Sonnets, from the quarto of 1609, with variorum readings and commentary. Edited by Raymond MacDonald Alden

THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE

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THE

SONNETS

OF

'SHAKESPEARE

From the Quarto of 1609
with variorum readings and commentary

EDITED BY

Raymond Macdonald Alden

BOSTOJV fcf NEW YORK
Houghton Mifflin Company

Cbe Cirtierdibe J?rcs» CambriDge 3x\

1916 O X 1 I

COPYRIGHT, I916, I1Y RAYMOND MACDONALD ALDEN

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published September iQib

TO

B. H. A.

HAPLY I THINK OX THEE ; AND THEN MY STATE,

LIKE TO THE LARK AT BREAK OF DAY ARISING

FROM SULLEN EARTH, SINGS HYMNS AT HEAVEN'S GATE.

PREFACE

The Sonnets of Shakespeare have a place beside the play of Hamlet in con-
tention for the doubtful honor of being the cause of more perplexity and contro-
versy than any other literary work in the English tongue. More persons, other-
wise seemingly normal members of society, have thought that they were the
first to understand one or the other of these works, or have professed to make
illuminating discoveries regarding them, than could be computed as critics of
any writing since the Iliad. If the present editor can come to the end of his task
with any feeling of complacency, it is because he has spent some years with the
Sonnets and still finds himself without a revelation. In other words, his com-
placency must be due only to the existence of some evidence that he is still sane
— a poor substitute, no doubt, for the enthusiasm of the seer. It is the purpose
of this volume, then, not to present a new theory of the Sonnets, but to bring to-
gether a body of critical material illustrative of them, sufficient for all the pur-
poses of the less ambitious reader, and adequate to set the most tireless student
on the track of what he wishes to know.

The Bibliography is intended to serve as a convenient outline of the history
of the text and its interpretation; but it may be well to say something here of
the general course of this history. Though seemingly among the fairly popu-
lar lyrical collections of the seventeenth century, the Sonnets largely dropped
out of sight toward the end of that century and through the greater part of the
eighteenth century. The age, therefore, of the building of the modern text of
Shakespeare's plays saw no similar work accomplished for the Sonnets, which
were not even included in any edition of the Works of Shakespeare (save in occa-
sional supplementary volumes) until Ewing's Dublin edition of 1771, and not
again till Malone's of 1790. It is to Malone that we owe, in effect, the accept-
ance of the narrative and lyrical poems as a part of the standard Shake6peare
text; and it is also to him, in large measure, that we owe the modern text of
the Sonnets. Practically all the well-known editors of Shakespeare of the nine-
teenth century, beginning with Boswell (but with the exception of Singer), paid
due attention to the Sonnets, and, together with numerous lesser commenta-
tors, from time to time proposed improvements in the text: but it cannot be
said that it was given to any later critic to add in a distinguished way to the
textual work of Malone, — though it was given to a number of his successors
to reject certain of his errors. Dyce's conservative work on the text, in the
Aldine edition of the Poems (1832) and in his Works of Shakespeare, should
perhaps be mentioned. In 1866 the Cambridge editors (Clark and Wright)
issued the ninth volume of their Shakespeare, containing the Sonnets, and
gave for the first time something like a history of the text up to that period,
which was brought down to 1893 in the revised edition. The Cambridge edi-

viii PREFACE

tors, however, were not so disconcerting as to leave nothing to be done in the
way of correction and completion of their textual apparatus, even within the
limits which they set for themselves; and, as every student of the Shakespeare
text is aware, they made no effort to do more than list the first appearance
of every lection, so that one can learn nothing from their notes regarding the
weight of opinion on any disputed matter. Since 1893 nothing of importance
has been done on the history of the text of the Sonnets. The text of Wyndham,
in the Poems of 1898, is notable for its conservative tendency, many aban-
doned readings of the Quarto having been restored and defended in this edi-
tion, with variable but — on the whole — doubtful success. Samuel Butler's
text, of 1899, is distinguished for the opposite extreme, admitting many new
readings which no other editor has felt justified in accepting. Of the very nu-
merous separate editions of the Poems or Sonnets which have appeared since the
end of the nineteenth century, two classes may be distinguished: those which
follow, in general, the text of the Globe or other standard edition of Shake-
speare, and those which, under antiquarian influences, attempt something
like a reproduction of the original Quarto text, though admitting a minimum
of corrections, — as, for example, Morris's Kelmscott reprint and that in
the "Tudor and Stuart Library" of the Clarendon Press. Aside from the
photographic facsimiles made by Praetorius and by the Clarendon Press, the
Quarto text has been reproduced with almost complete accuracy in the Ameri-
can "First Folio Edition."

The upshot of this development of the text is that it is a matter of general
agreement that the Sonnets Quarto of 1609 was not published under the au-
thor's supervision, or corrected with such care as to make it an authoritative
text. On the other hand, the number of serious errors in the printing, such as
make real difficulties for the commentator, is relatively small. Aside from
matters of spelling and punctuation, something between fifty and fifty-five
errors have been corrected by the agreement of the great majority of editors;
of these corrections nine were made in the Poems of 1640, eight by Gildon (as-
suming that he edited the Poems of 1710 and 1714), and thirty by Malone —
though of these a number were first suggested by Theobald, Tyrwhitt, or
Capell. There remain some eighteen passages* where editorial emendations
are in marked disagreement, and it is very doubtful whether these cruces will
ever be solved.

In the matter of interpretation, Malone's edition was even more decidedly
the pioneer than in the matter of the text, and his notes (including those of
Steevens) furnished the only important commentary on the Sonnets, one might
say, for nearly a century; though creditable additions were made by Knight
and Dyce in England, Hudson in America, and Delius in Germany. It is
astonishing, however, how many difficulties and problems Malone and his suc-
cessors ignored. The first really critical introduction and commentary to the
Sonnets appeared in Dowden's edition of 1881, accompanied with an excellent

* In ir, 11 j 16, 7; 16. 10; 23. 0; 24. 1; 28, 14; 46, 9; 51, 10; 51, 11; 58, 11; 62, 10; 69, 14;
8S. 3; ii2, 14; 113, 14; 126, 2; 135. u; 146, 2.

PREFACE ix

working bibliography; and from that time to the present the body of annota-
tion has been steadily increased, notably by the work of Tyler, Wyndham,
Beeching, and Sidney Lee.* Aside from the notes made by editors, a large
amount of criticism in the same field appeared in separate books and articles
throughout the nineteenth century. The chief theories of the Sonnets which
have been presented and discussed during this whole period may be con-
veniently summarized as three in number: (i) the personal or autobiographic,
(2) the fictional or imaginative, and (3) the mystical or esoteric. The first was
set forth by Malone, when he said that to one W. H., "whoever he was, 126
of the following poems are addressed; the remaining 28 are addressed to a lady."
Following this general view came the proponents of Southampton and of
Pembroke, thus setting in motion a long train of arguments, doubtless not
yet brought to an end. The personal interpretation was also developed influen-
tially by Charles Armitage Brown (1838), whose view of the Sonnets might be
said still to dominate the body of criticism on the subject. The second theory,
that the Sonnets are primarily imaginative in character, has been discussed
less in English-speaking countries than in Germany, where it received an
impetus from so distinguished a scholar as Delius, in 1865. In its earlier form,
according to which the Sonnets were a product of Shakespeare's imagination
in much the same sense as the plays, this theory has been echoed more and
more faintly during recent years, though it has had the support in England of
Dyce, Halliwell-Phillipps, and Henry Morley, and in America of Hudson and
Thomas R. Price. In another form, according to which the Sonnets were writ-
ten in a kind of competitive following of a lyrical fashion of the Renaissance,
the imaginative interpretation has had the persistent support of Sir Sidney
Lee, and in Germany has lately been reenforced by the studies of Wolff. The
third theory, the mystical, is not one but many, standing for a type of inter-
pretation through which the Sonnets are viewed as of esoteric or symbolic
significance, usually of a more or less spiritual character. Of these interpreta-
tions the earliest is Barnstorff's (i860), in Germany, which was followed by not
a few efforts of kindred spirits in both America and England. Still a fourth
group might be made of Massey's theory, and one or two similar ones, accord-
ing to which the Sonnets were written concerning real (personal) situations, but
those not of Shakespeare himself but of certain friends. This view of Massey's,
supported with more abundant detail and more impassioned devotion than
that of any other writer, found two or three followers in Germany, like Krauss
and von Mauntz, but has not commended itself to any noteworthy English
or American critic.

As has appeared from this summary, the personal view of the Sonnets, ac-
cording to which the great body of them is viewed as having to do with real
friends and experiences of the poet, emerges generally dominant from the long
debate. But when we seek to separate the personal element in detail from the

* Xor should the name of Alexander Schmidt be forgotten here, for his Lexicon gave the same
careful attention to the Sonnets as to the plays, often with valuable results. Dowden's notes,
in particular, are often unacknowledged echoes of Schmidt's — though I do not mean to imply
any lack of candor in the use of so familiar an authority.

x PREFACE

elements which are in part admittedly conventional, and still further when we
seek for biographic particulars, identifications, and the like, criticism tends
to be increasingly agnostic. The Southamptonists and Pembrokists are still
with us; the ghost of Mary Fitton is not yet wholly at peace; but the saner and
more competent of recent critics, like Dowden, Furnivall, Churton Collins, Luce,
Mackail, Beeching, and Walsh, show a wholesome distrust of the effort to read
in the Sonnets a definite biographical narrative. This agnosticism is strength-
ened, too, by the persistent suspicion that the Sonnets have not come to us
altogether in their original order, and that that order cannot, in all probabil-
ity, be restored. The reaction against the excesses of biographic interpretation
has been increased by the studies of Sir Sidney Lee, and it seems clear that our
understanding of the Sonnets can never be quite the same that it was before
these studies revealed the extent and character of the sonnet writing of the
Renaissance; yet on the other hand competent criticism is nearly unanimous
in the view that Lee is too little disposed to realize the extent to which an arti-
ficial form may express a real experience and be saturated by personal feel-
ing. Because a wedding ring is of itself insufficient proof of marital affection,
it does not follow that one who wears a wedding ring is to be assumed to be
married only in name. On the other hand, too much stress can scarcely be laid
on the wholesome and rational habit of withholding belief from the thousand
biographical inferences which have been drawn from the Sonnets, without a
scintilla of proof, apparently merely because human nature abhors a vacuum
of knowledge where Shakespeare is concerned.

Respecting the intrinsic value of the Sonnets, we may distinguish three
stages of modern comment. The early modern editors of Shakespeare viewed
them with indifference and, as we have seen, with neglect. Dr. Johnson does
not vouchsafe them a word, — a circumstance which we need not regret, since he
doubtless viewed them as at least no better than the sonnets of Milton, which
he disposed of by the statement that "of the best it can only be said that they
are not bad." Steevens's comment has become notorious, to the effect that an
Act of Parliament could not compel the reading of the Sonnets of Shakespeare.
Here again, as elsewhere, Malone introduces the new day. Led by Wordsworth
and Coleridge, the poets and critics of the early nineteenth century adopted with
substantial unanimity the opinion of the former that in none of Shakespeare's
writings "is found, in equal compass, a greater number of exquisite feelings
felicitously expressed"; the only notable dissenters were Hazlitt and Hallam.
The climax of the age of appreciation may perhaps be found in Swinburne's
article of 1 880, in which he speaks of the later sonnets, concerned with the
dark lady, which have been relatively neglected save for biographic conjec-
tures, as "incomparably the more important and altogether precious division"
of the collection. In recent years there has been a perceptible tendency, as in
the criticism of Shakespeare's dramatic work, to distinguish frankly between
those elements in the Sonnets which are "of an age," and are characterized
either by the eccentricities of Petrarchan and Elizabethan poetic fashion
or by temporary and individual conditions of expression, and those which

PREFACE xi

represent a lyrical power and beauty valid "for all time." Not many go so far
as a recent German critic, who groups the Sonnets according as they are
unsittliches, absurdes, and triviales, with a small saving residuum of Edel-
steinen; but one may recognize without shame a growing courage to distin-
guish between what is believed to be inferior, coincident with the courage to
acclaim what is excellent. The aesthetic criticism of the Sonnets has been im-
peded by the exaggerated attention attracted to disputed aspects of the bio-
graphic problem, but of late it has developed with some hopefulness; notable
in this respect is the edition of the Poems of Shakespeare made by the late
George Wyndham, which, as Dean Beeching observes, "deserves the thanks
of all lovers of poetry for the resolute way in which it keeps before the reader
that the one thing of importance in the Sonnets is their poetry." How many
of the Sonnets should eventually be culled out as worthy of being cherished
no matter by whom written, how, or when, we cannot expect to be able wholly
to agree; perhaps a not much larger number than might be chosen from the
same standpoint, out of the work of other great sonneteers — Sidney, Words-
worth, and Rossetti. But the world's judgment is now secure that in these best
of the Sonnets of Shakespeare we find no less truly revealed the supreme lyrical
powers of English poetry than its supreme dramatic powers are exhibited in
his greater plays.

I must now return from this hurried survey of the criticism represented in
this book to the method of the book itself. To exhibit the history of the text,
a list of texts had to be made de novo, though of course with important aid
received — for the earlier periods — from the Cambridge editors. The appa-
ratus in the "First Folio Edition" is wholly inadequate, and the monumental
New Variorum fails us, for recent textual history, even in respect to complete
editions of Shakespeare, owing to the point of view, repeatedly explained
therein, that "the text of Shakespeare has become, within the last twenty-
five years, so settled that to collate, word for word, editions which have appeared
within these years, would be a mark of supererogation." That there is much
supererogatory labor in any such collation I should be the last to deny, having
found no pleasure in noting where Herford puts a colon, Rolfe a semi-colon,
Craig a period. But if, as is very frequently the case, the chief use to be made
of a textual apparatus is to discover the weight of editorial opinion on disputed
issues, it is clear that recent editorial opinion, where the text has been reworked
with care, is often of at least equal weight with that of the editors of a century
ago; hence, with all humble reverence for the New Variorum Shakespeare, I can
see no adequate reason for the omission, in its later issues, of the collation of
such newly made texts as those of Craig, Neilson, and Bullen. For the Sonnets,
of course, there must be numerous additions to the list of editions of the plays.
I have tried, then, to collate all editions of the Sonnets, whether found by them-
selves or in the collected Works of Shakespeare, of which the text appears to
be the result of fresh and significant editorial consideration.

For the commentary it was my first intention to limit myself to criticism
which seemed distinctly worthy of attention; but I soon found, as others have

xii PREFACE

done, that to make this distinction was to arrogate to the editor unwarranted
authority. In the end, encouraged by the generous attitude of the publishers
in the matter of allowance of space, I have sought to represent substantially
all comment which was susceptible of being normalized to the plan of the book,
including much with which I have little or no sympathy. In general, however,
space has not been given to interpretation of the kind which I have called mys-
tical or esoteric. The point of view of this sort of interpretation is so distinct
from that which makes use of the usual methods of philological and historical
criticism that for the most part it cannot be made to blend with these to any
advantage. In the body of the notes I have taken occasion more than once to
record a protest against that view of Shakespeare which considers that he made
a practice of writing words intended to mean two or three different things at
the same time. The symbolic type of the poetic imagination is one easily
recognizable in the Renaissance, as in the mediaeval period; and, admitting that
Shakespeare occasionally availed of it for illustrative or rhetorical purposes, it
seems to some of us that nothing could be more remote from his normal methods
of thought and expression. Characteristically, the outlines of his ideas are
defined clearly, as by daylight, not blurred or doubled as in the half-lights of
allegory or mysticism. Whether this be true or no, the esoteric methods of
interpretation, like ciphers and other riddles, must be worked out by them-
selves, for those whose perceptions are of a kind to demand them. Yet, wishing
to err on the side of completeness rather than of negligence, I have made place,
now and then, for certain interpretations, especially those concerning the
alleged platonism of the poet, which go beyond the point where I can follow.
For a thorough and satisfactory consideration of the place of platonism in the
poetry of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, we have still to wait.

Notes respecting the disputed place of a sonnet in the order of the whole
collection, or respecting its relative date, or having to do with some biographic
interpretation such as the Pembroke or the Southampton theory, have been
included in the body of the commentary only where they might throw some
light on the interpretation of the particular passage concerned. Obviously
such notes cannot be well understood except as portions of complete arguments
for special theories of dates, order, or identification. These topics, therefore,
have been segregated in the Appendix.

It is very difficult to judge how far such an edition should go in recording
the "parallel passages" which have been noted by commentators. If all were
included, the resulting bulk would be alarming, for the game is a fascinating
one when once entered upon with zeal. The effort has been to discriminate,
though I dare not claim to have done so with consistency, and to note those
parallels which appeared to be suggestive for the interpretation of the passage
in question or might be thought to have significance for its date, — not those
of merely curious interest.

Readers who use the commentary with seriousness must learn as soon as
possible to read notes with due allowance for the bent of the individual critic.
They must remember, for example, that the comments of Wyndham and of

PREFACE xiii

Miss Porter are based on an abnormal desire to maintain the Quarto text; that
those of Tyler are likely to be connected with the Pembroke theory, those of
Massey with his peculiar form of the Southampton theory, and those of Lee
with his different form of the same; that those of Samuel Butler are colored by
his view of the Sonnets as of very early date; and that those of Dowden are
frequently due to his extraordinary efforts to present the separate poems as
forming a perfectly continuous series. It is the distinguishing merit of the notes
of Dean Beeching — perhaps uniquely among the important editions — that
they represent no idiosyncrasy or pet theory of interpretation, and are there-
fore peculiarly suited to be taken at their face value. Shall I be presumptuous if
I express the hope that my own comments, few enough at the worst, may have
some claim to this particular merit? since, as has been hinted already, I have
listened to all the schools of interpretation without having become a proselyte
of any.

It is to state the self-evident to add, what I should nevertheless be ashamed to
omit to say, that this book would probably never have been made, at least
in its present form, without the example of the work of the late Dr. Horace
Howard Furness. Though the editorial problems of the Sonnets are some-
what different from those of the plays, and though I have ventured a word of
criticism of one detail of the apparatus of the New Variorum Shakespeare, Dr.
Furness has been my teacher, in an important sense, from first to last; and it
will be my happiness if I shall seem not only to have learned from him some-
thing of the mechanics of the editorial art but to have caught any portion of
the clarity and poise of his spirit. It is good to be able to remember that he once
gave friendly aid and appreciation to the first bit of scholarly work that I ever
undertook, and that his son and successor, Mr. H. H. Furness, Junior, has
done the same for the present undertaking.

Mention must also be made of certain manuscript notes which have been
graciously put at my disposal by friends who have been students of the Son-
nets. One of these friends, my late colleague, Professor A. G. Newcomer, would
have had a larger part in this volume if it had not been for his untimely death.
Another colleague, Professor Henry David Gray, has put me under repeated
obligation. Mr. Horace Davis of San Francisco turned over to me notes rep-
resenting the leisure-hour studies of many years, some of which give eloquent
testimony to the utilities of amateur scholarship. Matter from all these
sources is duly acknowledged in the body of the commentary. The Shakespeare
Bibliography of Mr. William Jaggard has been of great service, and I am also
indebted to its editor for cordial personal assistance, for the use of his collection
of Shakespeareana at Stratford-on-Avon, and for useful notes made on cer-
tain of my proof-sheets even while he was absent from home on duty with his
regiment. The pursuit of perfection in a bibliography is one of the most vain
of human endeavors; that the one included in this volume is not more imper-
fect than it is, I owe not only to the labors of Mr. Jaggard but to the friendly
aid of Professor Clark Northup of Cornell University and Dr. Samuel Tannen-
baum of New York City. Dr. Tannenbaum in particular has exerted him-

xiv PREFACE

self to mitigate the limitations of my library with assistance notable equally
for disinterested zeal and painstaking accuracy. Living at a distance from
any adequate Shakespearean collections, I cannot hope to have avoided errors
which the opportunity to verify notes gathered in many places might have
prevented; I shall be very grateful to any who may furnish corrections. But
in compensation I am happy to remember the excursions made here and there
in pursuit of my task, and the generous help received from those connected
with many libraries: the British Museum, Bodley's Library at Oxford, Trinity
College Library at Cambridge, the Public Library of Birmingham, the Shake-
speare Memorial Library at Stratford-on-Avon, the Boston Public Library,
and the libraries of Harvard University and of the Universities of Michigan,
Illinois, and Pennsylvania.

I regret that the recent revision of Sir Sidney Lee's Life of Shakespeare came
to hand too late to be used in the commentary. The additions made to his
chapters on the Sonnets, however, have appeared in earlier publications, and
are duly noted in this book; the page references to the Life are restricted to
the first edition. Another item too late for use in the commentary is the im-
portant article by Dr. Wolff in a recent number of Englische Studien; I have
taken the more pains to indicate its contents in the Appendix.

The facsimile title-page, Dedication, and head-piece at the beginning of the
text are from the Praetorius reproduction of the copy of the Sonnets Quarto
in the British Museum. In the case of the last (the head-piece and caption
on page 15) the original is enlarged about one-ninth.

I conclude this Preface at the season when the whole world commemorates
the three hundredth anniversary of the death of the writer of these Sonnets. If,
from his place in the undiscovered country, he may be thought to look upon us
mortals who busy ourselves with the stuff of his immortality, "increasing store
with loss and loss with store," may his assured mastery of the art of forgiveness
reach its acme, and his quality of mercy drop even upon his commentators!

R. M. A.

Stanford University, California.
April, 1916.

EXPLANATION OF TEXTUAL NOTES

The following editions have been fully collated for variant readings, and
are indicated by the abbreviations standing opposite them. For fuller identi-
fication, see the Bibliography.

1640 Poems (Benson), 1640.

L Poems (Lintott), 17 10.

G1 Poems (Gildon), 1710.

G2 Poems (Gildon), 17 14.

S1 Poems (Sewell), 1725.

SJ Poems* (Sewell), 1728.

E Poems (Ewing), 1771.

M1 Supplement (Malone), 1780.

M* Works (Malone), 1790.

A Poems (Aldine), 1832.

Kt Works (Knight), 1843.

Co1 Works (Collier), 1858.

B Poems (Bell), 1855.

Del1 Works (Delius), 1856.

Hu1 Works (Hudson), 1856.

Dy1 Works (Dyce), 1857.

Co2 Works (Collier), 1858.

Sta Works (Staunton), i860.

CI Works (Cowden-Clarke), 1864.

Gl Works (Globe), 1864.

Del5 Works (Delius), 1864.

Kly Works (Keightley), 1865.

Wh1 Works (White). 1865.

Hal Works (Halliwell), 1865.

Cam1 Works (Cambridge), 1866.

Dy2 Works (Dyce), 1866.

Del3 Works(Delius). 1872.

Co3 Works (Collier), 1878.

Do Sonnets (Dowden), 188 1.

Hu2 Works (Hudson), 1881.

R1 Sonnets (Rolfe), 1883.

Wh2 Works (White), 1883.

Ty Sonnets (Tyler), 1890.

Ox Works (Oxford), 1891.

Cam2 Works (Cambridge), 1893.

Wy Poems (Wyndham), 1898.

But Sonnets (Butler), 1899.

Her Works (Herford), 1900.

Be Sonnets (Beeching), 1904.

R2 Sonnets (Rolfe), 1905.

X Works (Xeilson), 1906.

Bull Works (Bullen), 1907.

Wa Sonnets (Walsh), 1908.

Other abbreviations are as follows: —

C Capell (MS. corrections in Lintott's ed.).

Stee Steevens (notes in Malone).

Th Theobald (do.).

Tyr Tyrwhitt (do.).

Bo Works (Boswell-Malone), 1821.

Tu Sonnets (Tudor ed.), 1913.

Readings from the Boswell edition are noted only when they differ from
those of Malone, 1790; readings from the Tudor edition when they differ from
those of Xeilson, on whose text the Tudor text is based.

It should be noted that the Aldine edition of the Poems was edited by Dyce,
and in the textual notes of the Cambridge editors is referred to as Dyce, 1832.

xvi EXPLANATION OF TEXTUAL NOTES

"Etc." indicates that the reading in question is found in all the editions
which, in the above list, follow the one just named.

"Conj." is added to all readings not found in the body of a text.

Variations of spelling are not noted except where there is a possibility of
doubt as to the word intended, or where (as in the earlier editions) they may
have significance for the history of textual usage. Variations of punctuation
are not noted except where the sense may be affected; the change from another
mark of punctuation to ? is usually indicated; that from ? to ! is not.

EXPLANATION OF THE COMMENTARY

When no page reference is given for a note, it is quoted from the commen-
tary- of an editor on the sonnet in question. When page reference is cited with-
out title, it is from the only work of the author on the Sonnets. Special cases
are these: notes from Massey are from his later work, The Secret Drama of
Sh.'s Sonnets; references to Schmidt are to the Lexicon; references to Abbott
and Franz are to their Grammars.

All matter enclosed in square brackets, not signed by the editor, represents
the substance, but not the exact phrasing, of the author cited.

Quotations made by commentators have been verified and corrected, and
references to act, scene, etc., have been corrected or supplied, without special
remark. Quotations from Elizabethan texts have, in general, been modernized
in spelling and punctuation. Those from Shakespeare are from the text of
Neilson (Cambridge Poets) ; those from the other sonneteers are usually
quoted from the volumes of Elizabethan Sonnets in the New English Garner.

The notes in Malone's commentary signed "C," which are generally believed
but not positively known to be Capell's (see Wright, Cambridge Sh., 2d ed.,
vol. 9, p. xviii), are quoted under Capell's name with a prefixed asterisk.

CONTENTS

Dedication 5

The Sonnets 15

Appendix 375

general criticism 377

the texts of 1609 and i64o 417

the arrangement of the sonnets 424

THE DATE OF COMPOSITION 44 1

SOURCES AND ANALOGUES 453

THE FRIEND 464

THE RIVAL POET 472

"WILLOBIE HIS AVTSA" 478

musical settings 483

Bibliography 485

Indexes

index to bibliography 527

index to the commentary 53 1

index of first lines 539

SHAKE-SPEARES

SONNETS.

Ncuer before Imprinted.

at London
By (j. Eld for T. T. and are

to be ibJdc by lak*trrsgh£*&»n&
at Chrift Church gate,
i 609.

TO. THE.ONLIE. BEGET TER.OF.

THESE. IN SVING. SONNETS.

M'.W. H. ALL. HAPPIN ESSE.

AND.THAT.ETERNITIE.

PROMISED.

BY.

OVR.EVER-LIVING.POET.

WISHETH.

THE. WELL-WISHING.

ADVENTVRER.IN.

SETTING.

FORTH.

r, t.

DEDICATION

[The discussion which has raged about this Dedication is very difficult to
condense. I omit here all that portion of it which concerns the identification
of "Mr. W. H.," for which see Appendix, pp. 464-71. — Ed.]

Maloxe [does not discuss the general character or phrasing of the Dedica-
tion, but in connection with his mention of Tyrwhitt's suggestion that \\ . H.
was William Hughes (see note on S. 20, 7) he implies that W. H. was the
" begetter " in the sense of the person to whom Sonnets 1-126 were addressed.]

Chalmers: How he [Mr. W. H.] was the begetter of them it is not easy to
tell, unless we presume, what is not improbable, that he begot a desire in Sh.
to deliver a copy to the Bookseller, for publication: W. H. was the getter of
the MS., imperfect as it was, from which the Sonnets were printed. {Sup pi.
Apology, 1799, p. 52.) [In a subsequent note (p. 90) he cites Skinner as
deriving " beget" from A. S. begettan, obtinere:} Johnson adopts this deriva-
tion and sense; so that " begetter," in the quaint language of Thorpe the
Bookseller, Pistol the ancient, and such affected persons, signified the
obtainer; as " to get " and " getter " in the present day mean " obtain " and
"obtainer."

Drake: On the first perusal of this address, the import would seem to be,
that Mr. W. H. had been the sole object of Sh.'s poetry, and of the eternity
promised by the bard. But a little attention to the language of the times in
which it was written will induce us to correct this conclusion; for as a part of
our author's sonnets is most certainly addressed to a female, it is evident
that W. H. could not be the " only begetter" of them in the sense which
primarily suggests itself. [Chalmers gives the true meaning.] . . . We must
infer, therefore, that Mr. W. H. had influence enough to obtain the MS. from
the poet, and that he lodged it in Thorpe's hands for the purpose of publica-
tion, a favour which the bookseller returned, by wishing him " all happiness
and that eternity " which had been " promised " by the bard, in such glowing
colours, to another, namely, to one of the immediate subjects of his sonnets.
That this is the only rational meaning which can be annexed to the word
" promised " will appear, when we reflect that for Thorpe to have wished
W. H. the " eternity " which had been promised for him by an " ever-living "
poet, would have been not only superfluous, but downright nonsense: the
"eternity" of an "ever-living" poet must necessarily ensue, and was a
proper subject of congratulation, but not of wishing or of hope.

Boswell: The " begetter " is merely the person who gets or procures a
thing, with the common prefix " be" added to it. So. in Decker's Satiro-
mastix: " I have some cousin-germans at court shall beget you the reversion
of the master of the King's Revels." Knight [pursues Drake's argument that

6 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE

the fact that some of the sonnets are addressed to a female disposes of the
assertion that Mr. W. H. was the " only begetter " in the sense of only
inspirer.] Collier [does the same, and agrees that the dedication was written
in compliment of W. H. for " collecting Sh.'s scattered sonnets from various
parties." (Intro., 2d ed., 6 :588.)]

[Practically no progress was made in this discussion, then, during the first
half of the 19th century. But in 1862 M. Philarete Chasles, Director of
the Mazarin Library, proposed an entirely new interpretation in a communi-
cation to the AthencEum of Jan. 25 (p. 116), to the following effect:] 1st. That
we have here no dedication, properly so called, at all, but a kind of monu-
mental inscription. 2d. That this inscription has not one continuous sense,
but is broken up into two distinct sentences. 3d. That the former sentence
contains the real inscription, which is addressed by and not to W. H. 4th. That
the person to whom the inscription is addressed is, for some reasons, not
directly named, but described by what the learned call an Antonomasia (" the
onlie begetter of these insuing sonnets "). 5th. That the latter sentence is
only an appendage to the real inscription. 6th. That the publisher, in the
latter sentence, is allowed to express his own good wishes (not for an eternity
of fame to the begetter of the sonnets, which would be an impertinence on
his part), but for the success of the undertaking in which he (the adventurer)
has embarked his capital. . . . Stripped of its lapidary form [i.e., a form
modeled on ancient lapidary inscriptions], the inscription will then run thus:
" M. W. H. wisheth to the only begetter of these insuing Sonnets all happiness
and that eternity promised by our ever-living poet." " The well-wishing
adventurer in setting forth [is] T. T." [In the issue of Feb. 16, 1867, in reply
to Massey's discussion in Sh.'s Sonnets never before Interpreted, Chasles pur-
sued the subject further, observing,] Most dedications of the Elizabethan
age are written in the same form, the name of the dedicator following closely
that of the dedicatee, and the verb being left at the end of the sentence. . . .
Thomas Thorpe's addition is a mere signature, a flourish, a postscriptum.
(p. 223.) [Still more followed, to the same effect, in the issue of April 13, p.
486. And in the issue of May 18 Chasles opposed the notion that " begetter "
could mean " obtainer," by citing (p. 662) 31 passages in Sh. where " beget " =
"create." It should be added that Chasles believed his interpretation of the
Dedication would be seen to be obvious if only its typographical arrangement
were accurately reproduced in modern editions, and certain editors, notably
Collier, hastened to point out that they had so reproduced it. Others joined
merrily in the discussion, chiefly with a view of pointing out how Chasles's
arguments bore on their own pet theories. Cartwright, editor of Sonnets
of Sh. Rearranged (1859), in a letter to the Ath., Feb. 1, 1862 (p. 155), points
out that Thorpe does not assert that the sonnets themselves are inscribed
to YV. H.; the text does not read " promised him"; hence it may have been
meant to say, " that eternity promised to his friend." Massey (Ath., March
16, 1867, p. 355) takes a similar view. In the issue of April 27, replying
to Chasles's -argument respecting the spacing of the lines of the Dedication,

THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 7

he says:] The spacing between the words " wisheth " and " the well-wishing "
is exactly the same as between the three preceding lines. Which amounts to
this: the four central lines of the inscription are more leaded than the lines at
the beginning and end of the same. ... If we are to draw any inference from
the printer's arrangement, then the larger spacing of the three lines preceding
the word " wisheth " shows an intention of carrying on the inscription, and
proves it to be all one! (p. 551.) [On the other hand, Bolton Corxey ( N. &
Q., 3d s., 1 : 87) accepts the Chasles reading, and applies it to the furtherance
of the identification of W. H. as Southampton: and Samuel Neil (Ath.,
April 27, 1867, p. 552) accepts it in furtherance of his own view of the Dedi-
cation as intelligible without going beyond the limits of Sh.'s own family,
W. H. being his brother-in-law William Hathaway (a view which Chasles
had independently proposed), and the " begetter " perhaps his wife Anne.
Neil's rendering of " begetter " is " suggestor," i.e., the " adviser of the pro-
duction of the book as a substantive assertion of his right among the lettered
poets of his time." Thereafter little was heard of Chasles's interpretation of
the Dedication, most Englishmen doubtless agreeing with Dyce:] The idea of
M. Chasles that the inscription consists of two distinct sentences, appears to me
a groundless fancy; and his notion that, in the first of those sentences, " Mr.
W. H." is the nominative to the verb " wisheth," offends me as a still wilder
dream. (Life, 3d ed., p. 102 n.) C. Edmonds [again discussed the Dedication
in Ath., Nov. 22, 1873, p. 661:] Whoever has laughed, as I have done, over
[Thorpe's facetious dedications, e.g., of Marlowe's Lucan, 1600; Healey's Epic-
tetus and Cebes, 1610; Oldcombian Banquet, 161 1,] will not be surprised at his
penning such a characteristic and familiar inscription to the W. H. of the Son-
nets, in 1609. But what a different and highly deferential style does he adopt
when, in 1616, he dedicates his enlarged edition of Healey's work to William
Herbert, Earl of Pembroke! I should imagine the true interpretation of the
inscription to be that " T. T." the publisher, . . . feeling deeply indebted to
" Mr. W. H." for having obtained for him the privilege of publishing such a
popular work as Sh.'s Sonnets were likely to be, wishes him all happiness, and
that eternity promised by the great bard to those who are instrumental in
preserving things which the world " would not willingly let die." And this
thought was probably suggested by the first lines in L. L. L.:

Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live register'd upon our brazen tombs
And then grace us in the disgrace of death;
When, spite of cormorant, devouring Time,
The endeavour of this present breath may buy
That honour which shall bate his scythe's keen edge
And make us heirs of all eternity.

E. Lichtenberger [in 1877 issued at Paris a thesis De Carminibus Shaksperi,
cum nova Thorpianae Inscriptioni Inter pretatione. The new interpretation is
merely to the effect that the Dedication was written particularly for the first

8 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE

group of sonnets, those on procreation and marriage, and need not be under-
stood to apply to the whole collection. In it the writer wishes Mr. W. H. immor-
tality through a son as well as through the services of poetry.]

Dowden [quotes the passage from Dekker cited by Boswel!, but dissents
from the view that " begetter " in the Dedication means " obtainer."] There
is special point in the choice of the word, if the dedication be addressed to the
person who inspired the poems and for whom they were written. Eternity
through offspring is what Sh. most desires for his friend. If he will not beget a
child, then he is promised eternity in verse by his poet, in verse " whose influ-
ence is thine, and born of thee " (78, 10). Thus was Mr. W. H. the begetter of
these poems, and from the point of view of a complimentary dedication he
might well be termed the only begetter. (Intro., p. 21.) Halliwell-Phillipps:
[The " only begetter " is] the one person who obtained the entire contents of
the work for the use of the publisher. . . . The notion that " begetter " stands
for " inspirer " could only be received were one individual alone the subject of
all the poems; and, moreover, unless we adopt the wholly gratuitous conjecture
that the sonnets of 1609 were not those which were in existence in 1598, had
not the time somewhat gone by for a publisher's dedication to that object?
(Outlines, 8th ed., 2: 305.) Sharp [observes that "only" may mean not sole,
but " matchless," " incomparable"; cf. " only herald " in 1, 10. (Intro., p. 23.)]

[The N. E. D. gives some comfort to those who interpret " begetter " as
" obtainer " by citing Hamlet, III, ii, 8: " You must acquire and beget a tem-
perance," under the definition " get, acquire "; but on the other hand cites the
word " begetter " in the present passage under the definition " agent that
originates, produces, or occasions."]

Tyler: To the " only begetter " eternity had been " promised by our ever-
living poet; " for no other construction is at all reasonable or probable. There
is thus a manifest reference to the numerous places in the Sonnets in which the
poet promised to the beautiful youth he addressed " a life beyond life." . . .
[The view that Mr. W. H.'s merit was that of collector of the Sonnets] can
scarcely appear in any way likely. Moreover, there is in the Sonnets one place
particularly which should go very far towards determining the sense of the
disputed words, [38, 5-14.] Here the beautiful youth appears as the cause of
the poet's writing verses " worthy perusal." Whoever invokes this powerful
aid is to " bring forth eternal numbers to outlive long date." The quotation
thus made must go far towards fixing the sense of " the only begetter." . . .
[As to the objection that the beautiful youth is not the subject of all the Son-
nets:] he is the subject of very much the larger portion, and this portion, more-
over, stands first, and next after the Dedication. He might, therefore, very
well be spoken of as " the onlie begetter of these insuing sonnets." (pp. 13-14.)

Verity: Surely it was a dies nefastus on which these ill-omened words [of the
Dedication] were written; surely the man who penned them was capable of all
the infamies which Horace assigned to the unknown planter of a certain tree;
capable, as Voltaire said of "meek, unconscious" Habakkuk, capable de tout.
Who was this impalpable " W. H."? What does " only begetter" mean? . . .

THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 9

The words seem so simple; as if they could only mean one thing; as if " be-
getter " must be equivalent to " inspirer." [Against this there are ingenious
arguments;] but the majority of writers agree that " begetter " does mean
" inspirer," and that " only begetter " might fairly be said of the person to
whom 126 of €he sonnets are directly addressed, and with whom the remaining
poems are more or less concerned. (Intro., pp. 399-401.)

Lee: Few books of the 16th or 17th century were ushered into the world
without a dedication. In most cases it was the work of the author, but numer-
ous volumes, besides Sh.'s Sonnets, are extant in which the publisher (and not
the author) fills the role of dedicator. The cause of the substitution is not far
to seek. The signing of the dedication was an assertion of full and responsible
ownership in the publication, and the publisher in Sh.'s lifetime was the full
and responsible owner of a publication quite as often as the author. . . . When
a volume in the reigns of Elizabeth or James I was published independently of
the author, the publisher exercised unchallenged all the owner's rights, not the
least valued of which was that of choosing the patron of the enterprise, and of
penning the dedicatory compliment. ... As a rule one of only two inferences
is possible when a publisher's name figured at the foot of a dedicatory epistle:
either the author was ignorant of the publisher's design, or he had refused to
counFenance it, and was openly defied. [In the case of the Sonnets the former is
the natural explanation.] ... In framing the dedication Thorpe followed estab-
lished precedent. Initials run riot over Elizabethan and Jacobean books.
Printers and publishers, authors and contributors of prefatory- communica-
tions, were all in the habit of masking themselves behind such symbols. Patrons
figured under initials in dedications somewhat less frequently than other sharers
in the book's production. But the conditions determining the employment of
initials in that relation were well defined. The employment of initials in a
dedication was a recognized mark of a close friendship or intimacy between
patron and dedicator. It was a sign that the patron's fame was limited to a
small circle, and that the revelation of his full name was not a matter of interest
to a wide public. . . . There was nothing exceptional in the words of greeting
which Thorpe addressed to his patron " Mr. W. H." They followed a widely
adopted formula. Dedications of the time usually consisted of two distinct
parts. There was a dedicatory epistle, which might touch at any length, in
either verse or prose, on the subject of the book and the writer's relations with
his patron. But there was usually, in addition, a preliminary salutation con-
fined to such a single sentence as Thorpe displayed. . . . There is hardly a book
published by Robert Greene between 1580 and 1592 that does not open with an
adjuration before the dedicatory epistle, in the form: " To Rob-
ert Greene wisheth increase of honour with the full fruition of perfect felicity."
Thorpe, in Sh.'s Sonnets, left the salutation to stand alone, and omitted the
supplement of a dedicatory epistle; but this, too, was not unusual. [Cf. Spenser's
dedication of F. Q.\ Drayton's of Idea and Poems Lyric and Pastoral; Braithwaite
of his Golden Fleece.] But Thorpe was too self-assertive to be a slavish imitator.
His addiction to bombast, and his elementary appreciation of literature, recom-

io THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE

mended to him the practice of incorporating in his dedicatory salutation some
high-sounding embellishments of the accepted formula, suggested by his
author's writing. In his dedication of the Sonnets to " Mr. W. H." he grafted
on the common formula a reference to the immortality which Sh., after the
habit of contemporary sonnetteers, promised the hero of his sonnets in the
pages that succeeded. ... It is obvious that he did not employ " begetter " in
the ordinary sense. " Begetter," when literally interpreted as applied to a
literary work, means father, author, producer, and it cannot be seriously urged
that Thorpe intended to describe " Mr. W. H." as the author of the Sonnets.
" Begetter " has been used in the figurative sense of inspirer, and it is often
assumed that by " only begetter " Thorpe meant " sole inspirer," and that by
the use of those words he intended to hint at the close relations subsisting be-
tween " W. H." and Sh. in the dramatist's early life; but that interpretation
presents numberless difficulties. It was contrary to Thorpe's aims in business
to invest a dedication with any cryptic significance and thus mystify his cus-
tomers. Moreover, his career and the circumstances under which he became
the publisher of the Sonnets confute the assumption that he was in such rela-
tions with Sh. or with Sh.'s associates as would give him any knowledge of
Sh.'s early career that was not public property. . . . When Thorpe had the luck
to acquire surreptitiously an unprinted MS. by " our ever-living poet," it was
not in the great man's circle of friends or patrons, to which hitherto he had had
no access, that he was likely to seek his own patron. ..." Beget " was not
infrequently employed in the attenuated sense of " get," " procure," or "ob-
tain," a sense which is easily deducible from the original one of "bring into
being." Hamlet, when addressing the players, bids them "in the very whirl-
wind of passion acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness."
[See also the passage in Dekker, quoted by Boswell.] Mr. W. H., whom Thorpe
described as " the only begetter of these ensuing sonnets," was in all prob-
ability the acquirer or procurer of the MS., who, figuratively speaking, brought
the book into being either by first placing the MS. in Thorpe's hands or by
pointing out the means by which a copy might be acquired. To assign such
significance to the word " begetter " was entirely in Thorpe's vein. {Life, pp.
391-92, 397-99, 404-05-)

Butler, [{Ath., Dec. 24, 1898, p. 907), writing without reference to Lee's
argument, traces the history of the view that " begetter " means " obtainer,"
and remarks that it has always been the resort of advocates of a doubtful
theory of the Sonnets. To this Alfred Ainger replies (Jan. 14, 1899, p. 59),
defending Lee's view, and asserting that Sh. himself uses " beget " in the gen-
eral sense of " procure " quite as often as in the sense of producing children.
He further suggests that the Dedication may be humorously intended, like
Thorpe's dedication of Marlowe's Lucan to his friend Blount, — that he] is
indulging a like strain of chaff at the expense of Mr. W. H. himself, suggesting
that he will obtain immortality (that of a fly in amber) by going down to pos-
terity as the " dedicatee " of Sh.'s " ever-living " poems. If this was so, Mr.
Thorpe has proved himself a prophet of no common order. [Further, on Jan. 28,

THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE u

p. 121 :] I do not suppose that even Mr. Lee would plead that the word "be-
getter " was a natural word for Mr. Thorpe to have used. But the whole style
of the dedication is euphuistic — the vein of Armado or Osric — and the first
thought of euphuists of that calibre was never to use a common word when an
uncommon one would do.

Butler, [in his edition of the Sonnets, 1899, reproduces the contents of his
letter of the preceding year, and argues at length against the Lee interpretation
of " begetter." His most important contribution concerns the passage from
Dekker's Satiromastix, first cited by Boswell:] Struck with the fact that Dr.
Murray has not cited the foregoing passage from Dekker, ... I turned to
Dekker's Satiromastix, and find that the passage in question is put into the
mouth of Sir Rees Ap Vaughan, a Welshman, who by way of humour is repre-
sented as murdering the English language all through the piece. I then under-
stood why Dr. Murray did not refer to it and why Mr. Sidney Lee [did not
repeat the reference in his Life of Sh. which he had given in the D. N. B.]; but
I did not and do not understand how Boswell could have adduced it, unless
in the hope of hoodwinking unwary readers, who he knew would accept his
statement without verifying it. This single factitious example has done duty
with Southamptonites and impersonalites for the last 80 years, without any-
one's having been able to cap it with another. . . . Another consideration of
less weight . . . arises from the prefixing the word ''only" to "begetter" in
Thorpe's preface. The fact that the Sonnets are so almost exclusively conver-
sant, directly or indirectly, about a single person, suggests that they would all
be in the hands of this person, whoever he may have been. ... In this case,
supposing " begetter " to mean nothing more than " procurer." the addition
of the word " only " appears too emphatic for the occasion — " begetter "
alone should have been ample. If on the other hand Mr. W. H. was the only
cause of the Sonnets having been written at all, the fact is one of sufficient
interest and importance to make record reasonable even in a preface so tersely
worded as the one in question. Again, the word "only" had. through the
Creed, become so inseparably associated with " begotten," that I cannot
imagine any one's using the words " only begetter " without intending the
verb " beget " to mean metaphorically what it means in " only begotten."
(Intro., pp. 28-30.)

Lee [(Ath., Feb. 24, 1900, p. 250) renews his defense of his interpretation,
citing definitions in Cotgrave and other Elizabethan lexicons; the Dekker and
Hamlet passages again; Lucrece, 1005, " That makes him honour'd, or begets
him hate "; Jonson, Magn. Lady, I, Epilogue, " Beget him a reputation." In
general, he alleges, " get " and " getter," " beget " and " begetter," were
always interchangeable in Elizabethan usage; cf. " getter " for " begetter " in
Cor., IV, v, 240: " A getter of more bastard children." To this Dowden replies
at length, in the issue for March 10, p. 315, asserting roundly that no unmis-
takable Elizabethan example of the word " beget " in the sense of " procure "
has been found. Cotgrave (who had been cited by Lee) does not give " beget-
ter " as " procurer," but gives both words, in distinct definitions, as equiva-

12 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE

lents of Engendreur. Skinner (also cited by Lee) does not gloss " beget " with
obtinere, but only the A.S. begettan; for " beget " the gloss is gignere. The Sh.
and Jonson passages he finds to be examples of the meaning " call into being "
or " produce," not of the meaning " procure." He also points out (independ-
ently, it would seem, of Butler) the dubious character of the Dekker passage,
and gives for the first time the full context: "If I fall sansomely upon the
Widdow, I have some cossens Garman at Court, shall beget you the reversion
of the Master of the Kings Revels." (Later, March 24, p. 379, Dowden ex-
plains that, when in his Introduction to the Sonnets, he had admitted that this
passage furnished an example of " beget " = procure, he had not examined it
sufficiently.) Lee rejoins (March 17, p. 345), defending his interpretation of
the Hamlet passage, where "acquire and beget " are naturally taken as syno-
nyms; citing a new reference from Coles's English-Latin Dictionary (1677),
where one finds "Beget (procure), concilio, pario"; and an additional Sh.
reference, T. of S., I, i, 45: " Such friends as time in Padua shall beget." In
the same number (p. 346) Ainger also replies to Dowden, summing up the
whole argument by saying that " the primary meaning was ' bring about.' . . .
In Mr. Lee's interpretation of the famous phrase, W. H. is addressed as the
man who ' brought about ' the publication of the Sonnets." This furnishes
Butler an easy opportunity for retorting (March 24, p. 379): " Few will object
to reading, ' Bringer about of these ensuing sonnets.' Where is the legitimacy
of smuggling in the words ' the publication of '? "]

Beechixg: " The only begetter " [is] a phrase which ninety-nine persons out
of every hundred, even of those familiar with Elizabethan literature, would
unhesitatingly understand to mean their inspirer, and, in view of such sonnets
as 38, 76, and 105, and of the metaphors employed in 78 and 86, would regard
as especially well chosen. . . . What force would " only " retain if " begetter "
meant " procurer "? Allowing it to be conceivable that a piratical publisher
should inscribe a book of sonnets to the thief who brought him the MS., why
should he lay stress on the fact that " alone he did it "? Was it an enterprise
of such great peril? Mr. Lee attempts to meet this and similar difficulties by
depreciating Thorpe's skill in the use of language; but the examples he quotes
in his interesting Appendix do not support his theory. Thorpe's words are
accurately used, even to nicety, and, indeed, Mr. Lee himself owns that in
another matter Thorpe showed a " literary sense " and " a good deal of dry
humour." I venture to affirm that this dedication also shows a well-developed
literary sense. In the next place, this theory of the " procurer " obliges us to
believe that Thorpe wished Mr. W. H. that eternity which the poet had prom-
ised, not to him, nor to men in general, but to some undesignated third
party. Mr. Lee calls the words " promised by our ever-living poet " " a deco-
rative and supererogatory phrase." That is a very mild qualification of them
under the circumstances. But an examination of Thorpe's other dedications
shows that his style was rather sententious than " supererogatory." Then,
again, on this theory the epithet " well-wishing " also becomes " supereroga-
tory." For what it implies is that the adventurous publisher's motive in giving

THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE ' 13

the sonnets to the world without their author's consent was a good one. The
person to whom they were written might reasonably expect, though he would
not necessarily credit, an assurance on this head ; but what would one literary
jackal care for another's good intentions? ... I would add that the whole tone
of the dedication, which is respectful, and the unusual absence of a qualifying
phrase, such as " his esteemed friend," before the initials, are against the the-
ory that Mr. W. H. was on the same social level as the pub Usher. (Intro.,
ppr 'Xxxi v-xxx vi . )

[Undeterred by his opponents, Lee renews the exposition of his theory in
his introduction to the Oxford Press facsimile edition of the Sonnets, 1905:]
" Begetter " might mean " father " (or " author ") or it might mean " pro-
curer " (or " acquirer "). There is no suggestion that Thorpe meant that Mr.
W. H. was " author " of the sonnets. Consequently doubt that he meant
" procurer " or " acquirer " is barely justifiable. [He renews his list of exam-
ples, including the Dekker passage — still without the broken English. Fur-
ther:] A very few years earlier a cognomen almost identical with " begetter "
(in the sense of procurer) was conferred in a popular anthology, entitled
Belvedere or the "Garden of the Muses, on one who rendered its publisher the like
service that Mr. W. H. seems to have rendered Thorpe, the publisher of Sh.'s
Sonnets. One John Bodenham, filling much the same role as that assigned to
Mr. \V. H., brought together in 1600 a number of brief extracts ransacked from
the unpublished, as well as from the published, writings of contemporary poets.
Bodenham's collections fell into the hands of an enterprising " stationer," one
Hugh Astley, who published them under [the above title, with a dedicatory
sonnet to John Bodenham, in which he was apostrophized as] " First causer and
collectour of these floures." In another address to the reader at the end of the
book . . . the publisher again refers more prosaically to Bodenham, as " The
Gentleman who was the cause of this Collection" (p. 235). When Thorpe
called " Mr. W. H " " the only begetter of these insuing sonnets," he probably
meant no more than the organizers of the publication of the book called
Belvedere, in 1600, meant when they conferred the appellations " first causer "
and " the cause " on John Bodenham, who was procurer for them of the copy
for that enterprise, (pp. 38-40.) [Lee also observes (p. 35 n.) that Thorpe's
dedicatory procedure and choice of type were influenced by Jonson's form of
dedication before the first edition of Volpone, which Thorpe published for him
in 1607 and which Eld printed.] On the first leaf, following the title, appears
in short lines (in the same fount of large capitals as that used in Thorpe's dedi-
cation to " Mr.' W. H.") these words: " To the Most Noble | and Most Aequall |
Sisters [ The Two Famovs Vniversities j For their Love | And | Acceptance [
Shewn | To his Poeme | in the Presentation J Ben: Ionson | The Gratefvll
Acknowledger | Dedicates j Both It and Himselfe."

W. C. Hazlitt: It would be a severe injustice to Thorpe to omit or refuse to
concede that credit . . . which it strikes me that he eminently deserves, as the
first person who appears to have presaged the enduring fame of the author.
He terms him " Our Ever-Living Poet "; and he so terms him in 1609, subse-

14 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE

qucntly to the far less emphatic tribute by Jonson in Poetaster in 1602, but
years before Jonson pronounced his eulogium in the folio of 1623, and years
upon years before any one else dreamed of taking such a view. (57*., the Alan
and his Work, ed. 1912, p. 222.)

[The Dedication has not escaped the ingenuity of the more mystical inter-
preters. Karpf (Die Idee Sh.'s, p. 43) believes that the " only begetter " is the
poet's own soul; and Legis ( N. & Q., 5th s., 6: 421) that it is the " ' spirit of
human knowledge ' which is the begetter of all true works."]

SHAK B'S f e ares,

SONNETS.

i

From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauties Rose might neuer die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heire might beare his memory:
But thou contracted to thine owne bright eyes, 5

Feed'st thy lights flame with selfe substantiall fewell,
Making a famine where aboundance lies,
Thy selfe thy foe, to thy sweet selfe too cruell :
Thou that art now the worlds fresh ornament, 9

And only herauld to the gaudy spring,
Within thine owne bud buriest thy content,
And tender chorle makst wast in niggarding:
Pitty the world, or else this glutton be,
To eate the worlds due, by the graue and thee.

2. might] may G, S, E.

3. decease] decrease Hu!.

6. lights] life's But, W'a. selfe substantiall] Hyphened by G!, etc.

10. only] early Godwin conj.
12. chorle] churl G, etc.
14. by the] be thy Stee conj.; by thy Godwin conj. and] as Godwin conj.

Boaden: I have been tempted frequently to consider [Sonnets 1-19], and
many more of the collection, as parts of a design to treat the subject of Adonis
in the sonnet form. [The resemblance between these opening sonnets and

16 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [i

the V. & A. has been remarked by many commentators, most recently by
Judge Evans, Sat. Rev., Dec. 26, 1914. Cf. especially lines 163-74:]

Torches are made to light, jewels to wear,
Dainties to taste, fresh beauty for the use,
Herbs for their smell, and sappy plants to bear;
Things growing to themselves are growth's abuse.

Seeds spring from seeds and beauty breedeth beauty;

Thou wast begot; to get it is thy duty.

Upon the earth's increase why shouldst thou feed,
Unless the earth with thy increase be fed?
By law of nature thou art bound to breed,
That thine may live when thou thyself art dead;

And so, in spite of death, thou dost survive,

In that thy likeness still is left alive.

Isaac: Cf. Daniel's Delia, Sonnets 34-35:

Look, Delia! how we 'steem the half-blown rose, . . .

No sooner spreads her glory in the air,

But straight her full-blown pride is in declining;

She then is scorned, that late adorned the fair.

So clouds thy beauty, after fairest shining! . . .

O let not then such riches waste in vain!

But love, whilst that thou may'st be loved again! [etc.]

[After examining the parallels here, Isaac concludes, because of the equally
striking parallels in V. & A. and some of the early plays, that Sh. was
probably the first to develop the idea. (Jahrb., 17:177-81.)] Massey:
Cf. Sidney's Arcadia: " Beauty ... is the crown of the feminine greatness;
which gift, on whomsoever the heavens (therein most niggardly) do bestow,
without question she is bound to use it to the noble purpose for which it is
created." [1590 ed., f. 279.] . . . [These] sonnets on marriage could not have
been written until after Sh. had read the Arcadia, (pp. 73, 71.)

Verity [also cites as a parallel Drayton's Legend of Matilda; but the resem-
blance is confined to a few lines in stanzas 34 and 70:

Hoard not thy beauty, when thou hast such store;
Were 't not great pity it should thus lie dead,
Which by thy lending might be made much more?
For by the use should every thing be fed. . . .
'T were pity thou by niggardise shouldst thrive,
Whose wealth by waxing craveth to be spent.]

Lee: The opening sequence of 17 sonnets, in which a youth of rank and
wealth is admonished to marry and beget a son so that " his fair house " may
not fall into decay, can only have been addressed to a young peer . . . who
was as yet unmarried. (Life, p. 142.) [On this see further the notes on S. 13.

i] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 17

— Ed.] Walsh: It has been supposed that these sonnets were actually
addressed by Sh. to a Mr. W. H., or to some friend or patron, with the bona-
fide intention of persuading him to marry, although (except for a slight allu-
sion in 9, I, and still slighter in 8, 6-9) there is not a word in them on the
subject of marriage. It is possible. It is also possible that they are imaginary.
. . . Possibly some of these sonnets were composed with the intention of
representing [the wooing of the fair young friend by the dark lady of certain
of the sonnets]. If so, we should have here the same situation as in the poem
of V. & A., in which Venus urges Adonis to breed, in words very similar to
some here repeated. [Cf. lines 129-32, 751-68.] ... At all events, it is not
improbable that most of the sonnets in this section were written about the
same time with V. Sf A. . . . Ideas similar to the chief topic now under
treatment are found in the plays only in application to women. Cf. R. & J.,
I, i, 221-26; T.N., I, v, 259-61; A.W., I, i, 136-78.

Delius [believes this group of sonnets to be one of the striking disproofs
of the personal or autobiographical theory of the collection.] In order to
persuade a friend to marry, many kinds of reasons could profitably be urged:
concern for his own moral and material welfare in the founding of a domestic
circle or in the respected position of a husband and father; the desirable pos-
session of a feminine personality, distinguished for beauty, wit, birth, or
property, which the poet might, with this intention, sketch in the most allur-
ing colors; finally, if the friend were an Earl of Southampton or a Pembroke,
a reference to Noblesse oblige, — to the obligation not to let a noble race die
out, but to progress in distinction. Of all these and similar grounds with
which a man of flesh and blood might persuade a real friend to marriage, we
find in all these sonnets not one so much as touched upon, and instead of them
only this one argument, discussed even to satiety: You are beautiful, and
must therefore care for the preservation of your beauty through reproduction,

— an argument which, in Story-land and addressed to the coy Adonis by
lovesick Venus, might find some justification, but which could never, in the
actual relations of life, have been seriously advanced by a reasonable man
such as we take Sh. to have been, in order to persuade another — it is to be
hoped also reasonable — man, his friend, to marry. (Jahrb., 91: 36-37.)

1-2. Simpson: The doctrine which Sh. puts into the two opening lines of
his sonnets, to be as it were the text and motto of the whole, [is Platonic].
With Plato . . . Love is universally, in the highest and lowest forms alike, an
impulse of generation. ... Its first human impulse is to produce a semblance
of immortality by generating, through a person beloved for beauty, a new
person, to replace the original one in its decay (Symposium, c. 32), and thus
to preserve the immortality of the species amidst the destruction of the
individual. Of this impulse Beauty is the fuel; and love kindled by beauty is
not precisely the love of beauty, but of generation in the beautiful, fori yap
ov tov xaXov 6 ep&w, <£\XA ttjs yevvr/ffeois icai tov t6kov iv r<p ica\$. (pp. 19—20.)

2. Rose. [The use of italics here has given rise to much discussion, edifying

1 8 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [i

more or less. The note of Wyndham, on " The Typography of the Quarto,
considered in its bearing on the authority of that text," p. 259 of his edition
of the Poems, and Sir Sidney Lee's introduction to the Oxford facsimile edi-
tion, well represent the opposing attitudes. See further on Hews in 20, 7. —
Ed.] Wyndham: Excepting Rose, 1,2; Hews, 20, 7 ; Informer , 125, 13; and the
Wills, 135, 136, 143, every word so printed is either a proper name, or else,
of Greek or Latin extraction. Viz.: Audit, 4, 12; Adonis, Hellens, Grecian,
53. 5. 7. 8; Statues, 55, 5; . . . Mars, 55, 7; Intrim, 56, 9; Alien, 78, 3; Eaves
apple, 93, 13; Saturne, 98, 4; Satire, 100, 11; Philomell, 102, 7; Autumne,
104, 5; Abisme, 112, 9; Alcumie, 114, 4; Syren, 119, 1; Heriticke, 124, 9;
Audite, Quietus, 126, 11, 12; Cupid, Dyans, Cupid, 153, 1, 2, 14. These words,
if other than proper names, were so printed then, as French words are so
printed now, viz.: because they were but partially incorporated into the
English language. This destroys the presumption of accident and creates a
presumption of design, (p. 260.) Lee: It was the natural tendency to itali-
cize unfamiliar or foreign words and names and to give them an initial capital
in addition. But the printer of the sonnets usually went his own way without
heed of law or custom. " Rose " is used 12 times: it is italicized once (1, 2);
the names of other flowers are not italicized at all (cf. 25, 6; 94, 14; 98, 9;
99, 6). " Alchemy " (alcumie) is used twice: it is once italicized (114, 4) and
once not (33, 4). " Audite " is used thrice, and is twice italicized. " Autumn"
appears twice, and is once italicized: " spring," " summer," and "winter"
are never thus distinguished. . . . The following words of like class to those
italicized in the sonnets lack that mark of distinction: Orient (7, 1); Phaenix
(19, 4); Muse (32, 10 et al. loc); Ocean (64, 5); Epitaph (81, 1); Rhetorick
(82, 10); Charter (87, 3); cryttick (112, 11); cherubines (114, 6); Phisitions
(140,8). (pp. 48-49.) Simpson: The word here is full of import. In the range
of its associations it reaches from the meaning that must be given to it in
much of the Rcmaunt of the Rose to the sublime conception of Dante in the
30th and 31st cantos of his Paradiso. The aspiration for the immortality of
the " rose of beauty " is the root of love. (p. 47.) Fleay [at one time believed
that there might be an allusion to the Rose theatre, and Sh.'s connection
with it in 1593-96.] (Macm. Mag., 31: 440.) Wyndham: " Beauty's Rose "
stands here poetically for the Idea or Eternal Type of Beauty, or, at least,
for the emblem of that idea. ... It is used to this end with a capital, 67, 8,
and, again with a capital, as the emblem of the friend, 109, 14. (p. 261.)
[But why not with italics again, if the quarto was as carefully printed as
Wyndham supposed? — Ed.] Creighton [compares this line with 95, 8,
which he thinks proves that Sh. knew the friend by the name of Rose, and is
able to connect the name with Pembroke's courtesy title of " lord Ros of
Kendal."] (Blackwood, 169: 672 f.) Porter: A poetic emblem of flowering
beauty. . . . This special meaning deserves the capital and italics.

4. Massey: An allusion to the early death of [Southampton's] father.

(P- 55-)

5. contracted. Schmidt: Betrothed. [So Rolfe and Beeching; the former

i] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 19

cites T.N., V, i, 268: " You would have been contracted to a maid." It is more
than doubtful, however, whether an apter parallel is not to be found in Haml.,
I, ii, 4: " Our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe." The con-
text, at any rate, suggests the notion " confined within the operation of your
own eyes." This is close to Tyler's paraphrase: " Not having given exten-
sion to thyself in offspring." — Ed.] eyes. Tyler: Mr. \V. H.'s "bright
eyes " are regarded as the central point or focus of his beauty.

6. selfe substantiall. Dowdex: Fuel of the substance of the flame itself.
Wyxdham: Fuel of the same substance as thy " light's flame," viz.: thine
eye-sight.

0-10. Massey: [Cf. the Dedication to V. & A., where] the poet hopes that
his young patron may answer to the " world's hopeful expectation." . . .
In both we have Hope a-tiptoe at gaze on this new wonder of youth and
beauty, (p. 48.) Tyler: Expressions suitable in the case of a youth but just
eighteen [i.e., Pembroke].

10. only. Schmidt: Principal, chief. Sharp: Matchless, incomparable.
Beechixg: The first bright flower of a new spring. The idea of the third
quatrain seems to be that W. H. might, if he pleased, enrich the world with a
more beautiful race of mortals.

12. *Capell: Cf. R. & J., I, i, 223-26:

Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?
— She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste;
For beauty starv'd with her severity
Cuts beauty off from all posterity.

tender chorle. [According to Percy Simpsox, a regular example of the voca-
tive without commas; cf. M.V., IV, i, 335 (Folio) : " Now infidell I have thee
on the hip," and many similar passages. (Sh. Punctuation, p. 21.)]

14. Steevexs: I read (piteous constraint to read such stuff at all!), "To
eat the world's due, be thy grave and thee; " i.e., be at once thyself, and thy
grave. ... I did not think the late Mr. Rich had such example for the con-
trivance of making Harlequin jump down his own throat. Maloxe: Sh.
considers the propagation of the species as " the world's due," as a right . . .
which it may demand from every individual. ..." If you do not fulfil this
duty, acknowledge that, as a glutton swallows and consumes more than is
sufficient for his own support, so you . . . consume and destroy ' the world's
due '; to the desolation of which you will doubly contribute; 1. by thy death;
2. by thy dying childless." Our author's plays, as well as the poems now
before us, affording a sufficient number of conceits, it is rather hard that he
should be answerable for such as can only be obtained through the medium
of alteration; that he should be ridiculed not only for what he has, but for
what he has not written, the grave and thee. Dowdex: By means of the
grave (which will swallow your beauty — cf. S. 77, 6), and of yourself, who
refuse to beget offspring. Cf. A.W., I, i, 153: " Virginity . . . consumes itself
to the very paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach." Wyxdham:

20 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [n

Your death, and your refusal to propagate your beauty. J. W. Bright [would
take "by" with "due": "due at the hands of" or "owed by." (Mod. Lang.
Notes, 14: 186.)]

For a 17th century MS. version of lines 5-14, see notes under S. 2.

2

When fortie Winters shall beseige thy brow,

And digge deep trenches in thy beauties field,

Thy youthes proud liuery so gaz'd on now,

Wil be a totter'd weed of smal worth held :

Then being askt, where all thy beautie lies, 5

Where all the treasure of thy lusty daies;

To say within thine owne deepe sunken eyes,

Were an all-eating shame, and thriftlesse praise.

How much more praise deseru'd thy beauties vse, 9

If thou couldst answere this faire child of mine

Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse

Proouing his beautie by succession thine.

This were to be new made when thou art ould,.

And see thy blood warme when thou feel'st it could,

4. totter'd] tatter'd G, etc. (except Bull, Wa).

7. within . . . eyes] Italics by Co3. owne] one S1.

deepe sunken] Hyphened by G2, etc. (except A).
io-n. this . . . excuse] Quoted by M, etc. (except Co3, Hu2); italics by
Co3, Hu2.
11. old] whole Hazlitt, But.

1. fortie winters. Schmidt: Used for an indefinite number. [Besides the
parallels cited by Schmidt, see Elze, to the same effect, Jahrb., 11 : 288.]
Butler: [Since in it the poet views men of forty as old,] I hold that this son-
net can only have been written by one who was still very young, (p. 89.)
Rolfe: Schmidt puts this passage among those in which " forty " is used for
" an indefinite number " (as often); but the context shows that it has distinct
reference to age. [This note I cannot understand; of course the phrase has
reference to age, and of course to an indefinite age. — Ed.] Dowden: Sh.
fixes on so early an age as forty because, had he said fifty, it might have
allowed time for his friend's son to pass beyond the point of youthful per-
fection to which Sh.'s friend has now attained. . . . Perhaps the forty years
are counted from the present age of the young friend, bringing him thus to

n] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 21

about sixty years of age. . . . Krauss cites from Sidney's Arcadia two exam-
ples of " forty winters."

2. Vox Mauntz: Cf. Ovid, Med. Formes, 46: " Et placitus rugis vultus
aratus erit; " and Tristia, III, vii, 33-34:

Ista decens facies longis vitiabitur annis,
Rugaque in antiqua fronte senilis erit.

4. totter'd. Bullex: A recognised form of " tattered "; scores and scores
of examples of it may be found, and I have not hesitated to restore it to the
text.

7. eyes. Porter: The eyes here, as in S. 1, 6, and often by the poet, are
regarded as the house of the individual spirit of life.

8. all-eating shame. Tyler: Shame which consumes the person guilty of
so shameful conduct, with his posterity, thriftless. Dowden: Unprofitable.

11. sum my count, etc. [Cf. 4, 12. — Ed.] my old excuse. Delius: My
excuse when I, or that I, am old. [So Rolfe.] Dowden: The excuse of my
oldness. Tyler: The account will be . . . settled by his son, whose youthful
beauty will furnish an excuse for Mr. W. H.'s oldness, or, perhaps, will fur-
nish the old and customary excuse by proving that he has inherited the
beauty of his father. Beeching: Stand for the whole treasure of beauty com-
mitted to me (being indeed my own), and so make excuse for my age. Wynd-
ham: Old may be a noun for " eld," as in 68, 12: " Robbing no old." [But this
is no parallel, for in 68, 12 " old " means " old object," correlatively with
" new " for " new object." — Ed.] ... In that case excuse is a participle for
"excused." [The construction remains doubtful. The N. E. D., though list-
ing " old " with the meaning " old age," gives no clear example later than
Middle English. — Ed.]

Exceptional popularity in the 17th century seems to be indicated for this
sonnet by the survival of a number of MS. copies. Some of these were de-
scribed in The Athenceum, July 26, Aug. 2, and Sept. 6, 1913; pp. 89, 112, 230.
One is in the British Museum, in Sloane MS. 1792, for a careful account of
which I am indebted to Professor Charles W. Wallace. Dr. Wallace's con-
clusions are that the MS. is probably an exercise book of a student at Christ
Church, with tutorial corrections, and dates from the Restoration period.
The text of Sonnet 2 is as follows:

To one that would die a Mayd
When forty winters shall beseige thy brow
And trench deepe furrowes in that louely feild
Thy youth faire liuerie soe accounted now
Shall bee like like rotten weedes of noe worth heild

Then being ask't where all thy beauty lies
Where all the lustre of thy youthfull dayes
To say within thes hollow suncken eyes
Were an alleaten truth, and worthies pleasure.

22 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [n

How better were thy beauties use
If thou couldst say this prittie childe of mine
Saues my account and makes my old excuse
Making his beauty by succession thine

This were to bee new borne when thou art old
And see thy bloud warme, when thou feelst it cold.

A second copy, with the same title, appears in a commonplace book lately in
the possession of Mr. Bertram Dobell, in company with other poems dating
from the first half of the 16th century. The text follows:

To one that would dye a Mayd
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And trench deepe furrowes in that lovely field
Thy youths fayre livery, so accounted now,
Shall be like rotten cloaths of no worth held.

Then being askt where all thy beauty lies
Where all the lustre of thy youthfull daies:
To say, within these hollow sunken eyes:
Were an all beaten Truth, and worthlesse prayse.

O how much better were thy beauties use
If thou couldst say, this pretty child of mine
Saves my account, and makes no old excuse
Making his beauty by succession thine!
This were to bee new borne, when thou art old
And see thy blood warme when thou feelst it could.

A third copy occurs in a MS. in the Library of St. John's College, Cambridge
(MS. S. 23), together with extracts from Carew, Randolph, Davenant, and
others. I am indebted to Mr. G. C. Macaulay for the following transcript and
notes:

when fortie winters shall beseege the browe,
And dig deepe trenches in thy beauties field,
Thy youthes proude liuery so gazed on now
will be a tatterd weede, of small worth held.
Then beeing asked where all thy beautie lyes,
where all the treasure of thy lusty dayes
to say within thine owne deepe sonken eyes,
were an all eating shame and thriftlesse praise
how much more praise deserues thy beauties use.
If thou couldst say that this faire child of mine
Shall som my count and make thy ould excuse,
prouing his beautie by succession thine.
This were to be new made when thou art old.
And see thy blood warme, when thou feelst it cold.

W. Shakspere.

n] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 23

(The word "praise" in both 1. 8 and 1. 9 has the "se" written in a
contemporary hand over something else which I cannot read. Also
" use " in 1. 9 is a correction apparently of " muse," and " old " in
1. 13 probably of " ould.")

In still another MS. book, formerly in the possession of Mr. Dobell, but now
in a private collection, there occurs a curious composite of the opening lines
of the sonnet with the greater portion of Sonnet 1 and two lines from Sonnet
54. The following transcript is from a photograph made by Mr. Dobell:

Cruel

Thou Contracted to thine owne bright eys
Feedst thy light flame with selfe substantial fewell
Makeing a famine where aboundance lies
Thy selfe thy foe to thy sweet selfe too cruell.
Thou that art now the worlds fresh ornament
And onely herauld to ye Gaudy spring
Within thine owne Bud Buriest thy Contend
And tender Churle makes wast in niggarding
Pitty ye world or Els this Glutton bee
To Eat ye worlds due by ye world & thee
When forty winters shall bisiedg thy brow
And Dig deep trenches in thy beautyes field
Thy youths Proud liuery so gazd on now
Wil be A totterd weed of small worth held
The Canker bloomes haue ful as deepe a dy
As ye Perfumed tincture of ye roses.

In general it is obvious that none of these variant MSS. has any independent
textual value; though the variants in the first quatrain, similar in the two
versions first quoted, have been thought to give indications of a different early
version of the sonnet. Mr. Dobell believed (Ath., Aug. 2, 1913, p. 112) that
this MS. version is that of " Sh.'s first draft of the sonnet."

24 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [in

3
Looke in thy glasse and tell the face thou vewest,
Now is the time that face should forme an other,
Whose fresh repaire if now thou not renewest,
Thou doo'st beguile the world, vnblesse some mother.
For where is she so faire whose vn-eard wombe ~^

Disdaines the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tombe,
Of his selfe loue to stop posterity?

Thou art thy mothers glasse and she in thee 9

Calls backe the louely Aprill of her prime,
So thou through windowes of thine age shalt see,
Dispight of wrinkles this thy goulden time.
But if thou Hue remembred not to be,
Die single and thine Image dies with thee.

3. repaire] re pain e 1640.

8. selfe loue] Hyphened by L, G2, E, etc.

12. goulden] goidded 1640.

13. Hue] love C; list But. remembred] remember 1640, G, S, E.

4. unblesse. Schmidt: Neglect to make happy.

5. un-eard. Malone: Unploughed.

5-6. Regis: One of the instances where Sh., without knowing it, echoes the
old poets. Cf. Sophocles, Antigone, 569: [" There are other fields that may be
ploughed." Cf. also ^Eschylus, Septem, 754, "Who sowed in the field of the
womb," etc.; and Sophocles, (Edipus Tyrannus, 260, 121 1, 1257, 1485, 1497.]

6. Steevens: Cf. M. for M., I, iv, 43-44:

Her plenteous womb
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

7. fond. Schmidt: Foolish. Delius: Blindly in love with himself.

7-8. Malone: Cf. R. & J., I, i, 225-26 [see under 1, 12], and V. & A., 757-
60:

What is thy body but a swallowing grave,
Seeming to bury that posterity
Which by the rights of time thou needs must have,
If thou destroy them not in dark obscurity?

8. selfe love. Tyler: Equivalent apparently to self-satisfaction.

iv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 25

9. Malone: Cf. Lucrece, 1758-59:

Poor broken glass, I often did behold

In thy sweet semblance my old age new born.

mothers. Dowden: Were the father of Sh.'s friend living, it would have been
natural to mention him; 13, 14 (" you had a father ") confirms our impression
that he was dead. Beeching: This word affords us no ground for the supposi-
tion that W. H.'s father was dead. The fact may simply have been that he
resembled his mother. Porter: Surely nothing of the sort either here or in
S. 13 should bother any one's head. Here the mate whom the friend should
take influences the mother imagery. There the heirship of his father's house
influences the father imagery.

9-10. Tyler: As Professor Minto has well pointed out, [these lines] are
entirely suited to the Countess of Pembroke. Von Mauntz: Cf. Sidney,
Arcadia, Bk. 3: " What lesson is that unto you, but that in the april of your
age, you should be like April? " [1590 ed., f. 280.]

11. Malone: Cf. L.C., 13-14:

Spite of heaven's fell rage
Some beauty peep'd through lattice of sear'd age.

13. Tyler: If your intention is to be forgotten. Beeching: If you exist only
for the sake of being forgotten.

4
Vnthrifty louelinesse why dost thou spend,
Vpon thy selfe thy beauties legacy?
Natures bequest giues nothing but doth lend,
And being franck she lends to those are free:
Then beautious nigard why doost thou abuse, 5

The bountious largesse giuen thee to giue?
Profitles vserer why doost thou vse
So great a summe of summes yet can'st not Hue?
For hauing traffike with thy selfe alone, 9

Thou of thy selfe thy sweet selfe dost deceaue,
Then how when nature calls thee to be gone,
What acceptable Audit can'st thou leaue?

Thy vnus'd beauty must be tomb'd with thee,

Which vsed Hues th'executor to be.

14. th'executor] thy executor C, M, A, B, But; the executor Del, Kly, R2, N.

26 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [iv

[Isaac calls attention to resemblances between this sonnet and passages in
Marlowe's Hero & Leander (234-36, 255-56, 317, 328):

Treasure is abus'd
When misers keep it; being put to loan,
In time it will return us two for one . . .
One is no number; maids are nothing, then,
Without the sweet society of men . . .
Abandon fruitless, cold virginity . . .
Beauty alone is lost, too warily kept.

He concludes:] That Marlowe is here copying from Sh., rather than the reverse,
may be inferred from the circumstance that he also draws upon V. & A.
(Jahrb., 19: 250.)

1-4. Lee: Cf. Guarini, Pastor Fido (I, i); . . . Fanshawe translates:

Why did frank Nature upon thee bestow
Blossoms of beauty in thy prime, so sweet
And fair, for thee to trample under feet?

3. Dowden: Cf. M.for M., I, i, 37-41:

Nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,
Both thanks and use.

Steevens: Cf. Milton, Comus, 679-84:

Why should you be so cruel to yourself,

And to those dainty limbs which Nature lent

For gentle usage and soft delicacy?

But you invert the covenants of her trust,

And harshly deal, like an ill borrower,

With that which you receiv'd on other terms.

Verity: Cf. Lucretius: " Vitaque mancipio nulli datur."

4. franck. Schmidt: Liberal. [Free, as often, is synonymous; see N. E. D.
on " frank and free," etc. — Ed.] those are free. [For the omission of the
relative, see Abbott, Gr., § 244:] In many cases the antecedent immediately
precedes the verb to which the relative would be the subject.

5-6. Sarrazin: [Cf. Daniel, Delia, S. 37: " Here, see the gifts that God and
Nature lent thee." (Sh.'s Lehrjahre, p. 172.)]

7. Profitles userer. Tyler: To beget posterity would be to put out to
interest Nature's gift or trust. Using this for himself alone, Mr. W. H. is a
" profitless usurer." [ Use implies an allusion to the meaning " put to usury or
interest." — Ed.]

v] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 27

8. McClumpha: Cf. R. & J., II, vi, 34: " I cannot sum up sum of half my
wealth." (Jahrb., 40: 197.)

12. acceptable. [Not used elsewhere by Sh., but there are familiar analogies
for the accent, as commendable in " 'T is sweet and commendable in your
nature, Hamlet." — Ed.]

[On the style of this sonnet, as marked by repetition of words, see Sarrazin
in Jahrb., 32 : 150-54. He instances similar examples in Sonnets 6, 8, 13, 16, 28,
40, 43, 44, 128, 129, 136, 138, 142, and observes that the manner is confined to
the opening " procreation" group and the " love sonnets "; further, that it is
paralleled especially in V. & A., Lucrece, T. G. V., R. & J., and R. 3.]

5
Those howers that with gentle worke did frame,
The louely gaze where euery eye doth dwell
Will play the tirants to the very same,
And that vnfaire which fairely doth excell :
For neuer resting time leads Summer on, 5

To hidious winter and confounds him there,
Sap checkt with frost and lustie leau's quite gon.
Beauty ore-snow'd and barenes euery where,
Then were not summers distillation left 9

A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glasse,
Beauties effect with beauty were bereft,
Nor it nor noe remembrance what it was.

But flowers distil'd though they with winter meete,
Leese but their show, their substance still Hues sweet.

7. Sap checkt] Hyphened by Stee (Q reprint). leau's] leaves G, etc.

8. barenes] barenness G1; barrenness G*, S5, E.
14. Leese] Lose G, S, E, B.

1. howers. Malone: " Hours " is almost always used by Sh. as a dissyllable.

2. gaze. Schmidt: Object eagerly looked on. [Cf. Macb.,W, viii, 24: " The
show and gaze o' the time."]

4. unfaire. Abbott: It may be said that any noun or adjective could be con-
verted into a verb by the Elizabethan authors, generally in an active signifi-
cation. (§ 290.) Dowden: Cf. 127, 6: " Fairing the foul." [And cf. A. & C,
II, v, 64: " I '11 unhair thy head." — Ed.]

6. confounds. Schmidt: Destroys.

28 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [v

7. [The first of a number of beautiful examples in the Sonnets of what may
be called spondaic lines; note the special effect of balanced cadences like " sap
check'd "and "quite gone," comparing 27, 12; 30,4;etc. — Ed.] gon. Porter:
The poetic effect of the [period] after gone is lovely, and to be preferred. [It will
be understood, without full reference to all notes of this character in the First
Folio Edition, that Miss Porter is able to find a subtle beauty in most of the
negligences of the quarto printer. — Ed.]

8. barenes every where. Malone: Cf. 97, 4.

9-14. Malone: This is a thought with which Sh. seems to have been much
pleased. We find it again in S. 54, and in il2\ N. D., I, i, 76-78:

But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,
Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.

Massey: Cf. Sidney, Arcadia, Bk. iii: " Have you evtr seen a pure rose-water
kept in a crystal glass? How fine it looks! how sweet it smells while that beauti-
ful glass imprisons it! Break the prison, and let the water take his own course,
doth it not embrace dust, and lose all his former sweetness and fairness? Truly
so are we, if we have not the stay rather than the restraint of crystalline mar-
riage." [ed. 1590, f. 262.] Beeching: The expression here seems certainly to
be Sidney's, though the argument in the Arcadia is entirely different. Lee:
The identical illustration from the rose figures in Erasmus's colloquy, " Proci
et Puellae." Walsh: This is a simile frequently used by Lilly: " Roses that
lose their colours, keep their savours; plucked from the stalk, are put to the
still." (Sapho & Phao, II, i.)

11. Beauties effect. Rolfe: The perfume which perpetuates the memory of
the beauty.

14. Leese. [The only appearance in Sh. of this familiar variant of "lose."
See the N. E. D. for the numerous earlier variant forms. — Ed.]

[For a mystical interpretation of the image of distillation, with alleged
parallels in writings such as those of Philip of Mornay, see the eccentric article
in Blackwood, 137: 774, especially p. 781 f.]

vi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 29

6

Then let not winters wragged hand deface,

In thee thy summer ere thou be distil'd:

Make sweet some viall ; treasure thou some place,

With beautits treasure ere it be selfe kil'd:

That vse is not forbidden vsery, 5

Which happies those that pay the willing lone;

That 's for thy selfe to breed an other thee,

Or ten times happier be it ten for one,

Ten times thy selfe were happier then thou art, 9

If ten of thine ten times refigur'd thee,

Then what could death doe if thou should'st depart,

Leauing thee liuing in posterity?

Be not selfe-wild for thou art much too faire,

To be deaths conquest and make wormes thine heire.

1. wragged] ragged G, etc.; rugged C.

4. beautits] beauties 1640, L, G1; beauty's G2, etc. selfe kil'd] Hyphened
by G, etc.

13. selfe-wild] self -will' d G, etc. (except But); self-kill'd Del conj., But.

1. wragged. Schmidt: Rough.

5-6. Massey: Cf. Sidney, Arcadia: " This [i.e., marriage and procreation]
as it bindeth the receiver, so it makes happy the bestower. This doth not
impoverish, but enrich the giver." [ed. 1590. f- 261 b.] (p. 72.) Dowdex:
Cf. V. &f A., 767-68:

Foul-cank'ring rust the hidden treasure frets,
But gold that 's put to use more gold begets.

And M.V., I. iii, 70-97 [Shylock's remarks on usury].

5. use. Maloke: Usance. Dowden: Interest. [Cf. 134, 10. — Ed.]

6. happies. See note on " unfair," 5, 4.

8. one. [Percy Simpson instances the comma here as an example of its
general use. in Elizabethan printing, where the connection of thought is empha-
sized by parallel clauses or echoed words. Cf. S. 9, 4-5. (Sh. Punctuation,
pp. 18-19.)]

14. McClumpha: Cf. R. of J., IV, v, 38: " Death is my son-in-law, Death
is my heir." (Jahrb., 40: 201.)

30 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [vn

7

Loe in the Orient when the gracious light,
Lifts vp his burning head, each vnder eye
Doth homage to his new appearing sight,
Seruing with lookes his sacred maiesty,
And hauing climb'd the steepe vp heauenly hill, 5

Resembling strong youth in his middle age,
Yet mortall lookes adore his beauty still,
Attending on his goulden pilgrimage:
But when from high-most pich with wery car, 9

Like feeble age he reeleth from the day,
The eyes (fore dutious) now conuerted are
From his low tract and looke an other way:
So thou, thy selfe out-going in thy noon:
Vnlok'd on diest vnlesse thou get a sonne.

5. steepe vp] Hyphened by G.etc. (except But); steep up-heavenly Nicholson
conj., But.

7. beauty still,] beauty, still Nicholson conj.
9. car] care 1640, G, S, E; ear L.
10-12. day . . . way] way . . . day Godwin conj.

11. fore] 'fore G2, S2, etc. (except Dy, R) ; fore-dutious S1.

12. tract] track G2, S2.

13. thou, thy selfe] thou thyself, Co2.

Simpson: [This sonnet is] founded on the converse of a proverb. ..." Men
use to worship the rising sun." On the other hand, says Sh., men turn their
backs on the setting sun, and the only way to retain their homage is to receive
it in the person of a son and successor, (p. 48.)

1-4. Walsh: Cf. L. L. L., IV, iii, 222-25:

Like a rude and savage man of Inde
At the first opening of the gorgeous east,
Bows not his vassal head and strucken blind
Kisses the base ground with obedient breast.

5. steepe up. Beeching: So in a Shakespearean sonnet in The P.P.: " Her
stand she takes upon a steep-up hill " [No. ix; 1. 121]. " Steep-down " occurs
in Oth., V, ii, 280. Porter: [The two words should not be hyphenated.] Both

vn] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 31

equally qualify hill. . . . The reason for both words is obvious enough when it
is realized that earthly hiils do not curve up as the concave semi-arc of sky does
which the sun is here imagined as climbing. . . . Sh.'s adjectives give us the
image of the steep and up-rounding heavenly hill, as expressed by one who held
to the Ptolemaic conception of the celestial spheres. [This explanation of the
image seems to me to be sound; not so the inference as to punctuation. — Ed.]
5-6. M alone: Perhaps our author had the sacred writings in his thoughts:
" In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which cometh forth as a bride-
groom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his course." [Ps. 19:

4-5-1

7-8. Malone: Cf. R. & J., I, i, 125-26:

Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun
Peer'd forth the golden window of the east.

9. high-most pich. Porter: It is not the sunset ... or the verging towards
the horizon . . . that is here imagined as inglorious, but this slack moment
when, at noon, out-going from the zenith of attainment and the day by him
created, he reels away. wery. Rolfe: Cf. R.j,\~, iii, 19: " The weary sun
hath made a golden set."

10. Dowden: Cf. R. a* /.. II, iii, 3:

. And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels
From forth day's path.

11. fore dutious. [Percy Simpson: For the brackets, employed with ad-
jectives or adjective phrases following a noun, cf. 30, 5 and So, 5 and 7. (Sk.
Punctuation, pp. 91-92.)]

11-12. Henry Brown: Cf. T. of A., I, ii, 150: "Men shut their doors
against a setting sun."

13. Beeching: Outgoing thyself-in-thy-noon, passing beyond thy meridian
beauty. Rolfe: Not referring to death . . . but to the " decline of life," as we
say. [Percy Simpson notes the colon at the end of this line under its regular
use for marking emphatic pauses; he admits, however, that here "the sense
hardly seems to justify so strong a pause "! (pp. 67-69.)]

14. get, [Noting the regular use of this word as identical with " beget," the
N. E. D. is in doubt whether it is " a shortening of the native compound verb
or an assimilation of the adopted Scandinavian simple verb to the form of the
compound."]

32 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [vm

8

Mvsick to heare, why hear'st thou musick sadly,

Sweets with sweets warre not, ioy delights in ioy:

Why lou'st thou that which thou receaust not gladly,

Or else receau'st with pleasure thine annoy?

