be fure that is not falfe I fwear, A thoufand groans, but thinking on thy face, One on another's neck, do witnefs bear Thy black is fairefl: in my judgement's place. In nothing art thou black fave in thy deeds, And thence this flander, as I think, proceeds.
132 SONNETS.
CXXXII.
Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,
Knowing thy heart torments me with difdain.
Have put on black and loving mourners be,
Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain.
And truly not the morning fun of heaven
Better becomes the gray cheeks of the eaft,
Nor that full flar that ufhers in the even
Doth half that glory to the fober weft.
As thofe two mourning eyes become thy face
O, let it then as well befeem thy heart
To mourn for me, fmce mourning doth thee grace,
And fuit thy pity like in every part.
Then wiU I fwear beauty herfelf is black. And all they foul that thy complexion lack.
SONNETS. 133
GXXXIII.
Befhrew that heart that makes my heart to groan For that deep wound it gives my friend and me ! Is 't not enough to torture me alone, But flave to flavery my fweet'ft friend muft be ? Me from myfelf thy cruel eye hath taken, And my next felf thou harder hafl engrolTed : Of him, myfelf, and thee, I am forfaken ; A torment thrice threefold thus to be croffed. Prifon my heart in thy fteel bofom's ward, But then my friend's heart let my poor heart bail ; Whoe'er keeps me, let my heart be his guard ; Thou canft not then ufe rigour in my gaol : And yet thou wilt ; for I, being pent in thee, Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.
1 » 134 SONNETS. 'I
cxxxrv.
So, now I have confefTd that he is thine, And I myfelf am mortgaged to thy will, Myfelf I '11 forfeit, fo that other mine Thou wilt reflore, to be my comfort ftill : But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free. For thou art covetous and he is kind , He learn'd but furety-like to write for me. Under that bond that him as faft doth bind. The ftatute of thy beauty thou wilt take. Thou ufurer, that put'ft forth all to ufe, And fue a friend came debtor for my fake ; So him I lofe through my unkind abufe.
Him have I loft ; thou hafl both him and me : He pays the whole, and yet am I not free.
SONNETS. 1 3 s
cxxxv.
Whoever hath her wifh, thou haft thy IVill, And JVill to boot, and Will in overplus ; More than enough am I that vex thee ftill, To thy fweet will making addition thus. Wilt thou, whofe will is large and Ipacious, Not once vouchfafe to hide my will in thine ? Shall wiU in others feem right gracious, And in my will no fair acceptance fhine ? The fea, all water, yet receives rain ftill, And in abundance addeth to his ftore ; So thou, being rich in Will, add to thy Will One will of mine, to make thy large Will more.
Let no unkind, no fair befeechers kill ;
Think all but one, and me in that one Will.
I
136 SONNETS.
CXXXVI.
If thy foul check thee that I come fo near, Swear to thy blind foul that I was thy Will, And will, thy foul knows, is admitted there ; Thus far for love, my love-fuit, fweet, fulfil. Will will fulfil the treafure of thy love, Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one. In things of great receipt with eafe we prove Among a number one is reckon'd none : Then in the number let me pafs untold. Though in thy (lore's account I one muft be ; For nothing hold me, fo it pleafe thee hold That nothing me, a fomething fweet to thee: Make but my name thy love, and love that ftill, And then thou lovest me, for my name is Will.
SONNETS. 137
CXXXVII.
Thou blind fool, Love, what doft thou to mine eyes, That they behold, and fee not what they fee? They know what beauty is, fee where it lies, Yet what the beft is take the worft to be. If eyes, corrupt by over-partial looks. Be anchor'd in the bay where all men ride, Why of eyes' falfehood haft thou forged hooks, Whereto the judgement of my heart is tied ? Why ftiould my heart think that a feveral plot Which my heart knows the wide world's common Or mine eyes feeing this, fay this is not, [place ? To put fair truth upon lb foul a face ?
In things right true my heart and eyes have erred, And to this falfe plague are they now tranfferred.
138 SONNETS.
cxxxvin.
When my love fwears that fhe is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know fhe lies. That fhe might think me fome untutor'd youth, Unlearned in the world's falfe fubtleties. Thus vainly thinking that fhe thinks me young, Although fhe knows my days are pafl: the beft, Simply I credit her falfe-fpeaking tongue : On both fides thus is fimple truth fuppreft But wherefore fays fhe not flie is unjuft ? And wherefore fay not I that I am old? O, love's beft habit is in feeming truft. And age in love loves not to have years told Therefore I lie with her, and fhe with me. And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be.
SONNETS. 139
CXXXIX.
O, call not me to juftify the wrong That thy unkindnefs lays upon my heart ; Wound me not with thine eye, but with thy tongue ; Ufe power with power, and flay me not by art. Tell me thou loveft elfewhere ; but in my fight, Dear heart, forbear to glance thine eye afide : What need'ft thou wound with cunning, when thy
might Is more than my o'erpreff'd defence can bide ? Let me excufe thee : ah, my love well knows Her pretty looks bave been mine enemies ; And therefore from my face fhe turns my foes, That they elfewhere might dart their injuries : Yet do not lb ; but fince I am near flain, Kill me outright with looks, and rid my pain.
140 SONNETS.
CXL.
Be wife as thou art cruel ; do not prefs My tongue-tied patience with too much difdain ; Left forrow lend me words, and words exprefs The manner of my pity-wanting pain. If I might teach thee wit, better it were. Though not to love, yet, love, to tell me fo ; As tefty fick men, when their deaths be near. No news but health from their phyficians know ; For, if I fhould defpair, I fhould grow mad. And in my madnefs might fpeak ill of thee : Now this ill-wrefting world is grown fo bad. Mad flanderers by mad ears believed be. That I may not be fo, nor thou belied. Bear thine eyes ftraight, though thy proud heart go wide.
i
SONKETS. 141
CXLI.
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes. For they in thee a thoufand errors note ; But 'tis my heart that loves what they defpife, Wlio, in defpite of view, is pleafed to dote , Nor are mine ears with thy tongue's tune delighted ; Nor tender feeling, to bafe touches prone, Nor tafte, nor fmell, defire to be invited To any fenfual feaft with thee alone : But my five wits nor my five fenfes can Diffuade one foolifh heart from ferving thee, \Mio leaves unfway'd the likenefs of a man, Thy proud heart's flave and vaffal wretch to be : Only my plague thus far I count my gain. That flie that makes me fm awards me pain.
142 SONNETS.
CXLII.
Love is my fin, and thy dear virtue hate, Hate of my fm, grounded on fmful loving : O, but with mine compare thou thine own ftate. And thou fhah find it merits not reproving ; Or, if it do, not from thofe lips of thine, That have profaned their fcarlet ornaments And feal'd falfe bonds of love as oft as mine, Robb'd others' beds' revenues of their rents. Be it lawful I love thee, as thou loveft thofe Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee . Root pity in thy heart, that, when it grows, Thy pity may deferve to pitied be.
If thou doft feek lo have what thou doft hide, By felf-example mayft thou be denied !
SONNETS. 143
CXLIII.
Lo, as a careful houfewife runs to catch One of her feather'd creatures broke awav. Sets down her babe, and makes all fwift defpatch In purfuit of the thing fhe would have ftay ; Whilft her neglefted child holds her in chafe, Cries to catch her whofe bufy care is bent To follow that which flies before her face, Not prizing her poor infant's difcontent : So runn'ft thou after that which flies from thee, Whilfl I thy babe chafe thee afar behind ; But if thou catch thy hope, turn back to me. And play the mother's part, kifs me, be kind : So will I pray that thou mayft have thy Will, If thou turn back and my loud crying ftill.
144 SONNETS.
CXLIV.
Two loves I have of comfort and defpair, Which like two fpirits do fuggeft me ftill . The better angel is a man right fair, The worfer fpirit a woman colour'd ill. To win me foon to hell, my female evil Tempteth my better angel from my fide, And would corrupt my faint to be a devil, Wooing his purity with her foul pride. And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend Sufpeft I may, yet not directly tell ; But being both from me, both to each friend, I guefs one angel in another's hell ;
Yet this fhall I ne'er know, but live in doubt, Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
1^
SONNETS 145
CXLV.
Thofe lips that Love's own hand did make Breathed forth the found that faid ' I hate,' To me that languifh'd for her fake : But when fhe faw my woeful ftate, Straight in her heart did mercy come, Chiding that tongue that ever fweet Was ufed in giving gentle doom ; And taught it thus anew to greet ; 'I hate' fhe alter'd with an end, That follow'd it as gentle day Doth follow night, who, like a fiend, From heaven to hell is flown away ; ' I hate' from hate away fhe threw, And faved my life, faying — 'Not you.'
146 SONNETS.
CXLVI.
Poor foul, the centre of my finful earth, [Preff'd by] thefe rebel powers that thee array, "Why doft thou pine within and fuffer dearth. Painting thy outward walls fo coftly gay ? Why fo large cod, having fo fliort a leafe, Doft thou upon thy fading manfion fpend ? Shall worms, inheritors of this excefs, Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end? Then, foul, live thou upon thy fervant's lofs. And let that pine to aggravate thy ftore ; Buy terms divine in felling hours of drofs ; Within be fed, without be rich no more :
So fhalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men. And Death once dead, there's no more dying then.
SONNETS. 147
CXLVII.
My love is as a fever, longing ftill
For that which longer nurfeth the difeafe ;
Feeding on that which doth preferve the ill,
The uncertain fickly appetite to pleafe.
My reafon, the phyfician to my love.
Angry that his prefcriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I defperate now approve
Defire is death, which phyfic did except.
Paft cure I am, now reafon is paft care.
And frantic-mad with evermore unrefl: ;
My thoughts and my difcourfe as madmen's are,
At random from the truth, vainly expreflPd ;
For I have fworn thee fair, and thought thee Who art as black as hell, as dark as night, [bright.
148 SONNETS.
CXLVIII.
O me, what eyes hath Love put in my head, Which have no correipondence with true fight ! Or, if they have, where is my judgement fled, That cenfures falfely what they fee aright ? If that be fair whereon my falfe eyes dote, What means the world to fay it is not fo ? If it be not, then love doth well denote Love's eye is not fo true as all men's : no, How can it? O, how can Love's eye be true. That is fo vex'd with watching and with tears ? No marvel then, though I miftake my view ; The fun itfelf fees not till heaven clears.
O cunning Love ! with tears thou keep'ft me blind, Left eyes well-feeing thy foul faults fhould find.
SONNETS. 149
CXLIX.
Canft thou, O cruel ! fay I love thee not, When I againft myfelf with thee partake ? Do I not think on thee, when I forgot Am of myfelf, all tyrant, for thy fake ? Who hateth thee that I do call my friend ? On whom frown'ft thou that I do fawn upon ? Nay, if thou lour'ft on me, do I not fpend Revenge upon myfelf with prefent moan ? What merit do I in myfelf refpeft, That is fo proud thy fervice to defpife, When all my beft doth worfhip thy defeft, Commanded by the motion of thine eyes ?
But, love, hate on, for now I know thy mind ;
Thofe that can fee thou loveft, and I am bhnd.
I50 SONNETS.
CL.
O, from what power haft thou this powerful might With infufficiency my heart to fway ? To make me give the lie to my true fight, And fwear that brightnefs doth not grace the day ? Whence haft thou this becoming of things ill, That in the very refufe of thy deeds There is fuch ftrength and warrantife of fkill, That, in my mind, thy worft all beft exceeds ? Who taught thee how to make me love thee more, The more I hear and fee juft caufe of hate ? O, though I love what others do abhor, With others thou fhouldft not abhor my ftate : If thy unworthinefs raifed love in me, More worthy I to be beloved of thee.
SONNETS. 1 5 1
CLI.
Love is too young to know what confcience is ; Yet who knows not confcience is born of love ? Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amifs, Left guilty of my faults thy fweet felf prove : For, thou betraying me, I do betray My nobler part to my grofs body's treafon ; My foul doth tell my body that he may Triumph in love ; flefh ftays no farther reafon, But rifmg at thy name doth point out thee As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride, He is contented thy poor drudge to be, To ftand in thy affairs, fall by thy fide. No want of confcience hold it that I call Her 'love' for whofe dear love I rife and fall.
152 SONNETS.
CLII.
In loving thee thou know'ft I am forfworn, But thou art twice forfworn, to me love fwearing ; In aft thy bed-vow broke, and new faith torn, In vowing new hate after new love bearing. But why of two oaths' breach do I accufe thee, When I break twenty ? I am perjured moft ; For all my vows are oaths but to mifufe thee, And all my honeft faith in thee is loft : For I have fworn deep oaths of thy deep kindnefs. Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy conftancy ; And, to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindnefs, Or made them fwear againft the thing they fee ; For I have fworn thee fair ; more perjured I, To fwear againft the truth fo foul a lie 1
* '
ni
SONNETS. 153
CLIII.
Cupid laid by his brand and fel! afleep :
A maid of Dian's this advantage found,
And his love-kindling fire did quickly deep
In a cold valley-fountain of that ground ;
Which borrow'd from this holy fire of Love
A datelefs lively heat, ftill to endure.
And grew a feething bath, which yet men prove
Againft ftrange maladies a fovereign cure.
But at my miftrefs' eye Love's brand new-fired,
The boy for trial needs would touch my breaft ;
I, fick withal, the help of bath defired,
And thither hied, a fad diftemper'd gueft,
But found no cure : the bath for my help lies Where Cupid got new fire, my miftrefs' eyes.
154 SONNETS.
CLIV.
The little Love-god lying once afleep Laid by his fide his heart-inflaming brand, Whilft many nymphs that vow'd chafte life to keep Came tripping by ; but in her maiden hand The fairefl votary took up that fire Which many legions of true hearts had warm'd ; And fo the general of hot defire Was fleeping by a virgin hand difarm'd. This brand fhe quenched in a cool well by, Which from Love's fire took heat perpetual, Growing a bath and healthful remedy For men difeafed ; but I, my miftrefs' thrall, Came there for cure, and this by that I prove, Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.
NOTES
NOTES.
I. Tlie theme of this and other early fonnets is fimilarly treated in Venus & Adonis, 11. 162-174: —
Torches are made to light, jeivels to wear. Dainties to tajle, frefh beauty for the ufe, Herbs for their fmell, and fappy plants to bear : Things growing to themfelves are growth's abufe :
Seeds fpring from feeds and beauty breedcth beauty ;
Thou wafl begot ; to get it is thy duty.
Upon the earth's increafe why fhouldjl thou feed, Unlefs the earth with thy increafe be fed ? By law of nature thou art bound to breed. That thine may live when thou thyfelf art dead :
And fo, in fpite of death, thou doji fiirvive.
In that thy lihenefs flill is left alive.
6. Self-fubjlantial fuel, fuel of the fubftance of the flame itfelf.
I 2. Makefliuajle in nig gar ding. Compare Romeo & Juliet, Aft I. fc. I, 1. 223 : —
Ben. Then fhe hath fworn that fhe willjlill live chafe ? Rom. She hath, and in that fparing makes huge wafte.
13, 14. Pity the world, or elfe be a glutton de- vouring the world's due, by means of the grave
156 NOTES.
(which will fwallow your beauty — compare Sonnet Lxxvii. 6, and note), and of yourfelf, who refufe to beget offfpring. Compare JlFs IVell, Aft i. fc. i, Parolles fpeaking, 'Virginity . . . confumes itfelf to the very paring, and fo dies with feeding his own ftomach '. Steevens propofed ' he thy grave and thee ', i.e. be at once thyfelf and thy grave.
II. In Sonnet i. the Friend is ' contraded to his own bright eyes'; fuch a marriage is fruitlefs, and at forty the eyes will be ' deep-funken '. The ' glutton ' of I. reappears here in the phral'e ' all-eating fhame' ; the ' makeft wafte ' of i. reappears in the ' thriftlefs praife' of ii. If the youth addreffed were now to marry, at forty he might have a fon of his prefent age, i.e. about twenty.
8. Thriftlefs praife, unprofitable praife.
I I . Shall fum my count and make my old exciife, fhall complete my account, and ferve as the excufe of my oldnefs. Hazlitt reads whole excufe.
III. A proof by example of the truth fet forth in II. Here is a parent finding in a child the excufe for age and wrinkles. But here that parent is the mother. Were the father of Shakfpere's friend living, it would have been natural to mention him ; xiii. 14 'you had a father' confirms our impreflion that he was dead.
There are two kinds of mirrors— firfl, that of glafs ; fecondly, a child who refieds his parent's beauty.
5. Unear'd, unploughed. Compare the Dedica-
NOTES. 157
tion of Venus & Adonis, ' I fhall . . . never after ear fo barren a land, for fear it yield me ftill fo bad a harveft'.
5, 6. Compare Meafure for Meafure, Aft i. fc. 4, 11. 43, 44: —
Her plenteous womb Exprejfeth his full tilth and hufbandry.
7, 8. Compare Venus & Adonis, 11. 757-761 : —
IVlmt is thy body but a f wall owing grave Seeming to bury that pojierity, Winch by the rights of time thou needs mujl have. If thou dejiroy them not in dark obfcurity ?
9, 10. Compare Lucrece, 11. 1758, 1759 (old Lucretius addreffing his dead daughter) : —
Poor broken glafs, I often did behold
In thy fweet femblance my old age new-born.
1 1 . Compare A Lover^s Complaint, 1. 1 4 : Some beauty peeped through lattice of fear'' d age.
12. Golden time. So King Richard in., Aft i. fc. 2, 1. 248, ' the golden prime of this fweet prince'.
13. If thou live ; Capell fuggefts Zot'e.
IV. In Sonnet m. Shakfpere has viewed his friend as an inheritor of beaut)^ from his mother ; this legacy of beauty is now regarded as the bequefl: of nature. The ideas of unthriftinefs (1. i) and niggardlinefs (1. 5) are derived from Sonnets i. 11. ; the ' audit' (1. 12) is another form of the 'fum my count' of II. II. The new idea introduced in this
158 NOTES.
fonnet is that of ufury, which reappears in vi.
5,6.
3. So Meajure for Meafure, kd. \. fc. i, 11. 36-41.
Spirits are not finely touched But to fine iffues, nor Nature never lends The fmalleft fcruple of her excellence But, like a thrifty gOddefs, fhe determines Herfelf the glory of a creditor, Both thanks and ufe. Compare with this fonnet the arguments put into the mouth of Comiis by Mihon : Comiis, 679-684 and 720-727.
4. Free, liberal.
8. Live, fubfift. With all your ufury you have not a livelihood, for, trafficking only with yourfelf, you put a cheat upon yourfelf, and win nothing by fuch ufury.
14. Th' executor, Malone reads 'thy executor'.
V. In Sonnets v. vi. youth and age are compared to the feafons of the year : in vii. they are compared to morning and evening, the feafons of the day.
1 . Hours, a diffyllable, as in The Tempeft, Ad v.
1.4.
2. Ga^e, objeft gazed at, as in Macbeth, Aft v.
ic. 8, 1. 24.
4. Unfair, deprive of beauty; not elfewhere ufed by Shakfpere, but in Sonnet cxxvii. we find 'Fairing the foul'.
9. Summer's diftillation, perfumes made from flowers. Compare Sonnet Liv. and A Midfummer Night's Dream, Aft i. fc. i, 11. 76, 77 : —
NOTES. 159
Earthlier happy is the rofe diJlilVd, Than that which withering on the virgin thorn Grows, lives and dies in fingle blejfednefs.
14. Leefe, lofe.
VI. This fonnet carries on the thoughts of iv. and V. — the diftilling of perfumes from v., and the intereft paid on money lent from iv.
5. Ufe, intereft. Compare with this fonnet the folicitation of Adonis by Venus, 11. 767, 768.
Foul cankering rujl the hidden treaftire frets. But gold that'' s put to ufe more gold begets. And Merchant of Venice, Kdi i. fc. 3, 11. 70-97.
The mediaeval theologians argued againft requiring intereft on money on the ground that ' all money is fterile by nature ', an abfurdity of Ariftotle. ' The Greek word for intereft (roKO'i, from t'lktu), I beget) was probably connefted with this delufion.'
Lecky : Hijl. of Rationalifm in Europe, chap. vi. note.
13. Self-wiWd, Delius conjedures, ' felf-kill'd'.
VII. After imagery drawn from fummer and winter, Shakfpere finds new imagery in morning and evening.
3. Each under eye. Compare The Winter's Tale, Aft IV. fc. 2, 1. 40 : — ' I have eyes under my fervice'.
5. Steep-up heavenly. Mr. W. J. Craig fuggefts that Shakfpere may have written 'fteep up-heavenly'.
7, 8. Compare Romeo & Juliet, Aft i. fc. i, 11. 125, 126 : —
i6o NOTES.
Madam, an hour before the worjhi'pp'd fun Peer' d forth the golden window of the eajl.
10. He reeleth from the day; Compare Romeo & Juliet, Ad II. fc. 3,1. 3 : —
Flecked darknefs like a drunkard reels From forth day's path.
11, 12. Compare Tifnon of Athens, AQ. i. fc. 2, 1. 1 50 : —
Men fhut their doors againjl a fetting fun. 13. Thyfelf, etc., paffing beyond your zenith.
VIII. In the Additional MS. 15,226, Britifh Mufeum, is a copy, written in James i.'s reign, of this Sonnet.
I. Thou, whom to hear is mufic, why, etc. Compare The Merchant of Venice, Aft v. fc. i, 1. 69, ' I am never merry when I hear fweet mufic'.
8. Bear. Staunton propofes fhare.
13, 14. Perhaps an allufion to the proverbial ex- preffion that one is no number. Compare Sonnet cxxxvi., 'Among a number one is reckon'd none'. Since many make but one, one will prove alfo lefs than itfelf, that is, will prove none.
IX. The thought of married happinefs in viii. — hufband, child, and mother united in joy— fug- gefts its oppofite, the grief of a weeping widow. ' Thou fmgle wih prove none ' of viii. 1 4, is carried on in ' confum'ft thyfelf in fmgle Hfe ' of ix. 2.
4. Makelefs, companionlefs. 12. Ufer. Sewell has ;//'r^r.
NOTES. i6i
X. The 'murderous fhame ' of ix. 14 reappears in the ' For fhame ' ! and ' murderous hate ' of x. In IX. Shakfpere denies that his friend loves any one ; he carries on the thought in the opening ot X., and this leads up to his friend's love of Shak- fpere, which is firft: mentioned in this fonnet.
7, 8. Seeking to bring to ruin that houfe (i.e. family), which it ought to be your chief care to repair. Thefe hues confirm the conjefture that the father of Shakfpere's friend was dead. See Sonnet xiii. 9-14. Compare 3 Kt7ig Henry vi., Adv. fc. I, 11. 83, 84: —
I will not ruinate my father's houfe,
Who gave his Mood to lime the Jlones together
and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Aft v. fc. 4, 11. 9-1 1.
9. O change, etc. O be willing to marry and beget children that I may ceafe to think you a being devoid of love.
XI. The firft five lines enlarge on the thought (x. 14) of beauty living 'in thine'; fhowing how the beauty of a child may be called thine.
2. Departeft, leaveft. ' Ere I depart his houfe ', King Lear, Aft iii. fc. 5,1. i.
4. Convertejl, doft alter^ or turn away. Compare Sonnet xiv. 12 : —
If from thyfelf to fore thou wonldjl convert. 7. The times, the generations of men.
1 62 NOTES.
9. Store, 'i.e. to be preferved for tife', Malone; ' increafe of men, fertility, population ', Schmidt. Compare Othello, AQ. iv, fc. 3, 11. 84-86 : —
Des. / do not think there is any Jiich luoman. Emil. Yes, a do\en ; and as many to the vantage as would ftore the world they played for.
1 1 . To whom fhe gave much, fhe gave more. Sewell, Malone, Staunton, Delius, read ' gave thee more '.
14. Nor let that copy die. Here 'copy' means the original from which the impreffion is taken. In Twelfth Night, Aft i. fc. 5, 1. 261, it means the tranfcript, impreffion taken from an original : —
Lady, you are the cruell'fl fhe alive.
If you luill lead thefe graces to the grave
And leave the luorld no copy.
XII. This fonnet feems to be a gathering into one of v., VI., vii. Lines i, 2, like vii., fpeak of the decay and lofs of the brightnefs and beauty of the day ; lines 3-8, like v., vi., of the lofs of the fweets and beauties of the year.
3. Violet pajl prime. Compare Hamlet, Aft i. fc. 3, 1. 7. 'A violet in the youth of primy nature '.
4. Sable curls all filver'd. The Quarto, 1609, reads ' or filver'd '. An anonymous critic fuggefts ' o^er-filvered with white '. Compare Hamlet, Aft i. {c. 2, 1. 242 (Horatio, of the ghoft's beard), 'A fable filver'd '.
8. Compare A Midfummer Nighfs Dream, Aft 11. fc. I, 1. 95 :-
NOTES. 1 6?
The green corn Hath rotted ere his youth attain d a beard. 9. Qiiejlion make, confider.
XIII. Shakfpere imagines his friend in xn. 14, borne away by Time. It is only while he lives here that he is his own, xiii. 1,2. Note ' you' and 'your' inftead of ' thee', 'thine', and the addrefs ' my love ' for the firft time.
5. So Daniel : Delia, XLVii. : —
in beauty's leafe expired appears TJje date of age, the calends of our death.
6. 'Determination in legal language means end'. Malone.
9-13. The fame thought of thriftlefs wafte which appears in Sonnets i., iv.
14. You had a father. Compare AlVs Well that ends Well, kQ. i. fc. I, 11. 19, 20. 'This young gentlewoman had a father, — O, that "had"! how fad a paffage 'tis ! ' The father of Shakfpere's friend was probably dead.
XIV. In XIII. Shakfpere predids ftormy winter (the ' feafon's quality ' of xrv. 4) and the cold of death ; he now explains what his aftrology is, and at the clofe of the fonnet repeats his melancholy prediftion.
I, 2. So Sidney, Arcadia, Book in. 'O fweet Philoclea . . . thy heavenly face is my aftronomy'. Afirophel and Stella (ed. 1 591), Sonnet xxvi. : — Though dufty wits dare f corn ajlrology
[I] oft forejudge my after-following race By only thofe two Jlars in Stella's face.
1 64 NOTES.
So Daniel : Delia, Sonnet xxx. (on Delia's eyes) : —
Stars are they Jure, whofe motions rule dejires ; And calm and tempeft follow their afpeiis.
6. Pointing. ' Write 'Pointing, i.e. appointing ; or at leaft fo underftand the word. Tarquin & Lucrece, ftanza cxxvi. : —
" WJjo ever plots the fin, thou [Opportunity] j)o/«f_/? the feafon " '. W. S. Walker.
8. Oft predict, frequent prognoftication. Sewell (ed. 2) reads 'By aught predift'.
9. 10. Compare Love's Labour's Lofi, Aft rv. (c. 3, 11. 3 50-3 5 3 :—
From women's eyes this do8rine I derive : TJjey fparkle Jiill the right Promethean fire ; They are the hooks, the arts, the academes, That fhow, contain, and nourijh all the world.
10-14. I introduce the inverted commas before truth after convert, before Thy and after date.
10. Readfuch art, gather by reading fuch truths of fcience as the following.
12. Store, fee note on xi. 9. Convert, rhyming here with ' art ' ; fo in Daniel, Delia, Sonnet xi. * convert ' rhymes with ' heart '.
XV. Introduces Verfe as an antagonift of Time. The ftars in xiv. determining weather, plagues, dearths, and fortune of princes reappear in xv. 4, commenting in fecret influence on the fhows of this world.
NOTES. 155
3. Stage, Malone reads J}ate. But the word prefent like fhow is theatrical, and confirms the text of the Quarto. Compare Antony & Cleopatra, Aft m. {c. 13, 11. 29-3 1 : —
Yes, like enough, high-battled Cafar will Unjiate his happinejs, and be ftaged to the fhow, Againjl afworder.
9. Conceit, conception, imagination.
1 1 . Debateth with Decay, holds a difcuffion with Decay ; or combats along with Decay. Debate is ufed frequently by Shakfpere in each of thefe fenfes.
XVI. The gardening image ' engraft ' in xv. 1 4 fuggefts the thought of ' maiden gardens ', and ' living flowers ' of this fonnet.
7. Bear your living flowers ; ' bear you ' Lintott, Gildon, Malone, and others ; but ' your living flowers ' ftands over againft ' your painted counterfeit '.
8. Counterfeit, portrait.
9. Lines of life, i.e. children. The unufual ex- preflion is felected becaufe it fuits the imagery of the fonnet, lines applying to (i) Lineage, (2) de- lineation with a pencil, a portrait, (3) lines of verfe as in XVIII. 12. Lines of life are living lines, living poems and piftures, children.
ID. This, Time's pencil. The Quarto reads ' this (Times penfel or my pupill pen) '. G. Mafl"ey con- jeftures 'this time's pencil ', adding : — ' This pencil of the time may have been Mirevelt's ; he painted the Earl [of Southampton's] portrait in early man- hood '. Shakfpere's Sonnets and his Private Friends,
1 66 NOTES.
pp. 115, 116 (note). Are we to underftand the line as meaning 'Which this pencil of Time or this my pupil pen ' ; and is Time here con- ceived as a limner who has painted the 5'outh fo fair, but whofe work cannot laft for future generations ? In XIX. 'Devouring Time' is tranfformed into a fcribe ; may not ' tyrant Time ' be tranfformed here into a painter ? In xx. it is Nature who paints the face of the beautiful 3'outh. This mafterpiece of twenty years can endure neither as painted by Time's pencil, nor as reprefented by Shakfpere's unlkilful, pupil pen. Is the ' painted counterfeit ' of 1. 8 Shakfpere's portrayal in his verfe? Cf. Lili., 1.5.
1 1 . Fair, beauty.
XVn. In XVI. Shakfpere has faid that his ' pupil pen ' cannot make his friend live to future ages. He now carries on this thought ; his verfe, although not fhowing half Ms friend's excellencies, will not be believed in times to come.
12. Keats prefixed this line as motto to his Endymion ; ' flretched metre ' means overftrained poetry.
13. 14. If a cliild were alive his beauty would verify the defcriptions in Shakfpere's verfe, and fo the friend would pofTefs a twofold life, in his child and in his poet's rhyme.
XVIII. Shakfpere takes heart, expefts immortality for his verfe, and fo immortality for his friend as furviving in it. He will fearleflly exprefs a ' poet's rage.'
NOTES. 167
3. May, a fummer month; May in Shakfpere's time ran on to within a few days of our mid June. Compare Cymbeline, AQ. i. fc. 3, 1. 36 :- -
And like the tyrannous breathing of the north Shales all our huds from growing.
5. Eye of heaven, fo King Richard ll., Aft III. fc. 2, 1. 37, 'the fearching eye of heaven'.
10. That fair thou oivefl, that beauty thou poffeffeft.
11, 12. This anticipation of immortality for their verfe was a commonplace with the Sonnet-writers of the time of Elizabeth. See Spenfer; Amoretti, Sonnets 27, 69, 75 ; Drayton : Idea, Sonnets 6, 44 ; Daniel : Delia, Sonnet 39.
XIX. Shakfpere, confident of the immortality of his friend in verfe, defies Tiine.
I . Devouring. S. Walker conjedures dejlroying.
5 . Fleets. The Quarto has flee ff ; I follow Dyce, believing that Shakfpere cared more for his rhyme than his grammar. Compare confounds, Sonnet viii. 1.7.
XX. A flight of praife ; his friend is ' beauty's pattern ', xix. 1 2 ; as fuch he owns the attributes of male and female beauty.
1. A woman s face, but not, as women's faces are, painted by art.
2. MaJIer-miflrefs of my pajfion, who fways my love with united charms of man and woman. Mr. H. C. Hart fuggefts to me that paffwn may be ufed in the old senfe of love-poem, frequent in Watfon.
1 68 NOTES.
5. Lefs falje in rolling. Compare Spenfer, Faerie Qneene, B. iii. c. i. s. 41 : —
Her wanton eyes (ill fignes of womanhed) Did roll too lightly.
8. In the Q.uarto, 'A man in hew all Hews in his controwling '. The italics and capital letter fuggefted to Tyrwhitt that more is meant here than meets the eye, that the Sonnets may have been addreffed to feme one named Hews or Hughes, and that Mr. W. H. may be Mr. WiUiam Hughes. But the following words have alfo capital letters and are in italics :— Rofe i. 2 ; Audit iv. 12; Statues LV. 5 ; Intrim lvi. 9 ; Alien Lxxviil. 3 ; Satire c. 1 1 ; Autumne civ. 5 ; Abifme cxii. 9 ; Alcumie cxiv. 4 ; Syren cxix. i ; Heriticke cxxiv. 9 ; Informer cxxv. 13 ; Audite cxxvi. 11 ; Quietus cxxvi. 12. The word ' hue ' was ufed by Elizabethan writers not only in the fenfe of complexion, but alfo in that of /hope, form. In Faerie Queene, B. v. c. ix. ss. 17, 18, Talus tries to feize Malengin, who tranfforms himfelf into a fox, a bufh, a bird, a ftone, and then a hedgehog : —
Then gan it [the hedgehog] run away incontinent Being returned to his former hew.
The meaning of lines 7, 8 in this Sonnet then may be ' A man in form and appearance, having the maftery over all forms in that of his, which fteals, etc' With the phrafe ' controlling hues ' compare Sonnet cvi. 8 : —
Even fuch a beauty as you mafter now.
NOTES. 169
1 1 . Defeated, defrauded, difappointed ; fo A Mid- fumnter Night's Dream, Aft iv. fc. i, 11. i S 3-1 5 S : -
They wotdd have Jlolen away ; they luoiild, Demetrius, Thereby to have defeated you and me. You of your wife and me of my confent.
XXI. The firft line of xx. fuggefts this fonnet. The face of Shakfpere's friend is painted by Nature alone, and fo too there is no falfe painting, no poetical hyperbole in the defcription. As containing examples of fuch extravagant comparifons, amorous fancies, far-fetched conceits of Sonnet-writers as Shakfpere here fpeaks of, Mr. Main (Treafury of EngJiJh Sonnets, p. 283) cites Spenfer's Amoretti, 9 and 64; Daniel's Delia, 19; Barnes's Parthenophil andParthenophe, Sonnet XLViii.; compare alfo Griffin's Fideffa, Sonnet xxxix. ; and Conftable's Diana (1594), the sixth Decade, Sonnet i.
5. Making a couplement of proud compare, joining in proud comparifons.
8. Rondure, circle, as in King John, Aft 11. fc. i, 1. 259, 'the roundure of your old-faced walls'. Staunton propofes * vault ' in place of ' air ' in this line.
12. Gold candles, compare ' Thefe bleffed candles of the night '. The Merchant of Venice, Aft: v. 1. 220; alfo Romeo and Juliet, Aft m. fc. 5, 1. 9 ; Macbeth, Act 11. (c. i, 1. 5.
I 3. That like ofhearfay well. ' To like of mean- ing ' to like ' is frequent in Shakfpere. Schmidt's explanation is * that fall in love with what has been
1 70 NOTES.
praifed by others ' ; but does it not rather mean, * that like to be buzzed about by talk '?
14. To fell, i.e. to fell my friend. Compare Love's Labour's Loft, Aft iv. fc. 3, 11. 239, 240 : —
Fie, painted rhetoric ! O, Jhe needs it not : To things of f ale a feller' s praife belongs.
XXII. The praife of his friend's beauty fuggefts by contraft Shakfpere's own face marred by time. He comforts himfelf by claiming his friend's beauty as his own. Lines 11-14 give the firft hint of poffible wrong committed by the youth againft friendfhip.
4. Expiate, bring to an end. So King Richard ill., Aft III. (c. 3, 1. 23 : —
Make hafte : the hour of death is expiate
(changed in the fecond Folio to ' now expired '). In Chapman's Byron's Confpiracie, an old courtier fays he is —
A poor and expiate humour of the court.
Steevens conjeftures in this fonnet expirate, which R. Grant White introduces into the text.
ID. As I, etc., as I will be wary of myfelf for thy fake, not my own.
XXIII. The fincerity and filent love of his verfes ; returning to the thought of xxi.
1,2. So Coriolanus, Aft v. fc. 3, 11. 40-42 : —
Like a dull a£lor now, I have forgot my part, and I am out. Even to a full dif grace.
NOTES. 171
5. For fear of truji, fearing to truft myfelf. Schmidt explains 'doubting of being trufted', but the comparifon is to an imperfed ador, who dare not trufl himfelf Obferve the conftruftion of the firft eight Hnes ; 5, 6, refer to i, 2 ; 7, 8, to 3, 4.
9. Books. Sewell has ' O, let my looks'. But the Quarto text is right ; fo 1. 13.
O learn to read what filetit love hath writ.