If the true concord of well tuned sounds, 5

By vnions married do offend thine eare,

They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds

In singlenesse the parts that thou should'st beare:

Marke how one string sweet husband to an other, 9

Strikes each in each by mutuall ordering;

Resembling sier, and child, and happy mother,

Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing:

WThose speechlesse song being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee thou single wilt proue none.

1. heare,] ear, M conj.; hear? But. sadly,] sadly? G, etc.

8. beare] share Sta conj.

9. string] strain Godwin conj.

14. thou . . . none] Quoted by M, A, Kt, B, Del, Hu1, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly,
Wh2, Cam, Do, R, Ty, Ox, Wy, But, Her, N, Bull, Wa; italics by Co3, Hu2, Be.

[With the general conceit of this sonnet Isaac compares Marlowe's Hero &
Leander, 229-30:

Like untun'd golden strings all women are,
Which long time lie untouch'd, will harshly jar.

(See his remark on S. 4.)] Tyler: Cf. Daiphantus, by A. Sc. (1604):

Music is only sweet
When without discord. A consort makes a heaven.
The ear is ravished when true voices meet.
Odds, but in music, never makes things even,
In voices difference breeds a pleasant ditty.

The writer of Daiphantus may have seen S. 8 in MS., or the resemblance may
be accidental.

1. Musick to heare. M alone: I have sometimes thought Sh. might have
written, " Music to ear" i.e., thou whose every accent is music to the ear. Cf.
C. of E., II, ii, 116: " Never words were music to thine ear." Dowden: Cf.

vm] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 33

M.V., V, i, 69: " I am never merry when I hear sweet music." Tyler: This
may possibly mean that Mr. W. H. had no liking for music. . . . But is it not
possible that the " music heard sadly " was the virginal playing of Sh.'s dark
mistress (128)? The sadness may thus have been caused by the impression
which her fascinating endowments had already produced on Mr. W. H.

7. confounds. Abbott: The relative (perhaps because it does not signify by
inflection any agreement in number or person with its antecedent) frequently
takes a singular verb, though the antecedent be plural, and the verb is often
in the third person, though the antecedent be in the second or first. . . . [The
present example] may also be explained by the northern inflection of s for st
[see on 19, 5]. (§ 247.) [For the meaning, see 5, 6.]

9. string. Godwin [reads " strain " because] the music is supposed to be
vocal, (p. 84.)

9-12. Simpson: Founded on an acoustic phenomenon. ... If two strings
sound any two notes of the perfect triad in complete accord, the third note will
be spontaneously produced in the air by a complementary vibration, (p. 49.)
[In this explanation Simpson had been anticipated by Knight, in the Pictorial
Sh. — Ed.] Massey: Cf. Sidney, Arcadia: "Can one string make as good
music as a consort? " [1590 ed., f. 262 b.] (p. 72.)

14. Dowden: Perhaps an allusion to the proverbial expression that one is no
number. Cf. 136, 8. Tyler: Thou canst give forth no harmony, and must
eventually cease altogether.

In a MS. miscellany in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 15226), made up of
various 17th century pieces, and probably dating (according to Dr. C. W.
Wallace) from the period of the Commonwealth, occurs the following version
of this sonnet:

In laudem Musice et opprobrium
Contemptorij eiusdem.

Musicke to heare why hearest thou musicke sadly
Sweets wth sweetes warre not, Joy delights in Joy
Why louest yu that wch thou receauest not gladly
or els receauest wth pleasure thine annoy

2.

Jf the true Concord of well timed Sounds

By Vnions maried doe offend thy eare

They doe but sweetlie chide thee, whoe confounds

Jn singlenes a parte, wch thou shouldst beare

3-
Marke howe one stringe, sweet husband to another
Strikes each on each, by mutuall orderinge

34 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [ix

Resemblinge Childe, & Syer, and happy Mother

wch all in one this single note dothe singe

whose speechles songe beeinge many seeming one
Sings this to thee, Thou single, shalt pue none

W: Shakspeare.

9

Is it for feare to wet a widdowes eye,
That thou consum'st thy selfe in single life?
Ah; if thou issulesse shalt hap to die,
The world will waile thee like a makelesse wife,
The world wilbe thy widdow and still weepe, 5

That thou no forme of thee hast left behind,
When euery priuat widdow well may keepe,
By childrens eyes, her husbands shape in minde:
Looke what an vnthrift in the world doth spend 9

Shifts but his place, for still the world inioyes it
But beauties waste hath in the world an end,
And kept vnvsde the vser so destroyes it:
No loue toward others in that bosome sits
That on himselfe such murdrous shame commits.

1. Is it] It is 1640.

3. shalt] shall Wa. to] do E.

5. The . . . widdow] Quoted by E.

12. vser] us'rer S, E.

13. toward] towards G, S, E.

14. murdrous] murtherous Wh, R.

3. Ah. [Percy Simpson notes that the semi-colon is often used with excla-
mations and addresses. (Sh. Punctuation, pp. 60-62.)]

4. makelesse. Schmidt: Makeless, widowed.

8. eyes. See Tyler's note on 1, 5.

9. unthrift. Schmidt: Prodigal. Cf. 13, 13.

10. his. On the neuter possessive, see Abbott, § 228, and Franz, § 189.
12. McClumpha: Cf. R. & J., Ill, iii, 123-24:

Which, like a usurer, abound'st in all,

And usest none in that true use indeed. (Jahrb., 40: 198.)

14. murdrous shame. Schmidt: [An example of the inversion or confusion
of adjective and noun:] = shameful murder. (2: 14 17.)

x] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 35

[From the accepted view that this sonnet refers to the possibility of the
friend's making his wife a widow through his death, Isaac dissents:] Of all
grounds which could be urged against marriage, this, put into the mouth of a
youth, is the most original. It seems to me more natural that widow refers to
the mother of the friend, and that the passage is to be understood thus: Dost
thou fear to sadden thy mother, of whose widowhood thou art the consolation
and from whom marriage would separate thee? [This is applied to the mother of
Essex, between the death of Leicester her second husband, Sept., 1588, and her
marriage to Blount, July, 1589.] (Jahrb., 19: 245.)

IO

For shame deny that thou bear'st loue to any
Who for thy selfe art so vnprouident
Graunt if thou wilt, thou art belou'd of many,
But that thou none lou'st is most euident:
For thou art so possest with murdrous hate, 5

That gainst thy selfe thou stickst not to conspire,
Seeking that beautious roofe to ruinate
Which to repaire should be thy chiefe desire:
O change thy thought, that I may change my minde, 9
Shall hate be fairer log'd then gentle loue?
Be as thy presence is gracious and kind,
Or to thy selfe at least kind harted proue,
Make thee an other selfe for loue of me,
That beauty still may Hue in thine or thee.

1. shame] shame! S, E, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, CI, Gl. Kly. Wh, Hal,
Cam, Do. R. Ty, Ox, Her, X; shame, Sta.
5. murdrous] murtherous \Yh. R.

I. For shame. Wyndham: For shame's sake. [The punctuation " shame! "]
destroys the rhythm. [The textual notes will show that, since Wyndham re-
stored the quarto reading here, a number of editors have followed him. It is
probable that they have done so on the ground that the line makes sense with-
out the point of exclamation, rather than on the rhythmical ground mentioned
by Wyndham; the latter argument is of a perilous sort, and can usually be made
to work both ways. — Ed.]

7. Steevexs: Cf. C. of E., Ill, ii, 4: " Shall love, in building, grow so ruin-
ate? " (Folio reading), and T. G. V., V, iv, 7-1 1 :

36 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [x

O thou that dost inhabit in my breast,
Leave not the mansion so long tenantless,
Lest, growing ruinous, the building fall
And leave no memory of what it was!
Repair me with thy presence, Silvia!

Massey: Cf. Sidney, Arcadia:

O Histor, seek within thyself to flourish;

Thy house by thee must live, or else be gone. (pp. 73-74.)

Dowden: Seeking to bring ruin to that house (i.e., family), which it ought to
be your chief care to repair. These lines confirm the conjecture that the father
of Sh.'s friend was dead. Tyler: Beauteous roof [is] to be understood generally
of the bodily house. Butler: Not his friend's family, nor yet his family man-
sion; . . . the flesh and blood roof of that particular tenement within which his
friend's mind was housed. [Cf. 13, 9-14.] (p. 53.) Beeching: Dowden and
Herford explain " house, i.e., family." But this is impossible. Sh. regards the
perpetuation of his friend's beauty in an heir as a preserving of it from decay.
The " beauteous roof "... is the person of his friend.

12. kind. Porter: The adjective applies in a special sense, kind being sug-
gestive of " kin " and " child."

14. Tyler: Cf. V. & A., 173-74:

And so, in spite of death, thou dost survive,
In that thy likeness still is left alive.

xi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 37

11

As fast as thou shalt wane so fast thou grow'st,
In one of thine, from that which thou departest,
And that fresh bloud which yongly thou bestow'st,
Thou maist call thine, when thou from youth conuertest,
Herein Hues wisdome, beauty, and increase,
Without this follie, age, and could decay,
If all were minded so, the times should cease,
And threescoore yeare would make the world away
Let those whom nature hath not made for store, 9

Harsh, featurelesse, and rude, barrenly perrish,
Looke whom she best indow'd. she gaue the more;
Which bountious guift thou shouldst in bounty cherrish,
She caru'd thee for her seale, and ment therby,
Thou shouldst print more, not let that coppy die.

6. this] this, G!, etc. (except Kt).

8. yeare] years G, S, E, C, M, A, Kt, B, Hu\ Kly, Ty, But.
11. Looke] Thou Sharp conj. the] thee S1, C, M, A, B, Del, Co?, Sta,
Hu1, But, Be, Wa.

14. not] nor M, A, Kt, B, Hu1, Sta, Kly, Ty, Ox.

1-2. Tyler: In his child [he grows] towards, or in, that youthful beauty
which he is leaving behind. Wyndham: I retain the comma after grow'st, as in
Q, and remove the comma after thine, to make clearer the only meaning which
I can extract: So fast thou grow'st, in one of thy children deriving from that
(the period of youth) which thou departest (leavest behind). Rolfe: If you
have children, as fast as you grow old you renew in your offspring the youth
you have lost; thus, as it were, growing afresh from that (youth) which thou
departest from. The omission of a preposition is common in a relative clause if
it occurs in the antecedent clause. Possibly departest may be transitive.
Dowdex: Departest = leavest. [So Schmidt.] Beeching: Separatest off. . . .
" That which thou departest," a slip of thee.

3. yongly. Wyxdham: In youth.

4. convertest. [For the intransitive use, cf. Macb., IV, iii, 229: " Let grief
convert to anger." For the rhyme cf. art: convert in S. 14. — Ed.]

7. the times. Dowden: The generations of men.
7-8. Von Maumtz: Cf. Ovid, A mores, II, xiv, 9-10:

Si mos antiquis placuisset matribus idem,
Gens hominum vitio deperitura fuit.

38 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xn

9. store. Schmidt: Increase of men, fertility. Herford: For store — to
breed from. " Store " is properly breeding-stock. [Cf. 14, 12. — Ed.]

11. the more. Malone: [The Q reading is evidently a misprint.] Nature,
however liberal she may have been to others, has been still more bountiful to
you. [The tendency of recent editors, however, as the textual notes indicate,
has been to retain the Q reading. — Ed.] Dowden: To whom she gave much
she gave more. Rolfe: Cf. Matt., 13: 12: " Whosoever hath, to him shall be
given, and he shall have more abundantly." [But this is much easier to under-
stand than the statement that more is given to one who already has most.
Hence, no doubt, the suggestion that follows. — Ed.] Tyler: " The more " =
the more important or greater gift, the function of reproducing their kind.
[Cf. " more " in 23, 12 and 40, 4.]

13-14. Malone: Cf. T.N., I, v, 259-61:

Lady, you are the cruell'st she alive,

If you will lead these graces to the grave

And leave the world no copy.

Henry Brown: Cf. Massinger, The Fatal Dowry ;

Die, and rob
The world of nature's copy, that she works
Forms by. (p. 167.)

12

When I doe count the clock that tels the time,

And see the braue day sunck in hidious night,

When I behold the violet past prime,

And sable curls or siluer'd ore with white:

When lofty trees I see barren of leaues, 5

Which erst from heat did canopie the herd

And Sommers greene all girded vp in sheaues

Borne on the beare with white and bristly beard:

Then of thy beauty do I question make 9

That thou among the wastes of time must goe,

Since sweets and beauties do them-selues forsake,

And die as fast as they see others grow,

And nothing gainst Times sieth can make defence

Saue breed to braue him, when he takes thee hence.

4. And] In C. or] are G2, S, E; all M, etc. o'er silvered with anon, conj.;
o'er silver'd all with Nicholson conj.

N

xn] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 39

Dowden: This sonnet seems to be a gathering into one of 5, 6, 7.

3. Dowden: Cf. Haml., I, iii, 7: " A violet in the youth of primy nature."

4. Steevens: Cf. Haml., I, ii, 242: " A sable silver'd."
7-8. *Capell: Cf. M. N. D., II, i, 94"95:

The green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard.

Tyler: The pessimistic tendency which emerges in the expression [" hideous
night "] becomes still more apparent when harvest-home is transmuted into a
funeral, and the waggon laden with ripened corn becomes a bier bearing the
aged dead.

9. question. Schmidt: Discussion, consideration. Tyler: "Question make"
= feel a doubt whether it will not be, etc.

10. wastes of time. [Editions differ here, as elsewhere, in the matter of
treating " time " as a personification and capitalizing it. To do so in this in-
stance would seem to be supported not only by line 13, but by R. 2, \ , v, 49:
" I wasted time, and now doth Time waste me." — Ed.]

14. M ALONE: Except children, whose youth may set the scythe of Time at
defiance. Godwin: The word " breed "... is not used in the usual sense of
the engendered, but in a more derivative sense, inasmuch as the instances
adduced are taken from the vegetal world, where it has the significance given
it when we say that " use breeds habit," that " money breeds interest," that
" public means do public manners breed." (p. 74.) [This is a part of Godwin's
esoteric interpretation of the sonnets, which in general I do not attempt to
represent in these notes. — Ed.] him. Percy Simpson : [The comma after this
word is a beautiful and suggestive instance of its use for a metrical pause:] the
alliteration of " breed " and " brave " carries on the line to the pause where the
voice seems to falter at the thought of the final parting. The passage is ruined
by the modern punctuation, " Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee
hence." (Sh. Punctuation, p. 24.)

40 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xm

13

O that you were your selfe, but loue you are

No longer yours, then you your selfe here Hue,

Against this cumming end you should prepare,

And your sweet semblance to some other giue.

So should that beauty which you hold in lease

Find no determination, then you were

You selfe again after your selfes decease,

When your sweet issue your sweet forme should beare.

Who lets so faire a house fall to decay, 9

Which husbandry in honour might vphold,

Against the stormy gusts of winters day

And barren rage of deaths eternall cold?

O none but vnthrifts, deare my loue you know,

You had a Father, let your Son say so.

7. You] Your 1640, G, etc.
13. deare] dare 1640.

Dowden: Note "you " and "your " instead of " thee," " thine," and the
address " my love " for the first time. [The different uses of these pronouns
were first discussed, for the Sonnets, by Goedeke, Deutsche Rundschau, 1877;
later by Dowden, in his edition; and have been made the starting-point of
various interesting discussions, none of which can be said to have reached any
result. Dowden's own summary of the facts is as follows: " Sometimes the
choice seems to be determined by considerations of euphony, sometimes of
rhyme; sometimes intimate affection seems to indicate the use of you, and re-
spectful homage that of thou; but this is by no means invariable. ... In the
sonnets to a mistress, thou is invariably employed." (Intro., p. 25.) This last
statement covers only, in Dowden's view, the sonnets 127 and following. The
thou-thy sonnets are 1-4, 6-12, 14, 18,20, 22, 26-32, 34-51, 60-62, 69-70, 73-74,
77-79, 82, 87-93, 95-97. 99. 107-10, 122, 125-26, 128, 131-36, 139-43, 147-
52. The'you-your sonnets are 13, 15-17, 52-55, 57-59, 71-72, 75-76, 80-81,
83-86,98, 102-104, 106, 111-15,117-18, 120. S. 24 contains both forms. — Ed.]

1. Dowden: Yourself seems to mean " your own." Tyler: Cf. " another
self," 10, 13; " next self," 133, 6. [Tyler also, and rightly, calls attention to
the necessity of printing " your self " as two words. — Ed.] Verity: Would
that you were absolute, independent of time, free from the conditions that

xm] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 41

fetter men. Godwin: [Verity's note expresses] just the reverse of what the
poet wishes, i.e., that his friend should know his dependence upon his condi-
tions. . . . [The meaning is:] Oh, that you were master of yourself and knew
that you are your own only so long as this present life continues, (p. 81.)

3-4. Malone: Cf. V. & A., 171-74 [see under S. 1].

5-6. M alone: Cf. Daniel, Delia:

In beauty's lease expir'd appears
The date of age, the calends of our death.

. . . Determination in legal language means" end." Hazlitt: " Find no deter-
mination " = become a fee-simple. Lord Campbell: The word is always used
by lawyers instead of end. (Sh.'s Legal Acquirements, p. 101.)

8. Massey: Cf. Sidney, Arcadia: "O the comfort of comforts, to see your
children grow up, in whom you are, as it were, eternised! If you could conceive
what a heart-tickling joy it is to see your own little ones . . . like little models
of yourself still carry you about them, you would think unkindness in your own
thoughts, that ever they did rebel against the mean unto it." [1590 ed., ff . 261-
62.] Xp.72)

9. house. Tyler: Must be referred to Mr. W. H.'s ancestry, not to the
bodily house. [With this Rolfe agrees, distinguishing the passage from 10, 7.
But Beechixg is, I think, undoubtedly right, in identifying the "house" with
the "beauteous roof" of S. 10; and lines 11-12 make it even clearer than in the
earlier sonnet that the passage has figurative reference to the individual life.
— Ed.] Massey:. Southampton being an only son left fatherless, he was the
sole prop and stay of the ancestral roof. (p. 55.)

10. husbandry. Malone: Economical prudence. Cf. H. 5, IV, i, 7:

For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers,
Which is both healthful and good husbandry.

12. barren. Abbott: Adjectives signifying effect were often used to signify
the cause. (§ 4.)

14. had a Father. Massey: Cf. Sidney, Arcadia : " Nature ... as she made
you child of a mother, so to do your best to be mother of a child." [1590 ed.,
f.26ib.] (p. 72.) [And]cf. A.W.,1, 1,19-20:" This young gentlewoman [Massey
misreads " gentleman "] had a father, — O, that 'had '! how sad a passage 'tis! "
(P- 55-) Dowden: The father of Sh.'s friend was probably dead. Tyler: Not
that Mr. W. H.'s father was dead, but that he should do as his father did. . . .
Cf. M. W. W., Ill, iv, 36, where Shallow, urging Slender to woo Anne Page in
manly fashion, . . . says, " She's coming, to her, coz. O boy, thou hadst a
father." . . . Also M.V., II, ii, 17-19, where Launcelot says, "My father did
something smack." . . . To these passages my attention was directed by the
Rev. W. A. Harrison. Sarrazin: [The passage indicates beyond question that
the youth's father was dead.] (Jahrb., 31: 218.) Wyndham: Simply another
poetical turn for the advice, " beget a son." It does not mean that the friend's
father was dead. Porter: The past tense should not be taken literally, but as

42 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xiv

the naturally resulting contrast between the son's birth in the past and the
grandson's in the future. Beeching: Languet writing to Philip Sidney in
praise of marriage tells the story from Herodotus (iii, 34)t of Croesus deciding
that Cambyses' father Cyrus was the better of the two because he was the
father of an admirable prince, whereas Cambyses had himself no son. (Corre-
spondence of Sidney & Languet, trans. Pears, p. 148.)

14

Not from the stars do I my iudgement plucke,
And yet me thinkes I haue Astronomy,
But not to tell of good, or euil lucke,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons quallity,
Nor can I fortune to breefe mynuits tell; 5

Pointing to each his thunder, raine and winde,
Or say with Princes if it shal go wel
By oft predict that I in heauen finde.
But from thine eies my knowledge I deriue, 9

And constant stars in them I read such art
As truth and beautie shal together thriue
If from thy selfe, to store thou wouldst conuert:
Or else of thee this I prognosticate,
Thy end is Truthes and Beauties doome and date.

• 4. seasons] seasons' C, M, Co, B, Hu, Dy, Sta, Gl, Wh, Hal, Del3, Cam,
Do, R, Ox, Wy, But, Her, Be, N, Bull, Wa; season's A, Kt, Del1'2, CI, Kly,
Ty.

6. Pointing] 'Pointing Walker conj., Sta, Hu2, N.
8. oft predict] ought predict G2, S2, E; hyphened by Kly.
11-12. truth . . . conuert] Quoted by Do, Ox.
14. Thy . . . date] Quoted by Do, Ox.

Massey: [With this sonnet the borrowings from Sidney's Astrophel & Stella,
as distinguished from the Arcadia, begin. Cf. the passage on astrology here
with Sidney's S. 26, etc. This suggests that Sonnets 1-13,] at least, were
written immediately after Sh. had read the Arcadia in 1590, and before he had
seen the A. & S. in 1591. (p. 74.)

2. Astronomy. Schmidt: Astrology. [The only use of the word in Sh.]
Dowden: So Sidney, Arcadia, Bk. iii, "O sweet Philoclea, . . . thy heavenly
face is my astronomy," and A. & S., S. 26:

xiv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 43

Though dusty wits dare scorn astrology . . .
[I] oft forejudge my after- following race
By only those two stars in Stella's face.

So Daniel, Delia, S. 30 (on Delia's eyes):

Stars are they sure, whose motions rule desires;
And calm and tempest follow their aspects.

3. good. [The comma here exemplifies a rule formulated by Percy Simpson,
with reference to the use of the comma before "or" and "nor" (also before
"not"), with no comma after. Cf. Oth., I, ii, 4: "Nine, or ten times." (Sh.
Punctuation, p. 48.)]

4. Fleay: The conjunction of [the terms "plagues," " dearths," etc.] seems to
point to the plagues of 1592 and 1593, succeeded by the dearths of 1594, 1595,
1596, and the irregularity of the seasons in 1595, 1596. [Hence 1595-96 is a prob-
able date for the sonnet.] (Biog. Chronicle, 2: 211.)

6. Pointing. N. E. D.: [The word is an] aphetic form of " appoint." Rolfe:
Cf. Bacon, Essay 45 (ed. 1625): " But this to be, if you do not point any of the
lower rooms for a dining place of servants."

8. oft predict. Steevens: May mean, "what is most frequently prognosti-
cated." Malone [in support of the text cites "the oft report" from The
Birth of Merlin, 1662]. Dowden: Frequent prognostication. Butler: [For
"predict," cf. "affect" for " affection " in L. L. L., I, i, 152.] Beeching:
"Prediction" is used for "omen" in J.C., II, ii, 28: " These predictions are to
the world in general as to Caesar."

9. Steevens: Cf. L. L. L., IV, iii, 350: "From women's eyes this doctrine
I derive."

10. constant stars. [For the punctuation, see Percy Simpson's statement that
the omission of commas is regular with appositional phrases. (Sh. Punctuation,
p. 23.)] art. Schmidt: Learning. [Cf. 66, 9, and contrast various other passages,
as 68, 14, where the word is used with a suggestion of evil. — Ed.]

12. Malone: If thou wouldst change thy single state, and beget a numer-
ous progeny, store. See 11, 9. convert. Dowden: Rhyming with "art "; so
in Daniel, Delia, S. 11, "convert" rhymes with " heart." [Cf. 11,4. — Ed.]

44 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xv

15

When I consider euery thing that growes
Holds in perfection but a little moment.
That this huge stage presenteth nought but showes
Whereon the Stars in secret influence comment.
When I perceiue that men as plants increase, 5

Cheared and checkt euen by the selfe-same skie:
Vaunt in their youthfull sap, at height decrease,
And were their braue state out of memory.
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay, 9

Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wastfull time debateth with decay
To change your day of youth to sullied night,
And all in war with Time for loue of you
As he takes from you, I ingraft you new.

3. stage] state M, A, B.
6. euen] ev'n G2, S2, E.
8. were] wear G, etc.
14. you new] anew Sharp conj.

Porter: Cf. Spenser, Amoretti, S. 24:

When I behold that beauty's wonderment,

And rare perfection of each goodly part,

Of nature's skill the only complement,

I honour and admire the Maker's art.

But when I feel the bitter, baleful smart

Which her fair eyes unwares do work in me, [etc.]

3. Tyler: Cf. A. Y. L., II, vii, 139: "All the world 's a stage," etc.; M.V.,
I, i, 77: "I hold the world but as ... a stage where every man must play a
part"; Temp., IV, i, 153: " The great globe itself, yea, all which it inherit, shall
dissolve," etc. [Malone's change of "stage" to " state," without comment, is
unwarranted, and unlike him. — Ed.]

4. Delius: The influence of the stars furnishes the only explanation of the
play on the stage of the world. Tyler: As the annotation of a commentator
runs parallel with the text, so the influence of the stars corresponds with the
course of things in the world. Beeching: The stars are represented as specta-
tors at the play, " cheering and checking." Influence was an astrological term;

xv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 45

cf. Lear, I, ii, 136: " Drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enfore'd obedience
of planetary influence." AT. E. D. (s. v. "influence") : The supposed flowing or
streaming from the stars or heavens of an etherial fluid acting upon the char-
acter and destiny of men, and affecting sublunary things generally. [The diffi-
culty with the passage, which has rather oddly escaped careful discussion, is
that the notions "influence" and "comment" seem to be opposed, — the one
suggesting the traditional active energy of the stars, the other the attitude of
mere spectators. It is possible that we are to understand "influence" in a
less active sense, and to think of the emanations of the planets, for the time
being, as having only the nature of comment; but I think it more probable from
the context, which emphasizes the destructive character of the various forces
acting against all earthly growth, that the line means something like this:
" which the stars view with disfavor and against which they secretly begin
adverse action." The " comment," in other words, may be viewed as not that
of a mere spectator, but of an author or manager who has power to change what
he disapproves. The N. E. D. notes that the word often implies unfavorable
judgment. — Ed.]

6. checkt. Schmidt: Repressed.

7. Vaunt. Schmidt: Exult. Tyler: Mount proudly upward. Cf. T. cf C,
Prol., 27, " Our play leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils," where
vaunt must mean the beginning and early course.

9. conceit. Schmidt: Idea, image in the mind. stay. [Lee: The word is from
Golding's Ovid, where it is frequently used in connection with the theory of Na-
ture's unending rotation. Thus, " The elements never stand at stay," etc.
(Qu. Rev., 210: 474.)]

11. debateth. M ALONE : Cf. A.W., I, ii, 75: "Nature and sickness debate
it at their leisure." Beeching: Time and Decay are allies in this "debate" or
strife.

12. Steevexs: Cf. R.J, IV, iv, 16: " Hath dimm'd your infant morn to aged
night."

13. [This line might be said to state the theme of a large part of the sonnet
collection. — Ed.]

14. Walsh: The idea of one thing growing as another wanes (and so replac-
ing and preserving it) frequently recurs in the Sonnets (12, 12 ; 11, 1-2; 100,
13). I ingraft. Beeching: The first reference to the poet's verse.

Price: [In this sonnet Sh.] arranges 112 words in one single sentence, (p. 369.)

46 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xvi

16

Bvt wherefore do not you a mightier waie
Make warre vppon this bloudie tirant time?
And fortifie your selfe in your decay
With meanes more blessed then my barren rime?
Now stand you on the top of happie houres, 5

And many maiden gardens yet vnset,
With vertuous wish would beare your liuing flowers,
Much liker then your painted counterfeit:
So should the lines of life that life repaire 9

WThich this (Times pensel or my pupill pen)
Neither in inward worth nor outward faire
Can make you Hue your selfe in eies of men,
To giue away your selfe, keeps your selfe still,
And you must Hue drawne by your owne sweet skill,

6. maiden gardens] Hyphened by Kly.

7. your] you L, G, S, E, M, A,-B, Hu2, Ty, Ox, But, Be, Wa.

9. lines] lives M conj.; line Hu2.

10. Which] With Stengel conj. this (Times . . . pen)] this time's pencil, or my
pupil pen, G2, Massey conj., Hu2, Be, Wa; this, Time's pencil, or my pupil pen,
M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu1, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, Ox, Her, N,
Bull; this (time's pencil), or my pupil pen, E; this, Time's pencil or my pupil-
pen, Kly; this time's pencil or my pupil pen, R.; this lime's pencil, nor my pupil
pen, But. or] for Stengel conj.

2. tirant. Tyler: Cf. 5, 3.

6. Malone: Cf. L.C., 171: " His plants in others' orchards grew."

7. Dowden: [In defense of the text, it may be said that] "your living
flowers" stands over against "your painted counterfeit." [So Rolfe; but
Beeching feels that] to repeat "your" forces the antithesis too much.

8. counterfeit. [Illustrating the regular use of this word for " portrait,"
Malone cites M.V., III, ii, 116: "What find I here? Fair Portia's counter-
feit?"] Lee: The many references [of this character; cf. S. 24, 27, 67] suggest
that [Sh.'s] hero often sat for his portrait. Southampton's countenance sur-
vives in probably more canvases than that of any of his contemporaries. .At
least 14 extant portraits have been identified. . . . Most of these, it is true,
portray their subject in middle age. (Life, p. 144.) Porter: Any portrayal of
life by art, whether literary or pictorial. . . . The poem or "barren rime" of

xvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 47

the poet is here called with belittlement a mere "painted counterfeit" in com-
parison with " living flowers."

9. lines of life. M alone: This appears to me obscure. Perhaps the poet
wrote, " the lives of life," i.e. children. [Later Malone approved as very plaus-
ible ananonymous suggestion that the phrase is equivalent to " living pictures,"
viz., children.] Dowden": Children. The unusual expression is selected because
it suits the imagery of the sonnet, lines applying to (i) lineage, (2) delineation
with a pencil, a portrait, (3) lines of verse as in 18, 12. Tyler: I was inclined
to take these words as referring to the wrinkles on the brow of advancing life
(cf. 19, 10) . . . But, having regard to the general drift of the sonnet, ... I now
assent to the interpretation of the "lines of life" as children in whom Mr.
\V. H. is supposed to have himself portrayed his mental and bodily excellences.
[Cf. line 14.] Wyndham: I believe that the conceit, while including [the mean-
ings noted by Dowden and others,] starts from a fourth drawn from palmistry,
and that this determined its unusual cast, — lines of life. . . . Cf. M.V., II,
ii, 169: " Here 's a simple line of life: here 's a small trifle of wives," etc. Thus
the sense is: Many a maid, if you should marry .would bear you "living flowers"
= children, much liker than any portrait of yourself; so should the lines of
life = marriage and procreation, with a play on the meaning delineation, repair
that life of yours, which this = my record, with a play on the meaning lines of
verse — and then in parentheses ("Times pensel" = history, record at large,
"or my pupill pen" = my humbler art); "neither in inward worth nor outward
fair" = beauty, can (do, for it cannot) make you live your self (i.e. very self)
in eyes of men. [After several attempts to mitigate the difficulties in punctua-
tion and phrasing which make this explanation at least as puzzling as the
original, I have determined to let the reader learn from it what he can. — Ed.]
. . . The play on the double sense line = delineation, and line = a verse is de-
veloped in 17, 1-2; [cf. 63, 13; 86, 13; 17, 13-14; 18, 12. And cf. W.T., I, ii,
153: "Looking on the lines of my boy's face," etc.] Kinnear: So should the
lines of life (your decay) that life (living children) repair, which this (this life,
which, i.e., children's life which), nor Time's pencil, etc. (p. 497.) Porter: In
this way should the " lines of life," i.e., the lines of propagation, impregnation
and conception, "repaire that life" — the actual life of the beloved; which life
this counterfeit life ("Times pensel" etc.) can neither in its inward worth nor
outward fairness cause you to embody and enact. Henry Brown: Cf. Hugh
Holland, on Sh.:

For though his line of life went soon about,

The life yet of his lines shall never out. (p. 167.)

10. Massey: What Sh. says is, that the best painter, the master pencil of the
time, or his own pen of a learner, will alike fail to draw the Earl's lines of life
as he himself can do it, by his " own sweet skill." This pencil of the time may
have been Mirevelt's; he painted [Southampton's] portrait in early manhood.
(p. 83.) Dowden: Are we to understand the line as meaning "Which this pen-
cil of Time or this my pupil pen"; and is Time here conceived as a limner who

48 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xvi

has painted the youth so fair, but whose work cannot last for future genera-
tions? In 19 "devouring Time" is transformed into a scribe; may not "tyrant
Time" be transformed here into a painter? ... Is the "painted counterfeit"
of line 8 Sh.'s portrayal in his verse? Cf. 53, 5. Tyler: Dr. Furnivall has sug-
gested that this expression is used generally of such written records of the time
as may refer to Mr. W. H. This view seems to me correct; and it is well worthy
of note that in the Quarto . . . the words "Time's pencil or my pupil pen" are
bracketed together. The record of "Time's pencil" would thus be of a similar
kind to that made by the poet's " pupil pen." A reason may also thus be as-
signed for the use of the word " pupil," as implying that the record in these
sonnets was subordinate to the general record or chronicle of the period.
"This" . . . may be taken as meaning "any written record of this kind."
Herford: The semblance of the man at any moment is conceived as his por-
trait, drawn by Time. But Time continually alters, and finally spoils, his work;
hence "Time's pencil" is no remedy against decay. Beeching: [The rhythm
which results from a mark of punctuation after "this" is incredible.] "Neither
portraiture (this time's pencil, cf . line 8) nor description (my pupil pen, cf . line 4)
can represent you as you are, either in character or beauty." [For the rhythmi-
cal argument, cf. Wyndham's note on 10, 1. Are we to understand that these
writers view with suspicion a considerable metrical pause after the second
syllable? If so, what of 22, 10; 25, 3; 37, 3; 44, 9; 61, 9; 83, 3; 87, 1; 99, 2;
116, 5; 148, 1? — Ed.] Steevens: [The words "pupil pen"] may be considered
as a slight proof that the poems before us were our author's earliest composi-
tions. [Butler (p. 90) approves this suggestion.] Archer: One of the expres-
sions of exaggerated humility with which the Sonnets abound. {Fort. Rev., 62:
821.) Walsh: Not necessarily inexperienced, but obedient to nature's instruc-
tions, copyist of reality (opposed to the "antique" or original and master-pen
of nature). Porter: Sh. speaks modestly of his "pupil pen" in comparison
with " Time's pencil."

11. McClumpha: Cf. R. & J., I, iii, 90: "For fair without the fair within
to hide." (Jahrb., 40: 193.) [For "fair" as a substantive, cf. 18, 7, 10; 83, 2.
— Ed.]

13. Malone: To produce likenesses of yourself . . . will be the means of
preserving your memory.

14. Massey: Cf. Sidney, Arcadia : " With his sweet skill my skilless youth he
drew." (p. 74.)

xvn] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 49

17
Who will beleeue my verse in time to come
If it were fild with your most high deserts?
Though yet heauen knowes it is but as a tombe
Which hides your life, and shewes not halfe your parts:
If I could write the beauty of your eyes, 5

And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say this Poet lies,
Such heauenly touches nere toucht earthly faces.
So should my papers (yellowed with their age) 9

Be scorn'd, like old men of lesse truth then tongue,
And your true rights be termd a Poets rage,
And stretched miter of an Antique song.

But were some childe of yours aliue that time,
You should Hue twise in it, and in my rime.

7-8. this . . . faces] Quoted by Co1-, Del, Hu1, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, etc.;
italics by Co3, Hu2.

12. miter] metre G, etc. Antique] antick G, S, E.

14. twise in it] twice; in it M, A, Kt, B, Gl, Wh2, Wy, But; twice; — in it Sta,
Kly; twice, in it Cam, Do, Her, Be, X, Bull, Wa; twice, — in it C, Hu, Dy, CI,
Del', R, Ty, Ox; twice — in it Co, Del1'2, Wh1, Hal.

5-8. Fleay: Cf. Drayton, Idea, S. 17:

Stay, speedy Time! behold, before thou pass

From age to age, what thou hast sought to see! . . .

Pass on! and to posterity tell this!

Yet see thou tell but truly what hath been!

Say to our nephews that thou once hast seen

In perfect human shape all heavenly bliss!

And bid them mourn, nay more, despair with thee,

(That she is gone) her like again to see!

(Biog. Chron., 2: 228.)

6. fresh. Beeching: "Lively and beautiful" to match the friend's " graces."
See Sonnets 1, 9; 104, 8; 107, 10.

11. rage. Schmidt: Madness; applied, in contempt, to poetical inspiration.

12. Dowden: Keats prefixed this line as motto to his Endymion. "Stretched
metre" means overstrained poetry, stretched miter. Schmidt: Affected, ex-

50 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xvm

aggerated verse. Porter: Forced metre, . . . characteristic of ballads and old-
time verse. . . . This expression is commonly explained to mean "inflated" or
"overstrained" poetry. It is rather a poetic figure of speech for that, but
especially suggesting that in the future indulgence will be shown it as some-
thing archaic in verse. [Cf. iH. 4, III, i, 130: "One of these same metre
ballad-mongers." — Ed.]

18

Shall I compare thee to a Summers day?
Thou art more louely and more temperate:
Rough windes do shake the darling buds of Maie,
And Sommers lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heauen shines, 5

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd,
And euery faire from faire some-time declines,
By chance, or natures changing course vntrim'd:
But thy eternall Sommer shall not fade, 9

Nor loose possession of that faire thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wandr'st in his shade,
When in eternall lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breath or eyes can see,
So long Hues this, and this giues life to thee,

3. Maie] Male L.
10. loose] C, M, etc. (except Wy).

This sonnet was omitted from the Poems of 1640 and the later editions based
on that volume.

3. Malone: Cf. Cyrnb., I, iii, 36-37:

Like the tyrannous breathing of the north
Shakes all our buds from growing ;

and T. of S., V, ii, 140: " As whirlwinds shake fair buds." Dowden: We must
remember that May in Sh.'s time [was a summer month, running] on to within
a few days of our mid June.

7. [On faire, see note on 16, II. There is room for doubt whether the first of
the two "fairs" is the abstract noun, or = "fair one" (cf. 21, 4). — Ed.]

8. untrim'd. Schmidt: Stripped of ornamental dress. Porter: As a ship's
sails untrimmed to the course as the winds compel her to be. [Schmidt's ex-
planation is undoubtedly right. — Ed.]

xix] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 51

' 10. ow'st. For the meaning "own," cf. 70, 14.

12. Dowden": This anticipation of immortality for their verse was a common-
place with the sonnet-writers of the time of Elizabeth. See Spenser, Amoretti,
S. 27, 69, 75; Drayton, Idea, S. 6, 44; Daniel, Delia, S. 39. [On this subject see
especially the notes on S. 55. — Ed.]

Lee: There is almost a contradiction in terms between the poet's handling of
[the appeal to many in order that the friend's beauty may survive in children,
S. 1-17,] and his emphatic boast in . . . 18-19 that his verse alone is fully equal
to the task of immortalizing his friend's youth and accomplishments. (Life,
p. 98.) [There is indeed good ground for questioning whether these two sonnets
should be included, as frequently, in the same group with the preceding, and
whether they can be thought of as written at the same time, even if admittedly
to the same person. — Ed.]

This sonnet was translated into Latin by E. D. Stone, A7. & Q., June 10,
1876.

19

Devouring time blunt thou the Lyons pawes,

And make the earth deuoure her owne sweet brood,'

Plucke the keene teeth from the fierce Tygers yawes,

And burne the long liu'd Phaenix in her blood,

Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st, 5

And do what ere thou wilt swift-footed time

To the wide world and all her fading sweets:

But I forbid thee one most hainous crime,

O carue not with thy howers my loues faire brow, 9

Nor draw noe lines there with thine antique pen,

Him in thy course vntainted doe allow,

For beauties patterne to succeding men.

Yet doe thy worst ould Time dispight thy wrong,
My loue shall in my verse euer Hue young.

I. Deuouring] Destroying Walker conj.

3. yawes] jaws C, M, etc.

5. fleet'st] fleets A, Kt, Co, Del, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Wh, Hal, Do, Hu!,
R, Ox, Her, Be, N, Bull.
11. thy] the Hu!.
14. euer liue] live ever Nicholson conj.

This sonnet was also omitted from the 1640 volume.

52 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xix

i. Devouring time. Verity: So Spenser, S. 58: "Devouring time and
changeful chance." A reminiscence of Ovid's edax vetustas? Walsh: Cf. " The
prey of Time, which all things doth devour," Spenser's translation of Bellay's
"The Ruins of Rome," 3, 8 (1591); and " Devouring Death," Spenser's own
"The Ruins of Time," 52 (1591). The original is Ovid's Tempus edax, Ex
Ponto, IV, x, 7, and Met., xv, 234. Lee: [Cf. Golding's Ovid:

Thou Time, the eater up of things, and age of spiteful teen,

Destroy all things!

(Qu. Rev., 210: 472.)]

[Cf. Daniel's Delia, S. 50: " Time's consuming rage." — Ed.]

4. in her blood. Steevens: May signify " burnt alive." [Cf. Cor., IV, vi, 85:
"Your temples burned in their cement," which may mean "burned while
standing."] [So Delius: Having still living blood.] Rolfe: For allusions to
the phoenix in Sh., cf. Temp., Ill, iii, 23; A. Y. L., IV, iii, 17; H. 8, V, v, 41;
T. of A., II, i, 32; etc. See also The Phcenix and the Turtle.

5. fleet'st. [For the usual change to fleets, see Abbott:] In verbs ending
with -t, -test final in the second person singular often becomes -ts for euphony.
(Cf. " thou torments," R. 2, IV, 1,270; " revisits," Haml., I,iv, 53; etc.) . . . This
termination in -s contains perhaps a trace of the influence of the northern in-
flection in -s for the second person singular. (§ 340.) [See Franz on the same
subject, § 1.]

6. For the punctuation, see P. Simpson's note on 1, 12.

10. antique. Rolfe: Accented on the first syllable, as regularly in Sh.
Tyler: So called, apparently, as marking age on the countenance.

14. Beeching: The cadence of this line seems to mark the conclusion of the
first section [of the Sonnets].

[The curious reader may find in Blackwood's Mag., 169: 674, some remarks
by Creighton to the effect that the first quatrain of this sonnet involves a
description of the Pembroke arms, with the trifling changes of panther to tiger
and of wyvern to phcenix.]

xx] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 53

20

A Womans face with natures owne hand painted,

Haste thou the Master Mistris of my passion,

A womans gentle hart but not acquainted

With shifting change as is false womens fashion,

An eye more bright then theirs, lesse false in rowling: 5

Gilding the obiect where- vpon it gazeth,

A man in hew all Hews in his controwling,

Which steales mens eyes and womens soules amaseth.

And for a woman wert thou first created, 9

Till nature as she wrought thee fell a dotinge,

And by addition me of thee defeated,

By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.

But since she prickt thee out for womens pleasure,
Mine be thy loue and thy loues vse their treasure.

2. Haste] Hast 1640, G, etc.

3. Master Mistris] Master, Mistress G, S, E; hyphened by C, M, etc. (except
Wy, N).

7. man in] maiden Be conj. Hews] Hue S*. E; 'hues' GI, Cam, \Yh-\ Her.
9. wert] went 1640.

[With the theme of this sonnet Massey compares Chapman:
A youth so sweet of face
That many thought him of the female race;

and Marlowe, H. & L.,

Some swore he was a maid in men's attire,

For in his looks were all that men desire. (p. 39.)

Von Mauxtz compares Ovid, Metam., 8, 322-23:

Facies, quam dicere vere
Virgineam in puero, puerilem in virgine posses.]

1. Master Mistris. Schmidt: A male mistress, one loved like a woman.
Malone: Does not perhaps mean "man-mistress," but sovereign mistress.
[Modern usage is undoubtedly right in hyphenating the words, and they should
be understood as coordinate; the notion is either "both master and mistress"
or "whether master or mistress I can hardly say." — Ed.] passion. Schmidt:
Amorous desire. Massey: [Synonymous with "poem." Cf. Watson's Passion-

54 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xx

ate Century, 1582, whose 100 sonnets are called "passions" throughout; and
M. N. D., where the ditties of Pyramus and Thisbe are so called.] Thus the
"passion" of Sh. is not an affair of the heart, . . . [but] the theme on which he
writes; ... so the effeminacy of the woman-like love in wooing a male friend
vanishes from the sonnets, (pp. 39-40.) Dowden [notes the same interpreta-
tion of passion as having been suggested to him by H. C. Hart.]
5. false in rowling. Dowden: Cf. Spenser, F. Q., Bk. 3, c. i, s. 41:

Her wanton eyes (ill signes of womanhed)
Did roll too lightly.

Tyler: Cf. 139, 6; 140, 14.

7. man in hew. Schmidt [gives only "colour" for the meaning of "hue."
The N. E. D. notes " form, shape, appearance," as the first (though obsolete)
meaning (cf. Gothic kiwi — form, appearance).] Dowden: The word was used
by Elizabethan writers not only in the sense of " complexion," but also in that
of " shape, form." In F. Q., Bk. 5, c. ix, ss. 17-18, Talus tries to seize Malengin,
who transforms himself into a fox, a bush, a bird, a stone, a'nd then a hedgehog:

Then gan it run away incontinent
Being returned to his former kew.

The meaning . . . then may be " A man in form and appearance, having the
mastery over all forms in that of his," etc. With the phrase "controlling hues "
cf. S. 106, 8. Beeching: In all other places where Sh. uses the word it means
"appearance," "complexion" (cf. Per., IV, i, 41, "that excellent complexion
which did steal the eyes of old and young"). A beautiful complexion might be
said to "control" others by making the colour come and go, but one shape
could have no influence on another. The words "man in" almost certainly are
a corruption of some epithet, because a manly hue would neither steal men's
eyes nor surprise women's souls; and the whole point of the sonnet is that the
friend's beauty is feminine. In the previous two lines his "eye" has been com-
pared with a woman's, and we should expect a similar comparison as to his
"hue" to preserve the balance of the double comparison in the first quatrain.
I propose, therefore, to read "a maiden hue." My friend Mr. J. W. Mackail
prefers "a native hue" (Haml.,111, i, 84) as being nearer to the ductus liter arum
of "a man in hue." That would depend on the handwriting; id in an Eliza-
bethan hand looks very like n with a final flourish, and for the mistake of in
for en, cf. "bitter" for " better" in 91, 9. Further, "native" repeats the point
already made in 1. 1, while "maiden" would prepare the way for 1. 9. [I must
record my conviction that this is one of the most plausible emendations which
have been proposed in connection with the text of the Sonnets. — Ed.]

Hews. Boswell: Mr. Tyrwhitt has pointed out to me a line . . . which
inclines me to think that the initials W. H. in the Dedication stand for
W. Hughes. [This line quoted.] The name Hughes was formerly written
Hews. When it is considered that one of these Sonnets is formed entirely on a
play on our author's Christian name, this conjecture will not appear improbable.

xx] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 55

(Prelim. Remarks, ed. 1821, p. 217.) Browne [discusses the Hughes conjecture
in Ath., Aug. 30, 1873, mentioning two Elizabethan musicians named Hewes.]
Furnivall [(N. & Q., 5th s., 5: 443) gives a list of contemporaries with Sh.
named Hughes.] Massey: It is "Ewes" that was aimed at by the double en-
tendre, which leads us beyond the mere name to a person of importance; for
"Ewe" was a titleof Essex. The Earldom was that of " Essex and Ewe." " A
man in hue. all Ewes in his controlling" was as far as Sh. could go in telling his
friend that his comeliness and favour were far superior to those of the favourite,
and that these gave him the upper hand. (p. 54.) Tyler: The notion that
Hews was intended to indicate a certain Mr. William Hughes . . . scarcely
needs to be refuted. Wyndham: I retain the Q type and spelling, being per-
suaded that the word was so printed intentionally. . . . The line means ' ' A man
in shape all shapes in his controlling." Cf. 53, 5-8, 12. It states that the friend
was the eternal pattern of Beauty. But the type selected for " hues," thanks
to contemporary spelling, Hews, enabled the poet to convey something more
which was apparent to the person addressed and is not apparent now. Of this
I am convinced. But beyond this all is guesswork. Some hold that Mr. W. H.
of the dedication was the friend, and that his name was William Hughes;
others seek an anagram in the letters. . . . [ Hews contains the initials of Henry
Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton]. Others may riddle it: He = Herbert,
W. S. = Shakespeare. ... It is strange that a passage in Chapman's Preface to
the Reader (Homer's Iliads) has so far escaped [the attention of those who take
Chapman as the rival poet mentioned in the Sonnets:] *' Another right learned,
honest, and entirely loved friend of mine, M. Robert Hews." Lee: [The
Hughes theory' is a fantastic suggestion.] No known contemporary of the name,
either in age or position in life, bears any resemblance to the young man who
is addressed by Sh. in his sonnets. (Life, p. 93m) Butler: There was a William
Hughes, or Hewes (both forms appearing), who after having been "many
years" in the navy and served as steward in the Vanguard, Swiftsure, and
Dreadnought, applied in 1633-34 for the post of cook, which I learn was rather
more highly paid than that of steward; he was appointed, and died in March
1636-37. This man is quite as likely to have been Mr. W. H. as any of the
others, (p. 115.) [This is surely a pleasingly violent reaction from the usual
dabbling with noblemen in connection with the sonnet mystery. — Ed.]
Creightox: A play upon one of the baronies or courtesy titles of the Earl of
Pembroke, — Fitzhugh, or Fitzhew; so that the line construes: " A man in hew
(my lord Fitzhew), — the lord of all the sons of Hew." (Blackwood, 169: 672.)
Beechixg: As the word stands on the page in the Q it certainly looks mo-
mentous. . . . But it must be noted that what chiefly impresses the modern
reader is the capital letter with the italics; and this is found with every word
printed in italics throughout the sonnets, so that a capital letter to a reader
of the Q would not be in the least suggestive of a proper name as it is to us.
Moreover, the line contains no pun, such as we have upon the name "Will"
in S. 135, etc. (Intro., p. xlii.) Mackail: No argument can be safely based on
the capital and the italics, for these are found elsewhere, in such common words

56 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xx

as autumn, informer, heretic, and statues, and are clearly a mere irrelevant
eccentricity of the type-setter in a very irregularly and carelessly printed
volume, (p. 194.) [On this matter of the italic type, see the notes on rose in
I, 2. — Ed.] Porter: There is reason enough for [the italics] in the special
Elizabethan sense of hew and Hews, i.e., shape, joined with the common sense,
" hue," appropriately alluding here to the complexion as that of a " woman's
face" painted fair by Nature's hand, and the larger sense of the sonnet as a
whole, in its praise of the double charm of masculine and feminine Hews, or
shapes. W. B. Brown [revives the pun theory in N. & Q., nth s., 7: 241, 262,
finding puns also in 6, 5; 78, 3; 134, 10; and elsewhere.] H. D. Gray: The type of
pun [found in this line] seems to me so uncharacteristic that the italicized word
gives us the only name which Sh.'s friend could not have borne. If Sh. used
this sort of cryptogram, then there is little to say against the Baconian theory.
(Pub. M. L. A., n.s. 23: 634m)

controwling. Schmidt: Overpowering, being superior to. [Cf. 107, 3, and
Cor. ,111, i, 161 : " Not having the power to do the good it would, for the ill which
doth control 't."] Tyler: Rendering all others subordinate. Beeching: May
mean " including and harmonizing all particular beauties of complexion in
his," an idea put from the other side in S. 53, or perhaps, " commanding all
other faces by his," an idea expanded in the line that follows.

8. Which. Walker: Refers to all hues, not to a man. [Lettsom adds that W.
evidently meant to the fact expressed by "all hues . . . controlling."] (3: 357.)

9-1 1. Isaac: Cf. Marlowe, H. & L., 87-88:

And such as knew he was a man would say,
" Leander, thou art made for amorous play."

(Jahrb., 19: 249.)

Walsh: Cf. Ausonius, In Puerum Formosum:

Dum dubitat Natura, marem faceretne puellam,
Factus es, o pulcher, paene puella, puer!

11. defeated. Schmidt: Disappointed, [i.e., in the sense of "deprived."
— Ed.]

Steevens: It is impossible to read this fulsome panegyric, addressed to a
male object, without an equal mixture of disgust and indignation. We may
remark also, that the same phrase employed by Sh. to denote the height of^
encomium, is used by Dryden to express the extreme of reproach:

If a man,
Corrupted to a woman; thy man-mistress.

(Don Sebastian.)

[It will be noted, of course, that this is not the same phrase as Sh.'s. — Ed.]
M alone: Some part of this indignation might perhaps have been abated, if
it had been considered that such addresses to men, however indelicate, were
customary in our author's time, and neither imported criminality nor were es-

xx] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 57

teemed indecorous. See a note on lover, S. 32. Furnivall [regards the sonnet
as Sh.'s answer to] the thoughtless objection that many sonnets in this group
confuse the sex of the person they're addressed to. (Intro., p. lxv.)

[Surely it is with vanity and quite needless vexation of spirit that this
sonnet has been made a means of adding to the troublous suspicion that some
form of sexual perversion lurks in the collection. Call the third quatrain
obscene, if need be, but do not fail — as many have done — to note its wholly
light and humorous tone, in contrast with the hectic intensity of morbid
eroticism. It is so different from what Sh. was able to do, on occasion, when
it was his purpose to represent passion, that one may agree unhesitatingly
with Harris (The Man Sh., p. 234), who, though calling the poet a sensualist,
observes that "the sextet of this sonnet absolutely disproves" the implications
of Steevens and others. To the same effect is Braxdl's recent Introduction,
where it is truly observed that the very substance of S. 20 is to the effect that
the friend may enjoy women — the poet wishes only the love of his heart.
(p. xxvii.) — Ed.]

[Esoteric interpreters of the Sonnets have found S. 20 especially fascinating.
An anonymous writer in Blackwood's (137: 774), interprets it as referring to
the dual character of "eternal love " in the platonic philosophy, and compares
Fenton's Monophyle (1572), as follows: " [The philosophers] imagined love to
be a most excellent form or plot, exceeding generally the consideration of man,
and therefore did figure unto us an Androgina in whom they meant a man
composed of masculine and feminine sex." It was Sh.'s study of St. Augustine
and Dante, the critic continues, which " led him to adopt the truly grand idea
pictured in the 20th Sonnet." Godwin also interprets mystically: Sh. is here
representing the personified genius of all art as androgynous, or double-sexed.

(P- 179-)] *

George Ross, [in his essay on" Sh.'s Mad Characters," makes the following
observation:] As in heaven there is no marrying nor giving in marriage, so in
the poetic elysium there is no sex. . . . No doubt Sh. himself, at a later day,
trembled at his own temerity, . . . but ... his sonnets remain to show that it
is possible to ascend to a region of abstraction, where fact is absorbed in feeling
and sex is one and indivisible. (Studies, p. 52.)

H. D. Gray [finds this sonnet to be opposed to both the Southampton and
Pembroke theories, since it is] incredible that Sh. should have told either of
these earls, even in jest, that only sex stood in the way of his grace's marriage
to an actor. (Pub. M. L. A., n.s. 23: 643.)

[It seems to be S. 20 to which we must attach a remark recorded in Coleridge's
Table Talk (May 14, 1833):] It seems to me that the Sonnets could only have
come from a man deeply in love, and in love with a woman; and there is one
sonnet which, from its incongruity, I take to be a purposed blind.

58 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxi

21

So is it not with me as with that Muse,
Stird by a painted beauty to his verse,
Who heauen it selfe for ornament doth vse,
And euery faire with his faire doth reherse,
Making a coopelment of proud compare 5

With Sunne and Moone, with earth and seas rich gems:
With Aprills first borne flowers and all things rare,
That heauens ayre in this huge rondure hems,
O let me true in loue but truly write, 9

And then beleeue me, my loue is as faire,
As any mothers childe, though not so bright
As those gould candells fixt in heauens ayer:
Let them say more that like of heare-say well,
I will not prayse that purpose not to sell.

1. is it] it is M1.

5. coopelment] complement G1, S1; compliment G2, S2, E; couplement C, M,
etc.

6. earth] eatth 1640.

8. this] his E, A, Kly. ayre in this] vault in his Sta conj.
12. those] these N [error]. in heauens ayer] i' the heavens are But.

With this sonnet cf. S. 130 and notes.

Wyndham: This sonnet offers the first attack on the false art of a rival poet.
Beeching: [The Muse here mentioned is] not the rival poet mentioned later
who praised W. H., for he, ex hypothesi, was not a " painted beauty." Tyler:
Possibly some particular poet may be intended.

4. faire. See note on 18, 7.

5. coopelment. M alone: I formerly thought this word was of our author's
invention, but I have lately found it in Spenser's F. Q.: "Allied with bands of
mutual couplement." [The N. E. D. cites other examples from the 16th
century. — Ed.] Schmidt: Combination.

8. rondure. M alone: A round; rondeur, Fr. Cf. K.J., II, i, 259: " 'Tis not
the roundure of your old-fac'd walls." [Malone erroneously refers the line to
Henry V.] Tyler: [Probably] the vast circumference of the limiting horizon.

9. true in love. Henry Brown: The poet's motto. His seal, preserved at
Stratford, bears the initials, "W. S.," entwined with the true lovers' knot,
(p. 170.)

xxi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 59

12. candells. M ALONE: Cf. R. & J., Ill, v, 9: " Night's candles are burnt
out"; Macb., II, i, 5: "There's husbandry in heaven; their candles are all
out"; M.V., V, i, 220: " By these blessed candles of the night." Verity: [Cf.
also Fairfax's Tasso, Bk. ix, st. 10, "When heaven's small candles next shall
shine"; Linche's (?) Diella, 30: " He that can count the candles of the sky "; and
several passages in Marlowe, Bullen ed., 2: 137, 158, 196.]

13. like of heare-say. Dowden: Schmidt's explanation is "that fall in love
with what has been praised by others"; but does it not rather mean, "that
like to be buzzed abou,t by talk"? Rolfe: Apparently referring to the common-
place style of which he has been speaking. Tyler: Are pleased with idle and
extravagant talk. Beeching: Like vague and exaggerated rumour.

13-14. Steevens: Cf. L. L. L., IV, iii, 239-40:

Fie, painted rhetoric! O, she needs it not.
To things of sale a seller's praise belongs.

Maloxe: Cf. T. & C, IV, i, 78: "We'll not commend what we intend to sell "
[noting Warburton's conjecture that it should read "intend not sell"]. Wyxd-
ham: Cf. Daniel, Delia, S. 53:

None other fame, mine unambitious Muse
Affected ever, but t' eternize thee!
All other honours do my hopes refuse,
Which meaner prized and momentary be.
For, God forbid! I should my papers blot
With mercenary lines, with servile pen;
Praising virtues in them that have them not,
Basely attending on the hopes of men.

Beeching: Cf. 102, 3-4.

[Main: For examples of the kind of "couplement of proud compare" which
Sh. here ridicules, cf. Daniel, Delia, S. 19:

Restore thy tresses to the golden ore!

Yield Cytherea's son those arks of love!

Bequeath the heavens the stars that I adore!

And to the Orient do thy pearls remove!

Yield thy hands' pride unto the ivory white!

To Arabian odour give thy breathing sweet!

Restore thy blush unto Aurora bright !

To Thetis give the honour of thy feet! (etc.);
Barnes, Parthenoph.il & Parthenophe, S. 48:

Her hairs no grace of golden wires want;

Pure pearls with perfect rubines are inset;

True diamonds, in eyes; sapphires, in veins; (etc.) ;

Davies of Hereford's Wit's Pilgrimage, S. 73; Spenser, Amoreiti, S. 9:
Long while I sought to what I might compare
Those powerful eyes, which lighten my dark spright;

6o THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxi

Yet find I naught on earth, to which I dare
Resemble th' image of their goodly light.
Not to the sun; for they do shine by night:
Nor to the moon; for they are changed never:
Nor to the stars; for they have purer sight:
Nor to the fire; for they consume not ever:
Nor to the lightning; for they still persever:
Nor to the diamond; for they are more tender:
Nor unto crystal; for nought may them sever:
Nor unto glass; such baseness mought offend her.
Then to the Maker self they likest be,
Whose light doth lighten all that here we see;

ibid., S. 64:

Her lips did smell like unto gillyflowers;

Her ruddy cheeks like unto roses red;

Her snowy brows like budded bellamoures;

Her lovely eyes like pinks but newly spread;

Her goodly bosom like a strawberry bed;

Her neck like to a bunch of columbines;

Her breast, like lilies ere their leaves be shed;

Her nipples, like young blossomed jessamines; (etc.).]

[Dowden adds to the list Griffin, Fidessa, S. 39:

My lady's hair is threads of beaten gold,
Her front the purest crystal eye hath seen,
Her eyes the brightest stars the heavens hold,
Her cheeks red roses such as seld have been; (etc.);

and Constable's Diana, 6th Decade, S. I :

One sun unto my life's day gives true light;
One moon dissolves my stormy night of woes;
One star my fate and happy fortune shows;
One saint I serve, one shrine with vows I dight.

On the other hand, for the ridicule of this type of love poetry, he cites Sidney,

A.&S., S. 3:

Let dainty wits cry on the Sisters nine,
That bravely maskt, their fancies may be told;
Or Pindar's apes flaunt they in phrases fine,
Enamelling with pied flowers their thoughts of gold;
Or else let them in statelier glory shine,
Ennobling new-found tropes with problems old;
Or with strange similes enrich each line,
Of herbs or beasts which Inde or Afric hold;

xxi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 61

and Sh. himself in L. L. L., V. ii, 406:

Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise,
Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation,
Figures pedantical.

Krauss (Jahrb., 16: 176) notes also S. 55 of A. & S.:
Muses! I oft invoked your holy aid,
With choicest flowers my speech t' engarland so,
That it, despised in true but naked show,
Might win some grace in your sweet grace arrayed.
And oft whole troops of saddest words I stayed,
Striving abroad a foraging to go.]

Wyxdham: Cf. Du Bellay, Contre les Petrarquid.es :

De voz beautez, ce n'est que tout fin or,
Perles, crystal, marbre, et ivoyre encor,
Et tout l'honneur de l'lndique thresor,
Fleurs, lis, ceillets, et roses.

D. Klein [quotes also, from the same poem of Du Beilay's:l
J'ay oublie l'art de petrarquiser,
Je veux d'amour franchement deviser,
Sans vous flatter et sans me deguiser.

{Sewanee Rev., 13: 458.)

The whole poem, of several pages, offers a close parallel to the similar attacks
in the Sonnets. A poet was expected to disclaim the practice of Petrarch's
imitators and to trounce his rivals for observing it. Drayton does both.

[Achesox views this sonnet as written in ridicule of Chapman's The Amor-
ous Zodiac, 1595. Cf. especially stanzas 8-9:

Thy smooth embow'd brow, where all grace I see,
My second month, and second house shall be;
Which brow with her cfear beauties shall delight
The Earth, yet sad, and overture confer
To herbs, buds, flowers and verdure-gracing Yer,
Rendering her more than Summer exquisite.

All this fresh April, this sweet month of Venus,
I will admire this brow so bounteous;
This brow, brave court of love and virtue builded;
This brow, where Chastity holds garrison;
This brow, that blushless none can look upon;
This brow, with every grace and honour gilded;

and stanza 30 (from L'Envoi):

But, gracious love, if jealous heaven deny
My life this truly blest variety,

62 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxn

Yet will I thee through all the world disperse;
If not in heaven, amongst those braving fires,
Yet here thy beauties, which the world admires,
Bright as those flames shall glister in my verse.

This comparison "not only clearly shows to what Sh. refers as 'those gold
candles fix'd in heaven's air,' but plainly reveals his stroke at Chapman's vanity
and self-praise, and also proves . . . that Sh. here avows that his sonnets were
not written for sale." (Sh. & the Rival Poet, p. 69.) All this is but a fragment of
Mr. Acheson's elaborate theory of a Chapman-Shakespeare quarrel, which can-
not be adequately represented here. The parallels just cited are among the most
plausible of many dubious ones. A reviewer of Acheson's book (Spectator,
Nov. 21, 1903, p. 872) adds the suggestion that line 14 may contain a play on
Chapman's name, — " That is a chapman's way of praising, not mine." — Ed.]
Godwin: Can we doubt that the poet was here writing of a woman? No
poet then or since, writing of men, indulged in the extravagance of diction
which Sh. disclaims. [In like manner, Walsh groups the sonnet with those to
the poet's dark mistress, in collocation with the admittedly similar S. 130.]

22

My glasse shall not perswade me I am ould,
So long as youth and thou are of one date,
But when in thee times forrwes I behould,
Then look I death my daies should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth couer thee,
Is but the seemely rayment of my heart,
Which in thy brest doth liue, as thine in me,
How can I then be elder then thou art?
O therefore loue be of thy selfe so wary,
As I not for my selfe, but for thee will,
Bearing thy heart which I will keepe so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill,

Presume not on thy heart when mine is slaine,
Thou gau'st me thine not to giue backe againe.

2. are] art 1640, L, G, S, E.

3. forrwes] forrowes 1640, L; sorrows G, S, E; furrows C, M, etc.

4. expiate] expirate Stee conj., Hu2.
11. thy] my First Folio ed. [error].

xxn] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 63

1. ould. Isaac [points out the conventional character of this theme of
wrinkled age. Cf. Barnfield's Affectionate Shepherd:

Behold my gray head, full of silver hairs,
My wrinkled skin, deep furrows in my face;

Gascoigne's Flowers: "My wrinkled cheeks bewray that pride of heat is past";
Daniel's S. 21: "Whilst age upon my wasted body steals"; and passages in
Tasso and Petrarch. (Jahrb., 17: 170-71,)] Lee: Cf. 62, 9-10; 73, 1-2; 138. 6.
[Sh.'s] reference ... to his growing age was a conventional device — traceable
to Petrarch — of all sonnetteers of the day, and admits of no literal interpre-
tation. . . . Daniel in Delia, 23, when 29 years old, exclaimed: '"My years
draw on my everlasting night, . . . My days are done." [This is S. 23 of the
" Poems and Sonnets" printed after Sidney's A. & S., 1591, not of the Delia
volume. — Ed.] . . . Similarly Drayton, in a sonnet (Idea, 14) published in
1594, when he was barely 31, wrote:

Looking into the glass of my youth's miseries,
I see the ugly face of my deformed cares,
With withered brows all wrinkled with despairs;

and a little later (No. 43 of the 1599 edition) he repeated how " Age rules my
lines with wrinkles in my face." All these lines are echoes of Petrarch, and Sh.
and Drayton followed the Italian master's words more closely than their
contemporaries. Cf. Petrarch's S. 143 (to Laura alive), or S. 81 (to Laura
after death); the latter begins:

Dicemi spesso il mio fidato speglio,
L' animo stanco e la cangiata scorza
E la scemata mia destrezza e forza:
Xon ti nasconder piu; tu se' pur veglio.

(i.e., " My faithful glass often shows me my weary spirit and my wrinkled skin,
and my decaying wit and strength: it cannot longer be hidden from you, you
are old.") (Life, p. 86.) [On this subject see further under Sonnets 62 and 73.
Tyler, noting the similar passages in Drayton, is disposed to view them as
borrowings from Sh. (Intro., p. 41.) — Ed.]

4. expiate. Steevens: I do not comprehend how the poet's days were to
be expiated by death. Perhaps he wrote: " my days should expi rate," i.e., bring
them to an end. Cf. R. & J., I, iv, 109: " Expire the term of a despised life,"
[and the words " festinate," " conspirate," " combinate," " ruinate." in other
plays.] M ALONE: The old reading is certainly right. Then do I expect, says
Sh., that death should fill up the measure of my days. [Cf. Locrine. 1595:
"Lives Sabren yet to expiate my wrath?", i.e., fully to satisfy my wrath:
Chapman's Byron's Conspiracy, 1608, [where] an old courtier says he is "A
poor and expiate humour of the court"; and R. 3, III, iii, 2y. " Make haste;
the hour of death is expiate."] Schmidt: Bring to a close. .V. E. D.: To ex-
tinguish (a person's rage) by suffering it to the full; to end (one's sorrows, a
suffering life) by death.

64 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxn

5-7. Massey: Cf. Sidney, Arcadia :

My wealth is you,

My beauty's hue your beams, my health your deeds;
My mind for weeds your virtue's livery wears;

and (ibid.):

My true-love hath my heart, and I have his,

By just exchange one for the other given:

I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss,

There never was a better bargain driven.

His heart in me keeps me and him in one,

My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides;

He loves my heart for once it was his own;

I cherish his because in me it bides. (p. 74.)

[In this familiar Elizabethan conceit the more esoteric interpreters find a
deeper significance. Thus Heraud observes:] This quasi identification of the
subject and object doubtless suggested to [Barnstorff] the notion . . . that the
poet throughout addressed himself. The error is very pardonable, but easily
corrected. It was not his ego, but his alter ego, in the ideal personality, in the
universal humanity, that the poet apostrophised. [Cf. S. 62.] (p. 491.) Simpson:
Such phrases as " My heart is in thy breast" . . . and the like, which now seem
to us frigid conceits, were in Sh.'s days warm with the blood of a still living
philosophy. [Cf. 48, 10-11, where he justifies] the expression by insinuating a
distinction between his own living and acting self and that soul of his which
in the ecstasy of love had taken up its abode in his friend's breast, (p. 32.)

10. [The apparent necessity for emphasizing "thee" makes the rhythm of
this line unusual and awkward. — Ed.]

11-14. Dowden: The first hint of possible wrong committed by the youth
against friendship.

14. Henry Brown: Cf. Wyatt, ["The Lover Forsaketh his Unkind Love":]
My heart I gave thee, not to do it pain,
But to preserve, lo, it to thee was taken. (p. 170.)

xxm] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 65

23
As an vnperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his feare is put besides his part,
Or some fierce thing repleat with too much rage,
Whose strengths abondance weakens his owne heart;
So I for feare of trust, forget to say, 5

The perfect ceremony of loues right,
And in mine owne loues strength seeme to decay,
Ore-charg'd with burthen of mine owne loues might:
O let my books be then the eloquence,
And domb presagers of my speaking brest,
Who pleade for loue, and look for recompence,
More then that tonge that more hath more exprest.
O learne to read what silent loue hath writ,
To heare wit eies belongs to loues fine wiht.

2. put] but L. besides] beside C, M1, Co2, Hu2, But, Be.

4. strengths abondance] strength abondance L; strength abundance G1;
strength abundant G2, S, E.

5. of] or Sta conj.

6. right] rite M, etc.

8. burthen] burden G2, S2, E, Co, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Hal, R, \Vh2,
Ox, Her, Be, N, Wa.

9. books] looks S,'E, C, But, Be, Wa, Tu.
10. presagers] presages Co2 [error].

12. that more] that love Sta conj.; that less But. more hath] hath not G2.
more exprest] o'er exprest Wa conj.
14. wit . . . wiht] with . . . wit 1640, G, etc.

Walsh: The edition of 1640 for once gives a tolerable title, heading this
[sonnet] "A Bashful Lover." It might then belong [with 128 and 136,] — not
that it must have necessarily belonged to the dark mistress. Simpson: [This
sonnet turns upon another commonplace of Renaissance sonnet philosophy.]
This trembling, prescribed by the Codex Amoris, is spoken of in the 4th, 5th,
6th, and 7th Sonnets of Dante's Vita Nuova, and in several of Petrarch's,
as S. 34. (p. 54.)

Isaac [notes parallels for the idea of a love too great for words, in Spenser,
Watson, Raleigh, Wyatt, Tasso, and Petrarch. He also cites, for the notion
of the eyes as interpreters of the heart, Daniel, S. 8, "You mine eyes, the

66 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxm

agents of my heart"; Southwell, "Her eye in silence hath a speech Which
eye best understands"; and Spenser, Amoretti, 43: "Mine eyes, with meek
humility, Love-learned letters to her eyes to read."] (Jahrb., 17: 17^-73.)
Henry Brown [compares a sonnet by John Davies:]

My looks shall be love, and wit's record-books,

Wherein she still may read what I conceive

Of her sweet words, and what replies I give. (p. 171.)

1-2. M alone: Cf. Cor., V, iii, 40-42:

Like a dull actor now,
I have forgot my part, and I am out,
Even to a full disgrace.

... It may be conjectured that these poems were not composed till our author
had arrived in London, and became conversant with the stage. He had perhaps
himself experienced what he here describes. Steevens: It is highly probable
that our author had seen plays represented, before he left his own country.
M alone: The seeing a few plays exhibited by a company of strollers in a
barn at Stratford, or in Warwick Castle, would not however have made Sh.
acquainted with the feelings cf a timid actor on the stage.

2. besides. [This form of the preposition has abundant parallel in Sh. For
the meaning, cf. the 161 1 Authorized Version, 2 Cor. 5: 13: "Whether we be
besides our selves" (cited in N. E. D.). — Ed.]

3-4. Tyler: Some fierce animal which has lost self-control.

5. for feare of trust. Delius: From want of self-confidence. Dowden:
Schmidt explains "doubting of being trusted," but the comparison is to an
imperfect actor, who dare not trust himself. Observe the construction of the
first 8 lines; 5-6 refer to 1-2; 7-8 to 3-4. [With this Rolfe agrees.] Tyler: It
seems doubtful whether [this] is to be regarded as meaning "fearing that I
shall not be trusted," or "fearing to trust myself." ... I prefer the former.
Beeching: The parallel with the actor shows that trust is active. Porter:
Wanting to trust so sorely that he does not dare to.

8. McClumpha: Cf. R. cf J., I, iv, 22: "Under love's heavy burden do I
sink." {Jahrb., 40: 189.)

9. books. Malone: [* Capell] would read"0 let my looks," etc. But the
context, I think, shows that the old copy is right. The poet finding that he
could not sufficiently collect his thoughts to express his esteem by speech,
requests that his writings may speak for him. So afterwards: " O learn to read
what silent love hath writ." Had "looks" been the author's word, he hardly
would have used it again in the next line but one. Boswell: It is dangerous
to make any alteration where the old copy is intelligible, or I should give a
decided preference to the reading [of Capell]; the eloquence of looks is more
in unison with love's fine wit, which can hear with eyes. [It will be noticed
that both Malone and Boswell overlook the fact that Sewell had made the
change proposed by Capell. — Ed.] Isaac: [The Q reading] surely suits well

xxm] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 67

neither the progress of thought in the sonnet nor any image presented by this
verse, while "looks" meets all the demands of harmony of ideas and pregnancy
of imagery. ... In line 12 the books are brought into a wholly unintelligible
contrast with the tongue; in this case they must say more than the tongue,
which otherwise can express itself more and better than books. I take this
to be nonsense. . . . [Again, of line 13:] for the understanding of written love-
poems one needs only a knowledge of writing and a small modicum of sense.
Since the poet must assume both these on the part of his loved one, and the
understanding of his verses is certainly not made difficult by any obscure
manner of utterance, I can find absolutely nothing which was to be learned.
. . . How the poet is able to name a love "silent" which is expressed in love
poems, is not readily understood; while one cannot possibly object to the
beautiful suggestion that silent love writes its poems in the countenance. . . .
Sh. compares the eye frequently to a book in which one writes or reads: cf.
93, 7-8; L.L.L., IV, ii, 113; M.N.D., II, ii, 122; W.T., IV, iv, 172; R. cf J.,
I, iii, 81 ff. He uses "write" in this imaginative sense very abundantly. [Cf.
also Spenser's 43d Sonnet, cited above, both for the general idea and the word
" wit," — " Which her deep wit . . . will soon conceive and learn to construe
well." Sh. may have had this sonnet in mind.] ... If, then, we simply reject
the unhappy word " books," everything forced, labored, and abstruse vanishes
from the verses; and if we put "looks" in its place, we can enjoy one of the
most beautiful of Sh.'s sonnets unimpaired. (Archiv, 59: 263-67.) Dowden:
The books of which Sh. speaks are probably the MS. books in which he writes
his sonnets. Massey: These books are the sonnets sent in "written embas-
sage." They were the "dumb presagers" of that which he intended to say, and
afterwards did say , publicly to his friend when he printed [ V.& A. and Lucrcce,
dedicated to Southampton], (p. 37.) Sarrazix [also believes the books were
the V. & A. and the Lucrece. (Jahrb., 34: 371, and Sh.'s Lehrjahre, p. 169.)]
Rolfe: The old reading is supported by line 13. J. G. B. [(Shakes peariana, 2:
495) defends the emendation " looks," on the ground that to " look for recom-
pense " is the office of an eye rather than a book. With " presagers," too, he
compares V. & A., 457, where "ill presage " refers to Adonis's look.] Beechixg:
"Looks" ... is an almost certain emendation, for a distinction between writing
and saying is not here to the point. Even if a "book" might be contrasted
with a "tongue," and spoken of as "dumb," how could it be a presager of
speech? And if "what silent love hath writ" is simply a sonnet, why should
any one need to "learn to read" it? . . . The alliteration of the line confirms
the correction. Bullen: I keep the Q reading, though I admit that Sewell's
"looks" is a highly probable emendation. Acheson [gives a new turn to
Dowden's interpretation, dividing the Sonnets into groups of 20,] bound to-
gether in some crude way ... in what Sh. calls " books." (Sh. & the Rival Poet,
p. 43.) [Though but few editors have felt justified in introducing the emenda-
tion into the text, I believe that Isaac's and Beeching's arguments are fairly
conclusive. Of all the considerations urged, that of Rolfe seems to me the
most baseless. — Ed.]

68 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxm

io. domb presagers. Beeching: The reference is to a preliminary dumb
show, like that before the play in Hamlet. Von Mauntz: Cf. Sidney, A. & S.,
61: "Now with slow words, now with dumb eloquence"; and Sonnet 85, 14.

12. Delius: My tongue, which has said more and said that more more
clearly. Dowden: More than that tongue (the tongue of another person than
Sh.) which hath more fully expressed more ardours of love, or more of your
perfections. Rolfe: ["That tongue" is probably] any tongue, however eloquent.
Tyler: A recompense greater (first "more") than "that tongue" (the voice of
my books) hath better (third "more") expressed than my voice could do that
greater love and recompense ("that more") which I plead for. I have here
adopted an interpretation suggested to me by Mr. G. Bernard Shaw. [Butler's
emendation he is bold to introduce because of "Sh.'s love of antithesis";
"less" he interprets as] less recompense than my eyes are now pleading for.
Abbott: " More" is frequently used as a noun and adverb in juxtaposition. Cf.
Lear, V, iii, 202: " If there be more, more woeful." (§ 51.)

Fleay [views this sonnet as a kind of parody of a passage in Daniel's Com-
plaint of Rosamond, st. 19:

Sweet silent rhetoric of persuading eyes;

Dumb eloquence, whose power doth move the blood

More than the words or wisdom of the wise.]

"Eloquence and dumb presagers" is a palpable hit at the "silent rhetoric"
and "dumb eloquence." . . . The last line of the sonnet is to my mind not
serious, but a very delicate thrust at Daniel's lines, often, but more roughly
burlesqued by subsequent writers. (Biog. Chron., 2: 216.)

Butler [(pp. 69-70) attaches to this sonnet, apparently in connection with
S. 20, some repulsive suspicions which it is neither easy nor desirable to compre-
hend. — Ed.]

Isaac: [Addressed to a woman.] The tone, with all consideration for the
extravagant conception of friendship in that time, is decidedly too tender for a
sonnet of friendship. (Archiv, 59: 262.) Godwin [thinks this to be the first
sonnet addressed to the lady, perhaps dropped into her lap by the poet],
(p- J33-) W. C. Hazlitt: [The sonnet] seems to have been composed just when
circumstances led to a suspension of theatrical performances in London in 1593
and the appearance of Sh. as a lyrical writer. He appears to glance at his own
not too successful efforts as a performer of parts, and to point to his books,
that is, his two poems, as pleaders for him. (Sh., Himself and His Work, p. 252.)

E. J. Ellis: The sense of [this sonnet] is in couplets, the lines falling by their
meaning into pairs all the way through, the second of each pair repeating and
completing the first after the manner of "parallelisms" which form the rhyme
of biblical poetry. The 5th and 6th lines are exceptions, but the rest show this
accidental quality so strikingly that they suggest how Hebrew poetry might be
translated into English without losing its own intention, and yet be made to
belong to the songship of another language.

xxiv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 69

24
Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath steeld,
Thy beauties forme in table of my heart,
My body is the frame wherein ti's held,
And perspectiue it is best Painters art.
For through the Painter must you see his skill, 5

To finde where your true Image pictur'd lies,
Which in my bosomes shop is hanging stil,
That hath his windowes glazed with thine eyes:
Now see what good-turnes eyes for eies haue done, 9

Mine eyes haue drawne thy shape, and thine for me
Are windowes to my brest, where-through the Sun
Delights to peepe, to gaze therein on thee
Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art
They draw but what they see, know not the hart.

I. steeld] stelVd C, A, Kt, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, Gl, Kly, Cam, Do, R, \Yh2,
Ty, Ox, Her, Be, Bull; steled B; stel'd CI, Co*.

4. perspectiue] perspective : Wedmore conj.

5-6. you . . . your] thou . . . thy Stengel conj., Nicholson conj.

9. good-turnes] Hyphen omitted by G, etc.

II. where-through] where through 1640, G, S, E, R2; wherethrough Hu2, N.

Dowden: The stage conceits in this sonnet are paralleled in Constable,
Diana (1594). S. 5:

Thine eye, the glass where I behold my heart,
Mine eye, the window through the which thine eye
May see my heart, and there thyself espy
In bloody colours how thou painted art.

Cf. also Watson, The Tears of Fancy (1593), S. 45-46:

My mistress seeing her fair counterfeit

So sweetly framed in my bleeding breast . . .

But it so fast was fixed to my heart, etc.

Cf. L. L. L., V, ii, 848: " Behold the window of my heart, mine eye."

Isaac [also notes Daniel, Delia, S. 7, "I figured on the table of my heart";
Surrey, "I within my woful breast her picture paint and grave"; and a similar

70 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxiv

passage in Tasso; with the comment, "The idea was therefore a current one."
(Jahrb., 17: 171-72.)] Lee: Ronsard's Ode (livre 4, No. 20) consists of a like
dialogue between the heart and the eye. The conceit is traceable to Petrarch,
whose Sonnet 55 or 63 ("Occhi, piangete, accompagnate il core") is a dialogue
between the poet and his eyes, while his Sonnet 99 or 117 is a companion
dialogue between the poet and his heart. Cf. Watson's Tears of Fancy, 19-20
[" My heart imposed this penance on mine eyes," and " My heart accused mine
eyes and was offended"]; Drayton's Idea, 33 [on the Eyes and Heart envying
each other]; Barnes, P. & P., 20 ["These eyes (thy Beauty's tenants) pay due
tears For occupation of mine heart, thy freehold"]; Constable, Diana, 6th
Decade, S. 7 ["My heart mine eye accuseth of his death"]. (Life, p. 113.)
Beechixg: This sonnet has the air of being a half-humorous, half-serious par-
ody of a common type of sonnet.

Wyndham: The conceit begins with the poet's eye as a painter, who has
drawn the friend's beauty on the poet's heart. It goes on to a play on the
word "frame"; the body is the physiological frame which holds the heart and
other organs, but, taking the other sense of frame, perspective, line 4, is the
best of a painter's art; and, line 5, taking the etymological derivation of per-
spective with a reversion to the conceit that the friend's beauty is engraved on
the poet's physical heart, to see the skill of the picture you must look through
the painter = the poet's eye. The poet's bosom, line 7, being the shop wherein
the picture hangs, has, line 8, borrowed the friend's eyes: making, line 9, a good
exchange of "eyes for eyes." The poet's eyes, line 10, have been engaged in
drawing the friend's shape; the friend's eyes, line n, meanwhile have been
windows, in their place, to the poet's breast, through which, line 12, the sun
delights to peep, to gaze at the image of the friend. This is a conceit with a
vengeance, but it does work out!

1. steeld. [The question of the text here is not a little complicated by a
passage in Lucrece, 1444, "To find a face where all distress is steld," rhyming
with "dwell'd," where also it is disputed whether we should read "steel'd" or
" stell'd." The reference to this passage, therefore, by Dowden and others, in
support of an alteration in the text of the sonnet, is far from final. Equally un-
convincing is Wyndham's defense of "steel'd" in the Lucrece passage by a
reference to V. & A., 376, where the word is used with the meaning "hard-
ened" (the usual meaning in Sh.). There is no clear parallel for the use of the
word with the meaning " engraved." On the other hand, for "stelled" we have
but one parallel, Lear, III, vii, 61, "Quench'd the stelled fires," which Theo-
bald derived from stellatus, but which Schmidt and Furness render "fixed"
on the authority of the passages in Lucrece and this sonnet! Thus the circle
of reasoning is complete. As to the rhyme with " held," cf. field: held in S. 2;
Butler also notes such apparently imperfect rhymes as noon: sun (S. 7),
wrong: young (S. 19), but here the question of pronunciation makes analogy
inconclusive. — Ed.] Beeching: Engraving and painting are different arts,
and in the passage in Lucrece . . . the word is again used of painting. Perhaps

xxiv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 71

it was a virtuoso's word. The parallel with Lucrece suggests an early date for
the sonnet, which its style confirms. Porter: The "table of my heart" would
call for the tool to "steel" rather than "stell" it there. . . . The eye could
better, like a painter or artist, draw "beauty's form" in the tablet of the heart
than place it there as if in a portfolio. Line 10 confirms this.
2. M alone: Cf. A.W., I, i, 104-06:

To sit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
In our heart's table.

Rolfe: Cf. K.J., II, i, 503: " Drawn in the flattering table of her eye."

4. perspective. [Schmidt cites the passage under the common Elizabethan
meaning, " a glass cut in such a manner as to produce an optical deception,
when looked through." Cf. R. 2, II, ii, 18, etc.] Dowdex: A painter's highest
art is to produce the illusion of distance, one thing seeming to lie behind another.
You must look through the painter (my eye or myself) to see your picture, the
product of his skill, which lies within him (in my heart). Tyler: As used here,
the meaning of the word appears to be "capability of being looked through."
. . . Yet there is a reference also to the ordinary' employment of the word in
relation to pictorial art. Butler [interprets the word as Schmidt does, and is
led to comment:] That Sh. could call such a trick as this "best painter's art"
shows that in. matters of painting he was profoundly ignorant. [Reference to
the N. E. D. will show that the modern meaning of the word was common
also in Sh.'s time; cf. especially, from Haydocke's translation of Lomazzo
(1598), "A painter without the perspectives was like a doctor without gram-
mar." — Ed.]

5. Verity: Literally: to see the picture painted in my heart you must look
through my eye, the eye being the window of the heart; metaphorically: to
appreciate properly a painter's work you should regard it with the eyes of
the painter himself. [A valuable idea, but scarcely pertinent to the present
sonnet. — Ed.]

5-6. you . . . your. [The only instance where the pronoun of address to the
friend is apparently changed inside a sonnet; see note on S. 13. — Ed.] Dow-
den: May not you and your be used indefinitely, not with reference to the
person addressed, but to what is of common application, as in " Your marriage
comes by destiny," A.W., I, iii, 66. [This explanation had occurred to me
independently, and I have tried to cherish it; but to do so is made difficult by
the fact that the only instances we have in Sh. of the indefinite you are dis-
tinctly colloquial — usually on rather a low level, even at that; the instance
quoted by Dowden is from a doggerel ballad. Another difficulty is that "your
image" seems to have distinct reference to the image of the friend. It should
be added that in 104, 12-13 is another change of pronoun, though in this case
not with reference to the poet's friend. — Ed.] [My friend Professor H. D.
Gray remarks:] I think we are fully warranted in emending the text to read
"thy true image." Sh.'s extreme care in his use of the pronouns of address

72 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxv

makes it much less likely that he should have been so needlessly careless here
than that some copyist made the natural enough mistake of writing "your"
for "thy."

ii. windowes. [For the use of this word for the eyes, Verity cites L. L. L.,
V, ii, 848; V. & A., 482; R. & J., IV, i, 100; Cymb., II, ii, 22; and similar
passages from Dekker, Sidney, and the author of Diella.]

14. know not the hart. Tyler: Intimating possibly a suspicion in accord-
ance with the last lines of S. 22.

25
Let those who are in fauor with their stars,
Of publike honour and proud titles bost,
Whilst I whome fortune of such tryumph bars
Vnlookt for ioy in that I honour most;
Great Princes fauorites their faire leaues spread, 5
But as the Marygold at the suns eye,
And in them-selues their pride lies buried,
For at a frowne they in their glory die.
The painefull warrier famosed for worth, 9

After a thousand victories once foild,
Is from the booke of honour rased quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toild :
Then happy I that loue and am beloued
Where I may not remoue, nor be remoued.