The books of which Shakfpere fpeaks are pro- bably the manufcript books in which he writes his fonnets. In fupport of looks H. h'aac cites Spenfer : Amoretti, 43.
12. More than, etc., more than that tongue (the tongue of another) which hath more fully expreffed more^rdours of love, or more of your perfedions.
XXIV. Suggefted by the thought, xxii. 6, of Shakfpere's heart being lodged in his friend's breaft, and by the conceit of xxiii. 1 4 ; there eyes are able to hear through love's fine wit ; here eyes do other fingular things, play the painter.
1 . Steird, fixed : Jieeld, Quarto. Compare Lu- crece, 1 444 : —
To find a face where all diflrefs is ftell'd.
2. Table, that on which a pidure is painted. Compare AlVs Well that Ends Well, Ad i. fc. i, 11. 104-106 : —
To fit and draw His arched brows, his hawking eye, his ctirlSj In our heart's table.
172 NOTES.
4. PerfpeBive. Perfpeftive meant a cunning pifture, which feen direftly feemed in confufion and feen obliquely became an intelligible compofi- tion ; alfo a glafs fo cut as to produce optical illufion. See King Richard 11., Ad 11. fc. 2, 1. 18. But here does it not fimply mean that a painter's higheft art is to produce the iilufion of diftance, one thing feeming to He behind another ? you muft look through the painter (my eye or myfelf) to fee your picture, the produd: of liis fkill, which lies within him (in my heart).
The ftrange conceits in this fonnet are paralleled in Conftable : Diana (1594); Sonnet 5, (p. 4, ed. Hazlitt) : —
Thine eye, the glajfe where I behold my heart, Mine eye, the window through the which thine eye May fee my heart, and there thyfelfe efpy
In bloody colours how thou painted art. Compare alfo Watfon's ' The Teares of Fancie ', (1593), Sonnets 45, 46 (Thomas Watfon, Poems, ed. Arber, p. 201) : —
My Mi/Ires feeing her fair e counterfet So fweetelie framed in my bleeding hrejl
But it fo fajl was fixed to my heart, etc.
XXV. In this fonnet Shakfpere makes his firfl: complaint againft Fortune, againft his low condition. He is about to undertake a journey on fome needful bufmefs of his own (xxvi. xxvii.), and rejoices to think that at leafi: in one place he has a fixed abode, in his friend's heart (1. 14).
NOTES. 173
Thoughts of the cruelty of Fortune reappear and become predominant in xxix.-xxxi.
6. The marigold : Compare Conftable : Diana ; Sonnet 9 : —
The marigold abroad his leaves doth fpread Becaufe the fun's and her power are the fame,
and Lucrece, 1. 397.
There are three plants which claim to be the old Marigold : i . The marlh marigold ; this does not open and clofe its flowers with the fun. 2. The corn marigold ; there is no proof that this was called marigold in Shakfpere's day. 3. The garden mari- gold or Ruddes (calendula officinalis) ; it turns its flowers to the fun, and follows his guidance in their opening and fhutting. The old name is goldes ; it was the Heliotrope, Solfequium, or Turnefol of our forefathers. (Condenfed from ' Marigold ', in Ella- combe's ' Tlant Loreand Garden Craft of Shakefpeare' .)
9. Famoufed for fight. The Quarto reads for worth. The emendation is due to Theobald, who 'likewife propofed if worth was retained to read ra^ed forth'. — Malone. Capell ixxggt^td for might.
XXVI. In XXV. Shakfpere is in diffavour with his ftars, and unwillingly — as I fuppofe — about to undertake fome needful journey. He now fends this written embafl"age to his friend (perhaps it is the Envoy to the preceding group of fonnets), and dares to anticipate a time when the ' ftar that guides his moving', now unfavourable, may point on him gracioufly with fair afpeft (1. 10).
M
174 NOTES.
Drake writes (Shakfpeare and His Times, vol. ii. p. 63) : — 'Perhaps one of the moft ftriking proofs of this pofition [that the Sonnets are addreffed to the Earl of Southampton] is the hitherto unnoticed faft that the language of the Dedication to the Rape of Lucrece, and that of part of the t-wenty-fixth fonnet are almoft precifely the fame. The Dedication runs thus: — The love I dedicate to your Lordfhip is without end. . . . The warrant I have of your honour- able difpofition, not the worth of my untutored Hnes, makes it affured of acceptance. What I have is yours, what I have to do is yours ; being part of all I have devoted yours. Were my worth greater, my duty would {how greater '. C. [Capell] had previoufly noted the parallel.
I, 2. Compare Macbeth, Aft m. fc. i, 11. 15-18, •Duties . . . knit'.
8. Beftoiu it, lodge it. As in The Tempejl, Aft V. 1. 299 : —
Hence, and hejlow your luggage where you found it.
Shakfpere fays — I hope fome happy idea of yours will convey my duty, naked as it is, into your foul's thought.
12. Thy fweet refpeB,rtgzrA. The Quarto reads their for thy, an error which occurs feveral times.
XXVII. Written on a journey, which removes Shakfpere farther and farther from his friend.
3. Modern edd. put a comma after 'head'. But is not the conftruftion ' a journey in my head begins to work my mind'?
6. Intend, bend, purfue : ufed frequently of
NOTES. 17s
travel. ' Ccefar through Syria intends his journey ' Antony & Cleopatra, Aft v. Ic. i, 1. 200.
10. Thy. The Q.uarto reads their. See XXVI. 12.
11. 12. Compare Romeo & Juliet, Aft i. fc. 5,
U. 47,48:-
It feems fhe hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear.
13, 14. By day my limbs find no quiet, for my- felf, i.e. on account of bufmefs of my own ; by night my mind finds no quiet for thee, i.e. thinking of you.
XXVIII. A continuation of Sonnet xxvii. 9. Cambridge edd. and Furnefs read ' I tell the day, to pleafe him thou art bright'.
12. Tu'ire, peep. Compare Ben Jonfon, Sad Shepherd, Aft li. fc. i : —
Which maids will tvvire at, tween their fingers, thus.
Marflon : Antonio & Mellida, Aft iv. (Works, vol. i. p. 52, ed. Halliwell), 'I fawe a thing ftirre under a hedge, and I peep't, and I fpyed a thing, and I peer'd and I tweerd underneath'.
Malone conjeftured ' twirl not ' ; Steevens, ' twirk not'; Maffey, 'tire not', in the fenfe oi attire.
12. Gild'Ji. The Q.uarto reads ' guil'ft'.
13, 14. Dyce and others read 'And night doth nightly make gneVs firength feem ftronger', which pofTibly is right. The meaning of the Quarto text muft be : Each day's journey draws out my forrows to a greater length ; but this procefs of drawing-out
176 NOTES.
does not weaken my forrows, for my night-thoughts come to make my forrows as ftrong as before, nay ftronger. C. [Capell] fuggefted to Malone ' draw my forrows ftronger . . . length feem longer '.
XXIX. Thefe are the night-thoughts referred to in the laft line of xxviii. ; hence a fpecial appro- priatenefs in the image of the lark rifmg at break of day.
8. With what I mojl enjoy contented leaft. The preceding line makes it not improbable that Shak- fpere is here fpeaking of his own poems.
12. Sings hymns at heaven^ s gate. Compare Cymheline, Ad ii. fc. 3, 11. 21, 22 : —
Hark, hark ! the lark at heaven's gate fings, And Phoebus 'gins arife.
Lyly: Campafpe, Aft v, fc. i : —
How at heaven's gates fhe [the larkj claps her wings. The morne not waking till fhee fings.
XXX. Sonnet xxix. was occupied with thoughts oi prefent wants and troubles ; xxx. tells of thoughts of paft griefs and loffes.
I, 2. Compare Othello, AQ. iii. (c. 3,11. 138-141, ' apprehenfions ... in feffion fit'.
6. Datelefs, endlefs, as in Sonnet CLiii., 'a date- lefs, lively heat, ftill to endure'.
8. Moan the expenfe. Schmidt explains expenfe as lofs, but does not ' moan the expenfe ' mean pay my account of moans for ? The words are explained by what follows : —
NOTES. 177
Tell o'er The fad account of fore-henioaned moan Which I new pay as if not paid before.
Malone has a long note idly attempting to fhow that fight is ufed for figh. 10. Tell o'er, count over.
XXXI. Continues the fubjed of xxx. — Shakfpere's friend compenfates all loffes in the paft.
5. Ohfequious, funereal, as in Hamlet, Aft I. (c. 2, 1. 92, ' To do ohfequious forrow'.
6. Dear religions love. In A Lover's Complaint, the beautiful youth pleads to his love that all earlier hearts which had paid homage to him now yield themfelves through him to her fervice (a thought fimilar to that of this fonnet) ; one of thefe fair admirers was a nun, a fifter fanftified, but (1. 250): —
Religious love put out Religion's eye.
8. In thee lie. The Q.uarto reads 'in there lie'.
10. Hung with the trophies of my lovers gone. Compare from the fame paffage of A Lover's Com- plaint (1. 218): —
Lo, all thefe trophies of affections hot
• • • • •
. . . mujl your oblations be.
XXXII. From the thought of dead friends of whom he is the furvivor, Shakfpere paffes to the thought of his own death, and his friend as the furvivor. This fonnet reads like an Envoy.
178 NOTES.
4. Lover, commonly ufed by Elizabethan writers generally for ofie who loves another, without refer- ence to the fpecial paffion of love between man and woman. In Coriolanus, Aft v. fc. 2, 1. 13, Menenius fays : —
/ tell thee, fellow, Thy general is my lover.
' Ben Jonfon concludes one of his letters to Dr. Donne, by telling him that he is his " ever true lover'"; and Drayton, in a letter to Mr. Drummond of Hawthornden, informs him that Mr. Jofeph Davies is in love with him'. — Malone.
5. 6. May we infer from thefe lines (and 10) that Shakfpere had a fenfe of the wonderful progrefs of poetry in the time of Elizabeth ?
7. Referve, preferve ; fo Pericles, AQ. iv. fc. i, 1. 40, ' Referve that excellent complexion'.
XXXIII. A new group feems to begin with this fonnet. It introduces the wrongs done to Shakfpere by his friend.
4. Compare King John, Aft iii. (c. i, 11. 77-80: —
The glorious fun Stays in his courfe and. plays the alchemijl, etc.
6. Rack, a mafs of vapoury clouds.
' The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above (which we call the rack),' Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, § 115, p. 32, ed. 1658 (quoted by Dyce, Glojfary under rack). Compare with 5, 6, I King Henry iv., Aft i. fc. 2, 11. 221-227 : —
I
NOTES. 179
Herein will I imitate the fun, Who doth permit the bafe contagious clouds To /mother up his beauty from the world. That, when he pleafe again to he himfelf, Being wanted, he may he more wonder'' d at. By breaking through the foul and ugly mijls Of vapours that did feem to ftrangle him.
8. To weft, Steevens propofes to reft.
12. The region cloud, compare Hamlet, Ad 11. fc. 2, 1. 606, ' the region kites'. Region ' originally a divifion of the fky marked out by the Roman augurs. In later times the atmofphere was divided into three regions, upper, middle, and lower. By Shakefpeare the word is ufed to denote the air generally'. — Clarendon Prefs Hamlet.
14. Stain, ufed in the tranfitive and intranfitive fenfes for di^n. Watfon, Tears of Fancie, Sonnet LV., fays of the fun and the moon ' his beauty y?a2«i her brightnefs'. Faithleffnefs in friendfhip is fpoken of in the fame way as a. ftain in Sonnet cix. 11, 12.
XXXIV. Carries on the idea and metaphor of xxxiii.
4. Rotten fmoke ; we find fmoke meaning vapour in I King Henry vi., Aft ii. (c. 2, 1. 27 : compare Coriolanus, Aft in. fc. 3 , 1. 121, ' reek o' the rotten fens'.
12. Crofs, the Quarto reads lojfe. The forty- fecond fonnet confirms the emendation, and explains what this crofs and this lofs were : —
Lofing her [his miftrefs], my friend hath found that
Both find each other, and I lofe both twain, [lofs ;
And both for my fake lay on me this crofs.
i8o NOTES.
See alfo Sonnet cxxxiii. addreffed to his lady, in which Shakfpere fpeaks of himfelf as 'croffed' by her robbery of his friend's heart; and Sonnet cxxxiv. 1. 13, 'Him have I loJl\
XXXV. The ' tears ' of xxxiv. fuggeft the open- ing. Moved to pity, Shakfpere will find guilt in himfelf rather than in his friend.
5, 6. And even I, etc., and even I am faulty in this, that I find precedents for your mifdeed by comparifons with rofes, fountains, fun, and moon.
7. Salving thy amifs, Shakfpere's friend offers a falve, XXXIV. ; fee alfo cxx. 1 2 ; here Shakfpere in his turn tries to ' falve ' his friend's wrong-doing. Capell propofes ' corrupt in falving'.
8. The word thy in this Hne is twice printed their in the Quarto. Steevens explains the line thus: — ' Making the excufe more than proportioned to the offence '. Stanton propofes ' more than thy fins hear ', i.e. I bear more fins than thine.
9. In fenfe, Malone propofed incenfe. Senfe here means reafon, judgment, difcretion. If we receive the prefent text, 'thy adverfe party' (1. 10) muft mean Shakfpere. But may we read : —
For to thy fenfual fault I bring in fenfe, [i.e.
judgment, reafon] Thy adverfe party, as thy advocate.
Senfe — againft which he has offended — brought in as his advocate ?
14. Siueet thief, etc., compare Sonnet XL. : —
/ do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief.
NOTES. i8i
XXXVI. According to the announcement made in XXXV., Shakfpere proceeds to make himfelf out the guihy party.
I, fVe two miijl he twain. So Troilus & Crejfida, Aft III. fc. 1,1. no, ' She '11 none of him ; they two are twain'.
5. Refped, regard, as in Coriolamis, AQ. iii. fc. 3, 1. 112.
6. Separable fpite. ' A cruel fate, that fpitefidly feparates us from each other. Separable for Sepa- rating'.— Malone.
9. Evermore, 'Perhaps ever more'. — W. S. Walker.
10. My bewailed guilt. Explained by Spalding and others as ' the blots that remain with Shakfpere on account of his profeffion ' as an aftor. But per- haps the paffage means : ' I may not claim you as a friend, left my relation to the dark woman — now a matter of grief — fhould convid you of faithleffnefs in friendfhip'.
12. That honour, i.e. the honour which you give me.
13, 14. Thefe lines are repeated in Sonnet xcvi.
XXXVII. Continues the thought of XXXVI. 13, 1 4- 3. I, made lame. Compare Sonnet lxxxix. : —
Speak of my lamenefs and I Jlraight will halt.
Shakfpere ufes ' to lame ' in the fenfe of difable'; here the worth and truth of his friend are fet over againft the lamenefs of Shakfpere ; the lamenefs then
1 82 NOTES.
is metaphorical ; a difability to Join in the joyous movement of life, as his friend does. In King Lear, A& rv. fc. 6, 1. 225, the Quartos read 'A mofl: poor man made lame by fortune's blows '. Capell and others conjeftured that Shakfpere was literally lame.
Would I had met my deareft/oe in heaven.
7. Entitled in thy parts do crowned Jit. The Quarto reads ' thei?- parts ' ; but the mifprint their for thy happens feveral times. Schmidt accepts the Quarto text and explains, ' i.e. or more excellencies, having a juft claim to the firft place as their due. Blundering M. Edd. e. in thy parts'. 'Entitled means, I think, ennobled '. — Malone. * Perhaps '. — Dyce. Perhaps it means ' having a title in, having a claim upon ', as in Lucrece, 57: —
But beauty in that white [the palenefs of Lucrece]
intituled. From Venus' doves doth challenge that fair field.
XXXVIII. The fame thought as that of the two preceding fonnets : Shakfpere will look on, delight in his friend, and fmg his praife. In xxxvii. 14, Shakfpere is 'ten times happy' in his friend's happi- nefs and glory; thus he receives ten times the infpiration of other poets from his friend who is ' the tenth Mufe, ten times more in worth ' than the old nine Mufes.
XXXIX. In XXXVIII. Shakfpere declares that he will fmg his friend's praifes, but in xxxvii. he had fpoken of his friend as the better part of himfelf.
NOTES. 183
He now afks how he can with modefty fing the worth of his own better part. Thereupon he returns to the thought of xxxvi. ' we two muft be twain'; and now, not only are the two Hves to be divided, but ' our dear love' — undivided in xxxvi. — muft 'lofe name of fmgle one'.
12. Doth. The duarto has 'doft'.
13, 14. Abfence teaches how to make of the abfent beloved two perfons, one, abfent in reality, the other, prefent to imagination.
XL. In XXXIX. Shakfpere defires that his love and his friend's may be feparated, in order that he may give his friend what otherwife he muft give alfo to himfelf. Now, feparated, he gives his beloved all his loves, yet knows that, before the gift, all his was his friend's by right. ' Our love lofmg name of fmgle one' (xxxix. 6) fuggefts the manifold loves, mine and thine.
5. Then if for love of me thou receiveft her whom I love.
6. For, becaufe*. I cannot blame thee for ufmg my love, i.e. her whom I love.
7. 8. The Quarto has 'this felfe' for thyfelf. Yet you are to blame if you deceive yourfelf by an unlawful union while you refufe loyal wedlock.
1 1 . And yet love knows it. Printed by many editors, ' And yet, love knows, it '.
XLI. The thought of xl. 13, 'Lafcivious grace, in whom all ill well fhows ' is carried out in this fonnet.
1 84 NOTES.
I. Pretty wrongs. Bell and Palgrave read petty. 5, 6. Compare i King Henry vi., Ad v. (c. 3,
U. 77, 78:-
She's beautiful and therefore to he woo^d ;
She is a woman, therefore to he won.
8. Till fhe have prevail' d. The Q.uarto has ' till he ', which may be right.
9. Thou mightfl my feat forhear. Malone reads 'Thou might'ft, my fweet, forbear'; but 'feat' is right, and the meaning is explained by Othello, Ad II. fc. I, 1. 304, (lago jealous of Othello) : —
/ do fiifped. the lufly Moor Hath leaped into my feat. Dr. Ingleby adds, as a parallel, Lucrece, 412, 41 3.
XLII. In XLI. 13, 14, Shakfpere declares that he lofes both friend and miftrefs ; he now goes on to fay that the lofs of his friend is the greater of the two.
10, 12. The ' lofs ' and ' crofs ' of thefe lines are fpoken of in xxxiv.