4. Vnlookt for] Unlook'd on Sta conj.; Unhonour'd Sta conj., But.

9-1 1. famosed for worth . . . rased quite] for worth famosed . . . quite rased
Stee conj. worth . . . quite] worth . . . forthTh conj., Kly, Wh1, Co3; might . . .
quite C; fight . . . quite Th conj., M, A, Kt, Co1*2, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl,
Hal, Cam, Do, R, Wh2, Ox, etc.

1-4. Massey: Sh. tells us indirectly that his young friend is not in favour
. . . with Fortune, nor the recipient of public honours, (p. no.) Butler: [The
sonnet expresses joy] that Sh., and apparently Mr. W. H. as well, do not move
in an exalted sphere. Tyler: Cf. Sonnets 29, 36, in.

4. C. A. Brown: This is evidence that the noble youth had sought an ac-
quaintance with Sh., and proffered his friendship, (p. 61.) Massey: The
young earl first sought out the poet, and conferred on him an unexpected
honour: a joy "unlooked for." (p. 60.) Wyndham: Not distinguished as a fa-

xxv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 73

vourite was said to be "distinguished" by a look or word from his sovereign.
Beeching: Probably an adverbial usage [of unlook'd], meaning: contrary to
general usage, "most people joy in being honoured, I in honouring." Butler:
Bearing in mind the carelessness with which this sonnet was printed in 1. 9,
and Sh.'s great love of antithesis, I have ventured to adopt Staunton's bold
conjecture [" unhonour'd "]. Horace Davis: " Unlookt for "=inconspicuous.
5-12. M alone: Cf. H. 8, III, ii, 352-58:

This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth

The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms, . . .

The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, etc.

Wyndham: If, as to me seems probable, the earlier sonnets were written in
1599, no lines could have been penned more apposite than [these] to the fall
and disgrace of Essex after his military failure in Ireland.

6. Marygold. Dowden: The garden marigold or Ruddes {calendula officin-
alis) . . . turns its flowers to the sun, and follows his guidance in their opening
and shutting. The old name is goldes; it was the heliotrope, solsequium, or
turnesol of our forefathers. (Condensed from Ellacombe's Plant Lore of Sh.)
Rolfe: Cf. Wither:

When with a serious musing I behold

The grateful and obsequious marigold,

How duly every morning she displays

Her open breast when Phoebus spreads his rays; . . .

How when he down declines she droops and mourns, etc.

9. worth. M alone: The emendation [fight] was suggested by Mr. Theobald,
who likewise proposed, if "worth" was retained, to read "razed forth."
Steevens, [in proposing his cacophonous emendation, observed urbanely:]
This stanza is not worth the labour that has been bestowed on it. Collier [pre-
ferred the reading worth . . . forth, though he did not care to] disturb the text
as it has stood for a century. [MASSEY and Ingleby express the same prefer-
ence, the latter observing, " Forth is precisely our modern out," and, for worth =
virtus, citing L. L. L., I, i, 173: "the worth of many a knight." (The Soule
Arayed, p. 6.)] B. Nicholson: I believe that Sh., led partly by alliteration, but
chiefly by the natural sequence of such a word after "warrior " and before line
10, first wrote " fight," but afterwards, seeing that "rased forth " was more em-
phatic than "rased quite," altered "fight" to "worth," but (he or his copier)
omitted to change the "quite" to "forth." (N. c? Q., 7th s., 5: 62.)

11. M ALONE: Cf. R. 2, II, iii, 75: "To raze one title of your honour out."
13-14. Beeching: This final couplet points emphatically the general im-
pression given by the sonnet that Sh.'s friend was not himself a " great prince's
favourite."

14. remove. Dowden, [in one of the most painful of his efforts to find links
between the successive sonnets as they stand, finds here an anticipation of the
journey of S. 26: Sh.] rejoices to think that at least in one place he has a fixed

74 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxvi

abode. [For the punctuation, see P. Simpson's note on 12, 14. This line, he
remarks, is] similar in rhythm and equally spoilt by modern editors, (p. 24.)

[Von Mauxtz, not finding in this sonnet anything applicable to a particular
person, believes that it has for its subject the poet's art or genius.]

26

Lord of my loue, to whome in vassalage

Thy merrit hath my dutie strongly knit;

To thee I send this written ambassage

To witnesse duty, not to shew my wit.

Duty so great, which wit so poore as mine 5

May make seeme bare, in wanting words to shew it;

But that I hope some good conceipt of thine

In thy soules thought (all naked) will bestow it:

Til whatsoeuer star that guides my mouing, 9

Points on me gratiously with faire aspect,

And puts apparrell on my tottered louing,

To show me worthy of their sweet respect,

Then may I dare to boast how I doe loue thee,

Til then, not show my head where thou maist proue me

3. ambassage] embassage G2, S2, E, C, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta,
CI, Gl, Kly, Wh, Hal, R, Her.
5. which] with Sl.

8. thy] my S, E.

9. my] by Kly [error?].

11. tottered] tattered S, etc. (except Bull, Wa).

12. their] thy C, M, etc.

13. dare] dear S1.

*Capell [compared the first quatrain of this sonnet with the phrasing of the
Dedication to Lucrece.] Boswell: This note, I imagine, suggested to Dr.
Drake his theory that the Sonnets were addressed to Lord Southampton.
Drake [at any rate noted the resemblance as proof of his theory:] In the first
place, it may be observed that in his prose, as well as in his verse, our author
uses the same amatory language; . . . while the residue tells us, in exact con-
formity with the prose address, his high sense of His Lordship's merit and
his own unworthiness. {Sh. & his Times, 2:63-64.) [The Dedication is as
follows:]

xxvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 75

"To the Right Honourable, Henry- Wriothesley, Earle of Southampton, and
Baron of Titchfield. The love I dedicate to your Lordship is without end:
wherof this Pamphlet without beginning is but a superfluous Moity. The
warrant I have of your Honourable disposition, not the worth of my untutord
Lines makes it assured of acceptance. What I have done is yours, what I have
to doe is yours, being part in all I have, devoted yours. Were my worth
greater, my duety would shew greater, meane time, as it is. it is bound to your
Lordship; To whom I wish long life still lengthned with all happinesse.

"Your Lordships in all duety. William Shakespeare."

Knight: A dedication, accompanying some new production of the mighty
dramatist, in accordance with his declaration, "What I have done is yours,
what I have to do is yours." . . . The sonnet which precedes this has also the
marked character of the same respectful affection, and. like the 26th, in all
probability accompanied some offering of friendship. {Illustration, p. 470.)
Delius: A dedication sonnet to one of higher rank, with whom the poet speaks
in a wholly different tone — although in one as affectionate as respectful
— from that of the supposed exhortations to marriage. (Jahrb., 1:41.) Massey:
This was written and sent in MS. to the friend addressed, before the writer had
published anything, that is, before the year 1593. . . . The dedication to the
V. Sf A. is in part fulfilment of the intentions expressed [here.] In fact we see
the sonnet was as much a private dedication of the poet's first poem, as this
epistle was afterwards the public one. (pp. 36, 48.) Isaac [finds the sonnet
very different in tone from the Dedication of Lucrece:] Nothing could show
more clearly the difference between the language that one uses to a noble patron
and that to a friend, than a comparison of these two dedications. As cere-
monially, constrainedly, in as utter submissiveness, as in the Dedication to
Lucrece, one addressed his patron in that age; as intimately, with such self-
abandon, often as finely, as in S. 26, one addressed a friend in those days —
and in every age. (Jahrb., 19: 242.) Lord Campbell [refers to the sonnet as]
a love-letter, in the language of a vassal doing homage to his liege-lord. (Sh.'s
Legal Acquirements, p. 101.) Tyler: Drake's argument [from the resemblance
to the Dedication] that it is Lord Southampton who is here addressed also, is
certainly not conclusive. We have, however, obviously a colouring of plausibil-
ity given to the assertion that Mr. W. H. was a person of somewhat similarly
high station. Sarrazix: It is scarcely too bold to assume that this poem accom-
panied the MS. of Lucrece, and was therefore composed about the spring of
1594. (Sh.'s Lehrjahre, p. 170.) Archer: [The resemblance proves nothing
but] that even in the mind of Sh. similar situations begot similar expressions.
(Fort. Rev., n.s. 62: 825.) Lee: A gorgeous rendering of [the Dedication,
addressed to Southampton.] . . . There is little doubt that this sonnet was
parodied by Sir John Davies in the 9th and last of his "gulling" sonnets, in
which he ridicules the notion that a man of wit should put his wit in vassalage
to any one.

To love my lord I do knight's service owe,

And therefore now he hath my wit in ward ; [etc.]

(Life, pp. 127, 128 n.)

76 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxvi

Beeching: [This] is possible, though, considering the excesses in this respect
of Zcpheria, jto which Davies refers by name, it is uncertain. [He goes on to
show that the date of Davies's sonnets is uncertain, and therefore, even if the
resemblance is significant, we are not helped in the problem of dating Sh.'s.]
(Intro., p. xxvii n.)

Walsh: [Cf. one of Spenser's dedicatory sonnets prefixed to the F. Q.,
addressed to Lord Grey of Wilton:

Most noble lord, the pillar of my life,

And patron of my Muse's pupillage,

Through whose large bounty, poured on me rife,

In the first season of my feeble age,

I now do live, bound yours by vassalage; etc.]

... It is quite possible that this sonnet was a private dedication written in the
presentation copy [of Lucrece] sent to Southampton. . . . For sake of com-
parison it is noteworthy that Spenser's dedicatory sonnet to the Countess of
Pembroke, among those prefixed to his F. Q., was little else than a poetical
version of his prose dedication to her of his Ruins of Time.

C. A. Brown [made this sonnet the "envoy" to what he called the "first
poem" of the series, i.e., 1-26. The same conjecture is proposed by Dowden,
Tyler, Acheson (Sh. & the Rival Poet, p. 31), and T. L. M. Douse, who writes
as follows:] This sonnet was sent as an envoi, or covering note, with 1-25, to the
addressee, who had evidently laid on the poet a charge . . . that he would pro-
duce a poem or poems on a given subject. This charge the poet has taken up
and executed, and so fulfilled a thrice-named duty. ... [It is obvious] that the
addressee was a man of sufficient station and authority to secure the execution
of his wishes; also that Sh. was but slightly acquainted with him, although he
hopes to be on friendly terms some day; also that Sonnets 1-25 were pure
poetry, so that the poet fears they may be taken as a mere exercise of his clever-
ness. (N. & Q., 10th s., 2: 133.) [On the other hand, Wyndham treats the
sonnet as "a formal address" opening the sequence 26-32 (Intro., p. ex);
Butler is disposed to think it accompanied "the six next following sonnets";
and Beeching makes it the opening sonnet of its group, called "Thoughts in
Absence."]

2. Steevens: Cf. Macb., Ill, i, 15-18:

Let your Highness
Command upon me; to the which my duties
Are with a most indissoluble tie
For ever knit.

4. wit. Schmidt [does not cite the present passage; but it falls under his
definition:] imaginative and inventive faculty.

7. conceipt. [See note on 15, 9; and note how the spelling here preserves the
relationship of the word to "concept." — Ed.]

8. all naked. Dowden: My duty, even naked as it is. bestow. Schmidt:

xxvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 77

Lodge. Tyler: [The word] here seems to mean not merely "lodge," but also
"equip" and "clothe."

9. whatsoever . . . that. Abbott [explains this construction as an ellipsis of
"it be." (§286).] moving. Schmidt: Living. Tyler: The poet, it would ap-
pear, in accordance with following sonnets, is about to commence a journey.
Beechixg: There need be no reference in this word to any journey, since it is
a general expression for life, as in the phrase "to live, and move, and have our
being;" but the word is common in Sh. of the "motion" of heavenly bodies,
and in one or two places it is used of the movements of men under their influ-
ence. Thus . . . A.W., II, i, 56: "Eat, speak, and move under the influence
of the most received star." So that "moving" here may imply journeying.
In the former case the sonnet may be taken as envoy to what precedes, in the
latter as proem to what follows.

11. Acheson [finds here a reference to the grant of arms received by Sh. on
application to the College of Heralds in 1596. (Sh. & the Rival Poet, p. 119.)]
tottered. See note on 2, 4.

12. their. M ALONE: For the correction [to "thy"] I am answerable. The
same mistake has several times happened in these sonnets, owing probably to
abbreviations having been formerly used for the words "their" and "thy, " so
nearly resembling each other as not to be easily distinguished. I have observed
the same error in some of the old English plays. [The other instances usually
corrected are in 27, 10; 35, 8; 37, 7; 43, n; 45, 12; 46, 3, 8, 13, 14; 69, 5; 70, 6:
128, 11, 14. — Ed.] YYyndham, [always disposed to save the Q reading if he
can, observes:] It is possible that "their" may be the right reading, referring
to the stars, suggested by "whatsoever star" in line 9; [and Miss Porter, who
defends the Q to the death — of reason, believes that "theft" refers to "the
sweet respect of the star and thy soules thought."]

13-14. Dowden: The rhyme has an echo of Daniel's Delia, S. 10:

Once let her know! sh' hath done enough to prove me,
And let her pity, if she cannot love me.

[Von Mauntz compares with this sonnet Ovid's Ex Ponto, IV, i, 19-21:

Idque sinas oro, nee fastidita repellas

Verba nee officio crimen inesse putes;
Et levis haec meritis referatur gratia tantis.]

78 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxvn

27

Weary with toyle, I hast me to my bed,
The deare repose for lims with trauaill tired,
But then begins a iourny in my head
To worke my mind, when boddies work's expired.
For then my thoughts (from far where I abide) 5

Intend a zelous pilgrimage to thee;
And keepe my drooping eye-lids open wide,
Looking on darknes which the blind doe see.
Saue that my soules imaginary sight 9

Presents their shaddoe to my sightles view,
Which like a iewell (hunge in gastly night)
Makes blacke night beautious, and her old face new.
Loe thus by day my lims, by night my mind,
For thee, and for my selfe, noe quiet finde.

2. trauaill] travel G2, S2, etc. (except But).

3. head] head, G2, S2, etc. (except Do, Ox).
5. from far] far from G, S, E, M conj.

10. their] thy C, M, etc.

Massey: [This and the following sonnet pertain to the journey and absence
abroad, spoken of in 44-45, 50, 61. (p. 91.)] Isaac [puts the pair in a group of
Reiselieder with 43-48, 50-51, 61, 97-99, 113-114, and believes they are con-
nected with a hypothetical journey to Italy. (Jahrb., 19: 209.)] [For Fleay's
notion that all these "absence" or "travel" sonnets refer not to any actual
journey, but to the separation between Southampton and Sh. caused by the
supposed unfaithfulness of the latter, see Macm. Mag., 31: 435.]

[For the theme of the two sonnets Massey compares Sidney, A. & S., 89:

Now that of absence the most irksome night

With darkest shade doth overcome my day,

Since Stella's eyes, wont to give me my day,

Leaving my hemisphere, leave me in night; etc. (p. 77-)

And Isaac notes also Sidney's 88 ("Out! traitor Absence!"), 98 (" Ah, bed!
... I am constrained, spurred with Love's spur, ... to turn and toss in thee!"),
and 99 ("When far-spent night persuades each mortal eye"); Daniel, S. 49
(the well-known "Care-charmer Sleep"); two sonnets of Surrey's (2 and 10,
Nott ed.); and various poems of Petrarch's (Pt. I, Canzone 4; S. 161, 168, 178).

xxvn] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 79

(Jahrb., 17: 191.)] Lee: Sh. in many beautiful sonnets describes . . . night and
sleep and their influence on amorous emotion. Such topics are common themes
of the poetry of the Renaissance, and they figure in Sh.'s pages clad in the
identical livery that clothed them in the sonnets of Petrarch, Ronsard, de Baif,
and Desportes, or of English disciples of the Italian and French masters. . . .
For descriptions of night and sleep see especially Ronsard's Amours (livre 1,
186; livre 2, 22; Odes, livre 4, Xo. 4, and his Odes Retranchees, in OZuvres, ed.
Blanchemain, 2: 392-4). Cf. Barnes, P. & P., S. 83 ["Dark night! black image
of my foul despair!"] (Life, pp. 111-12.)

3. head. Dowden*: Modern editors put a comma after "head." But is not
the construction "a journey in my head begins to work my mind"?

3-4. [An anonymous writer in Blackwood's, 139: 335, compares Dante,
Purgatorio, ii, 11-12:

Like men who, musing on their road, in thought
Journey, while motionless the body stands.]

6. Intend. Schmidt: Direct. Dowden: Used frequently of travel. Cf.
M. W. W., II, i, 188: "If he should intend this voyage toward my wife."
7-8. Massey: [Cf. Sidney, A. &• S., 99:

With windows ope then [i.e., at night] most my mind doth lie,
Viewing the shape of darkness and delight.]

(P- I47-)

9. imaginary. Rolfe: Imaginative. Cf. K.J., IV, ii, 265: "Foul imaginary
eyes."

10. their. [See note on 26, 12. Again Wyxdham thinks it possible, and Miss
Porter certain, that the word should be kept, referring to "my thoughts."]
shaddoe. Schmidt: Image produced by the imagination. [Cf. 37, 10, and
notes. — Ed.]

11-12. M ALONE: Cf. R. e* J., I, v, 47-48:

Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear

[the reading of the 2d Folio].

12. For the rhythm, see note on 5, 7.

13-14. Dowden: By day my limbs find no quiet for myself, i.e., on account
of business of my own; by night my mind finds no quiet for thee, i.e., on your
account, thinking of you. Rolfe: For the interlaced or "chiastic" construc-
tion . . . cf. W.T., III, ii, 164: "Though I with death and with reward did
threaten and encourage him"; and S. 75, 11-12.

Brandl [thinks that this sonnet and 28 were addressed to a woman, (p. x.)].

8o THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxvm

28

How can I then returne in happy plight

That am debard the benifit of rest ?

When daies oppression is not eazd by night,

But day by night and night by day oprest.

And each (though enimes to ethers raigne) 5

Doe in consent shake hands to torture me,

The one by toyle, the other to complaine

How far I toyle, still farther off from thee.

I tell the Day to please him thou art bright, 9

And do'st him grace when clouds doe blot the heauen:

So flatter I the swart complexiond night,

When sparkling stars twire not thou guil'st th' eauen.
But day doth daily draw my sorrowes longer,
And night doth nightly make greefes length seeme stronger

5. ethers] others 1640, L, G, S, E; either's M, etc.

8. farther] further Hu, Ox.

9. to please him] Between commas G2, S, E, M, A, Kt, B, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI,
Kly, Do, Ty, But, Be.

12. twire] twire, 1640; tweer G, S, E; twirl M conj.; twink Stee conj.; tire
Massey conj. not] out, G, S, E. guil'st] guild' st G2, S1; gild'st S2, etc.

13-14. longer length seeme stronger] stronger . . . length seem longer anon,

conj. (in M); longer . . . strength seem stronger C, Kt, Del, Dy, Co2'3), Sta, Gl,
Kly, Wh, Cam, Hu2, R, But, Ox, Her, Be, Bull, Wa.

1-2. Wyndham: .The marked query in these two lines suggests that they
are a rejoinder to some kindly expression of good wishes for the poet's happy
return in a letter from the friend.

9. [Despite the rather important difference of editorial practice in the punctu-
ation of this line, determining whether "to please him" is the reason why "I
tell the day" or why "thou art bright," the matter has escaped discussion.
The weight of opinion is shown by the textual notes to favor the former, —
reading "to please him" between commas, — doubtless for the reason that
the context suggests that the phrase is parallel with "flatter": I console the
day, when it is cloudy, as I flatter the night when it is starless. It is possible,
however, to read the two sentences as parallel, and still suppose that "thou
art bright" with the friendly purpose of pleasing the day. — Ed.]

xxvml THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 81

12. Massey: Cf. M. N. D., Ill, ii, 187-88:

Fair Helena, that more engilds the night

Than ail yon fiery oes and eyes of light. (p. 88.)

twire. Steeyexs [following Tyrwhitt's interpretation of the word in Chau-
cer's version of Boethius, thought that it might mean "sing.*' — if not
a corruption of "twink."] Boswell: In Jonson's Sad Shepherd this word
occurs: "Which maids will twire at 'tween their fingers thus." Mr. Gifford,
in a note on that passage (Works, vi, 280), produces several instances of the
word in our ancient writers, and explains the expression in the text thus:
"When the stars do not gleam or appear at intervals." To hvire seems to have
much the same significance as to peep. [This explanation has been generally
accepted, except by Massey, who reverted to the Chaucerian meaning,
explaining, however, that the word "is employed for visible motion as well as
audible," and hence is applicable to the quivering light of the stars. He also
believed that the image was suggested to Sh. by Sidney's conceit (A. e3 5., 38)
that his Stella "not only shines but sings." (p. 148.)]

13-14. M alone: [*Capell] proposes to make the two concluding words of
this couplet to change places. But I believe the old copy to be right. "Stronger "
cannot well apply to drawn out or protracted sorrow. [In his MS. corrections,
it will be noticed, Capell made the alternative emendation which has been
followed by many editors. — Ed.] Delius, [supporting this emendation
("strength" for "length"), calls attention to 2 H. 4, II, iii, 55:

Then join you with them, like a rib of steel,

To make strength stronger.]

Dowden: [If we keep the Q text, it means: The drawing-out of my sorrows
does not weaken them,] for my night-thoughts come to make my sorrows as
strong as before, nay stronger. It might be supposed that my grief if long were
light, but this is not so; it grows in length indeed each day, but also to this
length is added strength each night. [This is followed by Wykdham, with more
assurance. Beeching favors the emendation, because] it is best to continue
the division of the poet's woe between day and night — to the day length of
journey, to the night strength of complaint. [I have no doubt that the emen-
dation is justified, if any is justified except to avoid absolute nonsense. — Ed.]

82 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxix

29

When in disgrace with Fortune and mens eyes,
I all alone beweepe my out-cast state,
And trouble deafe heauen with my bootlesse cries,
And looke vpon my selfe and curse my fate.
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, 5

Featur'd like him, like him with friends possest,
Desiring this mans art, and that mans skope,
With what I most inioy contented least,

, Yet in these thoughts my selfe almost despising, 9

Haplye I thinke on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the Larke at breake of daye arising)
v From sullen earth sings himns at Heauens gate,
For thy sweet loue remembred such welth brings,
That then I skorne to change my state with Kings.

9. Yet] Yea Sta conj.

10-12. state, (Like . . . arising) From sullen earth] state, Like . . . arising
From sullen earth, G\ S2, E, B, Hu, Gl, Dy2, Cam, Do, R, Wh2, Ty, Ox, Her,
Be, N, Bull; state — Like . . . arising From sullen earth, — C; state (Like . . .
arising From sullen earth) M, A, Kt, Co, Del, Dy1, Sta, CI, Wh1; state — Like
...arising From sullen earth — Kly, Hal; state, (Like ... arising) From
sullen earth, Wy; state Like . . . arising From sullen earth, But; state, Like . . .
arising, From sullen earth Wa.

12. earth] earths G1. sings himns] to sing G2, S2, E.

M alone: These nervous and animated lines, in which such an assemblage
of thoughts, clothed in the most glowing expressions, is compressed into the
narrow compass of fourteen lines, might, I think, have saved the whole of this
collection from the general and indiscriminate censure thrown out against them
by Mr. Steevens.

Massey: [Cf. with this and S. 30 Sidney, A. & S., 18:

With what sharp checks I in myself am shent,

When into Reason's audit I do go;

And by just counts, myself a bankrupt know

Of all those goods which heaven to me hath lent; (etc.)
and ibid.. 64:

Let Fortune lay on me her worst disgrace!

Let folk o'ercharged with brain against me cry. (p. 76.)]

xxix] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 83

Tyler: This sonnet, with its mention of Sh.'s "outcast state," etc., would
be very suitable to the supposition that he was on a provincial tour as an actor.
Lee: The sonnets in which [Sh.] . . . gives expression to a sense of melancholy,
offer at times a convincing illusion of autobiographic confessions. . . . But they
may be, on the other hand, merely literary meditations. . . . Almost every note
in the scale of sadness or self-reproach is sounded from time to time in Pe-
trarch's sonnets. Tasso in Scelta delle Rime, 1582, pt. 2, p. 26, has a sonnet
(beginning "Vinca fortuna homai, se sotto il peso") which adumbrates Sh.'s
Sonnets 29 and 66. . . . Drummond's Sonnets 25 ("What cruel star into this
world was brought") and 32 ("If crost with all mishaps be my poor life") are
pitched in the identical key. {Life, p. 152.) [This is an example of the sort of
comparative criticism of the Sonnets which has repeatedly vexed the souls of
those who cherish great admiration for the writer's learning. The source of the
vexation is, in part at least, the implication that that which has been abun-
dantly uttered by others is not likely to be uttered anew in personal sincerity.
If this were so, what should true lovers and honest sufferers do? The attitude
of Sir Sidney Lee is, from one standpoint, a wholesome reaction against the
sort of biographic interpretation represented by the note of Tyler, quoted
above, which assumes that Sh. could not have written this sonnet except under
the stress of some particular situation. But it is a long way from this extreme
to the other, — the inference that Sh. was not voicing his own disappointments
.because the Renaissance poets generally had chosen the sonnet in which to
voice theirs. The fallacy lurks in the phrase " literary meditation "; is a literary
meditation a mere imitation? — Ed.]

1. Fortune. [The capital initial here has been very generally, and I think
wrongly, omitted by modern editors, doubtless under the influence of the
Malone and the Cambridge editions. (Exceptions are the texts of Wyndham,
Butler, Xeilson, and a few others.) Surely the importance of the personifica-
tion of Fortune in Elizabethan literature raises a presumption of its being
found here. — Ed.]

3. [Abbott scans this line rather sadly, treating "trouble" as an instance of
the contraction of dissyllables in /, and "heaven" as dissyllabic. (§ 465.) It is
surely preferable to read "deaf heav'n" with "hovering accent." — Ed.]

5-7. Lamb: [Thus could Sh.] in the plenitude and consciousness of his own
powers, . . . with that noble modesty which we can neither imitate nor appre-
ciate, express himself ... of his own sense of his own defects. (Essay on The
Tragedies of Sh.)

8. Dowdex: The preceding line makes it not improbable that Sh. is here
speaking of his own poems.

10-12. [The various editions, while exhibiting great diversity of detail in
the punctuation of these lines, are — it will be noticed — in pretty general
agreement in removing the stop after "arising." In addition to Wyndham and
Walsh, Percy Simpsox holds to the dubious construction of the Q, and main-
tains that editors have no right to move the second mark of parenthesis three

84 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxx

words further on. "It breaks a subtle link with the thought of the opening
lines and impoverishes the beauty of the simile to detach [the poet's] 'state'
from the 'sullen earth.' " (p. 93.) This is what might be called transcendental
punctuation. If followed, we must read, in effect, "My state from sullen earth
sings hymns at heaven's gate," which suggests a use of at like that in the
phrase "shouted at him." What the lark does, at any rate, is not to sing from
sullen earth, but to rise from it, and it seems safer to follow the maker of the
simile than the printer of the parentheses. — Ed.]
Malone: Cf. Cymb., II, iii, 21-22:

Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,
And Phoebus gins arise.

. . . Perhaps, as Mr. Reed has observed, Sh. remembered Lilly's Campaspe

(1584):

None but the lark so shrill and clear;
Now at heaven's gate she claps her wings.

30
When to the Sessions of sweet silent thought,
I sommon vp remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lacke of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new waile my deare times waste:
Then can I drowne an eye (vn-vs'd to flow) 5

For precious friends hid in deaths dateles night,
And weepe a fresh loues long since canceld woe,
And mone th'expence of many a vannisht sight.
Then can I greeue at greeuances fore-gon, 9

And heauily from woe to woe tell ore
The sad account of fore-bemoned mone,
Which I new pay, as if not payd before.

But if the while I thinke on thee (deare friend)
All losses are restord, and sorrowes end.

4. woes] woes' Kock conj. times] time's G2, S, E, M, Co, etc. (except
Ox); times' A, Kt, Ox.

8. th'expence] the expence C, M, A, Kt, B, Del, CI, Gl, Kly, Cam, Do, R,
VVh2, Ty, Ox, But, Her, Be, N.

1. Sessions. [For the legal metaphor, Malone compares] Oth., Ill, iii,
138-41:

xxx] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 85

Who has a breast so pure
But some uncleanly apprehensions
Keep leets and law-days and in sessions sit
With meditations lawful?

4. [Note the remarkably spondaic rhythm. — Ed.] Palgrave: Cf. Kaivois
raKaia. SaKpuois arivtiv ko.ko.. [Apparently a misquotation, as Professor W. A.
Oldfather brings to my attention, of a passage attributed to Euripides (see
Nauck, Trag. Graec. Fragm., fragment 43). — Ed.] deare times waste. Tyler:
The things or persons devastated or destroyed by Time, which were dear
to me. [Rolfe seems to favor this interpretation, in the paraphrase, " Those
dear to me now gone." I cannot think, however, that "my time's waste"
should be so read. Is it not that his time has been wasted, in a sense, in seeking
(line 3) the things which he now lacks, — that all his life has been wasted
in the same tragic accumulation of what are now "vanisht sights"? — Ed.]
E. A. Kock [(Anglia, 31 : 133) would take " wail " as a noun and " waste " as
a verb, paraphrasing: " And spend my precious moments in the fresh bewailing
of old woes."]

6. dateles. Schmidt: Eternal. Cf. 153, 6.

8. expence. Schmidt: Loss; cf. 129, 1. [So Rolfe, Beeching, etc.] Dowden:
Does not "moan the expense" mean "pay my account of moans for"? Tyler:
Moan over what the loss of "precious friends" cost me in sorrow. [As appears
from my note on "time's waste," I am disposed to agree with Tyler's note
here, only with the emphasis on the whole weary experience, rather than the
mere final loss. — Ed.] sight. Steevens: Many an object which, being gone
hence, is no more seen. M alone: Sight seems to be here used for "sigh," by
the same license which Sh. has already employed in his Lucrece, writing "hild"
instead of "held," "than" instead of "then," etc. . . . The substantive "sigh"
was in our author's time pronounced so hard, that in one of the old copies of
1 H. 4,Q 1599, we have: "And with a rising sight he wisheth you in heaven."
Delius: Image (Bild). Beeching: We speak of friends as being "lost to
(our) sight." Sh. calls each of them a "lost sight."

10. Rolfe: In this line and the next, note the lingering sadness of the long
o's. tell. Schmidt: Count. Cf. 138, 12.

13. friend. Massey [notes that this is the first of the sonnets to use this
form of address, which he holds to be characteristic of lovers, in Elizabethan
use, — a stronger term, or more associated with love between the sexes, than
the "love" of 22, 9, etc. In support he cites a love-letter written by Sir George
Hayward, 1550, beginning "My dearest friend"; a lover in one of Dekker's
plays, apostrophizing his lady's portrait as "thou figure of my friend"; Surrey,
calling his lady "my friend"; Beatrice of Benedick, "I must ne'er love that
which my friend hates"; Luciobf Claudio, "He hath got his friend with child";
Hermia to her lover, "Gentle friend"; and others. On the other hand, in
Sonnets 1-26, clearly addressed by a man to one of the same sex, the title
"love" is used seven times, and "friend" not at all. (p. 123.)]

86 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxxi

3i

Thy bosome is indeared with all hearts,

Which I by lacking haue supposed dead,

And there raignes Loue and all Loues louing parts,

And all those friends which I thought buried.

How many a holy and obsequious teare 5

Hath deare religious loue stolne from mine eye,

As interest of the dead, which now appeare,

But things remou'd that hidden in there lie.

Thou art the graue where buried loue doth Hue, 9

Hung with the tropheis of my louers gon,

Who all their parts of me to thee did giue,

That due of many, now is thine alone.

Their images I lou'd, I view in thee,

And thou (all they) hast all the all of me.

6. deare religious] Hyphened by Walker conj., Sta, Dy2, Hu2.
8. there] thee G, etc. (except Wy, Wa).

II. giue,] give; S\ M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Wh, Hal,
Cam, Do, R1, Ty, Wy, But, Bull, Wa; give: Her, Be.
14. all the all] Hyphened by Sta.

Simpson [finds in the theme of this sonnet a presentation of the Platonic
view of love as lending itself] to many collateral objects without being false to
its great object. It is a higher stage when all collateral, all inferior objects are
summed up in the main object, and live a second life in him. (p. 34.) (Cf. note
on 98, 11-12.) So Wyndham:] The mystical confusion with and in the friend
of all that is beautiful or lovable in the poet and others, is a development from
the Platonic theory of the Idea of Beauty: the eternal type of which all beauti-
ful things on earth are but shadows. (Intro., p. cxviii.)

1-4. Massey: Cf. Sidney, A. & S., 1st Song: "Who long dead beauty with
increase reneweth?" (p. 76.)

5. obsequious. M alone: Funereal; cf. Haml., I, ii, 92:

The survivor bound
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious sorrow.

[So Dowden, Collier, Rolfe, Beeching, etc.; but Tyler renders "dutiful."
There is hardly warrant for the rendering "funereal," either in the Hamlet

xxxi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 87

passage or here; though a special tendency in the word, in such connections,
is doubtless rightly indicated by Schmidt ("especially zealous with respect to
what is due to the deceased ") and the N. E. D. ("dutiful in performing funeral
obsequies"). — Ed.]

6. religious. Dowdex: Cf. L. C, 250: "Religious love put out Religion's
eye." Schmidt: Devoted to any holy obligation. [But, in the passages in ques-
tion, "devoted" without the modifying words is a better rendering. — Ed.]
[Walker, hyphenating the word with deare, explains, "Making a religion of
its affections."]

7. interest. Schmidt: Right, claim. [Cf. 74, 3, where Schmidt renders the
word "share, participation." The uses, however, are closely related; both
being, in a sense, figurative from the primary meaning, "the relation of being
objectively concerned in something, by having a right or title to, a claim upon,
or a share in." (N. E. D.) Cf. R. 3, II, ii, 47:

Ah, so much interest have I in thy sorrow
As I had title in thy noble husband. — Ed.]

8. there. Malone: The next line shows clearly that [this reading] is cor-
rupt. Wyndham: I retain the Q reading: "there" refers back to "thy bosom"
(line 1); "and there" (line 3). Thus "hidden in there" = hidden in thy bosom.
[Miss Porter makes a similar painful effort to keep the text. It need hardly
be remarked that Sh. would have written "therein" (as frequently), if the
meaning had been that suggested. — Ed.]

q.'McClumpha: Cf. R. cf /., II, iii, 83:

And bad'st me bury love.

— Xot in a grave. (Jahrb., 40: 189.)

10. Dowdex: Cf, L. C, 218: "Lo, all these trophies of affections hot . . .
must your oblations be."

11. parts of me. Rolfe: Shares in me, claims upon me.

II-12. [All the modern editors except Craig and Xeilson put a strong stop
after "give," doubtless interpreting the following "That" as demonstrative.
Following the Q text, I explained "that" as "so that" in the Tudor edition:
but I have no doubt that the usual corrected punctuation is right. Cf. 39, 8 and
69, 3, which make it practically certain that "That" is demonstrative; and it
would be difficult to explain the use of "due" without pronoun or article.
"That due of many" is apparently the substantial equivalent of the "interest
of the dead." — Ed.]

88 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxxn

32
If thou suruiue my well contented daie,
When that churle death my bones with dust shall couer
And shalt by fortune once more re-suruay:
These poore rude lines of thy deceased Louer:
Compare them with the bett'ring of the time, 5

And though they be out-stript by euery pen,
Reserue them for my loue, not for their rime,
Exceeded by the hight of happier men.

Oh then voutsafe me but this louing thought, 9

Had my friends Muse growne with this growing age,
A dearer birth then this his loue had brought
To march in ranckes of better equipage:
But since he died and Poets better proue,
Theirs for their stile ile read, his for his loue.

4. poore rude] Hyphened by Walker conj.

9. voutsafe] vouchsafe 1640, G, etc.
10. this] his But.

10-14. Had . . . loue] Italics by M, A, Kly, Co3; quoted by Kt, Co1. 2, B,
Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, etc.

Dowden: This sonnet reads like an envoy. Tyler: Probably the envoy to
the series 27-32. Lee: [This sonnet repeats the intimation of the Dedication
of Lucrece] that the patron's love alone gives value to the poet's "untutored
lines." (Life, p. 128.)

1. well contented. Massey: The poet calls his life a "well-contented day,"
in direct opposition to the malcontent who speaks in S. 29. (p. ill.) Rolfe:
Possibly it refers to the love of his friend which . . . has made up for all the
losses he has suffered. [Apparently Rolfe here follows the misinterpretation of
Massey; surely the "well contented day" is the day of the poet's burial. — Ed.]

4. poore rude lines. Delius: If any one seeks to learn from these poems
the true heart-meaning of our poet, what — for example — Sh. thought of the
worth of his sonnets, he will surely fall into some perplexity if he finds the same
poems here called "poor rude lines" which in S. 18 were "eternal lines." (Jahrb.,
1:41.) Lover. Malone: It is proper to observe that such addresses to men were
common in Sh.'s time, and were not thought indecorous. . . . We have many
examples in our author's plays of the expression used in the sonnet before us,
and afterwards frequently repeated. [Cf. Cor., V, ii, 14: "I tell thee, fellow,

xxxn] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 89

thy general is my lover"; the soothsayer in J.C., II, iii, 9, "Thy lover, Artem-
idorus"; Ulysses in T. e* C, III, iii, 214, "I as your lover speak."] ... In
like manner Ben Jonson 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. Joseph Davies is in love with him.

5-6. Dowden: May we infer from these lines (and 10) that Sh. had a sense
of the wonderful progress of poetry in the time of Elizabeth? Rolfe: The
reference is probably to the general improvement that may be expected in the
future.

7. Reserve. M ALONE: Preserve. Cf. Per., IV, i, 40: "Reserve that excellent
complexion." Porter: [Cf. Daniel's use of the word, in Delia, 41 (39, 1594 ed.)]
with the same sense of cherishing aloof: . . .

Thou may'st in after ages live esteemed,
Unburied, in these lines, reserved in pureness.

10. M alone: We may . . . infer that these were among our author's earliest
compositions. [So Drake (2 : 50), who compares "pupil pen" in 16, 10. Butler
infers from Malone's comment that he intended his text to read " his growing
age," a reading noted in Capell's MS. and then erased.]

12. Tyler: [Cf. Marston, Pigmalion s Image, 1598, where he speaks of his
stanzas

Which like soldados of our warlike age
March rich bedight in warlike equipage.]

There is no great difficulty in perceiving that we have here in all probability
the source of Sh.'s line. [Tyler thinks that the passage alludes to the contempo-
rary popularity of Marston's poem, an attempt to rival V. e" A.] (Intro..
p. 37.) Lee : [The belief that this line was imitated from an expression of Mars-
ton's] is quite gratuitous. The phrase was common in Elizabethan literature
long before Marston employed it. Nash, in his preface to Green's Menaphon
(1589), wrote that the works of the poet Watson "march in equipage of honour
with any of your ancient poets." {Life, p. 129 n.) Porter: The mere elabora-
tion without new application of the common metaphor by Marston tends to
show that he is the borrower, and this is confirmed by all the external evidence
there is as to dates of his work and Sh.'s Sonnets.

[A MS. copy of this sonnet (and S. 71) appears in a commonplace book " ap-
parently kept by an Oxford student about 1633," which is described by Lee
(Sonnets, facsimile ed., 1905, Intro., p. 53 n.) as in the possession of Mr. Marsden
Perry, an American collector. From a transcript made for Lee it appears that
the only variant reading in the text of the sonnet, aside from spelling, is " loue "
for "birth " in line II. The MS. book has now, unfortunately, passed from Mr.
Perry's hands to those of a less generous owner, so that I have been unable to
verify the transcript. — Ed.]

go THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxxm

33
Fvll many a glorious morning haue I seene,
Flatter the mountaine tops with soueraine eie,
Kissing with golden face the meddowes greene;
Guilding pale streames with heauenly alcumy:
Anon permit the basest cloudes to ride, 5

With ougly rack on his celestiall face,
And from the for-lorne world his visage hide
Stealing vnseene to west with this disgrace:
Euen so my Sunne one early morne did shine, 9

With all triumphant splendor on my brow,
But out alack, he was but one houre mine,
The region cloude hath mask'd him from me now.
Yet him for this, my loue no whit disdaineth,
Suns of the world may staine, whe heauens sun stainteh.

1. haue I seene] sun I have seen Kly conj.

4. alcumy:] alchumy? E.

8. west] rest Stee conj. this] his Walker conj., Hu2, But.
10. all triumphant] Hyphened by Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, Gl, Cam, Do, R, Wh2,
Ox, etc.
12. region cloude] regent cloud B conj.; hyphened by Kly, Wh2, N.
14. stainteh] staynelh 1640; staineth L, etc.

Delius: [In Sonnets 33-35] we are able to see only poetic variations on a
point of incidence in the last scene of T. G. V. (Jahrb., 1 : 42.) Spalding: [From
Sonnets 33-38 it is clear that the friend] has said or done something that has
gone to Sh.'s heart like a knife. [This is not the intrigue of S. 40-42, but, as is
suggested by 36-37, an unwillingness or refusal on the friend's part, perhaps
taunted by his associates, to admit his friendship with Sh.] (Gent. Mag., 242:
307.) Dowden: A new group seems to begin with this sonnet. It introduces
the wrongs done to Sh. by his friend. Wyndham: The first of the more imme-
diately personal garlands [forms the group 33-42]. . . . The biographical inter-
est of this group has won it an undeserved attention at the expense of others.
Many suppose that all the Sonnets turn on this theme, or, at least, that the
loudest note of passion is here sounded. But this is not so. Of all ten three at
the most can be called tragic. These are 34 — but it arises out of the lovely
imagery of 33; 36 — but it ends,

I love thee in such sort
As thou being mine, mine is thy good report;

xxxiii] THE SOXXETS OF SHAKESPEARE 91

and 40, but it ends, "Vet we must not be foes." 33 is indeed beautiful, but the
others return to the early theme of mere immortalising, or are expressed in
abstruse or playful conceits which make it impossible to believe they mirror a
soul in pain. . . . Knowing what Sh. can do to express anguish and passion,
are we not absurd to find the evidence of either in these sonnets, written, as
they are, on a private sorrow, but in the spirit of conscious art? (Intro., p. cxi.)
[The sound sense animating this note of Wyndham"s makes it, in my judgment,
worthy of special emphasis. Equally remarkable, in another way, is the gro-
tesque literalness of the following note. — Ed.] Butler: Between Sonnets $2
and 33 I suppose that there has been a catastrophe. [Some trap had been laid for
Sh.; he was] made to "travel forth without" that "cloak," which, if he had not
been lured, we may be sure that he would not have discarded. Hardly had he
laid the cloak aside before he was surprised according to a preconcerted scheme,
and very probably roughly handled, for we find him lame soon afterwards
(37. 3)- (P- 70.)

1. Porter: A pause in time is indicated [here] by much the same means of
indirect impression of an interval as is characteristic of Sh.'s manner of indi-
cating the passage of time in the plays.

2. Flatter. Lee: Cf. Edw. 3, I, ii, 141: "Let not thy presence like the April
sun flatter the earth."

Steevexs: Cf. K.J., III, i, 77-80:

The glorious sun
Stays in his course and plays the alchemist,
Turning with splendour of his precious eye
The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold.

5-6. *Capell: Cf. 1 H. 4, I, ii, 220-26:

The sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That when he please again to be himself
Being wanted, he may be more wond'red at
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.

Hekry Brown: [Cf. 3 H. 6. V, iii, 3-6:

In the midst of this bright-shining day
I spy a black, suspicious, threat'ning cloud,
That will encounter with our glorious sun. (p. 173.)]

6. rack. Malone: The fleeting motion of the clouds. Cf. A. cf C. IV. xiv,
10: "Even with a thought the rack dislimns." Dowdex: A mass of vapoury
clouds. "The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above (which
we call the rack)," Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, sec. 115, p. 32, ed. 165S (quoted by
Dyce, Glossary).

7. for-lorne. Abbott [notes this as one of the words accented "nearer the

92 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxxm

beginning than with us." (§ 492.) Rolfe notes that its accent is penultimate
only when it precedes an accented syllable.]

8. to west. Abbott: As much an adverb as "westward." (§ 90.)

11. one houre mine. Tyler: Pretty clear evidence that, when the incident
in question occurred, the friendship had been very brief. (Intro., p. 17.)

12. Tyler: Cf. T. G. V., I, iii, 84-87:

O how this spring of love resembleth

The uncertain glory of an April day,
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,

And by and by a cloud takes all away.

region. N. E. D.; One of the successive portions into which the air or atmos-
phere is theoretically divided according to height. [Dowden quotes the Clar-
endon Press edition of Hamlet to the effect that] by Sh. the word is used to
denote the air generally. [Cf. Haml., II, ii, 607.]

13. this. Percy Simpson [notes that the comma here is an instance of its
use between parts of a sentence which are in inverted order. (Sh. Punctuation,
pp. 49-51-)

14. staine. Schmidt: Grow dim. [For the transitive use, see 35, 3.]

Price [views this sonnet, with 73 and 97, as representing,] in their power of
using the beauty of physical nature as the symbol of human emotion, . . . the
highest lyrical expression that English poetry has achieved, (p. 375.)

Coleridge [instances the opening of this Sonnet (together with S. 107) as
characteristic of Sh.'s imaginative style, by which he] gives a dignity and a
passion to the objects which he presents. Unaided by any previous excitement,
they burst upon us at once in life and in power. (Biog. Lit., chap. 15.)

xxxiv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 93

34
Why didst thou promise such a beautious day,
And make me trauaile forth without my cloake,
To let bace cloudes ore-take me in my way,
Hiding thy brau'ry in their rotten smoke.
Tis not enough that through the cloude thou breake, 5

To dry the raine on my storme-beaten face,
For no man well of such a salue can speake,
That heales the wound, and cures not the disgrace:
Nor can thy shame giue phisicke to my griefe, 9

Though thou repent, yet I haue still the losse,
Th' offenders sorrow lends but weake reliefe
To him that beares the strong offenses losse.

Ah but those teares are pearle which thy loue sheeds,
And they are ritch, and ransome all ill deeds.

2. trauaile] travel G2, E, etc.

4. thy] my C. smoke.] smoke? G2, etc.

10-12. losse . . . losse] cross . . . cross S2, E; loss . . . cross C, M, etc.
n. Th' offenders] The offender's M, Kt, B, Del, CI, Gl, Kly, Cam, Do, R, etc.

12. beares the] bears G1; beareth G2, S, E.

13. sheeds] sheds G, etc.

Mr. Horace Davis [notes the resemblance of this and the following sonnet
to S. 120; cf. especially the repeated words "salve," "wound," "sorrow,"
"ransom."]

4. brav'ry. Schmidt: Splendour. [Cf. 15, 8.]

7-8. such . . . that. Abbott: "Such" was, by derivation, the natural ante-
cedent to "which"; . . . hence [it] is used with other relatival words. (§§ 278-
79.) Franz: In Sh. "as" is the regular correlative, yet the relative pronouns
appear with it, "that" most numerously. (§ 207.)

Massey: Cf. Spenser, F. Q., Bk. 2, c. 1, st. 20:

All wrongs have mends, but no amends of shame.

Now, therefore, lady, rise out of your pain,

And see the salving of your blotted name. (p. 127.)

8. disgrace. Porter: Such disgrace as is meant by " right perfection wrong-
fully disgrac'd" (66, 7).

12. losse. Maloxe. The word ["cross"] now substituted is used by our

94 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxxiv

author, in the sense required here, in 42, 12. Dowden: See also 133, 8 . . . and
J34. J3 ["him have I lost"].

[De'Wailly {pseud. A. Morlaix), conceiving this sonnet to be addressed by
lover to lady, comments in a passage whose Gallicism may perhaps serve as a
pleasing contrast to the Teutonic criticism with which the Sonnets have been
more largely overlaid:] N'est-ce pas une scene charmante? ces reproches de
l'amant blesse, le repentir de la jeune femme qui, croyons-le cette fois, n'a ete
qu'un peu coquette et legere; sa promesse, a deux genoux s'il le faut, de ne plus
retomber dans la meme faute; le jeune homme persistant tant qu'il peut dans
son ressentiment et s'excitant a la fermete, mais ne pouvant resister a la vue
des larmes de celle qu'il aime, et la relevant pour la presser sur son cceur, n'est-ce
pas la un delicieux chapitre de roman? et ne vous revient-il pas a. la memoire
cet air ravissant de Zerlina, Batti, batti, 0 bel Mazetto, dans le Don Juan de
Mozart? (Rev. des d. Mondes, 3 ser., 4: 685.)

xxxv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 95

35
No more bee greeu'd at that which thou hast done,
Roses haue thornes, and siluer fountaines mud,
Cloudes and eclipses staine both Moone and Sunne,
And loathsome canker Hues in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and euen I in this, 5

Authorizing thy trespas with compare,
My selfe corrupting saluing thy amisse,
Excusing their sins more then their sins are:
For to thy sensuall fault I bring in sence, 9

Thy aduerse party is thy Aduocate,
And gainst my selfe a lawfull plea commence,
Such ciuill war is in my loue and hate,
That I an accessary- needs must be,
To that sweet theefe which sourely robs from me,

2. siluer fountaines] Hyphened by Kly.

7. corrupting saluing] corrupting, salving G-, S*, etc.; corrupt in salving C.

8. their . . . are] Quoted by Bull, their . . . their] thy . . . thy C, M, etc.
(except Wy, Bull); thy . . . their Wy; thee . . . thy Be conj.; their . . . thy Bull.
are] bear or share Sta conj.

9. thy] my G, S, E. in sence] incense G!, S2, E, M conj.

9-10. sence, Thy . . . Aduocate] sense, (Thy . . . advocate,) M, A, Kt, B,
Hul; sense (Thy . . . advocate) Ty; sense, — Thy . . . advocate, — Del. Dy, Sta,
CI, Hu», Ox, Bull; sense — Thy . . . advocate — Gl, Wh, Cam, Do, R. Wy, But,
Her, Be, N, Wa; sense, — Thy . . . advocate — Kly; sense, Thy adverse party,
as thy advocate, Do conj.

13. accessary] accessory A, Kt, B, Hu1, Sta, Kly, But.

14. sourely] sorely G, S, E.

3. Fleay: The eclipse of the moon (Cynthia-Elizabeth) and the sun
(Southampton; cf. 33, 14 and 34) are, I think, conclusive of a date when Sh.
was temporarily out of favour with both court and patron, and no such date
can I find but 1597, circa June. (Biog. Chron., 2: 217.)

4. canker. Wyndham: Cf. 70, 7; 95, 2.

. 6. Dowdex: [Finding] precedents for your misdeed by comparisons with
roses, fountains, sun, and moon. Tyler: By comparing thy fault to the
"loathsome canker" ... I really give the fault a sanction (''authorizing it");

96 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxxv

for it sinks into insignificance and disappears altogether when such extravagant
comparison is made. [For other interpretations, see notes on 1. 8.]

7. My selfe corrupting. Tyler: By unduly esteeming the offence against
me, I foster an excessive sense of my own importance. [I cannot understand
this note, taken with the context. The "corrupting" appears to be that infec-
tion of the speaker which his very love for the friend is causing. — Ed.] amisse.
Schmidt: Offence. [Cf. 151, 3. The N. E. D. explains the substantive as
adjective or adverb used quasi "a doing amiss" or "a thing which is amiss."]

8. [Notes on this difficult line must be read in connection with the efforts
made to amend the text. The change of "their" to "thy," in either or both
instances, is" of course amply warranted by analogous errors (see note on 26, 12).
Bullen's ingenious reading, the equivalent of "Making this excuse: Their sins
are more than thine," is attractive but unidiomatic. — Ed.] Steevens [read-
ing "thy . . . thy"]: Making the excuse more than proportioned to the offence.
Delius [same reading:] My pardon of thy sins goes further than thy sins them-
selves. Massey [defends the Q text, but his interpretation is wrapped up with
his "dramatic" theory which understands this sonnet to be spoken by a
woman:] The plural ["their"] belongs to all men. . . . The speaker says, "All
men commit faults, . . . and even I who am not a man do so in authorizing
your trespass by comparison with theirs. ... In doing this she is 'salving' his
'amiss' by excusing 'their sins more than their sins are.' " That is, she ex-
aggerates the sins of men in general, and their proneness to faults, on purpose
to make less of his. (p. 125.) Wyndham: I retain the second "their," and put a
comma after the first "sins," believing that "than their sins are" refers back
to " All men make faults." . . . The sense is: " All men make faults, and even I
in saying so, giving authority by thy trespass by thus comparing it to the
faults of all men; I myself am guilty of corrupting in so 'salving thy amiss';
excusing thy sins (which are) more than their sins are." Butler [reading "thy
. . . thy":] Finding examples that will justify your act, becoming an accessory
to it, glozing it over, and making excuses for it, are worse sins than any of
which you are guilty. Beeching [same reading]: The necessary sense is plain
from the line which follows. The poet sins worse than his friend because in his
excuse he sins against reason; and this can be got out of the reading ... by
taking "more" in the sense of worse; i.e., "excusing thy sins with more wicked-
ness than they themselves denote." Porter [Q text]: All men are faulty, and
even he in this is so in the same way that they are when they commit or " make
faults," i.e., by excusing their sins in a way that is more sinful than their sins
themselves are. [It is doubtful whether the labors of later critics have bettered
the suggestion of Steevens. — Ed.]

9. sensuall. Spalding: [Not necessarily referring to the gratification of the
senses, but as used by Hooker:] "The greatest part of men are such as prefer
their own private good before all things, even that good which is sensual before
whatsoever is most divine." (Gent. Mag., 242: 309.) sence. Malone [appar-
ently not noticing the reading in earlier editions, proposed "incense," and
brought together various parallels for the accent of such a word on the final

xxxv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 97

syllable.] Steevens: I believe the old reading to be the true one. . . . "To-
wards thy exculpation, I bring in the aid of my soundest faculties, my keenest
perception, my utmost strength of reason, my sense." I think I can venture
to affirm that no English writer, either ancient or modern, serious or burlesque,
ever accented the substantive "incense" on the last syllable. Dowden: Rea-
son, judgment, discretion. Tyler: Probably sense of thy true worth and con-
sideration of the circumstances. Wyndham: Understanding, discernment,
appreciation. Cf. C. of E., II, i, 22, where men by contrast to the brute crea-
tion are "Indued with intellectual sense and souls." . . . There is also a play-
on the opposite meaning of "sense," akin to that of "sensual." Schmidt:
Reason.

10. Dowden: If we receive the present text, "thy adverse party" must
mean Sh. [But with the proposed reading "as thy advocate" it is Sense.]
against which he has offended. Wyndham: "Advocate," with a capital, and
the sequence of the next line, in which the poet himself "commences a lawful
plea," confirm the Q text and indicate "thy advocate" = the poet.

13. accessary. N. E. D.: The substantive is etymologically "accessary"
and the adjective "accessory." Butler: [Sh. here admits that he has himself
been accessory to Mr. W. H.'s intrigue with his mistress.] ... I imagine Sh.
to be referring to the fact that he had written sonnets for W. H. to give the
lady as though they were his own. [See note on S. 135.] [The reader may be
harmlessly entertained by comments of this character. It is surely unnecessary
to show that the figure "accessary" sums up the contents of lines 5-12. — Ed.]

Butler: Nothing can be more obviously out of place, as coming between
34 and 36, than a sonnet which accuses Mr. W. H. of having committed a "sen-
sual fault" in respect of the catastrophe of 33 and 34. [Butler has just argued,
from S. 94 and other considerations, that, whatever faults the friend may have
had, sensuality was not one of them.] On taking out 35. 36 follows 34 naturally
enough, (p. 72.)

[Note the unusual structure of this sonnet: the principal pause which pre-
cedes the conclusion occurring not, as usual, at the end of the 12th line, but of
the nth. — Ed.]

98 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxxvi

36

Let me confesse that we two must be twaine,

Although our vndeuided loues are one:

So shall those blots that do with me remaine,

Without thy helpe, by me be borne alone.

In our two loues there is but one respect, 5

Though in our Hues a seperable spight,

Which though it alter not loues sole effect,

Yet doth it steale sweet houres from loues delight,

I may not euer-more acknowledge thee, 9

Least my bewailed guilt should do thee shame,

Nor thou with publike kindnesse honour me,

Vnlesse thou take that honour from thy name:

But doe not so, I loue thee in such sort,

As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.

4. borne] born Bo.

9. euer-more] ever more Walker conj., Wy.

Dowden: According to the announcement made in 35, Sh. proceeds to
make himself out the guilty party. Beeching: The poet has made no such
announcement. He has called himself an "accessory," more to blame than the
principal because he defends his action. . . . But that is a long way from
"making himself out the guilty party." The sonnets from 36 to 39 must refer
to a different topic.

Walsh [groups the sonnet with 39 and 62, as on the theme of the identity
of the lover with the beloved. Cf. also 22 (and notes above), 40-42, 88, 112,
133-134; and The Phoenix and Turtle:

So they loved, as love in twain

Had the essence but of one;

Two distincts, division none;

Number there in love was slain.

Hearts remote, yet not asunder;

Distance, and no space was seen. ...

Either was the other's mine; (etc.)]

[Mr. Horace Davis notes the kinship of the sonnet with S. 89.]

3. those blots. Tyler: We ought probably to understand this expression,
as well as the "bewailed guilt" of line 10, not of moral turpitude, but of the

xxxvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 99

professional occupation and lower social standing of the poet. [See notes on
lines 6 and 10.]

5. respect. Schmidt: Thought. Dowdex: Regard. Cf. Cor., Ill, iii, 112:
"I do love my country's good with a respect more tender." [So Rolfe and
Beechixg.] Tyler: "But one respect" = perfect similarity. [Wyndham
inclines to view the word as having its first meaning of "regard" in the sense
of "looking towards" one object; this he connects with Dowden's interpreta-
tion of line 10. I incline to what I suppose to be Tyler's view, viz., that the
word has its colorless meaning, sometimes glossed as "relation, point of view."
On the other hand, for the more generally accepted interpretation one might
cite 26, 12. — Ed.]

6. seperable. M ALONE: For "separating." Abbott: Adjectives ... in -fid,
-less, -ble, and -tie have both an active and a passive meaning. (§ 3.) Walker
[discusses the same matter, citing Sidney, Arcadia, Bk. 2, "In the deceivable
style of affection." (Crit. Exam., 1: 185.)] Schmidt: "Separable spite" =
"spiteful separation." [See note on 9, 14.] Achesox: [In this line, and 11-12,
Sh. bewails his social position, and we are enabled to understand his applica-
tion for a grant of arms in 1596. See note on S. 26. (Sh. cV the R. P., p. 1 19.)]
Porter [opposes the view that the reference is to disparity of rank.] Their
separation in "social standing" was nothing new. And it has been clearly
enough said in S. 35 that it was the effect of the imperfection on their internal
relationship that caused the poet, through becoming an "accessary," by his
great love and indulgence, to see that they must be twain, however much they
still love each other. It is the poet's superior moral standing, his profounder
intelligence, and more generous heart that involve separation.

8. it. Abbott: The supplementary pronoun is generally confined to cases
where the relative is separated from its verb by an intervening clause, and
where on this account clearness requires [the repetition]. (§ 249.)

10. Dowdex: Perhaps the passage means: "I may not claim you as a friend,
lest my relation to the dark woman — now a matter of grief — should convict
you of faithlessness in friendship." Wyndham: There is much of probability
in this gloss. Porter: This is the guilt bewailed in S. 35, complicity in the
higher realm of moral sense with a lower realm of sensual faultiness.

13-14. Tyler: The poet dissuades Mr. W. H. from publicly recognising
the acquaintance, so that his social consideration may not be thereby compro-
mised. [These lines are repeated as the concluding couplet of S. 96. See notes
there. — Ed.]

[For its general tone, this sonnet should be compared with 109-111. — Ed.]
[S. Smith Travers views this sonnet as proof that the series was addressed
to an illegitimate son of Sh. Cf. also 39, 62, 72.]

ioo THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxxvn

37

As a decrepit father takes delight,

To see his actiue childe do deeds of youth,

So I, made lame by Fortunes dearest spight

Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth.

For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit, 5

Or any of these all, or all, or more

Intitled in their parts, do crowned sit,

I make my loue ingrafted to this store:

So then I am not lame, poorc, nor dispis'd, 9

Whilst that this shadow doth such substance giue,

That I in thy abundance am suffic'd,

And by a part of all thy glory Hue:

Looke what is best, that best I wish in thee,

This wish I haue, then ten times happy me.

7. Intitled] Entituled Wy. their] thy C, M, etc. (except Wy, N, Bull), Tu.

9. nor] not Wh2.

10. this] thy Caldecott conj. (MS.).

11. am] an 1640.
14. me] be E.

3. lame. Malone: Mr. Capell, grounding himself on this line, and another
in S. 89, "Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt," conjectured that
Sh. was literally lame: but the expression appears to have been only figurative.
Cf. Cor., IV, vii, 7: "Unless, by using means, I lame the foot of our design."
[Capell's observation was made in connection with the legend that Sh. had
played the part of Adam in A. Y. L. ; "For which he might be fitted by an
accidental lameness, which, as he himself tells us twice in his Sonnets, befell
him in some part of life." See New Variorum ed. of A. Y. L., where Furness
calls this a "monstrous idea," which every now and then "is blazoned forth as
new and original by some one who discovers the Sonnets — by reading them
for the first time." (p. 129.) An anonymous writer in the Westm. Rev. (68: 126)
supports Capell's view on the rather curious ground that in 1. 9 "the lameness
is evidently distinct from the poverty and abasement." F. V. Hugo calls the
term figurative, and offers as (rather dubious) proof the line from the Pass.
Pilgrim, " Youth is nimble, age is lame." A correspondent of N. & Q. (5th ser.,
I: 80), signing himself " Jabez," gives an amusing outline of the rise of the
myth of Sh.'s lameness, and adds: " It has been reserved for me to inform the

xxxvn] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 101

world that Sh. was crook-backed, for has he not written, in S. 90, the line,
'Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow'? By Fortune's spite, then, he
was a hunch-back, and by Fortune's dearest spite he was a limper ! "] Dowdex:
Sh. uses "to lame" in the sense of "disable." Here the "worth " and "truth "
of his friend are set over against the lameness of Sh.: the lameness is then
metaphorical; a disability to join in the joyous movement of life. . . . Mr.
Swinburne, in his mocking " Report of the Proceedings, etc., of the Newest Sh.
Society," introduces Mr. E. reading a paper on "The Lameness of Sh. — was
it moral or physical?" Mr. E. assumes at once that the infirmity was physical.
"Then arose the question — In which leg?" Perhaps it is best so to dismiss the
subject — with a jest. Tyler: [For the metaphor, cf. A. Y. L., I, iii, 6: "Come,
lame me with reasons"; (communicated by W. A. Harrison).] Wyxdham:
Obviously metaphorical, arising out of the illustration drawn from a "decrepit
father." . . . [The term also] follows an allusion in the preceding number to
some disgrace which, whether deservedly or not, has overtaken the poet.
Butler: I accept the lameness, poverty, and contempt as literally true for
this period of Sh.'s life. It does not follow that he had been lame long, nor yet
that he remained so. Beeching: The lameness must be metaphorical to keep
the proportion with "worth and truth." ... A good parallel is quoted by
Dowden from Lear, IV, vi, 225 (Q) : "A most poor man made lame by Fortune's
blows." dearest. M alone: Most operative. Cf. Haml., I, ii, 182: "Would I
had met my dearest foe in heaven." Schmidt: Heartfelt. [The N. E. D. dis-
tinguishes this and similar uses of the word as from O. E. deor (the more com-
mon "dear" being from deore), strenuous, bold; hence hard, grievous. Cf. R. 2,
I, iii, 151, "Thy dear exile." That the two meanings were viewed as distinct
words in Sh.'s time is surely more than doubtful. For such uses as the present
one, Furness always cites the definition of W. A. Wright: "'Dear' is used of
whatever touches us nearly, either in love or hate, joy or sorrow." — Ed.]

4. truth. Cf. 14, 11 and 14, and note on 54, 2.

5. C. A. Browx: [These lines expressly indicate that the young man ad-
dressed was possessed not only of beauty but of birth and fortune, (p. 40.)]
Archer: The young man [possessed of the qualities mentioned] can scarcely
be unknown to fame. The beauty and wit, indeed, are matters of opinion, and
the poet's testimony must be taken for what it is worth; but he would scarcely
attribute birth and wealth to a youth who possessed neither. {Fort. Rev., n. s.
62: 816.) Butler: Sh. does not say, "You have beauty, birth, wealth, and
wit." He says, "If you have any single one of these four, or if you even have
them all, and Others that I have not named — whatever you may have, I shall
graft my love thereon." Granted that Sh. would not name beauty if his friend
was remarkably plain; birth, if he was notoriously base-born; wealth, if he was
necessitous; or wit, if he was next door to a fool; but if he was good-looking, of
the same social status as Sh. himself, not living from hand to mouth, and not a
fool (which by the way I think he probably was), Sh. would be well within his
rights in writing [these lines]; nor can I find clearer proof that nothing in the
Sonnets suggests that their addressee was in a higher social position than Sh.'s,

102 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxxvn

than the fact that these lines are the strongest which those who would have him
to have been a great nobleman are able to bring forward. (Intro., p. 52.)
Beeching: As the friend's beauty is sufficiently certified by the rest of the
sonnets, the presumption is that his birth and wealth and wit are equally
matters of fact. The whole point of the sonnet is that the friend had advan-
tages of fortune which were denied to the poet. . . . This sonnet puts it beyond
doubt that Sh.'s friend was substantially above the poet in social position.
(Intro., p. xxx.) [On this subject, see also notes on S. 124. — Ed.]

7. Intitled in their parts. Malone: "Entitled" means, I think, ennobled.
Steevens: Cf. Lucrece, 57:

But Beauty, in that white intituled,

From Venus' doves doth challenge that fair field;

[which I suppose means,] "beauty takes its title from that fairness or white."
Delius: Established in thy gifts (with the right of possession). Palgrave:
Ennobled in thy genius. [All the foregoing accept the emendation "thy."]
Schmidt; Having a just claim to the first place as their due [i.e., more excel-
lencies]; blundering modern editors [read "thy"]. Rolfe: Finding their title
or claim to the throne in thy qualities. Cf. Lucrece, 57. Tyler: The various
endowments of the poet's friend are spoken of as though each were a monarch
reigning in its own domain with just title. Wyndham: I retain "their," and
suggest that "Intitled" — a contraction formed according to the poet's usage
from "Intituled" — "parts," and "crowned" may all three be explained by
reference to contemporary terms of heraldry. . . . Guillim {A Display of
Heraldrie, 1610) has a table of the science. The skill of Armoury is divided
into (i) Accidents and (ii) Parts; and, without pursuing all the sub-heads
under Parts, I may sum them up, generally, by saying that Parts = the tech-
nical term for the places in a shield on which armorial devices are borne. . . .
After dealing with the Wreath and Cap of Dignity, he goes on to "other sorts
of Crownes." ... I take it, therefore, that the passage = Be it beauty, birth or
wealth or wit which is displayed — as, in an achievement beneath the Crown,
charges are blazoned each in its part of the coat-armour — "I make my love
ingrafted to this store," = your worth and truth. [Wyndham goes on to cite
a further passage in which Guillim notes "four parts" of nobility: riches, blood,
learning, virtue; which he thinks shows a remarkable coincidence with line 5
of the sonnet.] Beeching: [The only one of the terms for which Wyndham's
note furnishes an heraldic meaning is "parts."] "Intituled" occurs in a more
or less heraldic passage in Lucrece 57, but not in any technically heraldic sense.
. . . Similarly in L. L. L., V, ii, 822,

If this thou do deny, let our hands part
Neither intitled in the other's heart,

it means "having a claim to." Here it may be used absolutely, "in thy parts"
being construed with "crowned"; or perhaps "in thy parts" is constructed
with both. "These excellences sit crowned in thy various parts to which they

xxxvn] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 103

have a claim." Lee: Probably "ennobled in thee"; deriving (titles of) honour
from association with thy capacities.

10. shadow . . . substance. Wyndham: Sh. takes the two terms from the
philosophy of his day and uses them for poetical effect, as modern essayists
take terms from modern philosophy, e.g., "objective" and "subjective," and
use them in criticism. Cf. M. W. W., II, ii, 215, "Love like a shadow flies when
substance love pursues"; M.V., III, ii, 128, "The substance of my praise doth
wrong this shadow"; R. 2, II, ii, 14, "Each substance of a grief hath twenty
shadows." . . . "Shadow" and "reflexion" were used by Renaissance Plato-
nists as alternative metaphors in expounding Plato's doctrine that Beauty
which we see is the copy of an eternal pattern, — Giordano Bruno had dis-
coursed in Paris de Umbris Idearum; or, rather, they use "shadow" where we
should use "reflexion." Cf. Hoby, The 4th Booke of the Courtyer, 1561: "Let
us clime up the stayers, which at the lowermost stepp have the shadowe of
sensual beauty"; . . . and Spenser, Hymn in Honour of Beauty

Do still preserve your first informed grace
Whose shadow yet shines in your beauteous face.

... So does Sh. employ "shadow," even apart from any philosophical signifi-
cance, to mean only the "projection of likeness," and not the obscuring of light.
. . . He also uses the term, here and elsewhere in the Sonnets, with less, or with
more, approximation to the metaphysic use from which it was borrowed.
[Cf. 43, 5-7; 53. 1-4, 10; 67, 7-8; 98, 14. Cf. also Drayton's sonnet "To the
Shadow" (S. 13, ed. 1619).] [This interesting note of Wyndham's, like others
of his on platonistic elements inSh.'s poems, is well worthy of study, yet tends
to err on the side of mystical complexity. Whether Sh.'s use of "shadow" in
the meaning opposed to "substance" was a derivation, direct or indirect, from
the language of philosophy, we scarcely have, as yet, information to enable us
to say with certainty; but even so, his use of it is noticeably lacking in the
mystical note characteristic (for example) of Spenser, as in the passage quoted
above. Beechixg's statement represents the simple fact:] Often in Sh. con-
trasted with "substance" to express the particular sort of unreality of which
"substance" expresses the reality. Walsh: Cf. Lilly, Campaspe, IV, iv: "Yet
shall it [thy picture] fill mine eye: besides the sweet thoughts, the sure hopes,
thy protested faith, will cause me to embrace thy shadow continually in my
arms, of the which by strong imagination I will make a substance."

Drake: [When Sh. wrote this sonnet, only] a small portion of the fame and
property which he afterwards enjoyed could have fallen to his share. (2: 50.)

104 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxxvm

38
How can my Muse want subiect to inuent
While thou dost breath that poor'st into my verse,
Thine owne sweet argument, to excellent,
For euery vulgar paper to rehearse:

Oh giue thy selfe the thankes if ought in me, 5

Worthy perusal stand against thy sight,
For who's so dumbe that cannot write to thee,
When thou thy selfe dost giue inuention light?
Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth 9

Then those old nine which rimers inuocate,
And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth
Eternal numbers to out-liue long date.

If my slight Muse doe please these curious daies,
The paine be mine, but thine shal be the praise.

2. poor'st] powr'st 1640; pour'st G, etc.

3. to] too 1640, G, etc.

4. rehearse:] rehearse? G2, S2, etc.

7. dumbe] dull G, S, E.

Tyler: This sonnet may be regarded as bringing to a close 33-38.

Lee: The central conceit here so finely developed — that the patron may
claim as his own handiwork the protege s verse because he inspires it — belongs
to the most conventional schemes of dedicatory adulation. When Daniel, in
1592, inscribed his volume of sonnets entitled Delia to the Countess of Pem-
broke, he played in the prefatory sonnet on the same note, and used in the con-
cluding couplet almost the same words as Sh.:

Great patroness of these my humble rhymes,
Which thou from out thy greatness dost inspire, . . .
O leave not still to grace thy work in me. . . .
Whereof the travail I may challenge mine,
But yet the glory, madam, must be thine.

{Life, p. 129.)

3. argument. Schmidt: Theme. [Cf. 76, 10; 79, 5; 100, 8; 103, 3; 105, 9. —
Ed.]

8. invention. Schmidt: Imaginative faculty, poetic fiction.
9-10. A. Hall: [Cf. Drayton, Idea, S. 18:

xxxviii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 105

Three Nines there are, to every one a Nine: . . .
Nine Muses do with learning still frequent; . . .
My worthy one to these nine worthies addeth! . . .
My Muse, my worthy, and my angel then
Makes every one of these three nines a ten.

(N. & Q., 6th s., 10:62.)]

11-12. Tyler: [This passage] must go far towards fixing the sense of "the
onlie begetter" [in the Dedication]. (Intro., p. 14.)

13. Tyler: [One may infer] that Sh. intended the publication of the first
series of sonnets. (Intro., p. 137.) Butler: It is plain that some, at any rate,
even of these early sonnets were recited among Sh.'s friends, and much ad-
mired.

14. pain. [Tyler notes that W. A. Harrison suggested that this may be
connected with "bring forth," 1, II, — the pain of parturition.]

[This is a key-sonnet for Massey's "dramatic" theory,] the friend being
treated by Sh. as the veritable author of future and forthcoming sonnets that
are to be presented to him, or "stand against his sight," when written in his
own book. (p. ioo.)

Goedeke [believes the sonnet to have been addressed to Queen Elizabeth.
(Deutsche Rundschau, io: 386.)]

Oscar Wilde [instances this sonnet in support of his fancy that the person
addressed was the boy-actor for whom Sh. wrote his leading female parts.
(Portrait of Mr. W. H., p. 26.)]

106 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xxxix

39
Oh how thy worth with manners may I singe,
When thou art all the better part of me?
What can mine owne praise to mine owne selfe bring;
And what is't but mine owne when I praise, thee,
Euen for this, let vs deuided Hue, 5

And our deare loue loose name of single one,
That by this seperation I may giue :
That due to thee which thou deseru'st alone:
Oh absence what a torment wouldst thou proue, 9

Were it not thy soure leisure gaue sweet leaue,
To entertaine the time with thoughts of loue,
Which time and thoughts so sweetly dost deceiue.
And that thou teachest how to make one twaine,
By praising him here who doth hence remaine.

3. bring;] bring? G, etc.

4. thee,] thee? L, etc.
6. loose] lose G, etc.

10. Were it not] Were't not that G, S, E.

T2. dost] doth M, etc. (except Wy, Wa); do C, Bo conj.

Butler: [This sonnet] appears to refer to the separation that was deemed
expedient in 36. (p. 72.)

2. better part of me. Lee: My souL . . . The phrase is similarly used by
Daniel (Cleopatra, 594) and by Ovid, Metam., xv, ad fin., in Golding's transla-
tion. [Cf. 74, 8, and notes.]

4. [For the theme of identity, see notes on 22, 5-7 and 36.] Henry Brown:
Cf. R. Davies, to his brother John Davies:

To praise thee, being what I am to thee,

Were (in effect) to dispraise thee and me;

For who doth praise himself deserves dispraise;

Thou art myself, then thee I may not praise, (p. 175.)

8. That due. Cf. 31, 12.

12. Malone: Which, viz., "entertaining the time with thoughts of love,"
doth so agreeably beguile the tediousness of absence. . . . There is nothing to
which "dost" can refer. The change being so small, I have placed "doth" in

xxxix] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 107

the text. Boswell: " Does" would be nearer the original reading; but I rather
think it should be "do," making of "thoughts" the nominative case. Collier
[Possibly "dost" is right.] Wyndham: I retain the Q text, for the construction
in the 2d person singular, which begins with the apostrophe to absence in line 9
recurs, with absence again as the subject, in line 13. It is, therefore, I think
rightly maintained in line 12, where the ellipsis of a "thou" presents no diffi-
culty, being immediately supplemented by "And that thou" of line 13. . .
"Which time and thoughts (of love) thou (absence) dost so sweetly deceive.
"Deceive" here does not mean to "mislead," . . . but "to cause to fail in
fulfilment or realization" {Imp. Diet.), to defraud, defeat, undo, make vain.
[Cf. T. & C, V, iii, 90: "Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive," where
the meaning is "undo." Absence, then, while helping to pass time sweetly.]
does defraud and make vain time. [This is ingenious but unconvincing, when
one considers the difficulty of the omitted "thou," and the more serious objec-
tion that the whole purport of the passage is the compensations of absence. —
Ed.] [Miss Porter of course favors the Q text, observing that "which"] is
not relative, but demonstrative, referring to the time and thoughts that
Absence doth so sweetly deceive,

13. Dowdex: Absence teaches how to make of the absent beloved two per-
sons, one absent in reality, the other present to imagination. Butler: Cf.
PJicenix & Turtle [quoted under S. 36].

14. Steevens: Cf. A. & C, I, iii, 102-04:

Our separation so abides, and flies,

That thou, residing here, goes yet with me,

And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee.

108 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xl

40

Take all my loues, my loue, yea take them all,
What hast thou then more then thou hadst before?
No loue, my loue, that thou maist true loue call,
All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more:
Then if for my loue, thou my loue receiuest, 5

I cannot blame thee, for my loue thou vsest,
But yet be blam'd, if thou this selfe deceauest
By wilfull taste of what thy selfe refusest.
I doe forgiue thy robb'rie gentle theefe 9

Although thou steale thee all my pouerty:
And yet loue knowes it is a greater griefe
To beare loues wrong, then hates knowne iniury.
Lasciuious grace, in whom all il wel showes,
Kill me with spights yet we must not be foes.

6-8. vsest . . . refusest] usedst . . . refusedst But.
7. this selfe] thy self G, S; thyself E, M, etc. (except Wy, Bull, Wa).
11. yet] yet, Kt, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Cam, Hu2, R, Wh2, Ox, etc. knowes] knows,
C, M, A, Kt, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Cam, R, Wh2, Ty, Wy, But,
Her, N, Bull, Wa.
14. spights] spight G1, S1; spite G2, S2, E.

[This and the two following sonnets should be read in connection with 133-
134 and 144, which are commonly supposed to have reference to the same situa-
tion. Whether they are also closely related to 33-35 there is more uncertainty.
Beeching infers such a relation, after the irrelevant contents of the interven-
ing sonnets, by the rather violent assumption that the offence of the friend
"has been repeated during the poet's absence referred to in 39, 9." On the
nature of the situation here represented, and especially the complaisant atti-
tude of the poet, there have been very divergent comments. On the whole,
Wyndham's note under S. 33 seems to me to take the most rational point of
view. — Ed.]

Hallam [finds the apparent situation of the poet to be humiliating, especially
from his failure to resent, though he "felt and bewailed" the seduction of his
mistress. {Lit. of Europe, Pt. 3, ch. 5, § 49.)] [To Gildemeister the group of
sonnets seems to be fatal to the biographical interpretation:] Can one seriously
believe that this took place and that — what is still more incredible — such
an occurrence was related to the salons of London, in rhymed conceits, by the

xl] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 109

deceived lover himself? (p. 163.) Furxivall [quotes with approval, with
special reference to the matter of the forgiveness of the wrong, a passage com-
municated to him by one M. J.:] There are some men who love for the sake of
what love yields, and of these was Lord Bacon; and there are some who love
for "love's sake," and loving once, love always; and of these was Sh. These do
not lightly give their love, but once given, their faith is incorporated with their
being; and having become part of themselves, to part with that part would be
to be dismembered. Therefore if change or sin corrupt the engrafted limb, the
only effect is that the whole body is shaken with anguish. . . . The offending
member may be nursed into health, or loved into life again; but forsaken! —
never! (Intro., p. lxiv.) Lee: The definite element of intrigue that is devel-
oped here is not found anywhere else in the range of Elizabethan sonnet-
literature. [Those familiar with Sir Sidney Lee's sonnet criticism will not fail
to appreciate the courageous frankness of this admission. — Ed.] The charac-
ter of the innovation and its treatment seem only capable of explanation by
regarding it as a reflection of Sh.'s personal experience. ... If all the words be
taken literally, there is disclosed an act of self-sacrifice that it is difficult to
parallel or explain. But it remains very doubtful if the affair does not rightly
belong to the annals of gallantry. The sonneteer's complacent condonation
of the young man's offence chiefly suggests the deference that was essential to
the maintenance by a dependent of peaceful relations with a self-willed and
self-indulgent patron. {Life, p. 154.) [Later, however, in the notes to his edi-
tion of Sh., Lee treats the situation even here as at least partially conventional :]
The rivalry here indicated in the poet's heart between friendship with a man
and love for a woman is no uncommon theme of Renaissance poetry. Petrarch
(S. 227) confesses to the double sentiment:

Carita di signore, amor di donna
Son le catene, ove con multi affanni
Legato son, perch'io stesso mi strinsi.

Cf. Beza's Poemata, 1548, Epigrammata, 90: "De sua in Candidam et Aude-
bertum benevolentia." Clement Marot in a poetic address "A celle qui souhaita
Marot aussi amoureux d'elle qu'un sien Amy" (CEuvres, 1565, p. 437), describ-
ing his solicitation in love by a friend's mistress, diagnoses a like conflict of
emotions.

J. M. S. [in the Spectator (Dec. 3, 1898, p. S30), cites as a parallel to the situ-
ation and attitude represented in these sonnets, a letter written by St. Evre-
mond to his unfaithful mistress:] "Peut-etre ne savez-vous pas. que si je n'ose
me plaindre de vous, pour vous aimer trop, je n'oserais me plaindre de lui, pour
ne l'aimer guere moins: et s'il faut de necessite me mettre en colere, apprenez-
moi contre qui je me dois facher davantage; ou contre lui, qui m'enleve une
maitresse, ou contre vous qui me volez un ami. . . . J'aime le perfide, j'aime
l'infidele, et crains seulement qu'un ami sincere ne soit mal avec tous les deux."
Walsh: Whether this is a real or an imaginary- episode cannot be determined
from the sonnets themselves. A dramatic poet like Sh. was perfectly capable

no THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xl

of inventing the incident and writing about it as if actual. There is some sim-
ilarity with the plot of T. G. V. (supposed to have been written in 1592-93),
and also, in places, with the language of that play. Bradley: Hallam's
explanation of [the poet's attitude] as perhaps due to the exalted position of the
friend, would make it much more than unpleasant; and his language seems to
show that he, like many critics, did not fully imagine the situation. ... It is
necessary to realise that, whatever the friend's rank might be, he and the poet
were intimate friends; that, manifestly, it was rather the mistress who seduced
the friend than the friend the mistress; and that she was apparently a woman
not merely of no reputation, but of such a nature that she might readily be
expected to be mistress to two men at one and the same time. Anyone who
realises this may call the situation "humiliating" in one sense, and I cannot
quarrel with him; but he will not call it "humiliating" in respect Of Sh.'s rela-
tion to his friend; nor will he wonder much that the poet felt more pain than
resentment at his friend's treatment of him. There is something infinitely
stranger in a play of Sh.'s, [the forgiveness of Proteus by Valentine in' T. G. V.]
. . . The incident is to us so utterly preposterous that we find it hard to imagine
how the audience stood it; but, even if we conjecture that Sh. adopted it from
the story he was using, we can hardly suppose that it was so absurd to him as
it is to us. And it is not the Sonnets alone which lead us to surmise that for-
giveness was particularly attractive to him, and the forgiveness of a friend much
easier than resentment. (Lectures on Poetry, pp. 334-35.)

5. Dowden: If for love of me thou receivest her whom I love. [So Rolfe
and Tyler.] Wyndham: If in place of my love for you, you accept the woman
I love. Cf. 42, 9. Beeching: ["For my love" means] as being my love, to
which you have a right. [I think Wyndham's explanation decidedly the most
probable. — Ed.]

6. usest. Butler, [in support of his emendation here and in line 8, observes:]
A man cannot "wilfully" taste what at the same time he is refusing. If my
text is admitted, the sense will be, "Do not blame me if you find this lady
troublesome; you refused her for some time, and it is nobody's doing but your
own that you now take up with her."

7. this selfe. Wyndham, [defending the Q text, explains:] The poet; must
be interpreted in connexion with the identity of himself and the friend stated
in 39, 1-4, and restated in 42, 13-14. [Cf. also 133, 6 and 135, 14.] . . . "This
self" = the poet is distinguished from "thy self" = the friend of line 8; and
this distinction of two persons who are one self is in harmony with the conceit
which runs through the four numbers. Porter: ["This self"] is the poet's and
the beloved's very self, their unity, their joint "dear love" (39, 6).

8. Dowden: Deceive yourself by an unlawful union while you refuse loyal
wedlock. Wyndham: Wilfully tasting "my love"= my mistress, while you,
the other self, refuse "my love" = my love for you. Tyler, [apparently follow-
ing Dowden's interpretation, thinks the passage may refer to the breaking off
by William Herbert of his proposed marriage with Lady Vere. (Intro., p. 47.)]

xl] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE in

Beeching: Perhaps means "by taking in wilfulness my mistress whom yet
you do not love." Stopes: The youth has refused the advice of the early
sonnets, and now fears not "the mortal taste of that forbidden tree." Lee:
"What thyself refusest" [is] that lascivious indulgence which thou in reality
disdainest. [I can form no notion of what "in reality" means here. — Ed.]
Porter: Wilful taste of such other kinds of love as the beloved himself refuses
to their higher kind of love; i.e., shallow physical intercourse.

io. poverty. [The reading "property," in a German edition of 1864, is
almost worthy to be set beside the emendation, "Sermons in books, stones in
running brooks." — Ed.]

13. Cf. S. 95, and 150, 5-8.

Butler [finds in this sonnet a hint, given to Mr. W. H. by Sh.,] that he
may very possibly find the lady not all that he could wish.

Von Mauntz [believes that the sonnet was addressed by a woman to a man,
the only interpretation which seems credible or natural. (Jahrb., 28: 277.)]

ii2 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xli

4i
Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits,
When I am some-time absent from thy heart,
Thy beautie, and thy yeares full well befits,
For still temptation followes where thou art.
Gentle thou art, and therefore to be wonne, 5

Beautious thou art, therefore to be assailed.
And when a woman woes, what womans sonne,
Will sourely leaue her till he haue preuailed.
Aye me, but yet thou mighst my seate forbeare, 9

And chide thy beauty, and thy straying youth,
Who lead thee in their ryot euen there
Where thou art forst to breake a two-fold truth:
Hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee,
Thine by thy beautie beeing false to me.

1. pretty] petty B, Hu1, Dy1, Del3, But.

2. some-time] sometimes 1640, G, S, E, Ox.

3. befits] befit G2, S2, E.

6. therefore] and therefore G1, S, E.

7. woes] wooes 1640, M; woos G, S, E, Bo, etc.

8. he] she Tyr conj., M, etc. (except Co3, VVy). haue] has E; gave Del1
[error], preuailed.] prevailed? G, etc. (except M, A, Co, B, Hal).

9. Aye] Ah E, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Sta, CI, Kly, Hal, Ty. mighst]
mightst 1640, G, etc. my seate] my sweet (between commas) M, Hu1, But, Wa;
my state Del conj.

3. befits. [For the singular form with plural subject, see Abbott, § 333:]
In some cases the subject-noun may be considered as singular in thought; . . .
in other cases the quasi-singular verb precedes the plural object [error for
subject — Ed.]; and again, in others the verb has for its nominative two singu-
lar nouns or an antecedent to a plural noun. [Such instances] indicate a gen-
eral predilection for the inflection in -s which may well have arisen from the
northern E. E. 3d person plural in -s.

5-6. Steevens: Cf. 1 H. 6, V, iii, 78-9:

She's beautiful and therefore to be woo'd;
She is a woman, therefore to be won.

Lee: Cf. T. And., II, ii, 82-83:

xli] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 113

She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd;
She is a woman, therefore may be won;

and Greene's Orpharion, 1599 (Works, Grosart, 12: 31): "She is but a woman,
and therefore to be won."

8. he. [See textual notes.] M alone: The poet without doubt wrote "she."
Dowden: [The Q reading] may be right. Wyndham: The Q reading is more
subtile in sense and more musical in sound.

9. Aye. [The change to "Ah" is quite unwarranted. Cf. V. c" .4., 187, 833;
Lucrece, 1167; L.C., 321. — Ed.] seate. M alone [defends his emendation by
various passages where "sweet" or "my sweet" is used in direct address].
Boswell: Mr. Boaden is of opinion that the context shews the original word
to be right. Iago, as he observes, uses the word " seat " with the same meaning :
["I do suspect the lusty Moor hath leap'd into my seat." (Oth., II, i, 305.)]
Dowden: Dr. Ingleby adds, as a parallel, Lucrece, 412-13:

Who, like a foul usurper, went about

From this fair throne to heave the owner out.