1 1 . Both twain. This is found alfo in Lovers Labour'' s Loft, Ad v. fc. 2, 1. 459.
XLIII. Does this begin a new group of Sonnets ?
1. Wink, to clofe the eyes, not neceffarily for a moment, but as in fleep. Compare Cymbeline, Ad n. ic. 3, 11. 25, 26 : —
And winking Mary-buds begin To ope their golden eyes.
2. UnrefpeBed, unregarded.
4. And darkly, etc. And illumined, although clofed, are clearly direded in the darknefs.
NOTES. i8s
5. Whofe fhadow Jhadows, etc. Whofe image makes bright the fhades of night.
6. Shadow's form, the form which cafts thy fhadow.
1 1 . Thy. The Quarto has their.
13, 14. All days are nights to fee, etc. Malone propofed 'nights to me\ Steevens defending the Quarto text explains it 'All days are gloomy to he- hold, i.e. look like nights'. Mr. Lettfom propofed: —
All days are nights to me till thee I fee, [thee. And nights bright days when dreams do Jhow me
'To fee till I fee thee', is probably right in this fonnet, which has a more than common fancy for doubling a word in the fame line, as in lines 4, 5,6.
XLIV. In XLlil. he obtains fight of his friend in dreams ; XLIV. expreffes the longing of the waking hours to come into his friend's prefence by fome preternatural means.
4. Wloere thou dojl ftay. I would be brought where (i.e. to where) thou dofl ftay.
9. Thought kills me. Perhaps ' thought ' here means melancholy contemplation, as in Julius Cafar Ad II. fc. 1,1. 187, 'Take thought and die for Casfar'.
10. So much of earth and water wrought. So large a proportion of earth and water having entered into my compofition. Twelfth Night, Ad 11. fc. 3, 1. 10, 'Does not our life confift of the four elements?' Antony dr Cleopatra, Ad v. fc. 2, 1. 292 ; King Henry v., Act in. fc. 7, 1. 22 ;
7.y/
1 86 NOTES.
' He is pure air and fire ; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient ftillnefs, etc'
XLV. Sonnet XLiv. tells of the duller elements of earth and water ; this fonnet, of the elements of air and fire.
9. Recured, reftored to wholenefs and foundnefs. Venus & Adonis, 1. 465.
12. Thy fair health. The Qiiarto has their for thy.
XLVI. As XLIV. and xlv. are a pair of com- panion fonnets, fo are xlvi. and xlvii. The theme of the firft pair is the oppofition of the four elements in the perfon of the poet ; the theme of the fecond is the oppofition of the heart and the eye, i.e. of love and the fenfes.
3 . Thy pidure's fight. The Quarto has their, (o alfo in lines 8, I3_, 14.
10. A quejl of thoughts, an inqueft or jury. 12. Moiety, portion.
XLVII. Companion fonnet to the lafl:. 3. Famifhed for a look. Compare Sonnet Lxxv. 10. So Comedy of Errors, Aft 11. fc. i, 1. 88 : —
Wlnljl I at home flarve for a merry look.
10. Art prefent. The Quarto has are.
11, 12. Not. Quarto nor. The fame thought which appears in xlv.
Compare Sonnets xix., xx. of Watfon's Tears of Fancie, 1593 (Watfon's Poems, ed.Arber, p. 188): —
NOTES. 187
My hart impofd this penance on mine eies, (Eies the fir ft. caiifers of my harts lamenting) : That they fhould weepe till hue and fancie dies. Fond love the laft caufe of my harts repenting. Mine eies vpon my hart infliB this paine (Bold hart that dard to harbour thoughts of loue) That it fhould loue and purchafe fell difdaine, A grieuous penance which my heart doth proue, Mine eies did weep as hart had them impofed, My hart did pine as eies had it conftrained, etc. Sonnet xx. continues the fame : —
My hart accufd mine eies and was offended.
Hart faid that loue did enter at the eies.
And from the eies defcended to the hart ;
Eies faid that in the hart did fparkes arife, etc. Compare alfo Diana (ed. 1584), Sixth Decade, Sonnet vii. (Arber's Englifh Garner, vol. ii. p. 254) ; and Dra}ton, Idea, 3 3 .
XLVIII. Line 6 of xlvi., in which Shakfpere fpeaks of keeping his friend in the clofet of his breaft : —
A clofet never pierced with cryftal eyes, fuggefts XLVIII. ; fee lines 9-12. I have faid he is fafe in my breaft ; yet ah ! I feel he is not.
1 1 . Gentle clofure of my breaft. So Venus & Adonis, 1. 782, 'the quiet clofure of my breaft'.
14. Does not this refer to the woman, who has fworn love (cin. 1. 2), and whofe truth to Shakfpere (fpoken of in XLi. 13) now proves thievifh? Compare Venus & Adonis, 1. 724, 'Rich preys make true men thieves'.
J/ A.
1 88 NOTES.
XLIX. Continues the fad ftrain with which XLvm. clofes.
3 . Cajl his titmojl fum, clofed his account and caft up the fum total.
4. Advifed refpe£ls, deliberate, well-confidered reafons. So King John, Ad. iv. k. 2, 1. 214.
8. Reafons, i.e. for its converfion from the thing it was.
9. Enfconce, ' proted or cover as with a fconce or fort'. — Dyce.
I o. Defert. Quarto dejart, rhyming with part.
L. This fonnet and the next are a pair, as xliv. XLV. are, and xlvi. xlvii. The journey 1. i is that fpoken of in XLViii. 1. i .
6. DiiJly. The Quarto has duly, but compare LI. 2, ' my dull bearer ', and 1. 11,' no dull flefh'.
LI. Companion to L.
6. Swift extremity, the extreme of fwiftnefs. So Macbeth, Aft I. fc. 4, 1. 17 : —
Swifteft wing of recompence is flow.
7. Mounted on the luind. So 2 King Henry iv. Indudion, 1. 4, ' Making the wind my pojl-horfe '. Compare Cymheline, Aft iii. fc. 4, 1. 38; Macbeth, Aft I. {c. 7, 11. 21-23.
10. Perfea'ft. Hht Qvizxio has perfeBs.
1 1. Malone and other editors print : —
Shall neigh (no dull flefh) in, etc.
i.e. Defire fhall neigh, being no dull flefh, etc. But does it not mean, Defire, which is all love, (hall neigh,
NOTES. 189
there being no dull flefli to cumber him as he rufhes forward in his fiery race ? Compare the neighing ftallion of Adonis, Venus & Adonis, 11. 300-312.
14. Go, move ftep by ftep, walk, as in The Tempejl, Ad iii. fc. 2, I. 22.
Stephano. — We'll not run, Monfieur Monjler. Trinculo. — Nor go neither. I have placed the laft two lines, fpoken, as I take it, by Love, within inverted commas.
LII. The joy of hope, the hope of meeting his friend fpoken of in the laft fonnet (li.).
4. For blunting, becaufe it would blunt. So The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Aft I. fc. 2, 1. 136, 'Yet here they fhall not lie, /or catching cold'.
7-12. So I King Henry iv,, Aft m. fc. 2, 11.
55-59: —
Thus did I keep my per/on frefh and new ; My prefence, like a robe pontifical, Ne'r feen hut wonder' d at : and fo my fiate. Seldom hut fumptuous, fhowed like a feaft And won by rarenefs fuch folemnity.
8. Captain, chief. So Timon of Athens, Aft iii. fc. 5,1. 49 (Dyce ; butqu.? captain fubftantive) : — * The afs more captain than the lion'.
Carcanet, necklace, or collar of jewels. Comedy of Errors, Aft m. fc. i, 1. 4.
LIII. Not being able. In abfence, to poffefs his friend, he finds his friend's fhadow in all beautiful things.
N
190 NOTES.
4. You, although but one perfon, can give off aU manner of fhadowy images. Shakfpere then, to illuftrate this, choofes the moft beautiful of men, Adonis, and the moft beautiful of women, Helen ; both are but fliadows or counterfeits (i.e. pidures, as in Sonnet xvi.) of the ' mafter-miftrefs ' of his paffion.
8. Tires, head-dreffes, or, generally, attire.
9. Foifon, abundance. As in The Tempeji, Aft IV. fc. I, 1. no. Compare Antony & Cleopatra, Adv. fc. 2, 1. 86: —
For his bounty There was no wifiter in 7 ; an autumn 'twas That grew the more by reaping.
1 2. BleJJed. The fancy Shakfpere has taken for this word in Lii. i , 11, 13, runs on into this fonnet.
LIV. Continues the thought of liii. There Shak- fpere declared that over and above external beauty, more real than that of Helen and Adonis, his friend was pre-eminent for his conftancy, his truth. Now he proceeds to fliow how this truth enhances the beauty.
5. Cafiker-blooms, bloffoms of the dog-rofe. Much Ado about Nothing, Aft i. fc. 3, 1. 28, 'I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rofe in his grace'.
8. DifcJofes, opens, as in Hamlet, Aft i. fc. 3, 1. 40 : —
The canker galls the infants of the fpring Too oft before their buttons be difclofed.
NOTES. 191
9. For their virtue, becaufe their virtue. For as in Othello, AQ. III. fc. 3, 1. 263, 'Haply, for I am black'.
10. UnrefpeBei, unregarded.
11. 12. See the quotation from A Midfummer Night's Dream, in note on Sonnet v. 9.
1 4. IVI^en that, beauty, the general fubjed of the fonnet ; or youth, taken from ' fweet and lovely youth ' of L. 13.
Vade, fade, as in PaJJionate Pilgrim, x. i.
By verfe. So the Quarto. Malone reads ' my verfe '.
LV. A continuation of Liv. This looks like an Envoy, but Lvi. is ftill a fonnet of abfence. See on this fonnet. Introduction, p. xliii.
I. Monuments. The Quarto has monument.
3. Thefe contents, what is contained in this rhyme.
1 4 . Till the judgement that your/elf arife, till the de- cree of the judgment-day that you arife from the dead.
LVI. This, like the fonnets immediately preceding, is written in abfence (lines 9, 10). The 'love' Shakfpere addreffes, ' Sweet love, renew thy force', is the love in his own breaft. Is the fight of his friend, of which he fpeaks, only the imaginative feeing of love ; fuch fancied fight as two betrothed perfons may have although fevered by the ocean ?
6. Winh. See note on xliii. i. Here, to fleep as after a full meal.
8. DuUnefs. Taken in connexion with ' wink ', meaning fleep, dullnefs feems to mean drowfinefs, as
192 NOTES.
when Profpero fays of Miranda's flumber (The Tempeji, Ad. i. fc. 2, 1. 185) ' 'Tis a good dulnefs*. 1 3 . Or. The Q.uarto has As. Mr. Palgrave reads El/e.
LVII. The abfence fpoken of in this fonnet feems to be voluntary abfence on the part of Shakfpere's friend.
5. IVorld-without-eni hour, the tedious hour, that feems as if it would never end. So Lovers Labour's Loft, Ad v. fc. 2, 1. 799, 'a world- without-end bargain'.
15. Will. The Cluarto has Will (capital ' W, but not italics). If a play on words is intended, it muft be ' Love in your Will (i.e. your Will Shak- fpere) can think no evil of you, do what you pleafe' ; and alfo 'Love can difcover no evil in your will'.
LVIIL A clofe continuation of lvii. ; growing diftruft in his friend, with a determination to refift fuch a feeling. Hence the attempt to difqualify himfelf for judging his friend's condud, by taking the place of a vaffal, a fervant, a flave, in relation to a fovereign.
6. The imprifon'd abfence of your liberty, the feparation from you, which is proper to your ftate of freedom, but which to me is imprifonment. Or the want of fuch liberty as you pofTefs, which I, a prifoner, fuffer.
8. Tame to fufferance, bearing tamely even cruel diftrefs ; or, tame even to the point of entire fub- miffion.
NOTES. 193
II. To what you will. Malone reads ' time : Do what you will'.
LIX. Is this connefted with the preceding fonnet? or a new ftarting-point ? Immortality conferred by verfe, liv.-lv., is again taken up in Sonnet LX. con- nefted with lix., and jealoufy, LVii. in Lxi.
8. Since mind, etc., 'Since thought was firft expreffed in writing'. — Schmidt.
1 1 . Wliether, etc. ' Whether ' is often mono- fyllabic in Elizabethan verfe. In this line the Quarto prints the fecond ' whether ' luhere ; fo in Venus & Adonis, 1. 304, 'And where he run or fly they know not whether '. The Cambridge editors read ' Whether we are mended, or whether better they '. Dyce reads ' Whether we're mended or wher better they'.
12. Or whether, etc., i.e. whether the ages, re- volving on themfelves, return to the fame things.
LX. The thought of revolution, the revolving ages, LIX. 12, fets the poet thinking of changes wrought by time.
5. The main of tight; The entrance of a child into the world at birth is an entrance into the main or ocean of light ; the image is fuggefted by 1. i , where our minutes are compared to waves.
9. Flourijb fet on youth, external decoration of youth. So in Nafh's Summer's Lajl Will & Tejla- ment (Hazlitt's Dodjley, vol. viii. p. 73), 'Folly Erafmus fets a flourifh on '.
ID. Compare Sonnet 11. i, 2. I 3 . Times in hope, future times.
/
194 NOTES.
LXI. The jealous feeling of lvii. reappears in this fonnet.
7. Idle hours. So in the dedication of Vemis & Adonis, ' I . . . vowe to take advantage of all idle hours, till I have honoured you with fome graver labour '.
1 1. Defeat, deftroy. Othello, Aft iv. fc. 2, 1. 1 60, * His unkindnefs may defeat my life '.
LXII. Perhaps the thought of jealoufy in Lxi. fuggefts this. ' How felf-loving to fuppofe my friend could be jealous of fuch an one as I — beated and chopp'd with tann'd antiquity ! My apology for fuppofmg that others could make love to me is that my friend's beauty is mine by right of friendfhip.'
7. And for myfelf, etc. Sidney Walker conjec- tures'/o define ' ; Lettfom ' And /o myfelf. Does 'for myfelf mean ' for my own fatiffaction '?
8. As I, [define] in fuch a way that I.
10. Beated and chopp'd. ' Beated -was perhaps a mifprint for 'bated. 'Bated is properly overthrown ; laid low; abated; from abattre, Fr. . . . Beated, however, the regular participle from the verb to heat, may be right. ... In King Henry v. we find cajled, and in Macbeth, thrujied'. — Malone.
Steevens conjedured hlajled ; Collier, beaten. Compare The Merchant of Venice, Act in, {c. 3, 1. 32, ' Thefe griefs and loffes have fo bated me '.
Chopp'd. Dyce reads chapp'd.
1 3. 'Tis thee, myfelf, etc. 'Tis thee my alter ego, my fecond felf, that I praife as if myfelf.
LXIII. Obvioufly in clofe continuation of LXii.
NOTES. 19s
5. Steepy night. So King Richard m., Aft iv. fc. 4, 1. 16; ' dimm'd your infant morn to aged night '. The epithet ' fteepy ' is explained by Sonnet vii. 5, 6. Youth and age are on the fteep afcent, and the fteep decline of heaven.
9. For fuch a time. In anticipation of fuch a time.
Fortify, ereft defenfive works. Compare 'the wreckful fiege of battering days', Sonnet lxv. 6.
LXIV. In Lxiii. 1 2, the thought of the lofs of his 'lover's life' occurs; this fonnet (fee 1. 12) carries on the train of reflexion there ftarted. * Time's fell hand', 1. i repeats 'Time's injurious hand' of lxiii. 2.
5, 9. Compare 2 King Henry iv., k&. m. fc. I.
11. 45-53: —
O God I that one might read the book of fate
And fee the revolution of the times
Make mountains level, and the continent,
Weary of f olid firmnefs, melt itfelf
Into the fea I and, other times, to fee
The heachy girdle of the ocean
Too wide for Neptune's hips.
The king goes on to meditate on the ' interchange of ftate ' in his time in England.
13. Wliich cannot choofe ; this thought, which cannot choofe, etc., is as a death.
LXV. In clofe connexion with LXiv. The firfl: line enumerates the conquefts of Time recorded in LXIV. 1-8.
3. This rage. Malone propofed 'his rage'.
196 NOTES.
4. ABion. Is this word ufed here in a legal fenfe? fuggefted perhaps by 'hold a plea' of 1. 3. 6. Wreckful fiege. See Sonnet LXiii. 9, and note.
10. Time's cheft. Theobald propofed ' Time's quejl '. Malone fliows that the image of a jewel in its cheft or caflcet is a favourite one with Shakfpere. See Sonnet xlviii., King Richard 11., Aft i. fc. i, 1. 180 ; King John, Act v. {c. i, 1. 40.
12. Of beauty. The Quarto has or, a manifeft error.
LXVI. From the thought of his friend's death Shakfpere turns to think of his own, and of the ills of Hfe from which death would deliver him.
I. All thefe. The evils enumerated in the following lines.
4. Unhappily, evilly. See in Schmidt's Shake- fpeare-Lexicon the words, unhappied, unhappily, unhappinefs, and unhappy.
9. Art made tongue-tied iy authority ; art is commonly ufed by Shakfpere for letters, learning, fcience. Can this line refer to the cenforfhip of the ftage ?
1 1 . Simplicity, i.e. in the fenfe of folly.
LXVII. In clofe connexion with lxvi. Why fhould my friend continue to live in this evil world ?
4. Lace, embellifh, as in Macbeth, Aft 11. fc. 3, 1. 118.
6. Dead feeing. Why fhould painting fteal the lifelefs appearance of beauty from his Hving hue? Capell and Farmer cov).]t£i\ir t feeming.
NOTES. 197
12. Proud of many lives, etc. Nature, while fhe boafts of many beautiful perfons, really has no treafure of beauty except his.
13. Stores. See note on Sonnet xi. 9.
LXVIII. Carries on the thought of lxvii. 13, 1 4 ; compare the lafl two lines of both fonnets.
I. Map of days out-worn, compare Lucrece, 1. 1350,' this pattern of the worn-out age'. ' Map', a pidure or outline. King Richard 11., A6t v. fc. i , 1. 12, ' Thou map of honour '.
3. Fair, beauty.
Born. The Quarto prints home, and fo Malone. But the Quarto borne probably is our horn, the word ' baftard ' fuggefting the idea of birth.
5, 6. Malone notes that Shakfpere has inveighed againft the praftice of wearing falfe hair in The Merchant of Venice, K&. in. fc. 2, 11. 92-96, and again in Timon of Athens, Aft iv. fc. 3, 1. 144.