H. D. Gray: The word "thy" occurs seven times in this sonnet, and is never
misprinted "their." The theory that it was included in a MS. where this mis-
take was so frequently made as to be almost a prevailing one must be reexam-
ined. [See note on 26, 12. — Ed.]

Beeching: Sometimes the [Shakespearean] sonnet falls not into three parts
but into two, the break coming, after the Italian manner, at the end of the 8th
line. Examples are 41 and 44, in both of which, as is natural under the circum-
stances, the couplet becomes part of the sestet, though it is left as detached as
possible. (Intro., p. liii.) [S. 39 is precisely similar in these respects, and 29 and
33 for the importance of the pause at the end of the second quatrain. — Ed.]

ii4 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xlii

42

That thou hast her it is not all my griefe,
And yet it may be said I lou'd her deerely,
That she hath thee is of my wayling cheefe,
A losse in loue that touches me more neerely.
Louing offendors thus I will excuse yee, 5

Thou doost loue her, because thou knowst I loue her,
And for my sake euen so doth she abuse me,
Suffring my friend for my sake to approoue her,
If I loose thee, my losse is my loues gaine, 9

And loosing her, my friend hath found that losse,
Both finde each other, and I loose both twaine,
And both for my sake lay on me this crosse,
But here's the ioy, my friend and I are one,
Sweete flattery, then she loues but me alone.

6. knowst] knew'st Bo, A, Kt, B.
9, 11. loose] lose G, etc.

10. loosing] losing G, etc.

7. abuse. Schmidt: Maltreat. [Cf. 134, 12. But there may be a suggestion
here, too, of the common Elizabethan meaning "deceive." — Ed.]

8. approove. Schmidt: Like. [Since the word, in Sh., practically always
implies a moral or mental judgment, when used in the sense "like" or "be
pleased with," I am disposed to think it is here used in the sense of "make
trial of." — Ed.]

9. my loves. M alone: [My mistress's.]
9-10. Walsh: Cf. T. G. V., II, vi, 20-21:

If I keep them, I needs must lose myself.
If I lose them, thus find I by their loss, etc.

But there the friend is not identified with the speaker, — far from it, as yet;
for the latter continues, "I to myself am dearer than a friend." Later, how-
ever, he makes the renunciation.

10-12. losse . . . crosse. Dowden: The "loss" and "cross" of these lines
are spoken of in S. 34.

13. See notes on 22, 5-7.

Price [comments on the effective use of monosyllabic verse in this and the
two following sonnets, (p. 367.) He also observes that this sonnet is one of

xliii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 115

those in which] the poetic quality lies solely or almost solely in the melody of
verse, in the refined and accurate choice of words, and in the emotional interest
of the psychological problem, [without figure or other imaginative decoration.]
Without introducing a single image of natural beauty, [the sonnet] shows the
dramatic poet dealing, in verses of lovely form and arrangement, with a dra-
matic situation of most curious dramatic interest, (p. 374.)

Harris: This sonnet, with its affected word-play and wire-drawn consola-
tion, leaves one gaping: Sh.'s verbal affectations had got into his very blood.
To my mind the whole sonnet is too extravagant to be sincere. . . . None of it
rings true except the first couplet. (The Man Sh., p. 258.) [Cf. Wyndham's
note on S. 33. — Ed.]

43
When most I winke then doe mine eyes best see.
For all the day they view things vnrespected,
But when I sleepe, in dreames they looke on thee,
And darkely bright, are bright in darke directed.
Then thou whose shaddow shaddowes doth make bright, 5
How would thy shadowes forme, forme happy show,
To the cleere day with thy much cleerer light,
When to vn-seeing eyes thy shade shines so?
How would (I say) mine eyes be blessed made, 9

By looking on thee in the liuing day?
When in dead night their faire imperfect shade,
Through heauy sleepe on sightlesse eyes doth stay?
All dayes are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright daies when dreams do shew thee me.

11. their] thy C, M, etc. faire imperfect] Hyphened by Walker conj.
13. to see] to me M conj., Hu2, But.

I3-I4- I see thee . . . thee me] I thee see . . . me thee Taylor conj. (MS.);
thee I see ... me thee Lettsom conj., Hu1.

This is one of the sonnets omitted from the Poems of 1640 and the editions
based thereon.

[For the theme, cf. notes on S. 27; cf. also S. 61. To the analogous passages
cited heretofore, Massey (p. 77) adds, for this sonnet, Sidney's A. c? S., 38:]

This night, while sleep begins with heavy wings
To hatch mine eyes, and that unbitted thought
Doth fall to stray, and my chief powers are brought

u6 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xliii

To leave the sceptre of all subject things:

The first that straight my fancy's error brings

Unto my mind, is Stella's image; wrought

By Love's own self; [etc.]

[See also the following sonnet, 39: "Come Sleep! O Sleep!" — Ed.]

1. winke. Schmidt: Shut the eyes, or have them shut. [Cf. 56, 6.]

2. unrespected. Malone: Unregarded. [Cf. 54, 10. — Ed.]

4. darkely bright. Dowden: Illumined, although closed. Tyler: Bright,
though not seeing. [Is it possible that the phrase may mean that the eyes are
bright most of all in the dark, because of what they see in dreams? — Ed.]
bright in darke directed. Dowden: Are clearly directed in the darkness.
Tyler: Become bright through the vision of the loved image, when ... di-
rected in the darkness. Wyndham: In the dark they heed that on which they
are fixed. Lee: Guided in the dark by the brightness [of thy "shadow"]. [The
late Professor A. G. Newcomer explained the phrase: "Directed toward that
which is bright in the dark," bright-in-dark having the effect of an adverb. —
Ed.]

5. Dowden: Whose image makes bright the shades of night. Tyler: Cf.
27, 11-12.

11. their. [Miss Porter stands alone in wishing to keep the Q reading here.
According to her, the word] refers to "eyes" — the "shade" or shadow of the
eyes' sight, imperfect. Tyler: As being a mere insubstantial image.

13. to see. Malone: We should perhaps read "to me." The compositor
might have caught the word "see" from the end of the line. Steevens: As
"fair to see" . . . signifies "fair to sight," so "all days are nights to see" means
"all days are gloomy to behold," i.e., look like nights. Dowden: "To see till I
see thee " is probably right in this sonnet, which has a more than common fancy
for doubling a word in the same line.

[For this matter of word repetition, cf. Sarrazin's note on S. 4.]

13-14. Von Mauntz: Cf. Ovid, Tristia, III, iii, 18: "Nulla venit sine te
nox mihi, nulla dies."

Price [finds in this sonnet the largest percentage of pure or native diction,
(p. 366.) See also note on S. 73.]

Brandl [believes that the sonnet was addressed to a woman; and not only
so, but identifies her as the "dark lady" on the extraordinary ground that she
is represented as being] so dark that a shadow beside her seems bright, (p. xi.)

xliv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 117

44
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Iniurious distance should not stop my way,
For then dispight of space I would be brought,
From limits farre remote, where thou doost stay,
No matter then although my foote did stand 5

Vpon the farthest earth remoou'd from thee,
For nimble thought can iumpe both sea and land,
As soone as thinke the place where he would be.
But ah, thought kills me that I am not thought 9

To leape large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But that so much of earth and water wrought,
I must attend, times leasure with my mone.
Receiuing naughts by elements so sloe,
But heauie teares, badges of eithers woe.

4. From] To G, S, E.
6. farthest] furthest Hu1, Ox.

8. As soone as thinke] Soon as he thinks Verity conj.
10. when] where Be conj.

13. naughts] naught G, etc.

14. woe.] woe: M, A, Kt, B, Del, Dy, Sta, CI, Kly, Hu2, Ty.

Isaac [compares with this and the following sonnet Tasso's Rime Amorose,
16:]

Donna, crudel fortuna, a me ben vieta

Seguirvi, e'n queste sponde or mi ritiene,

Ma '1 pronto mio pensier non e chi frene.

Che sol riposa, quanto in voi s'acqueta. (Jahrb., 17: 185.)

Massey: [This and 45 are spoken by the traveler of the journey introduced
in 50, when he is at the remotest distance from the friend at home. He is on
distant shores, with vast spaces of earth and water between him and home.
This cannot be Sh. (pp. 91, 95.)]

4. Massey: From "limits far remote" where I am, ... to where thou dost
stay. (p. 140.)

6. [Abbott notes this among his transpositions of adjectival phrases, com-
paring "A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments" (R. 2, III, i, 9) and "You
have won a happy victory to Rome" (Cor., V, iii, 186). (§ 419 a.)]

n8 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xliv

7-8. Lee: Sonnets dealing in like manner with thought's triumph over space
are very common in Renaissance poetry. Cf. Ronsard, Amours, I, 168: "Ce
fol penser, pour s'envoler trop haut"; Du Bellay's Olive, 43: "Penser volage, et
leger comme vent"; Amadis Jamyn, S. 21: "Penser, qui peux en un moment
grande erre courir"; and Tasso's Rime (1583, Venice, i, 33): "Come s'human
pensier di giunger tenta al luogo."

9. thought. Dowden: Perhaps "thought" here means melancholy contem-
plation, as in J.C., II, i, 187, "Take thought and die for Caesar." [The refer-
ence, of course, is to the first occurrence of the word in the line, the second
occurrence referring back to line 1; and surely there is no need of DoWden's
cautious "perhaps." — Ed.]

9-10. McClumpha: Cf. R. & J., II, v, 4-6:

Love's heralds should be thoughts,
Which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams, [etc.]

11. Steevens: Being so thoroughly compounded of these two ponderous
elements. Cf. A. & C, V, li, 292-93:

I am fire and air; my other elements
I give to baser life.

Malone: Cf. H. 5, III, vii, 22: "He is pure air and fire; and the'dull elements
of earth and water never appear in him." Lee: [Here and in S. 45] Sh. has
adapted to his own purpose a leading principle of Ovid's natural philosophy:

This endless world contains therein, I say,
Four substances of which all things are gendered. Of these four
The earth and water for their mass and weight are sunken lower.
The other couple, air and fire, the purer of the twain,
Mount up, and nought can keep them down. [Golding's version.]

Such a theory of the elements was common knowledge among the medieval
and Renaissance poets; but Sh.'s mode of contrasting the density of earth and
water with that of fire and air sounds a peculiarly Ovidian note. (Qu. Rev., 210:

471.)

14. Beeching: Perhaps the salt in the tears represents the contribution of

the earth; and so tears are a badge of the woe of both earth and water.

xlv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 119

45
The other two, slight ayre, and purging fire,
Are both with thee, where euer I abide,
The first my thought, the other my desire,
These present absent with swift motion slide.
For when these quicker Elements are gone 5

In tender Embassie of loue to thee,
My life being made of foure, with two alone,
Sinkes downe to death, opprest with melancholic
Vntill Hues composition be recured, 9

By those swift messengers return'd from thee,
Who euen but now come back againe assured,
Of their faire health, recounting it to me.
This told, I ioy, but then no longer glad,
I send them back againe and straight grow sad.

4. present absent] present, absent, G2, S, E; hyphened by M, etc.

8. opprest] press' d C.

9. liues] live's G1; life's G2, etc.
12. their] thy C, M, etc.

Delecluze [(Dante Alighieri, p. 536) calls this sonnet the twin brother of
Dante's 22nd in the Vita Nuova:]

Gentil pensiero, che parla di vui,
Sen viene a dimorar meco sovente,
E ragiona d'amor si dolcemente,
Che face consentir lo core in lui.

4. Von Mauntz: Cf. Sidney, A. & S., 60, 13: "Whose presence, absence;
absence, presence is."

7. foure. Steevens: Cf. T.N., II, iii, 10: "Does not our life consist of the
four elements?"

8. melancholie. Walker: Sh. was incapable of anything so discordant as
this. . . . Ought "melancholy" to be pronounced mel'anch'ly? [This pronun-
ciation is approved by Rolfe. There is no warrant for it in any other of the
numerous occurrences of the word in Sh.; and while there seems no escape from
something of the kind here, we may well suspect the finished character of the
text. — Ed.]

9. recured. Schmidt: Restored to health or soundness.

12. their. [Even Miss Porter hesitates to keep the Q reading here, though
she believes it may be right, referring to the poet's thought and desire.]

120 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xlvi

46
Mine eye and heart are at a mortall warre,
How to deuide the conquest of thy sight,
Mine eye, my heart their pictures sight would barre,
My heart, mine eye the freeedome of that right,
My heart doth plead that thou in him doost lye, 5

(A closet neuer pearst with christall eyes)
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And sayes in him their faire appearance lyes.
To side this title is impannelled 9

A quest of thoughts, all tennants to the heart,
And by their verdict is determined
The cleere eyes moyitie, and the deare hearts part.
As thus, mine eyes due is their outward part,
And my hearts right, their inward loue of heart.

3, 8. their] thy C, M, etc.

9. side] 'tide G2, S2, E, C, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Wh,
Cam, Do, R, Ty, Ox, But, Her, Be; tide Dy, Hal, Bull.

13-14. their . . . their] thy . . . thy C, M1, Gl, Dy2, Hu2, R, Wh2, Wy, Her,
Be, N, Bull, Wa; thine . . . thine M2, A, Kt, Co, B, Hu1, Del, Dy1, Sta, CI,
Kly, Wh1, Hal, Cam, Do, Ty, Ox, But.

Isaac [thinks that this sonnet follows S. 24 directly. In the latter] the eye
of the poet had painted the portrait of the beloved on the table of his heart; in
46, in sequence to it, occurs a contest between the eye and the heart for the
possession of the picture. [He also believes that this and 47 are love-sonnets,
not sonnets of friendship. For the theme of an allegorical strife he cites parallels
in Dante, Petrarch, etc., and compares Sidney, A. & S., 52:
A strife is grown between Virtue and Love,
While each pretends that Stella must be his.
Cf. also Drayton, Idea, 33:

Whilst yet mine eyes do surfeit with delight,
My woful heart (imprisoned in my breast)
Wisheth to be transformed to my sight,
That it, like those, by looking might be blest.

(Archiv, 61: 414-16.)]
Massey: [This and the following sonnet] are obviously based on one of Dray-
ton's [i.e., the one just cited], (p. 141.) Tyler [notes the same resemblance

xlvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 121

(Intro., p. 40), but believes Drayton to have been the imitator.] Dowden:
Cf. Watson, Tears of Fancy, Sonnets 19-20 ["My heart impos'd this penance
on mine eyes," and "My heart accus'd mine eyes and was offended"]; Con-
stable, Diana, 6th Decade, S. 7 ["My heart mine eye accuseth of his death"].
Creighton [believes the sonnets to be a parody of the pair in Watson's collec-
tion. (Blackwood, 169: 673.)] Lee: The war between the eye and the heart is a
favorite topic among Renaissance sonneteers. [See further, Lee's note on S. 24.]
Lord Campbell: This sonnet is so intensely legal in its language and imagery,
that without a considerable knowledge of English forensic procedure it cannot
be fully understood. (Sh.'s Legal Acquirements, p. 102.) [That such knowledge
was widely current in the Elizabethan age has been abundantly shown; see,
for example, Robertson, The Baconian Heresy, 1913, chapters 3-6.]

9-10. Lee: The legal terminology of this sonnet is common in Spenser,
Barnes, Barnfield, and many other writers of the day. Cf. F. Q., bk. 6, vii, 34:
"Therefore a jury was impaneled straight." [For "tenants" cf. Barnes,
P. & P., S. 20:]

Those eyes (thy Beauty's tenants) pay due tears
For occupation of mine heart, thy freehold.

9. side. Maloxe: 'Cide, for "to decide." Wykdham [keeping the Q spell-
ing:] Adjudge this title to one or the other side. N. E. D.: Assign to one of
two sides or parties. [Despite the authority of the N. E. D., and the tendency
of recent editors to revert to the Q text, I am very doubtful whether there is
satisfactory- warrant for doing so. The only known transitive use of the verb
(in pertinent meanings) is with the apparent signification "to take sides with,"
Cor., I, i, 197: "side factions." On the other hand, for the abbreviation 'cide
Abbott is able to cite numerous parallels, such as 'cital, 'cause, 'bout, 'gree, etc.
(§ 460.) — Ed.]

10. quest. Malone: An inquest or jury. Cf. R.3,1, iv, 189: "What lawful
quest have given their verdict up?"

12. moyitie. Malone: In ancient language signifies any portion of a thing.

13-14. their . . . their. Porter: [The Q words may be kept, as referring to
"thoughts." On the other hand, the correction to "thy" in lines 3 and 8 is for
once admitted to be right.]

Beechixg [calls this sonnet and 47 early in style. (Intro., p. li.)]
Walsh: [The two sonnets, as well as the similar 24,] are generally supposed,
without any good reason, to be addressed to the friend. The conceit . . . was
common among the sonneteers of the time, coming down from Petrarch, and
they always employed it in connection with their mistresses.

122 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xlvii

47

Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is tooke,

And each doth good turnes now vnto the other,

When that mine eye is famisht for a looke,

Or heart in loue with sighes himselfe doth smother;

With my loues picture then my eye doth feast, 5

And to the painted banquet bids my heart:

An other time mine eye is my hearts guest,

And in his thoughts of loue doth share a part.

So either by thy picture or my loue, 9

Thy seife away, are present still with me,

For thou nor farther then my thoughts canst moue,

And I am still with them, and they with thee.

Or if they sleepe, thy picture in my sight

Awakes my heart, to hearts and eyes delight.

1. tooke] strook C.

9. thy picture or] the picture or L; the picture of G, S, E.

10. seife] selfe 1640, etc. are] art C, M, etc. (except But).

11. nor] not 1640, etc.; no C. farther] further Hu, Ox.

1. tooke. Cf. J.C., II, i, 50: "Where I have took them up" (Abbott, § 343);
and T.N., I, v, 282: "He might have took his answer" (Franz, § 12).

3. Malone: Cf. C. of E., II, i, 88: "Whilst I at home starve for a merry
look." Dowden: Cf. 75, 10.

10-12. still. [The use of the word in these two lines well illustrates the con-
nection between the modern meaning "still" and the meaning "always." — Ed.]

Lee: [This sonnet] clearly suggested such a passage in Suckling's [Tragedy
of Brennoralt] (V, 18-22; cf. Fragmenta Aurca, 1656, p. 44), as:

Will you not send me neither

Your picture when y' are gone?

That when my eye is famisht for a looke,

It may have where to feed,

And to the painted feast invite my heart.

(Sonnets, Facsimile ed., 1905, p. 52 n.)

xlviii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 123

48

How carefull was I when I tooke my way,
Each trifle vnder truest barres to thrust,
That to my vse it might vn-vsed stay
From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust?
But thou, to whom my iewels trifles are, 5

Most worthy comfort, now my greatest griefe,
Thou best of deerest, and mine onely care,
Art left the prey of euery vulgar theefe.
Thee haue I not lockt vp in any chest, 9

Saue where thou art not, though I feele thou art,
Within the gentle closure of my brest,
From whence at pleasure thou maist come and part,
And euen thence thou wilt be stolne I feare,
For truth prooues theeuish for a prize so deare.

[If Sh. could have foreseen the good fortune of this sonnet in escaping all
textual vicissitudes, he might have regarded it as his masterpiece. — Ed.]

[The resemblance, in theme, with S. 52, gives some warrant to Walsh in
printing the two sonnets in succession.]

1-4. Stopes: A little touch of Sh.'s character; it shows he was careful and
methodical, reticent withal. [Should one add an exclamation point? — Ed.]

5. to whom. [For the use of "to" with the meaning "in comparison with"
see Abbott, § 187, who treats it as closely related to the signification of motion
toward ("when brought to the side of, and compared with ") ; Schmidt (2 : 1236),
who relates it to the use "denoting junction"; and Franz, § 376. who, in like
manner, traces the meaning to the expression of relationship between two
objects which are in a position to be viewed from the same standpoint and so
compared. Cf. Temp., I, ii, 481: "They to him are angels."]

io-ii. See Simpson's note on 22, 5-7.

11. Boswell: Cf. V. 6* A., 782: "Into the quiet closure of my breast."

14. *Capell: Cf. V. & A., 724: "Rich preys make true men thieves."
Horace Davis: Cf. 75, 6. Dowden: Does not this refer to the woman, who has
sworn love (152, 2), and whose truth to Sh. (spoken of in 41, 13) now proves
thievish? Rolfe: The meaning . . . may simply be that so rich a prize may
tempt even true men to become thieves. [For truth, see note on 54. 2. — Ed.]

Massey: [Such a sonnet as this] can only be spoken to a woman by a man.
... In the plays, the only expressions equal to these in depth of tenderness are

124 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xlix

such as those spoken by Posthumus to Imogen — "Thou the dearest of crea-
tures." "Best of comfort," Caesar calls his sister; "thou dearest Perdita" is
Florizel's phrase; and the Duke of France, speaking of Cordelia to King Lear,
says: "She that even but now was your best object, balm of your age, most
best, most dearest." (p. 29.) Sarrazin: This sonnet, which stands very near
127, 131, 132, fits the sense much better addressed to a sweetheart than to a
friend. (Sh.'s Lehrjahre, p. 157.)

49
Against that time (if cuer that time come)
When I shall see thee frowne on my defects,
When as thy loue hath cast his vtmost summe,
Cauld to that audite by aduis'd respects,
Against that time when thou shalt strangely passe, 5

And scarcely greete me with that sunne thine eye,
When loue conuerted from the thing it was
Shall reasons finde of setled grauitie.

Against that time do I insconce me here 9

Within the knowledge of mine owne desart,
And this my hand, against my selfe vpreare,
To guard the lawfull reasons on thy part,

To leaue poore me, thou hast the strength of lawes,
Since why to loue, I can alledge no cause.

I. come] comes E.

3. When as] Whenas G2, S2, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Kly,
Wh», Hal, R, Ty, Cam2, N, Bull.
10. desart] desert G, etc.

3. cast . . . summe. Dowden: Closed his account and cast up the sum
total. [Cf . 2,11: "sum my count." — Ed.]

4. advis'd respects. Dowden: Well-considered reasons. Cf. K.J., IV, ii,
214: "It frowns more upon humour than advised respect."

7-8. Steevens: Cf. J.C., IV, ii, 20-21:

When love begins to sicken and decay
It useth an enforced ceremony.

8. reasons ... of setled gravitie. Schmidt: [Reasons for] a dignified reserve.
[So Delius; and Beeching, who observes that this] is the constant use of
"gravity" in Sh. [On the other hand, Dowden and Rolfe by implication,
and Tyler, Wyndham, and Porter explicitly, take the phrase to be the

l] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 125

equivalent of the "advis'd respects" of line 4 or the "lawful reasons" of line 12,
— i.e., to mean "weighty reasons." Miss Porter remarks:] The dread of cold
and formal argument is tolled out at the end of each quatrain, as "Against that
time" is at the beginning. [This parallel certainly raises a presumption in favor
of the second interpretation; and as to the usual meaning of "gravity" in Sh.,
it has reference to propriety of deportment rather than to a distant hauteur,
and can scarcely be applicable here. One may also compare Hooker, Keel.
Polity, I, x, § 9: "To punish the injury committed according to the gravity of
the fact." (Cited in AT. E. D.) — Ed.]

10. desart. Delius: Little desert, or want of desert. [For the rhyme, cf.
11, 4 and 14, 12. — Ed.]

11-12. For the notion of the poet's becoming a witness against himself, cf.
S. 88.

[This sonnet is one of those best representing the cumulative effect of the
three-quatrain structure. Cf. also 52 and 73. — Ed.]

[Mac kay believes that this sonnet introduces the sequence written to rep-
resent Leicester's love for Queen Elizabeth, the theme being developed in 57-58;
62-69; 104-107; 113-114; 1 1 8-122; 128; 140-142. (Nineteenth Century , 16:256.)]

50

How heauie doe I iourney on the way,

When what I seeke (my wearie trauels end)

Doth teach that ease and that repose to say

Thus farre the miles are measurde from thy friend.

The beast that beares me, tired with my woe, 5

Plods duly on, to beare that waight in me,

As if by some instinct the wretch did know

His rider lou'd not speed being made from thee:

The bloody spurre cannot prouoke him on, 9

That some-times anger thrusts into his hide,

Which heauily he answers with a grone,

More sharpe to me then spurring to his side,

For that same grone doth put this in my mind,

My greefe lies onward and my ioy behind.

2. what] that G, S, E.

4. Thus . . . friend] Italics by M, Co3, Hu2: quoted by A, Kt, Co1-2, B, Del,
Hu1, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, R, etc.
6. duly] dully 1640, G, etc.

126 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [l

Isaac [compares Petrarch's sonnet on a journey, Pt. i, S. 13:]

Io mi rivolgo indietro a ciascun-passo
Col corpo stanco, ch' a gran pena porto;
E prendo allor del vostr' aere conforto,
Che '1 fa gir oltra, dicendo, Oime lasso; [etc.]

Massey: [With this and the following sonnet cf. Sidney's sonnet on horse-
back, A. & S., 49:

While I spur
My horse, he [i.e., Love] spurs with sharp desire my heart.

Also R. 2, I, iii, 268-70:

Every tedious stride I make
Will but remember me what a deal of world
I wander from the jewels that I love.

See also note on S. 44.]

Plumptre: [Cf. Dante, Vita Nuova, S. 4:

Cavalcando 1' altr' ier per un cammino,
Pensoso de 1' andar che mi sgradia, etc.

(Contemp. Rev., 55: 589.)]

5. The beast. Fleay [is the only reader' who has been able to give the name
of this beast. In accordance with his metaphorical interpretation of the
journey-sonnets (see note on S. 27), he observes that the horse] ridden by the
poet is only the animal usually employed in carrying such burdens, — Pegasus.
(Mactn. Mag., 31: 436.)

6. duly. Malone: [For the emendation, cf. "dull" in 51, 2.]

li] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 127

5i
Thus can my loue excuse the slow offence,
Of my dull bearer, when from thee I speed,
From where thou art, why shoulld I hast me thence,
Till I returne of posting is noe need.

O what excuse will my poore beast then find, 5

When swift extremity can seeme but slow,
Then should I spurre though mounted on the wind,
In winged speed no motion shall I know,
Then can no horse with my desire keepe pace, 9

Therefore desire (of perfects loue being made)
Shall naigh noe dull flesh in his fiery race,
But loue, for loue, thus shall excuse my iade,
Since from thee going, he went wilfull slow,
Towards thee ile run, and giue him leaue to goe.

3. thou] tho L. thence,] thence ? G, etc.

6. slow,] slow? G, etc.

7. wind,] wind? Bo.

10. perfects] perfect G, S, E, M, A, Co, B, Hu1, CI, Kly, Wh1, Hal, Ty;
perfect'st Kt, Del, Dy, Sta, Gl, Cam, Do, Hu2, R, Wh2, Ox, etc.

11. naigh . . . flesh] neigh to dull flesh M conj.; neigh {no dull flesh) M, A, Kt,
Co, B, Del, Hu1, CI, Wh1; neigh — no dull flesh — Dy, Gl, Hal, Cam, Hu2, R,
Wh2, Ox, Her, Be, N; neigh, — no dull flesh, — Sta; neigh, no dull flesh, Kly, Ty;
neigh, no dull flesh Do, Wy, Bull; wait no dull flesh Bulloch conj.; need no dull
flesh G2, Kinnear conj., But, Wa; waigh no dull flesh G. C. Smith conj.

13. wilfull slow] Hyphened by M2, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, Hal,
Cam, Do, R, Ox, Wy, etc.
13-14. Since . . . goe] Quoted by Do, Ox.

1. slow offence. Beeching: Offence which consists in slowness.

4. posting. Schmidt: Going with speed. [Cf. Lucrece, 220: " In a desperate
rage post hither." — Ed.]

6. swift extremity. Schmidt: Extreme swiftness. [See note on 9, 14.]
Steevens: Cf. Macb., I, iv, 17: "That swiftest wing of recompense is slow."

7. mounted on the wind. Maloxe: Cf. 2 H. 4, Ind., 4: "Making the wind
my post-horse." Rolfe: Cf. A. Y. L., Ill, ii, 95: "Her worth being mounted
on the wind."

10. perfects. [Despite the prevailing preference for the reading "perfect'st,"

128 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [li

I am disposed -to prefer the "perfect" of the earlier editors, on grounds
of euphony and because Sh. four times uses the expression "perfect love." —
Ed.]

ii. See the textual notes for the weight of opinion respecting this difficult
line. Malone: The expression is here so uncouth that I strongly suspect this
line to be corrupt. Perhaps we should read "to dull flesh " : Desire, in the ardour
of impatience, shall call to the sluggish animal (the horse) to proceed.
Steevens: The sense may be this: "Therefore desire, being no dull piece of
horse-flesh, but composed of the most perfect love, shall neigh as he proceeds
in his hot career." "A good piece of horse-flesh" is a term still current in the
stable. Such a profusion of words, and only to tell us that our author's passion
was impetuous, though his horse was slow! Delius: Desire ... . shall serve
the poet as steed and neigh in his fiery course, instead of the slow horse of flesh
and blood. Massey: Horses are in the habit of neighing when they salute
each other; they will do this, too, if speed be ever so important. And the writer
says, his desire being made of perfectest love, having nothing animal about
it, shall not salute any dull flesh in his fiery race. . . . Perhaps the poet was
thinking of the words of the prophet Jeremiah: "They were as fed horses in
the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife." (p. 142.) [Despite
Dowden's remark that "surely no comment is needful" on this interpretation,
it appears to have been accepted by Gollancz.] Bulloch [defends his emen-
dation, "wait" for "naigh":] the poet declares that he would dispense with all
aid, which would be mere "dull flesh," and would excuse his poor steed, etc.
(p. 281.) Dowden: Does it not mean: Desire, which is all love, shall neigh,
there being no dull flesh to cumber him as he rushes forward in his fiery race?
Cf. the neighing stallion of Adonis, V. & A., 300-312. Wyndham [keeps the
Q reading, save for a comma after "naigh":] shall neigh as a spirited horse
neighs. A "race" of colts was a sporting term of the time (Madden) — akin
to our "bevy" of quails, "wisp" of snipe, "herd" of deer. [Beeching cites
Wyndham as giving "race" the meaning "breed," (but this is certainly not
the meaning of "bevy" or "herd." — Ed.) He adds:] if "race" be explained as
"breed," there is no word to imply that Desire gallops off home; he is left
neighing. Butler [defends what he and the Cambridge editors call Kinnear's
emendation of "need" for "neigh," though the textual notes will show that
this had appeared in Gildon's second edition, with which the Cambridge editors
were not acquainted. He paraphrases:] My desire to be with you will be so
great that I shall need no such dull flesh as that of my "dull bearer" to convey
me to you, but love will find an excuse for my poor beast which he would never
have been able to discover for himself. Lee: Desire, which is all spirit and no
dull flesh, shall neigh in the excitement of its impassioned flight. G. C. M.
Smith [defending his emendation "weigh" for "naigh":] Desire, which is
identified with love, refuses to keep the slow pace of the horse. It will be no
burden to his back. But as the horse . . . wilfully went slow on the outward
journey, he shall not now be spurred to a speed beyond his powers. Love or
desire will fly ahead, and leave the beast to walk. (Mod. Lang. Rev., 9: 372.)

Li] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 129

12. for love. Tyler: [This may mean "from love to the poor beast"; or
"for the sake of the love awaiting me on my return"; or "on account of my
affection"; or, as suggested by Mr. Bernard Shaw, "on account of the love
shown by the horse" in the "plodding dully on" of 50, 6. Tyler inclines to the
last interpretation, adding that "wilful," line 13, must then signify "purposely
on account of affection."] jade. Schmidt: A term of contempt or pity for a
worthless, or wicked, or maltreated horse. [The A7. E. D. adds:] Sometimes
used without depreciatory sense, playfully, or in generalized sense. [Massey,
viewing the horse not as Sh.'s but as Southampton's, cites R. 2, V, v, 85,
"That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand," as evidence that this may
mean a horse such as a nobleman might ride. (p. 145.)]

13-14. Dowdex: I have placed the last two lines, spoken, as I take it, by-
Love, within inverted commas.

14. go. Rolfe: The word here, as most of the critics agree, seems to have
the specific sense of walking as opposed to running. Cf. Temp., Ill, ii. 22:
"We'll not run, Monsieur monster." "Xor go neither." . . . Schmidt defines
"go" in [this passage] as = "walk leisurely, not to run"; but the instance in
the text he puts under the head of go = "make haste." [Wherein he is cer-
tainly wrong. The word had no such specific meaning, except as any verb of
motion may have it under certain circumstances. — Ed.] Tyler makes "give
him leave to go" = "dismiss him, or let him go at his pleasure."

130 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lii

52

So am I as the rich whose blessed key,

Can bring him to his sweet vp-locked treasure,

The which he will not eu'ry hower suruay,

For blunting the fine point of seldome pleasure.

Therefore are feasts so sollemne and so rare, 5

Since sildom comming in the long yeare set,

Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,

Or captaine Iewells in the carconet.

So is the time that keepes you as my chest, 9

Or as the ward-robe which the robe doth hide,

To make some speciall instant speciall blest,

By new vnfoulding his imprison'd pride.

Blessed are you whose worthinesse giues skope,

Being had to tryumph, being lackt to hope.

4. fine] fair E. seldome pleasure] Hyphened by Kly.
6. sildom] seldome 1640; seldom G, etc.

11. speciall blest] Hyphened by M, A, Kt, Co, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Kly,
Wh1, Hal.

With this sonnet cf. S. 48, and note.

4. Malone: Cf. Horace: "Voluptates commendat rarior usus." For
blunting. [On this use of "for," in the sense of "to prevent," see Abbott, § 154,
who wrongly explains the meaning as originally "in opposition to"; Franz,
§ 327, who connects it with the final use, as in "to start for," with the addi-
tional notion of a circumstance which one seeks to avoid; and N. E. D. (vii,
23, d sub no?7i.), under the general signification of "the cause or reason."]

5-8. Malone: Cf. 1 H. 4, I, ii, 229-30:

But when they [i.e., holidays] seldom come, they wish'd for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents;

and ibid., Ill, ii, 57-59:

So my state,
Seldom but sumptuous, show'd like a feast
And won by rareness such solemnity.

Verity: Cf. Montaigne, Essay on Inequality: "Feasts, banquets, revels . . .
rejoice them that but seldom see them." (Stott's reprint, 2: 239.)

8. STorES: Modern necklaces have their larger beads in the middle, but old

tin] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 131

ones were threaded more like rosaries, captaine. Schmidt: Predominant.
[The N. E. D. cites, under the adjective use with the meaning "principal,"
Stapleton's A Return of Untruths (1566): "A manifest and captain untruth."]
carconet. N. E. D. (sp. carcanet): An ornamental collar or necklace, usually
of gold or set with jewels.

9. Wyndham: Cf. 65, 10: "Time's chest."

10-12. Steevens: Cf. 1 H. 4, III, ii, 56-57:

My presence, like a robe pontifical,
Ne'er seen but wonder'd at.

14. [For the varied scansion of "being" here, see Abbott, §§ 475-76:]
A word repeated twice in a verse . . . may occupy the whole of a foot the first
time, and only part of a foot the second. . . . When the word increases in
emphasis, the converse takes place. [It is rather simpler to note that parti-
ciples like "being," with the stem ending in a vowel, were (and are) treated as
either monosyllabic or dissyllabic at will. — Ed.]

For the structure of the sonnet, see note at the end of S. 49.

53
What is your substance, whereof are you made,
That millions of strange shaddowes on you tend?
Since euery one, hath euery one, one shade,
And you but one, can euery shaddow lend :
Describe Adonis and the counterfet, 5

Is poorely immitated after you,
On Hellens cheeke all art of beautie set,
And you in Grecian tires are painted new:
Speake of the spring, and foyzon of the yeare, 9

The one doth shaddow of your beautie show,
The other as your bountie doth appeare,
And you in euery blessed shape we know.
In all externall grace you haue some part,
But you like none, none you for constant heart.

3. one shade] one's shade A, Kly.
7. of] or But.

On the theme of the sonnet, and the use of the term "shadow," see Wynd-
HAm's notes on S. 31 and 37, 10.

132 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [un

Isaac [compares some lines in a sonnet of Tasso's Rime Amorose, 15:]

Delia vostra bellezza il mio pensiero
Vago, men bello stima ogni altro obietto:
E se di mille mai finge un aspetto,
Per agguagliarlo a voi, non giunge al vero.

(Jahrb., 17: 186.)

2. strange. Schmidt: Belonging to another. Cf. L.C., 303: "Subtle mat-
ter ... all strange forms receives." tend. Schmidt: Wait (on). Cf. 57, 1.

4. Dowden: You, although but one person, can give off all manner of
shadowy images.

5. counterfet. M alone: Portrait. [Cf. 16, 8.] Tyler: The description.
[Walker remarks that the last syllable, commonly spelled -feit, was generally
pronounced nearly as "fate."]

5-8. [In the first lines of this quatrain Massey finds an allusion to the writ-
ing of V. &f A., in which Adonis may stand in some sense for Southampton,
(p. 38.) Gervinus also takes the passage to involve allusions to descriptions in
both V. & A. and Lucrece:] In Lucrece Sh. has mentioned Helen in the
description of a picture, and it is as if the retrospect had suggested to him the
allusion "You in Grecian tires are painted new." The image of the coy Adonis
is closely connected with the substance of the first 17 sonnets [and, we may
suppose, with the Southampton friendship]. (Trans., 1883, p. 447.) Tyler:
Notice, from the comparison with Helen, the feminine character of Mr. W. H.'s
youthful beauty. Cf. S. 20. [One is chiefly tempted, reading this quatrain,
to conjecture what emphasis would have been placed on the allusion to Adonis
or to Helen, if only Sh. had used either of them alone, as evidence of the sex
of the person addressed ! — Ed.]

7. Verity: Cf. A. Y. L., Ill, ii, 153: "Helen's cheek, but not her heart."

8. tires. Schmidt: Head-dresses. Dowden: Head-dresses, or, generally,
attire. Rolfe: The word may possibly be a contraction of "attires." Tyler:
Head-dress properly, though here the word "tires" would seem to be used
more generally. Lee: Attires, dress. [No one appears to have cited, in support
of the more general interpretation of the word, the passage in A. & C, II, v, 22
(Cleopatra speaking): "I . . . put my tires and mantles on him, whilst I wore his
sword." On this R. H. Case remarks (Arden or Dowden ed., p. 62) that the
word is common in the meaning "attire," and cites Heywood, The Brazen Age:
"Hence with these womanish tires"; also, for the singular, Rowlands's The
Knave of Hearts: "Reach me my stockings, and my other tire." The N. E. D.
cites Hooker, Keel. Polity, V, 79, § 5: "Threescore and seven attires of priests."
— Ed.]

9. foyzon. Malone: Plenty. Schmidt: Rich harvest. Rolfe: Here =•
autumn. [For the symbol of "your- bounty" Malone compares A. & C, V, ii,
86: "For his bounty, there was no winter in't; an autumn 't was," etc., where
"autumn" is Theobald's reading for the Folio "Anthony."]

10. show. Schmidt [takes this to be intransitive, = "appear," as in 101, 14.]

uv] THE SOXXETS OF SHAKESPEARE 133

II. bountie. BraNDES: [Cf. "wealth" in S. 37 and " dear-purchas'd right"
in S. 117; evidence] that Pembroke must have conferred substantial gifts upon
Sh. (William Sh., 1: 349 n.)

14. Massey: [By those who read all these sonnets as addressed by Sh. to
one friend.] the deceiver who has inflicted a public disgrace on the speaker of
S. 34, who has been a base betrayer of all trust in S. 35, a thief and a robber in
S. 40, the breaker of "two-fold truth" in S. 41, the same person, the thief,
traitor, deceiver, betrayer, injurer, and living effigy of falsehood and incon-
stancy, is idiotically supposed to be told by Sh. in a neighboring sonnet that
there is "None, none like you, for constant heart"! [Cf. also S. 105.] (p. 25.)

[Oscar Wilde treats the "shadows" of this sonnet as the various playing
parts taken by the youthful actor addressed ( The Portrait of Mr. W. H. ; see
note on S. 38).]

54
Oh how much more doth beautie beautious seeme,
By that sweet ornament which truth doth giue,
The Rose lookes faire, but fairer we it deeme
For that sweet odor, which doth in it Hue:
The Canker bloomes haue full as deepe a die, 5

As the perfumed tincture of the Roses,
Hang on such thornes, and play as wantonly,
When sommers breath their masked buds discloses:
But for their virtue only is their show, 9

They Hue vnwoo'd, and vnrespected fade,
Die to themselues. Sweet Roses doe not so,
Of their sweet deathes, are sweetest odors made :
And so of you, beautious and louely youth,
When that shall vade, by verse distils your truth.

9. is] in 1640, G1. virtue ... is] vertue's only in G, S, E.

10. vnwoo'd] unmoov'd 1640; unmov'd Gt S, E.

14. that shall] thou shall But conj. vade] fade G, S, E, M, A, Kt, Co, Hu1,
Sta, Gl, Kly, Wh, Hal, But, Her, Be, N. by] my C, M, Co1-2, B, Hu, Gl, Kly,
Wh, Hal, R, Ox, Wy, But, Her, Be, Bull, Wa.

2. ornament. Porter: Not here used in the superficial sense, . . . but as
the befitting token of the substance, that which shows what its essential
nature is. truth. Schmidt: Fidelity. [Cf. 14, 11 and 14; 37, 4; 48, 14; 62, 6;
96, 8; 101,2,3, 6; no, 5; 137, 12. (I omit 60, n, where the meaning is doubtful.)

134 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [liv

From a consideration of these passages, together with the present sonnet, it
will appear that Sh. was exceedingly fond of coupling the notion of "truth"
with that of "beauty"; that he used the term clearly in the meaning of "con-
stancy," but sometimes with a more general connotation amounting appar-
ently to "honor" or "virtue" (thus Schmidt gives the meaning "righteous-
ness," citing among other passages K.J., IV, iii, 144: "The life, the right and
truth of all this realm is fled"); in other words, that he seems to have tended
to adopt the word as signifying moral perfection set over against physical. —
Ed.]

5. Canker bloomes. Malone: The canker-rose or dog-rose. [Cf. M. Ado,
I, iii, 28: "I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace."]
Steevens: Sh. had not yet begun to observe the productions of nature with
accuracy, or his eyes would have convinced him that the cynorhodon is by no
means of as deep a colour as the rose. But what has truth or nature to do with
sonnets? Rolfe: Cf. 1 II. 4, I, iii, 176:

To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke.

[The N. E. D. cites the passage just quoted, under the definition "An inferior
kind of rose; the dog-rose (rosa canina) ." From the accepted interpretation of
the word there have been two dissenters. R. F. Towndrow, in Ath., July 23
and Aug. 6, 1904, set forth his belief that the "canker," both here and in the
passage in 1 II. 4, is the crimson and green gall, or bedeguar, caused by the
puncture of the Rhodites rosae, popularly known as "Robin's pincushion."
Mr. Towndrow was sufficiently answered by G. Birdwood, in the numbers for
July 30 and Aug. 13. Wyndham, on the other hand, oddly takes the passage
to be the familiar type of reference to a blossom eaten by canker (cf. 35, 4;
7°> 7; 95. 2; 99> J3; and numerous passages in the plays). "So far as I know,"
says Mr. Wyndham, " 'canker' is used by Sh. for the 'dog-rose' or wild briar
only twice,"— viz., in the two passages quoted above. But if twice, one natu-
rally asks, why hot thrice? — Ed.]
8. Malone: Cf. Haml., I, iii, 36-40:

The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.
The canker galls the infants of the spring
Too oft before the buttons be disclos'd.

Beeching: It is curious to note that in this [Hamlet] passage the word "un-
mask" is found, and also "canker," though in a different sense. It is not im-
possible that the two passages may have been written about the same time,
and that the one is something of an echo of the other. McClumpha: Cf.
R. & J., II, ii, 121:

This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,

May prove a beauteous flower. (Jahrb., 40: 196.)

liv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 135

discloses. Schmidt: Opens. Beechixg: The word would seem here to be sug-
gested by the epithet; the wind's opening the rose being compared to a rough
lover's pulling off a lady's visor.

9. for. [On the use of this as a conjunction (= "because"), see Abbott,
§ 151, and Franz, § 408.] show. Schmidt: Appearance.

9-1 1. Walsh: Cf. V. & A., 131-32, 166:

Fair flowers that are not gather'd in their prime
Rot and consume themselves in little time. . . .

Things growing to themselves are growth's abuse.

10. unrespected. See note on 43, 2.
11-12. See Maloxe's note on 5: 9-14.

13. Beechixg: "Lovely," being distinguished from "beauteous," shows
that the word had not quite lost its meaning of "attractive."

14. that. Dowdex: Beauty, the general subject of the sonnet; or youth,
taken from "sweet and lovely youth" of line 13. vade. [A familiar variant of
"fade." Main seems to think there is a distinction of meaning, citing Barn-
field's Complaint of Chastity, st. 9:

For what are pleasures but still-vading joyes?
Fading as flowers.]

by. [The retention of this word by a few editors may possibly be justified on
the ground that "distil" is found as an intransitive verb; it does not, however,
seem to be found with the meaning of "is distilled," which is required here,
but only with that of "trickle, issue forth in drops" ( N. E. D.), as in T. And.,
Ill, i, 17: "Rain that shall distil." — Ed.] [Drake, though praising highly
the sonnet as a whole, was pained by the "pharmaceutical allusion" in this
last line. (Sh. and his Times, 2: 81.)]

Walsh: The idea expressed in this sonnet is peculiar, and matched only by
the end of S. 5. Beauty is treated as external, secondary, and transient, while
odor is taken to be inherent, primary, and preservable, — beauty a shadow,
odor a substance; and to the latter is compared the youth's truth or constancy
(see S. 20, 3-4, and 53, 14), to the former his beauty. But elsewhere the youth's
beauty, or rather beauty embodied in the youth, is taken for the object of first
importance, the substance that is to be preserved in one way or another. Even
in S. 5 is no direct mention of odor (save only in the adjective "sweet"). But
cf. Lilly: "Affection that is bred in enchantment, is like a flower that is wrought
in silk, in colour and form most like, but nothing at all in substance or savour."
(Endimion, I, ii.)

Henry Brown: This sonnet has been imitated by Henry Peacham in the
Minerva Britannia, 1612, p. 100. (p. 177.)

For the appearance of lines 5-6 of the sonnet in a 17th century MS., see
note at the end of S. 2.

i36 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lv

55
Not marble, nor the guilded monument,
Of Princes shall out-liue this powrefull rime,
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Then vnswept stone, besmeer'd with sluttish time.
When wastefull warre shall Statues ouer-turne, 5

And broiles roote out the worke of masonry, N
Nor Mars his sword, nor warres quick fire shall burne:
The liuing record of your memory.

Gainst death, and all obliuious emnity 9

Shall you pace forth, your praise shall stil finde roome,
Euen in the eyes of all posterity
That weare this world out to the ending doome.

So til the iudgement that your selfe arise,

You Hue in this, and dwell in louers eies.

1. monument] monuments M, etc. (except Ty).

4. vnswept] in swept Stengel conj.

5. Statues] Statutes G1.

7. Mars his] Mars' s G2, S2, E; Mar sis M1.

9. all obliuious] Hyphened by M, etc. (except Ty, Wa). emnity] enmity G2,
etc.

12. weare] were 1640.

C. A. Brown [makes this sonnet the envoy of his "second poem," 27-55.]
Dowden: This looks like an envoy, but 56 is still a sonnet of absence.
M alone: Cf. Horace:

Exegi monumentum aere perennius,

Regalique situ pyramidum altius;

[and with the second quatrain] Ovid:

Jamque opus exegi, quod nee Jovis ira nee ignes,
Nee poterit ferrum, nee edax abolere vetustas.

Tyler: [Cf. with Meres, Palladis Tamia, 1598:] "As Ovid saith of his worke —
Jamque opus exegi, quod nee Jovis ira, nee ignis
Nee poterit ferrum, nee edax abolere vetustas;

and as Horace saith of his, —

Exegi monumentum aere perennius,
Regalique situ pyramidum altius,

lv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 137

Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens
Possit diruere aut innumerabilis
Annorum series et fuga temporum;

so say I severally of Sir Philip Sidneys, Spencers, Daniels, Draytons, Shake-
speares, and Warners workes —

Non Jovis ira, imbres, Mars, ferrum, flamma, senectus,
Hoc opus unda, lues, turbo, venena ruent.

Et quanquam ad pulcherrimum hoc opus euertendum tres illi Dii conspirabunt,
Cronus, Vulcanus, et pater ipse gentis: —

Xon tamen annorum series, non flamma, nee ensis,
/Eternum potuit hoc abolere dieus." (Fol. 282.)

. . . Though evidence is wanting that Sh. possessed much, if any, acquaintance
with Horace generally, yet we need have no difficulty in believing that, after
Meres's book had been published, Sh.'s attention would be specially directed
to the ode in question (iii, 30), or rather to that portion of it which Meres had
quoted. . . . Very likely he received a presentation copy of Wit's Treasury.
But whether this was the case or not, it is unlikely that he would long remain
ignorant of the compliment which had been paid to him. And as evidence that
he did in fact become acquainted with Meres's book, it is very noteworthy that
there are some things in the 55th Sonnet which find their analogies, not in the
passage from Horace, but in Meres's quotation from Ovid, and in particular
in the Latin of Meres's appendix. It is Ovid, and not Horace, who speaks of
the destructive agencies of fire and sword, "nee ignis, nee poterit ferrum." But
the 7th line of the sonnet finds its closest analogy- in Meres's "Xon . . . Mars,
ferrum, flamma" ("not . . . Mars, the sword, flame"). So close, indeed, is the
resemblance, that it is scarcely possible to avoid the conclusion that Meres's
Latin suggested the line in the sonnet. This conclusion is strengthened by the
incongruity which manifests itself in the line, the verb "shall burn" suiting
only "war's quick fire," and not the preceding "Mars his sword." It will be
seen upon reflection that this incongruity is easily accounted for if the words
"Mars," "sword," "fire," or the ideas they represent, were borrowed all
together from Meres. The elements composing this line are not to be found in
combination elsewhere in Sh., nor is the sword of Mars elsewhere mentioned.
Then the expression of the 9th line, "all oblivious enmity." finds its explana-
tion in the numerous influences tending to produce oblivion mentioned by
Meres, though perhaps the word "enmity" has especially in view Meres's
supposition of a hostile conspiracy on the part of the three deities. Lastly,
what Sh. says of "overturning statues" and of "broils rooting out the work of
masonry," may very well have been suggested by Meres's "ad pulcherrimum
hoc opus evertendum," though this perhaps is not quite so conclusive. On the
whole, however, that the 55th Sonnet was suggested by the passage from Meres
seems scarcely open to question. It may be reasonably inferred, therefore, that
S. 55 was written after the registration of Meres's book in September 1598.

1 38 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lv

(Intro., pp. 19-21.) [Mrs. Stopes supports Tyler's argument with the remark
that] it is almost certain Sh. would see Meres's work in MS., [since] Meres was
brother-in-law to Florio, another special protege of the Earl of Southampton.
[Dowden (Intro., p. 22) and Rolfe refer to this argument as ingenious;
Wyndham considers it convincing (p. 249), and it is also accepted by Walsh.
Lee calls the evidence very trivial, observing:] In Golding's translation [of
Ovid] reference is made to Mars by name (the Latin here calls the god Gradivus)
a few lines above [the translation of the " Jamque opus egi" passage,] and the
word caught Sh.'s eye there. Sh. owed nothing to Meres's paraphrase, but
Meres probably owed much to passages in Sh.'s sonnets. {Life, p. 1 17 n.) Por-
ter : Comparison of [Meres's Latin with the] quotations on which it is based and
with the sonnet will show that the main idea of Meres's addition, i.e., all that is
his own and has not already appeared in the citations from Horace and Ovid, is
the notion of the three gods conspiring; also that the sonnet shows no convin-
cing trace of this notion, nor the lesser details peculiar to Meres — i.e., the wave,
pestilence, the whirlwind, poison. It is clear that Sh. did not use Meres's
special contribution to the general idea and did use Horace and Ovid. (p. 136.)
[Even if the resemblance between the sonnet and Meres's paragraph were so
striking as to lead us to feel that some definite borrowing is involved, it would
be peculiarly hazardous to follow Tyler's assumption that the borrower was
Sh., since Meres happens to be the one contemporary of Sh.'s of whom we hap-
pen to have evidence that he had read Sh.'s sonnets in MS. — Ed.]

W. M. Rossetti: That Sh., who led an inconspicuous life, and took no heed
for the preservation of his writings later than the V. & A. and the Lucrece,
should yet have known with such entire certainty that they would outlive the
perishing body of men and things till the resurrection of the dead — this is the
most moving fact in his extant history. [Yet Rossetti adds a foot-note in which
he admits that similar expressions "formed almost a commonplace of sonnet-
literature."] (Famous Poets, p. 47.) Halliwell-Phillipps: [Some of the
Sonnets] have the appearance of being mere imitations from the classics or the
Italian. ... It is difficult on any other hypothesis to reconcile the inflated
egotism of such a one as 55 with the unassuming dedications to the Venus and
Lucrece, 1593 and 1594, or with the expressions of humility found in the Son-
nets themselves, e.g., 32 and 38. {Outlines, 8th ed., 2: 304.) Von Mauntz
[observes that this difference can be explained by assuming that Sonnets 32
and 38 were addressed to Southampton in the beginning of the acquaintance,
55 later, when the poet felt more confidence in his genius.] Barrett Wendell:
The writer of these sonnets . . . avows his belief that they shall be lasting liter-
ature. Not an infallible sign of serious artistic purpose, this is at least a frequent.
It appears in Spenser's Amoretti, and in many passages of Chapman and of
Ben Jonson, like that superb boast about poetry in the Poetaster:

She can so mould Rome and her monuments

Within the liquid marble of her lines,

That they shall live, fresh and miraculous,

Even in the midst of innovating dust.

lv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 139

In small men pathetically comic, such confidence becomes in great men nobly
admirable. Of Sh.'s Sonnets, then, we may fairly assert that they must have
seemed to the writer more important and valuable than his plays. (William Sh.,
p. 223.) Lee: In the numerous sonnets in which Sh. boasted that his verse
was so certain of immortality that it was capable of immortalizing the person
to whom it was addressed, he gave voice to no conviction that was peculiar
to his mental constitution, to no involuntary exultation of spirit, or spontaneous
ebullition of feeling. He was merely proving that he could at will, and with
superior effect, handle a theme that Ronsard and Desportes, emulating Pindar,
Horace, Ovid, and other classical poets, had lately made a commonplace of the
poetry of Europe. In Greek poetry the topic is treated in Pindar's Olympic
Odes, xi, and in a fragment by Sappho, No. 16 in Bergk's Poetae Lyrici Graeci.
In Latin poetry the topic is treated in Ennius as quoted in Cicero, De Senectute,
c. 207; in Horace's Odes, III, 30; in Virgil's Georgics, III, 9; in Propertius, III, i;
in Ovid's Metamorphoses, XV, 871 seq.; and in Martial, X, 27 seq. Among
French sonneteers Ronsard attacked the theme most boldly. His odes and
sonnets promise immortality to the persons to whom they are addressed with
an extravagant and a monotonous liberality. The following lines from Ron-
sard's Ode (livre i, No. 7), "Au Seigneur Carnavalet," illustrate his habitual
treatment of the theme:

C 'est un travail de bon-heur

Chanter les hommes louables,

Et leur bastir un honneur

Seul vainqueur des ans muables.

Le marbre ou l'airain vestu

D'un labeur vif par 1'enclume

N'animent tant la vertu

Que les Muses par la plume, [etc.]

(Oeuvres, ed. Blanchemain, 2: 58.)

. . . Desportes was also prone to indulge in the same conceit; cf. his Cleonice,
S. 62, which Daniel appropriated bodily in his Delia (S. 26). Desportes warns
his mistress that she will live in his verse like the phcenix in fire. Sir Philip
Sidney, in his Apologie for Poetrie (1595), wrote that it was the common habit
of poets "to tell you that they will make you immortal by their verses." " Men
of great calling," Nash wrote in his Pierce Pennilesset 1593, " take it of merit
to have their names eternised by poets." In the hands of Elizabethan sonnet-
eers the "eternising" faculty of their verse became a staple and indeed an
inevitable topic. [Cf. Spenser, Amoretti, S. 75:

My verse your virtues rare shall eternise,
And in the heavens write your glorious name;

Drayton, Idea, 6, 14 ("my immortal song"), 44, 7 ("my world-out- wearing
rhymes"), 44, 11 ("Ensuing ages yet my rhymes shall cherish"), 44, 14 ("My
name shall mount unto eternity"); Daniel, Delia, 37, 9 ("This may remain thy
lasting monument"), 39, 9 ("Thou mayst in after ages live esteemed"),
50, 9-12:

140 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lv

These are the arks, the trophies I erect
That fortify thy name against old age;
And these thy sacred virtues must protect
Against the dark and time's consuming rage.

. . . S. 55] is also very like Ronsard's Ode (livre v, No. 32) "a sa Muse," which
opens:

Plus dur que fer j'ay fini mon ouvrage,

Que l'an, dispos a demener les pas,

Que l'eau, le vent ou le brulant orage,

L'injuriant, ne ru'ront point a bas. [etc.]

Cf. also Ronsard's S. 72 in Amours (livre i), where he declares that his mis-
tress's name

Victorieux des peuples et des rois

S'en voleroit sus l'aile de ma ryme.

But Sh., like Ronsard, knew Horace's far-famed Ode, "Exegi monumentum
aere perennius," [etc.] Nor can there be any doubt that Sh. wrote with a
direct reference to the concluding ten lines of Ovid's Met. (xv, 871-79):

Jamque opus exegi, quod nee Jovis ira nee ignes,
Nee poterit ferrum, nee edax abolere vetustas.
Cum volet, ilia dies, quae nisi corporis hujus
Jus habet, incerti spatium mihi finiat aevi;
Parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis
Astra ferar nomenque erit indelebile nostrum.

This passage was familiar to Sh. in one of his favourite books — Golding's
translation of the Metamorphoses. Golding's rendering opens:

Now have I brought a worke to end which neither Jove's fierce wrath

Nor sword nor fire nor fretting age, with all the force it hath,

Are able to abolish quite. . . . [And all the world shall never

Be able for to quench my name. . . . And time without all end . . .

My life shall everlastingly be lengthened still by fame.]

{Life, pp. 1 13-17; see also Lee's article in Qu. Rev., 210: 462.)

[Von Mauntz notes other passages in Ovid bearing on this theme than that in
the Metamorphoses; viz., Tristia, I, vi, 35-36:

Quantumcumque tamen praeconia nostra valebunt,
Carminibus vives tempus in omne meis;

ibid., Ill, iii, 77~78:

Etenim maiora libelli
Et diuturna magis sunt monimenta mihi;

ibid., Ill, vii, 50-52:

Me tamen extincto fama superstes erit,
Dumque suis septem victrix de montibus orbem
Prospiciet domitum Martia Roma, legar;

lv] ^:he sonnets of Shakespeare 141

Amores, I, x, 61-62:

Scindentur vestes, gemmae frangentur et aurum:
Carmina quam tribuent, fama perennis erit.

To which b might have added the lines in Ex Ponto, IV, viii, passim; cf.
especially 4 j-48 :

Carmina vestrarum peragunt praeconia laudum,

Neve sit actorum fama caduca, cavent:
Carmina fit viva virtus, expersque sepulcri

Xotitiam serae posteritatis habet.]

Walsh: [Besides the parallels noted by Lee], the last sonnet of Bellay's Ruins
of Rome, in Spenser's translation, may also be noted. [This, like the Horace
and Ovid passages], is addressed to the poet himself, or his work. It is possible
that Sh. was here apostrophising himself, and intended this for his closing
sonnet. Accordingly, Mr. Godwin puts it last in his re-arrangement. But the
"you" here appears more appropriately the "thou" than the "I" of [S. 107.]
It is amusing that in all this effort to eternise somebody, the name of the person
concerned is never so much as mentioned even in a heading. Other sonneteers
of the period, who published their own sonnets, often "eternised" their friends
under fictitious names! All this was a poetical convention, and the principal
object striven after was to see which could do the eternising best, with little
regard to the person addressed or his or her deserts.

E. S. Bates: In answer [to Lee's remarks on the triteness of the eternizing
theme] it should be pointed out that it is rather curious that this theme was
emphasized most by the three poets of the century who actually had the
greatest right to expect immortality for their verses. Pierre de Ronsard,
Edmund Spenser, and William Sh. were the ones who expressed the thought
most frequently and most nobly. Why is it impossible that these men should
have sincerely believed in the permanence of poetry, or that this thought
should have given them deep emotion? And if in regard to the passing of beauty
we do not doubt the sincerity of Keats when he reiterates the same strain, why
shall we not be permitted to believe in that of Sh.? These ideas are so universal,
so moving, so intrinsically poetical, that to account for their presence, even in
the special form of promising eternity to a particular person, we hardly need
to assume a hollow endeavor at flattery as their cause. A sufficient explanation
would seem to be that among the current poetical conceptions of the time these
were particularly congenial to Sh.'s world-brooding mind. {Mod. Philology, 8:
101-02.)

4. unswept. M alone [interprets "dusty," by implication, comparing
A. W. W., II, iii. 147: "Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb of hon-
our'd bones."] Porter: Gathering dust to grow lichens and moss in, helping
the besmearing of the careless years.

6. Mars his. [The following of Malone's first edition may be traced in a

142 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lv

number of texts of the late 18th or early 19th century, through th e remarkable
genitive Marsis which appeared there. — Ed.]

9. all oblivious. [For the hyphenating of these words, cf. " all-building,"
M. for M., II, iv, 94; "all-changing," K.J., II, i, ^82; "all-ending," R. 3, III, i,
78; etc. Schmidt renders the phrase "forgetful of all," but Rolfe is doubtless
right in saying "causing to be forgotten." Cf. Macb., V, iii, 43: "Some sweet
oblivious antidote." — Ed.]

10. Porter: This wonderful line owes something of its effect not alone
to the music of the alliterative "pace forth" and "praise shall," but to the
pacing forth of the single-syllabled words one after the other, till the verse is
in itself a continuous steady-going procession, pace forth. Tyler: Come forth
in public view. Rolfe: Still go on, endure.

12. weare this world out. Beeching: To "wear out" is a common Shake-
spearean expression for "spend," used of time; often as here with a notion of
"wearing away."

13. judgement that. Dowden: Till the decree of the judgment-day that
you arise from the dead. [So Rolfe and Wyndham. Beeching, with whom
Lee agrees, makes "that" = "when"; and this is supported by Abbott's
statement:] Since "that" represents different cases of the relative, it may
mean "in that," "for that," "because" ("quod"), or "at which time"
("quura"). (§ 284.) Porter: "Judgement," in one of its facets, means the
Judgement Day, but in the other, and primary facet, here, of the sentence, the
judgement of Doomsday: So here, till the judgment is pronounced that you
yourself arise. [Hudson has an extraordinary note, which it is perhaps cruel
to perpetuate, to the effect that "arise" means "raises," "put in the plural for
the rhyme."]

Mark Pattison [mentions this Sonnet as an example of the bad effect of a
violation of the rule forbidding the repetition of rime sounds in the different
parts of the sonnet:] Let S. 55 be read aloud, and it will be felt how much the
numbers lose by this fault; enmity and posterity being tercet rimes, following
upon masonry and memory in the quatrains. (Sonnets of Milton, Introduction,
p. 10.)

\
lvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 143

56
Sweet loue renew thy force, be it not said
Thy edge should blunter be then apetite,
Which but too daie by feeding is alaied,
To morrow sharpned in his former might.
So loue be thou, although too daie thou fill 5

Thy hungrie eies, euen till they winck with fulnesse,
Too morrow see againe, and doe not kill
The spirit of Loue, with a perpetual dulnesse:
Let this sad Intrim like the Ocean be 9

Which parts the shore, where two contracted new,
Come daily to the banckes, that when they see:
Returne of loue, more blest may be the view.
As cal it Winter, which being ful of care,
Makes Somers welcome, thrice more wish'd, more rare.

3, 5. too daie] to-day C, M. etc.

7. Too morrow] To-morrow C, M, etc.

9. Intrim] interim L, M, etc. (except Ty, Wy, Bull); Int'rim Ty, Wy, Bull.

10. contracted new] Hyphened by A, Kt, B, Del, Hu, Sta, Kly, Ty.

13. As] Or C, Tyr conj., M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Kly, \Y h1,
Hal, Cam, Do, Ty, Ox, Wy, But, Be, N, Bull; Else anon, conj., Gl, R, Wh*.
Her, Wa; Ah anon. conj.

This sonnet was not in the Poems of 1640 or the editions based thereon.

Wyxdham [makes the sonnet the first of his Group D, 56-74:] These 19
numbers, conceived in a vein of melancholy contemplation, are among the
most beautiful of all, and are more subtly metaphysical than any, save only
123-25. (Intro., p. cxii.) Beechixg; I agree with Wyndham in taking this
sonnet as opening a new section. . . . The " interim " of line 9 is a period of apathy,
not of separation, the poet does not here say on whose part, but makes the
poem quite general.

6. winck. See note on 43, 1.

8. dulnesse. Schmidt: Insensibility, indolence. Dowdex: Drowsiness. [So
Rolfe.]

9-12. Dowdex: Is the sight of his friend . . . only the imaginative seeing of
love; such fancied sight as two betrothed persons ma*y have although severed
by the ocean? Tyler: I would suggest whether the poet did not imagine an

144 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lvi

irruption of the sea on land, so as to "part" what was previously continuous.
But, through persistence of the wind or other cause, the sea holds for a time its
conquest, and the two "contracted" or betrothed lovers come daily to the
"banks," expecting that the sea has retired. But in line 12, instead of speaking
of the return of the sea, the poet dismisses his simile, and speaks of the "return
of love." Wyndham: The image is obscure. Perhaps it contains an allusion
to the story of Hero and Leander. Beeching: [The ocean is] any ocean that
separates lovers. There does not seem to be a reference to any particular story.
Porter: The risk of death, surmounted by Leander in swimming across each
day, . . . and the fate of death at last overtaking him, suits the idea here ex-
tremely well. . . . [But further], this "ocean" and this "shore" suggests the
larger metaphor of the sea of Death and the elysian shore of the life beyond
Death. [The late Professor A. G. Newcomer suggested an interpretation of
the passage which I here set down, though he expressed himself as having no
great confidence in it: " ' Parts' does not seem to mean ' separates,' which would
lead us to expect 'shores,' not 'shore.' Perhaps it means 'leaves, recedes from,'
as in R. 2, III, i, 3: 'Your souls must part your bodies.' Then love is likened to
an ocean with its tides, and we may paraphrase: 'Let this sad interim be only
like waters that recede from their shore, where, viz., by this ocean of love
(dropping the image of a real ocean at this point), two, contracted new, come
daily to the banks, that when they see the tide of love come in again, more
blest may be the sight.' Certainly this carries out the thought of the early
part of the sonnet far better than the image of a sundering flood, which, at
best, is difficult to work out satisfactorily. But I admit that we are under no
obligation to seek unity of thought in the sonnets." I cannot say that I find
the continuity of thought in the sonnet obscure, though it is true that the image
in this quatrain is, for Sh., remarkable in its lack of distinctness. To me it
suggests a pair of lovers who live on the opposite sides of a bay or estuary,
where the ocean may be said to "part the shore," and who come daily to their
respective banks for a view of each other which is the "more blest" for the
situation which makes it difficult to obtain. And this interpretation may per-
haps be supported by a passage brought to my attention by Mr. Horace
Davis, in 3 H. 6, I, ii, 135-38:

Like one that stands upon a promontory

And spies a far-off shore where he would tread,

Wishing his foot were equal with his eye,

And chides the sea that sunders him from thence.

For the thought of the quatrain, cf. S. 52; it is presented in the final couplet
in an unmistakable image. The change from the first two quatrains to the
third, then, is only in the imagery: the poet first says that interrupted love
ought to be as capable of renewing itself as appetite, which must be newly
satisfied every day; then, that interruption should even have the capacity of
intensifying love, which is more blest on its return than if there had been no
"interim." — Ed.]

lvii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 145

10. contracted new. Tyler: The words are important as according with the
position that, when this sonnet was written, Sh.'s friendship with Mr. W. H.
was still new.

11. banckes. Beeching: Cf. M.V., V, i, 11 :

Stood Dido with a willow in her hand
Upon the wild sea-banks, and waft her love
To come again to Carthage.

13. care. Schmidt: Sorrow.

Isaac [views this as a love sonnet.] It is sufficient ... to call to mind the
tone, which points directly toward S. 75. . . . One may demand of those who
think otherwise some proof that Sh.'s friendship was coupled with that violent
tenderness which both sonnets exhibit and which can have justified the com-
parison of the friends with two newly betrothed. (Archiv, 62: 12-13.)

57
Being your slaue what should I doe but tend,
Vpon the houres, and times of your desire?
I-haue no precious time at al to spend;
Nor seruices to doe til you require.

Nor dare I chide the world without end houre, 5

Whilst I (my soueraine) watch the clock for you,
Nor thinke the bitternesse of absence sowre,
When you haue bid your seruant once adieue.
Nor dare I question with my iealious thought, 9

Where you may be, or your affaires suppose,
But like a sad slaue stay and thinke of nought
Saue where you are, how happy you make those.
So true a foole is loue, that in your Will,
(Though you doe any thing) he thinkes no ill.

5. world . . . houre] world-without-end-hour G1, S1; world-without-end hour
GJ, SJ, etc

Isaac, [again viewing this and S. 58 as addressed to a lady, compares them
with Rosaline's speech in L. L. L., V, ii, 60-68:

That same Biron I '11 torture ere I go.

O that I knew he were but in by the week!

How I would make him fawn and beg and seek,

146 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lvii

And wait the season and observe the times,

And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes,

And shape his service wholly to my hests,

And make him proud to make me proud that jests!

So pedant-like would I o'ersway his state

That he should be my fool and I his fate.

(Archiv, 61: 425.)

Krauss notes the same resemblance, and thinks that both passages have
reference to the tyranny of Lady Penelope Rich, one in connection with Sidney,
the other with William Herbert. (Jahrb., 16: 184.)]

Von Mauntz [compares Ovid, Amores, III, xiv, 41-42:]

Nil equidem inquiram: nee, quae celare parabis,
Insequar, et falli muneris instar erit.

Dowden: The absence spoken of in this sonnet seems to be voluntary
absence on the part of Sh.'s friend.

5. world without end. M alone: Cf. L. L. L., V, ii, 799: "To make a
world-without-end bargain in." J. D. Butler [(N. & Q., 9th s., 11 : 448) notes
that the phrase is found in the King James Bible in isa. 45: 17 and Eph. 3:21,
but that for Sh. it existed only in the Rheims Bible of 1582. Miss Porter,
however, properly refers it to the Gloria of the Book of Common Prayer.] Lee
views the phrase as imitative of the compound epithets of the period, called by
Ronsard "vocables composez" and by Sidney "compositions of two or three
words together." (French Renaissance in England, p. 248.)

6. soveraine. [For those concerned to discuss the sex of the person addressed,
it may be proper to call attention to the fact that Sh. frequently uses this word
of women. — Ed.]

8. servant. Knight [considers this to be decisive for the view that Sonnets
56-58 were addressed to a woman.] The lady was the mistress, the lover the
servant, in the gallantry of Sh.'s time. [But this use, of course, did not put an
end to the other uses of the word. — Ed.]

10. suppose. Schmidt: Figure to one's self, imagine. [The only use of the
word in Sh. with a direct object. — Ed.]

13. true a foole. Stopes: A suggestion of unwisdom in the passion. It may
be intended to bear a double meaning. Will. Massey [treats this sonnet as
belonging to the group of those containing puns on the poet's name. (p. 90.)]
Dowden: If a play on words is intended, it must be "Love in your Will (i.e.,
your Will Sh.) can think no evil of you, do what you please"; and also "Love
can discover no evil in your will." Lee: [Capitalization] was the usual practice
at the time in the case of this and like words in poetry, e.g., Nature, Truth,
Wit, Zeal, Soul. A doubtful endeavor has been made to detect in the word here
a tame pun. [Tyler, Wyndham, Butler, Bullen, and Walsh are the modern
editors who retain the capital in their text. — Ed.]

Lvn] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 147

Tyler [notes what he considers to be significant resemblances between pas-
sages in this and the following sonnet and a letter of Pembroke's to Cecil, dated
June 19, 1601: "I cannot forbeare telling of you that yet I endure a grieuous
Imprisonment, & so (though not in the world's misjudging opinion) yet in my-
self, I feel still the same or a wors punishment, for doe you account him a free-
man that is restrained from coming where he most desires to be, & debar'd from
enjoying that comfort in respect of which all other earthly joys seeme miseries,
though he have a whole world els to walk in? In this vile case am I, whose
miserable fortune it is, to be banish'd from the sight of her, in whose fauor the
ballance consisted of my misery or happines, and whose Incomparable beauty
was the onely sonne of my little world, that alone had power to give it life and
heate. Now judge you whether this be a bondage or no: for mine owne part, I
protest I think my fortune as slauish as any mans that lives fettered in a galley.
You haue sayd you loued me, & I have often found it; but a greater testimony
you can neuer show of it then to vse your best means to ridd me out of this
hell." Tyler's conclusion is:] As the letter was written from London, the possi-
bility may suggest itself that, if it was written by the hand of Pembroke, it was
really composed by Sh. But it is perhaps more likely that Pembroke borrowed
ideas from the sonnets which he had received from Sh. (Intro., pp. 59-61.)

[It is a point of some interest to inquire what is the intended tone of this and
the following sonnet. Butler (p. 63) says, "Sh. is evidently very angry," and
understands the manner to be one of bitter irony. He also views the pair as
conclusive for the relatively low rank of the person addressed:] Is it conceiv-
able that in S. 58 Sh. should tell a powerful nobleman that he could not even
think of controlling his liberty or requiring him to give an account of his time?

148 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lviii

58

That God forbid, that made me first your slaue,

I should in thought controule your times of pleasure,

Or at your hand th' account of houres to craue,

Being your vassail bound to staie your leisure.

Oh let me suffer (being at your beck) 5

Th' imprison'd absence of your libertie,

And patience tame, to sufferance bide each check, *

Without accusing you of iniury.

Be where you list, your charter is so strong, 9

That you your selfe may priuiledge your time

To what you will, to you it doth belong,

Your selfe to pardon of selfe-doing crime.

I am to waite, though waiting so be hell,

Not blame your pleasure be it ill or well.

3. th* account] the account L, M, A, Kt, B, Del, CI, Gl, Kly, Cam, Do, R,
Wh2, Ox, But, Her, Be, N.

6. Th' imprison'd] The imprison'd C, M, A, Kt, B, Del, CI, Gl, Kly, Cam,
Do, R, Wh2, Ox, But, etc.

7. patience tame, to sufferance] patience, tame to sufferance, G2, S2, etc.;
patience tame to sufferance; C.

io-ii. time To] time: Do M, A, Kt, Co1- 2, B, Del1- 2, Hu, Sta, Kly, Hal, Wa;
time; Do But, Be.

Walsh: A mere replica of the preceding [sonnet], and was probably intended
to supersede it.

3. to crave. [Regarding the expletive "to," see Abbott:] Just as "that" is
sometimes omitted and then inserted to connect a distant clause with a first part
of a sentence, so sometimes "to" is inserted apparently for the same reason.
(§416.)

6. Delius: Let me bear the fact that the liberty which you give, or possess,
is wanting to me, a captive. Dowden: The separation from you, which is
proper to your state of freedom, but which to me is imprisonment. Or, [the
interpretation of Delius may be right.] Wyndham: The absence which, aris-
ing out of your liberty, is as imprisonment to me. Butler: Let me suffer the
imprisonment of being kept at home waiting for you while you take your
liberty and absent yourself (after having promised to come to see me). Beech-

lviii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 149

ixg: Your absence, which, though it represent liberty to you, means imprison-
ment to me. [So, substantially, Lee.]

7. tame, to sufferance. M ALONE: Cf. Lear, IV, vi, 225: "Made tame to for-
tune's blows." Dowden*: Bearing tamely even cruel distress. Tyler: Subdue
patience into suffering. [From which he would seem to take "tame" as a verb,
though he puts the usual comma after "patience." — Ed.] Verity: ["Suf-
ferance" may mean "the verge of great forbearance"; cf. M.V., I, iii, m:
"Sufferance is the badge of all our tribe."] Lee: Complaisant in suffering.
Beechikg: Subdued so as to suffer. Cf. K.J., IV, ii, 262: "Tame to their
obedience." [Miss Porter alone sees a possibility of keeping the Q punctua-
tion, explaining:] The poet suffers tame patience and bides to the point of
suffering each rebuff . bide each check. Rolfe: Endure each rebuke or rebuff.

10. priviledge. Schmidt: Authorize, license. [Cf. Lucrece, 621: " To privilege
dishonour in thy name."]

11. To. Maloxe: There can, I think, be no doubt that [this is] a misprint.
[See the textual notes for the extent to which his emendation has been ac-
cepted.] Beeching: The rhythm and sense of the quatrain are against [the
Q reading]. "Do what you will" answers rhetorically to "Be where you list;"
else there is no verb of doing leading up to "self-doing crime," as "be" to
"privilege your time."

13. to waite. Kellner [notes this as a kind of "absolute infinitive," com-
paring .4. Y. L., Ill, ii, 162: "I to live and die her slave." {Hist. Gram., § 400.)]

150 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lix

59

If their bee nothing new, but that which is,
Hath beene before, how are our braines beguild,
Which laboring for inuention beare amisse
The second burthen of a former child?
Oh that record could with a back-ward looke, 5

Euen of hue hundreth courses of the Sunne,
Show me your image in some antique booke,
Since minde at first in carrecter was done.
That I might see what the old world could say, 9

To this composed wonder of your frame,
Whether we are mended, or where better they,
Or whether reuolution be the same.
Oh sure I am the wits of former daies,
To subiects worse haue giuen admiring praise.

I. their] there 1640, etc.

4. burthen] burden G2, S2, E, Co, Del, Dy, Sta, CI, Hal, Hu2, Ox, N, Bull, Wa.

6. hundreth] hundred G, etc.; thousand Stengel conj.

8. minde] mine 1640, G, S, E.

n. Whether] Whe'r Ox. we are] we're G2, S2, E, Hu. where] whe'r C, M, A,
Kt, B, Del, CI, Wh1, Do, Ty, Ox, Wy, Be, Bull; wher Hu, Dy, Sta; whether
Gl, Cam, Co3, R, Wh2, But, Her; were Kly; whe'er N, Wa.

Rolfe: Here, as Tyler notes, there is "pretty clearly a break of continuity."
[Tyler finds in this sonnet references to the "doctrine of the cycles," and
compares a passage in 2 H. 4, III, i, 80-86:

There is a history in all men's lives,

Figuring the nature of the times deceas'd;

The which observ'd, a man may prophesy,

With a near aim, of the main chance of things

As yet not come to life, who in their seeds

And weak beginnings lie intreasured.

Such things become the hatch and brood of time.]

... It will be seen that [in the sonnet] the idea is not simply that the lives of
men "figure the nature of the times deceased," but the absence of anything
really new is supposed, so that even the brain itself, "labouring for invention,"
can but produce again what it has formerly brought forth. What follows as to

lix] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 151

"five hundred courses of the sun" would seem to point to pre-existence in this,
rather than in some former world. And here it is worthy to be observed that
when Sh. was thus contemplating the course of thirjgs, the idea of an ocean of
being seems to have presented itself to his mind; and such an idea is in accord-
ance with what is said in [2 H. 4, III, i, 50] about the ocean and its "beachy
girdle." [Cf. S. 60; "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore," etc.]
. . . [As to the source of this doctrine, for Sh.] some points of correspondence
in the writings of Bruno and Campanella might possibly be detected. But the
doctrine, as it appears in the 59th and 123rd Sonnets, was the doctrine of the
ancient Stoics, which was reproduced by the author of the biblical book of
Ecclesiastes. . . . The verses in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes which contain
the doctrine of the cycles are so salient and prominent, and lend themselves so
easily to quotation, that I cannot readily allow the improbability of Sh.'s
having obtained his knowledge from this source. Sh. does not speak of the
doctrine as derived from his own reflection, but rather as an hypothesis received
from without or heard from others. (Intro., pp. 104-08.) Mrs. Stopes, [fol-
lowing Tyler here and elsewhere in supposing some interest on Sh.'s part in the
writings of Giordano Bruno, thinks that the present sonnet is a reference to
some late discussion of those writings between Sh. and the friend addressed.]
Beeching: This sonnet anticipates the thought of Sonnets 106 and 123. Lee:
Sh.'s treatment of the central tenet of Ovid's cyclical creed may be best de-
duced from Sonnets 59 and 123. In both these poems the doctrine of Nature's

rotatory process is the main topic In the first sonnet the poet seriously

examines the theory without committing himself to it; in the second he pro-
nounces in its favour, albeit with a smack of irony. [Golding's version of
Ovid's statement is:]

Things ebb and flow. . . . Even so the times by kind

Do fly and follow both at once, and evermore renew. . . .

Things pass perchance from place to place, yet all, from whence they came

Returning, do unperished continue still the same.

(Qu. Rev., 210: 469.)

F. V. Hugo: N'est-il pas etrange de voir revenir ici cette doctrine de la
metempsycose partie de l'ancienne Egypte et de la vieille Gaule? Remarquons
aussi la conclusion dans laquelle Sh., repoussant l'idee indienne de l'immobilite
et l'idee biblique de la decadence, proclame, avec la certitude du genie, le
grand principe revolutionnaire du progres indefini.

3. invention. Cf. 38, 8 and note.

5. record. Schmidt: Memory. Rolfe: Accented by Sh. on either syllable,
as suits the measure. Cf. 122, 8.

7-8. M alone: Would that I could read a description of you in the earliest
manuscript that appeared after the first use of letters. Steevens: This may
allude to the ancient custom of inserting real portraits among the ornaments
of illuminated manuscripts, with inscriptions under them. Schmidt, [under
"character," paraphrases line 8:] Since thought was first expressed in writing.

152 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lx

ro. composed wonder. Rolfe: Wonderful composition. [See Schmidt's
note on 9, 14.]

11. where. M alone: Whether. Dowden: Often monosyllabic in Eliza-
bethan verse. [Cf. V. & A., 304: "Where he run or fly" (Q spelling).]
[From this only Collier dissents, saying that the clear meaning is,] In what
respects were they better?

12. Dowden: Whether the ages, revolving on themselves, return to the same
things. [Cf. 2 H. 4, III, i, 46: "And see the revolution of the times." — Ed.]

13-14. Lee: [Cf. Spenser's sonnet to Lord Charles Howard, in which he
tells his patron] that "his good personage and noble deeds" made him the
pattern to the present age of the old heroes of whom "the antique poets" were
"wont so much to sing." (Life, p. 140.)

60

Like as the waues make towards the pibled shore,
So do our minuites hasten to their end,
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toile all forwards do contend.
Natiuity once in the maine of light. 5

Crawles to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked eclipses gainst his glory fight,
And time that gaue, doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfixe the florish set on youth, 9

And delues the paralels in beauties brow,
Feedes on the rarities of natures truth,
And nothing stands but for his sieth to mow.
And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand
Praising thy worth, dispight his cruell hand.

1. pibled] pebbled E, etc.
13. times in hope, my] times, in hope, my G2, S2, E; times in hope my C, Co,
Del, etc. (except Ty); Time's wanhope my Fleay conj.; Time's own hour my
Bulloch conj.; time's rebuke my anon. conj.

1. Stopes: By this time the inland poet had looked upon the sea beating*
upon some pebbly beach, probably Dover. [For the form pibled, see N. E. D,
under "pebble," where many variant forms are noted, "some going back to
O. E., the phonetic relations of which are obscure."]
1-4. Lee: [Cf. Golding's Ovid, Metam. xv:]
As every wave drives others forth, and that that comes behind
Both thrusteth and is thrust himself; even so the times by kind (etc.).

lx] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 153

5. Malone: ["The main of light" is] the great body of light. So, the
"main" of waters. Palgrave: When a star has risen and entered on the full
stream of light. Dowden: The entrance of a child into the world at birth is
an entrance into the main or ocean of light. Tyler: The world conceived as
though a wide ocean enlightened by the rays of the sun. Wyxdham: This and
the two next lines have primarily and essentially an astrological significance.
"Nativity" is a term of astrology denoting the moment of a child's birth in
relation to the scheme or figure of the heavens, particularly of the Twelve
Houses, at that moment, and it is employed by Sh. almost invariably with this
connotation. Lear, I, ii, 140: "My nativity was under Ursa Major"; Per.,
Ill, i, 32: "Thou hast as chiding a nativity as fire, air, water, earth, and heaven
can make"; / H. 4, III, i, 13: "At my nativity the front of heaven was full of
fiery shapes." . . . Here, though possibly with a secondary echo of the sea-
image from the first quatrain, "main of light" means the hollow sphere of the
universe filled with light as conceived in Sh.'s day. Life beginning at a point in
time within the shining sphere of the heavens, whose aspect is charged with its
fate, crawls to maturity only to be thwarted by their fateful powers. Beechixg :
"Nativity" or "birth" is compared to the sun crawling up the sky, called "the
main of light" to distinguish it from the "main of waters." [Wyndham's note
is of real value, as directing attention to the astrological character of the image,
which had curiously escaped earlier commentators, — except perhaps Pal-
grave. In view of the term "eclipses," however, I think that Beeching is right
in taking the figure to have primary reference to the sun. — Ed.] Lee: Ovid
(Melam. xv) describes "Dame Nature" as bringing man out from the womb
"[in] to ayre," for him to pass "forth the space of youth, ' to wear "out his
middle age apace," and finally to have his strength "undermined" by age and
to be consumed "every whit" by "lingering death." (Golding's trans., ed.
1612, p. 186 a.) [In the Qu. Rev., 210: 473, Lee also calls attention, in connec-
tion with the "crawls" of line 6, to Ovid's description of "the baby's early
endeavour to crawl." The notion, however, of a child "crawling to maturity"
in this literal fashion, is so painful that we may be allowed to forget it. — Ed.]

6. Crawles. Tyler: Meaning, probably, not merely that the progress is
slow but that the condition of mankind is abject. Cf. Haml., Ill, i, 130:
"What should such fellows as I do crawling between heaven and earth ? "

7. Crooked. Schmidt: Malignant. [Cf. T. G. V., IV, i, 22: "Crooked for-
tune."]

8. confound. See note on 5, 6.

9. transfixe. Schmidt: Transplace, remove. [The word does not occur else-
where in Sh., and I know not where Schmidt can have got his rendering. Surely
the word is generally understood in its common meaning, of a Time like him of
Browne's epitaph, who may be expected to "throw a dart at thee." — Ed.]
florish. Maloxe: External decoration. Schmidt: Gloss, ostentatious em-
bellishment. [Cf. L. L. L., II, i, 14: "The painted flourish of your praise."]

10. Maloxe: Cf. 2, 1-2; 19, 9. [With reference to "delves," Beeching
remarks that Time appears not only "with his conventional dart and scythe,"

154 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lx

but "also with a spade." But surely not even Time would be so cruel as to use
a spade on the brow of beauty. — Ed.]

ii. natures truth. Tyler: That which is naturally and genuinely beautiful
and excellent, as opposed to what is meretricious and artificial. [So Beeching.]
[For "truth," see note on 54, 2. May not the reference be simply to the rare
things created by the fidelity of Nature? — Ed.]

13. times in hope. Bulloch explains his emendation by saying that
"Time's own hour" is "the last hour of time or consummation of all things,"
and calls attention to the personification in the following line. (p. 283.) Dow-
den: Future times. Beeching: Schmidt takes "in hope" with "stand," but
the previous line shows that "stand" is used absolutely for "endure." [For
"in hope" with the meaning "future," cf. T. of A., IV, iii, 527: "Benefit . . .
either in hope or present." — Ed.]

Beeching: Note the contrast between the smoothness of the first quatrain,
describing the work of Time, in which each line runs to its end like the ripple
to which it compares the succession of minutes, and the second quatrain, which
by its slowness and repeated breaks suggests the labour of human life which
Time hinders at every step. (Intro., p. liii.)

In the MS. book referred to at the end of the notes on S. 2, as having been
in the possession of Mr. Bertram Dobell, is a kind of composite sonnet made up
of lines 5-12 of S. 60 and lines 3-8 of S. 65. The lines from S. 60 include no
textual peculiarities.

lxi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 155

61

Is it thy wil, thy Image should keepe open

My heauy eielids to the weary night?

Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken,

While shadowes like to thee do mocke my sight?

Is it thy spirit that thou send'st from thee 5

So farre from home into my deeds to prye,

To find out shames and idle houres in me,

The skope and tenure of thy Ielousie?

O no, thy loue though much, is not so great, 9

It is my loue that keepes mine eie awake,

Mine owne true loue that doth my rest defeat,

To plaie the watch-man euer for thy sake.

For thee watch I, whilst thou dost wake elsewhere,
From me farre of, with others all to neere.

3. slumbers] slumber But.

6. prye,] pry ? G, E.

8. tenure] tenour C, M, etc. (except Wy, Wa).

14. of] off G, etc. all to neere] all too neare 1640, G 1 ; all too near G-, S, E, C,
Co, Hu, Dy, CI, Gl, \Yh, etc.; all-too-near M, A, Kt, B, Del, Sta; ail-too near
Kly.

Massey: A palpable continuation of [S. 43, being one of the group of sonnets
on a journey, (p. 91.) See notes on S. 43, for the resemblance to Sidney's
A. & S. 38.] Rolfe: [Cf. Sonnets 27-28.]

Dowdex: The jealous feeling of S. 57 reappears in this sonnet.

1-3. open . . . broken. [Wyxdham notes the "assonantal rhyme." Cf.
remember'd: tender' d in S. 120.] Price [comments on the unexpected imperfect
rhyme as "delicious." (p. 371.)]

4. Wyxdham: Cf. 43, 11-12. For "shadows," see note on 37, 10.

7. shames. Fleay [couples this with 72, 13; see his note on that line.]
idle houres. Dowdex: Cf. Dedication of V. & A.: "I . . . vow to take advan-
tage of all idle hours."

8. tenure. Wyxdham [(see textual notes), keeping the Q spelling, refers to
his note on the word in Lucrece 1310, where he interprets it in the legal meaning
of the transcript or copy of an instrument. Miss Porter, defending the same
form of the word, defines it (for both passages) as a paper or other container.
Whatever may be the appropriateness of these renderings for the line in

156 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxii

•

Lucrece, I am quite unable to understand either of them as applied to the pres-
ent passage, where the usual Shakespearean meaning of the word (spelled both
"tenor" and "tenure" in old texts), viz., essential content or meaning, is
obviously applicable. — Ed.]

9. Beeching: The half-amused, half-despondent answer to the sad ques-
tions in the first two quatrains is given in a line of almost choking rhythm.
(Intro., p. liv.) Walsh: This line suits much better the character of the dis-
dainful mistress than that of the faithful friend.

11. defeat. Schmidt: Destroy.

13-14. [Isaac regards these lines as meaningless unless addressed to a
woman. (Archiv, 61: 419.)]

62

Sinxe of selfe-loue possesseth al mine eie,

And all my soule, and al my euery part;

And for this sinne there is no remedie,

It is so grounded inward in my heart.

Me thinkes no face so gratious is as mine, 5

No shape so true, no truth of such account,

And for my selfe mine owne worth do define,

As I all other in all worths surmount.

But when my glasse shewes me my selfe indeed 9

Beated and chopt with tand antiquitie,

Mine owne selfe loue quite contrary I read

Selfe, so selfe louing were iniquity,

T'is thee (my selfe) that for my selfe I praise,
Painting my age with beauty of thy daies,

4. my] the G2.

7. for . . . do] for . . . so Walker conj., Del conj.; so ... do Lettsom conj.,
Hu2; for ... to Kt. owne] one S2, E.

8. As I] / do C. worths] worth But.

10. Beated] 'Bated M1; Bated Walker conj., Hu2, R; Blasted Stee conj.;
Beaten Co conj., Kinnear conj., Hu1, Wh. chopt] chapp'd Dy, Sta, Wh\ Co3,
Hu2.

n. selfe loue] Hyphened by L, etc.

12. selfe louing] Hyphened by G, etc.

[This sonnet cannot be understood without realizing it as a freshly ingenious
treatment of the conceit of "identity," on which see notes on 22 and 36. — Ed.]

lxii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 157

7. Delius: [For "do define," understand "I do define," unless we emend
"do" to "so."] Dowden: Does "for myself" mean "for my own satisfac-
tion"? Rolfe: Perhaps it merely adds emphasis to the statement. Wyndham:
My definition of my worth is such that, [etc.] Beeching: [If the correction "so
myself" were adopted, we should also have to read "does define,"] as "myself"
in Sh. is always followed by the third person of the verb. If any correction is
made, it would be better to read "And / myself my own worth so define," but
it is simpler to understand the omission of the personal pronoun understood
from "methinks." [The late Professor A. G. Newcomer interpreted the line:
"I define my own worth as 'just myself,' — there is no other definition possi-
ble." Cf. "You alone are you," 84, 2.]

8. other. [For this use in the plural, cf. Abbott, § 12, and Franz, § 224.]
9-10. On the theme of the poet's age, see notes on 22. 1. R. G. White

[calls line io] a very perplexing line, which seems to imply that the poet was
not speaking in his own person. Yon Friesen: In itself it is not unnatural that
a man who was married at the age of eighteen and had become a father at the
completion of his 19th year, should think of himself as growing old with the
approaching thirties. (Altengla?id u. William Sh., p. 341.) Tyler: I am not
very willing to accept the explanation that, on account of the difference in the
conditions of life, the signs of age made their appearance sooner three centuries
ago than they do now. It is more to the purpose that, as compared with the
age of Herbert at 18 ("the world's fresh ornament, and only herald to the
gaudy spring," in "the lovely April" of his prime) not only was forty (S. 2),
but even thirty-four or thirty-five, a somewhat advanced age. This comparison,
expressed or implied, should be kept in view, and we should certainly not lose
sight of the hue of melancholy which is so clearly conspicuous in many of the
Sonnets between 64 and 94. (Intro., p. m.) [Tyler is speaking here, it should
be noted, not of the present sonnet but of S. 73. — Ed.] W. C. Hazlitt: The
canon in pastoral poetry of all ages and countries which licenses the fictitious
assumption of years, . . . assuredly does not apply here. Is it reasonable to
seek or accept any explanation except and beyond the superficial one? Is it
necessary? These exercises may be partly at least ascribed to a stage in the
life of Sh. when he had reached his prime; some — one almost certainly — were
composed as late as 1603, when he was 39, and there is no particular hazard . . .
in setting down [Sonnets 2 and 73, examples of this theme of impending age]
to the very year when the forty winters [of S. 2] had done their work, and had
wrought more than average havoc on a system worn by incessant intellectual
labour. (Sh., Himself and his Work, p. 264.)

10. Beated. M alone: Perhaps a misprint for '"bated." '"Bated" is prop-
erly "overthrown," "laid low," "abated," from abattre, Fr. . . . "Beated,"
however, the regular participle from the verb to "beat," may be right. We had
in a former sonnet "weather-beaten face." Steevens, [in favor of "blasted,"
cites 2 H. 4, I, ii, 207:] "Every part about you blasted with antiquity."
Dowden [was led by the word "tann'd" to learn that skins are submitted to a
process called "bating," though he does not take the suggestion seriously. For

158 . THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxii

the possible "bated," he cites M.V., III, iii, 32: "These griefs and losses have
so bated me." (For this word Schmidt gives the meaning "weakened.")]
Hudson [also reading "bated":] In 1 H. 4, III, iii, 2, Falstaff uses the word in
a sense well suited to this place: "Am I not fallen away vilely? ... do I not
bate? do I not dwindle?" Tyler [renders the whole line, "Battered, wrinkled,
and darkened," presumably connecting the first word with "beat."] Herford:
Flayed. Properly an agricultural term (still used in Devonshire) for paring
away the sods from moorland. [But how does old age flay the face? — Ed.]
Rolfe, [for the participle in -ed, compares "splitted," C. of E., I, i, 104;
"catched," L. L. L., V, ii, 69; etc.] chopt. Schmidt: Rent and split with toil
or age. [The same word as "chapped " (see N. E. D.), which latter form is not
found in the early editions of Sh. — Ed.] antiquitie. Schmidt: Old age. [Cf.
2 H. 4, I, ii, 207, quoted above.]

13. [This and similar lines are the starting-point for Karpf's esoteric theory
that the theme of the Sonnets is die ideale Selbstliebe. See also note on 22, 5-7.]
[After "myself" Craig puts comma and dash, apparently taking the following
"that" as demonstrative, on what grounds I cannot imagine. — Ed.]

Mackay [takes this sonnet to represent Leicester addressing the Queen (see
note on S. 49):] the feelings of his youth and early prime are represented in the
first eight lines of the poem — those of his present age (between fifty and sixty)
are expressed in the last six. . . . This series of the sonnets forms as complete a
dramatic poem as V. & A. or Lucrece, and . . . depicts with consummate
mastery of touch the love of an ambitious man, grown old, for a woman grown
old also, whom he loved (truly or selfishly) in his youth, and whom he continues
to love, or pretend to love, in his declining years. {Nineteenth Century, 16: 257,
259-)

lxiii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 159

63
Against my loue shall be as I am now
With times iniurious hand chrusht and ore-worne,
When houres haue dreind his blood and fild his brow
With lines and wrincles, when his youthfull morne
Hath trauaild on to Ages steepie night, 5

And all those beauties whereof now he 's King
Are vanishing, or vanisht out of sight,
Stealing away the treasure of his Spring.
For such a time do I now fortifie 9

Against confounding Ages cruell knife,
That he shall neuer cut from memory
My sweet loues beauty, though my louers life.
His beautie shall in these blacke lines be seene,
And they shall Hue, and he in them still greene.

1. Against] Aghast Bulloch conj.

2. chrusht] crush' d G, etc.; j rush' d Stee conj.

5. trauaild] travel'd G2, S2, etc. steepie] sleepy Hus.

[Despite the fact that Dowden and Rolfe speak of this sonnet as continu-
ous with the preceding, the thought appears to me much more closely related
with that of S. 60, after which Walsh places it in his rearrangement. — Ed.]

Isaac: [With this sonnet cf. Daniel, Delia, 33:

I once may see, when years may wreck my wrong,
And golden hairs may change to silver wire;

and ibid., 37: "When winter snows upon thy golden hairs."] (Jahrb., 17: 182.)

2. injurious. Walsh: Cf. "injurious time," T. & C, IV, iv, 44, which phrase
occurs in Lilly's Endimion, I, i, and in Spenser's translation of Bellay's Ruins
of Rome, 27, 6. chrusht. Steevexs [defended his emendation, "frush'd," on
the ground that] to say that a thing is first "crush'd," and then "over-worn,"
is little better than to observe of a man that he was first killed, and then
wounded. Maloxe: To frush is to bruise or batter. What then is obtained by
the change?

4. lines and wrincles. Fleay: Cf. Drayton, S. 44, 2: "Age rules my lines
with wrinkles in my face." {Biog. Chron., 2: 227.) [Cf. 2, 1-2; 19, 9; 60, 10. —
Ed.]

160 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxiii

5. steepie. Malone: I once thought that the poet wrote "sleepy." But
the word "travel'd" shows, I think, that the old copy is right, however incon-
gruous the epithet "steepy" may appear. [Cf. 7, 5-6, which explain what is
meant by the "steepy night" of age.] Hazlitt: ["Age's steepy night" is] the
precipice of age from which we are to plunge into darkness. Dowden, [com-
paring, like Malone, the "steep-up heavenly hill" of S. 7, explains:] Youth and
age are on the steep ascent and the steep decline of heaven. Lee: Another
reminiscence of Golding's translation of Ovid's Metam., bk. xv (1612 ed.,
p. 186a): "Through drooping age's steepy path he (i.e., man) runneth out his
race."

9. For such a time. Beeching: Referring back to line 1, "Against [the time
when] my love shall be crush'd," etc. fortifie. [Rolfe: For the intransitive use
cf. 2 H. 4, I, iii, 56: "We fortify in paper and in figures."] Lee: Cf. Daniel,
Delia, S. 50, 9-10:

These are the arks, the trophies I erect,
That fortify thy name against old age.

10. knife. Tyler: Nearly equivalent to Time's scythe.

Brandl [notes that this sonnet and those that follow, to 68, are not directly
addressed to the friend; the poet writes as it were "a tragic monologue to him-
self." (p. xii.)]

[The structure of the sonnet is unusual in that the principal pauses of the
opening portion occur after line 2, in the middle of line 4, and at the ends of
lines 5 and 8. — Ed.]

(

lxiv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 161

64
When I haue seene by times fell hand defaced
The rich proud cost of outvvorne buried age,
When sometime loftie towers I see downe rased,
And brasse eternall slaue to mortall rage.
When I haue seene the hungry Ocean gaine 5

Aduantage on the Kingdome of the shoare,
And the firme soile win of the watry maine,
Increasing store with losse, and losse with store.
When I haue seene such interchange of state, 9

Or state it selfe confounded, to decay,
, Ruine hath taught me thus to ruminate
That Time will come and take my loue away.
This thought is as a death which cannot choose
But weepe to hsme, that which it feares to loose.

2. rich proud] Hyphened by M, A, Kt, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Kly, Cam,
Do, Ty, Ox, But.

3. sometime] sometimes G, S, E. downe rased] Hyphened by M, etc. (except
Kly).

14. loose] lose G2, S2, etc.

Palgrave: [Sonnets 64-66] form one poem of marvelous power, insight,
and beauty.

Lee [views the sonnet as based on Ovid's account of] the "towers" of Athens
and Thebes and other cities of Greece, "ruins of whose ancient works" were
overgrown with grass. (Qu. Rev., 210: 472.) [The resemblance to Ovid had
been noticed by Walker, Crit. Exam., 1: 152.] Stopes: Cf. Lucrece, 939,
944-48:

Time's glory is to calm contending kings, . . .

To ruinate proud buildings with thy hours,

And smear with dust their glitt'ring golden towers;

To fill with worm-holes stately monuments,

To feed' oblivion with d°cay of things,

To blot old books and alter their contents.

4. brasse eternall. [It is curious that this use of "brass," with its echo of
''aere perennius," etc., finds no distinct place in the AT. E. D. — Ed.]

5-8. *Capell: Cf. 2 H. 4, III, i, 46-52:

162. THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxiv

And see the revolution of the times

Make mountains level, and the continent

Weary of solid firmness, melt itself

Into the sea! and, other times, to see

The beachy girdle of the ocean

Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock,

And changes fill the cup of alteration.

Steevens: Cf. z H. 4, III, i, 108-11 [of the River Trent:]

Mark how he bears his course, and runs me up
With like advantage on the other side;
Gelding the opposed continent as much
As on the other side it takes from you.

Rolfe: Some critics have expressed surprise that Sh. should know anything
of these gradual encroachments of the sea on the land; but they had become
familiar on the east coast of England before his day. [He refers to his note on
R. 2, II, i, 295, with reference to the inroads of the sea which swept away most
of the town of Ravenspurg, at the mouth of the Humber, in the 14th century.]
Lee: One more of Sh.'s many echoes of the philosophic disquisition in Ovid's
Me tarn., xv:

Even so have places often-times exchanged their estate,
For I have seen it sea which was substantial ground alate.
Again where sea was, I have seen the same become dry land.

[These notes of Rolfe and Lee enable us to make a typical choice between life
and literature as sources. — Ed.] Tyler: Cf. In Memoriam, cxxiii:

There rolls the deep where grew the tree.

O earth, what changes hast thou seen!

There where the long street roars hath been
The stillness of the central sea.

The hills are shadows, and they flow
From form to form, and nothing stands;
They melt like mist, the solid lands,

Like clouds they shape themselves and go.

8. Tyler: Extending its own domain by what the other loses, and losing by
what the other gains, store. Schmidt: Abundance.

9-10. state . . . state. Schmidt [defines the first by "condition," the second
by "pomp." So, in effect, Beeching and Tyler; but Wyndham defines the
second as "condition in the abstract," comparing 124, 1, where, however, he is
probably also mistaken in his interpretation. For the first use of the word, cf.
"estate" in the passage from Golding's Ovid quoted above. -- Ed.]

13. Dowden: This thought, which cannot choose, etc., is as a death.

Price: Not less than 10 of the 14 verses [of this sonnet are] linkec1 by asso-
nance on c. [By this] the loveliness of verse-movement and the unity of the

lxv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 163

sonnet-form . . . are much enhanced, (p. 371.) G. H. Palmer [instances the
sonnet as stating most compactly the pervasive theme, as he views it, of the
whole series, the transiency of love. In this connection he notes that] the word
"time" occurs in the Sonnets 78 times; "death" 21; "age" 18. (pp. 16-19.)

65
Since brasse, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundlesse sea,
But sad mortallity ore-swaies their power,
How with this rage shall beautie hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger then a flower?
O how shall summers hunny breath hold out, 5

Against the wrackfull siedge of battring dayes,
When rocks impregnable are not so stoute,
Nor gates of Steele so strong but time decayes?
O fearefull meditation, where alack, 9

Shall times best Iewell from times chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foote back,
Or who his spoile or beautie can forbid?
O none, vnlesse this miracle haue might,
That in black inck my loue may still shine bright.

3. this] his M conj., Walker conj., But.

5. hunny] hungry 1640, G, S, E. hunny breath] Hyphened by Co, Hu, Kly,
Hal.

6. wrackfull] wreckful G», E, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del1-', Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl,
Kly, Wh1, Hal, Cam, Do, But, Her, Be, N.

10. chest] quest Th conj.; theft Orger conj.

11. his] this G, S, E.

12. or] on G, S, E; o'er C; of M, etc.

1. Abbott: [Between "since" and "brass" there is an ellipsis of "there is
neither." Cf. note on 86, 9. (§ 403.)]

1-2. Von Mauntz: Cf. Ovid, Ex Ponto, IV, viii, 49-50:

Tabida consumit ferrum lapidemque vetustas,
Nullaque res maius tempore robur habet.

4. action. Dowden: Is the word used here in a legal sense? suggested per-
haps by "hold a plea." Beeching: There is no reference ... to an action at
law; for the comparison is with the physical strength of brass, stone, etc. Cf.
J.C., I, iii, 77: "A man no mightier than thyself or me in personal action."

1 64 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxv

5. hunny. [For the word as an adjective, cf. R. 3, IV, 1, 80: "Grew captive
to his honey words." — Ed.]

5-6. Beeching: Summer is represented as besieged by Winter.

6. Dowden: Cf. 63, 9. wrackfull. [The only occurrence of the word in Sh.
The regular Shakespearean form of the noun and verb is "wrack." — Ed.]

10. chest. Malone: I once thought Sh. might have written "quest," but
am now convinced that the old reading is right. . . . [Cf. "jewels" and "chest"
in 48, 5 and 9; R. 2, I, i, 180: "A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest"; etc.]
The chest of Time is the repository where he lays up the most rare and curious
productions of nature; one of which the poet esteemed his friend. Steevens:
Time's chest is the repository into which he is poetically supposed to throw
those things which he designs to be forgotten. Cf. T. & C, III, iii, 145:

Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion.

[And 52, 9: "So is the time that keeps you as my chest."] Sharp [defends the
change to "quest," saying:] Could a jewel lie hid from a chest? It lies hid from
the eager quest of destroying Time. Butler: [The emendation is right,] for
the following line shows that Time is supposed to be going about in quest of this
or that. Beeching: The expression is elliptical. Where shall what is Times,
best jewel be hidden so as to escape being seized and locked up in his chest?
[For the rhythm of this line, see note on 5, 7. — Ed.]

See note at the end of S. 60, for the appearance of lines 3-8 in a 17th century
MS. Line 3 there reads, "O how shall beauty with this rage hold plea"; and in
line 5 is the 1640 reading of "hungry" for "honey." These are the only
variants.

lxvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 165

66

Tyr'd with all these for restfull death I cry,

As to behold desert a begger borne,

And needie Nothing trimd in iollitie,

And purest faith vnhappily forsworne,

And gilded honor shamefully misplast, 5

And maiden vertue rudely strumpeted,

And right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd,

And strength by limping sway disabled,

And arte made tung-tide by authoritie, 9

And Folly (Doctor-like) controuling skill,

And simple-Truth miscalde Simplicitie,

And captiue-good attending Captaine ill.

Tyr'd with all these, from these would I be gone,
Saue that to dye, I leaue my loue alone.

2. borne] lorn Sta conj.

3. needie] empty or heavy Sta conj.

8. disabled] dishabited Bayne conj.; discomforted anon. conj.

11. simple-Truth] simple truth G, S, M, etc.

12. captiue-good] captive good G2, etc.

*Capell [was the first to call attention to the resemblance of this sonnet to
" Hamlet's celebrated soliloquy." This has been echoed by many commentators,
Furnivall remarking that it "must surely be about the Hamlet time." The
lines especially in question are, of course, those of III, i, 70-75:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make, etc.]
Tyler: The tone of melancholy, which has been previously heard, especially
since S. 59, now attains a greater intensity. Massey: Cf. Wordsworth's fine
passage [near the end of The Prelude, Bk. 3:]

And here was Labour, his own bond-slave; Hope,
That never set the pains against the prize;
Idleness halting with his weary clog,
And poor misguided Shame, and witless Fear,

1 66 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxvi

And simple Pleasure foraging for Death;

Honour misplac'd, and Dignity astray;

Feuds, factions, flatteries, enmity, and guile,

Murmuring submission, and bald government

(The idol weak as the idolater),

And Decency and Custom starving Truth,

And blind Authority beating with his staff

The child that might have led him; Emptiness

Followed as of good omen, and meek Worth

Left to herself unheard of and unknown. (p. 151.)

Copik [compares the mood of the sonnet with a speech by Alceste in Moliere's

Misanthrope, I, i:]

Mes yeux sont trop blesses, et la cour et la ville

Ne m'offre rien qu'objets a m'echauffer la bile:

J'entre en une humeur noire, en un chagrin profond,

Quand je vois vivre entre eux les hommes comme ils font;

Je ne trouve partout que lache flatterie,

Qu'injustice, interet, trahison, fourberie.

Je n'y puis plus tenir, j 'enrage, et mon dessein

Est de rompre en visiere a tout le genre humain. (p. 15.)

Walsh: Cf. Lucrece, 904-07 :

The patient dies while the physician sleeps;
The orphan pines while the oppressor feeds;
Justice is feasting while the widow weeps;
Advice is sporting while infection breeds;

M.V., II, ix, 41-45:

O, that estates, degrees and offices
Were not deriv'd corruptly, and that clear honour
Were purchas'd by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover that stand bare!
How many be commanded that command!

and T. of A., IV, iii, 17-18:

The learned pate
Ducks to the golden fool; all is oblique.

P. E. More, [grouping the sonnet with the passages above cited from Hamlet
and Lucrece, finds in all three] not the mere commonplace lament over the in-
sufficiency of life, but the poet's own very personal and very bitter experience.
. . . The one word that occurs to me as expressive of his feeling is indignity: if
it were not for the sound of the word in connection with so revered a name I
should say shame — indignity against the soilure that is forced upon him from
contact with the world, shame for his too facile yielding to contamination. [Cf.
29, 1-2; 36, 9-10; 37, 3; 88, 6-7; 90, 2-3; 112, 1-2; 119, 1-2; 121, I.] (Shelburne
Essays, 2: 35-37.)

lxvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 167

4. unhappily. Schmidt: Mischievously.

5. Tyler: Cf. Ecclesiastes, 10: 5-6: "There is an evil which I have seen
under the sun: . . . folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in a low place."
misplast. Beeching: Put into high place above its desert. Cf. Pandulph's
phrase, "the misplac'd John," K.J., III, iv, 133.

8. disabled. Collier: Here to be pronounced as four syllables. [Elsewhere
Sh. treats "redoubled," "enfeebled," "unmingled" in the same way.] Abbott:
Liquids in dissyllables are frequently pronounced as though an extra vowel
were introduced between them and the preceding consonant. (§ 477.) [Some
of Abbott's examples are surely dubious, but a sufficient number remain. —
Ed.] [A considerable discussion of this word was started by T. Bayne, in his
proposal (N. & Q., 7th s., 4: 304) to emend to "dishabited." He argued:] It
makes satisfactory metre and plausible rhyme; in its Elizabethan sense of
"dislodged" it even strengthens the force and enriches the picturesqueness of
the line; and it is a word elsewhere used by Sh. with this precise signification;
e.g., K.J., II, i, 220. [The editor (?) added a note suggesting "discomforted."
The Q text was defended by D. C. T. (p. 405): "There is nothing unmetrical
in the line; the word is to be pronounced disabeled." Also by C. B. M.: "'Dis-
abled ' is simply the right word in the place. Strength is turned to its contrary,
disabled and made weak, just as faith is forsworn, and maiden virtue strum-
peted." Later (5: 61) Brinsley Nicholson wrote to the same effect, but propos-
ing the spelling "disabeled."]

9. arte. Dowden: Commonly used by Sh. for letters, learning, science. Can
this line refer to the censorship of the stage? Rolfe: It may [refer to] legal
authority used to suppress freedom of speech. Tyler: In [this and the follow-
ing line] there seem to be allusions to universities and their technical phrase-
ology. This view accords with the use of "doctor-like," and line 9 (where "art "
will denote learning) may be taken to refer to opinions obnoxious to those in
authority being forbidden to be expressed and published. Garnett [(Litera-
ture, 6: 211 ; see also in Jahrb.,37: 285) thinks the reference is to the threatened
closing of two theatres by the Privy Council, July 28, 1597; perhaps also to
Henslowe's difficulty regarding Nash's Isle of Dogs, almost at the same time.l

11. Simplicitie. M alone: Folly.

11-12. Lowell: [Cf. Spenser, Colin Clout, lines 727-28:]

While single Truth and simple Honesty
Do wander up and down despis'd of all.

(Essay on Spenser, Works, 4: 289.)

12. [Keightley and Tyler emphasize the apparent personifications here
by printing "captive Good" and "Captain 111." Schmidt, on the other hand,
lists "captain" here as used adjectively. Through the sonnet generally, most
modern editors have hesitated to determine the matter of personification by
the use of capitals. Wyndham remarks: "Only some of the personifications
have capitals in Q. ... I follow the Kelmscott in generalising the practice."
Bullen does the same.]

1 68 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxvi

14. [It may well be queried, with respect to the person here addressed,
whether Sh. would be likely to speak of "leaving alone," through his death,
such a personage as either Lord Pembroke or Lord Southampton. — Ed.]

[This sonnet is unique in structure, — a single sentence, the final couplet,
completing the construction of the opening phrase. So Beeching:] Sonnets 66
and 129 are unlike the rest in not being written in quatrains, though the rhymes
are so arranged. (Intro., p. liii.) Price [finds the special charm of the sonnet
to be due] to the skilful management of the many polysyllabic words. It is a
marvelous triumph of technical skill, a startling experiment in poetic diction,
(p. 367.) Walsh: For the tenfold succession of "And," we may notice that
Spenser was likewise fond of repeating words at the commencement of lines,
though he nowhere equaled this. Thus in his Amoretti we find "If" six times
successively recurring (15), "Nor" seven times (9), and "Her" eight times (64).

E. H. Wilkins [regards this sonnet as a specimen of the Provengal form
called the enueg:] The three characteristics of the enueg appear: the list, the
initial repetition, and the emphatic presence of a word denoting "annoyance."
. . . The word "tired," the perfect English equivalent for the idea of enueg,
introduces the poem, and recurs at the head of the concluding couplet. [Com-
pare Petrarch, Canzoniere, 312:

Ne per sereno ciel ir vaghe stelle,

Ne per tranquillo mar legni spalmati,

Ne per campagne cavalieri armati,

Ne per bei boschi allegre fere e snelle; etc.]

Petrarch, beyond doubt, knew specimens of the Italian noia, and had the type
in mind when he composed this poem. The striking correspondence of Sh.'s
sonnet to the medieval formula can hardly indicate acquaintance with Provengal
or Italian poems: rather does it prove the real humanity of the enueg. {Mod.
Philology, 13: 112.)

lxvh] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 169

67

Ah wherefore with infection should he Hue,

And with his presence grace impietie,

That sinne by him aduantage should atchiue,

And lace it selfe with his societie?

Why should false painting immitate his cheeke, 5

And steale dead seeing of his liuing hew?

Why should poore beautie indirectly seeke,

Roses of shaddow, since his Rose is true?

Why should he Hue, now nature banckrout is, 9

Beggerd of blood to blush through liuely vaines,

For she hath no exchecker now but his,

And proud of many, Hues vpon his gaines?
O him she stores, to show what welth she had,
In daies long since, before these last so bad.

1-2. liue, . . . impietie,] Ike? . . . impiety? G1, Ss, E; live, . . . impiety? S1.

6. steale dead seeing] steal dead seeming C, Farmer conj., But; steal dead
essence Bulloch conj.; steal, dead-seeing, Verity conj.

7. poore] pure CoJ conj.

9. banckrout] bankrupt G, etc. (except Bull).

10-12. vaines, . . . gaines?] veins? . . . gains. G, etc. (except Wy); reins; . . .
gains? Wy.
12. proud] provd C, But. many] money Co3 conj.

It may be worth remarking that this sonnet was chosen as the opening selec-
tion for the Poems of 1640.

3. Tyler: His presence serving as a veil to conceal corruption.

4. lace. Steevens: Embellish. Cf. R. e* /., Ill, v, 8: "What envious
streaks do lace the severing clouds." Dowden: Cf. Macb., II, iii, 1 iS: "His
silver skin laced with his golden blood." Tyler: May here mean "embellish,"
though in passages which have been quoted in proof the sense is rather "diver-
sify." [So the -V. E. D.: "To diversify with streaks of colour."] Beeching:
Wear as lace.

5-6. Wyxdham: An allusion, perhaps primarily, to the imitation of the
friend's beauty by the use of cosmetics among his companions, but, as I sub-
mit, also and with deeper intention, to the "false art" of other "eternizers,"
viz., the rival poets. Cf. 21, 1-3; 68, 14; 82, 9-14; 83, 1-2; 84, 1-2:85, 1-4.

170 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxvii

Note that in L. L. L., II, i, 13-14 ("My beauty . . . needs not the painted
flourish of your praise") our poet compares "praise" to "painting"; and in
IV, iii, 238-39 he runs on from this illustration:

Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues, —

Fie, painted rhetoric! O, she needs it not;
to a direct allusion to the use of cosmetics (258-60) :

O, if in black my lady's brows be deck'd,

It mourns that painting and usurping hair

Should ravish doters with a false aspect.

That is to say, he uses the term "painting" precisely with that double sense
which I attribute to it here. Beeching: The use of cosmetics and false hair . . .
seems to have been especially repugnant to Sh. Cf. T.N., I, v, 256; Haml.,
Ill, i, 150; M.V., III, ii, 92; T. of A., IV, iii, 144.

6. seeing. Bulloch [explains that his proposed "essence" is the philo-
sophical term, found in Oth., IV, i, 16: "Her honour is an essence that's not
seen." (Studies, p. 287.)] Kinnear, [favoring the emendation "seeming," calls
"seeing"] an evident and easy misprint, which is found in R. & J., I, i, 185,
where the quartos of 1599 and 1609 have "welseeing." (Cruces, p. 499.)
Dowden: ["Dead seeing" is] lifeless appearance. [So, in effect, Rolfe,
Tyler, and Lee.] Verity [explains his punctuation as meaning: Itself looking
dead, steal from his living hue.] ["Seeing" is found in Sh. as a verbal noun,
but not with any such meaning as "semblance," whereas there are several
instances of "seeming" in that use. — Ed.]

7. poore beautie. Tyler: Beauty indifferent and imperfect. Wyndham:
Abstract beauty personified and called "poor," as abstract Nature personified
(line 9) is stated to be "beggar'd." Beeching: Insignificant beauty. . . . Sh.
is usually faithful to rhetorical parallelism within the quatrain; and here "poor
beauty" corresponds to "false painting." indirectly. Tyler: By artificial
means. Verity: Wrongfully; cf. H. 5, II, iv, 94:

He bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him, the native and true challenger.

8. Roses of shaddow. Rolfe: Imaginary roses. Tyler: [Roses of] mere
external appearance. [See notes on "shadow" in 37, 10. — Ed.] Rose. See
Wyndham's note on 1, 2.

11-12. Von Mauntz: Cf. Sidney, A. & S., 101, 12-14:

Nature with care sweats for her darling's sake;

Knowing worlds pass ere she enough can find

Of such heaven stuff, to clothe so heavenly a mind.

12. Dowden: Nature, while she boasts of many beautiful persons, really
has no treasure of beauty except his.

13. stores. Schmidt: Preserves. [Cf. 68, 13.]

13-14. [Cf. this conceit, repeated in the following sonnet, with the notion of
comparing the friend with former ages in Sonnets 59 and 106. — Ed.]

lxvhi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 171

68

Thus is his cheeke the map of daies out-worne,

When beauty liu'd and dy'ed as flowers do now,

Before these bastard signes of faire were borne,

Or durst inhabit on a liuing brow:

Before the goulden tresses of the dead, 5

The right of sepulchers, were shorne away,

To Hue a scond life on second head,

Ere beauties dead fleece made another gay :

In him those holy antique howers are seene, 9

Without all ornament, it selfe and true,

Making no summer of an others greene,

Robbing no ould to dresse his beauty new,

And him as for a map doth Nature store,

To shew faulse Art what beauty was of yore.

1. the map of daies] Between commas in G-, S2, E.

3. borne] born G, S, E, Kt, Hu, Dy, Sta, Gl, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, R, Ox,
But, etc.
7. scond] second 1640, etc.
9. howers] bowers von Mauntz conj.
10. it selfe] himself M conj., But.

1. map of daies out-worne. Malone: Cf. Lucrece, 1350: "This pattern of
the worn-out age." Fleay: [Cf. Drayton, S. 44, where the face is called "the
map of all my misery." (Biog. Chron., 2: 227.)]

3. faire. See note on 16, 11. borne. Wyndham: Modern spelling restricts
the poet's play on this word: he employs it to mean "borne," but also to sug-
gest "born."
5-8. Malone: Cf. M.V., III, ii, 92-96:

So are those crisped snaky golden locks,
Which make such wanton gambols with the wind
Upon supposed fairness, often known
To be the dowry of a second head,
The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.
Halliwell: Cf. Drayton, [Moon- Calf:]

And with large sums they stick not to procure
Hair from the dead, yea, and the most unclean;
To help their pride they nothing will disdain.

172 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxviii

[See also Beeching's note on 67, 5-6.] Rolfe: [False hair] was then com-
paratively a recent fashion. Stow says: "Women's periwigs were first brought
into England about the time of the massacre of Paris" (1572). Barnaby Rich,
in 1615, says of the periwig-sellers: "These attire-makers within these forty
years were not known by that name. . . . But now they are not ashamed to set
them forth upon their stalls — such monstrous mop-poles of hair — so propor-
tioned and deformed that but within these twenty or thirty years would have
drawn the passers-by to stand and gaze." (Note on S. 20.) Lee: There can be
little doubt that Sh. had in mind the wealth of locks that fell about Southamp-
ton's neck [as "itself and true" in contrast with what is here scorned]. {Life,
p. 146.) F. V. Hugo: Dans Sh., ce n'est pas 1'homme seulement qui se
revoke contre cette mode naissante, c'est l'artiste. Ce qui l'indigne, ce n'est
pas seulement la violation des tombeaux, 1 'outrage fait a la mort; c'est la viola-
tion de la nature, c'est l'outrage fait a la beaute vivante. . . . On dirait que Sh.
voit deja se projeter sur le ciel de l'ideal comme une ombre de la solennelle
perruque que porte la tragedie de Louis XIV.

10. Without all ornament. Wyndham: Cf. M.V., III, ii, 74: "The world
is still deceiv'd with ornament," [and Bassanio's whole tirade against it],
it selfe. Malone: Surely we ought to read "himself." In him the primitive
simplicity of ancient times may be observed; in him, who scorns all adscititious
ornaments, who appears in his native genuine state. Tyler: "Itself" would
seem to be equivalent to "nature itself." [One may conjecture that the logical
subject of this part of the quatrain is the beauty of the "antique hours," or some
similar notion. For the use of "itself " without formal agreement with the noun
referred to, cf. Much Ado, IV, i, 83: "Hero itself can blot out Hero's virtue."
— Ed.]

14. Art. For the implication of "artifice," cf. 125, 11.

lxix] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 173

69

Those parts of thee that the worlds eye doth view,
Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend:
All toungs (the voice of soules) giue thee that end,
Vttring bare truth, euen so as foes Commend.
Their outward thus with outward praise is crownd, 5

But those same toungs that giue thee so thine owne,
In other accents doe this praise confound
By seeing farther then the eye hath showne.
They looke into the beauty of thy mind, 9

And that in guesse they measure by thy deeds,
Then churls their thoughts (although their eies were kind)
To thy faire flower ad the rancke smell of weeds,
But why thy odor matcheth not thy show,
The solve is this, that thou doest common grow.

3. that end] thy due G2, S2, E; that due Tyr conj., C, M, etc.
5. Their] Thy C, M1, Gl, Cam, Dy2, Del3, Do, Hu2, etc.; Thine M2, A, Kt,
Co, B, Del1'2, Hu1, Dy1, Sta, CI, Kly, Wh1, Hal.

8. farther] further Hu.

10. thy] their anon. conj.

11. churls their] tlieir churl G2, S2, E.

13. why] it-Ay? S, E.

14. The solye] The soyle 1640; The soil C, Cam, Del1, Do, R, Ox, Wy, But,
N, Bull; The solve M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del1- s, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Wh, Hal,
Ty, Her, Be, Wa; The toil G, S, E; The sole Stee conj.; The foil Caldecott conj.
(MS.); Th'assoil anon. conj.

3. end. M ALONE: The letters that compose the word "due" were probably-
transposed at the press, and the u inverted.

4. Commend. [This is one of the three words in the Q whose capitalization
Wyndham cannot explain, (p. 264.)]

5. Their. For the error, see note on 26, 12.
7. confound. See note on 5, 6.

9. beauty of thy mind. Tyler: Said possibly not without a shade of irony.

10. thy. Beechixg: An early and anonymous conjecture is "their." And
we may ask, Why should people be called "churls" for judging a man by his
own deeds? Moreover, the ensuing sonnet seems to say that the common
opinion is slander. But a line in 121, 12, "By their rank thoughts my deeds

174 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxix

must not be shown," implies that deeds are capable of various interpretations,
and the impression we get from the sonnet is that the poet believes (or tries to
believe) his friend to be really good despite certain lapses. See 95, 13.

13. But. Kinnear [regards the word as being transposed; it really belongs
in the next line: "the soil is but (i.e., only) this," etc.] (Cruces, p. 499.)

14. solye. See the textual notes for the weight of opinion regarding this
word. Malone: ["Solve" = solution.] ... I have not found the word ... in
any author: but have inserted it rather than print what appears to me unin-
telligible. Steevens: I believe we should read "The sole is this"; i.e., here the
only explanation lies, this is all. Clark & Wright: As the verb "to soil" is
not uncommon in old English, meaning "to solve," as, for example: "This
question could not one of them all soile" (Udal's Erasmus, Luke, fol. 154b), so
the substantive "soil" may be used in the sense of "solution." The play upon
words thus suggested is in the author's manner. Verity: "Soil" means
"blemish"; cf. Haml., I, iii, 15 ("No soil nor cautel doth besmirch the virtue
of his will"); the sense being, "the fault which prevents your odour . . . from
matching your show is the fact that you grow common." [The N. E. D. lists
both "soil" and "solve," with the meaning "solution," this line being the sole
reference in each case; but with an apparent preference for the former reading.]
common. Beeching: Too little choice in your company. Cf. Cor., II, iii, 101:
" I have not been common in my love." Walsh [connects the word with 137, 10,
and places this sonnet with that as addressed to the mistress.] Brandl: The
bitter word reminds us of Hamlet, where the Prince hurls it into the face of his
mother before the assembled court ["Ay, madam, it is common"], (p. xiii.)

Godwin [believes this sonnet to be addressed by the poet to himself
(p. 122.)]

Acheson [views both 69 and 70 as] a direct criticism of Chapman's "A
Coronet for his Mistress Philosophy," as were Sonnets 20-21 of "The Amorous
Zodiac." [The evidence adduced for this is the phrasing of line 3, which Ache-
son thinks involves allusion to various lines of Chapman's, e.g., "Alas! why
lent not heaven the soul a tongue" (Ovid's Banquet); "Spirit to flesh and soul
to spirit giving" (A Coronet); and similar "soulful expressions." (Sh. & the
Rival Poet, pp. 124-25.) Lines 8-9 also refer to some of Chapman's in The
A morous Zodiac :

Your eyes were never yet let in to see

The majesty and riches of the mind. (p. 138.)]

[With this and the following sonnet cf. 94-96. — Ed.]

lxx] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 175

70

That thou are blam'd shall not be thy defect,

For slanders marke was euer yet the faire,

The ornament of beauty is suspect,

A Crow that flies in heauens sweetest ayre.

So thou be good, slander doth but approue, 5

Their worth the greater beeing woo'd of time,

For Canker vice the sweetest buds doth loue,

And thou present'st a pure vnstayined prime.

Thou hast past by the ambush of young daies, 9

Either not assayld, or victor beeing charg'd,

Yet this thy praise cannot be soe thy praise,

To tye vp enuy, euermore inlarged,

If some suspect of ill maskt not thy show,

Then thou alone kingdomes of hearts shouldst owe.

1. are] art 1640, etc.

6. Their] 77tyC, M,etc. woo'dof time] wood of time C* con]. (*Sll) ; wood of time
C* conj. (M2); weigh'd of time Del conj. ; woo'd of crime Sta conj. ; woo'd of time But.
13. ill maskt] ill maske 1640, G1; ill, mask G2, S, E.

This sonnet has awakened discussion chiefly through its apparent inconsist-
ency with others commonly taken as addressed to the same person. Critics
undertake interpretations, naturally, according as they view the unity and
continuity of the Sonnets in general. Gervixus: Compare the joyful wanton-
ness with which, in the former untroubled days, the most opposite reproaches
had been made! . . . Here how discontented; "he has passed the ambush";
there, so contented: "temptation follows him, and the pretty wrongs befit him
well." A greater austerity, it must be admitted, appears in these later sonnets,
and in such a manner as allows us to infer a change of mind in the poet; yet we
hear in them still more plainly the voice of jealousy, which grudges to the world
and its judgment both his friend's virtues and faults. (Trans., ed. 1883, p. 458.)
Dowtjex [ignores the difficulty, being content to connect the sonnet with the
next preceding, and remarking that the poet here "defends his friend from the
suspicion and slander of the time."] Tyler: His friend's prime was unstained,
such an affair as that with the poet's mistress not being regarded, apparently,
as involving serious moral blemish. Moreover, there had been forgiveness; and
the special reference here may be to some charge of which Mr. W. H. was inno-
cent. But (as in 79) Sh. can scarcely escape the charge of adulation. Rolfe:

176 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxx

[If the person addressed here] is the same young man who is so plainly, though
sadly and tenderly, reproved in 33-35, this sonnet must have been written
before those. . . . Mr. Tyler's attempt to show that this sonnet is not out of
place is a good illustration of the "tricks of desperation" to which a critic may
be driven in defence of his theory. (Intro., rev. ed., p. 26.) Gollancz [swal-
lows the camel at once, so to say:] The faults referred to in the earlier sonnets
are not only forgiven, but here imputed to slander. Lee: The young man whom
the poet addresses [here] is credited with a different disposition and experience
[from that of the youth rebuked in 32-35, 40-42, 95-96.] {Life, p. 99.) [From
this one would suppose that Lee took the sonnet to be addressed to a different
person from the earlier ones; but on p. 147 he treats it as being of a considerably
later date, on the ground that "the poet no longer credits his hero with juvenile
wantonness, but with a 'pure, unstained prime.'" How this change can be
explained by assuming the lapse of some years, except through a misunder-
standing of Sh.'s use of "prime," I am unable to see. — Ed.] Acheson, [on the
other hand, thinks that the tone of this sonnet indicates] a period anterior to
the indiscretion of Southampton with the poet's mistress recorded in 33-35 and
40-42. I would therefore give these two sonnets [69-70] a very early date.
(Sh. & the R. P., p. 123.) Beeching: The reconciliation would possibly be
simple if we knew all the facts; but even in the sonnets themselves two facts
are absolutely luminous: First, that it was the mistress who courted the friend
rather than the friend who courted the mistress (46, 62, 133, 134). . . . The
second fact is that the group of sonnets in which 70 is included implies that the
friend had been keeping bad company and doing things which brought his name
into bad repute. [See 69, 9-10, where it is implied that the friend's deeds] were
not good deeds. S. 70 indubitably follows 69; but it is, on the surface, as incon-
sistent with it as with the group 33-35. Whether the explanation be that Sh.
was hoping the best and giving precept in the form of praise, we cannot say; but
the point to notice here is that as 69 and 70 cannot be separated, the incon-
sistency cannot be got rid of by the hypothesis of more friends than one. (Intro.,
p. lxiv.) [This is, however, to beg the question; since if the order is not regarded
as fixed by the Q, 69 may not belong with 70, but — for example — with 94-96,
where Walsh puts it. In other words, the possibility of reading 69 and 70 con-
tinuously and consistently is precisely one of the questions to be considered
in determining the authenticity of the Q order. — Ed.] Walsh: This sonnet
cannot be addressed to the friend of former sonnets, unless after he has grown
to manhood. Horace Davis: May we interpret these difficult lines thus: the
friend's "prime" was his early youth; this had been pure and unstained; while
his "young days," meaning his early manhood, were "ambushed" indeed; but
he had escaped from the snares (this may refer to his intrigue with the dark
woman, with whom he was no longer entangled), and now that all was over
Sh. refuses to believe the scandal, and maintains the "sweet flattery" that it
was only the slanderous "thoughts" (69, n) of his churlish enemies that
wronged him; he admits, however, that his friend had given reason for the
charge that "thou dost common grow."

lxx] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 177

2. Verity: [Cf. Marlowe, Hero & Leander, i, 285-86:

Whose name is it, if she be false or not,
So she be fair, but some vile tongues will blot?
M.for M., Ill, ii, 196-98:

No might nor greatness in mortality-
Can censure scape; back- wounding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes;

and Sophocles, Ajax, 154L : 'Point thine arrow at a noble spirit, and thou
shalt not miss."] Rolfe: Cf. Haml., Ill, i, 139-40: "Be thou as chaste as
ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny."

3. M ALONE: Slander is a constant attendant on beauty, and adds new
lustre to it. [For "suspect" as a noun, cf. 2 H. 6, III, i, 140: "That you will
clear yourself from all suspect."] [Cf. line 13. — ED.]

5. approve. Schmidt: Prove.

6. woo'd of time. M alone: I strongly suspect [these words] to be corrupt.
. . . Perhaps the poet means that, however slandered his friend may be at
present, his worth shall be celebrated in all future time. Steeyens: [Perhaps
we may interpret:] If you are virtuous, slander, being the favourite of the age,
only stamps the stronger mark of approbation on your merit. I have already
shewn, on the authority of Ben Jonson, that "of time" means, of the then
present one. [This in a note on Haml., Ill, i, 70. In the same connection
Boswell cites E. M. out of his H., "Oh how I hate the monstrousness of
time"; and Bedingfield, 1576: "Disorder of tyme, terroure of warres," etc.]
*Capell: Might we not read: "being wood of time"? taking "wood" for
an epithet applied to slander, signifying frantic, doing mischief at random.
Sh. often uses this old word. Hazlitt: Beloved by future time? Walker
[develops Steevens's suggestion of "time" as "the time," comparing 117, 6;
Jonson's Pindaric Ode, "He vexed time, and busied the whole state"; etc.
(Crit. Exam., 3: 360.)] Dowden [quotes Hunter, New Illas. of Sh., 2: 240, to
the same effect, and adds:] " Being woo'd of time" seems, then, to mean being
solicited or tempted by the present times. Tyler: This must be taken, it
would seem, with "slander" of line 5. The sense then will be that "slander
coming under the soothing influence of time will show thy worth to be greater ";
or, "slander will turn to praise in course of time." Wyndham: I suggest that
"time" here, as elsewhere in the Sonnets, = not "the time" or "the times"
but Time personified. Cf. 117, 6 [where, however, the meaning is also disputed.
— Ed.] . . . The sense is: If only you be virtuous, slander doth but approve
your worth the greater, since you are woo'd by Time (= wooed and not yet
won by Time, an object still for Time's solicitation), for you are in your "pure
unstained prime." [Butler, and later Mrs. Stopes, think the difficulty is
solved by adopting the emendation "oftime."] Beechixg: Courted by the
world. For "time" in this sense, cf. S. 117, 6, where it is paraphrased by "un-
known minds"; Haml., Ill, i, 70 ("the whips and scorns of time"), etc. Lee:
Wooed by the temptations either of the season of youth or of the present age.

1/8 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxx

[All these commentators assume the correction of "Their" to "Thy" (see 26,
12, etc.); but Miss Porter would keep it, reading:] The worth of those whose
distinction is such that Time [i.e., the period] woos them, being the greater for
that, and greater than that of those who therefore woo them, and slander them.
7. *Capell: Cf. T. G. V., I, i, 42:

As in the sweetest bud
The eating canker dwells, so eating love
Inhabits in the finest wits of all.

Walsh: Cf. 35, 4.

10. Either. [For the metrical treatment of this word as a monosyllable, see
Abbott, § 466.]

11-12. soe . . . To. [For the omission of "as" in such relatival construc-
tions, see Abbott, § 281; cf. M.V., III, iii, 9-10: "So fond to come abroad."]

12. Dowden: Prof. Hales writes to me: "Surely a reference here to F. Q.,
end of Bk. vi. Calidore ties up the Blatant Beast; after a time he breaks his
iron chain, 'and got into the world at liberty again,' i.e., is 'evermore enlarged.' "
[For the meaning of "enlarge," cf. H.5, II, ii, 40: "Enlarge the man committed
yesterday." — Ed.]

13-14. Isaac: Cf. 96, 11-12. (Archiv, 62: 19.)

14. owe. Cf. 18, 10.

Isaac [considers it to be impossible to apply to the friend such lines as 9-10
and 13-14; on the other hand they are] well matched with the other verses
addressed to a young, attractive, and much courted woman, whose coquettish
nature has awakened a certain distrust of her purity. (Archiv, 62: 19.)

Godwin [views the sonnet, like 69, as a soliloquy; the poet says to himself:]
If thou art really meritorious such slander proves thy worth the greater, and
particularly when it is invited by or instigated by thy youth, (p. 121.)

lxxi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 179

7i

Noe Longer mourne for me when I am dead,

Then you shall heare the surly sullen bell

Giue warning to the world that I am fled

From this vile world with vildest wormes to dwell :

Nay if you read this line, remember not, 5

The hand that writ it, for I loue you so,

That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,

If thinking on me then should make you woe.

O if (I say) you looke vpon this verse, 9

When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay,

Do not so much as my poore name reherse;

But let your loue euen with my life decay.

Least the wise world should looke into your mone,

And mocke you with me after I am gon.

2. Then] When S, E, C; Than M, etc.
4. vildest] vilest G, etc.

Beeching: Just as in the plays we see the perfect balance between the
lyrical and intellectual impulses begin to be overset in Hamlet, while in such
plays as Cor. and T. & C. the intellectual impulse has triumphed, so among
the sonnets we seem able to distinguish some, such as the group 71-74, which
correspond to the Hamlet period, and others, such as 123-124, which suggest
affinities with T. & C. (Intro., p. li.)

2. M alone: Cf. 2 H. 4, I, i, 102: "A sullen bell, remember 'd knolling a
departed friend."

4. vildest. [This "corrupt form of vile" (Cent. Diet.) is very common in the
original Shakespearean texts. — Ed.]

10. M alone: Cf. 2 H. 4, IV, v, 116: "Only compound me with forgotten
dust."

See note at the end of S. 32 for a MS. version of this sonnet. The only vari-
ant reading — according to Lee's transcript — is " me " for "you" in line 8.

i8o THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxii

72

O Least the world should taske you to recite,
What merit liu'd in me that you should loue
After my death (deare loue) for get me quite,
For you in me can nothing worthy proue.
Vnlesse you would deuise some vertuous lye, 5

To doe more for me then mine owne desert,
And hang more praise vpon deceased I,
Then nigard truth would willingly impart:
O least your true loue may seeme falce in this, 9

That you for loue speake well of me vntrue,
My name be buried where my body is,
And Hue no more to shame nor me, nor you.
For I am shamd by that which I bring forth,
And so should you, to loue things nothing worth.

6. me then mine owne] me now, than mine own.G1,. S, E; me now, than my G2.

4. prove. Schmidt: Ascertain, find. [Cf. 153, 7.]

5. vertuous lye. Verity: Did Sh. know of Plato's yewaiov xj/evdos or Horace's
splendide mendax? Cf. Webster, D. of Mai., Ill, ii: "Such a feigned crime as
Tasso calls Magnanima menzogna, a noble lie."

7. I. Abbott: Euphony and emphasis may have successfully contended
against grammar. This may explain "I" in "and I," "but I," frequently used
for me. . . . The sound of d and t before "me" was avoided. [Of the present
example] the rhyme is an obvious explanation. (§§ 205, 209.)

6. desert. For the rhyme with "impart," cf. note on 11, 4.

9-10. Tyler: Lest the reality of your love for me should be questioned or
denied, when the falsity of your eulogies has been detected. [Schmidt and
Rolfe also take "untrue" to be an adverb (= untruly); but Wyndham may
be right in suggesting that it is in agreement with "me." He paraphrases, "Of
me whose poetry is imperfect." Or it may have the general meaning "un-
worthy." See note on "truth" in 54, 2. — Ed.]

12. shame. Wyndham: Here, as elsewhere, the poet uses terms of moral
censure when delivering an artistic judgment. The next two lines prove that
the "shame" is for the verses he brings forth.

13. Fleay: [The line merely refers to criticism of his dramatic works as
inferior, in contemporary opinion, to his poems.] This word "shame" has the
same meaning all through these sonnets, . . . nothing more than the feeling

lxxiii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 181

produced by unfavorable critical opinions. [Cf. S. 112.] (Macm. Mag., 31 : 434.)
Porter: The entire tenor of the sequence shows that the artistic judgment is
not [Sh.'s] own so much as that of the world of which he is conscious and to
which he is so sensitive that he is ready to abandon artistic fame in the external
sense, for that genuineness of expression constituting real livingness in his verse.
[When I compare this sonnet with 36 and 112, treating also the "shame"
motif, I feel less certain than the commentators appear to that it deals wholly
or primarily with literary reputation. — Ed.]

14. Beeching: The first notice that Sh.'s friend takes any interest in his
poems.

73
That time of yeeare thou maist in me behold,
When yellow leaues, or none, or few doe hange
Vpon those boughes which shake against the could,
Bare rn'wd quiers, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twi-light of such day, 5

As after Sun-set fadeth in the West,
Which by and by blacke night doth take away,
Deaths second selfe that seals vp all in rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire, 9

That on the ashes of his youth doth lye,
As the death bed, whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nurrisht by.

This thou perceu'st, which makes thy loue more strong,
To loue that well, which thou must leaue ere long.

4. Bare rn'wd quiers] Bare ruin'd quires 1640, G, S, E; Bare ruin'd choirs
M, etc.; Barren'wd quiers L; Barren' d of quires C.

5. twi-light] twi-lights 1640, G1; twilights G2, S, E.

13. This] Tis 1640; 'Tis G, S, E.

14. leaue] leese But conj. long.] long: M, Kt, Co 1-2, Del, Dy, Sta, Kly, Wh1,
Hal, Hus, Ty.

1-4. Malone: Cf. Cymb., Ill, iii, 60-64:

Then was I as a tree
Whose boughs did bend with fruit; but in one night,
A storm or robbery, call it what you will,
Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves,
And left me bare to weather;

1 8.2 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxiii

and T. of A., IV, iii, 263-66:

That numberless upon me stuck as leaves
Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush
Fell from their boughs and left me open, bare
For every storm that blows.

Brandl: Cf. Spenser, Sh. Cal., January :

You naked trees whose shady leaves, [etc.] . . .

All so my lustful leaf is dry and sere. (p. xiv.)

4. quiers. M alone: That part of cathedrals where divine service is per-
formed, to which, when uncovered and in ruins, "A naked subject to the weep-
ing clouds," the poet compares the trees at the end of autumn, stripped of that
foliage which at once invited and sheltered the feathered songsters of summer;
whom Ford, a contemporary and friend of our author's, with an allusion to the
same kind of imagery, calls (in his Lover's Melancholy) "the quiristers of the
woods." Steevens: This image was probably suggested to Sh. by our deso-
lated monasteries. The resemblance between the vaulting of a Gothic aisle,
and an avenue of trees whose upper branches meet and form an arch overhead,
is too striking not to be acknowledged. When the roof of the one is shattered,
and the boughs of the other leafless, the comparison becomes yet more solemn
and picturesque. Wyndham: This most beautiful image was nearer and more
vivid when many great abbeys, opened to the weather within the memory of
men living, were beginning to be ruins ere they were forgotten as "chantries,
where the sad and solemn priests sing." Beeching: This superb sonnet has
not been without an operation upon its commentators, whose style it has
raised.

7. Steevens: Cf. T. G.V., I, iii, 87: "And by and by a cloud takes all
away."

8. Deaths second selfe. Lee: Cf. Daniel's Delia, S. 49, which describes
sleep as . . . "brother to death." Homer and Hesiod both call sleep the
"brother of death." The phrase is used by Ronsard and de Baif; [cf. also
Desportes: "O frere de la mort."] [It is also possible that some resemblance
between sleep and death had occurred to a number of persons before ever it
was embodied in poetry. — Ed.] #

9-10. such . . . That. [See grammatical notes on 34, 7-8.] Abbott: In lines
5-6 "such as" is used, because "which" follows; in 9-10 "such that," because
"as" follows. (§ 279.)

12. Dowden: Wasting away on the dead ashes which once nourished it
with living flame. Tyler: The fire and fuel pass away together. Beeching:
Choked by the ashes which once nourished its flame. ... As ashes certainly
can choke flame, so the weakness of the body can react upon the mental powers.

Henry Reed, [referring this sonnet to Sh.'s later years at Stratford, ob-
serves:] We challenge the poetry of the world against [the one line, 4, for the
image] illustrative of a poet's silent old age. {Lectures, 2: 264.) Price [finds

lxxiv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 183

that the sonnet shows one of the lowest percentages of foreign words, and is in]
the class in which the gem-like radiance of Sh.'s poetical diction is most keenly
felt. (p. 365.) [See also his note at the end of S. 33.] [For the structure of the
sonnet, the finest example of the Shakespearean mode, see note at the end of
S. 49. — Ed.]

74
Bvt be contented when that fell arest,
With out all bayle shall carry me away,
My life hath in this line some interest,
Which for memoriall still with thee shall stay.
When thou reuewest this, thou doest reuew, 5

The very part was consecrate to thee,
The earth can haue but earth, which is his due,
My spirit is thine the better part of me,
So then thou hast but lost the dregs of life, 9

The pray of wormes, my body being dead,
The coward conquest of a wretches knife,
To base of thee to be remembred,

The worth of that, is that which it containes,
And that is this, and this with thee remaines.

1. contented when] contented, when G2, S, E; contented: wlien M, etc. (except
Kly, R2); contented; when Kly, R2.
6. consecrate] consecrate L.
8. spirit] sprite S, E.
12. To] Too G, etc. remembred] remembered G2, S1, M, etc.

Dowdex: S. 74 seems to me like an envoy. Perhaps a new MS. book begins
with 75-77-

1-2. Beeching: There is perhaps nothing, even in the sonnets, equal in
dignity and beauty to this calm opening.

1. fell arest. *Capell: Cf. Haml., V, ii, 347—48: "Had I but time, — as this
fell sergeant, death, is strict in his arrest."

2. all bayle. Rolfe: [Cf. "without all ornament," 68, 10, for the use of all =
any.] Verity: Said in allusion to the legal phrase "without bail and main-
prize," a summary form of arrest.

3. interest. See note on 31, 7.

6. Tyler: Cf. Martial, Ep. vii, 84, "Certior in nostro carmine vultus erit."

1 84 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxiv

The language of our text is stronger, speaking of the inner man, which is thor-
oughly identified with the written verse (line 8). part was. [For the omission
of the relative, see Abbott, note on 4, 4.]

8. better part. Tyler: [Cf. Drayton, Idea, 44: "Where I entomb'd my
better part shall save."] (Intro., p. 41.) Lee: Cf. 39, 2 [and note]. Porter:
Cf. Horace, Ode 30: "Nonomnismoriar; multaque pars mei vitabit Libitinam."

11. Dowden: Does Sh. merely speak of the liability of the body to untimely
or violent mischance? Or does he meditate suicide? Or think of Marlowe's
death, and anticipate such a fate as possibly his own? Or has he, like Marlowe,
been wounded? Or does he refer to dissection of dead bodies? Or is it "con-
founding age's cruel knife" of 63, 10? [Furnivall had already made the last
of these suggestions, and Palgrave the next preceding, saying that the line]
must allude to anatomical dissection, then recently revived in Europe by
Vesalius, Fallopius, Pare, and others. Rolfe: If not a merely figurative
expression, like ["age's cruel knife,"] the key to it is probably in [Dowden's
first question:] this life which is at the mercy of any base assassin's knife.
[Plumptre {Contemp. Rev., 55:584) argues for the theory of meditated suicide,
associating the passage with the " fevered melancholia " of 147 and other sonnets.
Tyler agrees with the "assassin" theory. Verity calls attention, in addi-
tion to the knife of 63, 10, to Time's "crooked knife "in 100, 14. Von Mauntz
(in a note on 100, 14) compares the "death's sharp knife" of Sidney's Arcadia
(Bk. 2; ed. 1590, f. 241).] Wyndham: Metaphorical: the destruction of the
body by death and its subsequent corruption is a squalid tragedy. Beeching:
I incline to Dowden's last suggestion, and take the "wretch" to be Death,
but the image is derived from the "arrest without bail" in lines 1-2. Death is
the executioner. For "coward," cf. M. for M., Ill, i, 15: "Thou'rt by no
means valiant."

12. remembred. Wyndham: There is little authority [for the modern spell-
ing.] The verb is almost invariably "remembre" in the writings of Sh. and his
contemporaries. If so, the line is defective; cf. 66, 8, "disabled." [Neverthe-
less, Wyndham puts "remembered" in his text.]

14. Dowden: That (my spirit) is this (my poems).

lxxv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 185

75
So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet season'd shewers are to the ground;
And for the peace of you I hold such strife,
As twixt a miser and his wealth is found.
Now proud as an inioyer, and anon 5

Doubting the filching age will steale his treasure,
Now counting best to be with you alone,
Then betterd that the world may see my pleasure,
Some-time all ful with feasting on your sight, 9

And by and by cleane starued for a looke,
Possessing or pursuing no delight
Saue what is had, or must from you be tooke.

Thus do I pine and surfet day by day,

Or gluttoning on all, or all away,

2. sweet season'd] Hyphened by M, etc. shewers] showers L, M, etc.

3. peace] price or sake M conj.; prize Sta conj., But.
8. betterd] better Isaac conj.

This sonnet was omitted from the 1640 Poems and the editions based
thereon.

Beeching: This sonnet . . . would come better after 52.

2. sweet season'd. Schmidt: Well tempered. [For "season," cf. Haml., I, ii,
192: "Season your admiration for a while."] Tyler: Seasonable and refreshing.

3. peace. M alone: The context seems to require that we should rather
read "price" or "sake." The conflicting passions described by the poet were
not produced by a regard to the ease or quiet of his friend, but by the high
value he set on his esteem: yet as there seems to have been an opposition in-
tended between "peace" and "strife," I do not suspect any corruption in the
text. [An admirable specimen, for editors, of how one may annotate a difficult
passage at considerable length without offering an explanation! — Ed.] Delius
[takes "peace" to mean "love"; Schmidt, "concord or reconciliation."]
Staunton [supports his emendation "prize" by a reference to 86, 2. (Ath.,
Dec. 6, 1873, p. 732.)] Isaac, [referring to Massey's view that the sonnet is
supposed to be spoken by Southampton to Miss Vernon when seeking a recon-
ciliation after his absence, observes that a similar interpretation of this line is
possible whether Sh. himself is the lover or is describing objectively a love

186 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxv

blossoming in secret. Or, the "peace" may be concerned with the conventional
"strife" of lover and lady; see Petrarch, passim, and Spenser, Sonnets 10-12,
14, 57. In this connection he quotes the translation of the line in Tschischwitz's
version:

Um Ruh mit dir muss ich den Kampf beginnen.

(Archiv, 61: 183-84.)]

Dowden: The peace, content, to be found in you. [So Beeching.] Tyler:
Peaceable possession of you. WYNDHAM: Peace of possessing your love. [Lines
5-6 would seem to be pretty good evidence for some such interpretation as
Tyler's. — Ed.]

6. Dowden: Perhaps this is the first allusion to the poet, Sh.'s rival in his
friend's favour. Wyndham: The note struck here, and in the next sonnet, with
its reminiscence of 32, seems prelusive to Group E (78-86). [Cf. 48, 13. — Ed.]

8. betterd. Schmidt [observes that the word here approaches the meaning
"surpassed." Isaac glosses the passage, "Counting (myself) better'd in that,"
etc. {Archiv, 61: 185.)]

10. starved. Cf. 47, 3 and Malone's note.

13-14. For the "chiastic" construction, in this case in inverted order, cf.
note on 27, 13-14.

14. all away. Malone: Having nothing on my board, — all being away.
Steevens: Perhaps [the meaning is] "Away with all!" i.e., I either devour like
a glutton what is within my reach, or command all provisions to be removed
out of my sight. [This suggestion, it need hardly be remarked, has not com-
mended itself to any other commentator. — Ed.]

Isaac [calls this a love-sonnet, approving Massey's observation, respecting
line 6, that there was no man-stealing in the Elizabethan age. So viewed, the
sonnet] is an unsurpassed specimen of its type, and the peer of the best that
has ever been sung on this inexhaustible, eternal theme. {Archiv, 61: 183.)
Brandes: We have here an exact counterpart to the following expressions in a
letter from Michael Angelo to Cavalieri [his young man friend], dated July
I533: "I would far rather forget the food on which I live, which wretchedly
sustains the body alone, than your name, which sustains both body and soul,
filling both with such happiness that I can feel neither care nor fear of death
while I have it in my memory." {William Sh., 1 : 349.) Walsh: [This, together
with S. 52, forms] a psean of love, unlikely to be addressed to a friend, and not
in conformity with his relation to the dark mistress. They may have been
addressed to some other mistress, real or imaginary, or even to his wife. Von
Mauntz [conceives the sonnet to be addressed, not to any particular person,
but to love in the abstract.]

Horace Davis: This sonnet seems to gather in itself parts of 47, 48, 52, and
56. Cf. especially, line 1 with 52, 1; line 4 with 52, 1-3; line 6 with 48, 8; line 9
with 47, 5-6; lines 9-10 with 56, 1-6.

lxxvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 187

76
Why is my verse so barren of new pride?
So far from variation or quicke change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new found methods, and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, euer the same, 5

And keepe inuention in a noted weed,
That euery word doth almost fel my name,
Shewing their birth, and where they did proceed?
0 know sweet loue I alwaies write of you, 9

And you and loue are still my argument:
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending againe what is already spent:

For as the Sun is daily new and old,

So is my loue still telling what is told,

7. fel] tell C, M, etc.; spell Nicholson conj.

8. where] whence C, Co3, Hu2, But.

This was also omitted from the Poems of 1640 and editions based thereon.

Dowden: Is this an apology for Sh.'s own sonnets, of which his friend begins
to weary? Beeching: This sonnet opens a new section dealing with the poet's
verse and that of other writers. We have already had one sonnet on this topic
(32). If 76 and 77 were interchanged, thesubject would run on without a break.

Mackail [finds the sonnet, especially lines 1-8, to have significance respect-
ing the problem of the date. It] indicates clearly . . . that Sh. was deliberately
using a poetical form which was passing out of vogue, but in which his genius
saw hitherto unreached possibilities. . . . Up to 1603 at least he persisted, as he
puts it, in "dressing old words new, spending again what is already spent."
The apology he makes is not only, is not even mainly, for any deficiency in his
own powers; it is for persisting in the use of a poetical manner which was
regarded as obsolete, a poetical form which had fallen out of fashion. [Cf. 79,
3-4, and 82, 7-8.] But in these phrases there is an accent, if not of sarcasm, at
least of pride. (Led. on Poetry, 198-200.)

2. quicke. Schmidt: Lively.

3-4. Tyler: These lines may allude to Sh.'s unwillingness to adopt the
mode of expression and the poetical form employed by his rivals. Wyndham:
[Cf. 32, 4-8; 125, 5-7, with note.]

1 88 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxvi

4. Krauss: Cf. Sidney, A. & S., S. 3:

Ennobling new-found tropes with problems old,
Or with strange similes enrich each line.

(Jahrb., 16: 176.)

Tyler : [The words] may very well refer to the novel compound words employed
by Chapman to express Homeric epithets. Lee: Cf. for like comment on con-
temporary sonneteers' extravagances 21, 38, and 130. [For the "compounds
strange," see also Lee's remarks on the "compound epithet" as introduced
into Elizabethan poetry from that of the Pleiade, French Renaissance in
England, pp. 245-48. He quotes the satires of Joseph Hall, 1597-98, as to the
current habit "in epithets to join two words in one," and observes that Sh.
himself adopted it freely in the coining of such epithets as "honey-heavy,"
"giant-rude," "marble-constant," etc.] Every reader of Sh.'s text will recall
the frequency of double epithets which, in the best original editions, are, as
in the French books, carefully hyphened by the printer.

6. invention. Rolfe: [For the meaning, poetic faculty, cf. 38, 8.] noted
weed. Steevens: A dress by which it is always known, as those persons are
who always wear the same colours. Beeching: This passage ... is one of the
stock texts with the wiseacres who think that the sonnets were written by Francis
Bacon. They explain "noted weed" to mean "a disguise," which is exactly
what it does not mean. [This Baconian misinterpretation had already been
noted by W. E. Ormsby, N. & Q., 9th s., 10; 126.]

9-10. Lee: Cf. Sidney, A. & S., S. 90:

For nothing from my will or wit doth flow,
Since all my words thy beauty doth indite.

[See also Lee's note on S. 38.]
10. argument. See note on 38, 3.

lxxvii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 189

77
Thy glasse will shew thee how thy beauties were,
Thy dyall how thy pretious mynuits waste,
The vacant leaues thy mindes imprint will beare,
And of this booke, this learning maist thou taste.
The wrinckles which thy glasse will truly show, 5

Of mouthed graues will giue thee memorie,
Thou by thy dyals shady stealth maist know,
Times theeuish progresse to eternitie.
Looke what thy memorie cannot containe, 9

Commit to these waste blacks, and thou shalt finde
Those children nurst, deliuerd from thy braine,
To take a new acquaintance of thy minde.
These offices, so oft as thou wilt looke,
Shall profit thee, and much inrich thy booke.

1. were] wear G1, etc.

3. The] These C, M conj., But.

4. this booke] thy book M conj.
6. thee] the 1640, G, S.

10. blacks] blanks Th conj., C, M, etc.
13-14. [E prints lines 13-14 of S. 108.]
14. thy] my C.

C. A. Brown [makes this the envoy of the "third poem," 56-77.]
Steeyexs: Probably this sonnet was designed to accompany a present of a
book consisting of blank paper. M alone: This conjecture appears to me ex-
tremely probable. We learn from S. 122 that Sh. received a table-book from
his friend. In his age it was customary for all ranks of people to make presents
on the first day of the new year. Brinsley Nicholson [(N. & Q., 4th s., 3: 166)
suggests that the sonnet was written in a table-book "having a looking-glass
and a portable dial on or in either cover." See A. Y. L., II, vii, 20 ("And then
he drew a dial from his poke") for evidence that dials were worn by people of
the court; and R. 2, IV, i, 276 ("Give me that glass") for a suggestion that
mirrors were also carried by "male fashionables."] [This last is a decided slip,
as line 268 reads, "Go some of you and fetch a looking-glass." — Ed.] Dowden :
If I might hazard a conjecture, it would be that Sh., who had perhaps begun
a new manuscript-book with S. 75, ... here ceased to write, knowing that his
friend was favouring a rival, and invited his friend to fill up the blank pages

iqo THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxvii

himself. Massey: This book was referred to in S. 37 [error for 38], where, as
we saw, the poet was no longer to write on any common or "vulgar paper,"
but in the book which Southampton had provided for the special purpose. . . .
He wants his friend to write in the book of sonnets as a means of drawing him
out of self, and set him brooding on his thoughts of love instead of grizzling
over his ill fortunes, (p. 157.) Tyler: The view is probably correct . . . which
infers that when [this and the two preceding sonnets] were sent to Mr. W. H.
there was sent with them a present consisting of a mirror, a sun-dial, and a
manuscript-book, each of these being in some sort symbolical. Shindler:
[The sonnet] accompanied a present, evidently to some more distant friend
than the "lovely boy." (Gent. Mag., 272: 81.) Butler: My friend Mr. H.
Festing Jones suggests to me that the book [was a book of tablets; cf. S. 122,]
and that the two friends probably each made the other a present of a book of
tablets on the occasion of a New Year's day — Sh. writing S. 77 on the first
leaf of the book he gave to Mr. W. H. (p. 97.) Beeching: The phrases in lines
3 and 10, "the vacant leaves," "these waste blanks," seem to imply that the
album was not altogether unwritten in; but they would be justified if the dedi-
catory sonnet occupied the first page. The sonnet is so out of key with what
precedes and follows it, that it is best to treat it as an occasional poem to which
we have not the complete clue. The "wrinkles" of line 5 makes it impos-
sible to regard it as an envoy to the sonnets before it. Rolfe: That the son-
net refers to the present of a blank-book to his friend seems quite certain,
but I cannot believe that it was partly filled with Sh.'s poems. That the dial
and mirror were also included in the gift is possible but not probable — unless
"Thy" in lines 1 and 2 should be "The," as in 3. [Mrs. Stopes and Brandl
accept Nicholson's theory that the mirror and dial were attached to the book.]

4. this booke. M alone: [For the proposed "thy," cf. line 14.] this learn-
ing. Dowden: Beauty, Time, and Verse formed the theme of many of Sh.'s
sonnets; now that he will write no more, he commends his friend to his glass,
where he may discover the truth about his beauty; to the dial, where he may
learn the progress of time; and to this book, which he himself — not Sh. —
must fill. Tyler: The lesson is that [despite the warning given by wrinkles
and the shadow on the dial] security against oblivion may be found by commit-
ting thought to writing. Beeching: What the glass and dial have taught
thee.

5. Here should perhaps be recalled the implication in Shindler's and
Beeching's notes on the sonnet as a whole, to the effect that this cannot well
be addressed to the beautiful youth (for example, of S. 104).

6. mouthed. M alone: All-devouring. [Cf. "swallowing grave," V. & A.,
757.] Schmidt: Gaping. Abbott: [By a curious use of passive participles],
a participle formed from an adjective means "made (the adjective)," and de-
rived from a noun means "endowed with (the noun)." (§ 294.)

7. shady stealth. Schmidt: Stealing shadow. [For the inverted relationship
of adjective and noun, cf. notes on 9, 14; 36, 6; 51, 6.] Beeching: Cf. 104, 10.

lxxvii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 191

8. theevish. M alone: Cf. A.W., II, i, 169: "The thievish minutes how
they pass."

10. blacks. Dyce [explains the error for "blanks" as being due to the MS.
form "blacks."] Brinsley Nicholson [(N. cV Q., 7th s., 11: 24) favors retain-
ing the Q reading, as referring to tables of black slate. The use of this is men-
tioned in Douce's Illustrations (1839, p. 454), with an engraving from Gesner
(1565), where such a table-book is described, "Pugillaris e laminis saxi nigri
fissilis, cum stylo ex eodem."] Miss Porter [also suspects that the "blacks"
should stand, but in the sense of] printers' types, marks of life actually laid
waste to nourish them, and which is spent upon them for the sake of the life of
the spirit they betoken. [Cf. 63, 13 and 65, 14.] [Here one is tempted to ask,
Who shall comment upon the commentator? — Ed.]

11. Tyler: "Children of the brain" have taken the place of the natural
children of the first sonnets.

12. Dowden: Perhaps this is said with some feeling of wounded love — my
verses have grown monotonous and wearisome; write yourself, and you will find
novelty in your own thoughts. Verity: Reading over what you have written,
you will realize the change which has gone on in your own nature and char-
acter; . . . thus you will appreciate the double change, outward and inward,
that has taken place in yourself.

13. offices. Schmidt: Functions, agencies. Beeching: The offices of glass,
dial, and book.

[This is another of the sonnets in which Godwin believes the poet is address-
ing himself:] "That mirror yonder, hanging on the wall, informs thee how thy
good looks are wearing away; that Dutch clock ticking on the mantelpiece
shows thee the rapid passage of time; . . . but these vacant leaves destined to
receive the imprint of thy mind, will form a book and give thee a taste of a
different kind of learning. . . . These waste leaves . . . will deliver the children
nursed in thy brain into actual life, and thereby furnish thee with a new
acquaintance with thy mind. Moreover this service, as often as it shall be
repeated, will add to thy proficiency as a writer." (pp. 61-62.)

i92 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxviii

78
So oft haue I inuok'd thee for my Muse,
And found such faire assistance in my verse,
As euery Alien pen hath got my vse,
And vnder thee their poesie disperse.
Thine eyes, that taught the dumbe on high to sing, 5

And heauie ignorance aloft to flie,
Haue added fethers to the learneds wing,
And giuen grace a double Maiestie.

Yet be most proud of that which I compile, 9

Whose influence is thine, and borne of thee,
In others workes thou doost but mend the stile,
And Arts with thy sweete graces graced be.
But thou art all my art, and doost aduance
As high as learning, my rude ignorance.

6. flie] flee in copy of Q in Bridgewater Library.

7. learneds] learnedst anon conj.

1-4. Walsh: Cf. 79, 1. Sh. claims to have been the first to sing the praises
of this patron.

3. WYNDHAM [considers this line, together with 83, 12, as proof that there
were more rival poets than one. (p. 251.) This is doubted by Tyler.] Alien.
Schmidt: Belonging to another. [The capital and italics here have, as usual,
led to various conjectures. (For the general subject, see notes on 1, 2.) Henry
Brown thinks a pun is intended: "a lean pen"; cf. the possible pun in 84, 5.
Creighton finds an extraordinary anagram, involving the names of both
Daniel and Alleyn. {Blackwood, 169: 677.)] got my use. Dowden: Acquired
my habit (of writing verse to you.)

4. disperse. Abbott: The plural nominative is implied from the previous
singular noun. (§ 412.)

5-6. Butler: Surely these lines afford considerable ground for thinking
that Sh. had not written at all before falling in with Mr. W. H.

6. heavie ignorance. Malone: Cf. Oth., II, i, 144: "O heavy ignorance!"
6-7. Von Mauntz: Cf. Sidney, A. & S., 90, 9-1 1:

Ne if I would, I could just title make,
That any laud to me thereof should grow,
Without my plumes from others' wings I take.

lxxvhi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 193

Walsh: Cf. Spenser, in a dedicatory sonnet prefixed to the F. Q., addressed

to the Earl of Essex:

But when my Muse, whose feathers, nothing flit,

Do yet but flag, and lowly learn to fly,

With bolder wing shall dare aloft to sty (= rise).

7. leameds. Abbott [lists this as an instance of an adjective inflected like
a noun, though he suspects that the reading should be " learned *st." (§ 5.)]
Dyce: Cf. Spenser, Tears of the Muses:

Each idle wit at will presumes to make,
And doth the learneds task upon him take.

Tyler: The word suits very well the Greek scholar, Chapman. "A double
majesty" [of line 8 is also] an expression quite suitable [to the] Homeric trans-
lation.

8. Massey: A poet is here praised for the sensuous grace of his poetry and
majesty of his music; . . . the very qualities of all others that we. following the
Elizabethans, associate with the march of Marlowe's "mighty line." (p. 163.)

9. compile. Schmidt: Compose. [Cf. 85, 2, and L. L. L., IV, iii, 134: "Did
never sonnet for her sake compile."]

10. influence. Schmidt: Inspiration.

12. Arts. Dowdex: Learning. Tyler: There is reference here to poetical
style.

13. advance. Schmidt: Raise to a higher worth. [Cf. Lucrece, 1705: "My
low-declined honour to advance."]

[For theories as to the "rival poet " or poets, see further the notes on Sonnets
80, 85, 86, and the Appendix. As to the present sonnet, Hexry Brown (p. 183)
thinks that it has particular reference to Francis Davison, who dedicated his
Poetical Rhapsody (1602) to Pembroke in the following lines:]

Great Earl whose high and noble mind is higher,

And noble than thy noble high desire:

Whose outward shape though it most lovely be,

Doth in fair robes, a fairer soul attire;

Who rich in fading wealth in endless treasures

Of virtue, valour, learning, richer art,

Whose present greatest men esteem but part

Of what by line of future hopes thy measure! . . .

I consecrate these rhymes to thy great name,

Which if thou like they seek no other fame.

Massey [finds in it references to rivals who, on the other hand, were under the
patronage of Southampton:] He specifies two or three of these by personifying
certain of their well-known qualities. . . . Sh. stands for Ignorance confessed.
. . . Tom Xash had posed himself as one of the Learned in opposition to the
supposed illiterate player. Tom Xash also wielded an "alien pen" in the spirit

194 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxix

of an Ishmaelite. . . . [Sh.] says, in effect, that the Earl has, in patronising Nash,
returned those feathers to the wing of Learning which he, Sh., had been pub-
licly charged by Greene and others with purloining. . . . [Lines 12-13 signify
that] Southampton's patronage and friendship made Sh. equal to either the
Man of Learning, who was not M. A., or the Man of Arts, who was. . . . Mar-
lowe was a Master of Arts. (pp. 160, 163.)

J. M. Robertson [speaks of this and the related sonnets as avowing Sh.'s
lack of classic culture, and his consciousness of being outbraved by the learning
of others. They] cannot rationally be supposed to come from the competent
classicist pictured by Professor Fiske and. further magnified by Professor
Collins and the Baconians. (Sh. and Montaigne, pp. 340-41.)

79

Whilst I alone did call vpon thy ayde,

My verse alone had all thy gentle grace,

But now my gracious numbers are decayde,

And my sick Muse doth giue an other place.

I grant (sweet loue) thy louely argument 5

Deserues the trauaile of a "worthier pen,

Yet what of thee thy Poet doth inuent,

He robs thee of, and payes it thee againe,

He lends thee vertue, and he stole that word, 9

From thy behauiour, beautie doth he giue

And found it in thy cheeke : he can affoord

No praise to thee, but what in thee doth Hue.

Then thanke him not for that which he doth say,

Since what he owes thee, thou thy selfe doost pay,

2. thy] the E.

6. trauaile] travell 1640; travel G1, S1.

5. lovely argument. Rolfe: The theme of your loveliness. Cf. 38, 3.

8-9. Tyler: Notice the derogatory expressions "robs" and "stole." [But
they are not derogatory, or are far from necessarily so, in the present connec-
tion, being the natural expression of the conceit of the sonnet. The point is not
insignificant, because a number of critics have assumed that the tone of these
sonnets is such as to indicate animosity between Sh. and the "rival poet."
I find nothing in them which would not be appropriate if the two were excellent
friends. See Walsh's note on 80, 2. — Ed.]

lxxx] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 195

80

O How I faint when I of you do write,
Knowing a better spirit doth vse your name,
And in the praise thereof spends all his might,
To make me toung-tide speaking of your fame.
But since your worth (wide as the Ocean is) 5

The humble as the proudest saile doth beare,
My sawsie barke (inferior farre to his)
On your broad maine doth wilfully appeare.
Your shallowest helpe will hold me vp a floate, 9

Whilst he vpon your soundlesse deepe doth ride,
Or (being wrackt) I am a worthlesse bote,
He of tall building, and of goodly pride.
Then If he thriue and I be cast away,
The worst was this, my loue was my decay.

9. a floate] a-float G2, S, E; afloat C, M, etc.; aloft R2 [error].
11. wrackt] wreck'd G2, S2, E, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del1-2, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl,
Kly, Hal, Cam, Do, Wh2, Ty, Wy, But, Her, Be, N.

2. better spirit. M alone: Curiosity will naturally endeavour to find out
who this "better spirit" was, to whom even Sh. acknowledges himself inferior.
There was certainly no poet in his own time with whom he needed to have
feared a comparison; but these sonnets being probably written when his name
was but little known, and at a time when Spenser was in the zenith of his repu-
tation, I imagine he was the person here alluded to. Main: A memorable in-
stance of that noble modesty . . . which would seem to be characteristic of the
very greatest natures. The reader will call to mind Burns's tribute to Ferguson,
Coleridge's to Bowles, Scott's to Miss Ferrier, etc. Walsh: Spenser was the
only "better spirit" at the time whose competition Sh. need have feared. Sh.
and Spenser are believed to have been friends. But there is not a word in these
sonnets that indicates anything else than a friendly rivalry.

5-8. Von Mauntz: Cf. Ovid, Tristia, 2, 327-30:

Arguor immerito. Tenuis mihi campus aratur:

Illud erat magnae fertilitatis opus.
Non ideo debet pelago se credere, si qua

Audet in exiguo ludere cumba lacu.

196 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxx

[To which might be added, with special reference to line 9, the dedicatory lines
which Von Mauntz notes in connection with S. 26, from the Fasti, 1, 3-4:

Excipe pacato, Caesar Germanice, voltu
Hoc opus et timidae dirige navis iter.]

6. humble . . . proudest. Abbott: The -est of the second adjective modifies
the first. Cf. "The soft and sweetest music" (Jonson). (§ 398.)

7. inferior farre. Tyler: Not to be taken too literally.
7-10. Steevens: Cf. T. & C, I, iii, 34-44:

The sea being smooth,
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail
Upon her patient breast, making their way
With those of nobler bulk!
But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage
The gentle Thetis, and anon behold
The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut, . . .

where 's then the saucy boat
Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rivall'd greatness?

Lee: Sh. seems to write with an eye on Barnes's [metaphor in P. & P., S. 91 :]

My fancy's ship tossed here and there by these
Still floats in danger ranging to and fro.

(Life, p. 134.)

10. soundlesse. Schmidt: Unfathomable.

Massey: I can have no doubt that [this sonnet] marks the moment of Sh.'s
first venture in publishing his poem of V. & A. His "saucy bark" is about to
be launched. . . . The dedicatory nature of the sonnet, especially of line 9, may
be glossed by the dedicatory Epistle to Euphues, in which Lily had said to his
patron, " If your lordship with your little finger do but hold me up by the chin,
I shall swim." There is a tint of the most delicate modesty in the plea that if he
sinks while Marlowe swims, his love for the friend, his desire to do him honour,
will be the cause of his "decay." (pp. 167-68.)

W. C. Hazlitt [is disposed to think that the sonnet refers to Griffin, who
published his Fidessa in 1596.] His sonnets, like those of Sh., may have been
in existence before they were printed, and the more famous writer, who may
here pose as the humbler one poetica licentia, may have been unaware that
Griffin was his debtor [i.e., through the plagiarizing of passages from the V. & A.
This notion is based further on the fact that Griffin was a Warwickshire man,
and that there is some possibility that he had been more successful than Sh. in
"ingratiating himself with a common lady friend at a distance from London,
yet at one accessible on horseback."] (Sh., Himself and his Work, pp. 254-55.)

lxxxi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 197

81

Or I shall Hue your Epitaph to make,
Or you suruiue 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 immortall life shall haue, 5

Though I (once gone) to all the world must dye,
The earth can yeeld me but a common graue,
When you intombed in mens eyes shall lye,
Your monument shall be my gentle verse, 9

Which eyes not yet created shall ore-read,
And toungs to be, your beeing shall rehearse,
When all the breathers of this world are dead,
You still shall Hue (such vertue hath my Pen)
Where breath most breaths, euen in the mouths of men.

1. Or] Whe'r Sta conj.; Though Stengel conj. I shall] shall I G, S, E.
1-2. make, . . . rotten,] make? . . . rotten? G, S, E.

2. Or you] You will Stengel conj.

11-12. rehearse, . . . dead,] rehearse. . . . dead, 1640, G1; rehearse: . . . dead,
G2; rehearse, . . . dead; S, E, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Kly, Wh1,
Hal, Cam, Do, Ty, Ox, Her, Be, Bull; rehearse . . . dead; Gl, R, Wh2, Wy, N,
Wa; rehearse; . . . dead, Walker conj.

14. breaths] kills Sta conj. euen] e'en S1; ev'n S2, E.