10. Without all ornament, all, i.e. any, as Sonnet Lxxiv. 2, 'without all bail'.
Itfelf. Malone propofed himfelf.
LXIX. From the thought of his friend's external beauty Shakfpere turns to think of the beauty of his mind, and the popular report againft it.
3. Due. The Quarto has end, which, Malone obferves, arofe from the printer tranfpofmg the letters of due, and inverting the u ; but more pro- bably the printer's eye caught the end of ' mend ' 1. 2, and his fingers repeated it in the next line.
5. Thy outward. The Quarto has Their out-
198 NOTES.
ward; Malone read Thine, but thy is fometimes found before a vowel, and the miftake ' their ' for ' tliy ' is of frequent occurrence in the Quarto.
14. The foil is this. The Quarto has folye. Malone and Dyce read folve. Caldecott conjeftures foil. The Cambridge editors write : ' As the verb " to foil" is not uncommon in Old Englifh, meaning " to folve ", as for example : " This queftion could not one of them all foile " (Udal's Erafmus, Luke, fol. 154 b), fo the fubftantive " foil " may be ufed in the fenfe of "folution". The play upon words thus fuggefted is in the author's manner '.
LXX. Continues the fubjeft of the laft Sonnet, and defends his friend from the fufpicion and flander of the time.
3. SufpeB, fufpicion, as in 1. 13, and Venus & Adonis, 1. loio.
6. Thy worth. The Quarto has their.
Being ivoo'd of time. ' Time is ufed by our early writers as equivalent to the modern expreffion, the times'. — Hunter, Netu Illujlrations of Shake- fpeare,vo\. ii. p. 240. Hunter quotes King Richard in., Ad IV. fc. 4, 1. 106, where, however, the propofed meaning feems doubtful. Steevens quotes from Ben Jonfon, Every Man out of His Humour, Prologue, ' Oh, how I hate the monflroufnefs of time,'' i.e. the times. ' Being woo'd of time ' feems, then, to mean being folicited or tempted by the prefent times. Malone conjeftured and withdrew ' being void of crime'. C. [probably Capell] fuggefted ' being wood of time,' i.e. flander being wood or frantic. Delius
I
NOTES. 199
propofes ' weigFd of time ', Staunton, ' being woo'd of crime '.
7. For canker vice, etc. So The Tvjo Gentlemen of Verona, Aft i. fc. i, 1. 43 : —
In the fweeteft bud The eating canker dwells.
14. Oiue, own, polTefs.
LXXI. Shakfpere goes back to the thought of his own death, from which he was led away by Lxvi. 14, 'to die, I leave my love alone'. The world in this fonnet is the ' vile world ' defcribed in LXVI.
2. The furly fullen bell Compare 2 King Henry iv., Aft i. fc. i, 1. 102 : —
A fullen bell, Remember'' d knolling a departed friend.
10. Compounded am with clay. 2 King Henry iv., Kdi. IV. fc. 5, 1. 116 : —
Only compound me with forgotten duft.
I
LXXII. In clofe continuation of Lxxi. ' When I
die let my memory die with me'.
LXXIII. Still, as in lxxi.-lxxii. thoughts of approaching death.
2. Compare Macbeth, Aft v. fc. 3,1. 23 : —
My way of life Is fair n into the fear, the yellow leaf.
200 NOTES.
3 . Bare ruin'd choirs. The Quarto has * ru'wd quiers'. The edition of 1640 made the corredion. Capell propofed ' Barren'd of quires'. Malone compares with this paffage Cymbeline, Aft lii. fc. 3, 11. 60-64: —
Theti was I as a tree Whofe houghs did hend with fruit : but in one night, A ftorm or rohhery, call it what you will. Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves. And left me bare to weather ;
and Timon of Athens, Aft iv. fc. 3, 11. 263-266.
7. So in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Aft i. fc. 3,1. 87:-
And by and by a cloud takes all away.
12. Conf tuned, etc. Wafting away on the dead afhes which once nourifhed it with living flame.
LXXIV. In immediate continuation of LXXiii. 1,2. The Quarto has no flop after contented. That fell arrefl. So Hamlet, Aft v. k. 2, 11. 347, 348:-
Had I but time — as this (tW fergeant, death, Is ftricl in his arreft.
1 1 . The coward conquejl, etc. Does Shakfpere merely fpeak of the liability of the body to untimely or violent mifchance? Or does he meditate fuicide? Or think of Marlowe's death, and anticipate fuch a fate as poffibly his own ? Or has he, like Marlowe, been wounded ? Or does he refer to diffeftion of dead
p
NOTES. 201
bodies ? Or is it ' Confounding age's cruel knife ' of
LXIII. 1. 10?
13, 14. The worth, etc. The worth of that (my body) is that which it contains (my fpirit), and that (my fpirit) is this (my poems).
LXXV. The laft Sonnet, lxxiv., feems to me like an Efivoy, and perhaps a new manufcript book of Sonnets begins with lxxv.-lxxvii.
3. And for the peace of you, the peace, content, to be found in you ; antithefis to Jirifc.
6. Doubting the filching age, etc. Perhaps this is the firft allufion to the poet, Shakfpere's rival in his friend's favour.
8. Better'd. H. Ifaac propofes better.
I o. Clean Jlarved for a look. See Sonnet XLVii. 3, and note.
II, 12. PoffefTmg no delight fave what is had from you, purfuing none fave what muft be taken from you.
14. ' That is, either feeding on various difhes, or having nothing on my board, — all being away'. — Malone.
LXXVI. Is this an apology for Shakfpere's own Sonnets — of which his friend begins to weary— in contrail; with the verfes of the rival poet, fpoken of in Lxxviii.-Lxxx. ?
6. Keep invention in a noted weed, keep imagina- tion, or poetic creation, in a drefs which is obferved and known.
7. Tell. The Q.uarto hsLsfel.
8. Wljere. Capell propofed whence.
202 NOTES.
LXXVII. ' Probably ', fays Steevens, ' this fonnet was defigned to accompany a prefent of a book confifting of blank paper '. ' This conjefture ', fays Malone, ' appears to me extremely probable '. If I might hazard a conjedure, it would be that Shak- fpere, who had perhaps begun a ne-w manufcript- book with Sonnet Lxxv., and who, as I fuppofe, apologized for the monotony of his verfes in Lxxvi., here ceafed to write, knowing that his friend was favouring a rival, and invited his friend to fill up the blank pages himfelf (fee note below; 1. 12). Beauty, Time, and Verfe formed the theme of many of Shak- fpere's fonnets ; now that he will write no more, he commends his friend to his glafs, where he may difcover the truth about his beauty; to the dial, where he may learn the progrefs of time ; and to this book, which he himfelf — not Shakfpere — muft fill. C. A. Brown and Henry Brown treat this fonnet as an Envoy.
4. This book. Malone propofed ' thy book '.
6. Mouthed graves. So Venus & Adonis, I. 757, * A fwallowing grave '.
10. Blanks. The Q.uarto has blacks: the correftion is from Theobald.
12. Perhaps this is faid with fome feeling of wounded love — my verfes have grown monotonous and wearifome ; write yourfelf, and you will find novelty in your own thoughts when once delivered from your brain and fet down by your pen. Per- haps, alfo, ' this learning mayft thou tafte ', I. 4, is fuggefled by the fa£l that Shakfpere is unlearned in comparifon with the rival. I cannot bring you
NOTES. 203
learning ; but fet down your own thoughts, and you will find learning in them.
LXXVIII. Shakfpere, I fuppofe, receives fome renewed profeffion of love from his friend, and again addreffes him in verfe, openly fpeaking of the caufe of his eftrangement, the favour with which his friend regards the rival poet.
3. Got my life, acquired my habit [of writing verfe to you].
6. Heavy ignorance. So Othello, KQ. 11. fc. i,
1. 144, ' O heavy ignorance ' ! Fly. The Q.uarto has flee.
7. The learned' s wing. Quarto, learneds. Com- pare Spenfer's Teares of the Miifes : —
Each idle wit at will prefumes to make.
And doth the learneds tafk upon him take. — Dyce.
r 9. Compile, write, compofe. So Sonnet Lxxxv.
2, * Comments of your praife, richly compiled' ; Love's Labour's Lofl, Ad. iv. fc. 3, 1. 134.
12. Arts, learning, fcholarfhip. Love's Labour's Loft, Aft 2, fc. I, 1. 45.
13. Advance, lift up. As in The Tempeft, Aft i. fc. 2, 1. 408 : —
T7;c fringed curtains of thine eyes advance.
LXXIX. In continuation of Sonnet Lxxviii. 5 . Thy lovely argument, the lovely theme of your beauty and worth.
204 NOTES.
LXXX. Same fubjeft continued.
2. A better J'pirit. For the conjedures made with refpeft to this ' better fpirit ', fee the Introduc- tion, pages xxxvi.-xxxix.
6, 7. The humble, etc. Compare Troilus & Crejfida, Ad. 1. fc. 3, 11. 34-42 : where 's then the fancy boat ?
LXXXI. After depreciating his own verfe in comparifon with that of the rival poet, Shakfpere here takes heart, and afferts that he will by verfe confer immortality on his friend, though his own name may be forgotten.
I. Or I. Staunton propofes * Wh'er I', i.e. Whether I.
12. Breathers of this luorld ; this world, i.e. this age. Compare As You Like It, A&. iii. fc. 2, 1. 297 : 'I will chide no breather in the world but myfelf. Sidney Walker propofes to point as follows : —
Shall o'er-read. And tongues to be your being fhall rehearfe ; IVhen all the breathers of this world are dead. You flill fhall live, etc.
It is rare, however, with Shakfpere to let the verfe run on without a paufe at the twelfth line of the fonnet.
LXXXII. His friend had perhaps alleged in play- ful felf-juftification that he had not married Shakfpere's Mufe, vowing to forfake all other and keep him only unto her.
NOTES. 205
3. Dedicated words. Tliis may only mean de- voted words, but probably has reference, as the next line feems to fhow, to the words of fome dedication prefixed to a book.
5. Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue. Shakfpere had celebrated his friend's beauty (hue) ; perhaps his learned rival had celebrated the patron's knowledge ; fuch excellence reached ' a limit paft the praife ' of Shakfpere, who knew fmall Latin and lefs Greek.
11. Sympathii'd, anfwered to, tallied. So Lu- crece, 1. 1 11 3 : —
True forrow then is feelingly fiifficed
Wlien with like femhiance it is fympathized.
LXXXIII. Takes up the lad lines of lxxxii. and continues the fame theme.
2. Fair, beauty.
5. Slept in your report, neglected to found your praifes.
7. Modern, trite, ordinary, common. So Antony & Cleopatra, Aft v. fc. 2, 1. 167.
8. What worth. Malone fuggefled ' that worth '.
12. Bring a tomb. Compare Sonnet xvii. 3.
LXXXIV. Continues the fame theme. Which of us, the rival poet or I, can fay more than that you are you ?
I, 4. Staunton propofes to omit the note of in- terrogation after moji (1. i) and to introduce one after grew (1. 4).
2o6 NOTES.
8. Story. W. S. Walker propofes to retain the period of the Quarto a.keT Jlory — perhaps rightly.
14. Being fond on praife, doting on praife. A Midfummer Night's Dream, Aft 11. fc. i, 1. 266: —
That he may prove More fond on her than Jhe upon her love. Palgrave has ' of praife '.
LXXXV. Continues the fubjeft of lxxxiv. Shak- fpere's friend is fond on praife ; Shakfpere's Mufe is filent while others compile comments of his praife.
1 . My tongue-tied Mufe. Compare Sonnet Lxxx. 4.
2. Compiled. See note on Sonnet lxxviii. 9.
3 . Referve their chara£ler. Referve has here, fays Malone, the fenfe of preferve ; fee Sonnet xxxii. 7. But what does ' preferve their charafter ' mean ? An anonymous emender fuggefts * Rehearfe thy ', or ' Rehearfe your '. Poffibly ' Deferve their charafter ' may be right, i.e. ' deferve to be written'.
4. Filed, polifhed, refined (as if rubbed with a file). Love's Labour's Loft, Aft v. fc. i, 1. 11, ' his tongue filed '. See note on Sonnet lxxxvi. 13.
1 1 . But that, i.e. that which I add.
LXXXVI. Continues the fubjeft of lxxxv., and explains the caufe of Shakfpere's filence.
I. Proud full fail. The fame metaphor which appears in Sonnet LXXx.
4. Making their tomb the womb, etc. So Romeo & Juliet, Aft II. fc. 3, 1. 9 : —
The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb ; What is her burying grave that is her womb.
NOTES. 207
5-10. See Introduction, pages xxxvii.-xxxix.
8. Ajlonijhed, ftunned as by a thunder-ftroke, as in Lucrece, 1. 1730.
1 3 . FilVd up his line. Malone, Steevens, Dyce, read fiVd, i.e. poliflied, Steevens quotes Ben Jonlbn's Verfes on Shakefpeare :
In his iveU-torned and true-fAtdi lines.
But ' fill'd up his line ' is oppofed to ' then lack'd I matter '. Filed in Lxxxv. 4, is printed in the Quarto fir d; filled is printed xvii. 2 ; Lxm. 3, as it is in this paffagej^/i.
LXXXVII. Increafing coldnefs on his friend's part brings Shakfpere to the point of declaring that all is over between them. This fonnet in form is diflinguifhed by double-rhymes throughout.
4. Determinate, limited ; or out of date, expired. ' The term is ufed in legal conveyances '. — Malone.
8. Patent, privilege. As in A Midfimimer Night's Dream, Ad i. fc. i, 1. 80, ' my virgin patent '.
1 1 . Upon piifprifion growing, a miftake having arifen. i King Henry iv., Aft i. fc. 3, 1. 27, ' raifprifion is guilty of this fault '.
13. As fome dream doth flatter. So Romeo & Juliet, Aft V. fc. I, 11. I, 2 : —
If I may truft the flattering truth of fleep, My dreams prefage fome joyful news at hand.
LXXXVIII. In continuation. Shakfpere ftill afl"erts his own devotion, though his unfaithful
2o8 NOTES.
friend not only fhould forfake him, but even hold liim in fcorn.
I. Set me light, efteem me little. So King Richard ii., Aft i. fc. 3, 1. 293,
8. Shalt. Quarto, /hall.
LXXXIX. Continues the fubjeft of Lxxxviii., fhowing how Shakfpere will take part with his friend againft himfelf.
3. My lamenefs. See note on Sonnet xxxvii. 3.
6. To fet a form, etc., to give a becoming appear- ance to the change which you defire. So A Mid- fumtiier Night's Dream, Aft i. fc. i , 1. 2 5 3 : —
Things haje and vile, holding no quantity. Love can tranfpofe to form and dignity.
8. I will acquaintance Jhangle, put an end to our familiarity. So Twelfth Night, Aft v. fc. i , 1. 150; Antony & Cleopatra, Aft 11. (c. 6, 1. 130: 'You fhall find, the band that feems to tie their friendfhip together will be the very Jlrangler of their amity'.
13, Debate, contefi, quarrd. 2 King Henry iv., Aft IV. fc. 4, 1. 2 : ' this debate that bleedeth at our door '.
XC. Takes up the laft word of lxxxix., and pleads pathetically for hatred; for the worfl:, fpeedily, if at all.
6. The rearward of a conquered luoe. Much Ado About Nothing, Aft iv. fc. i, 1. 128 : —
Thought I thy fpirit were Jlronger than thy fhames, Myfelf would, on the rearward of reproaches^ Strike at thy life.
NOTES. 209
13. Strains of woe. So Much Ado About Nothing, Ad. V. fc. I, 1. 12 : —
Meafure his woe the length and breadth of mine And let it anfwer every ftrain for ftrain.
XCI. Having in xc. thought of his own perfecu- tion at the hand of Fortune, Shakfpere here contrafts his ftate with that of the favorites of Fortune, main- taining that if he had but affured poffeffion of his friend's love, he would lack none of their good things.
4. Horfe. Probably the plural, meaning horfes, as in The Taming of the Shrew, InduBion, 1. 61, I King Henry vi., Aft i. fc. 5, 1. 31.
10. Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' cojl. So Cymbeline, Aft iii. fc. 3, 11. 23, 24: — Richer than doing nothing for a bauble. Prouder than rujiling in unpaid-for filk.
XCII. In clofe connexion with xci. This fonnet argues for the contradiftory of the laft two lines of that immediately preceding it. No : you cannot make me wretched by taking away your love, for with fuch a lofs, death muft come and free me from forrow.
10. My life on thy revolt doth lie, my life hangs upon, is dependent on, your defertion, Macbeth, Aft v. fc. 4, 1. 12 : —
Both more and lefs have given him the revolt. And none ferve with him but conflrained things Whofe hearts are abfent too.
Compare Sonnet xciii. 4.
2 10 NOTES.
XCIII. Carries on the thought of the laft line of xcri.
II, 12. So Macbeth, AQ. i. fc. 4, 1. 12 : —
There '5 110 art To find the mtnd''s confiru£tion in the face.
XCIV. In XCIII. Shakfpere has defcribed his friend as able to fhow a fweet face while harbouring falfe thoughts ; the fubjed: is enlarged on in the prefent Sonnet. They who can hold their paffions in check, who can feem loving yet keep a cool heart, who move paffion in others, yet are cold and unmoved themfelves — they rightly inherit from heaven large gifts, for they hufband them ; where- as paffionate intemperate natures fquander their endowments ; thofe who can affume this or that femblance as they fee reafon are the mafters and owners of their faces ; others have no property in fuch excellences as they poffefs, but hold them for the advantage of the prudent felf-contained perfons. True, thefe felf-contained perfons may feem to lack generofity ; but, then, without mak- ing voluntary gifts they give inevitably, even as the fummer's flower is fweet to the fummer, though it live and die only to itfelf Yet, let fuch an one beware of corruption, which makes odious the fweetefl: flowers.
6. Expefife, expenditure, and fo lofs.
1 1 . Bafe. Staunton propofes foul.
12. The hafejl weed. Sidney Walker propofes ' the iarejl weed '.
NOTES. 211
14. Lilies, etc. This line occurs in King Ed- ward III., Aft II. fc. I (near the clofe of the fcene). I quote the paflage that the reader may fee how the line comes into the play, and form an opinion as to whether play or fonnet has the right of firft owner- fhip in it.
^ fpacious field of reafons could I urge Between his glory, daughter, and thy flame : That poijon Jhows worft in a golden cup ; Dark night feems darker by the lightning flajh ; Lilies, that fefier, fmell far worfe than weeds ; And every glory, that inclines to fin. The fame is treble by the oppofite.
It fhould be remembered that feveral critics affign to Shakfpere a portion of this play, which was firft printed in 1596. In a fcene afcribed to Shakfpere occur the lines which have been quoted.
Fefter, rot. As in Romeo & Juliet, Ad iv. fc. 3,
1.43-
XCV. Continues the warning of xciv. 13, 14. Though now you feem to make fhame beautiful, beware ! a time will come when it may be other- wife.
8. Naming thy name bleffes, etc. Antony & Cleopatra, Aft 11. fc. 2, 11. 243-245 : —
Vilefi things Become themf elves in her ; that the holy priefis Blejs her when fhe is riggifh.
212 NOTES.
XCVI. Continues the fubjed of xcv. Pleads againft the mifufe of his friend's gifts ; againft youth- ful Ucentioufnefs.
2. Gentle /port. As in the laft fonnet 'making lafcivious comments on thy /port'.
3. More and lefs, great and fmall, as in i King Henry iv., Aft iv. fc. 3, 1. 68 : —
The more and lefs came in with cap and knee.
9, 10. The fame thought expreffed in different imagery appears in xciii.
Tranjlate, tranfform ; as in Hamlet, Ad iii. {c. i, 1. 113.
12. The /Irength of all thy ft ate, the ftrength of all thy majefty, fplendour. Schmidt fays ' ufed periphraftically, and = all thy ftrength'.
13, 14. The fame couplet clofes Sonnet xxxvi.
XCVII. A new group of Sonnets feems to begin here.
5. Tills time removed. This time of abfence. Twelfth Night, Aft v. fc. i, 1. 92, 'A twenty years removed thing'.
6. The teeming autumn, etc. So A Midfummer Night's Dream, Aft 11. fc. 1, II. 111-114, 'The childing autumn'. Ifaac propofes Then teeming.
7. Prime, fpring.
10. Hope of orphans, fuch hope as orphans bring ; or, expeftation of the birth of children whofe father is dead. Staunton propofes ' crop of orphans '.
XCVIII. The fubjeft of xcvii. is Abfence in
NOTES. 213
Summer and Autumn ; the fubjeft of xcviii.-ix. Abfence in Spring.
2, 3. Proud-pied April, etc. So Romeo & Juliet, Aft I. fc. 2, 1. 27 : —
Such comfort as do hijly young men feel IVlien well-apparell'd April on the heel Of limping winter treads.
4. That. So that.
7 . Summer'' s ftory. ' By a fummer^s ftory Shak- fpeare feems to have meant fome gayfidion. Thus, his comedy founded on the adventures of the king and queen of the fairies, he calls A Midfummer Night's Dream. On the other hand, in The Win- ter's Tale he tells us, " a fad tale's befl; for winter". So alfo in Cymbeline, Aft m. fc. 4, 11. 12-14: —
— if it be fummer news. Smile to it before : if winterly, thou need' ft But keep that countenance fill'. Malone.
8. TJ}e lily's white. The Quarto has lilies; fo Malone and other editors.
1 1 . They were but fweet. Malone propofed ' they were, my fweet, but, etc' The poet declares, as Steevens fays, that the flowers ' are only fweet, only delightful, fo far as they refemble his friend '. Lettfom propofes, ' They were but fleeting figures of delight '.
XCIX. In connexion with the laft line of Sonnet xcviu. The prefent fonnet has fifteen lines.
214 NOTES.
6. Condemned for thy hand, condemned for theft of the whitenefs of thy hand.
7. And buds of marjoram, etc. Compare Suckling's Tragedy of Brennoralt, Aft iv. {c. i : —
Hair curling, and cover' d like buds of marjoram ; Part tied in negligence, part loofely flowing.
Mr. H. C. Hart tells me that buds of marjoram are dark purple-red before they open, and afterwards pink ; dark auburn I fuppofe would be the near eft approach to marjoram in the colour of hair. Mr. Hart fuggefts that the marjoram has ftolen not colour but perfume from the young man's hair. Gervafe Markham gives fweet marjoram as an ingredient in 'The water of fweet fmeUs', and Culpepper fays 'marjoram is much ufed in all odoriferous waters'. Cole {Adam in Eden, ed. 1657) fays 'Marjerome is a chief ingredient in moft of thofe powders that Barbers ufe, in whofe fhops I have feen great ftore of this herb hung up'.
8. On thorns did fland. To ' ftand on thorns' is an old proverbial phrafe.
9. One. The Q.uarto has 'our'.
12. A vengeful canker eat him, etc. So Venus & Adonis, 1. 6 5 6 : —
This canker that eats up Love's tender fpring.
14. But fweet. Sidney Walker propofes/cew/.
C. Written after a ceflation from fonnet-writing, during which Shakfpere had been engaged in author-
NOTES. 215
fhip, — writing plays for the public as I fuppofe, in- ftead of poems for his friend.
3. Ftcry, poetic enthufiafm, as in Love's Labour's Loji, Aft IV. fc. 3, 1. 229.
9. ReJIy, torpid; 'Refty, piger, lentus\ Coles's Latin and Englijh DiBionary (quoted by Dyce).
1 1 . Satire. ' Satire is fatirijl. Jonfon, Mafqiie of Time Vindicated, Gifford, vol. viii. p. 5 : —
mo's this ? Ears. 'Tis Chronomajiix, the brave fatyr.
Nose. The gentleman-like fatyr, cares for nobody.
Poetajler, v. i, vol. ii. p. 524: —
The honejl fatyr hath the happiefi foul '.
W. S. Walker. 14. Prevent' ft, doft fruftrate by anticipating.
CI. Continues the addrefs to his mufe, calling on her to fing again the praifes of his friend ; c. calls on her to praife his beauty ; ci. his ' truth in beauty dyed'.
6. His colour, the colour of my love (i.e. my friend).
7. To lay, to fpread on a furface, to lay on. Twelfth Night, Aft i. fc. 5, 1. 258 : —
' Tis beauty truly blent, luhofe red and white Nature's oiun fweet and cunning hand laid on.
CII. In continuation. An apology for having ceafed to fmg.
3. That love is merchandised, etc. So in Love's Labour's Loft, Ad 11. fc. i, 11. 13-16 : —
2i6 NOTES.
My beauty, though but mean, Needs not the painted jlourifh of your praije : Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye, Not litter' d by bafe fale of chapmen's tongues.
7. Summer's front. So A Winter's Tale, Ad: rv. fc. 4, 1- 3 :—
No fhepherdefs, but Flora Peering in April's front.
8. Her pipe. The Quarto has 'his pipe'. Compare Twelfth Night, Aft i. (c. 4, 1. 32.
CIII. Continues the fame apology, 3. The argument, all bare, the theme of my verfe merely as it is in itfelf.
6, 7. So The Tempejl, Ad iv. fc. i, 1. 10 : —
For thou fhalt find fhe will outftrip all praife And make it halt behind her.
9. 10. So King Lear, Ad i. fc. 4, 1. 369 : — Striving to better, oft we mar what's well,
and King John, Ad iv. fc. 2, 11. 28, 29.
CrV. Refumes the fubjed from which the poet ftarted in Sonnet c. After abfence and cefTation from fong, he refurveys his friend's face, and inquires whether Time has ftolen away any of its beauty. Note the important reference to time, three years ' fmce firft I faw you frefh '.
2. Eyed. So in The Two Noble Kinsmen, 'I ear'd her language'.
NOTES. 217
3. Three winters cold. Dyce reads perhaps rightly 'winters' cold'. The Q.uarto in 3, 4, has * Winters cold . . . iummers pride '.
4. Three fummers' pride. So Romeo & Juliet, Ad: I. fc. 2, 1. 10: —
Let two more fummers wither in their pride.
10. Steal from his figure, creep from the figure on the dial. So in Sonnet lxxvii., ' thy diaVs fhady ftealtV.
13. For fear of which, becaufe I fear which,
CV. To the beauty praifed in c, and the truth and beauty in ci., Shakfpere now adds a third perfeftion, kindnefs ; and thefe three fum up the perfections of his friend.
1,4. Let not my love, etc. ' Becaufe the continual repetition of the fame praifes feemed like a form of worihip'.— W. S. Walker. Cf. cviii. 1-8.
CVI. The laft line of Sonnet cv. declares that his friend's perfeftions were never before pofTeffed by one perfon. This leads the poet to gaze back- ward on the famous perfons of former ages, men and women, his friend being poffefTor of the united perfedions of both man and woman (as in Sonnets XX. and Liii).
8. Majler, poffefs, own as a matter. So King Henry v., Aft 11. fc. 4, 1. 137 : —
Y oil' II find a difference
Between the promife of his greener days And thefe he matters now.
21 8 NOTES.
9. Compare Conftable's Z)/fl?w ; —
Miracle of the world I never will deny That former poets praife the beauty of their days; But all thofe beauties were but figures of thy praife, And all thofe poets did of thee but prophecy.
12. They had not fkill enough. The Q.uarto has '//// enough '.
CVII. Continues the celebration of his friend, and rejoices in their reflored affeftion. Mr. Maffey explains this fonnet as a fong of triumph for the death of Elizabeth, and the deliverance of South- ampton from the Tower. Elizabeth (Cynthia) is the eclipfed mortal moon of 1. 5 ; compare Antony & Cleopatra, KSt in. fc. 13, 1. 153 : —
Alack, our terrene moon (i.e. Cleopatra) Is now eclipfed.
But an earlier reference to a moon-eclipfe (xxxv. 1. 3) has to do with his friend, not with Elizabeth, and in the prefent fonnet the moon is imagined as having endured her eclipfe, and come out none the lefs bright. I interpret (as Mr. Simpfon does, Philofophy of Shakfpere's Sonnets, p. 79) : 'Not my own fears (that my friend's beauty may be on the wane. Sonnet civ. 9-14) nor the prophetic foul of the world, prophefying in the perfons of dead knights and ladies your perfeftions (Sonnet cvi.), and fo prefiguring your death, can confine my leafe of love to a brief term of years. Darknefs and fears are paft, the augurs of ill find their predidions
II
NOTES. 219
falfified, doubts are over, peace has come in place of ftrife ; the love in my heart is frefti and young (fee cviii. 1. 9), and I have conquered Death, for in this verfe we both fhall find Hfe in the memories of men.
4. Suppofed, etc., fuppofed to be a leafe expiring within a Hmited term.
10. My love looks frejh. I am not fure whether this means 'the love in my heart', or 'my love' = my friend. Compare crv. 1. 8, and cviii. 1. 9.
Suh/cribes, fubmits. As in The Taming of the Shrew, Aft i. fc. i, 1. 81.
12. Inf lilts o'er, triumphs over. As in 3 King Henry vi., Aft i. fc. 3, I. 14.
CVIII. How can ' this poor rhyme ' which is to give us both unending life (cvii. 10-14) be carried on? Only by faying over again the fame old things. But eternal love, in ' love's frefh cafe ' (an echo of 'my love looks frefli', cvii. 10), knows no age, and finds what is old ftill frefh and young.
3. What new to regijler. So Malone. The Quarto has ' What now '. Sidney Walker con- jeftures ' what 's now to fpeak, what now, etc.'.
5. Nothing fiueet boy. Altered in ed. 1640 to ' Nothing fweet love '.
9. Love's frefh cafe, love's new condition and circumftances, the new youth of love fpoken of cvii. I o. But Schmidt explains ' cafe ' here as ' queftion of law, caui'e, queftion in general ' ; and Malone fays ' By the cafe of love the poet means his own compofitions '.
220 NOTES.
13, 14. Finding the firft conception of love, i.e. love as paffionate as at firft, felt by one whofe years and outward form fhow the effefts of age.
CIX. The firft ardour of love is now renewed as in the days of early friendfhip (cviii. 13, 14), But what of the interval of abfence and eftrange- ment? Shakfpere confefTes his wanderings, yet declares that he was never wholly falfe.
2. Qualify, temper, moderate, as in Troilus & Creffida, AQ. il. fc. 2, 1. 118.
4. My foul which in thy breajl doth He. So King Richard ill.. Aft i. fc. i, 1. 204 : —
Even fo thy breajl enclofeth my poor heart.
7. Jtcjl to the time, not with the time exchanged, punftual to the time, not altered with the time. So JefTica in her boy's difguife. Merchant of Venice, Aft II. fc. 6, 1. 35 : —
/ am glad 'tis flight, you do not look on me. For I am much afhamed of my exchange.
II. Stain' d. Staunton propofes 'y?rrtm'i'.
14. My rofe. Shakfpere returns to the loving name which he has given his friend in Sonnet i.
ex. In CIX. Shakfpere has fpoken of having wandered from his ' home of love ' ; here he con- tinues the fubjeft, * Alas, 'tis true I have gone here and there '. This fonnet and the next are commonly taken to exprefs diftafte for his life as a player.
NOTES. 221
2. A motley, a wearer of motley, a fool or jefter.
3 . Gored mine own thoughts, deeply wounded my own thoughts. Troilus & Creffida, Aft iii. fc. 3, 1. 228 : 'My fame is flirewdly gored '. King Lear, AGt V. fc. 3, 1. 320.
4. Mflrfe oW offences, etc., entered into new friend- (hips and loves which were tranfgrefTions againft my old love.
6. Strangely, in a diftant, miftruftful way.
7. Blenches, ftarts afide. Meafure for Meafure, Aft IV. fc. 5, 1. 5 : —
Sometimes you do blench from this to that.
9. Now all is done, have what Jhall have no end. Malone accepted Tyrwhitt's conjefture, ' Now all is AonQ fave, etc.'; but the meaning is, *Now that all my wanderings and errors are over, take love which has no end '.
10. Grind, i.e. whet.
1 1 . Newer proof, newer trial or experiment.
12. This line feems to be a reminifcence of the thoughts expreffed in Sonnet cv., and to refer to the Firft Commandment,
CXI. Continues the apology for his wanderings of heart, afcribing them to his ill fortune — that, as commonly underftood, which compels him to a player's way of hfe.
I. With Fortune. The Quarto has ' wijh fortune '
10. Eifel, 'gainjl my Jlrong infection. Eifel or
222 NOTES.
eyfell is vinegar. O. Fr. aiffel, Gr. o^aAts. Skelton (quoted in Nares's Gloffary) fays of Jefus —
He drank eifel and gall.
' Vinegar is efteemed very efficacious in preventing the communication of the plague and other conta- gious diftempers '. — Malone.
CXII. Takes up the word ' pity ' from cxi. 1 4, and declares that his friend's love and pity compen- fate the difhonours of his life, fpoken of in the laft fonnet.
4. Allow, approve, as in King Lear, Ad 11. fc. 4, 1. 194.
7, 8. No one living for me except you, nor I alive to any, who can change my feelings fixed as fteel either for good or ill (either to pleafure or pain). Malone propofed ' e'er changes '. Knight, 'fo changes.' ' Senfe ' may be the plural.
1 1 . Critic, cenfurer, as in Troilns & Crejfida, Aft V. fc. 2, 1. 131.
12. Difpenfe with, excufe, pardon. So Lucrece, 1. 1070, and 1. 1279 : —
Yet with the fault I thus far can difpenfe.
13. So Jlrongly in my purpofe bred. Schmidt gives as an explanation : ' So kept and harboured in my thoughts'.
14. They're dead. The Quarto has 'y'are'. Malone (1780) reads 'are', (1790) 'they are'; Dyce ' they 're'. The Quarto y' = th' = they.
NOTES. 223
CXIII. In connexion with cxii. ; the writer's mind and fenfes are filled with his friend ; in cxii. he tells how his ear is flopped to all other voices but one beloved voice ; here he tells how his eye fees things only as related to his friend.
I. Mine eye is in my mind. Hamlet, Act i. fc. 2, 1.185: 'In my mind's eye, Horatio '. So too Lucrece, 1. 1426.
3. Part his fiindion, divide its funftion.
6. Latch, catch, feize. Macbeth, Aft rv. fc. 3, 1. 195 : I have words
TJjat luould he hoivVd out in the defert air IVJjere hearing Jhould not latch them.
The Quarto has 'lack'.
10. Favour, afpeft, appearance, countenance, as in Meafure for Meafure, Aft iv. fc. 2, 1. 185.
14. Mine untrue. If we accept tliis, the text of the Quarto, we muft hold ' untrue 'to be a fubftan- tive ; explaining, with Malone, ' The fincerity of my affeftion is the caufe of my untruth, i.e. my not feeing objefts truly, fuch as they appear to the reft of mankind '. So in Meafure for Meafure, Aft 11. fc. 4, I. 170 :— As for you.
Say what you can, my falfe o'erweighs your true.
Malone propofed and withdrew ' makes mine eye untrue'. Collier, ' maketh my eyne untrue'; Lett- fom, ' mak'th mine eye untrue '. Compare Two Gent, of Ver., Aft 11. fc. 4, 1. 196, and Theobald's emendation of mine in that line.
CXIV. Continues the fubjeft treated in cxni., and
^!
224 NOTES.
inquires why and how it is that his eye gives a falfe report of objefts.
5. Indigeft, chaotic, formlefs. As in 2 King Henry VI., AQ. v. fc. i, 1. 157; ' indigefted lump'. So 3 King Henry vi., AQ. v. fc. 6,1. 51.
9. Compare Twelfth Night, AQ. i. fc. 5,1. 328 : —
I do I know not what, and fear to find Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind.
1 1 . IVljat with his gufl is 'greeing, what is pleafmg to his (the eye's) tafte ; 'gree ; to agree.
13, 14. 'The allufion here is to the tafters to princes. So, in King John : —
" who did tafte to him ? Hub. a monk tvhofe howels fnddenly hurjl out'".
Steevens.
CXV. Shakfpere now defires to fhow that love has grown through error and feeming eftrangement.
4. My flame. So in cix. 1. 2, ' abfence feemed my flame to qualify '.
II, 12. Certain o'er incertainty, crowning the pre- fent: So Sonnet cvii. 7 : —
Incertainties noiu crown themfelves afl'ured.
CXVI. Admits his wanderings, but love is fixed above all the errors and trials of man and man's life.
2. hnpediments (to the marriage of true minds). So Form of Solemnisation of Matrimony : ' If any of you know caufe or juft impediment, etc.'.
2, 3. Love is not love, etc. So King Lear, AQ. i. fc. 1,1. 241 : —
NOTES. 22 5
Love's not love IVJjen it is mingled with regards that jland Aloof from the entire point.