Massey: [This sonnet] is vacant of meaning where it stands, (p. I73-)
Beeching: This sonnet is plainly misplaced; its theme is conventional. [For
sources or analogues, see notes on S. 55. — Ed.]

4. in me each part. Beeching: Every characteristic of me.
7-10. Tyler: [Cf. Drayton, Idea, S. 44:

Ensuing ages yet my rhymes shall cherish
Where I entomb'd my better part shall save.]

(Intro., pp. 40-41.)

12. breathers. M alone: Cf. A. Y. L., Ill, ii, 297: "I will chide no breather
in the world but myself." this world. Dowden: This age.

13. Pen. Wyndham [explains the capitalization here as signifying] the in-
strument of an art, used as its emblem. [Cf. 84, 5; 106, 7.] (p. 263.) [But in

198 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxxi

other passages where the word is used in the same way (32, 6; 78, 3; 85, 8; etc.)
it is not capitalized. — Ed.]

14. Beeching: As one who lives is called par excellence a "breather," you
shall live in the very realm of breath, in the mouths of men. Lee: Cf. the
Latin phrase (from Ennius): "Volito vivu' per ora virum," to which Sh. had
already made allusion in T.And., I, i, 389-90.

Mackail: The promise of immortality [here uttered] is too splendid to be
insincere; it is no mere flourish of rhetoric, but the authentic and inspired voice
of poetry, which sounds in these noble lines. (Led. on Poetry, p. 200.)

G. A. Leigh [believes this sonnet and a few of the same group to have been
addressed to Queen Elizabeth, with reference to an intended poem in her honor.
(Weslm. Rev., 147: 180.)]

Wyxdham: The present Countess of Pembroke states {Pall Mall Mag.,
Oct., 1897) that [lines 9-14 of this sonnet], with "ever" for "even" in line 14,
are found written in "17th century character on an old parchment, pasted on
the back of a panel bearing a small painting of William, third Earl of Pem-
broke." Lee: The ink and handwriting are quite modern, and hardly make
pretence to be of old date in the eyes of any one accustomed to study manu-
scripts. On May 5 [1898] some persons interested in the matter, including
myself, examined the portrait and the inscription, on the kind invitation of the
present Earl, and the inscription was unanimously declared by palaeographical
experts to be a clumsy forgery unworthy of serious notice. (Life, p. 41 2n.)

lxxxii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 199

82

I Grant thou wert not married to my Muse,
And therefore maiest without attaint ore-looke
The dedicated words which writers vse
Of their faire subiect, blessing euery booke.
Thou art as faire in knowledge as in hew, 5

Finding thy worth a limmit past my praise,
And therefore art inforc'd to seeke anew,
Some fresher stampe of the time bettering dayes.
And do so loue, yet when they haue deuisde, 9

What strained touches Rhethorick can lend,
Thou truly faire, wert truly simpathizde,
In true plaine words, by thy true telling friend.
And their grosse painting might be better vs'd,
Where cheekes need blood, in thee it is abus'd.

7. art] are G1, S1.

8. time bettering] Hyphened by G, etc.; time's bettering C.

12. true plaine] Hyphened by Walker conj., Sta, Dy2, Hu!. true telling]
Hyphened by G!, S1, C, M, etc.

1. Dowden: His friend had perhaps alleged in playful self-justification that
he had not married Sh.'s Muse, vowing to forsake all other, and keep only unto
her.

2. attaint. Schmidt: Disgrace. [Cf. 88, 7.] ore-looke. Schmidt: Peruse.
[Cf. M.N. D., II, ii, 121: "I o'erlook Love's stories."]

3. dedicated words. Schmidt: Dedicatory words. Dowden: This may only
mean "devoted words," but probably has reference, as the next line seemsto
show, to the words of some dedication prefixed to a book. [Line 4 surely does
not suggest a particular book, but books addressed to patrons generally. — Ed.]
Tyler: Possibly [a] reference to a dedication either actual or proposed. Wynd-
ham: Refers, as I think, to the body of the book — the praises dedicated
to their object — and not merely to the prefixed dedication. R. H. Legis
[(N. fir Q., 5th s., 6: 163) finds here an allusion to the dedications of Drayton.
His "dedicated words"] will be found at the commencement of the 1st and 3rd
songs, hymns, or books, of [the Polyolbion}. Henry Brown [finds allusions to
the dedications of Francis Davison (see his note on S. 78) and John Davies, the
latter appearing to be the principal rival poet. See especially his dedication of

20O THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxxii

Mirum in Modum to Pembroke, (pp. 184-85.)] Creighton [{Blackwood,
169: 678) is certain that the reference is to the numerous dedications of Daniel.]
Lee: There seems small doubt that Sh. has in mind the dedicatory sonnets
and addresses inscribed in 1594 and succeeding years to his own patron, the
Earl of Southampton, who was in Nashe's phrase "a dear lover and cherisher"
of poets. Among the earl's poetic eulogists were, besides Nashe, Barnabe
Barnes, Gervase Markham, John Florio, Samuel Daniel, John Davies, George
Chapman, and many others. All these panegyrists of Southampton exhausted
in his honour the vocabulary of praise, mainly in sonnets, and one or other of
them is doubtless referred to [here.] (Note on S. 78.) [For the style of dedica-
tions of the period, cf. Nashe's to Southampton, prefixed to The Unfortunate
Traveler (1594):] "Incomprehensible is the height of your spirit both in heroical
resolution and matters of conceit. Unreprievebly perisheth that booke whatso-
ever to wast paper, which on the diamond rocke of your judgement disasterly
chanceth to be shipwrackt." Elsewhere Nashe calls Southampton "the match-
less image of honour and magnificent rewarder of vertue, Jove's eagle-borne
Ganimede." [See many further specimens in Life of Sh., pp. 384-89.] H. D.
Gray [thinks this passage to be evidence that Sonnets 82-83] could not have
been written to Southampton, who had twice received Sh.'s "dedicated words."
{Pub. M. L. A., n.s. 23: 636m)

4. blessing every booke. A. Hall: In Drayton's Heroical Epistles ... we
have 11 books and 11 inscriptions, viz., to the Lady Harrington, Earl and
Countess of Bedford, Sir Henry and Lady Goodeve, etc., one blessing to each
division of one work. Then Chapman, who published his translation of the
Iliad in detachments, dedicated the first section to Lord Essex, and afterwards,
in reprinting it with additions, inscribed it to Prince Henry of Wales, the elder

•brother of Charles I, and thereto we find appended verses to the Duke of
Lennox, the Lord Chancellor, Lords Salisbury, Sussex, etc., including, of course,
Lord Southampton. There are 16 in all of these "blessings." {N. & Q., 6th s.,
10: 102.)

5. Dowden: Sh. had celebrated his friend's beauty (hue); perhaps his
learned rival had celebrated the patron's knowledge. Tyler: Subsequently,
in the title to a sonnet accompanying his translation of the Iliad, Chapman
addressed Pembroke as "the Learned and Most Noble Patron of Learning,"
and the sonnet celebrates Pembroke's "god-like learning."

6. Walsh: Cf. 103, 7. Lee: [Cf. Campion's lines to Lord Walden, in which
he professed that] "the admired virtues" of the patron's youth

Bred such despairing to his daunted Muse

That it could scarcely utter naked truth. {Life, p. 140.)

8. Beeching: [This line may imply] that the rival poet is a younger man
than Sh. (Intro., p. xliv.) time bettering. Verity: Cf. 32, 10, and Per., I,
Prol., 11-12: "These latter times, when wit's more ripe."

10. strained. Cf. "stretched," 17, 12.

lxxxiii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 201

11. simpathizde. Schmidt: Answered to. [Cf. Lucrece, 1 113:

True sorrow then is feelingly sufficed

When with like semblance it is sympathized.]

My plain words were most suitable to, expressed best, thy fair nature.
13-14. Cf. Wyndham's note on 67, 5-6.

83
I Never saw that you did painting need,
And therefore to your faire no painting set,
I found (or thought I found) you did exceed,
The barren tender of a Poets debt:

And therefore haue I slept in your report, 5

That you your selfe being extant well might show,
How farre a moderne quill doth come to short,
Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow,
This silence for my sinne you did impute, 9

Which shall be most my glory being dombe,
For I impaire not beautie being mute,
When others would giue life, and bring a tombe.
There Hues more life in one of your faire eyes,
Then both your Poets can in praise deuise.

2. your] you S, E. faire] face G*.

7. to] too G, etc.

8. what] that M conj.

9. for] of 1640, G, S, E.

10. being] thinking or praising Sta conj.
13. There] Their L, M [not Bo].

1-2. painting. YYyndham: High-flown poetical praise. Cf. 85.3-4. Horace
Davis: Cf. ioi, 6-7.

2. faire. See note on 16, 11.

4. tender. Schmidt: A thing offered. [Cf. Haml., I, iii, 106: "You have
ta'en his tenders for true pay."]

5. Malone: I have not sounded your praises.

7. moderne. Malone: Common or trite. [So Schmidt, Dowden. Beechixg,
Lee, Porter, etc.] Tyler: The pen, most probably, of the rival poet, the
"fresher stamp" . . . of. 82, 8. To take "modern" in the sense of "trivial"
seems to me unsatisfactory. YYyndham: The ordinary sense is intended. In

202 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxxiii

the Sonnets the poet constantly contrasts modernity unfavourably with
antiquity. Cf. 59, 7; 68, 9; 106, 7-8; 108, 12. [The prevalent interpretation of
the word is based on the general Shakespearean usage, and is probably sound.
The analogy of the thought in S. 106 (especially the conclusion), however, is an
attractive one for Wyndham's interpretation, which, of course, is not opposed
to Elizabethan usage. Cf. Jonson, Volpone, III, iv: "He has so modern and
facile a vein, fitting the time." (N. E. D.) — Ed.]

8. what worth. [With this elliptical construction, cf. HamL, I, i, 31-33:

Let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
What we two nights have seen.

Of this passage Abbott observes (§ 252) that "what" depends on a verb of
speech, implied either in "assail your ears" or in "story." So one may say that
a verb of speech is implied in "come too short"; or, that the verb "speaking"
is made to carry its effect over into the following clause. Tyler avoids the
difficulty by placing a dash, instead of a comma, after "worth," and an excla-
mation point after "grow." — Ed.] doth grow. Schmidt: Is. [Cf. 84, 4; 93,
13.] Tyler: This word may possibly mean "doth grow as a poet contemplates
and attempts to describe your worth," or the word may allude to Mr. W. H.'s
still immature youth.

10. being. [On the use of the participle without a formal subject, see
Abbott, § 378.]

11-12. Von Mauntz: Cf. Ovid, Tristia, II, 337-38:

Et tamen ausus eram: sed detrectare videbar,
Quodque nefas, damno viribus esse tuis.

12. Malone: When others endeavour to celebrate your character, while,
in fact, they disgrace it by the meanness of their compositions. Dowden: Cf.

17- 3-4-

13-14. Lee: Of Southampton's poetic proteges, Barnes makes the most
marked reference to the noble patron's "fair eyes"; see his sonnet (dedicatory
to Parthenophil, 1593): "Gracious eyes, those heavenly lamps which give the
Muses light," etc.

14. both your Poets. Isaac [finds evidence here that there were two rivals
in mind:] Sh. cannot be understood to be one of them, for in this same sonnet
he tells that he has been a long while silent, and in another that his ability is
inadequate. [The same thing, he believes, is indicated by the fact that in cer-
tain sonnets (Isaac says 79-86, perhaps an error for 80 and 86) Sh. seems to
speak of a rival who stands higher than himself, but in 82-84 OI one on whom
he looks down. The former Isaac conjectures to be Spenser, the latter Mar-
lowe.] (Jahrb., 19: 236, 241.) [Wyndham appears to understand "both your
poets" in the same way:] Among these others who still sing, while the poet is
himself silent, two are conspicuous. (Intro., p. cxvii). [Surely most readers
understand "both your poets" to be the speaker and his rival. The fact that

lxxxiv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 203

he is silent is quite beside the question: speech is vain, he says, because your
worth is such that if both of us devoted ourselves to a single feature we should
find it beyond our reach. — Ed.]

Mrs. Stopes [compares with this sonnet a passage from William Hunnis, in
the Paradise of Dainty Devices:]

With painted speache I list not prove my cunning for to trie,
Nor yet will use to fill my penne with gileful flatterie;
With pen in hand, and hart in brest, shall faithful promise make
To love you best, and serve you most, by your great vertues sake.
Samuel Neil [{Life of Sh., p. 107) believes that this and the following three
sonnets were addressed to Queen Elizabeth.]

84
Who is it that sayes most, which can say more,
Then this rich praise, that you alone, are you,
In whose confine immured is the store,
Which should example where your equall grew,
Leane penurie within that Pen doth dwell, 5

That to his subiect lends not some small glory,
But he that writes of you, if he can tell,
That you are you, so dignifies his story.
Let him but coppy what in you is writ, 9

Not making worse what nature made so cleere,
And such a counter-part shall fame his wit,
Making his stile admired euery where.

You to your beautious blessings adde a curse,

Being fond on praise, which makes your praises worse.

1. most,] most? M, etc. (except Tu).

2. are you,] art you, 1640; are you? G, etc.; are you: C.
4. grew,] grew? C, Sta, Kly, But, Wa.

8. story.] story, L, M, A, Kt, Co1, B, Del, Dy1. CI, Gl, Kly, Hal, Cam1, Do,
WhJ, Ox; story: C, Hu, Co5.3, Dy1, Bull; story; Wh1, Her, Be.

10. worse] gross Sta conj., But.

11. wit] writ 1640.

12. his stile] his still 1640; him still G, S, E.

13. blessings] blessing G, S, E.

14. on] of G2, S, E. praise,] praise Ty.

204 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxxiv

i. Who is it. Dowden: Which of us, the rival poet or I? Tyler: Which of
the two, the describer or the eulogist? which. Percy Simpson: A relative
pronoun; but it has been frequently read as interrogative, and the line distorted
to "Who is it that says most?" etc. (Sh. Punctuation, p. 13.) [This reading of
the line had been anticipated by Staunton, and independently by the late
Professor A. G. Newcomer, who explained it: "Who is it — be it even he that
says most — who can say more" etc.]

2. Henry Brown: Cf. A. & C, III, ii, 13: "Would you praise Caesar, say
'Ceesar,' go no further." Porter: Cf. Browning: "What is she? Her human
self, — no lower word will serve."

3. store. Wyndham: The whole wealth of Beauty ... is enclosed in you.

4. grew. [See the textual notes for the punctuation. The great majority of
editors of course take "whose" (line 3) as relative, not interrogative. — Ed.]

5. Pen. See note on 81, 13.

8. story. Staunton: Not satisfied with copying the mistakes of the Quarto
. . . the latest editions of Sh.'s works make confusion worse confounded by
terminating the 8th line with a comma instead of a full stop. (Ath., Jan. 31,
1874, p. 161.) [Dowden's note, to the effect that Staunton may be right, shows
that he, at least, followed Malone's punctuation consciously; but it does not
appear how he would explain the construction of the sentence.]

9. Krauss: Cf. Sidney, A. & S., S. 3:

In Stella's face I read
What love and beauty be; then all my deed
But copying is what in her Nature writes.

(Jahrb., 16: 176.)

10. cleere. Schmidt: Beautiful, glorious. Tyler: Manifest, and of such
shining beauty.

13. curse. Beeching: Antithesis to "blessings," and so a not much stronger
word than "disadvantage"; perhaps "misfortune" comes nearest in modern
English. Cf. W.T., II, iii, 86: "It is a curse he cannot be compelled to."

14. Steevens: Being fond of such panegyric as debases what is praise-
worthy in you, instead of exalting it. [It would seem from this that Steevens
should prefer the omission of the comma after "praise." On the other hand,
Tyler explains the latter part of the line as meaning, "By which . . . the praise
due to you is really lessened and deteriorated," yet omits the comma.] fond on.
M alone: Used by Sh. for "fond of." Rolfe: Doting on.

lxxxv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 205

85
My toung-tide Muse in manners holds her still,
While comments of your praise richly compil'd,
Reserue their Character with goulden quill,
And precious phrase by all the Muses fiTd.
I thinke good thoughts, whilst other write good wordes, 5
And like vnlettered clarke still crie Amen,
To euery Himne that able spirit affords,
In polisht forme of well refined pen.

Hearing you praisd, I say 'tis so, 'tis true, 9

And to the most of praise adde some-thing more,
But that is in my thought, whose loue to you
(Though words come hind-most) holds his ranke before,
Then others, for the breath of words respect,
Me for my dombe thoughts, speaking in effect.

3. Reserue their] Preserve their G-, Burgon conj. (MS.); Rehearse thy anon.
conj., Ty; Rehearse your anon, conj.; Reserve your anon, conj.; Deserve their
Do conj., Ox; Rehearse their or Receive their Her conj.; Reserve thy But; Rescribe
their Mackail conj.; Record thy Bull conj.

4. til'QfiU'dG, S, E.

5. whilst] while A, B, Hu1, CI, Kly, Ty, Ox. other] others G2, S, E, M, A, Kt,
B, Hu1, Del, Sta, CI, Kly, Ty, Ox.

6. Amen] Italics by M, A, Kly, Co3, Hu2; quoted by Kt, Co1-2, B, Hu1, Del,
Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, R, etc.

7. Himne] line Massey conj.

9. 'tis so, 'tis true] Italics by M, A, Kly, Co3, Hu2; quoted by Kt, Co1'2,
Hu1, Del, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, R, etc.; "'tis so," "'tis
true," Be.
14. Me] Men E.

1-4. Lee: The numbing effect of a patron's eminent virtues on a modest
poet is a common conceit among Elizabethan poets. Cf. Campion to Lord
Walden, [quoted under 82, 6 above.]

2. compil'd. See note on 78, 9.

3. Reserve their Character. M alone: "Reserve" has here the sense of
"preserve." Cf. 32, 7. Dowden: Possibly "Deserve their character" may be
right, i.e., "deserve to be written." [Schmidt and Rocfe say that the text is
probably corrupt.] Tyler [accepting the emendation "Rehearse thy," says

206 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxxv

that " character " must be taken] to denote "face, appearance." Cf. T.N.,
I, ii, 51: "This thy fair and outward character." Wyndham: Preserve or
treasure up their style by labouring it preciously, with a secondary suggestion
of fastidious restraint. . . . That "character" = "style" is confirmed by its
being printed with a capital. Lee: Perpetuate the handwriting by executing it
with a golden quill. Beeching: The sense required from this obscure line is
an antithesis to line I, the antithesis expressed quite clearly in line 5. This
third line, therefore, must mean "are written down with golden quill." "Char-
acter" means "writing," as in 59, 8; for "reserve," therefore, we should expect
"receive"; and for that "reserve" may be a misreading of the MS., or it may
be used as a strong way of saying "are written in a permanent form for pos-
terity." Bullen: It is difficult to find any meaning in the ordinary reading.
... If we regard "their" as a misprint for "thy" we must change "Reserve"
to some such word as " Rehearse" or " Record." Porter: The special meaning
attaching to "Reserve" here agrees with that suggested in note on 32, 7 as the
sense there. . . . "Character" stands both in the usual meaning, literally, for
"handwriting," and, metaphorically, for sedulously careful handwriting, that
is, style. [Butler's reading is erroneously stated to be based on Malone.
The "you" and "your" of the rest of the sonnet are of course against it. His
statement that the Q spelling is "Reserne" is due to a badly outlined "u"
which resembles an "n" in the British Museum quarto from which the Praeto-
rius facsimile was made. — Ed.]

4. fil'd. Schmidt: Polished, refined.

5. other. See note on 62, 8.

6.- Rolfe: Since the clerk, whether lettered or unlettered, responds "Amen,"
the word [" unletter'd "] must have some special significance. The meaning may
be that he endorses the eulogies with as little hesitation as the clerk does the
Latin to which he cries "Amen," though he may not understand it. [The word
is, of course, sufficiently explained by the attitude which the poet assumes in
this whole group of sonnets. Cf. 78, 6, 14. — Ed.]

7. Himne. Lee [refers to this phrase in his argument for Barnes as the rival
poet:] Very few poets of the day in England followed Ronsard's practice of
bestowing the title of hymn on miscellaneous poems, but Barnes twice applies
the word to his poems of love {Parthenophil, Madr. 1, 12; S. 17, 9). {Life,
p. 134.) [It is not often that a commentator provides us with a refutation of his
own position so promptly as does Lee, within two pages of the passage just
quoted:] The strongest point in favour of Chapman's identity with the rival
poet lies in the fact that each of the two sections of his poem The Shadow of
Night (1594) is styled a "hymn." . . . But Drayton, of his Harmonie of the
Church (1591), and Barnes, as we have just seen, both wrote "hymns," and
the word was often loosely used in Elizabethan English, as in 16th century
French, in the general sense of "poem." (p. 136m) [In fact, the word as here
used is sufficiently explained by the image of the clerk in the church service,
without reference to any contemporary poet whatsoever. — Ed.] able spirit.
Beeching: The "better spirit" of 80, 2.

lxxxvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 207

13-14. McClumpha: Cf. R. cf J., II, vi, 30-31:

Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament.

(Jahrb., 40: 201.)

14. in effect. Tyler: In thought and purpose. Cf. S. 23. Beechixg: For
the contrast of "word" and "effect," cf. T. of A., Ill, v, 97: "Tis in few
words, but spacious in effect."

86

Was it the proud full saile of his great verse,
Bound for the prize of (all to precious) you,
That did my ripe thoughts in my braine inhearce,
Making their tombe the. wombe wherein they grew?
Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write, 5

Aboue a mortall pitch, that struck me dead?
No, neither he, nor his compiers by night
Giuing him ayde, my verse astonished.
He nor that affable familiar ghost 9

Which nightly gulls him with intelligence,
As victors of my silence cannot boast,
I was not sick of any feare from thence.
But when your countinance fild vp his line,
Then lackt I matter, that infeebled mine.

1. proud full] proudfull S1.

2. (all to precious)] (all too precious) G1, S1; (all-too-precious) G2, S2, E, Wy,
Wa; all-too-precious C, M, A, Kt, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Kly, Ty, Be, Bull;
all too precious Co, Gl, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, R, Ox, But, Her, N; all to precious
Godwin conj.

3. inhearce] rehearse G, S, E.

9. affable familiar] Hyphened by Sta.

11. victors] victors, G2, S2, E, M, A, Kt, B, Dy, Sta, CI, Kly, Cam, Do, Hu2,
Ty, But, Bull.

13. fild] fill'd G, S, E, Co, Hu, Gl, Kly, Cam, Do, R, Wh2, Ox, Wy, Her,
etc.; fil' d M, A, Kt, B, Del, Dy, Sta, CI, Wh1, Hal, Ty, But.

1. Furxivall: [This line] probably alludes to the swelling hexameters of
Chapman's Englishing of Homer. (Intro., p. lxv.) Was. Massey [takes the
past tense, as compared with the present tense of the preceding sonnets, to be

208 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxxvi

due to the occurrence of Marlowe's death in the mean time. On the other hand,
the present of line 10 is explained as an allusion to the play of Faustus, still
running on the stage, (p. 168.)] full saile. Fleay [finds here an allusion to
Nash's Pierce Penniless, where Southampton may be represented under the
pseudonym Amyntas, and where the expression "full sail" is used. In the same
connection he offers some very dubious evidence connecting lines 9-10 with the
same book. (Macm. Mag., 31: 439.)]

2. (all to precious). Godwin: May the line not have read originally, "Bound
to the prize of all," that is, to the common prize of all writers, ... to precious
you? (p. 196.) Percy Simpson: Compound nouns or adjectives [were regu-
larly] enclosed within brackets where we should employ the hyphen if we used
any punctuation at all. Cf. 2 H. 4 [Folio], II, i, 123: "Such (more then impu-
dent) sawcines."

4. Malone: Cf. R. & J., II, iii, 9-10:

The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb;
What is her burying grave, that is her womb.

Rolfe: We find the same thought in Lucretius, v. 259: "Omniparens eadem
rerum commune sepulchrum." Walsh: Cf. ["To Time," by "A. W.," in
Davison's Poetical Rhapsody:] "Thy womb, that all doth breed, is tomb to all."
Verity: Cf. Spenser, Ruins of Time:

The seeds of which all things at first were bred

Shall in great Chaos' womb again be hid.

5. spirit . . . spirits. [See Abbott's note on 52, 14. Here again, however,
we need only to note that "spirit" was regularly either monosyllabic or dissyl-
labic. Cf. 56, 8 with 61, 5. — Ed.] Massey [finds here the chief evidence of
Marlowe as rival poet:] Sh. speaks of Marlowe and identifies him with the
"familiar" spirit, Mephistopheles, just as Thorpe does when he dedicates the
translation of Lucan's first book to Edward Blunt, and alludes to Marlowe as
a " familiar spirit." [Marlowe was generally believed to practice necromancy as
a student of black magic. Sh.] grants the facts of Marlowe's writing under what
is now termed "spirit-control," . . . but says [line 12] it was not this that
cowed or overcrowed him, and made him keep silence, (pp. 164, 170.)

7. compiers by night. R. H. Legis [taking Drayton as rival poet (see his
note on 82, 3), views these compeers as Sir Robert Aston and the other friends
who aided Drayton in writing the Polyolbion. ( N. & Q., 5th s., 6: 163.)]

8. astonished. Schmidt: Stunned with fear. [Cf. Lucrece, 1730: "Stone-
still, astonish'd with this deadly deed."]

9-10. Steevens: Alluding perhaps to the celebrated Dr. Dee's pretended
intercourse with an angel, and other familiar spirits. Massey: Who does not
recognize Faustus, his necromancy, and his boasts of what he will have the
spirits do for him? Who does not see that Sh., thinking dramatically, has
identified Marlowe with Faustus and thrown him on the stage, where, in vision
— if it be not an actual fact that the play was running at the Curtain Theatre
while Sh. was composing that sonnet — he sees his familiar Mephistopheles

lxxxvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 209

"gulling him nightly" with such intelligence as that "in Hell are all manner
of delights." [Cf. especially the line in Dr. Faustus, "They say thou hast a
familiar spirit," etc.] (Qu. Rev., 115: 447.) Henry Brown, [taking Davies as
rival poet, thinks Drayton may have been the] intelligencer alluded to, as
aiding Davies, like an evil spirit, with dark suggestions, (p. 193.) Delius
[thinks that the assistant who was referred to in line 7 is here] ironically called
an obliging house-spirit. A. Hall: If Marlowe or one of his well-known con-
temporaries were the better spirit of S. 80, the able spirit of 85, the writer of
the great verse in 86, then Peele, Nash, Lodge, Drayton, Chapman, Ric. Barn-
field, Barnaby Rich, and such like being the compeers, the lately deceased
Robert Greene would be the affable familiar ghost who was reproduced from
the spirit world over and over again as stepfather to numerous pamphlets,
freely manufactured by some of these so-called ''compeers" but disavowed by
all. (N. & Q., 6th s., 10: 102.) [Later, however (ibid., p. 182), Hall takes the
view that the "better spirit" is a burlesque term, and (following Fleay) that
Nash is ironically referred to. On Minto's interpretation of the passage in
connection with Chapman, see Appendix, p. 475.]

13. countinance. Schmidt: Authority, patronage. [Cf. z H. 4, I, ii, 33:
"Under whose countenance we steal."] Massey [thinks that the reference is
to Southampton's countenance given to the finishing of Marlowe's Hero c*
Leander. (p. 167.)] fild. Steevens [with Malone's reading "fil'd":] Polished.
Cf. Jonson's Verses on Sh. : " In his well-torned and true-filed lines." Collier:
The word is spelt "fild"(as "fill'd" was usually spelt), and not "fil'd" (as in
S. 85) in the Quarto; and . . . the preposition "up" shows that what the poet
meant was "fill'd up" or occupied. Dyce: Mr. Collier's remark about "up"
carries no weight; for even if we choose to consider that preposition as redun-
dant here ... its redundancy is unobjectionable according to the phraseology
of Sh. and his contemporaries. [A writer signing himself " jABEz"(iV. & Q., 5th
s., 7: 283) observes that in the Q "filled" is always spelt "fild," and "filed"
"fil'd." (See 63, 3; to which may be added 17, 2; for "fil'd" the "always" of
Jabez's statement must depend on 85, 4. — Ed.) He adds that "the sense . . .
ought to have saved Dyce and others from the blunder of printing ' fil'd.' "
R. H. Legis retorts {ibid., p. 385) that "enfeebled," not "lacked," is the true
antithesis of the word in dispute; read, therefore, "polished up or made power-
ful." To whom " Jabez" (p. 465), to the effect that "filed" does not and never
did mean "made powerful."] Dowden: "Fill'd up his line" is opposed to "then
lack'd I matter."

14. lackt I matter. Tyler: Cf. T. & C, II, iii, 103: "Then will Ajax lack
matter, if he have lost his argument."

G. Stronach, [(.V. cV Q., 9th s., 12: 141) taking the sonnet series to be a mis-
cellany like the Pass. Pilgrim, believes that this sonnet was written about Sh.
by Barnes.]

Coleridge [notes this sonnet as an example of] Sh.'s readiness to praise his
rivals, ore pleno, and the confidence of his own equality with those whom he
deemed most worthy of his praise. {Biog. Lit., chap. 2.)

210 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxxvii

87
Farewell thou art too deare for my possessing,
And like enough thou knowst thy estimate,
" The Charter of thy worth giues thee releasing:
My bonds in thee are all determinate.

For how do I hold thee but by thy granting, 5

And for that ritches where is my deseruing?
The cause of this faire guift in me is wanting,
And so my pattent back againe is sweruing.
Thy selfe thou gau'st, thy owne worth then not knowing, 9
Or mee to whom thou gau'st it, else mistaking,
So thy great guift vpon misprision growing,
Comes home againe, on better iudgement making.
Thus haue I had thee as a dreame doth flatter,
In sleepe a King, but waking no such matter.

5. granting,] granting? C, M, etc.

6. that] those G2.

8. pattent] patient Bo conj.

Tyler: This "farewell" is probably intended, like Ophelia's return of Ham-
let's "remembrances," to evoke a renewed avowal of affection. Wyndham:
[In the group 87-96] the spirit of the verse suddenly changes: the music be-
comes plangent, and the theme of utter estrangement is handled with a com-
plete command over dramatic yet sweetly modulated discourse. The group is,
indeed, a single speech of tragic intensity. (Intro., p. cxii.) Walsh: The first
and last lines sound as if addressed to a woman, the intervening as if to a man;
which recalls to mind the " master-mistress" of S. 20. . . . But we know of no
final falling out with the friend (except in Mr. Butler's interpretation of 125).
Still, this may express only a temporary mood, and so might come after 36 (or
even after 58.) In the Quarto it is placed as if addressed to the patron after the
incident of the rival poet, — also a possibility.

I. Fleay: Cf. Drayton, S. 61:

Since there's no help, come, let us kiss and part! . . .
Shake hands for ever! Cancel all our vows! [etc.]

3. Charter. [Reproduced as "Cha ter" in the First Folio Edition, the "r"
being wholly or partially obscured in some copies, though plain in the Bodleian
copy from which the Clarendon Press reprint is made. For the word, cf. 58, 9.
— Ed.]

lxxxviii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 211

3-4. Lee: Cf. Barnes, P. & P., S. 15: "I shall resign thy love's large
charter and thy bonds again."

4. determinate. M ALQNE: Ended, out of date. The term is used in legal
conveyances. Schmidt: Limited. Rolfe: Cf. "determination," 13,6. [Modern
editors generally cite Malone's definition with approval, doubtless understand-
ing "bonds in thee" to mean "bonds giving me a claim upon thee." Schmidt
may have taken "in thee" as belonging with "determinate." — Ed.]

6. that ritches. Schmidt: [Often used as a singular noun.]

7-8. Cf. 49, 13-14-

8. pattent. Schmidt: Privilege.

II. upon misprision growing. Tyler: Upon its becoming clear that you had
made a mistake. Beechikg: Arising from an oversight.

13. Dowdex: Cf. R. & J., V, i, 1 : "If I may trust the flattering truth of
sleep." McClumpha: Cf. R. & J., II, ii, 141 : "A dream too flattering-sweet."

Dowdex: This sonnet in form is distinguished by double rhymes through-
out. [Except lines 2 and 4, as noted by Rolfe. Professor G. H. Palmer speaks
of "the flutterings of the heart conveyed " in these double rhymes, (p. 9.) Lee
notes similar repeated participial endings in Daniel, Sonnets after Astrophel, 24,
and Watson's Tears of Fancy, 28.]

88

When thou shalt be dispode to set me light,

And place my merrit in the eie of skorne,

Vpon thy side, against my selfe ile fight,

And proue thee virtuous, though thou art forsworne:

With mine owne weakenesse being best acquainted, 5

Vpon thy part I can set downe a story

Of faults conceald, wherein I am attainted:

That thou in loosing me, shall win much glory :

And I by this wil be a gainer too, 9

For bending all my louing thoughts on thee,

The iniuries that to my selfe I doe,

Doing thee vantage, duble vantage me.

Such is my loue, to thee I so belong,

That for thy right, my selfe will beare all wrong.

1. dispode] disposde L; dispos'd 1640, G, etc.

3. my] thy 1640, G, S, E.

8. loosing] losing G2, etc. shall] shalt S, M, etc. (except Wh2, N).

12. duble vantage] Hyphened by C, M, etc. (except Co, Hal, Wh1).

212 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [lxxxix

[Walsh puts this sonnet next to 49. See note on 49, 11-12.]

1. set me light. Dowden: Esteem me little.

2. Malone: Cf. Oth., IV, ii, 54:

The fixed figure for the time of scorn
To point his slow and moving finger at.

7. attainted. See 82, 2.

12. Tyler: Whatever satisfaction his friend may find in setting forth his
faults, this satisfaction will be doubled to himself.

Isaac [believes that this and the two following sonnets belong with 139-140,
addressed to the dark woman. Line 4, in particular, must relate to a woman
and to her of S. 152. He notes also that the thought is repeated in S. 149.
(Archiv, 62: 22-23.) See, to similar effect, Walsh's note on S. 89.]

89

Say that thou didst forsake mee for some fait,

And I will comment vpon that offence,

Speake of my lamenesse, and I straight will halt:

Against thy reasons making no defence.

Thou canst not (loue) disgrace me halfe so ill, 5

To set a forme vpon desired change,

As ile my selfe disgrace, knowing thy wil,

I will acquaintance strangle and looke strange:

Be absent from thy walkes and in my tongue, 9

Thy sweet beloued name no more shall dwell,

Least I (too much prophane) should do it wronge:

And haplie of our old acquaintance tell.

For thee, against my selfe ile vow debate,

For I must nere loue him whom thou dost hate.

7. disgrace,] disgrace; G, S, E, Cam, Do, But, Her, Ox, Be, R2; disgrace: M,
A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Wh, Hal, R1, Ty, Wy, N, Bull, Wa.
9. in] on G2, S2, E.
10. sweet beloued] Hyphened by M, A, Kt, B, Del, Dy, Sta, CI, Kly, Hu*.

2. comment. Rolfe: Expatiate. Beeching: Moralize. So of Jaques
(A. Y. L., II, i, 65), "weeping and commenting upon the sobbing dear," it
was asked, " Did he not moralize this spectacle?" [I fail to see what proof this
furnishes that the word "comment" means "moralize." — Ed.]

lxxxix] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 213

3. lamenesse. [See notes on 37, 3. In addition to the comments there cited,
one may note a defence of the literal interpretation by " Speriend" (N. & Q.,
5th s., 3: 134, 497), who states that the notion of Sh.'s lameness was given
currency by Waldron in his edition of Jonson's Sad Shepherd.] C. A. Brown:
Had he really been lame this would have lost its point, and the promise of
"making no defence" would have been ridiculous, (p. 81.) CARTWRiGHT:The
author means, Speak of my reputation as a player, and straight I will acknowl-
edge it, as just cause for your forsaking me. (p. 34.)

5-8. Isaac: [Cf. Daniel, S. 27:

I '11 tell the world that I deserv'd but ill,
And blame myself, for to excuse thy heart.]

(Jahrb., 17: 174.)

6. Dowden: Give a becoming appearance to the change which you desire.
Cf. M. N. D., I, i, 232-33:

Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity.

[So Schmidt, who renders "form" as "good semblance." Beechixg says
"pretext."]

8. acquaintance strangle. Malone: Put an end to our familiarity. Ci.T.N.,
V, i, 150: "That makes thee strangle thy propriety;" . . . A. & C, II, vi, 130:
"You shall find the band that seems to tie their friendship together will be the
very strangler of their amity." Beechixg: [The metaphor also occurs in W. T.,
IV, iv, 47; H. 8, V, i, 157; T. & C, IV, iv, 39.] looke strange. Fleay: Cf.
Drayton, S. 61 :

When we meet at any time again
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.

(Biog. Chron., 2: 230.)
8-12. Cf. 36, 9-12.

13. debate. Schmidt: Contest. [Cf. 2 H. 4, IV, iv, 2: "This debate that
bleedeth at our doors."]

Walsh: Compare this and the preceding sonnet . . . with 149, which is
admitted to be addressed to a woman.

214 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xc

90

Then hate me when thou wilt, if euer, now,

Now while the world is bent my deeds to crosse,

Ioyne with the spight of fortune, make me bow.

And doe not drop in for an after losse :

Ah doe not, when my heart hath scapte this sorrow, 5

Come in the rereward of a conquerd woe,

Giue not a windy night a rainie morrow,

To linger out a purposd ouer-throw.

If thou wilt leaue me, do not leaue me last, 9

When other pettie griefes haue done their spight,

But in the onset come, so stall I taste

At first the very worst of fortunes might.

And other straines of woe, which now seeme woe,
Compar'd with losse of thee, will not seeme so.

4. after losse] Hyphened by S1, C, M, etc. (except Co, Wh1, Hal).
6. woe] foe Palgrave conj.
11. stall] shall 1640, etc.

2-3. Beeciiing: Does this "spite of fortune" refer to the troubles of Sh.'s
company, due to the popularity of the boy actors? See Haml., II, ii, 352.
J. M.: [Line 2] we believe refers to the growing puritanism, which called for
the prohibition of stage plays. On July 28, 1597, the Privy Council issued an
order that the theatres were to be "plucked down." The "spite of fortune,"
"loss," and "sorrow," we believe refer to the death of his only son, Hamnet,
. . . August, 1596. (p. 226.) [The comma after "crosse"] should be substituted
by a semicolon as at the end of line 1. By retaining the comma ... it is made
to appear that the "bent of the world," which crossed his deeds, and the "spite
of fortune," which was a "sorrow of the heart" and a "loss," were one and the
same. . . . The expressions refer to two distinct matters, as is further proved
by the use of the plural further on in the sonnet — "petty griefs" and "strains
of woe." (p. 69.)

4. drop in. Schmidt: Come in. [The only occurrence of the phrase noted in
the N. E. D. for the Elizabethan period. — Ed.]

5. Gervinus, [like "J. M.," refers "this sorrow" to the death of the poet's
son. Isaac denies this (Archiv, 62: 25), as contradicted by the "petty griefs"
of line 10.] Butler: I incline to think that these lines refer to the subject of
Sonnets 33-34, and not to the "spite of fortune" mentioned in line 3.

xc] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 215

6. Steevexs: Cf. R. & J., Ill, ii, 121: "But with a rear-ward following
Tybalt's death, 'Romeo is banished.'"

7. Verity: Cf. Lucrece, 1788: "This windy tempest, till it blow up rain."
11-12. Vox Mauntz: Cf. Ovid, Ex Ponto, II, ii, 31-32:

Fortuna miserrima tuta est:
Nam timor eventus deterioris abest.

13. straines. Schmidt: Motions of the mind, feelings (Germ. Regung), [Cf.
Much Ado, V, i, 12:

Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine,
And let it answer every strain for strain.]

Tyler: The expression . . . may be taken as nearly equivalent to "kinds of
woe," though there is probably added the idea of extension or lengthening.
Wyxdham: Kinds, with the sense, also, of comparative degrees (O.E. streev,
i.e., stock, race). Cf. Cor., V, iii, 149: "Thou hast affected the fine strains cf
honour." . . . The poet, perhaps, plays here, as often, on the identity of this
word with the other "strain" (O. Fr. estraindre = to strain), suggesting the
"strain" imposed by woes on the sufferer. Beeching: The passage in Much
Ado . . . seems to fix the meaning of " strain " in both places as "sort," "kind,"
which connects with the root meaning of "race." woe . . . woe. G. H.
Palmer [speaks of "the calamitous crash produced by the inner rhyme" here,
(p. 9-)]

Wyxdham: The theme of [this sonnet] is a sorrow which has, I suppose, been
suffered, at one time or another, by most men: it is hackneyed as dying. Yet
the eloquence is peerless. I doubt if in all recorded speech such faultless perfec-
tion may be found, so sustained through fourteen consecutive lines. That per-
fection does not arise from any thought in the piece itself, for none is abstruse;
nor from its sentiment, which is common to all who love, and suffer or fear a
diminution in their love's return; nor even from its imagery, though the line,
"Give not a windy night a rainy morrow," holds its own against Keats's "There
is a budding morrow in midnight," which Rossetti once chose for the best in
English poetry. It arises from perfect verbal execution: from diction, rhythm,
and the just incidence of accentual stresses enforced by assonance and allit-
eration. (Intro., p. cxxxix.) Spalding: An echo of the cry that went out from
another agonised breast some 1600 years before: "That thou doest, do quickly."
(Gent. Mag., 242:315.)

216 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xci

9i
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
Some in their wealth, some in their bodies force,
Some in their garments though new-fangled ill:
Some in their Hawkes and Hounds, some in their Horse.
And euery humor hath his adiunct pleasure, 5

Wherein it findes a ioy aboue the rest,
But these perticulers are not my measure,
All these I better in one generall best.

Thy loue is bitter then high birth to me, 9

Richer then wealth, prouder then garments cost,
Of more delight then Hawkes or Horses bee:
And hauing thee, of all mens pride I boast.
Wretched in this alone, that thou maist take,
All this away, and me most wretched make.

2. bodies] body's C, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu1, Dy1, Sta, CI, Kly, Wh1,
Hal, Cam, Do, Ty, Ox, But, Wa; bodies' Gl.'Dy2, Hu2, R, Wh2, Wy, Her, Be,
N, Bull.

4. Horse] horse' Hu2.

9. bitter] better 1640, G, etc.
14. make.] make: Kly.

3. new-fangled ill. Rolfe: Fashionable but ugly.

4. Horse. Dowden: Probably the plural; . . . cf. T. of S., Ind., 61: "An-
other tell him of his hounds and horse." Wyndham: The capitals show that
all three words are generalised, and that they stand for the establishments and
pursuits of Hawking, Hunting, and the Manege.

10. Steevens: Cf. Cymb., Ill, iii, 23-24:

Richer than doing nothing for a babe,
Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk.

13-14. Walsh: Contrast this with the ending of 25.

xcn] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 217

92

Bvt doe thy worst to steale thy selfe away,

For tearme of life thou art assured mine,

And life no longer then thy loue will stay,

For it depends vpon that loue of thine.

Then need I not to feare the worst of wrongs, 5

When in the least of them my life hath end,

I see, a better state to me belongs

Then that, which on thy humor doth depend.

Thou canst not vex me with inconstant minde, 9

Since that my life on thy reuolt doth lie,

Oh what a happy title do I finde,

Happy to haue thy loue, happy to die!

But whats so blessed faire that feares no blot,
Thou maist be falce, and yet I know it not.

3. thy] my 1640, G, S, E.

6. least] last But.

8. thy] my 1640, G, S, E.

13. blessed faire] Hyphened by M, etc. (except Co1'2, Wh1, Hal), blot,]
blot? G, etc.

14. not] not: M, A, Kt, B, Del, Dy, Sta, CI, Kly, Hu2, Ty.

6. least. Butler [defends his emendation by saying:] Surely Sh. cannot
consider Mr. W. H.'s leaving him as "the least" of wrongs. It would be the
culminating, and hence the last misfortune. Tyler: The pain caused by the
loss of the friend's affection is the "least of wrongs " on account of its immediate
termination. . . . The "worst of wrongs" [is] the continued misery of living
alienated.

10. on thy revolt doth lie. Dowden: Is dependent on your desertion. [Cf.
Macb., V, iv, 12:

Both more and less have given him the revolt,
And none serve with him but constrained things
Whose hearts are absent too.

With this phrasing cf. also S. 93, 4.]

218 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xcm

93

So shall I Hue, supposing thou art true,
Like a deceiued husband, so loues face,
May still seeme loue to me, though alter'd new:
Thy lookes with me, thy heart in other place.
For their can Hue no hatred in thine eye, 5

Therefore in that I cannot know thy change,
In manies lookes, the falce hearts history
Is writ in moods and frounes and wrinckles strange.
But heauen in thy creation did decree, 9

That in thy face sweet loue should euer dwell,
What ere thy thoughts, or thy hearts workings be,
Thy lookes should nothing thence, but sweetnesse tell.
How like Eaues apple doth thy beauty grow,
If thy sweet vertue answere not thy show.

3. alter'd new] Hyphened by Del, Sta, Kly.
5. their] there G, etc.

11. What ere] What are L; Whale1 er G, etc.

12. should] shall G, S, E.
14. answere] answers E.

[The opening of this sonnet presents an interesting example of the problem of
continuity. Dowden observes, not without plausibility, that it "carries on the
thought of the last line of 92." Walsh, on the other hand, places it after 140,
and it will be noted how apposite seems the opening line in such a connec-
tion.— Ed.]

2. M alone: Mr. Oldys observes in one of his manuscripts, that this and the
preceding sonnet "seem to have been addressed by Sh. to his beautiful wife on
some suspicion of her infidelity." He must have read our author's poems with
but little attention; otherwise he would have seen that these, as well as the
preceding sonnets, and many of those that follow, are not addressed to a female.

4. Walsh: [This line] clearly connects the sonnet with 139, 6 and 140, 14.

5. thine eye. Cf. 104, 2, etc., and Tyler's note on 1,5.

7. manies. Abbott [believes this form may be explained by the old noun
"many." Cf. 2 II. 4, I, iii, 91: "O thou fond many." (§ 87.)]

13. Eaves apple. Stopes: Which seemed "good for food, and a thing to be
desired to make men wise," but in reality bringing death.

xciv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 219

?4
They that haue powre to hurt, and will doe none,
That doe not do the thing, they most do showe,
Who mouing others, are themselues as stone,
Vnmooued, could, and to temptation slow:
They rightly do inherrit heauens graces, 5

And husband natures ritches from expence,
They are the Lords and owners of their faces,
Others, but stewards of their excellence :
The sommers flowre is to the sommer sweet, 9

Though to it selfe, it onely Hue and die,
But if that flowre with base infection meete,
The basest weed out-braues his dignity:

For sweetest things turne sowrest by their deedes,
Lillies that fester, smell far worse then weeds.

2. most] must G, S, E.

11. base] foul Sta con j.

12. basest] barest Walker conj.

Dowdex [thus outlines the thought of this difficult sonnet:] They who can
hold their passions in check, who can refuse to wrath its outbreak, who can
seem loving yet keep a cool heart, who move passion in others, yet are cold and
unmoved themselves — they rightly inherit from heaven large gifts, for they
husband them; whereas passionate intemperate natures squander their endow-
ments. Those who can assume this or that semblance as they see reason are
the masters and owners of their faces; others have no property in such excel-
lences as they possess, but hold them for the advantage of the prudent self-
contained persons. True, these self-contained persons may seem to lack gener-
osity; but then, without making voluntary gifts, they give inevitably, even as
the summer's flower is sweet to the summer, though it live and die only to
itself. Yet let such an one beware of corruption. Wyxdham: This sonnet is
a limb of the continuous argument embodied in [the group 87-96], and, so
read, is not obscure. The friend, as described in the preceding number, has a
face of which the beauty is a constant expression of love. . . . But this beauty
becomes the type of temptation if it be not a true index of virtue. [In this son-
net] the poet develops the ambiguity of the theme. He first puts the case of
those who, with an outward beauty that is the engine of temptation, are them-
selves cold and not easily tempted. They are the owners and controllers of

220 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xciv

their beauty; but, putting the alternative case, those whose beauty not only
tempts but also leads them into temptation, are but dispensers of it. As an
emblem of the first the poet takes a flower which is sweet to the world around
it, although it blossoms and dies to itself, self-contained and unregarding: as an
emblem of the second, such a flower if it»be infected with a canker. Tyler:
Cf. Haml., Ill, ii, 70-76: I

Thou hast been
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards
Hath ta'en with equal thanks; and blest are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled
That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please.

Sh., himself perhaps very sensitive and quickly moved, may have appreciated
too highly a different kind of character. As to the corruption of such a charac-
ter as that here described, cf. the portraiture of Angelo in M. for M. Stopes:
Sh. hastens to disclaim any implied blame [in the preceding sonnet], through
the disassociation of character from appearance. It is rather a virtue to be
able to control expression. But such people must not do the evil they may.

[This and the two following sonnets will remind many readers of 69, which
Walsh places immediately after them. — Ed.]

5-8. Beeching: It is right that self-possessed people should be intrusted
with beauty, because they do not squander it in passion. . . . Beautiful persons
who are not self-possessed are declared to have no ownership in their beauty,
because it is always being spent by them at the command of Love, Anger,
Remorse, and other passions.

6. expence. Cf. 30, 8 and 129, 1.

10. to it selfe. Tyler: Cf. 54, 11.

14. Steevens: This line is likewise found in the anonymous play of Edward

III (1596). [The following is the context, II, i, 441-53, Brooke's Sh. Apocrypha,

p. 79:

That sinne doth ten times agrevate it selfe,

That is committed in a holie place:

An evill deed, done by authoritie,

Is sin and subornation: Decke an Ape

In tissue, and the beautie of the robe

Adds but the greater scorne unto the beast.

A spatious field of reasons could I urge

Betweene his glorie, daughter, and thy shame:

That poyson shewes worst in a golden cup;

Darke night seemes darker by the lightning flash;

Lillies that fester smel far worse then weeds;

And every glory that inclynes to sin,

The shame is treble by the opposite.]

xciv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 221

Dowden: It should be remembered that several critics assign to Sh. a portion
of this play [including the passage in question]. C. F. Tucker Brooke: The
trend of modern opinion inclines strongly to the negative side. The long list of
those who deny the presence in the play of more than, conceivably, a few brief
insertions by Sh., includes: Mr. Swinburne, Dr. Furnivall, Saintsbury> Knight,
Symonds, G. C. Moore Smith, Ulrici, Delius, Warnke and Proescholdt, H. von
Friesen, and Liebau. (Sh. Apocrypha, p. xxi.) [Critics disagree as to the sig-
nificance of this repetition, but the majority think that the prior composition
of the line in the sonnet is to be inferred from the fact that here it appears to be
an integral part of the poem, whereas in the drama it is superfluous if not
irrelevant. This position has been taken by Delius (Jahrb., 1: 48), Isaac
(Jahrb., 19: 210), Sarrazin, (Sh.'s Lehrjahre, p. 167), and A. Platt (Mod. Lang.
Rev., 6: 511), with the corollary that the sonnet was written as early as 1595.
So also Lee: "A line [from Edw. Ill] reappears in Sh.'s Sonnets. It was con-
trary to his practice to literally plagiarise himself. The line in the play was
doubtless borrowed from a MS. copy of the Sonnets." (Life, p. 72.) Dowden,
on the other hand (Intro., p. 23) thinks it "the more likely supposition" that
the sonnet borrowed from the play. Beechixg thinks the point incapable of
proof: ''A line that embalms a proverb may be expected to occur in more than
one context, and no safe conclusion can be drawn as to the priority of one over
another. . . . But it needs no argument that the style of the speech in Ed'u.\ III,
if it be Sh.'s, is much earlier than that of this sonnet." Mrs. Stopes believes
that the line was first written, for the sonnet, in answer to a passage in Willo-
bies Avisa, c. 10:

Unhappie lillie loves a weed

That gives no sent, that yields no glee;

and was "repeated" in the play. My friend Professor H. D. Gray adds a note
which at least represents a fresh point of approach: "Has it been noted that
the line would be more likely to come back into Sh.'s memory, and be used by
him in this sonnet, from his having acted in the play, than from his having
written the line? Especially is this true if the line were one that he himself had
spoken from the stage. It occurs in II, i, and is spoken by Warwick. If it were
indeed true that Sh. played Adam in A. Y. L., and the Ghost in Hamlet,
Warwick would be an entirely appropriate part for him. Edw. Ill was pro-
duced by 1595 and probably before; Sonnets 94-96 are to be placed rather
among the later than the earlier ones. There is therefore no likelihood that the
play could be indebted to the sonnet." With all this one must compare the
similar discussion of a phrase in 142, 6. The only conclusion would seem to be
that here, as in every other passage where there is a momentary gleam of hope
that the Sonnets furnish a definite piece of internal evidence for the date
or circumstances of their composition, the gleam soon vanishes over the mar-
gin. — Ed.]

Regis [finds in this concluding couplet a resemblance to a passage in Plato,
Republic, Bk. 6: "Whatever doth not meet with the proper nourishment, . . .

222 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xcv

the more vigorous it is by nature, the more it is defective in the excellencies of
its kind"; and also to Dante, Purg., 30: 118-20:

Ma tanto piu maligno e piu silvestro
Si fa il terren col mal seme e non colto,
Quant' egli ha piu del buon vigor terrestro.]

Walsh [remarks that it is] a variation of the old proverb "Corruptio optimi
pessima." Dowden [compares with the whole sonnet a passage in T.N., III,
iv, 401-04:]

In nature there's no blemish but the mind;

None can be call'd deform'd but the unkind:

Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evil

Are empty trunks o'erflourish'd by the devil.

95
How sweet and louely dost thou make the shame,
Which like a canker in the fragrant Rose,
Doth spot the beautie of thy budding name?
Oh in what sweets doest thou thy sinnes inclose!
That tongue that tells the story of thy daies, 5

(Making lasciuious comments on thy sport)
Cannot dispraise, but in a kinde of praise,
Naming thy name, blesses an ill report.
Oh what a mansion haue those vices got, 9

Which for their habitation chose out thee,
Where beauties vaile doth couer euery blot,
And all things turnes to faire, that eies can see!
Take heed (deare heart) of this large priuiledge,
The hardest knife ill vs'd doth loose his edge.

7. dispraise, . . . praise,] dispraise; . . . praise, S1; dispraise, . . . praise; G,
S2; dispraise . . . praise; M, etc. (except Hu1, Wa); dispraise . . . praise: Hu1,
Wa.
9. vices] voices E.

10. chose] choose 1640, G\ S1, E; chuse G2, S2.
12. turnes] turn G2, etc. (except Ty, Be, N).
14. loose] lose G, etc.

Tyler: The scandal . . . which the poet had previously mentioned and
treated as slander, seems (if it be the same) now to have become too obviously
true to admit of being rebutted or extenuated.

xcvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 223

6. sport. Schmidt: Pleasure. Rolfe: Sensuality. [Cf. Oth., II, i, 229:
"When the blood is made dull with the act of sport."]
8. Steevens: Cf. A. & C, II, ii, 243-45:

Vilest things
Become themselves in her; that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish.

9-12. Massey: Cf. R. & J., Ill, ii, 83-85:

Was ever book containing such vile matter

So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell

In such a gorgeous palace! (p. 177.)

12. Rolfe: Cf. 40, 13. turnes. [Tyler explicitly, and presumably Beech-
ing and Neilson, believe that this may be taken transitively, with "vaile" as
subject.]

Isaac: [This and the following sonnet are addressed to the dark lady. . . .
Lines 9-12 make the reference to her clear; and lines 4, 7, 8 of S. 96 might well
stand in S. 150. Compare the note on S. 70. (Archiv, 62: 14, 18.)]

96

Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonesse,
Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport,
Both grace and faults are lou'd of more and lesse:
Thou makst faults graces, that to thee resort:
As on the finger of a throned Queene, 5

The basest Iewell wil be well esteem'd :
So are those errors that in thee are seene,
To truths translated, and for true things deem'd.
How many Lambs might the sterne Wolfe betray, 9

If like a Lambe he could his lookes translate.
How many gazers mighst thou lead away,
If thou wouldst vse the strength of all thy state?
But doe not so, I loue thee in such sort,
As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.

11. mighst] mightst L, C, M, etc.

This sonnet was omitted from the Poems of 1640 and editions based thereon.

2. sport. Cf. 95, 6.

3. Beechixg: [This sonnet] emphasizes the conclusion drawn from 36 that

224 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xcvi

the friend was a well-known personage. He is some one whom "more and less"
(i.e., high and low) discuss. (Intro., p. xxx.) more and lesse. Malone: Cf. I H.
4, IV, iii, 68: "The more and less came in with cap and knee."

4. Cf. 95, 4; 150, 5.

7-8. errors ... to truths translated. Tyler: Vices changed to virtues. [For
"truths," cf. note on 54, 2. For "translated," Dowden compares Haml., Ill,
i, 113: " The force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness."]

9. Lambs . . . Wolfe. Wyndham: [Capitalized because] they are types
used as in a fable.

9-10. Dowden: The same thought expressed in different imagery appears
in 93.

11-12. Isaac: [Cf. Daniel, S. 17:]

If her defects have purchas'd her this fame,
What should her virtues do, her smiles, her love?
If this her worst, how should her best inflame?

{Jahrb., 17: 174.)
[Cf. 70, 13-14. — Ed.]

12. the strength of all thy state. Schmidt: All thy strength. Dowden: The
strength of all thy majesty, splendour. Tyler: All the power of thy noble
beauty. Lee: The full extent of thy strength. [Cf. notes on 64, 9-10.]

13-14. Malone: This is likewise the concluding couplet of S. 36. Delius:
It is evident that the couplet is more in place in S. 36, and probably was bor-
rowed from there for S. 96. (Jahrb., 1: 48.) [According to Massey's arrange-
ment, the repetition of the lines is due to the fact that they are now represented
as being spoken by the person to whom they were previously addressed, and by
such repetition doubled in pathos, (p. 98.)] Dowden: [It is possible] that the
MS. in Thorpe's hands may here have been imperfect, and that he filled it up
so far as to complete 96 with a couplet from an earlier sonnet. (Intro., p. 32m)
Rolfe: [If Dowden's conjecture is accepted, it is another evidence that Sh.
had no connection with the publication of the Q. (Intro., rev. ed., p. 13.)]
Walsh: [This couplet,] being the same words as the couplet ending 36 (ad-
mittedly addressed to the friend), is more likely to have been addressed to a
different person, who would not perceive the repetition.

Rolfe: I doubt whether [Sonnets 96-99] have anything to do with "Mr.
W. H.," or are addressed to a man.

Massey [doubts the Shakespearean authorship of this sonnet, together with
that of 130, 145, 151, and 153, "chiefly on the score of bad workmanship,"
attributing them to Pembroke. (Ath., Mar. 16, 1867, p. 356.)]

[The character sketched in this and the preceding sonnet may well be com-
pared with that of the Don Juan type of hero in the Lover's Complaint. — Ed.]

xcvii] THE SOXXETS OF SHAKESPEARE 225

97

How like a Winter hath my absence beene
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting yeare?
What freezings haue I felt, what darke daies seene?
What old Decembers barenesse euery where?
And yet this time remou'd was sommers time, 5

The teeming Autumne big with ritch increase,
Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime,
Like widdowed wombes after their Lords decease:
Yet this aboundant issue seem'd to me, 9

But hope of Orphans, and vn-fathered fruite,
For Sommer and his pleasures waite on thee,
And thou away, the very birds are mute.
Or if they sing, tis with so dull a cheere,
That leaues looke pale, dreading the Winters neere.

4. barenesse] barenness G1; barrenness G2, S2, E.

6. The] And C; Then Isaac conj.

7. burthen] burden G2, S2, E, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Kly.
Hal, Ty, Ox, N, Bull, Wa.

8. Lords] lord's 1640, G, S, E, Kly, Hal, Ty, \Vy; lords' C, M, A, Kt, Co, B,
Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, Cam, Do, R, Ox, But, etc.

10. hope] crop Sta conj., But.
14. Winters] "winter's G2, S2, etc.

Dowdex: A new group of sonnets seems to begin here. Wyndham: The
break between this and the preceding sonnet seems the most marked in the
First Series.

5. this time remov'd. M alone: This time in which I was remote or absent
from thee. Schmidt: Time of absence. [Cf. "the absent time." R. 2, II, iii, 79.]

6. Malone: Cf. M. N. D., II, i, 112: "The childing autumn." [Any who
wish may find in Massey, p. 180, the explanation that this is "subtly allusive"
to the fact that Elizabeth Vernon was about to give birth to a child.]

7. prime. Malone: Spring. [Cf. 70, 8. — Ed.]

10. hope of Orphans. Dowdex: Such hope as orphans bring: or, expecta-
tion of the birth of children whose father is dead. Isaac: ["Unfather'd fruit"
shows that the phrase is objective genitive. (Archiv, 62: 4.)] Tyler: Hope
of leaving posthumous offspring. Beeching: Unborn orphans: cf. 60, 13;
"times in hope" = unborn times.

226 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xcvil

13. cheere. Schmidt: (High) spirits. Rolfe: Countenance; its original
sense. [But is it not going too far to detect low spirits in the faces of the
birds ? — Ed.]

[Isaac (Archiv, 62: 1) takes the view, already noted from Rolfe, that this
and the two following sonnets were not addressed to a man. So Massey:] Not
only is the whole of their lovely imagery sacred to the sex, as I call it; not only
is it so used by Sh. all through his work; not only did Spenser address his lady-
love in exactly the same strain, in his Sonnets 35 and 64; . . . but the images
had been previously applied seriatim by Constable in his Diana [see notes on
S. 99]. (p. 27.)

Isaac: [This sonnet might be called] the classical acme of the Renaissance
lyric as it grew up in Italy. (Archiv, 62 : 2.) Price [notes that here, as in some
other sonnets, there is an exact balance between the masculine and feminine
form of cesura, each occurring seven times. "The reader is conscious of the
exquisite harmony that results." (p. 373.) See also his note on S. 33.] G. H.
Palmer [speaks of the "poignant matter " of this sonnet as "driven home by
the vowel e." (p. 9.)]

Hudson [believes that this and the two following sonnets, as well as 109-117
and the "Will" sonnets, were addressed to Anne Hathaway. (Life, Art, &
Characters of Sh., 1 : 24-5.)]

xcviii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 227

98

From you haue I beene absent in the spring,
When proud pide Aprill (drest in all his- trim)
Hath put a spirit of youth in euery thing:
That heauie Saturne laught and leapt with him.
Yet nor the laies of birds, nor the sweet smell 5

Of different flowers in odor and in hew,
Could make me any summers story tell :
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew:
Nor did I wonder at the Lillies white, 9

Nor praise the deepe vermillion in the Rose,
They weare but sweet, but figures of delight:
Drawne after you, you patterne of all those.
Yet seem'd it Winter still, and you away,
As with your shaddow I with these did play.

1 . haue I] I have G*.

2. proud pide] proud-py'd E; proud-pied M, etc.

3. Hath] Had But.

5. Yet nor] Yet not G, S, E.

9. Lillies] lilly's C; lily's Co, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, Gl, Kly, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do,
R, Ox, etc.
n. weare] were 1640, G etc. but sweet, but] my sweet, but M conj.; but fleeting
Lettsom conj., Hu2; but, sweet, but But; but suite, but Bulloch conj.

14. play.] play: M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Wh, Hal,
Ty, Her, Be.

Lee: Almost all 16th century sonnets on spring in the absence of the poet's
love are variations on the sentiment and phraseology of Petrarch's well-known
S. 42, "In mortedi M. Laura," beginning, "Zefiro torna e'l tel tempo rimena,"
[etc.] See a translation by Drummond of Hawthornden in Sonnets, pt. 2, No. 9
["Sweet Spring, thou turn'st with all thy goodly train"]. Similar sonnets and
odes on April, spring, and summer abound in French and English (cf. Becq de
Fouquiere's CEuvres Choisies de J.- A. de Baif, passim, and CEuvres ckoisies des
contemporains de Ronsard,) p. 108 (by Remy Belleau) ; p. 129 (byAmadisJamyn)
et passim. {Life, p. 1 1 1.) [This conventionality of theme had been earlier noted
by Isaac (Archiv, 62: 5-8), who, in addition to the analogues noted by Lee,
gives examples from Dante, Surrey ("The soote season, that bud and bloom
forth brings"), and Sidney ("In wonted walks").]

228 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xcvm

1-4. WYNDHAM: The assonance between the two rhyme-sounds, usually a
blemish, is here an effect of art. The quick treble repetition of short i-sounds
seems to have suggested Spring to the Elizabethans. Cf. A. Y. L., V, iii, 20:

In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring;

and Nash, Summer's Last Will:

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year's pleasant king;
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing.

2. Malone: Cf. R. & J., I, ii, 27: "When well-apparell'd April on the heel
of limping winter treads." Rolfe: Sh. refers to April oftener than to any
other month. . . . Cf. 3, 10; 21, 7; 104, 7. May, however, is a "close second."

4. heavie Saturne. Wyndham [quotes Lilly's Introduction to Astrology, 1647:]
The planet Saturn "is melancholy . . . author of solitariness ... in labour
patient, in arguing or disputing grave ... in all manner of actions austere."
[He is also disposed to view the passage as significant for the date of the sonnet,
saying: Sh.] would not, I am convinced, have [introduced Saturn into a descrip-
tion of a particular month of April], had not Saturn been a visible feature in
the sky during the month of April to which he refers. . . . Saturn was in opposi-
tion, and therefore a somewhat conspicuous feature in the sky, during the
month of April in the years 1600, 1601. ... If, as I hold, Sh. wrote S. 98 with
the real Saturn in his mind, then he cannot have written it before 1600 and may,
with greater probability, have written it in 1601 or 1602, when Saturn was more
conspicuous and gradually presenting a larger disc. (p. 245.) [I have given due
space to this interesting argument, but have no notion that it is to be taken
seriously. The "Saturn" of the sonnet is not the planet but the god, conceived
of as in Cymb., II, v, 12: "The sweet view on't might well have warm'd old
Saturn." — Ed.]

7. summers story. Malone: By a "summer's story" Sh. seems to have
meant some gay fiction. Thus, his comedy founded on the adventures of the
king and queen of the fairies he calls A Midsummer Night's Dream. On the
other hand, in W.T. (II, i, 25) he tells us, "A sad tale's best for winter." So
also in Cymb. (Ill, iv, 12):

If 't be summer news
Smile to 't before; if winterly, thou need'st
But keep that countenance still.

9-10. Lee: Cf. Barnfield, Affectionate Shepherd, I, iii: .

His ivory-white and alabaster skin

Is stain'd throughout with rare vermilion red. . . .

But as the lily and the blushing rose,

So white and red on him in order grows.

xcvin] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 229

11. but sweet. M alone [defending his suggested emendation]: What more
could be expected from flowers than that they should be sweet? To gratify the
smell is their highest praise. I suspect the compositor caught the word "but"
from a subsequent part of the line. Steevens: The old reading is surely the
true one. The poet refuses to enlarge on the beauty of the flowers, declaring
that they are only sweet, only delightful, so far as they resemble his friend.
Beeching: To [Malone] it is sufficient to reply that "they were but sweet"
is a reference back to line 5; and in the following sonnet . . . both sweetness
and beauty are dwelt upon. [See 99, 15. — Ed.]

11-12. Simpson [refers this idea to Plato's doctrine that] the affection can
be transferred by association from its primitive object to new ones, and yet
the primitive object will still remain the real one. . . . The affection for the new
objects, he says, is only the affection for the old one under other denominations
and disguises. [See his note on S. 31 ; and, for both these lines and the "shadow"
of line 14, Wyndham's note on 37, 10.]

14. Massey [had the extraordinary belief that this line refers to the spring
as the shadow or symbol of Lady Vernon, — with a play on her name. (p. 180.)]

Minto [finds a striking resemblance between this sonnet and one called
"Phaeton to his friend Florio," prefixed to Florio's Second Frutes (1591):

Sweet friend whose name agrees with thy increase,

How fit arrival art thou of the Spring!

For when each branch hath left his flourishing,

And green-lock'd Summer's shady pleasures cease,

She makes the Winter's storms repose in peace,

And spends her franchise on each living thing:

The daisies sprout, the little birds do sing,

Herbs, gums, and plants do vaunt of their release; (etc.)

leading him to believe Sh. the author of the latter. ( Char, of Eng. Poetry, pp.
371-382.) No one else seems to have been impressed by the comparison.]

230 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xcix

99

The forward violet thus did I chide,

Sweet theefe whence didst thou steale thy sweet that smels

If not from my loues breath, the purple pride,

Which on thy soft cheeke for complexion dwells?

In my loues veines thou hast too grosely died; 5

The Lillie I condemned for thy hand,

And buds of marierom had stolne thy haire,

The Roses fearefully on thornes did stand,

Our blushing shame, an other white dispaire: 9

A third nor red, nor white, had stolne of both,

And to his robbry had annext thy breath,

But for his theft in pride of all his growth

A vengfull canker eate him vp to death.
More flowers I noted, yet I none could see,
But sweet, or culler it had stolne from thee.

I . forward] f toward Sharp.

2-5. Sweet . . . died] Quoted by Hu1, Kly, Be.

3. breath] breast Godwin conj.

3-4. breath, . . . dwells?] breath? . . . dwells G, Dy, Gl, Cam, Do, Hu2, R,
Wh2, Ox, etc.; breath? . . . dwells, S, E, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Hu1, Del, Sta, CI, Kly,
Wh1, Hal, Ty.

7. marierom] marjerom 1640, G1, C; marjoram G2, S, E, M, etc.

9. Our] One S, etc.
13. eate] ate But.
15. sweet] scent Walker conj.

Massey [was perhaps the first of many commentators to compare this sonnet
with Constable's Diana, 1st Decade, S. 9:]

My lady's presence makes the roses red,
Because to see her lips they blush for shame.
The lily's leaves, for envy, pale became;
And her white hands in them this envy bred.
The marigold the leaves abroad doth spread;
Because the sun's and her power is the same.
The violet of purple colour came,
Dyed in the blood she made my heart to shed.

xcix] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 231

In brief, all flowers from her their virtue take;
From her sweet breath their sweet smells do proceed;
The living heat which her eyebeams doth make
Warmeth the ground, and quickeneth the seed.
The rain, wherewith she watereth the flowers,
Falls from mine eyes, which she dissolves in showers.

Dowden [compares also Spenser, Amoretti, S. 64 (quoted under S. 21).] [Cf.
also Daniel, Delia, S. 19, "Restore thy tresses to the golden ore, "etc. (quoted
above under S. 21.) — Ed.] Wyndham: These flower-sonnets are in a mode
imitated from Petrarch, which overran Europe in the 16th century. The
Pleiade worked it vigorously and then attacked it, as Sh. attacks it in 21, and
again in 130. Lee: Ronsard {Amours, i, 140) tells how from the flowers "du
beau jardin de son printemps riant " (i.e., from his mistress) come all the sweet
perfumes of the East.

1. forward. Schmidt: Early ripe. Beeching: Spring. A constant, not a
particular, epithet of the violet. Cf. Haml., I, iii, 8:

A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting.

6. for thy hand. M alone: For presuming to emulate the whiteness of thy
hand. Dowden: For theft of the whiteness of thy hand. Beeching: In com-
parison with. [Dowden's interpretation, which is followed by Tyler and Rolfe,
is undoubtedly right. — Ed.]

7. marierom. M asset: The buds of marjoram are of a darkish red-brown
hue, and have a peculiar hair-like lustre or glossiness, (p. 180.) Dowden: Cf.
Suckling's Brennoralt, IV, i:

Hair curling, and cover'd like buds of marjoram;
Part tied in negligence, part loosely flowing.

Mr. H. C. Hart tells me that buds of marjoram are dark purple-red before they
open, and afterwards pink; dark auburn, I suppose, would be the nearest
approach to marjoram in the colour of hair. Mr. Hart suggests that the mar-
joram has stolen not colour but perfume from the young man's hair. Gervase
Markham gives sweet marjoram as an ingredient in "The water of sweet
smells," and Culpepper says "marjoram is much used in all odoriferous waters."
Wyndham: The clean, aromatic scent of this sweet herb counted, no doubt,
for something in suggesting the simile, but the quotation from Suckling gives
the more direct clue. The illustration is, primarily, from the fresh, close-leaved
spike of marjoram with the crisp bunch of little buds at its summit. Cf.
T. N. K.:

His head 's yellow,
Hard hayr'd, and curl'd, thick twind, like ivy-tops.

Beeching: The passage from Suckling is, of course, only a reminiscence of
this line in the sonnet, and does not take us any further. I have a bunch of

232 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [xcix

half-opened marjoram before me as I write; and the colour is that of the pig-
ment known as "brown madder." The context shows that it is the "colour,"
and not, as some have thought, the "shape," that is referred to. Mrs. Stopes
[(Ath., March 19, 1898, p. 375) describes a portrait of Southampton at Welbeck
Abbey, in which the Earl is represented as wearing] his hair not after the
fashion of his time, but hanging over his left shoulder in long locks, the ends
curling like "buds of marjoram." [This is reproduced in Lee's Life, facing
p. 144. The question whether the passage is an allusion to color or odor is dis-
cussed by W. B. Brown and others, N.& Q., uths., pp. 169, 213, 237. C. C. B.
observes (p. 237):] Sh.'s marjoram is usually sweet marjoram, otherwise mar-
joram gentle, the flowers of which are white, and probably it is of this variety
that he speaks here, the flowers of this and the preceding sonnet being mostly
garden flowers. ... Is it possible that Sh. is reminded of some pomade used by
his friend? ... In an old book of receipts for cosmetics, etc. (The Toilet of
Flora, 1779), I find two washes for the hair into which marjoram enters.

8. on thornes. Rolfe: A quibbling allusion to the proverbial expression,
"to stand on thorns." Cf. W.T., IV, iv, 595: "O the thorns we stand upon!"

9. Verity: Cf. Lucrece, 479: "And the red rose blush at her own disgrace."
12. Malone: Cf. R. & J., II, iii, 30: "Full soon the canker death eats up

that plant"; and V. & A., 656: " This canker that eats up love's tender spring."

[With reference to this sonnet's having 15 lines, Butler observes that the
interrogation mark at the end of line 4 in the Q] is what Sh. doubtless wrote in
the first instance — intending the quatrain to end with a question. He prob-
ably canceled the query — or forgot to cancel it — and added the fifth line,
because until he did so the query remained unanswered, unless by bringing the
answer to the preceding query over. Beeching: It may be conjectured that
we have here only a rough draft of the sonnet. The correspondence of line 1 to
line 6 shows that the first line was not an afterthought; and the repetition of
the reference to "breath" in line 11 suggests that Sh. used a quatrain already
written (lines 2-5) for his passage about the violet, intending afterwards to
reduce it to three lines by limiting the parallel to "complexion." Lee: Many
sonnets of 15 lines appear in Barnes's Parthenophil, e.g., 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, etc.
[In all these cases the extra line introduces the final couplet, and rhymes with
the 12th. — Ed.]

Brandl [considers that this sonnet is almost certainly addressed to a woman,
(p. xix.) So Rolfe:] Even in Elizabethan times, when extravagant eulogies
of manly beauty were so common, do we find the poet dwelling upon his "love's
breath" or the "lily" whiteness of his hand? From first to last, the sweetness
and loveliness described in the verses are unmistakably feminine. (Intro., rev.
ed., p. 24.)

G. Wilson, [in his Five Gateways of Knowledge, refers to this as a poem
which] beautifully weaves together the eye, the nostril, and the ear, each as it
were like instruments in an orchestra, in turn playing the air, and then falling
back into an accompaniment, so that now it is colour which is most prominent

c] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 233

before us, and then smell, and then sound, and thereafter through colour we
return to sound and fragrance again, (p. 78.)

[A repulsive and impossible interpretation of the sonnet was proposed by
Creighton (together with 115 and 124) in Blackwood's, 169: 837-43.]

IOO

Where art thou Muse that thou forgetst so long,
To speake of that which giues thee all thy might?
Spendst thou thy furie on some worthlesse songe,
Darkning thy powre to lend base subiects light.
Returne forgetfull Muse, and straight redeeme, 5

In gentle numbers time so idely spent,
Sing to the eare that doth thy laies esteeme,
And giues thy pen both skill and argument.
Rise resty Muse, my loues sweet face suruay, 9

If time haue any wrincle grauen there,
If any, be a Satire to decay,
And make times spoiles dispised euery where.
Giue my loue fame faster then time wasts life,
So thou preuenst his sieth, and crooked knife.

4. light] light? G, etc. (except But); light! But.

8. giues] give 1640, G, S, E.

9. resty] restive M, A, B, Kly, Ty; rested But conj.
10. haue] hath G, S, E.

14. preuenst] prevent'st G, etc.

Dowdex: Written after a cessation from sonnet-writing, during which Sh.
had been engaged in authorship, — writing plays for the public as I suppose,
instead of poems for his friend. Wyxdham: [The group 100-125] opens after a
great silence, . . . and the poet develops in it a single sustained attack on the
Law of Change. ... In its survey it goes over the old themes with a soft and
silvery touch: Beauty and Decay, Love, Constancy, the immortalizing of the
friend's beauty conceived as an incarnation of Ideal Beauty. (Intro., pp. cxiii-
cxiv.) Butler: [The sonnet appears to have been written] after a considerable
interval during which Sh. has found other things to write about, but has not
yet (so it would seem) become a playwright. [With the theme of silence, and
the excuse given in the following sonnet, cf. 83-85. — Ed.]

1. so long. Beechixg: Three years; see 104, 3.

2. Tyler: Cf. 78, 13.

254 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [c

3. furie. Schmidt: Exaltation of fancy. [Cf. L. L. L., IV, iii, 229: "What
zeal, what fury hath inspir'd thee now?"] Beeching: A word borrowed from
the classics, and used as by them of prophetic inspiration, worthlesse songe.
Porter: The sonnet sequence (86-96) preceding suits the description of it as
"darkning" power and lending light to "base subjects," i.e., falsity and dis-
trust in love.

8. Lee: Cf. Ronsard, Amours, ii, 12: "Ma plume sinon vous ne scait autre
sujet," etc. [For "argument," cf. note on 38, 3.]

9. resty. Schmidt: Stiff with too much rest, torpid. [Cf. Edw. Ill, III, iii,
161:

And presently they are as resty-stiff
As 't were a many over-ridden jades.]

Dyce [cites Coles's Latin Dictionary (1677), as giving "resty" = "piger,
lentus."] Tyler [defends the emendation "restive,"] as equivalent to "un-
easy," "in aimless motion," "wandering." Cf. "truant Muse," 101, 1. Sh.'s
Muse had not been at rest (lines 3-4). [Tyler also discusses the subject in N. &
Q., 8th s.,2: 283; and C. C. B. (ibid., 4: 444) cites two instances of the word from
Pappe with an Hatchet, meaning "uneasy, liable to bolt."] Wyndham: A term
of manege applied to a horse exhibiting the vice now called "jibbing." [From
a review in the Spectator, Aug. 15, 1 891, p. 231, he cites an account of a "correc-
tion to be used against restiveness," which appeared in a book by Flatman,
1597. It concludes: "The shrill crie of a hedgehog being strait tied by the foot
under the horse's tail is a reminder of like force, which was proved by maister
Vincentio Respino, a Neapolitan, who corrected by this means an old restive
horse of the King's in such sort, as he had much ado afterwards to keep him
from the contrarie vice of running away." The N. E. D. cites, under "resty,"
Cooper's Thesaurus, 1565: " Restie and slow from lack of use."]

10-11. Butler: These lines suggest that Mr. W. H.'s good looks were
beginning to go off, though not so strongly as the opening lines of S. 104, nor
the concluding ones of 108.

11. Satire. Walker: Satirist. [Cf. Jonson, Poetaster, V, i: "The honest
satyr hath the happiest soul"; and other contemporary examples. Schmidt,
on the other hand, lists the word under the impersonal noun.]

12. times spoiles. [Sonnets 63-64 are the best comment on this phrase. —
Ed.]

14. prevenst. Steevens: By anticipation hinderest.

Sharp: This sonnet may . . . afford a clue towards dating this section of
the sequence, for it may contain a reference to the Dark Woman series: here
Sh. may have noted his turning away from the deceitful love of an evil woman.
..." Instead of wasting thy poetic enthusiasm ... in casting a glamour over
base subjects," etc. [" Casting a glamour " is an odd phrase for the sonnets that
depict the Dark Woman! — Ed.]

ci] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 235

101

Oh truant Muse what shalbe thy amends,

For thy neglect of truth in beauty di'd?

Both truth and beauty on my loue depends:

So dost thou too, and therein dignifi'd:

Make answere Muse, wilt thou not haply saie, 5

Truth needs no collour with his collour fixt,

Beautie no pensell, beauties truth to lay:

But best is best, if neuer intermixt.

Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb? 9

Excuse not silence so, for't lies in thee,

To make him much out-liue a gilded tombe:

And to be praisd of ages yet to be.

Then do thy office Muse, I teach thee how,

To make him seeme long hence, as he showes now.

3. Both] But 1640, G, S, E.
6. fixt] mix'd But.

6-8. Truth . . . intermixt] Italics by M, A, Kly, Co3, Hu2; quoted by Kt,
Co1-2, B, Hu1, Del, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, R, Ty, Ox, Wy, Her, etc.

10. not] no G, S, E. for't] for it M, A, Kt, B, Kly, Co3.

11. him] her 1640, G, S, E.

14. him . . . he] her . . . she 1640, G, S, E.

[C. A. Brown makes this the envoy of his "fourth poem," Sonnets 78-101.] '
[Mr. Horace Davis notes the resemblance of this sonnet to 83-84. Cf.
especially line 6 with 83, 1-2, and line 4 with 84, 8.]

2. Wyndham [finds here again the platonic idea of beauty:] He argues that
the Idea of Beauty, embodied in his friend's beauty, of which all other beautiful
things are shadows, is also Truth: an exact coincidence with an "eternal form"
to which transitory- presentments do but approximate. [Cf. 62, 6.] (Intro.,
p. cxxiv.) [See, however, for a sufficient explanation of the passage, my note on
54, 2. — Ed.]

3. Walsh: Cf. 14, 11 and 14. depends. [For the singular, see Abbott's
note on 41, 3.]

6. collour. Wyxdham: The poet plays on the word, which, in the first
instance, means defence, extenuation. Beechixg: His truth needs no praise,
or "colour," because his own "colour," or beauty, sufficiently fixes it. [The
meaning is rather "plausible pretence" or "semblance," with an emphasis on

236 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [en

false or artificial semblance. Wyndham's gloss is not supported by the passage
which he cites from i H. 6, II, iv, 34: " I love no colours, and without all colour
of base insinuating flattery," etc. Schmidt more aptly cites Haml., Ill, iv, 130:
"What I have to do will want true colour, tears perchance for blood." Rolfe
says that "his colour" is "that of my friend"; I should say "its own colour,"
referring to truth. — Ed.] fixt. Schmidt: Native and unchangeable. Wynd-
HAM: Here a term of painting. . . . Cf. W.T., V, hi, 47: "The statue is but
newly fix'd, the colour's not dry." Butler [defends his wholly unnecessary
emendation, "mixt," by showing that Sh. elsewhere uses such rhymes as press:
express, etc.]

7. lay. Schmidt: Apply as a colour. [Cf. T.N., I, v, 258:

'T is beauty truly blent, whose red and white
Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on.]

Drake: [In this sonnet Sh. distinctly marks] the sex, the dignity, the rank,
and moral virtue of his friend. (Sh. & his Times, 2: 69.)

I02

My loue is strengthned though more weake in seeming

I loue not lesse, thogh lesse the show appeare,

That loue is marchandiz'd, whose ritch esteeming,

The owners tongue doth publish euery where.

Our loue was new, and then but in the spring, 5

When I was wont to greet it with my laies,

As Philomell in summers front doth singe,

And stops his pipe in growth of riper daies:

Not that the summer is lesse pleasant now 9

Then when her mournefull himns did hush the night,

But that wild musick burthens euery bow,

And sweets growne common loose their deare delight.

Therefore like her, I some-time hold my tongue:

Because I would not dull you with my songe.

3. marchandiz'd] merchandiz'd G, etc.
6. with] in G, S, E.

8. his] her Housman, Walker conj., Kt, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly,
Hal, Cam, Co3, Do, R, Wh2, Ox, Her, etc.

11. burthens] burdens G2, S2, E, M, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Hal, N,
Bull.

12. loose] lose G, etc.

cm] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 237

3. marchandiz'd. *Capell: Cf. L. L. L., II, i, 13-16:

My beauty, though but mean,
Needs not the painted flourish of your praise.
Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye,
Not utter 'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues.

5-6. Gollancz: The poet definitely identifies the friend addressed with the
patron of his early poems. (Intro., p. xx.) Beeching: The whole point of the
sonnet is lost unless we refer it to the earlier sonnets. [I know not on what
ground any reader may claim to have information as to just what writings are
here referred to. — Ed.]

7. summers front. M ALONE: Cf. W.T., IV, iv, 3: "Flora, peering in April's
front"; and Cor., II, i, 57: "The forehead of the morning."

8. his. [The only question as to the emendation is as to whether it should be
made here or in line 10; and, as Beeching observes,] The singing nightingale
in Sh. is always female. Cf. M.V., V, i, 104; R. & J., Ill, v, 4.

103

Alack what pouerty my Muse brings forth,

That hauing such a skope to show her pride,

The argument all bare is of more worth

Then when it hath my added praise beside.

Oh blame me not if I no more can write! 5

Looke in your glasse and there appeares a face,

That ouer-goes my blunt inuention quite,

Dulling my lines, and doing me disgrace.

Were it not sinfull then striuing to mend, 9

To marre the subiect that before was well,

For to no other passe my verses tend,

Then of your graces and your gifts to tell.

And more, much more then in my verse can sit,

Your owne glasse showes you, when you looke in it.

10. well,] well? L, etc.
13. sit] 71* Del conj.

[With the content of this sonnet cf. the very similar thought of S. 84. Mr.
Horace Davis notes also the resemblance of this sonnet, and 105, to S. 76. Cf.
especially the repetition of the words "pride," "argument," "invention."]

238 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cm

Von Mauntz: Cf. Ovid, Tristia, I, v, 53-56:

Si vox infragilis, pectus mihi firmius aere,
Pluraque cum Unguis pluribus ora forent:

Non tamen idcirco complecterer omnia verbis,
Materia vires exsuperante meas.

3. argument. See note on 38, 3. all bare. Dowden: Merely as it is in itself.
7. blunt. Schmidt: Clumsy, invention. Cf. 38, 8; 59, 3; 76, 6.
9-10. M alone: Cf. K.J., IV, ii, 28-29:

When workmen strive to do better than well,
They do confound their skill;

and Lear, I, iv, 369: "Striving to better, oft we mar what's well."

11. passe. Tyler: The word here is probably figurative, the metaphor being
perhaps derived from the pass in fencing. Beeching: The word usually im-
plies an embarrassing situation, and there may be a suggestion of that sense
here. Rolfe: Issue, result. [So the N. E. D., which cites the line under the
meaning "event, issue."]

12. gifts. Walsh: Perhaps intended to include reference to presents; cf.
"bounty" in 53, 11.

13. sit. Cf. 37, 7.

13-14. Stopes: Perhaps the poorest of all Sh.'s sonnet endings.

civ] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 239

104

To me faire friend you neuer can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyde,
Such seemes your beautie still : Three Winters colde,
Haue from the forrests shooke three summers pride,
Three beautious springs to yellow Autumne turn'd, 5

In processe of the seasons haue I seene,
Three Aprill perfumes in three hot Iunes burn'd,
Since first I saw you fresh which yet are greene.
Ah yet doth beauty like a Dyall hand, 9

Steale from his figure, and no pace perceiu'd,
So your sweete hew, which me thinkes still doth stand
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceaued.
For feare of which, heare this thou age vnbred,
Ere you were borne was beauties summer dead.

I. friend] love 1640, G, S, E.

3. Winters] winters' Walker conj., Kt, Dy, Sta, CI, Hu2, Bull.

4. forrests] forest G2, S2, E.

10. pace] place 1640, G, S, E.

11. doth] do G1; does G2, S, E.

14. were] was G, S, E. beauties] beatties 1640.

[A number of commentators have found this sonnet of special interest be-
cause the mention of the definite period of three years seemed to give hope of
a clue to some of the time-relations of the Sonnets. Sarrazin, in particular,
has taken it as a key-sonnet for the dating of the collection (Jahrb., 34: 368-71),
making a special study of its style with relation to that of the plays. With
line 2 he compares R. 2, IV, i, 285: "Is this the face which fac'd so many
follies?"; with lines 3-7, R. 2, I, iii, 141 ("Till twice five summers have enrich'd
our fields") and 214 ("Four lagging winters and four wanton springs"), R.df J.,
• I, ii, 10 ("Let two more summers wither in their pride"), and M.N. D., I, i,

7-8:

Four days will quickly steep themselves in night,
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;

with line 9, Lucrece, 327 ("The hourly dial who with a ling'ring stay his course
doth let"), R. 2, V, v, 53 ("Whereto my finger, like a dial's point"), 1 H. 4,
V, ii, 84 ("If life did ride upon a dial's point"), R. &■ /., II, iv, 118 ("The
bawdy hand of the dial"), etc.; the conclusion being that the sonnet is in Sh.'s

240 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [civ

style of the period 1594-6. Hence, if the Sonnets were begun three years
before, we may date the earlier ones about 1592. Without dissenting from this
view of the date of S. 104, I am unable to see how Sarrazin and others can have
assurance either that the opening sonnets of the present collection are the first
ones which Sh. addressed to the friend of S. 104, or that he wrote them at pre-
cisely the time when first the friend's eye he eyed. — Ed.]
Isaac [compares this sonnet with Daniel's Delia, S. 36:

When men shall find thy flower, thy glory pass,
And thou, with careful brow, sitting alone,
Received hast this message from thy glass,
That tells the truth, and says that "All is gone"; etc.]

1. Butler: It would seem as though Mr. W. H. had been saying something
to Sh. about his looking old.

2. your eye. Tyler: [Cf. 1, 5 and note.]

3. Winters. Dyce [defends his reading of this as possessive, in which he
anticipated Walker's conjecture (Crit. Exam., 2: 100), and approves Walker's
remark that "the syntax, though ungrammatical according to our present
notions, is perfectly Elizabethan."]

3-8. Tyler: [This, in conjunction with indications of the spring of 1601 as
the date of Sonnets 100-126 (see notes on 107 and 124), indicates the spring of
1598 as the time when Sh.'s acquaintance with Mr. W. H. began. (Intro., p.
27.)] Lee: The period seems to have been more or less conventional among the
sonneteers. Cf. Ronsard's Sonnets pour Helene, i, 14, which begins, "Trois ans
sont ja passez que ton ceil me tient pris," and Daniel, Sonnets after Astrophel,
No. 17 (of his love): "That was with blood and three years' witness signed."

4. Goldwin Smith: Cf. Horace: "Sylvis honorem decutit." (Sh. the Man,
p. 12.) [Apparently a confused reference to Vergil, Georg., 2: 404: "Silvis
Aquilo decussit honorem." — Ed.]

7. Beeching: The image seems to be from throwing incense on a fire.

10. Malone: Cf. 77, 7-8.

11. hew. Cf. 20, 7, and notes, me thinkes. [Abbott feels bound to accent
"me" here, though he admits that Shakespearean practice is not conclusive for
such usage. (§ 492.)]

13-14. thou . . . you. [For the change of pronoun cf. 24, 5-6, and notes.
Stengel (Eng. Stud., 4: 10) thinks that the discrepancy should be removed
from the text. It is possible that in line 14 the poet is thinking of the various
members of posterity, and, addressing them, says "Ere you were born." — Ed.]

14. Cf. 68, 13-14.

Walsh: With the two ideas in this sonnet (the apparent permanence of
beauty and ultimate triumph of decay) is to be compared [S. 126.]

cv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 241

105
Let not my loue be cal'd Idolatrie,
Nor my beloued as an Idoll show,
Since all alike my songs and praises be
To one, of one, still such, and euer so.
Kinde is my loue to day, to morrow kinde, 5

Still constant in a wondrous excellence,
Therefore my verse to constancie confin'de,
One thing expressing, leaues out difference.
Faire, kinde, and true, is all my argument, 9

Faire, kinde and true, varrying to other words,
And in this change is my inuention spent,
Three theams in one, which wondrous scope affords.

Faire, kinde, and true, haue often liu'd alone.

Which three till now, neuer kept seate in one.

1. be] by G1.

9, 10, 13. Faire . . . true] Quoted by Gl, Cam, Do, R, Wh1, Ox, Wy, Her,
etc. [In 13 Be reads: "Fair," "kind," and "true."]
. 14. neuer kept seate] never sate G1; did never sit G2; have never sate S, E.

[For the general content of this sonnet, cf. S. 76. — Ed.]

1. Wyndham: His love is not idolatry since he worships only at one shrine.
Beeching: There could be monidolatry as well as monotheism. "Since"
means "on the ground that." The poet says, "Let not my entire devotion to
one friend be called idolatry." [This interpretation of Beeching's is confirmed
by Sh.'s usual employment of the word. — Ed.]

2. show. For the intransitive use, cf. 101, 14.

8. leaves out difference. Schmidt [defines "difference" as "variety," as in
A. Y. L., II, i, 6: "The seasons' difference."] Rolfe: Omits reference to other
qualities.

9-12. Rolfe: Cf. M.V., II, vi, 53-56:

For she is wise, if I can judge of her,
And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true,
And true she is, as she hath prov'd herself,
And therefore, like herself, wise, fair, and true.

[Karpf, who finds in the Sonnets an elaboration of Aristotelian philosophy,
sees in this trinity of qualities the True, Good, and Beautiful of Aristotle's
goliliche Vernunft. (pp. 123-24.) The same notion is echoed by Wyndham,

242 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cvi

who calls the triad "nothing else than the three primal categories of philos-
ophy." — Than which, I fancy, nothing could more surprise Sh. — Ed.]
ii. invention. See note on 76, 6.

12. Horace Davis: Cf. Constable, Diana, 1st Decade, S. 10:

Heralds at arms do three perfections quote,
To wit, most fair, most rich, most glittering;
So, when those three concur within one thing,
Needs must that thing of honour be a note.

13. [Beeching was the first, I think, to punctuate this line intelligently,
quoting separately the three adjective-nouns. — Ed.]

Shindler: [Since the complaint of monotony here implied cannot be brought
against the sonnets of our collection, we have] a clear indication that we have
lost ... a considerable number. (Gent. Mag., 272: 78.)

Creighton: [This sonnet] might be headed with the Pembroke motto: Ung
je servirai. (Blackwood's, 169: 674.) [Those who are fain to thread the dance
of the Pembrokists and Southamptonists will rejoice to find that Brandl
(p. xxxvii) sees in line 4 the motto of the house of Southampton, Ung par tout,
tout par ung.]

106

When in the Chronicle of wasted time,
I see discriptions of the fairest wights,
And beautie making beautifull old rime,
In praise of Ladies dead, and louely Knights,
Then in the blazon of sweet beauties best, 5

Of hand, of foote, of lip, of eye, of brow,
I see their antique Pen would haue exprest,
Euen such a beauty as you maister now.
So all their praises are but prophesies 9

Of this our time, all you prefiguring,
And for they look'd but with deuining eyes,
They had not still enough your worth to sing:
For we which now behold these present dayes,
Haue eyes to wonder, but lack toungs to praise.

7. antique] antick G, S, E. exprest] express G1.

8. Euen] E'en S1.

12. still] skill Tyr conj., C, M, etc. (except Wy).

13. which] who G, S, E.

cvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 243

1-4. Drake: It is highly probable that our bard alluded to Chaucer [in
these lines.] (Sh. & his Times, 2: 79.) [Hales suggested to Dowden that Sh.
may have been thinking of the Faerie Queene.]

3. [Surely a plausible competitor for the claim to be the loveliest line in the
Sonnets. Note the rhythm of the last two feet. — Ed.]

5. blazon. Beeching: The description or proclamation of a coat of arms.
... It is noteworthy, in relation to the date of the Sonnets, that all the other
instances of the use of the word by Sh. are subsequent to the application for a
grant of arms in 1596.

7. antique. See note on 19, 10.

7-8. Lee [again compares Spenser's sonnet to Lord Howard, cited under 59,

I3-I4-1

8. maister. Schmidt: Possess. [Cf. Lucrece, 863: "Leaves it (his gold) to be
master'd by his young."]

9-10. Main: Cf. Constable's 7th Sonnet:

Miracle of the world, I never will deny
That former poets praise the beauty of their days;
But all those beauties were but figures of thy praise,
And all those poets did of thee but prophesy.

[Dowden refers this sonnet of Constable's to the Diana; instead, it is the 7th
of the Miscellaneous Sonnets ; on which Beeching observes:] The sonnet is
not in Diana; it is therefore subsequent to 1594; and as the last line, "which
only we without idolatry adore," looks like a reference to Sh.'s 105th Sonnet, it
is most probable that Constable is quoting Sh. here also.

11. devining. Rolfe: Only guessing.

12. still. Dowden: A meaning may be forced [from the Q reading:] "Only
divining your beauty, they did not as yet possess enough to sing your worth."
Wyndham: [The emendation "skill"] has been universally adopted, but it puts
the sense of the last six lines out of focus. ... In lines 1-8 the poet defers, here
as elsewhere, to the artistic excellence of the antique presentment of beauty.
[Cf. note on 83, 7.] . . . He assumes that the ideal is, as we say, the classic, the
type determined long since by a tradition of great artists. . . . Although they
could write — could, indeed, "blazon sweet beauty's best" — still they lacked
something essential, viz. the model which we can behold and wonder at, "but
lack tongues to praise." Beeching: The skill that [the old poets] lacked was
not the skill to sing, but to fill out the ideal from the "figures" of their own
day. Their eyes were only "divining eyes," but they sang up to the full limit
of their vision; we moderns, on the contrary, who see the ideal beauty, lack
tongue to sing it. If we read "still," there is no noun for "enough" to refer to.

[It may be of interest to compare the "When . . . then" structure of this
sonnet with the similar form of 2, 12, 15, and 30. — Ed.]

[Walsh puts the sonnet with 59, another study of the same theme.]

244 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cvn

107

Not mine owne feares, nor the prophetick soule,
Of the wide world, dreaming on things to come,
Can yet the lease of my true loue controule,
Supposde as forfeit to a confin'd doome.
The mortall Moone hath her eclipse indur'de, 5

And the sad Augurs mock their owne presage,
Incertenties now crowne them-selues assur'de,
And peace proclaimes Oliues of endlesse age,
Now with the drops of this most balmie time, 9

My loue lookes fresh, and death to me subscribes,
Since spight of him He Hue in this poore rime,
While he insults ore dull and speachlesse tribes.
And thou in this shalt finde thy monument,
When tyrants crests and tombs of brasse are spent.

3. my] thy E.

8. Oliues] a lease Godwin conj.
11. lie] thou' It Stengel conj. rime] time L.
13. shalt] shall Wa.

[This sonnet is of chief interest because of the suggestion it gives of allusion
to external events, which has led to widely divergent conjectures respecting
the date of composition. It seems to have been one "J. G. R.," a correspondent
of N. & Q., (2d s., 7: 125; Feb. 12, 1859), who unwittingly opened the long
discussion. He interprets the sonnet as referring to Southampton's imprison-
ment, the death of Queen Elizabeth, and the accession of James, — the theory
which still seems to claim the majority of adherents. Massey develops this
at length:] Sh. thus addresses Southampton upon his release from the Tower,
at the time of the Queen's death in 1603. (p. 203.) In his Essays Bacon tells
us, "It was generally believed that after the death of Elizabeth England
should come to utter confusion." (Works, 1856, i, 291.) Elizabeth herself
prognosticated that her death would be followed by the overthrow of the
Protestant religion and ruin of the realm. As Froude says, "Sometimes in
mockery she would tell the Council that she would come back after her death
and see the Queen of Scots making their heads fly!" . . . [Cf. also the dedica-
tory epistle of the Authorized Version:] " For whereas it was the expectation of
many, who wished not well to our Sion, that upon the setting of that bright
occidental star, Queen Elizabeth, of most happy memory, some thick and pal-

evil] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 245

pable clouds of darkness would so have overshadowed the land, that men
should have been in doubt which way they were to walk, and that it should
hardly be known who was to direct the unsettled State; the appearance of your
Majesty, as of the sun in its strength, instantly dispelled those supposed and
surmised mists, and gave unto all that were well affected exceeding cause of
comfort; especially when we beheld the Government established in your High-
ness and your hopeful seed by an undoubted Title, and this also accompanied
with peace and tranquillity at home and abroad." ... It is impossible to have
any reasonable doubt that the same spirit pervades [this dedication and S. 107;]
that the same death is recorded; the same fears are alluded to; the same exul-
tation is expressed; the same peace identified, (pp. 215-16.) . . . There can be
no doubt that the sonnet chronicles a death, and hints at burial in a tyrant's
tomb. . . . [The Queen's] death is a subject of rejoicing to Sh. It is not neces-
sary to say that he rejoiced personally, but he does so dramatically, (p. 218.)
. . . Chamberlain, writing to Dudley Carleton, April, 1603, says, "The 10th
of this month the Earl of Southampton was delivered out of the Tower by war-
rant from the King," sent by Lord Kinloss — "These bountiful beginnings
raise all men's spirits, and put them in great hopes." (p. 334.) Isaac, [taking
the sonnet to be addressed to Essex, interprets it as of the year 1598:] In this
year . . . the intimate relations between Elizabeth and her favorite suffered an
apparently incurable breach through the box on the ear which the latter re-
ceived during a session of the Privy Council. Essex in resentment kept himself
for some months away from the court, and in spite of the remonstrances of his
friends made not the slightest attempt at a reconciliation. . . . Finally on the
15th of September he appeared for the first time again at court, and on the 3rd
of October stood again in the old favor with the Queen. (Devereux: Lives of
the Earls of Essex.) This reconciliation must have filled all the friends of the
Earl with great joy, and could also have occasioned the writing of this beautiful
sonnet by the poet who had been oppressed by the worst anxieties. A further
reference, however, than to this merely private dissension of the Queen and
her favorite [seems to be indicated by line 8.] . . . On the 13th of September
the irreconcilable enemy of England, Philip II of Spain, had died; this event
Sh. could represent with good ground as the beginning of an era of peace. . . .
[Still another possibility is a reference to the death of Essex's most powerful
enemy, Lord Burleigh, in the same year.] (Jahrb., 19: 263-64.) Tyler [makes
the sonnet refer to the putting down of the rebellion of Essex, 1601,] an event
which, it is not difficult to see, might be spoken of as a threatening eclipse, and
from which the Queen might be represented as having come forth with her
glory undimmed. . . • Within a week of the abortive attempt of Essex to call
out the citizens of London, Secretary Cecil, according to a document in the
Record Office, delivered himself to the following effect: "As the declining of
the Sun bringes generall darkness, so her Majesties hurt is our continuall night ;
and although the one by course of Nature may be renewed, yet the other will
hardly be matched in any future age; how odious then ought they to be in the
eye of all good subjects that have sought the utter ruine of so blessed a sover-

246 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cvn

aine." (State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth, cclxxviii.) What Sh. says about
the "eclipse of the mortal moon" may be advantageously compared also with
the following extract from a letter of Bacon's written to the Queen prior to
the rebellion: "The devices of some that would put out all your Majesty's
lights, and fall on reckoning how many years you have reigned, which I beseech
our blessed Saviour may be doubled, and that I may never live to see any
eclipse of your glory" (Spedding's Bacon, 9: 160). There can thus be no doubt
that the language of the sonnet would be entirely in accordance with the usage
of the time. [Line 6] is a description which, we may well believe, would, after
the affair of Sunday, February 8, 1601, aptly describe the feelings of those who
had predicted the success of Essex. And then in [lines 7-8] we may find, with
probability, an allusion to the embassy sent by James, the Scotch king, to
congratulate the Queen on putting down the rebellion. The "incertainties"
may refer to the previously doubtful attitude of James. . . . Further, the words
of the 9th line . . . contain, as seems likely, an allusion to the season of the
year when the sonnet was written, probably the spring or early summer of 1601.
(Intro., pp. 23-24.) Lee: [This sonnet] makes references that cannot be mis-
taken to three events that took place in 1603 — to Queen Elizabeth's death,
to the accession of James I, and to the release of the Earl of Southampton, who
had been in prison since he was convicted in 1601 of complicity in the rebellion
of the Earl of Essex. ... It is in almost identical phrase that every pen in the
spring of 1603 was felicitating the nation on the unexpected turn of events, by
which Elizabeth's crown had passed, without civil war, to the Scottish King,
and thus the revolution that had been foretold as the inevitable consequence
of Elizabeth's demise was happily averted. Cynthia (i.e., the moon) was the
Queen's recognised poetic appellation. It is thus that she figures in the verse
of Barnfield, Spenser, Fulke Greville, and Ralegh, and her elegists involun-
tarily followed the same fashion. "Fair Cynthia's dead" sang one. "Luna's
extinct," . . . wrote Henry Petowe, in his "A Fewe Aprill Drops Showered on
the Hearse of Dead Eliza," 1603. There was hardly a verse- writer who mourned
her loss that did not typify it, moreover, as the eclipse of a heavenly body. One
poet asserted that death "veiled her glory in a cloud of night." Another
argued: "Naught can eclipse her light, but that her star will shine in darkest
night." A third varied the formula thus: .

When winter had cast off her weed
Our sun eclipsed did set. Oh! light most fair.

(These quotations are from Sorrowes Joy, a collection of elegies on Queen
Elizabeth by Cambridge writers (Cambridge, 1603), and from Chettle's Eng-
land's Mourning Garment (London, 1603).) At the same time James was con-
stantly said to have entered on his inheritance "not with an olive branch in
his hand, but with a whole forest of olives round about him, for he brought not
peace to this kingdom alone" but to all Europe. (Gervase Markham's Honour
in her Perfection, 1624.) [Line 9] is an echo of another current strain of fancy.
James came to England in a springtide of rarely rivalled clemency, which was

evil] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 247

reckoned of the happiest augury. "All things look fresh," one poet sang, "to
greet his excellence." "The air, the seasons, and the earth" were represented
as in sympathy with the general joy in "this sweetest of all sweet springs."
One source of grief alone was acknowledged: Southampton was still a prisoner
in the Tower, "supposed as forfeit to a confined doom." All men, wrote
Manningham, the diarist, on the day following the Queen's death, wished him
at liberty. The wish was fulfilled quickly. . . . Samuel Daniel and John Davies
celebrated Southampton's release in buoyant verse. It is improbable that Sh.
remained silent. {Life, pp. 147-49.) WYKDHAM [places less stress on allusions
to contemporary events:] This sonnet is ... a limb of the sustained attack on
Time (100-125), which culminates in a denial of its reality (123-124.) The
sense seems to be: "Not mine own fears (expressed in 104), nor the whole
world's prophetic expectation of things to come, . . . can limit the continuation
of my love, which, in common with all things, seems, but only seems, subject
to limitation." ... It suffices for the sense [of lines 5-8] that they do point to
some crisis, in nature or politics, which excited an apprehension not justified
by the event. ... I am disposed to think [that the reference is to] an actual
eclipse of the moon, which had been made the ground for gloomy prognostica-
tions. When contemporary poets allude to political crises they make their
reference explicit. Drayton, e.g., in Idea, 51, . . . has —

Lastly, mine eyes amazedly have seen

Essex's great fall! Tyrone his peace to gain!

The quiet end of that long living Queen!

This King's fair entrance! and our peace with Spain!

Sh. in the Sonnets has no such explicit references, and his phrase, "the mortal
moon," if it mean "the moon in deadly case," is quite in his manner of describ-
ing a natural phenomenon such as an eclipse. There were 21 eclipses of the
moon, total or partial, visible at Greenwich during the years 1 592-1 609. So
that the champions of an early date for the Sonnets may find their affair in this
matter as readily as the champions of a late date. But if we accept Tyler's
suggestion that the reference to "this most balmy time" proves that the sonnet
was written in late spring, summer, or early autumn, and if my suggestion for
the dating of S. 98 be also accepted, then, of such eclipses, three remain avail-
able: [June 4, 1602; May 24, 1603; Apr. 3, 1605.] The eclipse of May 24, 1603,
since it lasted much longer than the eclipse of April 3, 1605, and since, owing
to its hour [1 1.30 p.m.] and the time of the year, it must have been more notice-
able than the eclipse of June 4, 1602, may, perhaps, be given the pride of place.
Its acceptance also admits of one of those secondary allusions — in this case
to the death of Elizabeth, March 23, 1603 — which are so common in Sh.'s
verse. I ought to add that Mr. Heath and Mr. Blaikie agree in thinking that
I have not given sufficient weight to the eclipse of 1605. (pp. 246-47.) Butler:
Is there any event, except the Armada, that occurred during Sh.'s youth, to
which [the picture of suspense sketched in this sonnet] will apply with anything
like the same force and accuracy? I may even go further, and ask whether

248 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cvn

there is any event between 1585 and 1609, to which the sonnet can apply with-
out both doing violence to the most natural meaning of its words, and arbi-
trarily dating it many years later than the other sonnets? We can see how
great a scare had been caused by the Armada from the thanksgiving prayer
that was read in all churches after it had been defeated. . . . The enemy had
intended "to destroy us, our cities, towns, countries and peoples, and utterly
to root out the memory of our nation from off the earth for ever." ... If this
is a true picture Sh. might well sketch the general apprehension in such a tell-
ing touch as "the prophetic soul of the wide world dreaming on things to
come," and might well suppose that the lease of his true love for Mr. W. H.
was to expire very shortly. But as there is no other such sketch, so neither is
any such picture to be found, in prayer nor elsewhere, of any event between
1585 and 1609. [As to Lee's claim that similar alarm was felt regarding the
death of the Queen,] he has not quoted, nor have I been able to find, anything
written before the accession of James, which suggests any such grave alarm
as was felt all over England when the Armada was off Plymouth, or in sight of
Dover, (pp. 104, 106.) Creighton [supports Tyler's view:] There had been a
notable eclipse the year before [the Essex rebellion], on which Woodhouse's
Almanack for 1601 based a prognostication that its influence would be felt in
the state from 20th Jan. 1601 until November. When the rebellion of Essex
took place, the populace were so impressed by Woodhouse's prophecy that the
Government thought it necessary to call in the copies of the paltry book.
There was no other event in Elizabeth's reign which threatened her in the same
way. . . . Sh.'s "own fears," for his liberty "supposed as forfeit to a confined
doom," are explained by [the performance of Richard II on the Thursday or
Friday before.] {Blackwood's, 169: 676.) Beeching [accepts the view that
there is a reference to the death of the Queen, but disbelieves Lee's view as to
the matter of Southampton's release:] If this sonnet were really an ode of
congratulation under such circumstances, Southampton in turn could hardly
have congratulated the poet on the fervour of his feelings. For there is no
reference in the sonnet to any release from prison, and its crowning thought is
the familiar one, that the friend will survive in Sh.'s verse, not that he has
obtained a new and unexpected resurrection to life. [Lee's paraphrase of the
opening quatrain is one it will not bear.] The words "my true love" might
certainly by themselves be taken, as Mr. Lee takes them, to mean "my true
friend," but "the lease of my true love" can only mean "the lease of my true
affection for my friend." All leases are for a term of years; each has a limit or
"confine" assigned to it, on which day of doom it expires. Sh. says that neither
his own fears nor the world's prophecies of disastrous changes have justified
themselves, for in the year of grace 1603 he finds his affection fresher than ever.
But to the friends of Southampton the death of Elizabeth would have been an
occasion not of foreboding but of hope (Intro., pp. xxxiii-iv.) . . . The fears
and prophecies of line 1 must be interpreted by what follows as fears and
auguries of some anticipated future which would be the doom of the poet's
love. In the first quatrain the fears are stated in the most general terms as

cvii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 249

fears for the future; but the second quatrain connects them with some particu-
lar crisis, which came without bringing the expected catastrophe. Instead of
that it brought a happier era. Apparently the crisis feared was a civil war in
which the arts would perish, since "peace" is referred to as its opposite; and
the immediate result anticipated by the poet is the survival of his poems.
[Rolfe is disposed to favor the theory of the Essex rebellion, which is also
accepted by Braxdes (William Sh., i: 319). On the other hand, NIackail
(Led. on Poetry, p. 185) and Brandl (p. xx) follow the interpretation of Lee;
the latter calling attention to the fact that in Henry V Sh. showed an eagerness
for the union of Scotland with England, and finding here further evidence of his
zeal for a "greater Britain." H. Pemberton (New Shakespeareana, 7: 105)
supports the theory favoring 1601, believing that the "sad augurs" refer (as
does HamL, I, i, 121-25) to the early winter of that year, when, between
November 29 and Christmas, there were notable storms, an earthquake, and
eclipses of both moon and sun. But these major theories do not exhaust the
possibilities. Palgrave supposes that the sonnet refers to the peace of 1609,
which ended the war between Spain and the United Provinces; Fleay (Biog.
Chron., 2: 211) that it "can hardly be made to fit with any date but that of
the Peace of Vervins," April 1598, a view followed by Gollancz (Intro.,
p. xix), who emphasizes the " incertainties " which England had suffered dur-
ing the time she was aiding Henry IV; and Mrs. Stopes finds evidence of the
year 1596, when the Queen was restored to health after a period of indispo-
sition which had caused grave anxiety, and when the league with Henry7 IV
may have suggested the olives of peace.]

On the other hand, a few commentators suspect all these interpretations
relating to contemporary events. Simpson: The sonnet fits into its place much
better when . . . interpreted, not of special facts, but of the general circum-
stances of love. Not his own fears (of death ending all love) nor the "divining
eyes" of the old poets mentioned in S. 106, . . . can set a definite term to his
love, which had been supposed to be doomed to come to an end. (p. 79.)
Dowden [agrees with this, interpreting:] "Not my own fears (that my friend's
beauty may be on the wane, 104, 9-14), nor the prophetic soul of the world,
prophesying in the persons of dead knights and ladies your perfections (S. 106),
and so prefiguring your death (or, possibly, divining other future perfections
higher than yours), can confine my lease of love to a brief term of years. Dark-
ness and fears are past, the augurs of ill find their predictions falsified, doubts
are over, peace has come in place of strife; the love in my heart is fresh and
young (see 108, 9), and I have conquered Death, for in this verse we both shall
find life in the memories of men." Luce: [There is no need to look for historic
allusions; the lines may mean:] "I myself feared that love could not last; and
such was the doubting or the sneering forecast of my friends; but neither I nor
they knew the abiding power of love; the love which we doomed to death has
suffered only a short eclipse, and the dismal augurs have put themselves to
shame." (Handbook, p. 93.)

250 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cvn

i. prophetick soule. Steevens: Cf. Haml., I, v, 40: "Oh, my prophetic
soul!"

1-2. Tyler: With this passage, which is very important in relation to Sh.'s
theology, cf. R. 3, II, iii, 41-44:

Before the days of change, still is it so.
By a divine instinct men's minds mistrust
Ensuing danger; as, by proof, we see
The water swell before a boisterous storm.

Brierre de Boismont says, in his work Des Hallucinations, ed. 1862, p. 43: "II
existe dans les masses populaires un instinct politique qui leur fait pressentir
les catastrophes des societes, comme un instinct naturel annonce d'avance aux
animaux l'approche des bouleversements physiques." . . . [The doctrine of the
anima mundi, the soul of the world, was] prominent in the teaching of Giordano
Bruno, who suffered martyrdom in the year 1600, that is, a little before S. 107
was written. Moreover, Bruno had been in England between 1583 and 1585,
and had come into contact with Sir Philip Sidney, William Herbert's uncle, so
that an allusion to Bruno's doctrine is in no way unaccountable. (In the Jahrb.,
11: 91, there is an article by W. Konig on "Sh. and Giordano Bruno." The
writer of this article, after adducing various instances in Sh. of analogy with
Bruno's doctrines of greater or less probability, strangely denies that there is
any point of connection between Sh. and Bruno's doctrine of an all-pervading
world-soul: "His belief soon manifests itself in a certain divine intoxication
[ Gotttrunkenheit], and a kind of pantheism, where he assumes an all-penetrating
World-Soul. In this whole region there does not appear in Sh. the slightest
connection with Bruno." Had the writer of this article never read S. 107?)
There is also another contemporary of Sh. who should here be mentioned,
Tommaso Campanella, who entertained opinions similar to those of Bruno with
regard to the world as an animated being. [See his sonnet on "The World as
an Animal," translated by J. A. Symonds.] (Intro., p. 107.) [Mrs. Stopes also
emphasizes the connection between this passage and the philosophy of Bruno;
and, in Sh.'s Warwickshire Contemporaries (1907), p. 9, suggests a link between
Sh. and Bruno's writings in the printer Richard Field, originally of Stratford-
on-Avon, who was for a time in the shop of Vautrollier, Bruno's English pub-
lisher. " In Vautrollier's shop the sayings of Bruno would acquire tragic interest
at his death for a philosophic faith." See also Elton's essay on "Giordano
Bruno in England," where the influence of Bruno on Sh. is denied. (Modern
Studies, pp. 26-27.)]

2. Beeching: The prophecy of things to come must probably be taken, with
Wyndham, "as implying that they are to come in place of the things that are."
Only, as Sh. always uses "prophetic" in a true sense, I should rather say the
implication is that the "things to come" usually come in place of things that
are. It is this usual implication that the poet denies.

[On lines 3-4 see the notes above, introductory to the sonnet.]

5. eclipse indur'de. See also the notes above, where it appears that this

cvii] THE SOXXETS OF SHAKESPEARE 251

phrase is important in connection with the supposed allusion to the death of
Elizabeth. Massey: This luminary shone in the human or mortal sphere —
was subject to mortality. Just in the same vein, he calls the eyes of Lucrece
"mortal stars"; Valeria, in Coriolanus, is called the "moon of Rome"; and
Cleopatra is spoken of by Antony as our "terrene moon." The Queen was the
earthly or mortal moon. (p. 215.) Dowden : Cf . A . & C, III, xiii, 153: "Alack,
our terrene moon is now eclipsed." But an earlier reference to a moon-eclipse
(35. 3) has to do with his friend, not with Elizabeth, and in the present sonnet
the moon is imagined as having endured her eclipse, and come out none the
less bright. Tyler: It may be readily conceded that "the mortal moon" is
in all probability a poetical designation of the Queen. She was, according to
Elizabethan poets, Cynthia, goddess of the shining orb. But to suppose an
allusion to her death seems altogether out of harmony with the drift and scope
of the sonnet. Notwithstanding fears and forebodings, the poet's love for his
friend shall not be "forfeit to a confin'd doom," but shall ever endure. In line 5
the emphasis is obviously on the word "endur'd." (Intro., p. 23.) Butler:
To me the sonnet suggests that [the Queen] not only was not dead, but had
emerged from a time of apparent peril with splendour all undimmed. (p. 105.)
Beeching, [recalling Lee's statement that the writers of the time typified the
Queen's death as the eclipse of a heavenly body, says:] This interpretation is
confirmed by the passage in A. & C. ... An examination of passages will
show that an eclipse in Sh.'s metaphorical use means a final, not a temporary,
extinction. [See, besides the A. & C. passage, 1 H. 6, IV, v, 53: "Born to
eclipse thy life this afternoon."] It is not easy to see by what other metaphor
the death of a "moon" could be described. [I do not see that it is possible to be
dogmatic about the meaning of this passage. The impression it produces on
me is the same as on Dowden and Tyler, viz., that the eclipse has been passed
through; but it must be admitted that there is ample parallel in Sh. for the use
of "endure" in the sense merely "to suffer"; e.g., R. 2, V, v, 30:

Bearing their own misfortunes on the back
Of such as have before endur'd the like:

and Lear, III, vii, 60: "Such a storm as his bare head in hell-black night
endur'd." In other words, without knowing who or what the "mortal moon"
is, we cannot say whether the thought is, "She has passed through her eclipse,
and therefore the augurs laugh at their warnings," or, "She has suffered eclipse,
and in spite of this the augurs laugh." But a priori, the former seems more
natural. — Ed.]

10. My love. Dowden: I am not sure whether this means "the love in my
heart," or "my love," my friend. Cf. 104, 8 and 108, 9. Rolfe: The former
seems the more probable. Beeching: My affection, subscribes. M alone:
Acknowledges as a superior.

13-14. Cf. 55, 1-2. [Walsh places S. 55 immediately after 107.]
14. Beeching: Not improbably a veiled reference to the monument that
would be erected to the queen.

252 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cvm

Massey: [This] I take to be the last of the Southampton sonnets, as they
have come to us. Sh.'s warfare with Time and Fortune on his friend's behalf
is ended; the victory is won, he has found peace at last. There is a final
farewell touch in the concluding iteration of the immortality so often promised,
(p. 219.)

Price [finds this sonnet to show the largest percentage of foreign diction; it
is of the class] in which the movement of imagination is most impeded, the
charm of poetry least felt. [Cf., in this respect, S. 125.] (p. 365.)

In the Dobell MS. described at the end of S. 2, — the same containing the
pseudo-sonnet headed "Cruel" — is a copy of S. 107. The only variant read-
ings are in lines 12 and 14, which read as follows:

Whilst he Insults ore dul & sencelesse tribes . . .
When tombs of brasse & tyrants crests are spent.

IO8

What's in the braine that Inck may character,

Which hath not figur'd to thee my true spirit,

What 's new to speake, what now to register,

That may expresse my loue, or thy deare merit?

Nothing sweet boy, but yet like prayers diuine, 5

I must each day say ore the very same,

Counting no old thing old, thou mine, I thine,

Euen as when first I hallowed thy faire name.

So that eternall loue in loues fresh case, 9

Waighes not the dust and iniury of age,

Nor giues to necessary wrinckles place,

But makes antiquitie for aye his page,

Finding the first conceit of loue there bred,

Where time and outward forme would shew it dead,

2. spirit,] spirit? G, etc.

3. new . . . now] new . . . new M, Kt, Del, Dy, Sta, Gl, Wh, Cam, Do, Hu2,
R, Ox, But, Her, Be, N, Bull; now . . . now Walker conf., Co3.

5. sweet boy] sweet-love 1640; sweet love G, S, E.
8. Euen] E'en S, E.
10. iniury] injuries 1640, G, S, E.

3. now to register. M alone: The Q here is manifestly erroneous. Boswell:
Why manifestly erroneous? "What can I say now more than I have said al-
ready in your praise?" Tyler: Possibly a misprint for "new." Wyndham:

cviii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 253

There are two ideas: (1) What new thing can be said, which has not been said;
(2) What can be said now, to-day, when I am taking up my pen again. [The
textual notes show that the great body of editors, though disdaining to discuss
the matter, agree with Malone. — Ed.]

5. sweet boy. [By no means an unique expression in Elizabethan literature.
Cf., for example, as Mr. Horace Davis notes, Lyly's Midas, I, i, "My sweet
boy, all is gold," addressed to Mellacrites, "a gentleman of the court"; and
Greene's similar address, either to Lodge or Nash, in A Groatsworth of Wit (see
Works of Greene and Peele, ed. Dyce, Intro., p. 60.)]

7-8. Wyxdham: Cf. 102, 5-6. This was some three years earlier (104), and
even then the poet had touched this theme tentatively: then, as now, given
the identity of himself with his friend, "Thou mine, I thine," he counted "no
old thing old" [cf. 62, 13-14]. The primary sense begins at this point to be
doubled by a larger philosophic sense. The obvious meaning — that neither
the poet's "songs and praises," though "all alike" (105), nor the beauty of the
friend, though it " steals away," can ever be old (104) — is stated in terms so
wide as to embrace a mystical suggestion that this, which is true of the friend's
beauty and of the poet's devotion, is also true universally. . . . This sonnet is
an integral part of the whole "satire to decay" (100-125), the machinery of
which consists in a retrospect over the inward moods and outward chances that
have befallen to the poet and the friend during three years. But these actual
experiences serve for texts to an esoteric doctrine which affirms the eternity of
Love and denies the reality of Time.

8. [Neil (Ath., Apr. 27, 1867, p. 552) finds here a suggestion that this sonnet
was addressed to the poet's son Hamnet; in which he is followed by Goedeke
(Rundschau, 10: 407). If this be ingenious, it pales before the suggestion of
Mrs. Stopes that the word "hallowed" alludes to the first time the friend was
addressed as "Hal," or that of W. Underhill ( N. &Q., 7th s., 9: 227), who
regards it as a pun on the name of a supposed W. Hall. The use of the word
is due, of course, to the figure of the liturgy in lines 6-7. "Every morning
since I began to worship you I have continued to say, 'Hallowed be thy
name.'" — Ed.]

9. case. M alone: By the case of love the poet means his own compositions.
Schmidt: Cause. Dowden: Love's new condition and circumstances, the new
youth of love spoken of in 107, 10. Tyler: A new position, [due to some change
in the appearance of the beloved one.] Wyndham: Eternal love, in "love's
fresh case," as differentiated by accident, is unaffected by age; [by which I
suppose is meant "in each fresh situation." — Ed.] Beechixg: Such is love's
fresh case, its state of always being fresh. [This interpretation of Beeching's
I think is undoubtedly right; cf. "fresh" in 107, 10, where the word means,
not new, but as good as new. Schmidt gives numerous instances of "case" in
the meaning of state or condition. — Ed.]

12. [Here the meanings of both "antiquity" and "page" are rather curi-
ously disputed. Schmidt defines the former as "old age," (cf. 62, 10); Tyler,
as "the appearance of the beloved one in that olden time when the attachment

254 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cvm

commenced," followed substantially by Rolfe; Wyndham, "the praise of
ladies dead and lovely knights" by the "antique pen" of earlier generations.
Schmidt I think is undoubtedly right; "old age" is the more common Shake-
spearean meaning, and certainly pertinent to this quatrain. As for "page,"
Tyler apparently understands it as the page of a book, since he paraphrases
" Ever sets before him the appearance," etc.; and he is followed by Miss Porter
and Mrs. Stopes, the former commenting, "As of a page in a prayer-book for
repetition forever," the latter, "Puts the mark in Life's book, at the old story
of first love." I understand Wyndham to take the same view, though he does
not make it perfectly clear. On the other hand, Beeching, in paraphrasing,
"Love . . . never sees the workings of antiquity, which is always in its rear,"
seems to imply the image of a page following in the train of Love; (here, un-
fortunately, one cannot be certain just what is understood by "antiquity"). It
argues against the former interpretation that Sh., despite his abundant men-
tion of books, never (unless here) uses the word "page" in that connection, but
always "leaf"; with the meaning "servant," on the other hand, it is very
familiar. I believe, therefore, that the line means simply, "makes old age his
servant," instead of yielding it the mastery; for the use of "page" with the
special implication of inferior, cf. M.V., II, i, 35: "So is Alcides beaten by his
page." Some of the misreadings of the line are apparently due to the disposi-
tion to connect it too closely with the following couplet, which sums up the
whole theme, as commonly, "there" referring, not backward, but forward to
"Where." — Ed.]

13-14. Dowden: Finding the first conception of love, i.e., love as passionate
as at first, excited by one whose years and outward form show the effects of
age. [One might find a commentary on this couplet in Tennyson's dedication
of his last volume to his wife, —

This and my love together,

To you that are seventy-seven. — Ed.]

Butler [finds here definite allusion to the fading beauty of the friend; see
his note on 100, 10-11. Wyndham, on the other hand, is convinced thai the
poet does not refer to any such change, offering in proof 104, 3].

cix] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 255

109

O never say that I was false of heart,
Though absence seem'd my flame to quallifie,
As easie might I from my selfe depart,
As from my soule which in thy brest doth lye:
That is my home of loue, if I haue rang'd, 5

Like him that trauels I returne againe,
lust to the time, not with the time exchang'd,
So that my selfe bring water for my staine,
Neuer beleeue though in my nature raign'd, 9

All frailties that besiege all kindes of blood,
That it could so preposterouslie be stain'd,
To leaue for nothing all thy summe of good:
For nothing this wide Vniuerse I call,
Saue thou my Rose, in it thou art my all.

4. thy] my G, S, E.
11. stain'd] strain'd Sta conj., But.
14. Rose, in it] Rose in it, S1.

2. absence. Beeching: The three years during which the friends did not
meet, quallifie. Schmidt: Moderate, abate.

4. Malone: Cf. L. L. L., V, ii, 826: "Hence ever then my heart is in thy
breast"; and R. j, I, i, 205: "Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart."
Tyler: Cf. S. 24. [Cf. 22, 5-7; 133, 9. — Ed.]

5. my home of love. Abbott: [For "the home of my love." Cf. many sim-
ilar transpositions. (§ 423.)]

5-6. Malone: Cf. M.N. D., Ill, ii, 171-72:

My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn V
And now to Helen is it home return'd.

7. Dowdex: Punctual to the time, not altered wltn the time. [For the mean-
ing of "exchang'd," cf. M.V., II, vi, 35 (Jessica in her boy's disguise): "I am
much asham'd of my exchange."] Mr. H. C. Hart suggests to me — over-
ingeniously I think — that Sh. here alludes to the practice, when travel was
more dangerous than at present, of "putting out upon return," when if the
traveler did not come home true to the time, he had as it were exchanged for
his journey whatever sum he staked, forfeiting both the principal and the large
interest to be paid on a punctual return home, and getting in exchange only

256 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cix

his travels. [The meaning "altered" has become the accepted one for "ex-
chang'd" in this line, though, as Rolfe observes, it is the only instance of this
sense in Sh. Jessica's noun "exchange" is a dubious parallel. — Ed.]

i 1-12. Beeching: The poet's absence was a stain or fault [cf. line 8], but not
so preposterous a stain as desertion would have been.

14. Rose. [See Wyndham's and others' notes on 1, 2.] Massey: I doubt if
there be an instance in Sh. of man addressing man as "my rose," and should
as soon expect to find "my tulip." The Queen of Richard II speaks of her fair
rose withering, and Ophelia of Hamlet as the "rose of the state." But even
here it is one sex describing the other. For the rest, the "rose" is the woman-
symbol, (p. 28.) Rolfe : It is somewhat peculiarly applied to the person ad-
dressed, if that person is a man. Is it certain that this sonnet and the next are
to a man?

Bradley: It is remarkable . . . that, while the earlier sonnets show much
deference, the later show very little, so little that, when the writer, finding that
he has pained his young friend by neglecting him, begs to be forgiven, he
writes almost, if not quite, as an equal. Read, for example, Sonnets 109, no,
120, and ask whether it is probable that Sh. is addressing here a great nobleman.
(Oxf. LecL, p. 332.)

See Hudson's note at the end of S. 97.

ex] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 257

no

Alas 'tis true, I haue gone here and there,

And made my selfe a motley to the view,

Gor'd mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most deare,

Made old offences of affections new.

Most true it is, that I haue lookt on truth 5

Asconce and strangely: But by all aboue,

These blenches gaue my heart an other youth,

And worse essaies prou'd thee my best of loue,

Now all is done, haue what shall haue no end, 9

Mine appetite I neuer more will grin'de

On newer proofe, to trie an older friend,

A God in loue, to whom I am confin'd.

Then giue me welcome, next my heauen the best,
Euen to thy pure and most most louing brest.

2. the] thy G2, S2, E.

6. Asconce] Ascance S1; Askance G2, S2, etc.

8. worse] worst S2, E. essaies] assaies 1640; assays G, S, E.

9. done,] done; Ty. haue what] save what Tyr conj., M, A, Co, B, Hu,
Kly, Wh1, Ox, But.

14. Euen] E'en S1. most most] Hyphened by Sta.

1-2. Henry Reed: When Sh. meditated upon his theatrical profession . . .
he breathed out his sense of degradation in [this] beautiful sonnet, of which
the tone is a little louder than a sigh and yet not so harsh as a murmur. (Lec-
tures, 2: 262.) Shixdler: This is generally interpreted to express Sh.'s dislike
to the profession of an actor; [but this view] covers only a small part of the
meaning. . . . What was far more repugnant to him was that disclosure of his
own feelings, that revelation of himself, which could be seen in his plays by
those who knew him intimately. He had "gored his own thoughts," and
turned his own fresh griefs into dreams of bygone ages. (This seems to be the
meaning of line 4.) (Gent. Mag., 272: 77.) Massey: His language is identical
with Saul's, when he says, "I have sinned; behold, I have played the fool, and
have erred exceedingly." Saul does not mean that he had worn motley. If the
speaker had worn the fool's coat of many colours, he would not have been
necessarily making a fool of himself. The image is not used in that sense. If
he had been playing the fool's part on the stage, it would be Fortune that had
made him a motley to the view, not himself, (p. 197.) Tyler: Whether Sh.

258 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [ex

had actually played the part of a fool or jester, a "motley" (cf. A. Y. L., II,
vii, 12: "I met a fool i' the forest, a motley fool") is perhaps doubtful. The
word may be here used figuratively, in accord with what follows. Sh. may have
"played the fool" by seeking new acquaintance. J. M. Robertson: It is
impossible to put into fewer and fuller words the story, many a year long, of
sordid compulsion laid on an artistic nature to turn its own inner life into
matter for the stage. ... It is true that [the actor's calling] is apt to be more
humiliating than another to a man's self-respect, if his judgment remain sane
and sensitive. (Sh. & Montaigne, p. 160.) Beeching: There is no reference to
the poet's profession of player. The sonnet gives the confession of a favourite of
society. Bradley: Beeching's note . . . seems to be unquestionably right. . . .
This applies, I think, to the whole group of sonnets (it begins with 107) in
which the poet excuses his neglect of his friend, though there are also references
to his profession and its effect. (Oxf. Led., p. 322 n.) Porter: Even if [the
actor's] career underlies the imagery, it is not of himself as a professional artist
that the poet is here speaking, but of an impressionable adaptability that has
overlain and hidden his genuine feelings, and involved him in false and dis-
creditable positions with relation to his friend. Luce: [Cf. the complaint of the
Muse Thalia, in Spenser's Tears of the Muses :

So am I made the servant of the manie,

And laughing stocke of all that list to scorne,

Not honored or cared for of anie;

But loath'd of losels as a thing forlorne.

(Handbook, p. 93.)]
Further on this subject, see notes on S. III.

3. Gor'd. Schmidt: Wounded. Malone: The meaning seems to be, "I
have wounded my own thoughts; I have acted contrary to what I knew to be
right." Boswell: Cf. Hand., V, ii, 261:

I have a voice and precedent of peace,
To keep my name ungor'd.

Dowden: Cf. T. & C, III, iii, 228:

I see my reputation is at stake,
My fame is shrewdly gored.

Beeching: [Cf. with these passages T. N., Ill, i, 129:

Have you not set mine honour at the stake
And baited it?]

From these passages it is clear that for a man's reputation to be "gored"
meant that it was exposed, like a bear at the stake, for common censure. . . .
Or perhaps the clause means simply, "I have wounded my own self-respect."
Stopes: Spoken his own thoughts on the stage, thus losing his self-respect.

4. Dowden: Entered into new friendships and loves, which were transgres-
sions against my old love. Tyler: "Old offences" may possibly be "enduring
offences." Verity: [Perhaps the line means:] prostituted my love — a love so

ex] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 259

new, so unknown to other men, so rare — to the old hackneyed purposes and
commonplaces of the stage; made capital out of my emotions, turned my
passion to account. Lee: Sinned against old friendships by forming new ones.
There is some inversion of phraseology here, but the general sense is clear.

5. truth. Tyler: May be pretty nearly equivalent to "virtue," though
" fidelity" is a not improbable meaning. [See note on 54, 2. — Ed.]

6.. strangely. Walker: As though it were a stranger. (2: 289.) Dowden:
In a distant, mistrustful way.

7. blenches. Schmidt: Inconstancies, aberrations. Dowden: Cf. M.for M.,
IV, v, 5:

Though sometimes you do blench from this to that,
As cause doth minister.

9. have. Malone: [This word] appearing to me unintelligible, I have
adopted a conjectural reading suggested by Mr. Tyrwhitt. [It is hard to see
why the text appeared unintelligible to Malone, or why his obsolescent emen-
dation should reappear in so recent a text as the Oxford (Craig's). — Ed.]
Massey: [Cf. the Spanish proverb, which Sh. appears to render or adapt:
"Amor sin fin, no tiene fin" — "Love without end hath no end." (p. 157.)]

12. Dowden : This line seems to be a reminiscence of the thoughts expressed
in S. 105, and to refer to the First Commandment. Rolfe: I doubt whether
there is such a reference.

13. my heaven. Massey [instances this as proof that the sonnet was ad-
dressed to one of the opposite sex, comparing Katharine of King Henry, saying
that she had "loved him next heaven," and Antipholus, in C. oj E., calling
Luciana "my sole earth's heaven." (p. 28.)] Sharp: [Perhaps] an allusion to
his mistress. [The phrase has an interest as being almost the only example of
conventional piety in the poet's utterances in the Sonnets. — Ed.]

13-14. Brandes: This exactly corresponds to Michael Angelo's . . . desire
to "clasp in his yearning arms his heart's loved lord" [addressed to his young
friend Cavalieri]. {William Sh., 1: 349.) Rolfe: It is difficult to believe that
this is addressed to a man. Von Mauntz [also thinks the lines cannot be viewed
as addressed to a man, and that this sonnet and the preceding have to do with
the return of Sh. to his wife and family.]

Gervinus: Is it not [in this sonnet] as if Prince Henry were looking back
upon his wild days, which were to him a time of trial, blunting the growth of
strong passion? . . . Not unfrequently the conjecture has been expressed that
Sh. conferred upon Prince Henry many essential qualities of his own nature.
If this were decided, we should have a sure and tangible point of connection,
uniting his life with his poetry. (Sh. Commentaries, p. 469.)

260 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxi

in

O for my sake doe you wish fortune chide,
The guiltie goddesse of my harmfull deeds,
That did not better for my life prouide,
Then publick meanes which publick manners breeds.
Thence comes it that my name receiues a brand, 5

And almost thence my nature is subdu'd
To what it workes in, like the Dyers hand,
Pitty me then, and wish I were renu'de,
Whilst like a willing pacient I will drinke, 9

Potions of Eysell gainst my strong infection,
No bitternesse that I will bitter thinke,
Nor double pennance to correct correction.
Pittie me then deare friend, and I assure yee,
Euen that your pittie is enough to cure mee.

1. wish] with G, etc.

2. harmfull] harmlesse 1640; harmless G, S, E. deeds] needs Wh conj.
4. manners] custom G2.

14. Euen] E'en S, E.

M alone: The author seems here to lament his being reduced to the necessity
of appearing on the stage, or writing for the theatre. Boswell: Is there any-
thing in these words which, read without a preconceived hypothesis, would
particularly apply to the public profession of a player or writer for the stage?
The troubles and dange*e"WTrrc1i attend upon public life in general, and the
happiness and virtue of retirement, are among the tritest commonplaces of
poetry. Nor was such querulous language likely to have proceeded from Sh.
Ben Jonson, who was frequently obliged to exhibit before audiences who were
incapable of appreciating the depth of his knowledge, the accuracy of his
judgment, or the dignity of his moral, might at one time be desirous of quitting
"the loathed stage," or Massinger might have murmured at a calling which
scarcely procured him a subsistence; but our poet appears, from the commence-
ment to the close of his dramatic career, to have met with uninterrupted suc-
cess, and would scarcely indulge in such bitter complaints against a profession
which was rapidly conducting him to fortune as well as to fame. (Prelim.
Remarks, pp. 219-20.) Lamb: Who can read that affecting sonnet of Sh.'s
which alludes to his profession as a player, ... or that other confession,
"Alas! 't is true," [etc., S. no] — who can read these instances of jealous self-

cxi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 261

watchfulness in our sweet Sh., and dream of any congeniality between him and
one that, by every tradition of him, appears to have been as mere a player as
ever existed. [This in allusion to Garrick, and in indignant remonstrance with
the notion that he was possessed of a kindred mind with Sh.'s.] (Essay on the
Tragedies of Sh.) Delius [follows Boswell (Jahrb., 1 : 49-50) in arguing for the
improbability of Sh.'s regarding his profession as a disgrace. So, in his com-
mentary, he observes that lines 3-4] tell us only, in general, that the poet had
been drawn into commerce with the world from considerations of a livelihood,
and cannot withdraw from this in spite of the wish of his own heart. M asset:
[That these two sonnets indicate Sh.'s disgust at his player's life] is not fitted
to the relationship of poet and patron, and it is quite opposed to all that we
learn of Sh.'s character. It is not true that he had gone here, there, and every-
where to make a fool of himself, when he was quietly working for his company.
. . . Nor could he with any the least propriety speak of making a fool of himself
on the stage, which was the meeting-place of himself and the Earl, the fount of
Sh.'s honour, the spring of his good fortune, the known delight of Southamp-
ton's leisure. . . . Nor have we ever heard of any "harmful deeds," or doings of
Sh., occasioned in consequence of his connection with the stage. Nor do we
see how his name could be branded, or "receive a brand," from his connection
with the theatre. ... He had no name apart from the theatre, and the friend-
ships it had brought him. . . . [As to the "public means" of line 4,] it does not
seem to have been questioned whether a player of Elizabeth's time would speak
of living by " public means," when the highest thing aimed at by the players was
private patronage, except where they hoped to become the sworn servants of
Royalty. If the Lord Chamberlain's servants were accounted public, it would
be in a special sense, not merely because they were players. . . . Even if it had
applied, it was an impossible comment for our poet to make on what he had
been striving to do. . . . The meaning, as illustrated in the context, is that the
speaker has to live in the public eye in a way that is apt to beget public man-
ners. . . . His public is the only public of Sh.'s time, the court circle and public
officers of the state. . . . [Cf. L. L. L., I, i, 132: "He shall endure such public
shame as the rest of the court shall possibly desire"; A. Y. L., I, iii, 46: "Our
public court"; etc.] ... S. 25 will tell us what Sh. did not consider "public,"
for he therein expressly says that Fortune has debarred him from public hon-
ours, (pp. 189-91.) Elze: [In the Sonnets Sh. bitterly complains of the bad
reputation of his calling.] That the stage cast a certain stigma upon those
belonging to it has been nowhere more bluntly stated than by John Davies in
his Microcosmos (1603), in a sonnet which has all the appearance of having
been addressed to Sh. and Burbage: "The stage doth stain pure gentle blood,"
he says, but then immediately adds: "Yet generous ye are in mind and mood."
(William Sh., p. 224.) That Sh.'s lament of the lowness of his social position
is not a mere fancy, but an involuntary autobiographical sigh, can scarcely be
denied when taken in connection with the other circumstances of his life; and
the correctness of this supposition is supported by the poet's father having
applied for the grant of a coat-of-arms, doubtless at the son's instigation.

262 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxi

(ibid., p. 427.) Halliwell-Phillipps: [With respect to the supposition that
there is a reference here to a bitter feeling of personal degradation resulting
from Sh.'s connection with the stage,] is it conceivable that a man who encour-
aged a sentiment of this nature, one which must have been accompanied with
a distaste and contempt for his profession, would have remained an actor years
and years after any real necessity for such a course had expired? By the spring
of 1602, at the latest, if not previously, he had acquired a secure and definite
competence independently of his emoluments as a dramatist, and yet, eight
years afterwards, in 1610, he is discovered playing in company with Burbage
and Hemmings at the Blackfriars Theatre. When, in addition to this volun-
tary long continuance on the boards, we bear in mind the vivid interest in the
stage, and in the purity of the acted drama, which is exhibited in the well-
known dialogue in Hamlet, and that the poet's last wishes included affection-
ate recollections of three of his fellow-players, it is difficult to believe that he
could have nourished a real antipathy to his lower vocation. ... If there is,
amongst the defective records of the poet's life, one feature demanding special
respect, it is the unflinching courage with which, notwithstanding his desire
for social position, he braved public opinion in favour of a continued adherence
to that which he felt was in itself a noble profession. . . . These considerations
may suffice to eliminate a personal application from [these] two sonnets. {Out-
lines, 8th ed., 1: 174-75.) C. W. Franklyn [discusses this question, Westm.
Rev., 132: 348, believing that this sonnet represents a temporary snobbishness
in the author's attitude toward the stage. Sh.'s whole later history disproves
its being his real opinion.] Tyler: That Sh. should have expressed a dislike
for the dramatic profession and its surroundings has been looked upon as
scarcely credible, and yet this is a matter on which the Sonnets leave no room
for doubt. . . . To Sh. the associations and circumstances of the theatre seemed
debasing. And this feeling might well be deepened by intimacy with a young
nobleman of so high rank as William Herbert. With the sensitiveness of his
poetic nature, Sh. could not but deeply feel his being looked upon as so mean
a person that social usage would not allow his dearest friend to recognise the
acquaintance in public [cf. S. 36]. (Intro., p. 1 13.) Lee: That Sh. chafed under
some of the conditions of the actor's calling is commonly inferred. ... [If the
self-pity of these sonnets] is to be literally interpreted, it only reflected an
evanescent mood. His interest in all that touched the efficiency of his profes-
sion was permanently alive. He was a keen critic of actors' elocution, and in
Hamlet shrewdly denounced their common failings, but clearly and hopefully
pointed out the road to improvement. His highest ambitions lay, it is true,
elsewhere than in acting, and at an early period of his theatrical career he
undertook, with triumphant success, the labours of a playwright. But he pur-
sued the profession of an actor loyally and uninterruptedly until he resigned
all connection with the theatre within a few years of his death. (Life,
pp. 44-45.) Wyndham: To say that he could never have slighted his art as an
actor, . . . and then to seek for far-fetched and fantastic interpretations, is to
evince an ignorance, not only of the obloquy to which actors were then ex-

cxi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 263

posed, and of the degradations they had to bear, but also of human nature as
we know it even in heroes, Wellington is said to have wept over the carnage
at Waterloo; the grossness of his material often infects the artist, and "potter's
rot" has its analogue in every profession. This feeling of undeserved degrada-
tion is a mood most incident to all who work, whether artists or men of action.
(Intro., p. cxiv.) P. E. More [quotes, in illustration of Sh.'s attitude toward
his profession, J.C., I, ii, 260-63: "If the tag-rag people did not clap him and
hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them, as they use to do the
players in the theatre, I am no true man."] We do not often, while under the
spell of Sh.'s magic, consider what it must have meant to so sensitive and self-
conscious a nature as his to have been exposed to the outrageous approval and
disapproval of an Elizabethan audience. (Shelburne Essays, 2: 38.)

2. guiltie goddesse. Abbott: [For "goddess guilty" etc.; for similar trans-
positions, see § 419a.]

4. publick. Schmidt: Vulgar. Tyler: Implying vulgar, low, and probably
disreputable conduct. Beeching: I do not think, with Schmidt, that the word
means "vulgar." It may perhaps mean "no better than ordinary." [He
paraphrases the line:] To be dependent upon the public for livelihood begets a
popularity-hunting temper.

5. brand. Fleay: The branding ... is simply that produced by satirical
writing of severe criticism. [Cf. Poetaster (last scene): "I could stamp their
foreheads with those deep and public brands" etc.] (Macm. Mag., 31: 441.)

6. subdu'd. Beeching: Brought into conformity- with. Cf. Oth., I, iii, 251:
"My heart's subdued even to the very quality of my lord." [Main notes an
echo of the Shakespearean use of the word in The Cenci, III, i:

Utterly lost, subdued even to the hue
Of that which thou permittest.]

8. renu'de. Geryinus: The metamorphosis after which the poet sighs, the
renovation of his being, we seem to perceive taking place, from a few intima-
tions, especially in the last group of our sonnets. The renewal after which he
aspired may be understood and interpreted in different ways. In his outward
career it is very remarkable that, at the period of the origin of these sonnets,
we first find Sh. endeavoring to raise himself above his position, to enter the
rank of the gentry, and to advance in consideration and esteem by increasing
his worldly possessions. . . . But with this self-reliance with regard to his social
position, a still more thorough renewal appears to have been linked. In the
most different passages of the later sonnets, where a more serious mood has
seized him, he glances upon his past conduct with the severity of fresh auster-
ity. [Cf. Gervinus's remark on S. no.] (Commentaries, pp. 466-69.)

10. Eysell. M alone: Vinegar is esteemed very efficacious in preventing
the communication of the plague and other contagious distempers. Causton
[{Essay on Mr. Singer's " Wormwood") discusses at length the word in Sh., as
meaning sour vinegar; (cf. Haml., V, i, 299.)] Even as the dyer washes his

264 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxi

hands in acid (eysell) to remove his surface stain, so, bringing the purgation for
his own brand, . . . [Sh.] took the "water for his stain" inwardly, by the
throat, (pp. 47-48.) J. Q. Adams, Jr., [in a note in Mod. Lang. Notes, 29: 2,
argues from the use of the word here that S. Ill is contemporary with Hamlet.]
12. correct correction. Tyler: Complete and perfect the correction of my
conduct. [We should, of course, expect that to "correct correction" would be
to alter or reverse it; but Tyler is doubtless right in taking this as a kind of
"cognate" construction. It may be said to be analogous to "out-Herod
Herod." — Ed.]

Henry Reed: This would be sweet language from any lips; but what can
be deeper than the pathos of it, when you reflect that it is the grief of one whose
wisdom, for more than two centuries, has been reverently quoted by statesmen,
philosophers, and divines, whose plots have wound round so many hearts and
moistened so many eyes? {Lectures, 2: 263.)

Bleibtreu [{Die Gegenwart, 75: 395; noted in Jahrb., 46: 215) believes that
this sonnet was written by Lord Rutland, while a prisoner in the Tower, de-
prived of his property, and compelled to earn his bread by ignoble means.]

cxii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 265

112

Your loue and pittie doth th'impression fill,
Which vulgar scandall stampt vpon my brow,
For what care I who calles me well or ill,
So you ore-greene my bad, my good alow?
You are my All the world, and I must striue, 5

To know my shames and praises from your tounge,
None else to me, nor I to none aliue,
That my steel'd sence or changes right or wrong,
In so profound Abisme I throw all care 6

Of others voyces, that my Adders sence,
To cryttick and to flatterer stopped are:
Marke how with my neglect I doe dispence.
You are so strongly in my purpose bred,
That all the world besides me thinkes y'are dead.

1. th'impression] the impression M, A, Kt, B, Del, Gl, Kly, Cam, Do, R,
Wh1, Ty, Ox, But, Her, Be, N.

4. ore-greene] o'er-look G2; o'er-skreen S, E; o'er-grieve Stee conj.

5. All the world, and] all, the world and G, S, E; all-the-world, and M, A, Kt,
Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Kly, Wh*, Hal, Ty, Ox, Be, Bull, Wa.

8. sence] sense' Dy, Sta. or changes] e'er changes M conj.; so changes
Kt, conj.; changes, or Kly; or charges anon. conj. right] right, C.

10. sence] sense' Dy, Sta.

14. besides] beside But; besides, Hu1, Ty, Wa, Tu. me thinkes y'are] me,
thinks I'm S; me thinks I'm E; methinks are Stee conj., C, M1, A, Kt, B, Hu,
Co1, Sta, Gl, Kly, Cam, R, Wh2, Ox, But, Her, Be, Bull; methinks they are M1,
Co1, Wh1; methinks they're Del, Dy, CI, Hal, Co3, Do; methinks y'are Ty; me
thinks you're N; methinks, are Hu, Wa, Tu.

Fleay: [With this whole sonnet, cf. Drayton, Idea, S. 47:

In pride of wit, when high desire of fame
Gave life and courage to my lab'ring pen, . . .

No public glory vainly I pursue:
All that I seek is to eternize you.

(Biog. Chron., 2: 229.)]

2. vulgar scandall. Tyler: The great difficulty in the way of supposing that
the reference is merely to the stage and acting is presented by the remarkable

266 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxn

language of S. 12 1, from which it appears that the scandal had some relation
to Sh.'s moral character. . . . Sh. does not deny that there was some founda-
tion for the scandal. He pleads, however, that his failings had been exagger-
ated, and that his accusers were worse than himself. [Tyler goes on to suggest
that there may be some connection between these sonnets and the anecdote
respecting Sh., Burbage, and a lady-citizen, told in John Manningham's
Diary, March 13, 1601-02; and also with the alleged exchange of hostilities
between Jonson and Sh., of which there have been thought to be evidences in
the Satiromastix and The Return from Parnassus. He concludes:] It is suffi-
cient . . . that we have evidence that in or about 1601 there was in circulation
scandal affecting Sh.'s moral character and connected with the theatre, and
also that there was at the same time a theatrical quarrel in which Sh. was
supposed to have taken part. It is not at all difficult to understand how, from
such elements, scandal and slander may have grown and become intensified to
any possible degree. (Intro., pp. 1 15-21.)

4. ore-greene. M alone: The allusion seems to be either to the practice of
covering a bare coarse piece of ground with fresh green-sward, or to that of
planting ivy or jessamine to conceal an unsightly building. Steevens: I would
read "o'er grieve," i.e., . . . compassionate my failings. Schmidt: Cover with
verdure. Massey: Folds up my faults as the green grass hides the grave, or
the ivy's embrace conceals the scars of time. (p. 195.) Tyler: Screening it as
with leaves. Beeching: It is not clear what particular metaphor the poet
had in mind; perhaps the grassing over of a bare patch. Cf. 68, 11. alow.
Malone: Approve. Rolfe: Cf. Psalms, 11: 6 (Prayer Book version): "The
Lord alloweth the righteous."

7-8. Steevens: The meaning of this purblind and obscure stuff seems to
be: "You are the only person who has power to change my stubborn resolu-
tion, either to what is right or to what is wrong." Dowden: No one living for
me except you, nor I alive to any, who can change my feelings fixed as steel
either for good or ill (either to pleasure or pain). Cartwright: [Line 8 may
mean:] "Whatever I do, I am always in the wrong, therefore my steel'd sense
(. . . his indignant feelings) will make no change, no difference between right
or wrong towards others, (p. 33.) Herford [paraphrases "or changes right or
wrong":] accepts criticism from just or unjust. Beeching: So far as I am
concerned, there is no one but you alive in all the world by whom my resolute
mind can be changed to right or wrong. Perhaps we should read "charges";
in that case the paraphrase would be, There is none but you from whom my
mind receives charges of right or wrong. Lee: Nobody else is anything to me
nor I anything to anybody else who is likely to endow my hardened sensibility
or my vacillations of temper with any sense of right or wrong. [I doubt if any
one has bettered Steevens's reading. — Ed.]

8. sence. Malone: Here used for "senses." Dyce: Evidently a plural, as
in the next line but one. Cf. Macb., V, i, 29: "Their sense are shut."

10. Adders. Malone: Cf. T. & C, II, ii, 172: "Ears more deaf than
adders." sence. Abbott: The plural and possessive cases of nouns in which

axu] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 267

the singular ends in s, se, ss, ce, and ge, are frequently written, and still more
frequently pronounced, without the additional syllable. (§ 471.)

13. Schmidt: You are so kept and harboured in my thoughts. [Cf. also
notes on line 14.]

14. Steeyexs [following Malone's emendation:] I proceed as if the world,
yourself excepted, were no more. M ALONE: "Y'are" was, I suppose, an
abbreviation for "they are" or "th' are." Tyler [keeping the Q text:] The
poet turns and addresses the world. Cf. 104, 13-14. Wyxdham: Why was the
[emendation] made? Not ... to make sense of a passage which, as printed in
Q, is nonsense; but because the emendators reject the sense which it bears,
when so printed, as improbable. That sense is unexpected, even startling:
Every one except myself thinks that you are dead. Is it impossible that Sh.
should have meant this? If not impossible, the alterations in the text, unre-
warded by any signal addition to the meaning of the sonnet, can hardly be
defended. Xow the couplet, as emended, adds nothing to the meaning: it
merely repeats one half of the meaning of line 7, "none else to me . . . alive."
That, indeed, was the evident object of Malone's emendation: having rejected
the sense of the couplet as it stood, he altered it to suit the sense of the second
quatrain. Sh. has some weak couplets, but none which merely repeats — or,
as here, repeats less completely — an idea already completely set forth. And
he can scarce have echoed the second quatrain feebly after a third quatrain
intervening with a strong crescendo of emphasis. . . . He creates an expectation
of some startling declaration. In Q we get one. Not only is the friend "all the
world " to the poet — every one else dead to the poet and he dead to every one
— but (and he begs us to "mark how" he dispenses with his neglect at the
hands of the world) the friend is so in his "purpose bred" (= so thoroughly
kneaded into the intention of his being) that he too shares the poet's case: him
also the world holds for dead. The sonnet is hyperbolical throughout, and its
crescendo movement prepares us for a last extravagance of hyperbole. Is this,
the straightforward meaning of Q, too startling? I think not. [This ingeniously
labored argument is sufficiently answered by Beechixg, who observes that in
keeping the Q text we get not only "a startling declaration," but] a statement
which in no way excuses Sh.'s neglect of other critics or flatterers, as it pro-
fesses to do. And it is not the fact that line 14 as amended merely repeats line 7.
That said simply, "There is no one alive but you who can move me"; this says,
"there is no one alive but you," — a climax, and a sufficiently "startling decla-
ration." Porter [again keeping the Q text:] You are so strongly bred, i.e.,
astir and quick, so alive within my settled mind, that, in comparison with
what I think you are, all the world, besides me, thinks you are dead. . . . He
who is so actually alive in the world's esteem, is dead to every one compared to
what he is to the poet.

268 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxm

113

Since I left you, mine eye is in my minde,

And that which gouernes me to goe about,

Doth part his function, and is partly blind,

Seemes seeing, but effectually is out :

For it no forme deliuers to the heart 5

Of bird, of flowre, or shape which it doth lack,

Of his quick obiects hath the minde no part,

Nor his owne vision houlds what it doth catch :

For if it see the rud'st or gentlest sight, 9

The most sweet-fauor or deformedst creature,

The mountaine, or the sea, the day, or night:

The Croe, or Doue, it shapes them to your feature.

Incapable of more repleat, with you,

My most true minde thus maketh mine vntrue.

I. left] felt Godwin conj.

6. bird, of] birds, or 1640, G, S, E. flowre] flowers S1, E. lack] latch
C, M2, etc.

8. catch] take G2.
10. sweet-fauor] sweet favour 1640, G, etc.; sweet-favour' d Del conj.

13. more repleat,] more, repleat G1, S1; more, replete G2, S2, etc.

14. My] Thy M conj. [with the rest of the line unchanged], maketh mine]
makes mine eye C, M conj., Gl, R, Her; maketh my eyne Co conj.; maketh m'eye
Cartwright; mak'th mine eye Lettsom conj.; maketh mind Wh2; maketh mine eye
Kly, N.

Isaac [groups this and S. 114 with the other absence sonnets, 27-28, 43-45,
48, 50-51, 61, believing them all to have been addressed to a lady. Following
Simpson, he emphasizes the Renaissance Platonism of the theme — the idea
of love in absence, as distinguished from eye-love in the presence of beauty;
and compares a sonnet of Michelangelo's in which divine love answers the
poet's question whether his lady is really as beautiful as she seems to him,
another of Petrarch's (Pt. i, S. 124), and Spenser's 87th:

Of which beholding the Idea plain,
Through contemplation of my purest part,
With light thereof I do myself sustain,
And thereon feed my love-affamish'd heart.

(Archiv, 61: 419-23.)!

cxiii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 269

I. Tyler: Cf. 47, 7-8. Beechixg: It is not clear whether " Since I left you "
refers to a new and particular absence, or to the long interval of separation.

3. part his function. M ALONE: Partly performs his office. [Better, "its
office," since the pronoun is doubtless neuter; cf. line 5. — Ed.] Dowdex:
Divide its function. Hudson: [The context requires the meaning,] depart from
or forsake his function. Rolfe: "Partly" confirms the [meaning "divide"].
Wyxdham: Perhaps, "share his function with the mind"; but more probably,
depart, abandon. Cf. R. 2, III, i, 3: "Your souls must part your bodies."
Beeching: Performs only part of its function. Lee: Forsake. Porter: A
play on the different shade of sense and the similar sound of "part," in the
Elizabethan sense of "depart from," . . . and a divided sharing of the functions
of eye and mind.

5-6. Lee: Cf. S. 53. These lines expand Petrarch's beautiful Canzone 15,
headed "In ogni cosa trova il Poeta l'imagine di Laura," where the poet de-
tects his mistress's form in every aspect of nature.

6. lack. M ALONE: The corresponding rhyme shows that what I have now
substituted was the author's word. To latch formerly signified "to lay hold of."
Cf. Macb., IV, hi, 195:

I have words
That would be howl'd out in the desert air,
Where hearing should not latch them.

10. favor. Schmidt: Features, countenance.

14. mine untrue. M alone: I once suspected that Sh. wrote "mine eye
untrue," or, "Thy most true mind thus maketh mine untrue." But the text
is undoubtedly right. The word "untrue" is used as a substantive. "The sin-
cerity of my affection is the cause of my untruth," i.e., of my not seeing objects
truly, such as they appear to the rest of mankind. [Cf. M.for M., II, iv, 170:
"My false o'erweighs your true"; K.J., II, i, 101: "This little abstract doth
contain that large."] Collier: Possibly we ought to read "my eyne," the
printer having composed the word from his ear. . . . [But a's Malone's inter-
pretation] renders an alteration of the ancient text needless, we hesitatingly
adopt it. White [in his 1st edition, keeping the Q text:] The semblance, the
fictitious (and so the false or untrue) object which is constantly before me.
[In his second edition, adopting "mind":] The correction of a slight and
easily made typographical error restores a natural sense, and gives an anti-
thetical conceit which is quite in Sh.'s manner, and which is in keeping with
the continuation of the thought in the next sonnet. B. Nicholsox [(Ath.,
Feb. 3, 1883, p. 150) proposes to read "mine" as = mien; i.e., the Anglo-
French mine, glossed by Cotgrave as "favour, feature, outward face." Sh.
then says, "My mind, most true to you, makes the feature of any other thing
presented to it an untrue show, or an appearance untrue to itself." He finds
an equivoque of both senses of the word in 134, 3, and in the Phcenix & Turtle,
line 36: "Either was the other's mine." In this interpretation of "mine,"
Nicholson had been anticipated by Tschischwitz, in his translation of 1S70.]

2jo THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxm

Tyler: A tempting emendation has been suggested — "mind untrue." But
the sense required would rather seem to be that the mind makes the eyes un-
true. It is not easy to suppose that "mine" was originally "m' eyen," equiva-
lent to "my eyes," and pronounced as one syllable. It is perhaps, on the
whole, best, even if this view be not quite unobjectionable, to take "untrue"
as a substantive, and to take as the meaning that the poet's mind, true to his
friend, causes his untruthfulness, — causes him to be untruthful to the actual
objects around him. Wyndham: "Untrue" is a substantive. . . . But there is
also a phonetic suggestion of "mine" = m' eyne = my eyes. [This is a partic-
ularly fantastic application of Wyndham's curious belief that Sh. was in the
habit of meaning two or three quite different things at the same time. — Ed. J
Butler [paraphrases the line:] The untruthfulness of my perceptions is caused
by the truthfulness of my affection for you. Beeching [also follows Malone's
interpretation.] Walsh: Probably the correct reading for "mine" is "m' eyne "
(my eyes). Lee: "Untrue" may possibly be used like a noun for "untruth,"
"deception." "Fair" is repeatedly, and "true" and "false" are occasionally,
used as substantives. . . . Modern editors usually substitute "mine eye un-
true," which seems a permissible change. Cf. 114, 3: "mine eye saith true,"
and 104, 12: "mine eye may be deceived." For the like ambiguity in similar
context between "mine" and "mine eye" see T. G. V., II, iv, 196, [which
reads "Is it mine, or Valentines praise," but for which Warburton's reading
has been commonly accepted: "Is it mine eye, or Valentinus' praise."] [The
usual defense of the Q text seems to me very lame. Malone's parallel from
M. for M., frequently repeated after him, is no real analogue, for the speech
there means "My false utterance outweighs your true utterance," and it is
this sort of use of adjective for noun which is of course familiar enough. In the
present line such a use would require that we understand "mind," the noun
just used after "true," to be meant after "untrue," — "My true mind makes
my mind untrue" (and this is a possible meaning, if not a probable one).
Again, it does not seem to have been sufficiently considered that, even if to
understand "untrue" as "untruthfulness" were natural, the statement "My
true mind makes my untruthfulness" would still be difficult enough. On the
other hand, the emendation "mine eye" is readily defensible: (1) It provides
exactly the needed correspondence with line 1; (2) the word "eye" may be
thought to have been dropped out either from a "reading by the ear," as was
suggested by Collier, or from the natural error of a copyist who had just ended
a word with the letter "e"; (3) if "maketh" was in the original text, its dis-
syllabic character would prevent the omission of the word "eye" from being
brought to attention, or, if we prefer to suppose that " makes" was first written,
the loss would naturally lead to its being changed to the dissyllabic form;
(4) the apparently parallel error in the text of T. G. V. gives support to the
plausibility of the assumed error here. — Ed.]

cxiv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 271

114

Or whether doth my minde being crown 'd with you
Drinke vp the monarks plague this flattery?
Or whether shall I say mine eie saith true,
And that your loue taught it this Alcumie?
To make of monsters, and things indigest, 5

Such cherubines as your sweet selfe resemble,
Creating euery bad a perfect best
As fast as obiects to his beames assemble :
Oh tis the first, tis flatry in my seeing, 9

And my great minde most kingly drinkes it vp,
Mine eie well knowes what with his gust is greeing,
And to his pallat doth prepare the cup.
If it be poison'd, tis the lesser sinne,
That mine eye loues it and doth first beginne.

2. thisj his E.

3. saithj seeth anon, conj., But.

6. cherubinesj cherubims G2, S, E.

10. most kingly] most kindly 1640, G, S; kindly E.

11. greeing] 'greeing G, etc. (except Dy, Hal, R, Bull).

1. Or whether. Abbott: "Whether" is sometimes used after "or" where we
should omit one of the two. (§ 136.)

2. Malone: Cf. T. & C, II, iii, 21 1: "How his silence drinks up this
applause."

5. indigest Schmidt: Chaotic, formless. Dowdex: Cf. 2 H. 6, V, i, 157:

Hence, heap of wrath, foul indigested lump,
As crooked in thy manners as thy shape.

6. cherubines. Massey: [Cf. Prospero to Miranda: "O, a cherubin thou
wast that did preserve me"; Timon of Phryne, "For all her cherubin look."]
No man is called a cherubin by Sh. (p. 28.)

9. flatry in my seeing. Dowden: Cf. T.N., I, v, 328: " Mine eye too great a
flatterer for my mind."

10-14. [Was this image of the cup and cup-bearer suggested by the casual
phrasing of line 2? It is possible, of course, that it was in mind from the begin-
ning. — Ed.]

11. his gust. Maloxe: The taste of my mind, greeing. Rolfe, [printing
the form without the sign of abbreviation, remarks that it is also found in

272 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxv

prose. Several examples may be found in N. E. D. The only such instance in
Sh., however, is in the highly colloquial speech of Old Gobbo (M. V., II, ii,
1 08). — Ed. ]
13. Steevens: The allusion here is to the tasters to princes.

115

Those lines that I before haue writ doe lie,
Euen those that said I could not loue you deerer:
Yet then my iudgement knew no reason why,
My most full flame should afterwards burne cleerer.
But reckening time, whose milliond accidents 5

Creepe in twixt vowes, and change decrees of Kings,
Tan sacred beautie, blunt the sharp'st intents,
Diuert strong mindes to th' course of altring things:
Alas why fearing of times tiranie, 9

Might I not then say now I loue you best,
When I was certaine ore in-certainty,
Crowning the present, doubting of the rest:
Loue is a Babe, then might I not say so
To giue full growth to that which still doth grow.

2. Euen] E'en S, E.

3. then] when L.

5. milliond] million G, S, E.

7. intents] intent Wa [error].

8. to th'] to the M, Kt, Del, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Cam, Do, R, Wh*, Ty, Ox,
But, Her, Be, N; t' the Co, Wh1, Hal.

10. now . . . best] Italics by M, A, Co3, Hu2; quoted by Kt, Co1-1, B, Hu1,
Del, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, R, etc.

12. rest:] rest? G, etc.

13. not] Italics by Be.

14. grow.] grow? G, S, E, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly,
Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, R, Ox, Her, N (not Tu).

1-2. Griffin: [These lines evidently have reference] to a non-existent son-
net — or sonnets. . . . Such missing verse might, I think, find a place after 85.
(Eng. Writers, 11 : 327.)

4. flame. Dowden: Cf. 109, 2.

5. reckening. [The loose construction here is connected, as Schmidt indi-
cates, with the "fearing" of line 9.] milliond. Schmidt: Millionfold. [See
Abbott's note on "mouthed," 77, 6.]

cxvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 2;v

24) signing himself "Bibliothecary," proposes to understand "hight" as from
the old verb meaning "promise," etc., though with exactly what significance
here he does not make plain. The suggestion led to the two notes that follow.]
B. Nicholson: One's whereabouts at sea, or at least one's latitude, is ascer-
tained by taking the meridian height of a celestial body. ... In the Sta. Reg.
I have seen the entry of a book giving the heights of the stars for the meridian
of, I suppose, London. (N. & Q., 6th s., 1: 250.) B. C: The sailor, in mere
routine, may take the altitude of the Pole star with the utmost pains, . . . yet
know nothing of its benign influences and occult qualities, (ibid., p. 251.)
A. E. Brae [supports his emendation ("width") by the indisputable fact that
it is the direct opposite of "height," and interprets it to mean "horizontal de-
viation, or azimuth," as in the phrase "to go wide" (of the mark, etc.; cf.
140, 14)]. (Lippincott's Mag., 19: 762.) Dowden: Schmidt explains "un-
known" here as "inexpressible, incalculable, immense." The passage seems
to mean, "As the star, over and above what can be ascertained concerning
it for our guidance at sea, has unknowable occult virtue and influence, so
love, beside its power of guiding us, has incalculable potencies." This inter-
pretation is confirmed by the next sonnet, in which the simile of sailing at
sea is introduced. [Cf. especially 117, 14.] . . . "Height," it should be ob-
served, was used by Elizabethan writers in the sense of value, and the word
may be used here in a double sense, altitude (of the star) and value (of love).
Kinnear: See Hackluyt, Voyages, III, 393 (Richardson, Diet.): "Where hav-
ing taken the height of the pole-star, they found themselves to be in 37
degrees and 2 of northerly latitude." (Cruces, p. 501.) Tyler [thinks the
reference is still to the light-house of line 5; a "star" only figuratively.] Ver-
ity: [Perhaps "worth" may be taken literally:] The height, altitude of the
star is known; but who can tell what riches it contains? Wyndham: A mysti-
cal assertion that, as the unknown worth and occult influence of a star is in
excess of the practical service it affords to mariners, so has love an eternal
value immeasurably superior to the accidents of time.

9. Times foole. M alone: / H. 4, V, iv, 81: "Thought's the slave of life,
and life time's fool." Schmidt: Made a sport of by time. Tyler: Cf. M.for M.,
Ill, i, 11: "Thou art Death's fool"; R. & J., Ill, i, 141: "I am fortune's fool."
[Cf. 124, 13. — Ed.]

10. sickles. Cf. 12, 13; 60, 12; 100, 14; 123, 14; 126, 2.
12. Malone: Cf. A.W., III, iii, 5-6:

We'll strive to bear it for your worthy sake
To the extreme edge of hazard.

Henry Reed: If this sonnet was written before [Sh.'s] dramas, then it was
the pregnant thought from which were destined to spring those inimitable crea-
tions of female character that have been loved, as if they were living beings, by
thousands. If, as is most probable, it was written afterwards, it is Sh.'s own
comment, and might be prefixed as a most apposite motto to those dramas in
which he has given life and motion to the conception. {Lectures, 2: 254.)

<76 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxvn

Gollancz: No long interval could have separated R. 6" J. and [this sonnet,]
the poet's epitaph for the golden tomb raised to the lovers by their loveless kin,
— the very epitome of all the songs and stories of romantic passion that we
have heard or read. (Intro., p. xii.) Herford: [This sonnet] is the intellectual
focus of the entire series. (Intro., p. 378.) [In like manner, in my introduction
to the Tudor edition, I have called S. 116 the "thematic terminus" of the col-
lection. — Ed.]

117

Accuse me thus, that I haue scanted all,

Wherein I should your great deserts repay,

Forgot vpon your dearest loue to call,

Whereto al bonds do tie me day by day,

That I haue frequent binne with vnknown mindes, 5

And giuen to time your owne deare purchas'd right,

That I haue hoysted saile to al the windes

Which should transport me farthest from your sight.

Booke both my wilfulnesse and errors downe, 9

And on iust proofe surmise, accumilate,

Bring me within the leuel of your frowne,

But shoote not at me in your wakened hate:

Since my appeale saies I did striue to prooue

The constancy and virtue of your loue

6. time] them Sta conj., But. deare purchas'd] Hyphened by S1, M, etc.

7. saile] sails G2, S2, E.

8. farthest] furthest Ox.

9. errors] err our 1640; error G, S, E.

10. proofe surmise,] proof, surmise M, A, B, Ty; proof surmise Kt, Co, Del,
Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Wh, Cam, Do, R, Ox, Wy, etc.
13. I did] / did not B.

Walsh [places this sonnet between 109 and no, with which it is naturally
allied in theme.]

I. scanted. Schmidt: Afforded sparingly.

4. Malone: Cf. R. 2, IV, i, 76-77:

There is my bond of faith,
To tie thee to my strong correction.

5. frequent. Schmidt: Conversant, intimate, unknown mindes. Schmidt:
Minds such as I should be ashamed to mention. Dowden: Persons who may

cxvn] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 277

not be known, or obscure persons. Beeching: People of no interest or impor-
tance. [Cf. R.j, I,ii, 218: "For divers unknown reasons," which Schmidt inter-
prets as "reasons such as I must not tell," but which Beeching takes simply
as "insignificant reasons."]

6. time. Dowdex: Society, the world; cf. 70, 6. Or, given away to tempo-
rary occasion what is your property and therefore an heirloom for eternity.
Tyler [is disposed to favor Staunton's proposed emendation "them."] Wynd-
ham: Time is the personified object of the whole argument (1-125), and ap-
pears as such in the two preceding sonnets (115, 9 and 1 16, 9). [See the notes
on the same word in 70, 6, especially Beechixg's, for his interpretation here.]
Porter: Those emotions that had only transient worth and temporary claim
upon him. deare purchas'd. Tyler: Though it is not pleasant to attach a
material signification to these words, yet, taking into account what is recorded
of Lord Pembroke's liberality towards men of genius, it seems not unlikely
that there is an allusion to previous presents.

9-10. Beeching [cites these lines, and lines 9-10 in the following sonnet, as
examples of an "abstract way of writing," characteristic of the period of T. & C.
(Intro., p. Hi.)]

11. level. Schmidt: Direction [of a weapon.] YVyndham: Cf. L.C., 22:
"Level'd eyes."

278 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxvm

118

Like as to make our appetites more keene
With eager compounds we our pallat vrge,
As to preuent our malladies vnseene,
We sicken to shun sicknesse when we purge.
Euen so being full of your nere cloying sweetnesse, 5

To bitter sawces did I frame my feeding;
And sicke of wel-fare found a kind of meetnesse,
To be diseas'd ere that there was true needing.
Thus pollicie in loue t'anticipate 9

The ills that were, not grew to faults assured,
And brought to medicine a healthfull state
Which rancke of goodnesse would by ill be cured.
But thence I learne and find the lesson true,
Drugs poyson him that so fell sicke of you.

1. to make our] you make your G2, S2, E.

5. nere cloying] neare cloying 1640; near cloying G, S, E; ne'er-cloying Th
conj., C, M, etc.

7. meetnesse] meekness G2, S2, E.

8. there was true] that was truly G2.

9. t'anticipate] to anticipate C, M, A, Kt, B, Del, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Cam,
Do, R, Ty, Ox, But, Her, Be, N.

10. were, not] were not, G, etc.

2. eager. Steevens: Sour, tart.

5. nere cloying. Walsh: Cf. A. & C, II, ii, 241-43:
Other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies.
5-8. Krauss: Cf. Sidney, Arcadia:

Like those sick fellows, in whom strange humours flow,
Can taste no sweets, the sour only please. . . .
Bitter griefs taste me best, pain is my ease,
Sick to the death, still loving my disease.

(Jahrb., 16: 175.)

9. pollicie. Dowden: Prudent management of affairs.

10. Miss Porter [alone would keep the comma after "were":] The ills that
were ... did not have the chance to "grow to faults assured."

cxix] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 279

12. rancke. Steevens: Cf. A. & C, V, ii, 212: "Rank of gross diet."
Schmidt: Sick (of hypertrophy).

Massey: [With this language of a repentant lover cf. M. N. D., IV, i, 177—

790

But like a sickness did I loathe this food;
But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
Now I do wish it, love it, long for it.

119

What potions haue I drunke of Syren teares
Distil'd from Lymbecks foule as hell within,
Applying feares to hopes, and hopes to feares,
Still loosing when I saw my selfe to win?
What wretched errors hath my heart committed, 5

Whilst it hath thought it selfe so blessed neuer?
How haue mine eies out of their Spheares bene fitted
In the distraction of this madding feuer?
O benefit of ill, now I find true 9

That better is, by euil still made better.
And ruin'd loue when it is built anew
Growes fairer then at first, more strong, far greater.
So I returne rebukt to my content,
And gaine by ills thrise more then I haue spent.