5, 6. An ever-fixed mark, etc. So Coriolanns, Ad V. (c. 3, 1. 74 : —
Like a great fea-niark Jlanding every flaw.
7. It is the ftar, etc. ' Apparently, whofe ftellar influence is unknown, although his angular altitude has been determined'. — F. T. Palgrave. Schmidt explains unknoiun here as inexpreffible, incalculable, immenfe. The paffage feems to mean, As the Itar, over and above what can be afcertained concerning it for our guidance at fea, has unknowable occult virtue and influence, fo love, beflde its power of guiding us, has incalculable potencies. This inter- pretation is confirmed by the next Sonnet (cxvii.) in which the fimile of failing at fea is introduced ; Shakfpere there confeflTes his wanderings, and adds as his apology
I did Jlrive to prove The conflancy and virtue of your love —
conftancy, the guiding fixednefs of love ; virtue, the ' unknown worth '. Sidney Walker propofed 'whofe north's unknown', explaining 'As, by following the guidance of the northern fl:ar, a fhip may fail an immenfe way, yet never reach the true north ; fo the limit of love is unknown. Or can any other good fenfe be made of " north"? Jiidicent rei ajiro- nomica periti.' Dr. Ingleby (TJie Soule Arayed,
22 6 NOTES.
1872, pp. 5, 6, note) after quoting in connexion with this paffage the lines in which Csefar Ipeaks of himfelf (Julius Cafar, iii. i) as ' conftant as the northern ftar ', writes : ' Here human virtue is figured under the ' true-fix'd and refting quality ' of the northern ftar. Surely, then, the " worth " fpoken of muft be conjlancy or fixednefs. The failor muft know that the ftar has this worth, or his latitude would not depend on its ahitude. Juft fo without the knowledge of this worth in love, a man " hoifts fail to all the winds", and is "frequent with unknown minds".'
Height, it fhould be obferved, was ufed by Eliza- bethan writers, in the fenfe of value, and the word may be ufed here in a double fenfe, altitude (of the ftar) and value (of love), ' love whofe worth is un- known however it may be valued '.
9. Time's fool, the fport or mockery of Time. So I King Henry iv.. Aft v. (c. 4, 1. 81 : —
But thought's thejlave of life, and life time's fool.
11. His brief hours, i.e. Time's brief hours.
12. Bears it out even to the edge of doom. So All's Well that Ends Well, Kd. ill. k. 3, 11. 5,6: —
We'll Jlrive to bear \i for your voorthy fake To the extreme edge of hazard.
CXVII. Continues the confeflion of his wander- ings from his friend ; but afferts that it was only to try his friend's conftancy in love.
NOTES. 227
5. Frequent, converfant, intimate.
JVitb unJciiown minds, perfons who may not be known, or obfcure perfons.
6. Given to time ; given to fociety, to the world ; fee note on Sonnet Lxx. 1. 6. Or, given away to temporary occafion what is your property and there- fore an heirloom for eternity. Staunton propofes ' given to them '.
1 1 . Level, the direftion in wliich a miffive weapon is aimed; as in A Winter's Tale, Aft ll. fc. 3, 1. 6.
CXVIII. Continues the fubjeft ; adding that he had fought ftrange loves, only to quicken his appe- tite for the love that is true.
2. Eager, four, tart, poignant. Aigre Fr., as in Hamlet, Aft I. fc. 5, 1. 69.
9. Policy, prudent management of affairs.
12. Rank, ' fick (of hypertrophy).'— Schmidt. So 2 King Henry i\'., Aft iv. fc. i, 1. 64 : —
To diet rank minds fick of happinefs.
CXIX. In clofe connexion with the preceding fonnet ; fhowing the gains of ill, that ftrange loves have made the true love more ftrong and dear.
2. Limbecks, alembics, fUlls. Macbeth, Aft i. fc.
7,1.67.
4. Either, lofmg in the very moment of viftory, or gaining viftories (of other loves than thofe of his friend) which were indeed but loffes.
7. Hovj have mine eyes out of their fpheres been fitted, etc., how have mine eyes ftarted from their
228 NOTES.
hollows in the fever-fts of my difeafe. Compare Hamlet, Ad i. fc. 5, 1. 17 : —
Make thy two eyes, like ftars, Jlart from their fpheres. Lettfom would read ' hten flitted'.
II. Ruin'd Jove . . . built anew. Note the imrodudion of the metaphor of rebuilt love, reappearing in later fonnets. Compare The Comedy of Errors, Aft III. fc. 2, 1. 4 : —
Shall love, in building, grow fo ruinous, and Antony & Cleopatra, Aft iii. fc. 2, 11. 29, 30.
1 4. Els. So the Quarto ; altered by Malone and other editors, perhaps rightly (fee 1. 9) to ///.
CXX. Continues the apology for wanderings in love ; not Shakfpere alone has fo erred, but alfo his friend.
3 ." I muft needs be overwhelmed by the wrong I have done to you, knowing how I myfelf fuflfered, when you were the offender.
6. A hell of time. So in Othello, Aft in. fc. 3, 11. 169, 170 : —
But O, what damned minutes tells he o'er Who dotes yet doubts, fufpe£ls, yet flrongly loves,
And Lucrece,]!. 1286, 1287.
9. Our night. Staunton propofes 'four night '. Remember' d, reminded, an aftive verb governing fenfe in 1. 10. So The Tempeft, Aft i. fc. 2, 1. 243. 1 1 . And foon to you, as you to me, then tender' d. ' Surely the fenfe requires that we fhould point, — And foon to you, as you to me then, tender'' d\
W. S. Walker.
NOTES. 229
Staunton propofes —
And fhame to you — as you to me then — tendered. 12. Salve. Compare Sonnet xxxiv. 1. 7.
CXXI. Though admitting his wanderings from his friend's love (cxviii.-cxx.), Shakfpere refufes to admit the fcandalous charges of unfriendly cenfors.
Dr. Burgerfdijk regards the fonnet as a defence of the ftage againft Puritans.
2. Not to be, i.e. not to be vile.
3, 4. And the legitimate pleafure loft, which is deemed vile, not by us who experience it, but by others who look on and condemn.
6. Give fahitation to my fportive blood. Compare King Henry vm., Aft 11. fc. 3, 1. 103 : —
Would I had no being. If this falute my blood a jot.
8. In their wills, according to their pleafure.
9. No, I am that I am. Compare Othello, Ad I. fc. I, 1. 65, ' I am not what I am '.
1 1 . Bevel, ' i.e. crooked ; a term ufed only, I believe, by mafons and joiners'. — Steevens.
CXXII. An apology for having parted with tables (memorandum-book), the gift of his friend.
I, 2. So in Hamlet, A&. i. fc. 5, 11. 98-103 : —
Yea, from the table of my memory, etc.
So alfo Two Gentlemen of Verona, Aft 11. fc. 7, II. 3, 4-
f\
230 NOTES.
3. That idle rank, that poor dignity (of tables written upon with pen or pencil).
9. That poor retention, that poor means of retain- ing impreffions, i.e. the tables given by his friend.
ID. Tallies, flicks on which notches and fcores are cut to keep accounts by. So 2 King Henry vi., Aft IV. fc. 7, 1. 39.
CXXIII. In the lafl fonnet Shakfpere boafts of his ' lafting memory ' as the recorder of love ; he now declares that the regifters and records of Time are falfe, but Time fhall impofe no cheat upon his memory or heart.
2. Thy pyramids. I think this is metaphorical ; all that Time piles up from day to day, all his new flupendous ereftions are really but ' dreffings of a former fight '. Is there a reference to the new love, the ' ruined love built anew ' (Sonnet cxix.), between the two friends ? The fame metaphor appears in the next Sonnet (cxxiv.) ' No, it [his love] was builded far from accident', and again in cxxv. 'Laid great bafes for eternity etc.'. Does Shak- fpere mean here that this new love is really the fame with the old love ; he will recognize the identity of new and old, and not wonder at either the paft or prefent ?
5. Admire, wonder at, as in Twelfth Night, Ad. III. {c. 4, 1. 165.
7. And rather make them. 'Them' refers to ' luhat thou dofl foift etc.'; we choofe rather to think fuch things new, and specially created for our fatiffaftion, than, as they really are, old things of which we have already heard.
I
NOTES. 231
CXXrV. Continues the thought of cxxiii. 13, 14. The writer's love being unconnefted with motives of felf-intereft, is independent of Fortune and Time.
I . The child of Jlate, born of place and power and pomp.
4. Weeds, etc. My love might be fubjefl: to Time's hate and fo plucked up as a weed, or fubjed; to Time's love, and fo gathered as a flower.
7, 8. When time puts us, who have been in favour, out of fafhion.
9. Policy, that heretic, the prudence of felf- intereft, which is faithlefs in love. Compare Romeo & Juliet, Aft I. fc. 2, 1. 95. Romeo, fpeaking of eyes unfaithful to the beloved: —
Tranfparent heretics he burnt for liars.
I I . Hugely politic, love itfelf is infinitely prudent, prudent for eternity.
12. That it nor grows. Steevens propofes glows.
13, 14. Does this mean, 'I call to witnefs the tranfitory unworthy loves (fools of time = fports of time. See cxvi. 9), whofe death was a virtue fince their life was a crime'?
GXXV. In connexion with Sonnet cxxrv. ; there Shakfpere afferted that his love was not fubjed to time, as friendfhips founded on felf-intereft are ; here he aft"erts that it is not founded on beauty of perfon, and therefore cannot pafs away with the decay of fuch beauty. It is pure love for love.
I. Bore the canopy, i.e. rendered outward homage as one renders who bears a canopy over a fuperior.
232 NOTES.
King James i. made his progrefs through London 1603-4, under a canopy. In the account of the King and Qjueen's entertainment at Oxford 1605, we read : ' From thence was carried over the King and Queen a fair canopy of crimfon taffety by fix of the Canons of the Church '.— Nichol's Progreffes of King James, vol. i. p. 546.
2. The outward. Cf. Sonnet LXix., 1-5. Staun- ton propofes ' thy outward', or ' thee outward'.
3. Or laid, etc. The love of the earlier fonnets, which celebrated the beauty of Shakfpere's friend, was to laft for ever, and yet it has been ruined.
5. Favour, outward appearance, as in Sonnet cxiii. 10.
6. Loje all and more, ceafe to love and through fatiety even grow to diflike.
9. Olfequious, zealous, devoted, as in Merry Wives of Windfor, Aft iv. (c. 2, 1. 2.
1 1. Mix'd luith feconds, mixed with bafer matter. ' I am juft informed by an old lady, that feconds is a provincial term for the fecond kind of flour, which is collefted after the fmaller bran is fifted. That our author's oblation was pure, [an offering of fine flour] unmixed with bafer matter is all that he meant to fay'. — Steevens.
13. Suborn d informer. Does this refer to an aftual perfon, one of the fpies of Sonnet cxxi. 7,8? Or is the ' informer ' Jealoufy, or Sufpicion ? as in Venus & Adonis, 1. 65 $ : —
This four informer, this bate-breeding fpy, This canker that eats up Love's tender fpring. This carry-tale, diffentious Jealoufy.
NOTES. 233
CXXVI. This is the concluding poem of the feries addreffed to Shakfpere's friend ; it confifts of fix rhymed couplets. In the Quarto parenthefes follow the twelfth line thus : —
( )
( )
as if to fhow that two lines are wanting. But there is no good reafon for fuppofmg that the poem is defeftive. In William Smith's ' Chloris ', 1596,3 'fonnet' (No. xxvii.) of this fix-couplet form appears.
2. Sickle, hour. Lintott reads 'fickle hour'; S. Walker conjedures 'fickle-hour'; ' Cap ell in his copy of Lintott's edition has correfted " hower " to " hoar " leaving " fickle ". Doubtlefs he intended to read "fickle hoar ".' — Cambridge Shakespeare.
12. Quietus. As in Hamlet's soliloquy, Ad in. fc. I, 1. 75, 'This is the technical term for the acquittance which every fheriff [or accountant] receives on fettling his accounts at the Exchequer. .Compare Webfter, Duchefs of Malfi [i. i., vol. i. p. 198, Works, ed. Dyce]: — 'And 'caufe you fhall not come to me in debt. Being now my fteward, here upon your lips I fign your Quietus ejl" .' — Steevens.
To render thee, to yield thee up, furrender thee. When Nature is called to a reckoning (by Time ?) fhe obtains her acquittance upon furrendering thee, her chief treafure.
CXXVII. The fonnets addrefi'ed to his lady begin here. Steevens called attention to the faft that ' almofl; all that is faid here on the fubjeft of com-
2 34 NOTES.
plexion, is repeated in Love's Labour's Lojl, Ad iv. fc. 3, 11. 250-265.
O, if in black my lady's brows he deck'd. It mourns that painting and tifurping hair
Should ravifh doters with a falfe afpefl ;
And therefore is fhe born to make black fair' .
Compare Sonnet 7 of ' Aftrophel and Stella '.
3. SucceJJive heir, heir by order of fucceffion, as in 2 King Henry vi., Aft iii. fc. i, 1. 49.
7. No holy bower. Malone reads 'no holy hour '.
10. Suited, clad.
And they. Dyce reads ' as they '. Walker propofes inftead of ' my miftrefs' eyes ' in the ninth line ' my miftrefs' hairs '. The editors of the Globe Shakefpeare read 'My miftrefs' brows'. Staunton, 'eyes ' 1. 9, ' brows '1. 10.
12. Slandering creation, etc., difhonoring nature with a fpurious reputation.
13. Becoming of, gracing, so ' fearing of Sormet cxv. 1. 9, 'licking of Venus & Adonis, 1. 915.
CXXVIII.
5. Envy. The accent is on the laft fyllable. Compare Titus Andronicus, Aft 11. k. 4, 1. 44 (of fingers on a lute) : —
And make the filken firings delight to kifs them.
Jacks, keys of the virginal.
1 1 . Thy fingers. The Qjuarto has ' their fingers ',
CXXIX.
I. Expcnfe, expenditure.
li
NOTES. 235
9. Mad. The Quarto has ' made '. 1 1 . Proved a very woe. The Q.uarto has ' proud and very wo '.
CXXX. For the Sonneteer's conventional praife of beauty, cf. Spenfer, Amoretti, 9, 15; Sidney, AJlrophel and Stella, 9 ; and Lodge, Phillis, 8, with reference to which H. Ifaac fuppofes this Sonnet to have been written.
2. Lips' red. The Quarto has 'lips red'.
CXXXJ. Connefted with Sonnet cxxx. ; praife of his lady, black but, to her lover, beautiful.
3. Dear doting. Dyce reads ' dear-doting '.
14. This /lander. The flander that her face has not the power to make love groan.
CXXXII. Connefted with Sonnet cxxxi. ; there Shakfpere complains of the cruelty and tyranny of his lady ; here the fame fubjeft is continued and a plea made for her pity.
'2. Knowing thy heart torrnents me. The Quarto has ' heart torment ', and Malone reads ' Knowing thy heart, torment '. The corredion ' torments ' was made in ed. 1640.
5. Cf. Sonnet cxxx. i ; after all, her eyes are like fun and ftars in a dim fky (her black brows and hair).
9. Mourning. The Quarto has ' morning ', and probably a play was intended on the words ' morning fun ' and ' mourning eyes '. This line has a ring like that of Taming of the Shreiu, Aft iv. fc. 5, 1.32:-
236 NOTES.
Wlmt Jlars do fpangle heaven with fuch beauty As thofe two eyes become that heavenly face. 12. Suit, clothe, array.
CXXXIII. Here Shakfpere's heart ' groans ' (fee cxxxi.) for the fuffering of his friend as well as his own.
8. Crofd. See Sonnet xxxiv. 12, and xlii. 12.
CXXXIV. In clofe connexion with Sonnet cxxxiil. 3. That other mine, my alter ego. 5 . Wilt not, wilt not reftore him.
9. Statute. ' Statute has here its legal fignifica- tion, that of a fecurity or obligation for money '. — Malone.
II. A friend came, etc., a friend who became, etc.
CXXXV. Perhaps fuggefted by the fecond line of the laft fonnet, ' I myfelf am mortgaged to thy will'.
I. IVill. In tliis Sonnet, in the next, and in Sonnet cxliii. the Quarto marks by italics and capital W the play on words, Will = William [Shakfpere], Will = William, the Chriftian name of Shakfpere's friend [? Mr. W. H.] and Will = defire, volition. Here ' Will in overplus ' means Will Shakfpere, as the next line fhows, ' more than enough am I '. The firft ' Will ' means defire ; (but as we know that his lady had a hufband, it is poffible that he alfo may have been a 'Will', and that the firft 'Will' here may refer to him befides meaning 'defire'); the fecond 'Will' is Shakfpere's friend.
' In Shakefpeare's time quibbles of this kind were
NOTES. 237
common. Compare the following in the Booke of Merry Riddles, ed. 1 6 1 7 : —
The LI Riddle. My love's will I am content for to fulfill. Within this rime his name is framed. Tell me then how he is named. ['Willi am' (inlinesi,2) = William.]'— Halliwell. 9. Compare Twelfth Night, Ad. 11. fc. 4, 1. 103, and Aft I. fc. i, 1. 11, 'Thy [love's] capacity re- ceiveth as the fea.'
13. Let no nnkind, no fair hefeechers kill. If this be the true reading, we muft take ' unkind ' as a fubftantive, meaning 'unkind one' {i.e. his lady). So in Daniel's 'Delia', Sonnet il. : —
And tell th' Unkind how dearly I have loved her.'
Poffibly ' no fair ' may mean ' no fair one ', as often in Daniel. But perhaps the line ought to be printed thus : —
Let no unkind ' No ' fair hefeechers kill, i.e. let no unkind refufal kill fair befeechers.
Mr. W. M. Roffetti propofes 'flcill', meaning avail, profit, for ' kill '.
CXXXVI. Continues the play on words of Sonnet cxxxv.
6. Ay, fill. The Q.uarto has ' I filV , T being the ufual way of printing our 'Ay' at the time; but poffibly there may here (as often elfewhere in Shakfpere) be a play on the words ' I' = ay, yes, and '/' = myfelf.
238 NOTES.
9. See note on Sonnet vm. 11. 13, 14,
10. Store's. The Quarto has 'ftores'; the Cambridge editors follow Malonein reading 'Jiores"; Schmidt fays of Store ; ' ufed only in the fing. ; there- fore in Sonnet cxxxvi. 10, J}ore's not Jiores". Lines 9, ID mean ' You need not count me when merely counting the munher of thofe who hold you dear, but when eftimating the ivorth of your poffeffions, you muft have regard to me'. ' To fet Jiore by a thing or perfon ' is a phrafe connefted with the meaning of ' ftore ' in this paffage.
12. Sotnethitig fweet. Sidney Walker propofed and Dyce reads ' fomething, fweet'.
13, 14. Love only my name (fomething lefs than loving myfelf), and then thou loveft me, for my name is Will, and I myfelf am all will, i.e. all defire.
CXXXVIL In CXXXVI. he has prayed his lady to receive him in the blindnefs of love ; he now fhows how Love has dealt with his own eyes.
6. Anchor'd. The fame metaphor is found in Antony & Cleopatra, Ad i. fc. 5, 1. 33.
9, 10. Several plot, etc. So Love's Labour's Loft, Ad II. fc. 1,1. 223 : —
My lips are no common though feveral they he.
' Fields that were enclofed were called feverah in oppofition to commons, the former belonging to individuals, the others to the inhabitants generally. When commons were enclofed, portions allotted to owners of freeholds, copyholds, and cottages, were fenced in, and termed /et'frfl/i'.—HALLm^LL.
4
NOTES. 239
CXXXVIII. Connefted with cxxxvii. The frauds praftifed by blind love, and the blinded lovers, Shakfpere and his lady, who yet muft ftrive to blind themfelves. This fonnet appeared as the firft poem of The PaJJionate Pilgrim (1599) in the following form : —
When my love /wears that fhe is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know Jhe lies. That Jhe might think vie fome iintutor'd youth, JJnfkilful in the world's falfe forgeries. Thus vainly thinking that fhe thinks me young, Although I know my years he pajl the bejl, I f mil in g credit her falfe-f peaking tongue. Outfacing faults in love with love's ill reji. But wherefore fays my love that Jhe is young ? And wherefore fay not I that I am old ? O, love's beji habit is a Jooihing tongue. And age, in love, loves not to have years told. Therefore I'll lie with love, and love tvith me. Since that our faults in love thus fmother' d be. II. Habit, bearing, deportment, or garb.
CXXXIX. Probably connefted with cxxxviii. ; goes on to fpeak of his lady's untruthfulnefs ; he may try to believe her profefTions of truth, but do not afk him to juftify the wrong fhe lays upon his heart.
CXL. In connexion with Sonnet cxxxix. ; his lady's ' glancing afide ' of that fonnet (1. 6) reap- pears here, 1. 14 'Bear thine eyes ftraight '. He complains of her excefs of cruelty.
6. To tell mefo, ' to tell me thou dojl love me '. — Malone.
240 NOTES.
14. Bear thine eyes ftraight, etc. 'That is (as it is expreffed in a former fonnet),
Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place '.
Malone.
CXLI. In connexion with cxl. ; the ' proud heart' of 1. 14 of that fonnet reappears here 1. 12. His foolifh heart loves her, and her proud heart punifhes his folly by cruelty and tyranny. Compare with this fonnet, Drayton, Idea, 29.
5. Tongue's time. So Venus & Adonis, 1. 431. 'Heavenly tune harfh-founding ' ; fo too 'the tune of Imogen'.
9. Five wits. 'From Stephen Hawes's poem called Graunde Amoure [and La Belle PucelJ, ch. xxiv. edition 1 5 5 4, it appears that the Jive wits were " common wit, imagination, fantafy, eftimation [i.e. judgment] and memory". Wit in our author's time was the general term for the intelleftual power. — Malone'. — Dyce's Glojfary to Shake/peare,p. 507.
II, 12. My heart ceafes to govern me, and fo leaves me no better than the likenefs of a man — a man without a heart — in order that it may become flave to thy proud heart.
14. Pain. ' Pain in its old etymological fenfe of punijhment\ — W. S. Walker.
CXLII. In connexion with cxli. ; the firft line takes up the word ' fm ' from the laft line of that fonnet. ' Thofe whom thine eyes woo ' (1. i o) carries on the complaint of cxxxix. 6, and CXL. 14.
NOTES. 241
6. Scarlet ornaments. So in King Edward iii., (printed 1 596) Aft 11. {c. i, 1. 10 : —
His cheeks put on their fcarlet ornaments.
This line occurs in the part of the play attributed by feveral critic? to Shakfpere.
7. Seal'd falfe bonds of love, given falfe kilTes. So in Venus & Adonis, 1. s 1 1 '• —
Pure lips, fweet feals in my foft lips imprinted. What bargains may I make, Jlill to he fealing ?
Again in Meafure for Meafure, Aft iv. fc. i , 11. 5, 6 ; and The Merchant of Venice, Aft 11. (c. 6, 11. 5, 6. — Malone.
8. Robb'd others' beds' revenues. The Quarto has 'beds revenues'. Sewell (ed. i) reads ' beds, revenues'. Capell ms. has 'bed-revenues'.
13, 14. If thou dojl feek to have, etc. If you feek to poffefs love, and will fhow none, you may be denied on the precedent of your own example. Staunton propofes ' chide ' in place of 'hide'.
CXLIII. Perhaps the laft two lines of Sonnet CXLii. fuggeft this. In that fonnet Shakfpere fays ' If you fhow no kindnefs, you can expeft none from those you love ' ; here he fays ' If you (how kindnefs to me, I fhall wifh you fuccefs in your purfuit of him you feek'.
4. Purfuit. For examples of this pronunciation of purfuit and purfue fee W. S. Walker's Critical Examination of the Text of Shahefpeare, vol. iii. pp. 366, 367.
VI
242 NOTES.
8. Not pricing, making no account of. — Schmidt.
1 3 . IVill. Poffibly, as Steevens takes it, "Will Shakfpere ; but it feems as likely, or perhaps more Hkely, to be Shakfpere's friend 'Will' [? W. H.]. The laft two lines promife that Shakfpere will pray for her fuccefs in the chafe of the fugitive (Will?), on condition that, if fucceffful, ftie will turn back to him, Shakfpere, her babe.
CXLIV. This fonnet appears as the fecond poem in The PaJJionate Pilgrim with the following varia- tions : 1. 2, ' That like'; 1. 3, 'My better angel'; 1. 4, ' My worfer fpirit'; 1. 6, 'From my fide' ; 1. 8, '/atV pride'; 1. 1 1, 'For being both io me'; 1. 13, 'The truth I fhall not know'. Compare with this fonnet the twentieth of Drayton's Idea: —
An evil fpirit J your beauty, haunts me fill,
Which ceafeth not to tempt me to each ill ;
Thus am I fill provoked to every evil
By that good-wicked fpirit, fweet angel-devil.
2. Suggef, tempt, as in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Aft iii. fc. i, 1. 34.
6. From my fide. The Q,uarto has ' from my fight'. Tl)e PaJJionate Pilgrim fupplies the correction.
1 1 . From me, away from me.
14. Compare 2 King Henry iv.. Aft 11. fc. 4, 1.365:-
Prince. For the women ?
NOTES. 243
Falstaff. For one ofthem,Jhe is in hell already, and hums poor' fouls.
CXLV. The only fonnet written in eight-fyllable verfes. Some critics, with no fufficient reafon, rejeft it, as not by Shakfpere.
13, 14. Steevens propofes 'away from hate fhe flevj\ and explains the meaning thus : ' having pro- nounced the words / hate, fhe left me with a declara- tion in my favour'. Malone writes : 'The meaning is — fhe removed the words I hate to a diftancefrom hatred. . . . We have the fame kind of exprefTion in TJje Rape of Lucrece (11. 1 5 34-1 5 37) : —
" It cannot be", quoth fhe, " that fo much guile" — She would have f aid " can lurk in fuch a look" ; But Tarquin's fhape came in her mind the while. And from her tongue "can lurk" from "cannot" took'.
Malone's explanation is probably the right one ; it is however pofTible that the meaning may be from hatred to fuch words as ' I hate', ' fhe threw them away'.
CXLVI.
1 . Centre of my finful earth. So Romeo & Juliet, Aft II. fc. I, 11. I, 2 : —
Can I go forward when my heart is here ? Turn hack, dull earth, and find thy centre out.
2. [Preff'd hy] thefe rebel powers that thee array. ' The Qjuarto has, ' My finful earth thefe rebel, etc'
244 NOTES.
but the line is manifeftly corrupt. Probably, as Malone fuggefts, the compofitor inadvertently repeated the laft three words of the firft verfe in the beginning of the fecond, omitting two fyllables. Malone propofed ' Fool'd by thofe rebel, etc' Sleevens, ' 5/a/x;'^ by the rebel, etc' Dyce, 'Fool'd by thefe rebel, etc' F. T. Palgrave, * Foil'd by thefe rebel, etc. ' Furnivall, ' Hemm d with thefe rebel, etc' Bullock, 'My fins thefe rebel, etc' An anonymous writer, ' Thrall to thefe rebel'. Cartwright, 'Slave of thefe rebel, etc' Gerald Maffey, ' My finful earth thefe rebel powers array \ What is the meaning of 'array'? Does it mean to put raiment on? So Malone feems to un- derftand it. '"Array" here', fays Gerald Maffey, ' does not only mean drefs, I think it alfo fignifies that in the flefh thefe rebel powers fet their battle in array againft the foul'. — Shakfpere's Sonnets never before interpreted: 1866, p. 379. Dr. Ingleby, in his pamphlet, ' The Soule Arayed\ 1872, endeavours to fliow that 'array' here means abufe, afflid, ill- treat. There is no doubt the word 'aray' or 'array' was ufed in this fenfe by Elizabethan writers, and Shakfpere, in The Taming of the Shrew, m. 2, and IV. I , ufes ' raied ', though nowhere ' aray ', except perhaps here, in this or a kindred fenfe. Taking 'aray' to mean 'affli£t'. Dr. Ingleby accepts Mr. A. E. Brae's fuggeftion ' Leagu'd with thefe rebel, etc. ' ' It is ', he writes, ' the earth that is in league with the rebel powers, and the earth itfelf is there- fore called "fmful". Here we have the flefh, and
NOTES. 245
its refident lufts, reprefented as leagued or com- pafted in the work of defrauding the foul of her rightful nutriment, whereby fhe " pines and fuffers dearth'" (The Soule Arayed, p. 15). In fupport of the general opinion that ' array ' means invert in raiment, compare The Mercha?U of Venice, Ad v. (c. 1,1. 64 : —
Such harmony is in immortal fouls ; But tuhiljl this muddy vefture of decay Doth groffly clofe it in, we cannot hear it.
The ' rebel powers ' and the ' outward walls ' perhaps receive fome illuftration from the following lines, Lucrece, 11. 722-728 : —
She fays her fuhjeils with foul infurreftion Have hatter' d down her confecrated wall, And by their mortal fault brought in fubjeHion Her immortality, and made her thrall To living death and pain perpetual.
I, with much hefitation, propofe Preff'd by. Com- pare ' o'er-preff'd defence', cxxxix. 8.
10. To aggravate thy fiore. 'Malone fays that the original copy and all the fubfequent imprefTions read "my" inftead of "thy". The copies of the edition of 1609 in the Bodleian, one of which belonged to Malone himfelf, in the Bridgewater Library, and in the Capell colleftion as well as Steevens's reprint, have "thy"'. — Cambridge Shakespeare.
Aggravate, increafe.
246 NOTES.
1 1 . Tertns. ' Terms in the legal, and academic fenfe. Long periods of time, oppofed to hours'. — W. S. Walker.
CXLVII. In connexion with CXLVI. ; in that fonnet the writer exhorts the foul to feed and let the body pine, 'within be fed', 'fo fhalt thou feed on Death'; here he tells what the food of his foul aftually is — the unwholefome food of a fickly appetite. Compare Drayton, Idea, 41, 'Love's Lunacie'.
5. My reafon, the phyfician to my love. Compare The Merry Wives of Wind/or, Ad 11. fc. i, 1. 5 : ' Afk me no reafon why I love you ; for though Love ufe Reajon for his phyfician [fo Farmer and moft editors ; precifian Folio], he admits him not for his counfellor'.
7, 8. I defperate now approve Defire, etc. The Quarto has a comma after approve, which Malone retains. But the meaning is ' I, who am defperate, now experience that defire which did objeft ('except' = objeft) to phyfic, is death'.
9. Pajl cure, etc. ' So Love's Labour's Lojl, Aft v. (c. 2, 1. 28 : —
Great reafon ; for pajl cure is fill paft care.
It was a proverbial faying. See Holland's Leaguer, a pamphlet publifhed in 1632: "She has got the adacre in her mouth ; Things paft cure, paft care'" — Malone.
14. Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
NOTES. 247
So Love's Labour's Lojl, Ad iv. {c. 3, 11. 254, 255 (the King fpeaking of Rofaline) : —
Black is the badge of hell The hue of dungeons and the fuit of night.
CXLVIII. Suggefted apparently by the laft two lines of Sonnet cxLVii. : ' I have thought thee bright who art dark'; 'what eyes, then, hath love put in my head'?
4. Cenfures, judge, eftimate, as in Julius Cafar, Aft III. fc. 2, 1. 16.
8. Love's eye is not fo true as all men's: no, Walker writes, ' Ought we not to affix a longer flop to no ? Otherwife the flow feems not to be Shake- fpearian ; compare the context'. Lettfom adds a note to Walker's remark: 'Ought we to ftop here? Ought we not to expunge the colon before no, and write : —
Love's eye is not fo true as all men's no ? Shakfpere feems to intend a pun on eye and /, i.e. ay'.
13.0 cunning Love ! Here, he is perhaps fpeaking of his miftrefs, but if fo, he identifies her with ' Love', views her as Love perfonified, and fo the capital L is right.
CXLIX. Connefted with Sonnet cxLviii. as appears from the clofmg lines of the two fonnets.
2. Partake, take part. So i King Henry vi., Ad II. fc. 4, 1. 100, 'Your partaker Pole 'i.e. partifan.
248 NOTES.
4. Jll tyrant, i.e. thou complete tyrant ! Malone conjedures 'All truant'.
CL. Perhaps conneded with Sonnet cxlix. ; * worfhip thy defed ' in that fonnet (1. 1 1), may have fuggefted *■ with infufficiency my heart to fway ' in this.
2. IVith infufficiency, etc., to rule my heart by defefts.
5. This becoming of things ill. So Antony & Cleopatra, Aft 11. ic. 2, 1. 243 : —
Vilefi things Become themfelves in her.
7. Warrantife of fkill, furety or pledge of fagacity and power.
CLl.
3. Then, gentle cheater. Stauntonwrites'" Cheater" here fignifies efcheator, an official who appears to have been regarded by the common people in Shakefpeare's day much the fame as they now look upon an informer'. The more obvious meaning 'rogue' makes better fenfe.
10. Triumphant pri:^e, triumphal prize, the prize of his triumph. Walker cites Lord Brooke, Alaham V. I, 1. 8, 'this triumphant robe', this robe in which I triumph.
CLII. Carries on the thought of the lafl: fonnet ; fhe cannot juftly complain of his faults fince fhe herfelf is as guilty or even more guilty.
NOTES. 249
II. To enlighten thee gave eyes to blindnefs, to fee thee in the brightnefs of imagination I gave away my eyes to blindnefs, made myfelf blind.
1 3 . More perjured I. The Qjaarto has ' more perjurde eye'; correfted by Sewell.
CLIII. Malone writes 'This and the following fonnet are compofed of the very fame thoughts differently verfified. They feem to have been early effays of the poet, who perhaps had not determined which he ftiould prefer. He hardly could have intended to fend them both into the world'.
Herr Hertzberg (Jahrbuch der Deutfchen Shahe- fpeare- GefeUfchaft 1878, pp. 158-162) has found a Greek fource for thefe two fonnets. He writes : ' Dann ging ich an die palatinifche Anthologie und fand dafelbft nach langem Suchen im ix. Buche ('ETTtSeiKTiKci) unter N. 637 die erfehnte duelle. . . . Es lautet : —
T^S' VTTo Tas TrAaTavoDS cxTraA^ TCT/Jv/xevos VTrvoi e^Sev "E/Dws, vvficf)ais XafLirdSa Trapdefj^evos.
Nv/i^at 8' dXXrjXrjcri, ' ti [xeWofxev ; aWe 8i tout^ crfSecra-aixeVf^ eiirov, ' 6fj.ov -rrvp KpaSlrjs fiepo-
TTOJV.'
AafiTTOLS 8' COS e<f>Xe^€ Kal vSara, Oepjxov iKiWev ^vfxcpat 'EpwTiaSes XovTpoxo€vcrtv vSiop.^
The poem is by the Byzantine Marianus, a writer probably of the fifth century after ChrifL The
' Epigrammata (Jacob) ix. 65.
2 50 NOTES.
germ of the poem is found in an Epigram by Zenodotus : —
Ti's yAui/'as Tov "Epcora Trapa Kp-qvytxiv eOrjKCv ; Oid/xevos Trava-CLv tovto to irvp vSaTL.^
How Shakfpere became acquainted with the poem of Marianus we cannot tell, but it'had been tranflated into Latin: ' Seleda Epigrammata, Bafel 1529', and again feveral times before the clofe of the fixteenth century.
I add literal tranflations of the epigrams : ' Here 'neath the plane trees, weighed down by foft {lumber, flept Love, having placed his torch befide the Nymphs. Then faid the Nymphs to one another, " Why do we delay ? Would that together with this we had extinguifhed the fire of mortals' heart !" But as the torch made the waters alfo to blaze, hot is the water the amorous Nymphs (or the Nymphs of the region of Eros ^) draw from thence for their bath'.
' Who was the man that carved [the ftatue of] Love, and fet it by the fountains, thinking to quench this fire with water ? '
In Surrey's ' Complaint of the Lover Difdained ' (Aldine ed. p. 12), we read of a hot and a cold well of love. Shenftone (Works, ed. 1777, vol. i. p. 144) verfifies anew the theme of this and the following fonnet in his 'Anacreontic'. Hermann
' Epigrammata i. 57*
2 See Hertzberg, Sh. Jahrhuch, p. 1 61.
NOTES. 251
Ifaac fuggefts that the valley-fountain may fignify marriage, but this will hardly agree with CLrv. 12, 13.
6. Datelefs, eternal, as in Sonnet xxx. 1. 6.
Lively, living.
1 1 . Bath. Steevens Tuppofes this a proper name, the place Bath. The Quarto has ' bath'.
14. Eyes. The Quarto has 'eye'.
CLIV. A variation on the theme of Sonnet CLin, 1 3 . Tins by that I prove, this ftatement which follows (in 1. 14).
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