I. potions] potion G2.
4. loosing] losing G, etc.

7. Spheares] sphere G-. bene fitted] been flitted Lettsom conj., Massey
conj.; e'en flitted Hu conj.

13. rebukt] rebuke 1640, G, S, E.

14. ills] ill M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Wh, Hal, Cam,
R, Ox, Wy, But, Her, Bull, Wa.

Tyler: It is probable that we are here brought close to the causes of the
scandal to which 112 and 121 relate.

1. Syren. Beeching: The siren would seem to be the lady of the sonnets
[at the end of the collection.] Rolfe: The wily tears of seductive women.

1-2. Lee: [This exordium] adopts expressions in Barnes's vituperative son-
net (No. 49), where, after denouncing his mistress as a "siren," the poet inco-

280 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxix

herently ejaculates: "From my love's limbeck [have I] still stilled tears!" {Life,
p. 152m)

2. Lymbecks. Schmidt: Alembics, stills, foule as hell. Tyler: Cf. 131, 13
and 147, 14.

4. Dowden: Either "losing in the very moment of victory," or "gaining
victories (of other loves than those of his friend) which were indeed but losses."
Beeching: The contrast of line 5 with line 6 shows that the latter is the more
probable sense.

7. fitted. M alone: Convulsed during the frantic fits of my feverous love.
[Cf. Macb., Ill, iv, 21 : "Then comes my fit again."] Steevens: We meet in
Hamlet [I, v, 17] the same image as here: "Make thy two eyes, like stars, start
from their spheres." Staunton: Started, as by paroxysms. [He compares
Per., II, i, 58, "If it be a day fits you," apparently understanding "fits" in a
cognate sense.] Schmidt: Worked by paroxysms. Dowden : Started from their
hollows in the fever fits of my disease. [The N. E. D. accepts this traditional
gloss, without noting any parallel.] Massey: [This] must, I apprehend, be a
misprint for "flitted," the word that, above all others, signified a "moving"
or removal to the Scotch mind. . . . Cf. Fairfax's Tasso (5, 58): "Alas, that
cannot be, for he is flit out of this camp." . . . Puttenham calls the figure me-
tastasis the "flitting figure," or the Remove. The meaning of the line is, how
have my eyes been moved out of their spheres. Cf. Cymb., V, v, 371: "After
this strange starting from your orbs." (p. 185.) Hudson: I strongly suspect
. . . "e'en flitted." This would give us something very like a passage in Lu-
crece [line 461]: "Who, angry that the eyes fly from their lights." Wyndham:

"Fit" sometimes = a sudden emission. Cf. Coleridge: "A tongue of light,
a fit of flame." [Malone's interpretation is supported by a line noted by
Mr. Horace Davis, in Barnes's Parthenophil, 2d Madrigil: "I for thee fever
scorched, yet thou still fitless."]

8. madding fever. Tyler: Cf. 147, 1, 9-10.

10. McClumpha: Cf. R. & J., I, ii, 46-49: "One fire burns out another's
burning," etc.

11. Dowden: Note the introduction of the metaphor of rebuilt love, reap-
pearing in later sonnets. Cf. C. of E., Ill, ii, 4: "Shall love, in building, grow
so ruinate"; and A. & C, III, ii, 29-30: "The cement of our love, to keep it
builded." [These parallels had been noted by Malone.]

11-12. Furnivall: [This doctrine] was also put into Tennyson's Princess,
in its " Blessings on the falling-out, that all the more endears"; but was rightly
taken out again. (Intro., p. lxv.)

14. ills. [The alteration to "ill" is defended, by some editors, by a reference
to line 9.]

Massey: The confession [made in this sonnet] can only have been made to
a woman. It would have no meaning from a man to a man. (p. 197.)

cxx] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 281

120

That you were once vnkind be-friends mee now,
And for that sorrow, which I then didde feele,
Needes must I vnder my transgression bow,
Vnlesse my Nerues were brasse or hammered Steele.
For if you were by my vnkindnesse shaken 5

As I by yours, y 'haue past a hell of Time,
And I a tyrant haue no leasure taken
To waigh how once I suffered in your crime.
O that our night of wo might haue remembred 9

My deepest sence, how hard true sorrow hits,
And soone to you, as you to me then tendred
The humble salue, which wounded bosomes fits!
But that your trespasse now becomes a fee,
Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransome mee.

6. y'haue] you have C, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del1-2, Kly, Wh1, Hal; you've Hu,
Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Cam, Del3, Do, R, Wh1, Ox, But, Her, Be, N.

7. tyrant] truant Sta conj.

9. our] sour Sta conj.; one or your Be conj.

11. soone] shame Sta conj. me then] me, then C, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Hu1, Del,
Dy1, CI, Gl, Kly, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, R, Ox, Wy, Her, N, Wa; me then, Walker
conj., Sta, Dy2, Hu2, But, Be, Bull.

12. bosomes] bosom M1.

13. that . . . becomes] let . . . become Massey conj.

Cf. Sonnets 34-35, and note.

1. once unkind. Walsh: "Thy unkindness" is mentioned in 139, 2 (where,
however, it seems to be general), and "thy trespass" in 35, 6. The present line
may refer to one of these, or to the "cloud," in 33 and 34, or to the quarrel in
57 and 58, or to something else.

4. Nerves. [In this context it is perhaps prudent to recall that " nerves" for
Sh. meant sinews or muscular strength; the physical figure of "bow" is con-
tinued. — Ed.]

5-6. FuRNlVALL: Cf. Coleridge [Christabel]:

And to be wroth with one we love
Doth work like madness in the brain.

(Intro., p. lxv.)

282 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxx

6. a hell of Time. M alone: Cf. Oth., Ill, iii, 169-70:

But O, what damned minutes tells he o'er

Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet soundly loves!

And Lucrece, 1287: "And that deep torture may be call'd a hell."

9. our night. Tyler: On that former occasion. The expression "night of
woe" may be metaphorical, though it is, of course, possible that reference may
be made to some particular night. Wyndham: Clearly refers to some one occa-
sion of great sorrow, well-known to the friend and to the poet, which the friend
"once" caused by his "crime," but for which he "soon tendered" the fitting
salve. Beeching: [The reading "our"] is impossible, as it spoils the antithesis
of "you" and "me," which runs all through the sonnet. Emendation is diffi-
cult because it is uncertain whether "that" is demonstrative or conjunctive.
I incline to the former supposition, as the effect of the line seems purposely
repeated below in line 13, and, if so, we may accept Staunton's conjecture of
"sour," or read "one" (from the "once" in the preceding line). If "that" is a
conjunction, I can only suggest "your" for "our," and suppose that the poet
means, "Would that in some mystical way your night of woe had communi-
cated itself to my deepest (subliminal) sense, and reminded it," etc. Rolfe:
Probably metaphorical (that dark and woful time), remembred. M alone:
Cf. R. 2, III, iv, 14: "It doth remember me the more of sorrow."

10. deepest sence. Hudson: As Hamlet expresses it, "my heart of heart."

11. me then. Walker: Surely the sense requires [the punctuation "me
then, tender'd."] [The rhythm is surely more agreeable if one can find it satis-
factory to put the comma after "me"; but in 22, 10 we have a similar logical
pause after the eleventh syllable. — Ed.]

12. salve. Dowden: Cf. 34, 7.

13. a fee. Tyler: Something which I can offer as a payment and ransom
for my own offence.

[See Bradley's note at the end of S. 109.]

cxxi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 283

121

Tis better to be vile then vile esteemed,
When not to be, receiues reproach of being,
And the iust pleasure lost, which is so deemed,
Not by our feeling, but by others seeing.
For why should others false adulterat eyes 5

Giue salutation to my sportiue blood?
Or on my frailties why are frailer spies;
Which in their wils count bad what I think good?
Noe, I am that I am, and they that leuell 9

At my abuses, reckon vp their owne,
I may be straight though they them-selues be beuel
By their rancke thoughtes, my deedes must not be shown
Vnlesse this generall euill they maintaine,
All men are bad and in their badnesse raigne.

1. vife esteemed] Hyphened by Walker conj., Del, Sta, Hu2.
3. pleasure] pleasure's S.

5. false adulterat] Hyphened by Walker conj., Sta, Dy2, HuJ.
14. All . . . raigne] Italics by Be. raigne] feign But.

Jordan: [This sonnet] seems to me to indicate that already the poet had
learned that there were in circulation unworthy suspicions such as the sonnets
have frequently aroused among later critics. Isaac: No one is directly ad-
dressed: it is a soliloquy of the poet, in which he makes light of the slanders
of evil men and makes himself tranquil. Regarding the nature of the slanders
we can reach the general conclusion, from the words "adulterate eyes," that
it had some relation to galanterie. . . . Our knowledge goes no further. (Archiv,
59: 270.) [See Tyler's note on 112, 2.]

3-4. Dowden: And the legitimate pleasure lost, which is deemed vile, not
by us who experience it, but by others who look on and condemn. Wyndham:
And the lawful pleasure lost, which is judged vile from the point of view of
others and not from any sense of shame on our part. Beeching: The poorer
by a pleasure, which is the vileness they mean, though, maybe, we should not
so reckon it.

6. Give salutation. Isaac: I believe that we must go back to the old Ger-
manic significance of this verb, which appears in M. H. G. "gruoz" and still
in the English "greet " in Sh., i.e., meet in an optional sense, either friendly or

284 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxi

hostile; ... it is the whole character of the meeting, in which is reflected the im-
pression which the one greeted has made upon the one greeting. . . . [Cf. T. & C,
III, iii, 108: "Eye to eye opposed Salutes each other with each other's form";
where there is the same meaning as here, viz., "reflects the impression which
has been made on the one saluting," and which in this case is indicated by the
word "adulterate."] The translation of Jordan is excellent:

Des Lustlings Auge griisst mit frechem Hohne
In mir ein ihm verwandtes wildes Blut.

(Archiv, 59: 271.)

Schmidt: Affect in any manner (gratify or mortify). [Cf. H. 8, II, iii, 103:
"Would I had no being, if this salute my blood a jot"; and "greet" in Per., IV,
iii, 38: "It greets me as an enterprise of kindness."] Tyler: Take account of
and criticise. Herford: Affect, stir. Beeching: Affect, stir, and so infect.
Lee: Stir (by greeting) or stimulate. [It is evident that the interpretation of
the phrase here is largely a matter of guess-work. What we should expect
would be something like "pass judgment on" or "interpret in an unfriendly
manner"; but neither of these meanings appears to be warranted by what is
said. I cannot find the meaning "stir" or "affect" plausible; for it is not a
question of the writer's sensual nature being stirred or affected by his critics;
still less can I understand Beeching's "infect." Isaac's reading seems really
more rational than that of any later commentator, though there is no need to
reach the interpretation by so complicated a linguistic process. "Salute," for
Sh., commonly meant the giving of an emphatic greeting appropriate to the
relations of the persons concerned, — especially that of a king to a subject or
the reverse. May it not therefore mean here, "hail as a prince of adultery like
themselves," or, perhaps, "as a greater prince"? — a case of the beam saluting
the mote. — Ed.] sportive. Tyler: My somewhat warm nature. Rolfe:
Amorous, wanton. [Cf. notes on 95, 6. Gildemeister glosses, " Verzeihliche
Temperamentssiinden."] Mr. Horace Davis [suggests that the line may
mean, "Give my blood the name of sportive (wanton)."]

8. wils. Isaac: Inclinations. [Cf. "ill-will."] (Archiv, 59: 271.) Dowden:
According to their pleasure. Lee: Cf. 57, 13.

9. I am that I am. Tyler: With all my frailties, but yet not without some-
thing of good. Mackail: These words are in effect Sh.'s single and final self-
criticism. They are almost appalling in their superb brevity and concentrated
insight; beside them even the pride of Milton dwindles and grows pale; for
here Sh., for one single revealing moment, speaks not as though he were God's
elect, but as though he were God himself. (Led. on Poetry, p. 196.) [One may
enjoy this eloquent note, it is to be hoped, without being carried off his feet by
it. The context shows that all Sh. says is, " I have an independent standard
of character, and when others do not find theirs fitting it, the crookedness
(line 11) may be theirs." — Ed.] levell. Schmidt: Aim. [Cf. 117, 11.]

10. reckon. Walsh: [Apparently subjunctive,] — "let them reckon." [Most
readers, I am sure, take it as indicative, explained by the following line: "their

cxxi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 285

faults begin to appear for reckoning (enumeration), in their very act of attack-
ing mine." — Ed.]

11. bevel. Steevens: Crooked; a term used only, I believe, by masons and
joiners. [The N. E. D. gives no other example of its adjective use, with this
meaning, earlier than 1677.] Wyndham: The sense is rather "oblique" than
"crooked."

12. Beeching: Cf. 69, 10. rank. Rolfe: Cf. 69, 12. Tyler: This, as well
as preceding expressions, shows that the charge brought against the poet
involved sensuality.

14. raigne. Schmidt: Exult in, are made happy by. [Cf. R. 3, IV, iv, 53:

That excellent grand tyrant of the earth,
That reigns in galled eyes of weeping souls.]

Butler [reading "feign":] I can make no sense of [the Q text.] The sense I
take to be, " I am not judged by the rank thoughts of these men, unless, indeed,
they are prepared to admit that all men are bad, but pretend to be better than
they are." Beeching: I have marked the whole line [as a quotation] as the
theory of the "spies." But the sense of "reign" is not clear. . . . Perhaps it
means "what makes 'kings of men' is but a higher degree of badness."

L. A. J. Burgersdijk [(Jahrb., 14: 363) interprets this sonnet as an attack
on the Puritans:] If one conceives that here the dramatic poet and actor,
despised, interfered with, slandered, persecuted, by the Puritans, hurls a son-
net against his bitter foes, everything becomes clear. In this time, he says,
gradually dominated by Puritanism, it would be better to be bad, than to
belong to a profession defamed as bad. These pious or pietistic people spoiled
his pleasure [line 3], which was considered bad by some spectators ("by others'
seeing"); the attendants on the theatre, who applauded his humour [line 6],
were depraved ("adulterate") in the judgment of these weak spirits. But the
poet maintains his position; he believes that the stage is chiefly hated because
it holds up a mirror before these people [line 10], and considers itself as straight
(the exact epithet for the Puritans) as they, — at least unless they are right in
their thesis that humanity and all its deeds are evil. . . . [The sonnet would be
well placed near S. 29], where doubtless the poet is also speaking of his despised
profession. [Burgersdijk's theory is supported and developed by von Mauntz
(Anglia, 19: 291), who makes a new translation of the sonnet, in which he
renders "sportive blood" as frohnatur.]

Horace Davis: I am inclined to think the charge against which Sh. defends
himself was inconstancy; this is the general subject from 109 to 125. In 109,11,
pleading that he was not "false of heart," he speaks of his apparent disloyalty
to his friend as his "stain," resulting from his frailties; here he uses the same
expression (line 7).

286 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxn

122

TThy guift,, thy tables, are within my braine

Full characterd with lasting memory,

Which shall aboue that idle rancke remaine

Beyond all date euen to eternity.

Or at the least, so long as braine and heart 5

Haue facultie by nature to subsist,

Til each to raz'd obliuion yeeld his part

Of thee, thy record neuer can be mist:

That poore retention could not so much hold, 9

Nor need I tallies thy deare loue to skore,

Therefore to giue them from me was I bold,

To trust those tables that receaue thee more,

To keepe an adiunckt to remember thee,

Were to import forgetfulnesse in mee.

2. lasting] a lasting G1, S, E.

Tyler: [A present of tablets] the poet had, probably during the period of
separation, given away to some other person — perhaps after writing 99,
thinking that the breach was final. Von Mauntz [suggests that the tablets
may have contained some of the sonnets, and that the reference is to the time
when Sh. had allowed them to pass into other hands. (Gedichle, p. 152.)]
Rolfe: Cf. S. 77, where a similar present to his friend is mentioned. Miss
Porter [takes the tables as allegorical, referring to the personality of the friend,
as first presented and impressed upon the poet.] These tables of memory are
now, through the psychical effect of ripened love within the poet, transcended
by a finer memorial to which the first contributed.

Lee: [The sonnet] repeats something of Ronsard's phraseology; . . . cf. Am-
ours, livre 178; Amours pour Astree, 6. The latter opens:

II ne falloit, maistresse, autres tablettes
Pour vous graver que celles de mon cceur
Ou de sa main Amour, nostre vainqueur,
Vous a gravee et vos graces parfaites.

{Life, p. 112.)

1. TThy. The T in ordinary type is repeated after the large initial, tables.
Walsh: "Tables" appear to have been small note-books with glossy leaves,
or tablets, on which notes could temporarily be jotted down and again erased.

cxxit] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 287

[Cf. Bacon, New Atlantis, where is mentioned a scroll] "shining like the leaves
of writing tables, but otherwise soft and flexible"; . . . 2 H. 4, IV, i, 201:
"Therefore will he wipe his tables clean."

1-2. M ALONE: Cf. Haml., I, v, 98-99, 102-03:

Yea, from the table of my memory
I '11 wipe away all trivial fond records, . . .
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain;

T. G. V., II, vii, 3-4:

Who art the table wherein all my thoughts
Are visibly character'd and engrav'd.

3. idlerancke. Schmidt: Unprofitable degree of dignity. [Cf. 32, 12; 85, 12.]
Dowdex: Poor dignity. Beechixg: Useless series of leaves; [or Dowden may
be right.] Lee: The dignity of such humble objects. [For "rank" in the mean-
ing proposed by Beeching, which I am disposed to favor, cf. A. Y. L., IV, iii,
80: "Rank of osiers." — Ed.]

9. poore retention. M alone: The table-book, . . . incapable of retaining,
or rather of containing, so much as the tablet of the brain.

10. tallies. Schmidt: Sticks on which notches or scores are cut, to keep
accounts by.

[Von Mauntz takes this to be the last of the Southampton sonnets, marking
the moment of a second and lasting estrangement.]

288 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxm

123

No! Time, thou shalt not bost that I doe change,
Thy pyramyds buylt vp with newer might
To me are nothing nouell, nothing strange,
They are but dressings of a former sight :
Our dates are breefe, and therefor we admire, 5

What thou dost foyst vpon vs that is ould,
And rather make them borne to our desire,
Then thinke that we before haue heard them tould :
Thy registers and thee I both defie, 9

Not wondring at the present, nor the past,
For thy records, and what we see doth lye,
Made more or les by thy continuall hast:
This I doe vow and this shall euer be,
I will be true dispight thy syeth and thee.

11. doth] do M», A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Kly, Wh*. Hal, Ty.
14. thee.] thee; M, Co, Del1-2, Hal; thee: A, Kt, Del3, Ty.

[For the reappearance here of the "doctrine of cycles," see notes on S. 59.
Lee remarks of the present sonnet:] Sh. takes a bolder position, though
again his intellectual courage evaporates when in face of the inevitable con-
clusion, and he weakly makes escape through an emotional commonplace.
(Qu. Rev., 210: 470.)

1. Wyndham: This apostrophe opens the peroration to the poet's attack
on Time.

2. Jordan [takes this to be a figurative expression for persons who have
attained to places of power and influence formerly held by others; written soon
after the fall of Essex.] Dowden: I think this is metaphorical; all that Time
piles up from day to day , all his new stupendous erections, are really but " dress-
ings of a former sight." Is there a reference to the new love, the "ruined love
built anew" (S. 119), between the two friends? The same metaphor appears
in the next sonnet [line 5], and again in [125, 3]. Does Sh. mean here that this
new love is really the same with the old love; he will recognize the identity of
new and old, and not wonder at either the past or present? Tyler: ["Pyra-
mids" is] to be understood of anything grand or stupendous. Herford: "All
that Time piles up from day to day," new structures of event. Beeching:
The new pyramids are any modern marvels which seem to defy change. For

cxxm] THE SOXXETS OF SHAKESPEARE 289

"pyramid" in this general sense, cf. Macb., IV, i, 57: "Though palaces and
pyramids do slope their heads."

4. dressings of a former sight. Wyndham: Repetitions of ante-natal experi-
ence. Rolfe: "Dressings" = ornamental repetitions. Lee: Here Sh. draws
further on that doctrine of the indestructibility of matter in spite of its out-
ward mutability which Ovid expounds in his Metam., bk. xv. [Cf. the passage
from Golding's translation, quoted under S. 59, and further:]

No kind of thing keeps aye his shape and hue:
For nature loving ever change repairs one shape anew
Upon another, neither doth there perish aught (trust me)
In all the world, but alt'ring takes new shape.

5-6. Beeching: We are so short-lived that we take for novelty what is
really a new dressing of what is old.

7-8. Dowden: We choose rather to think such things ['what thou dost
foist," etc.] new, and specially created for our satisfaction, than, as they really
are, old things of which we have already heard. Tyler: Prefer to regard them
as really new, just "born." Wyndham: Assuming these lines to refer to what
Time "foists upon us," [Tyler's and Dowden's explanations are the best to be
got.] But this reference of "them" to "what," followed by a singular "that is,"
can hardly be sustained grammatically, and it scarce makes sense. ... I sug-
gest that the plural "them" refers grammatically to the plural "dates," and
that the word usually printed "born" in line 7 had best be printed "borne" as
it is in the Q (= bourn; borne, French, and in Hamlet). We make our brief
dates into a bourn or limit to our desire (cf. "confined doom," 107, 4), instead
of recollecting that "we have heard them told" ( = reckoned) before. (Intro.,
p. cxxix.)

11. records. Rolfe: Sh. accents the noun on either syllable, as may suit
the measure. Cf. 55, 8.

12. Hudson: Time's record of things is made big or little, to suit his swiftly
changing occasions, and without any regard to what the things are in them-
selves. Beeching: [All the works of Time] grow and decay, as he passes on his
rapid course. [The latter interpretation is doubtless the right one. With "more
or less," cf. 64, 8. — Ed.]

Massey [believes this sonnet was written when Southampton was imprisoned
in the Tower, after the Essex rebellion, and takes the "pyramids" to represent
"the prison-house of Time." (p. 204.)]

2QO THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxiv

124

Yf my deare loue were but the childe of state,

It might for fortunes basterd be vnfathered,

As subiect to times loue, or to times hate,

Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gatherd.

No it was buylded far from accident, 5

It suffers not in smilinge pomp, nor falls

Vnder the blow of thralled discontent,

Whereto th'inuiting time our fashion calls:

It feares not policy that Heriticke, 9

Which workes on leases of short numbred howers,

But all alone stands hugely pollitick,

That it nor growes with heat, nor drownes with showres.
To this I witnes call the foles of time,
Which die for goodnes, who haue liu'd for crime.

8. th'inuiting] the inviting C, M, A, Kt, B, Del, CI, Gl. Kly, R, Wh2, Ty, Ox,
Cam2, But, Her, Be, N. our] or C.

10. short numbred] Hyphened by C, M, A, Kt, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl,
Kly, Cam, Co3, R, Wh2, Ty, Wy, But, Her, Be, N, Bull, Wa.

12. nor growes] not grows M1; nor dries C; nor glows Stee conj., Kly; nor
droops Be conj.

13. foles of time] fooles of time 1640; fools of time G, etc. (except But)'Ksouls
oftime But.

1. Tyler: [This expression] is at least consistent with the supposition that
the poet was thinking of Essex and the dignities he attained, (p. 25.) [Schmidt
glosses "state" as "splendour"; Rolfe as "rank"; Dowden renders "child of
state" as "born of place and power"; on the other hand, Wyndham, Butler,
Beeching, and Lee understand " state " as accident or circumstance ("circum-
stancesof nature or fortune," says Beeching," explained by 'accident 'in line 5").
For the divergent meanings, cf. 64, 9 and 96, 12.] Gollancz [explains the line as
an allusion to Southampton's having been, as Lord Burleigh's ward, a "child of
state," — brought up under the Queen. (See his note on line 7.) He does not,
however, mean that the word "love" refers to the friend, as Archer under-
stands, and takes pains to point out is impossible. {Fort. Rev., n.s., 62: 820.)]
Acheson [finds an allusion here to a passage in Chapman's Achilles' s Shield:

cxxiv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 291

Far above
Their tympanies of state [i.e., Sh.'s sonnets], that arms of love,
Fortune, or blood shall lift to dignity.

(Sh. & the R.P., p. 158.)]

Beeching: The friend must have been some one whose friendship the poet
might be charged with cultivating for the sake of the good fortune it might
bring. It would not have been worth while to say that his love did not suffer
"in smiling pomp," if pomp had no relation to his friend. (Intro., p. xxxi.)

2. unfathered. Schmidt: As not born in the natural way. Wyndham: Dis-
inherited in favour of any other effect of Time and Chance. Beechixg : With-
out a true father, being begotten by Time upon Fortune, and so subject to his
caprices. A bastard was fiiius nullius.

3-4. Dowden: Subject to Time's hate, and so plucked up as a weed; or sub-
ject to Time's love, and so gathered as a flower.

5. accident. Schmidt: Casualty, chance. [Cf. 115, 5.] Wyndham: A term
of metaphysic: his love belongs to the absolute and unconditioned, to Eternity
and not to Time. (Intro., p. cxxix.) [I fear (or rejoice) that there is no evidence
of Sh.'s using the word in its metaphysical sense. — Ed.]

7. thralled. Abbott: Sometimes passive participles are used as epithets to
describe the state which would be the result of the active verb. (§374.) Tyler:
The expression "thralled discontent" seems to suit perfectly the state of
things after the rebellion [of Essex,] if we take the word " thralled " as referring
to the severe measures by which the rebellion had been put down, and by which
discontent was still restrained. (Intro., pp. 25-26.) Gollancz: [The phrase]
may perhaps refer to the growing feelings of discontent [about 1598] which
were ultimately to find expression in insane revolt. . . . On Nov. 22, 1598,
Southampton returned from the continent; "for his welcome," we read, "he
is committed to the Fleet." . . . Though his friend, "the child of state," has
suffered Fortune's spite, the poet's love, being no child of state, fears no policy,
and knows no change. (Intro., p. xix.)

7-8. Dowden: When time puts us, who have been in favour, out of fashion.
J.M.: The time referred to is unmistakably that after the accession of James;
and the gunpowder plot is such a remarkable instance of a plot to strike a
"blow of thralled discontent," . . . that in all probability [it] supplied Sh. with
his figure, (p. 80.) Beeching: I suspect the main reference here is to the Jesuit
intrigues, "the blow of thralled discontent" being the Powder Plot. Lee: A
possible vague allusion to the social and political unrest which distinguished
alike the last decade of Elizabeth's reign and the first decade of James I's reign.
Unemployment and Catholic plots against the throne were the chief causes of
disquiet. The former source of "discontent," which produced much agrarian
disturbance, might well bear the epithet "thralled." [It will perhaps caution us
against rash inferences respecting the date of such a passage, if we remind our-
selves how pertinent to any year of the last ten — or twenty — a reference
in contemporary literature to "these troubled and discontented times" has

292 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxiv

seemed, and how utterly at a loss posterity must be to identify such allusions
with precision. — Ed.]

9. policy that Heriticke. Dowden: The prudence of self-interest, which is
faithless in love. [Cf. R. & J., I, ii, 95, where Romeo calls unfaithful eyes
"transparent heretics."] Lee: "Policy" means intrigue, underhand dealing.
There is a possible reference to the short-sighted political intrigues of the
"heretic" Papists.

10. Massey suspects here "an ominous hint" at the age of Queen Elizabeth.

11. hugely pollitick. Hudson: Organized or knit together in a huge polity
or state. Dowden: Love itself is infinitely prudent. Tyler: "Politic" seems
here equivalent to self-sufficing, desiring no increase or extension, and fearing
no enemies, like a well-ordered city or state. Cf. M. Ado, V, ii, 63-64: "So
politic a state of evil that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with
them." WYNDHAM: An independent and self-sufficing state. (Intro., p.
cxxx.) Beeching: Vastly wise and prescient.

12. Steevens: Though a building may be drown'd, i.e., deluged by rain, it
can hardly grow under the influence of heat. I would read glows. Malone:
Our poet frequently starts from one idea to another. Though he had compared
his affection to a building, he seems to have deserted that thought; and here,
perhaps, meant to allude to the progress of vegetation, and the accidents that
retard it. [Cf. 15, 1-2, 5-6.] Beeching: The image is ... of a great tree which
neither sunshine nor storm can affect and which cannot be cut down. ... If
[the line] is meant to be parallel to line 6, we want instead of "grows" a word to
repeat "suffers," such as "droops," which alliteration suggests. For the
printer's error of g for d, cf. 144, 6, "sight" for "side." [Beeching might have
supported his suggestion further by citing 2 II. 6, II, iii, 45: "Thus droops this
lofty pine." — Ed.]

13-14. Steevens: Perhaps this is a stroke at some of Fox's Martyrs.
Massey: The allusion is no doubt more particularly directed to Essex and his
companions, who had died so recently. . . . The "fools of time" may give us
the poet's estimate of Essex's attempt. He was one of those who had lived to
reach the criminal's end, but who "died for goodness" in the sense that he, like
Danvers, died devoutly, and took leave of life with a redeeming touch of noble-
ness. Essex was also popularly designated "the good Earl." (p. 207.) Simpson:
[The "fools of time"] may be conspirators; . . . but they may be also politic
friendships, which subsist only for selfish ends, and die in an atmosphere of
truth and honour, false loves as distinguished from that true one of which he
sings in S. 116. (p. 80.) Dowden: [The lines perhaps mean:] I call to witness
the transitory unworthy loves (fools of time = sports of time; cf. 1 16, 9), whose
death was a virtue since their life was a crime. Hudson: Exceedingly obscure.
[Perhaps the meaning is:] Those fools who make as if they would die for virtue
after having devoted their lives to vice. Sharp: I summon those very detrac-
tors, those fools of a season, who, though they have lived to my harm, will thus
ultimately still further cement our love. Tyler: These expressions ... be-
come intelligible when considered as referring to Essex and his companions,

cxxiv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 293

and to the consequences of the rebellion. The "fools of Time" are those whom
Time does what he pleases with, now raising them to the highest dignities, and
now bringing them down to the scaffold. . . . The conspiracy and rebellion are
evidently alluded to in the "living for crime," while in the "dying for good-
ness" we may recognise with equal facility an ironical allusion to the popular
regard for Essex, after his execution, as the "good earl." (p. 26.) Vox Mauntz
[curiously interprets "foles" in an active rather than a passive sense, paraphras-
ing:] Those who snap their fingers at Time, and, although they are wholly bad
men, yet (under such a government) pass as good to the moment of their death.
WYNDHAM: [Line 14 means:] Who are so much the dupes of Time that they
attach importance to the mere order of sequence in which events occur, and
believe that a death-bed repentance can cancel a life of crime. ... [In this son-
net,] developing the idea of mutations in fortune, Sh. glances aside at some con-
temporary reverse in politics or art which we cannot decipher. It may have
been the closing of the theatres, the censorship of plays, the imprisonment of
Southampton or of Herbert. No one can tell, nor does it matter, for the main
meaning is clear: namely, that this absolute Love is outside the world of poli-
tics, which are limited by Time, and count on leases of short numbered hours.
(Intro., p. cxxx.) Butler [defending his emendation "souls oftime":] Sh.
would never call a man a fool for dying well after living ill, and there is no
relevancy in calling such persons to bear witness to the fact that Sh.'s love for
Mr. W. H. was not subject to vicissitudes. ... I take the emended passage to
mean, "If I have been inconstant, nothing can shake me further; in witness
whereof I call the souls of those whose repentance even after a life of crime has
been often genuine." Beechixg: I believe the allusion here is to the Jesuit
conspirators whose object in life was to murder the king, and who when caught
posed as martyrs for the faith. Such inconstancy of principle would justify the
poet in calling them "the fools of time" and pointing his moral with them. The
moral is that "Love is the only true policy." Stopes: [Line 14 means:] Who
die for one good deed, after having lived a lifetime of evil. Lee: Penitent
traitors, who expiated their crimes with piety on the scaffold. The words would
apply to any political or religious conspirator against the throne who suffered
capital punishment in Sh.'s day. All met their death with prayer and pious
courage. To this fact the poet ironically directs attention by way of indicating
that their lives, unlike his unalterable affection, were profitless because they
were inconstant. Porter: Those who, trusting to external favors, build upon
them or upon policy, instead of relying on their own inner steadfastness, are
the fools of time. Followers of occasion or change, they assume to be good
(or bad) to serve private ends, and they are sure to be cheated by the ironies
of life; those, finally, being sentenced for such goodness to die who have lived
all their lives by means of their crimes. Braxdl: [The passage is strikingly
suggestive of the Essex conspiracy. The next sonnet refers to the same subject,
and promises the fallen friend the poet's fidelity, (p. xxii.)] [It is pleasant to
conclude with the annotation of Rolfe:] The reference is hopelessly obscure,
and I shall add no attempt to explain it.

294 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxv

Beeching [notes the style of the sonnet as of Sh.'s more abstract character.
(Intro., p. lii.) See note on 117, 9-10.]

Mackail: [The phrasing of this sonnet is singularly applicable to the sonnet
collection and its fortune. For two hundred years the volume seemed as though
"It might for Fortune's bastard be unfathered,"] the illegitimate issue of the
press of a thievish publisher, little regarded, little mentioned for either praise
or blame. But for the next hundred years which are now expiring the words in
which that sonnet goes on are as strikingly applicable: "No, it was builded far
from accident." (Led. on Poetry, p. 180.)

125
Wer't ought to me I bore the canopy,
With my extern the outward honoring,
Or layd great bases for eternity,
Which proues more short then wast or ruining?
Haue I not seene dwellers on forme and fauor 5

Lose all, and more by paying too much rent
For compound sweet; Forgoing simple sauor,
Pittifull thriuors in their gazing spent.
Noe, let me be obsequious in thy heart, 9

And take thou my oblacion, poore but free,
Which is not mixt with seconds, knows no art,
But mutuall render, onely me for thee.

Hence, thou subbornd Informer, a trew soule
When most impeacht, stands least in thy controule.

1. Wer't] Were it M, A, B, Kly. Wer't . . . me] Where it ought to be
[with question mark omitted] G2, S2, E.

2. the] thy or thee Sta conj.

4. proues] prove G2, S2, E, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly,
Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, R, Ox, Her, Be.

6-7. rent For compound sweet;] rent, For compound- sweet, S1; rent, For com-
pound sweet M1, A, Kt, B, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Cam, Do, Hu2, R, Wh2, Ty,
Ox, Her, Be, Wa, Tu; rent; For compound sweet C, M2, Co, Del, Hu1, Wh1, Hal;
rent? For compound sweet But; rent, For compound sweet; Bull. Foregoing]
foregoing G, S, E, M (not Bo), A, Kt, Co, B, Del1. 2, Hu1, Dy, CI, Kly, Wh1,
Hal, Cam1, Do, R, Ty, Ox, Wy, Bull.

8. gazing] gaining Sta conj., But. spent.] spent? C, M, etc.

11. seconds] seasonings Bulloch conj.

12. render] renders But.

cxxv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 295

I. Wer't. Beeching: "Would it be." Commentators have ignored the fact
that the verb here is conditional; and so they have not seen that the poet is
repudiating charges laid against him by the "informer " of line 13. The charges
are of caring too much for his friend's beauty and laying upon that a basis for
eternity, bore the canopy. Massey: [The speaker] is a person who has borne
the canopy of state, as a lord in waiting. That is not Sh. (p. 95.) Staunton:
[An allusion to] some pageant in which the writer's friend had played, or might
befittingly play, the leading part. . . . "Would it have availed me aught if I
had paid homage to your personal dignity by assisting to carry the canopy over
you?" (Ath., March 14, 1874, p. 357.) Hudson: Perhaps the meaning is,
"Were it of any consequence to me that I walked at the Queen's side, and car-
ried the canopy over her royal head, if I honoured only her outward form with
mere external observances?" Dowden: Rendered outward homage, as one
renders who bears a canopy over a superior. The metaphor was not so far-
fetched in Sh.'s day as it would be in ours. [He instances several occasions when
canopies were conspicuous in royal progresses.] Tyler: [Figurative; meaning
that the poet's relations with Southampton] have been a "bearing the canopy,"
an "outward honouring," a "gazing" on his "extern." [See note on line 13.]
Wyndham: The word may contain an allusion to some one of the many alle-
gories current among the cultivated court circle of that day. ... In a letter
from Francis Beaumont to Anne Fytton . . . you read: "In which conceite of
mine . . . your own preatie stoarie of the Canopy, and myne of Timantes for
covering affectiones with curtaines may be my all sufficient warrant." (Gossip
from a Muniment Room, 1897.) Butler: There is a reference to the bearing
of a certain canopy, apparently on some very great occasion, over some great
personage: Sh. seems either to have had some part in the bearing of this canopy,
which had given rise to ill-natured remarks, or else to have been maliciously
foiled in an attempt to be included among the bearers. [He is disposed to think
that the occasion is the progress of the Queen to St. Paul's, Nov. 24, 1588.]
(p. 112.) Creighton: [The passage] recalls some great funeral at which Sh.
had borne the canopy, perhaps that of Pembroke's father in Salisbury Cathedral
[January 1601.] (Blackwood's, 169: 843.) Beeching: A symbol of outward
honour. Rolfe: On the 15th of March, 1604, when James made a formal
march from the Tower to Westminster, the nine actors (including Sh.) to whom
he had granted a special license to perform in London and the provinces, were
in the royal train. . . . Whether the actors "bore the canopy" on this occasion
I find no record; but I doubt whether there is a reference to it here. H. Pem-
berton [(New Shakespeareana, 8: 61), following a suggestion made by the
Rev. W. Begley, in Is it Sh. (p. 231), argues for the identification of this can-
opy with that carried over the queen by a number of noblemen, among whom
was William Herbert, on the occasion of the marriage of Mistress Anne Russell,
June 16, 1600.] Dowden [parries these efforts to date the sonnet by means of
contemporary allusions with this admirable reductio ad absurdum:] I am per-
suaded that Sonnet 125 .. . was actually written by Sh. in Dublin in the year
1885, shortly after the visit of the Prince of Wales to the Irish capital. . . . The

296 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxv

sonnet is, indeed, packed full of allusions to the events of that period. There
is the reference to the practice of boycotting tenants who, servile to the aris-
tocracy, had paid their full rents [lines 5-6]. There is a clear reference to the
inability of the crown to obtain convictions through its paid and perjured
witnesses [lines 13-14]. If it be remembered that the Prince of Wales laid the
foundation stones for a new museum and a national library, there can be no
obscurity in the line "Or laid great bases for eternity"; while the canopy under
which His Royal Highness stood on that occasion is expressly mentioned in
line 1. . . . The word "heretic" in the preceding sonnet, and the reference to
"leases of short numbered hours," manifestly applies to the Protestant land-
lords, whose days were now numbered. (Academy, Jan. 30, 1886, pp. 67-68.)
2. Steevens: Cf. Oth., I, i, 61:

When my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern.

[The N. E. D. gives no other instance of the noun "extern" in this meaning of
"exterior, outward appearance."] Wyndham: Honouring outward beauty with
public praise (cf. 69, 5); but, as I hold, with a larger philosophic suggestion, in
the manner of the time, and in pursuance of the argument in the two preceding
sonnets, viz. that the poet's love is esoteric and eternal.

3-4. Dowden: The love of the earlier sonnets, which celebrated the beauty
of Sh.'s friend, was to last forever, and yet it has been ruined. Tyler: The
reference is probably to the Dedication to the Lucrece: "The love I dedicate to
your Lordship is without end," etc.

4. proves. See textual notes. Tyler: It is the anticipated "eternity"
which "proves more short" than ruin. Wyndham: It is safest to preserve the
Q text. . . . The sense here seems to be: "or ostentatiously claimed an eternity
for my panegyrics, :which eternity proves short-lived as 'waste or ruining.' "
[No interpretative explanation is necessary for "proves," as the ending in -s
for the plural is sufficiently familiar. See note on 41, 3. — Ed.]

5. favor. Cf. 113, 10.

6. and more. Dowden: Through satiety even grow to dislike.

6-7. See textual notes on punctuation. Wyndham: I preserve the punctu-
ation of Q, emphasized, as it is, by a capital after the semicolon. . . . The
"dwellers on form and favour" are "eternizers," with their "extern the out-
ward honoring" to secure "eternity" by their public panegyrics. . . . The
"compound sweet" for which they pay too much rent is their "couplement of
proud compare," 21, 5; their "false painting," 67, 5; "false art," 68, 14;
"strained touches," 82, 10; "comments of praise . . . golden quill" and "well-
refined pen," 85, 2-8. . . . For these laboured tributes to outward beauty they
forego the "simple savor," i.e., the simple appreciation of true affection. [This
is ingenious, but quite superfluous for all who have less reverence than Wynd-
ham for the Q printer's semicolons and capitals. — Ed.]

8. Staunton: [Without the change of "gazing" to "gaining," the line] is

cxxv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 297

sheer, unmitigated nonsense. (Ath., Dec. 6, 1873, p. 732.) Beeching: Their
love was a mere matter of "gazing," and so it was all expense without return,
which is "pitiful thriving," i.e., bad business. [This is much better than Rolfe's
explanation of "pitiful thrivers " as " to be pitied even when successful." — Ed.]

9. obsequious. Hudson: Mourned or lamented. [A wholly unwarranted
gloss. — Ed.] Dowden : Zealous, devoted.

10. oblacion. YVyndham: Cf. Drayton, Idea, S. 54:

Receive the incense which I offer here, . . .
My soul's oblations to thy sacred name.

11. seconds. Steevens: I am just informed by an old lady that "seconds"
is a provincial term for the second kind of flour, which is collected after the
smaller bran is sifted. That our author's oblation was pure, unmixed with
baser matter, is all that he meant to say. Dyce [(Aldine ed.) calls Steevens's
note "preposterously absurd."] Knight: [Steevens] mentions the flour, as in
almost every other note upon the Sonnets, to throw discredit upon composi-
tions with which he could not sympathize. He had a sharp, cunning, petti-
fogging mind; and he knew many prosaic things well enough. He knew that a
second in a duel, a seconder in a debate, a secondary in ecclesiastical affairs,
meant one next to the principal. The poet's friend has his chief oblation; no
seconds, or inferior persons, are mixed up with his tribute of affection. [Stee-
vens's explanation is accepted bodily by Schmidt, and by recent editors pretty
generally.] YVyndham: May not "seconds" mean "assistants" and refer to
the collaboration of the two poets in 83? It can hardly mean "baser matter";
since the contrast is between an offering humble, poor, and without art, and
some other offering presumably rich and artificial, such as the verse of the rival
poets. (Intro., p. cxxxii.) Beeching: The word "oblation" suggested the
simplest form of offering in the Levitical code, — a cake of meal; and this sug-
gested the use of the word "seconds." Rolfe: For the figure I may add the
familiar household one of "bolted" (sifted, like flour), which Sh. uses of per-
sons {H. 5, II, ii, 137) and of language {Cor., Ill, i, 322). ... He has many
other metaphors equally "vulgar," as Blair and certain other rhetoricians,
trained in the school of Pope, call them. Lee: Cf. Sir Christopher Hatton,
[who], writing to Queen Elizabeth in Nov. 1591, bids her "sift the chaff from
the wheat so that the corn of your commonwealth would be more pure, and
mixt grains would less infect the sinews of your surety." (Nicolas's Life,
p. 497.) Miss Porter [rejects Steevens's note as irrelevant, and explains "not
mixt with seconds" as:] Not dependent upon the assistance of others, either
by imitation or favor.

12. render. Schmidt: Surrender. [Cf. Cymb., V, iv, 17: "Take no stricter
render of me than my all."] only me for thee. Tyler: Alluding probably to
the fiction of an exchange of hearts (Sonnets 22, 24). Massey: [With the whole
line cf. Posthumus to his wife {Cymb., I, i, 119): "As I my poor self did ex-
change for you," and Claudio to Hero (M. Ado., II, i, 319): "Lady, as you are
mine, I am yours. I give away myself for you and dote upon the exchange."]

298 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxv

13. Informer. Simpson: [Perhaps a spy to whose treachery was due the
collapse of the "great bases" of line 3. (p. 80.)] Dowden: Does this refer to
an actual person, one of the spies of 121, 7-8? Or is the "informer" Jealousy,
or Suspicion? as in V. & A., 655:

This sour informer, this bate-breeding spy, . . .
This carry-tale, dissentious Jealousy.

Massey: Camden tells us that amongst the confederates of Essex, one of them,
whilst in prison, turned informer, and revealed what had taken place at the
meetings held in the Earl of Southampton's house. [Here, therefore, South-
ampton, supposed to be speaking, flings his disdain at the informer.] (p. 209.)
Tyler [believes that this informer had hinted that Sh. was unfaithful to the
court party because of his early connection with Southampton. He implicitly
denies that he had ever been on terms of intimacy with either Essex or South-
ampton. (Intro., pp. 31-32.)] Wyndham: This word of violent apostrophe
refers to some person whose identity was obvious to the object of Sh.'s verse.
... It may be compared to the "frailer spies" of S. 121. (Intro., p. cxxxii.)
Butler [assuming that the friend is still addressed: ] I can see no way of recon-
ciling the fierceness of these [two lines] with the desire for reconciliation ex-
pressed in the preceding lines. The transition, however, is almost as abrupt
in the closing lines of Sonnets 147-148. Beeching: This is the false witness,
of course imaginary, in the contest between the poet and Time, who brings
the charge in lines 1-4. [Neither of Dowden's suggestions] has any relevancy
here. Walsh: The reference may be to Time himself, who is called "envious
and calumniating" in T. & C, III, hi, 174. Lee: A jealous rival poet may be
assumed to be the "suborn'd informer" here. Porter: Time, personified as
a treacherous, hired or "suborn'd" spy upon man. W. B. Brown [(N. & Q.,
I iths., 6: 446) brings forward anew Dowden's interpretation that the Informer
is Jealousy, and the theory is discussed by other correspondents, being opposed
by C. C. B. in 7: 132, 153. Brown observes:] If the words . . . are applied to
VV. H., I do not see how they can be reconciled with the preceding four lines,
or indeed with any part of the whole volume of sonnets. As to their being ad-
dressed to a third person, there is nothing in the sonnets to suggest that any-
body else had anything to do with the matter. On the other hand, it seems to
me a very natural conclusion to the group of sonnets for Sh. to say "Away with
jealousy!" [Cf. also line 14.] Souls are controlled by passions and not by per-
sons. (7: 76.) C. C. B.: May I ask Mr. Brown whom he takes for the "true
soul" of the final couplet? Surely it isSh. himself; it isSh. who is "impeach'd,"
and, therefore, Sh. who does not stand in the "control" of the informer. How,
then, can jealousy be the informer, for there is here no question of jealousy on
Sh.'s part? (7: 153.)

Bradley: [In this sonnet] the poet repudiates the accusation that his friend-
ship is too much based on beauty. (Oxford Led., p. 333m)

cxxvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 299

126

O thou my louely Boy who in thy power,
Doest hould times fickle glasse, his sickle, hower:
Who hast by wayning growne, and therein shou'st,
Thy louers withering, as thy sweet selfe grow'st.
If Nature (soueraine misteres ouer wrack) 5

As thou goest onwards still will plucke thee backe,
She keepes thee to this purpose, that her skill.
May time disgrace, and wretched mynuit kill.
Yet feare her O thou minnion of her pleasure, 9

She may detaine, but not still keepe her tresure!
Her Audite (though delayd) answer'd must be,
And her Quietus is to render thee.
( )

( )

2. Doest] Dost C, M, etc. fickle] tickle Kinnear conj.; sickle, But; brittle W. B.
Brown conj. sickle, hower] fickle hower L; fickle hour C, Kinnear conj., But,
R; sickle-hour Walker conj., Sta, Co3, Hu2, Be, Bull; sickle hour Ty, Ox; tickle
hour or sickle lower Brownlow conj. ; fickle mower Bulloch conj.

4. louers] lover's Del conj.; hours But.

8. wretched] wasteful Kinnear conj. mynuit] minuits C; minutes M, etc.

This poem was omitted from the Poems of 1640 and the editions based
thereon.

[C. A. Brown seems to have been the first to call the poem an "envoy,"
making it the conclusion to the "fifth poem," Sonnets 102-126. Dowden calls
it "the concluding poem of the series addressed to Sh.'s friend," i.e., 1-126,
and has been followed by Tyler, Wyndham, Beeching, and many minor edi-
tors. Herford suggests that it "may originally have concluded the series
which ends at 99, forming a 'century.'" Massey calls it an unfinished frag-
ment, belonging to the time when Southampton was a boy, and containing an
idea that was worked up elsewhere (cf. Sonnets 11 and 104). (pp. 90, 220.)
The late Brinsley Nicholson made the following note on the fly-leaf of his
copy of C. A. Brown's book (now in the Library of the University of Illinois):
" 126 to me reads nothing like an envoy to anything, but how a sonnet remind-
ing the young man of his increasing years and decaying beauty can be envoy
to a poem in which he excuses himself for inconstancy I cannot understand."
Beeching, opposing Herford's suggestion, observes that the poem "would not

300 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxvi

come well after 99. It belongs to the second period, when passion has died
down; like the sonnets from 100 onwards it is calm and contemplative and a
little sad. Especially it chimes in sentiment with 104." (Intro., p. xxxii, n.)
On this matter of the "envoy" I may quote, finally, from some remarks of my
own, contributed to the Kittredge Anniversary Papers, 1913: "If we ask
whether there is the slightest ground for supposing that it was meant by the
poet as a conclusion to a preceding series, we find none. On the contrary, there
is ground for believing just the opposite. If the 'lovely boy' here addressed
is the beautiful youth to whom Sonnets 1-17 and many of the others were
written, the poem is very naturally connected with the opening group of the
collection, and with other sonnets standing at some distance from 126, in which
the youth is warned of the flight of time and the approach of age. ... Is there
anything of the same character in the sonnets standing near the end of the
'first series'? On the contrary, their theme and tone are entirely different.
If we assume the continuity of 109-125, there has been separation, estrange-
ment, suffering, penitence, and this (possible) series is devoted chiefly to the
hope that friendship will outlive these vicissitudes and put to shame the 'fools
of time.' Now, suppose Sh. to be arranging the sonnets in some final form, and
to be setting an epilogue or envoy to the series (a somewhat daring supposition),
what will the envoy be? It may be on love, on friendship, on the steadfastness
of a 'true soul' (end of 125), on the struggle of personality and friendship with
evil days and 'policy' the heretic, — it may be a return to the ever-recurring
theme of the power of poetry to eternize a friend; it may be almost anything,
one might venture to say, rather than a return to the relatively trivial theme of
the danger of the decay of the friend's youthful beauty. The assumption, then,
that this little poem is an epilogue written by the poet for the whole preceding
collection comes near being entitled to rank as a curiosity of criticism. . . . One
would suppose, from the readiness with which the 'envoy' theory has been
accepted, that it was customary to conclude Elizabethan sequences with some-
thing of the kind, in distinct metrical form. This is, of course, by no means the
fact. The only thing of the kind that I recall is the three 'conclusions' (lyrics
considerably longer than sonnets) which Robert Tofte appended to the three
parts of Laura." (p. 286.) — Ed.]

Dowden: In the Q, parentheses follow the 12th line, ... as if to show that
two lines are wanting. But there is no good reason for supposing that the
poem is defective. In William Smith's Chloris (1596) a "sonnet" (No. 27) of
this six-couplet form appears. [Lee also notes "so-called sonnets in twelve
lines" in Lodge's Phillis (8, 26) and Linche's Diella (13). Walsh calls the poem
a madrigal, saying that it "is as much like an Italian madrigal as the others
are like Italian sonnets." (p. 262.)]

[Lee {Life, p. 97) discusses the poem as sounding "a variation on the con-
ventional poetic invocations of Cupid or Love personified as a boy," and cites
numerous parallels, such as Sidney's "blind-hitting boy" {A. & S., 46),
Greville's "sweet boy" {Ccclica, 84), etc. So also in his commentary: "The
tone of address does not harmonise with the theory that the 'fickle boy' and

cxxvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 301

'Nature's minion' is identical with the poet's friend of former sonnets. The
poem, while subtilised by Ovid's philosophy, is in the vein of many lyrical apos-
trophes of the boy Cupid." As Beeching remarks (Intro., p. xxxiii), this inter-
pretation is impossible. "Cupid is immortal or he is nothing; and the point of
the Envoy is that mortal beauty must fade at last."]

1. lovely Boy. [A puzzle for both Southamptonists and Pembrokists, espe-
cially the former. Thus Beeching (assuming that the poem is as late as 1603,
because it follows 107) asks: "Is it credible that any one, even if he were the
greatest peer of the realm and the most bountiful of patrons, should have been
addressed by Sh. as a 'lovely boy' when thirty years of age?" (Intro.,
p. xxxii.) There is no reason, however, whatever the date of S. 107, why we
may not assume, if we choose, that S. 126 was written at the same time as
(say) 54. — Ed.]

2. sickle, hower. See the textual notes. [The Cambridge editors interpret
Capell's MS. correction of "hower" as "hoar," and conjecture that he in-
tended to restore " sickle" in place of Lintott's " fickle." I read his correction
"hour," however, as noted above. — Ed.] Hudson [reading "sickle-hour"]:
Time's hour, or course, is here represented poetically as a sickle. Kinnear:
[For the emendation "tickle," cf. Spenser, F.Q., c. 8: "Which makes me loathe
this state of life so tickle," and Heywood's Epigrams: "Time is tickell."
(p. 502.)] Tyler [reading "sickle hour"]: His hour which, like a sickle, cuts off
all things beautiful. E. B. Brownlow [(N. & Q., 8th s., 3: 103) proposes to
read either "tickle hour" (tickle = slippery) or "sickle lower." The boy holds
(or stops) Time's fickle glass, and lowers (or prevents injury from) Time's
sickle. C. C. B. {ibid., p. 285) would retain the comma after "sickle," ob-
serving that "hour" has a peculiar application, as in the phrase "the hour has
come."] Beeching [reading "sickle-hour"]: When "the hour is come" the
sickle strikes. Cf. 1 H. 4, V, ii, 85:

If life did ride upon a dial's point,
Still ending at the arrival of an hour.

White: A most remarkable instance of inversion for "Dost hold Time's fickle
hour-glass, his sickle." Rolfe: The old text has not been satisfactorily ex-
plained. ... I assume that "sickle" was a misprint for "fickle" (an easy slip
of the type when the long 5 was in vogue), and that the meaning is "during its
fickle hour." The boy simply held Time's fickle glass while it ran its fickle
hourly course. The repetition of "fickle" is in Sh.'s manner. " Dost hold" =
dost hold in hand, in check, "in thy power"; and " fickle hour" = Time's course
that is subject to mutation and vicissitude. [This explanation is borrowed
from J. Crosby (Lit. World, 14: 64). In his first edition Rolfe duly credits his
source, but in his revision forgets both acknowledgment and quotation marks.]
W. B. Brown [(N. Sf Q., nth s., 6: 446), proposing "brittle glass " and "fickle
hour," observes that glass is called "brittle" in R. 3, IV, ii, 62, and in the
Pass. Pilg., 87, where "brittle" rhymes with "fickle." Objections to this are

302 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxvi

found in 7: 32 and 153, with Brown's replies in 7: 76 and 236. One of the ob-
jectors ("Tom Jones," p. 32) compares with "sickle" Dekker's Honest Whore :
"For all time's sickle has gone over you."] Porter [reading " sickle hour"]:
Sh.'s adjectives are descriptive of the changeableness of Time, whose glass is
said to be fickle; and of the suddenness of Death, and his hour, for down-mow-
ing by Time's scythe, is said to be sickle. Lee: Cf. Spenser, F.Q., 7, 8, st. 1:

Whose flowering pride, so fading and so fickle,

Short time shall soon cut down with his consuming sickle.

[The serious objection to the text as it stands is that of the three objects enu-
merated two are concretely figurative, and the third is not — unless it means just
the same as the first. It is impossible to say with any certainty how it should
be emended. But I wonder why it does not seem to have occurred to any of
those reading "sickle-hour," that this might be a clock of the old sort on which
Time strikes the bell with his sickle. The only necessary meaning of the line is,
"Hast seeming power to arrest the flight of the hours," and this would be
figured vividly in power over both the running sands and the striking hour-
bell. But this is not proposed with the assurance of a true commentator. — Ed.]

3. wayning growne. Cf. 11, 1.

3-8. Lee: Sh., playfully adapting Ovid's doctrine of "growth by waning,"
follows the Latin poet in making "Dame Nature," by exercise of "cunning
hand," (artifices mantis in the Latin; cf. line 7, "her skill"), cherish youth at
the outset in defiance of Time, "eater up of things." All Nature's efforts to
discredit Time's power are, however, doomed to futility. . . .

And when that long continuance hath them [i.e., living things] bit,
You [i.e., Time] leisurely by lingering death consume them every whit.

[Golding's Ovid.]

5. wrack. Schmidt: Destruction. [The regular form in Sh.]

8. kill. Tyler: The minutes are killed or annihilated, as leaving behind
them no trace of their existence. Beeching: The skill of Nature . . . may be
said to kill [Time's] minutes, as it robs them of their influence.

9. minnion. Schmidt: Favourite.

11. Audite. Cf. 4, 12; 49, 4. answer'd. Schmidt: Paid [comparing Lucrece,
83: "That praise which Collatine doth owe enchanted Tarquin answers."
But the passage belongs rather under the interpretation "render account
of," for which Schmidt cites numerous instances. — Ed.]

12. Quietus. Steevens [refers to his note on Haml., Ill, i, 75: " His quietus
make with a bare bodkin":] This is the technical term for the acquittance which
every sheriff receives on settling his accounts at the Exchequer. Cf. Webster,
D. of M., I, i: "And 'cause you shall not come to me in debt, . . . here upon
your lips I sign your Quietus est." Hunter: We find quietus and four other
words which may be considered Exchequer terms within the compass of two
lines. (New Illustrations, 2: 241.) render. Schmidt: Surrender, give up.
[Cf. 125, 12.]

cxxvti] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 303

Rolfe [emphasizes the importance of the manner in which this sonnet is
printed, as evidence that the Q was not issued under Sh.'s auspices. Sh. could
not have inserted the parentheses indicating a supposed omission,] and Thorpe
would not have done it if he had been in communication with Sh. In that case
he would have asked the poet for the couplet he supposed to be missing, and
would have been told that nothing was missing. (Intro., rev. ed., pp. 12-13.)

R. H. Legis [( N. cf Q., 5th s., 7: 261) interprets this poem mystically. The
"lovely boy" is the completed portion of the sequence, the "immortalization
of what was best" in Sh.] Von Mauntz [believes that it was addressed to the
poet's son Hamnet.]

127

In the ould age blacke was not counted faire,

Or if it weare it bore not beauties name:

But now is blacke beauties successiue heire,

And Beautie slanderd with a bastard shame,

For since each hand hath put on Natures power, 5

Fairing the foule with Arts faulse borrow'd face,

Sweet beauty hath no name no holy boure,

But is prophan'd, if not Hues in disgrace.

Therefore my Mistersse eyes are Rauen blacke, 9

Her eyes so suted, and they mourners seeme,

At such who not borne faire no beauty lack,

Slandring Creation with a false esteeme,

Yet so they mourne becomming of their woe,
That euery toung saies beauty should looke so.

2. weare] were 1640, G, etc.

6. faulse borrow'd] Hyphened by M, B, Del1.2, Dy, Sta, Hu2.

7. name] home But. boure] bower 1640, G, S, E, Co, Del, etc.; hour M,
A, Kt, B.

8. not] not, 1640, G, S2, E, C.

9-10. eyes . . . eyes] eyes . . . hairs C; hairs . . . eyes Walker conj., Del conj.,
Hu2; brows . . . eyes Sta conj., Brae conj., Gl, R, Wh2, Ox, But, etc.; eyes . . .
brows Sta conj.; hairs . . . brows Kinnear conj.
10. and] that G1, S1; as Dy.

[The first sonnet of what many, with Tyler, call the Second Series, or, like
Beeching, an "Appendix of Sonnets for the most part written to or about a
Dark Lady."]

304 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxvn

Steevens: The reader will find almost all that is said here on the subject of
complexion is repeated in L. L. L., IV, iii, 250-53, 258-61 :

O, who can give an oath? Where is a book
That I may swear beauty doth beauty lack,

If that she learn not of her eye to look?
No face is fair that is not full so black. . . .

O, if in black my lady's brows be deck'd,
It mourns that painting and usurping hair

Should ravish doters with a false aspect;

And therefore is she born to make black fair.

[Isaac discusses at length the resemblance of this sonnet and 132 to the passage
in L. L. L., as evidence that the dark lady was a real, not a fictitious, person.
He also notes a resemblance to Sidney, A. & S., 7:

When Nature made her chief work, Stella's eyes,
In colour black why wrapt she beams so bright?
Would she in beamy black, like painter wise,
Frame daintiest lustre, mix'd of shades and light?
Or did she else that sober hue devise,
In object best to knit and strength our sight?
Lest if no veil these brave gleams did disguise,
They sun-like should more dazzle than delight.
Or would she her miraculous power show?
That whereas black seems beauty's contrary,
She, even in black, doth make all beauties flow!
But so and thus, she minding Love should be
Plac'd ever there, gave him this mourning weed,
To honour all their deaths which for her bleed.

We may infer, Isaac suggests, that the sonnet is dated between Sh.'s reading
of Sidney's sonnets and the writing of L. L. L. {Archiv, 61 : 399-405.) Krauss
(Jahrb., 16: 186-87) finds the connection with Sidney's verse an evidence of his
view (derived from Massey) of the "dark lady" sonnets as concerned with
"Stella" (Lady Rich) and Herbert. He also notes a resemblance between the
general tone of Sonnets 127-152 and the Fifth Song of A. & S.: "While favour
fed my hope, delight with hope was brought," etc.] White: This is an allu-
sion to the remarkable fact that during the chivalric ages brunettes were not
acknowledged as beauties anywhere in Christendom. In all the old contes,
fabliaux, and romances that I am acquainted with, the heroines are blondes.
And more, the possession of dark eyes and hair, and the complexion that accom-
panies them, is referred to by the troubadours as a misfortune. But the bru-
nettes have changed the fashion since that day. Is it partly so because, as the
naturalists inform us, the blond type is disappearing, and taste conforms to
necessity? Lee: Neither in the sonnets nor in the play can Sh.'s praise of
"blackness" claim the merit of being his own invention. [Cf. A. & S., 7.] To

cxxvn] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 305

his praise of "blackness" in L. L. L. Sh. appends a playful but caustic com-
ment on the paradox that he detects in the conceit ["O paradox! Black is the
badge of hell," etc.]. Similarly, the sonnets in which a dark complexion is
pronounced to be a mark of beauty, are followed by others in which the poet
argues in self-confutation that blackness of feature is hideous in a woman, and
invariably indicates moral turpitude or blackness of heart. Twice, in much the
same language as had already served a like purpose in the play, does he mock
his "dark lady" with this uncomplimentary interpretation of dark-coloured
hair and eyes. [Here Lee gives no references; the only passages to which he can
allude would seem to be 131, 13; 137, 12; and 147, 14, which are far from bearing
out his description. It may be well here to note the passages, in addition to the
present sonnet, in which a woman of dark complexion is definitely referred to:
they are 130, 4; 131, 12-14; l2>2', 144. 4; and perhaps 147, 14. To this may be
added references to a woman physically unattractive, but without further
specification, in 137, 12; 141, 2; 148, 6. — Ed.] The two sonnets in which this
view of "blackness" is developed form part of a series of twelve, which belongs
to a special category of sonneteering effort. In them Sh. abandons the sugared
sentiment which characterises most of his 142 remaining sonnets. He grows
vituperative, and pours a volley of passionate abuse upon a woman whom he
represents as disdaining his advances. The genuine anguish of a rejected lover
often expresses itself in curses both loud and deep, but the mood of blinding
wrath which the rejection of a love-suit may rouse in a passionate nature does
not seem from the internal evidence to be reflected genuinely in Sh.'s sonnets
of vituperation. It was inherent in Sh.'s genius that he should import more
dramatic intensity than any other poet into sonnets of a vituperative type;
but there is also in his vituperative sonnets a declamatory parade of figurative
extravagance which suggests that the emotion is feigned and that the poet is
striking an attitude. [See further, regarding the vogue of the vituperative
sonnet, notes on S. 147.] {Life, pp. 119-20.) W. C. Hazlitt: [CI. Jonson,
Masque of Blackness, especially the lines —

Though he, [the sun] the best judge, and most formal cause

Of all dames' beauties, in their firm hues, draws

Signs of his fervent'st love, and thereby shows

That in their black the perfect'st beauty grows.]

Perhaps Sh. saw this in MS. (Sh., Himself c* his Work, pp. 256-57.) Walsh:
The rare is most admired, or at least is most talked about. Southerners express
admiration for blondes, northerners for brunettes. As the older poets were from
the south, Sh. speaks of brunettes not having been in so much favour as blondes
"in the old age." Ovid, indeed, has written:

Candida me capiet, capiet me flava puella,

Est etiam in fusco grata colore venus;

(Amores, II, iv, 39-40)
in which the "etiam" is noteworthy. To import into poetry admiration for
brunettes was something new. To a poet, moreover, fairness seemed celestial,

3o6 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxvn

darkness the opposite; so that it appeared paradoxical to praise darkness, and
the current admiration for the dark in feminine beauty went against the grain.
[Cf. A. & S., 7.] And Lilly wrote: "Oftentimes for fashion sake you call them
beautiful, whom you know black." {Campaspe, IV, ii.) On the other side, as
the word "fair" had already become synonymous with "beauty," to praise the
beauty of a dark complexion (also "blackness" and "foulness" being almost
identified) gave room for much word-play, of which the Elizabethans were ex-
tremely fond. Sh., perhaps himself smitten with admiration for some dark
lady, makes the most of this word-play and contradiction ; and when his mistress,
all along unkind, showed herself morally frail, he found satisfaction in, and
turned to poetical account, this agreement between her dark complexion and
her black disposition. [Cf. L. L. L., and notice that in T. Of C] the fickle
heroine is likewise dark-complexioned. [M. B. Ogle {Sewanee Rev., 20: 459)
discusses the ideal of blond beauty as a literary conceit, giving examples from
the classical and medieval poets as well as those of the Renaissance. He con-
cludes:] What we commonly conceive to be the distinct type of southern beauty
... is not the literary type at all; it finds no favor with the love poets of south-
ern peoples, whose ladies are all blondes of the most pronounced type. (p. 466.)
Horace Davis: Cf. a poem in Bullen's More Lyrics from Elizabethan Song-
Books, p. 65 (from Christ Church MS. K. 3):

Let not thy blackness move thee to despair;

Black women are beloved of men that 's fair.

What if thy hair her flaxen blackness lack?

Thy face is comely though thy brow be black.

3. successive. Schmidt: Hereditary, legitimate.

4. Tyler: Beauty and Nature are slandered by the artificial asserting in
effect that Art is better than Nature.

6. Cf. S. 68. Fairing. See note on 5, 4.

7. boure. See textual notes. Schmidt: Pleasant habitation. [The N. E. D.
notes this passage under the secondary definition, "an idealized abode, not
realized in any actual dwelling."]

9. eyes. [Isaac, favoring the emendation "hairs," cites L.L.L., "O, if in
black my lady's brows be deck'd," where we are to understand "brows" as
equivocal for either "eyebrows" or "forehead." Since black hair gives a fitting
image for a mourning garment, the passage may be best understood, "Your
forehead is clothed with black hairs." (Archiv, 61: 406.)] Massey: By "her
eyes so suited" Sh. did not mean also, but her eyes thus dressed in black. A
repetition which lays a double stress upon the eyes, and proves that neither the
hair nor the brows were intended. . . . The woman of the latter sonnets is no
more black-haired than she was black-skinned. If she had been, the black eyes
would not have "put on" mourning, (p. 240.) [This is with reference to the
identification of the lady with Penelope Rich, who was a blonde with black
eyes.] Wyndham: No emendation is necessary. "Her eyes so suited" makes
an additional proposition about the eyes which leads up to "and they mourners
seem."

cxxvm] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE

o^/

10. suted. Schmidt: Clothed. [Cf. 132, 12.] [I do not dissent from this
usual interpretation, but think it possible that the meaning is "fitted,"
"adapted," as frequently in Sh.; — rather more probably than in 132, 12,
where Beeching so renders it. — Ed.]

12. M alone: Dishonour nature by their imperfect imitation and false
pretensions.

13. becomming of. Schmidt: According with. Dowdex: Gracing. The
word "of" is frequently used as here after the participles of transitive verbs.
Cf. "fearing of," 115, 9, [and many examples cited by Schmidt under "of."]

13-14. Vox Mauntz: Cf. Ovid, Amores, II, v, 44: "Maesta erat in vultu:
maesta decenter erat." [Marlowe's translation: "She looked sad; sad, comely
I esteem 'd her."]

128

How oft when thou my musike musike playst,
Vpon that blessed wood whose motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers when thou gently swayst,
The wiry concord that mine eare confounds,
Do I enuie those Iackes that nimble leape, 5

To kisse the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poore lips which should that haruest reape,
At the woods bouldnes by thee blushing stand.
To be so tikled they would change their state, 9

And situation with those dancing chips,
Ore whome their fingers walke 'with gentle gate,
Making dead wood more blest then liuing lips,
Since sausie Iackes so happy are in this,
Giue them their fingers, me thy lips to kisse.

1. my] thy 1640, G, S, E. musike playst] Hyphened by GJ, S1, E.

4. wiry] wity G1; witty G!, S, E.

8. thee] the L.

n. their] thy G1, S1, C, M, etc.
14. their] thy 1640, G, etc.

Massey: The motive or conceit of [this sonnet] was borrowed from Ben
Jonson's play, Every Man out of his Humour (III, iii), 1599. "Fast. You see the
subject of her sweet fingers there [a viol de gamba]. Oh, she tickles it so, that
she makes it laugh most divinely. I '11 tell you a good jest now, and yourself
shall say it's a good one; I have wished myself to be that instrument, I think,

308 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxvm

a thousand times." (p. 232.) [Simpson, on the other hand, speaks of the idea
as borrowed by Jonson (p. 73) ; and most commentators find nothing significant
in the resemblance.]

Sarrazin: [Cf. a sonnet of Constable's, entitled "Of her excellency both in
singing and instruments":

A lute of senseless wood, by nature dumb,
Touch'd by thy hand doth speak divinely well.]

(Sh.'s Lehrjahre, p. 153.)

1. my musike. Rolfe: Cf. 8, 1.

4. concord. Malone: Cf. 8, 5.

5. envie. Malone: This word is accented by other ancient writers in the
same manner. So in Marlowe's Edward II: "If for these dignities thou be
envy'd." [Cf. T. of S., II, i, 18 (where, of course, we could not be sure of the
accent by itself) : "Is it for him you do envy me so?" — Ed.] Jackes. [Dowden
quotes from Fairholt, through Dyce's Glossary, a standard definition of the
virginal jack as a "piece of wood, furnished on the upper part with a quill
affixed to it by springs of bristle," which was "directed by the finger-key to the
string"; but in defiance of the citation defines the word here as "keys of the
virginal."] Rolfe: Here used loosely (as probably in common speech) for the
keys. N. E. D.: By Sh. and some later writers erroneously applied to the key.
[But no example is given from "later writers" unless it be the ambiguous pas-
sage from Middleton, Father Hubbard's Tale: "Her teeth chattered in her
head, and leaped up and down like virginal-jacks."] Delius [supposes that the
word is chosen for a play on its meaning of "fellows."]

6. Steevens: [Cf. Carey's] Chrononhotonthologus : "The tea-cups skip with
eager haste to kiss your royal lip." Malone: There is scarcely a writer of love-
verses, among our elder poets, who has not introduced hyperboles as extrava-
gant as that in the text, which, the foregoing quotation was produced to ridi-
cule. Thus Waller, in his "Address to a Lady Playing on a Lute":

The trembling strings about her fingers crowd,
And tell their joy for every kiss aloud.

Lee: Cf. T. And., II, iv, 46: "And make the silken strings delight to kiss
them."

14. their. [Miss Porter alone makes her faithful effort to keep the Q text,
explaining:] Because her fingers are given to them.

Butler: It has been argued from this sonnet that Sh.'s mistress was highly
accomplished. One would like to have heard whether she could do more than
strum. And one would also like to know how far Sh. was qualified to judge.
The sonnet is conventional, and does not suggest a writer whose ear was likely
to be much confounded by either concord or discord. Mackail [speaks of this
sonnet, and of 145, as "both trivial in substance and undistinguished in style."
Later he implies that they are not by Sh. {Led. on Poetry, pp. 203, 205.)]

cxxix] THE SOXXETS OF SHAKESPEARE 309

129

Th'expenxe of Spirit in a waste of shame

Is lust in action, and till action, lust

Is periurd, murdrous, blouddy full of blame,

Sauage, extreame, rude, cruell, not to trust,

Inioyd no sooner but dispised straight, 5

Past reason hunted, and no sooner had

Past reason hated as a swollowed bayt,

On purpose layd to make the taker mad.

Made In pursut and in possession so, 9

Had, hauing, and in quest, to haue extreame,

A blisse in proofe and proud and very wo,

Before a ioy proposd behind a dreame,

All this the world well knowes yet none knowes well,
To shun the heauen that leads men to this hell.

1. Th'] The C, M, A, Kt, B, Del, CI, Gl, Kly, Cam, Do, R, Wh2, Ty, Ox,
But, etc. (except Wa).

3. murdrous] murtherous Wh1, R; murth'rous Wh!.
9. Made] Mad G1, S, C, M, etc.

10. quest, to haue] quest to have, C, M, etc.

11. proud and] prov'd, and G1; prov'd a S1; prov'd, a C, M, etc.
14. heauen] haven 1640, G1.

Massey [puts this sonnet in a pair with 146, and thinks that they were sug-
gested by Sidney's pair on sensual and spiritual love, which followed the A. & S.
in Sidney's Poems of 1598. The first of Sidney's is as follows:

Thou blind man's mark! thou fool's self-chosen snare!
Fond fancy's scum! and dregs of scattered thought!
Band of all evils! cradle of causeless care!
Thou web of will! whose end is never wrought.
Desire! Desire! I have too dearly bought,
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware!
Too long, too long asleep thou hast me brought!
Who should my mind to higher things prepare.
But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought!
In vain thou mad'st me to vain things aspire!
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire!
For virtue hath this better lesson taught:

310 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxix

.Within myself to seek my only hire,
Desiring nought, but how to kill Desire.

"A theme thus adopted and developed from Sidney," says Massey, ". . . can
no longer be considered as a passion personal to the writer." (p. 236.)] Lee:
[The sonnet] treats with marvelous force and insight a stereotyped theme of
sonneteers, and it may have owed its whole existence to Sir Philip Sidney's
sonnet on Desire. ... In Emaricdulfe: Sonnets written by E. C, 1595, S. 37 . . .
even more closely resembles Sh.'s sonnet in both phraseology and sentiment.
(Life, p. 153.) [It is as follows:

O lust, of sacred love the foul corrupter,

Usurper of her heavenly dignity!

Folly's first child, good counsel's interrupter,

Fostered by sloth, first step to infamy!

Thou hell-born monster that affrights the wise,

Love-choking lust, virtue's disdainful foe,

Wisdom's contemner, spurner of advice,

Swift to forswear, to faithful promise slow!

Be thou as far from her chaste-thoughted breast,

Her true love-kindled heart, her virtuous mind,

As is all-seeing Tysan from the West,

When from Aurora's arms he doth untwind.

Nature did make her of a heavenly mould,

Only true heavenly virtues to enfold.]

Rolfe: Cf. V. & A., 799-804:

Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,
But Lust's effect is tempest after sun;
Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain,
Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done;
Love surfeits not, Lust like a glutton dies;
Love is all truth, Lust full of forged lies.

Walsh: Cf. Petronius, Fragmenta, 18:

Foeda est in coitu et brevis voluptas,
Et taedet Veneris statim peractae;

which was thus rendered by Ben Jonson:

Doing a filthy pleasure is, and short;

And done, we straight repent us of the sport.

[Translations, Cunningham ed., 3: 387.]

[And again, with the final couplet], Fragmenta, 23: " Nemo non haec vera dicit,
nemo non contra facit." [The fact that Jonson translated one of these passages
makes the suggestion of Petronius as a possible source not uninteresting, pro-
vided the two parallels are found in something like juxtaposition. Not discov-
ering the second, however, in the standard editions of Petronius, I communi-

cxxix] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 311

cated with Mr. Walsh, who has kindly written to me as follows: "The only edi-
tion of Petronius I had at the time was Guerle's French translation, with the
Latin original at the bottom of the page. . . . The fragments are printed at the
end of the Satyricon, and there are 36 of them. I now notice, what must have
escaped me, that in the Introduction the editor says this collection of fragments
was supposed to have been found at Belgrade in 1688, and was published by
Nodot in 1692, and is considered apocryphal. The first one quoted, however
('Foeda est,' etc.), is evidently genuine, as it is accredited to Petronius in
Baehrens's Poetae Laiini Minores, vol. iv, p. 99; but the poem containing the
other line is there ascribed to Florus, p. 348. To me it was significant that not
only this sonnet but S. 20, besides 153-154, are paralleled by Latin verses. For
this reason I should myself rather infer that we have no right to attribute either
of the two first- mentioned sonnets to anything happening in Sh.'s life, but should
look upon them merely as literary compositions, each expanding into 14 lines a
Latin couplet." I am also indebted to Professor W. A. Oldfather for the state-
ment that the epigram translated by Jonson appeared in the edition of Petro-
nius made by Claudius Binetus in 1579 (see Riese, Anthologia Latina, p. xxxiii).
This would account for its accessibility in the Elizabethan age, though I am
not able to see that the matter is especially pertinent to the present sonnet. —
Ed.] Notice that this sonnet has no connection whatever with any other sonnet
or with anything else in Sh.'s writings. The nearest to it are some passages
concerning lust in general: [ V. & A., 799-804, quoted above]; T, G. V., I, i,

32-33:

If haply won perhaps a hapless gain:
If lost, why then a grievous labour won;

M. W. W ., V, v, 97-100:

Fie on sinful fantasy !
Fie on lust and luxury!
Lust is but a bloody fire,
Kindled with unchaste desire;

Haml., I, v, 55-57: "Lust . . . will . . . prey on garbage." For the style also
cf. R. & J., I, i, 196-200:

Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs;
Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears.
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet;

T. & C, I, ii, 313-19:

Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing; . . .
Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is. . . .
Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech.

Notice how much more terse is the style of this sonnet. Only the quotation
from Hamlet is pitched in the same key.

312 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxix

[Cf. also (noted by Trench, below, and others) Lucrece, 690-714:

This momentary joy breeds months of pain,
This hot desire converts to cold disdain;
Pure Chastity is rifled of her store,
And Lust, the thief, far poorer than before. . . .

While Lust is in his pride, no exclamation
Can curb his heat or rein his rash desire,
Till, like a jade, Self-will himself doth tire.

And then with lank and lean discolour'd cheek,

With heavy eye, knit brow, and strengthless pace,

Feeble Desire, all recreant, poor, and meek,

Like to a bankrupt beggar wails his case.

The flesh being proud, Desire doth fight with Grace,

For there it revels; and when that decays,

The guilty rebel for remission prays.]

Rolfe: I could as soon believe the penitential psalms of David to be purely
rhetorical and fictitious as the 129th Sonnet, than which no more remorseful
utterance was ever wrung from a soul that had tasted the ashes to which the
Sodom-apples of illicit love are turned in the end. ... If this is supposed to be
the counterfeit of feeling, I can only exclaim with Leonato in Much Ado, "O
God! counterfeit! There was never counterfeit of passion came so near the life
of passion!" (Intro., rev. ed., p. 19.) [The analogy of the penitential Psalms
is a bit unfortunate, since they are now believed by many authorities to have
reference to the sins of the Jewish people, not to those of an individual. One
might observe, too, that the whole discussion of originality or unoriginality in
connection with this sonnet is a rather droll exercise of the commentators. It is
an outstanding exception to the series as a whole, in being such an account of
its subject as might be given from experience or observation by nine-tenths of
all the men who ever lived; hence to view it on the one hand as having reference
to a particular experience of Sh.'s, or on the other as an imitation of other state-
ments of the same fact, is equally perilous. — Ed.]

1. expence. [Cf. 30, 8 (and note) and 94, 6. The N. E. D., under the defini-
tion "the expending or using up (of material or immaterial resources)," cites
L. L. L., V, ii, 523: "So much expense of thy royal sweet breath."] Tyler:
Cf. Bacon, Nat. Hist., "It hath been observed by the ancients that much use
of Venus doth dim the sight. . . . The cause ... is the expence of spirits."
(Spedding ed., 2: 555-56.) Spirit. Schmidt: Vital power, life. [Cf. K.J., IV,
i, no: "The breath of heaven hath blown his (the coal's) spirit out"; A. & C,
IV, xv, 58: "Now my spirit is going, I can no more."]

1-2. Walsh: "Lust in action" is the subject, not the predicate. For the
construction, cf. Wordsworth, Excursion, ix, 20: "The food of hope is medi-
tated action."

cxxix] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 313

4. to trust. Abbott: Infinitive active is often found where we use the pas-
sive. . . . This is especially common in "what's to do" for "what's to be done."
(§ 359-) [See also Franz, § 497.]

9-1 1. See textual notes. Wyndham: "Proud" stands naturally for
"proved" with, as always, u for v (and, as frequently, no apostrophe to mark
the omission of a mute e). . . . "A" may well have been mistaken for the sym-
bol of "and."

10. Verity: [For the compressed grammatical construction, cf.] T. & C,
II, hi, 263: "He must, he is, he cannot but be wise"; and Haml., I, ii, 158:
"It is not nor it cannot come to good."

11-14. Tyler: Mr. Shaw has directed my attention to the following pas-
sage in Lodge's Euphues Golden Legacie (1590):

Ah, Lorrell, lad, what makes thee Herry love?
A sugred harme, a poyson full of pleasure,
A painted shrine, ful-fild with rotten treasure,
A heaven in shew, a hell to them that prove.

12. Tyler: Cf. Lucrece, 211-12:

What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.

[Rolfe quotes from Trenxh, on this sonnet, in the Household Book of Poetry,
1868:] The subject . . . Sh. must have most deeply felt, as he has expressed
himself upon it most profoundly. I know no picture of this at all so terrible in
its truth as, in Lucrece, the description of Tarquin after he has successfully
wrought his deed of shame. But this sonnet on the same theme is worthy to
stand by its side. Isaac: Whether before or after Sh. any poet has accom-
plished something similar in this form, I cannot say, but I am rather disposed
to doubt it; among his contemporaries no one composed anything like so mag-
nificent a sonnet. One asks himself in surprise, Is this really a sonnet? that
trifling, graceful, decorative, and yet rigid and troublesome form, in which
poets are obliged to stalk about as in new and expensive holiday clothing,
which threatens to spoil every free movement, every incautious touch? . . .
What matter here whether one idea or a number of ideas? A flood of ideas
rushes over us, every word an idea, every word a moral blow. The poet knows
no restraints, he pours his whole heart out for us. And yet nothing is over-
looked or changed of what makes up the law of this fixed form. (Archiv, 62: 27.)
Tyler: In majestic strength [this sonnet] must claim pre-eminence. (Intro.,
p. 7.) The matter [of it] answers even in several details to the "Allegory"
painted by Bronzino, now in the National Gallery. Verity: I suppose there is
nowhere in the plays and poems a more striking instance of compression than
this sonnet affords. Shindler: The tragic terror of this tremendous poem
coming with the most absolute incongruity between two light and playful son-
nets might be enough of itself to mark the arbitrary character of the present
arrangement. (Gent. Mag., 272: 81.) Furnivall: To put [this] grand, pene-

314 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxx

trative, and weighty sonnet . . . before 1600-1601 is surely a misjudgment.
(Sh. &r Mary Fitton, p. 5.) P. E. More: The peculiarity of Sh.'s confession is
that we see a sensitive soul actually in the toils of evil, which he deplores yet
hugs to his breast. It is this association which makes the terrible 129th Sonnet
unique in English — unique, so far as I know, in any language. Only the con-
science of the Puritan united to the libertine fancy of a Cavalier (a phenomenon
not easily conceivable outside of England) could have produced those words.
(Shelbtirne Essays, 2: 41.) [Henry Da vey, in the Memoir appended to the
Stratford Town Edition of Sh., calls this "the very finest sonnet ever written
in any language." (10: 279.)]

For the structure of the sonnet, see Beeching's note under S. 66.

130

My Mistres eyes are nothing like the Sunne,

Currall is farre more red, then her lips red,

If snow be white, why then her brests are dun:

If haires be wiers, black wiers grow on her head:

I haue seene Roses damaskt, red and white, 5

But no such Roses see I in her cheekes,

And in some perfumes is there more delight,

Then in the breath that from my Mistres reekes.

I loue to heare her speake, yet well I know, 9

That Musicke hath a farre more pleasing sound:

I graunt I neuer saw a goddesse goe,

My Mistres when shee walkes treads on the ground.

And yet by heauen I thinke my loue as rare,

As any she beli'd with false compare.

2. Currall] Coral G, etc. lips] lips' C, M, etc. (except Ty).
5. damaskt] damask G, S, E.
7. is there] there is G, S2, E.

Beeching: A less pleasant variation on the motif of S. 2 1. [For examples of
the sonnet style here ridiculed, see the notes on 21. To those there mentioned,
Isaac (Archiv, 61: 393-96) adds a reference to Petrarch, Pt. 1, S. 8; canz. 6,
str. 5; canz. 8, str. 4; Constable, Diana, S. 7:

No, no, I flatter not when thee I call

The sun, sith that the sun was never such; etc.

Sidney, A. & S., 8, where Love is described as seeking heat, when cold, in the
light of Stella's face; Lodge, Phillis, S. 8:

cxxx] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 315

No stars her eyes to clear the wandering night,
But shining suns of true divinity,
That make the soul conceive her perfect light!
No wanton beauties of humanity
Her pretty brows, but beams that clear the sight
Of him that seeks the true philosophy!
No coral is her lip, no rose her fair,
But even that crimson that adorns the sun; etc.
Krauss (Jahrb., 16: 200) compares the 5th Song of A. £J S. :

Think now no more to hear of warm fine-odoured snow,
Nor blushing lilies, nor pearls ruby-hidden row.
Nor of that golden sea whose waves in curls are broken.
Dowden adds to the list Spenser, Amoretti, 15:

If sapphires, lo, her eyes be sapphires plain;
If rubies, lo, her lips be rubies sound;
If pearls, her teeth be pearls, both pure and round;
If ivory, her forehead ivory ween;
If gold, her locks are finest gold on ground;
If silver, her fair hands are silver sheen.]
Furxivall: [With the chaffing tone of the description cf. the poem " Ignoto,"
attributed to Marlowe:

I cannot whine in puling elegies,
Entombing Cupid with sad obsequies. . . .
Sweet wench, I love thee: yet I will not sue,
Or show my love as musky courtiers do.

(Bullen ed., 3: 246-47.)
Also a passage in the play of Lingua (before 1603): "These puling lovers — I
cannot but laugh at them and their encomiums of their mistresses. They make,
forsooth, her hair of gold, her eyes of diamond, her cheeks of roses, her lips of
rubies, her teeth of pearl, and her whole body of ivory; and when they have
thus idoled her like Pygmalion, they fall down and worship her." (Dodsley's
Old Plays, 9: 370-71.) A similar passage is in Shirley's The Sisters (IV, ii):

Were it not fine
If you should see your mistress without hair,
Drest only with those glittering beams you talk of?
Two suns instead of eyes, and they not melt
The forehead made of snow! No cheeks, but two
Roses inoculated on a lily,
Between a pendant alabaster nose:
Her lips cut out of coral, and no teeth
But strings of pearl: her tongue a nightingale's!
Would not this strange chimera fright yourself?

(Quoted by Collier in a note to Lingua, as above; in
Dyce's ed. of Shirley, 5: 399.)]

3i 6 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxx

Dyce, [in a note to the passage last quoted, observes that in the volume called
"The Extravagant Shepherd, ... an Anti-Romance" there is] a portrait com-
posed somewhat after [Shirley's] model: the hair presents two nets, in which
hearts are ensnared; the forehead is a Cupid; the eyebrows are two bows, and
the eyes two suns; the cheeks lilies and roses, the lips two bits of coral, the teeth
pearls, and the bosom two globes, properly mapped out. [This picture is repro-
duced in Jusserand's The English Novel in the Time of Sh. — Ed.]

2. Lee: Cf. "coral-colored lips" (Zepheria, 1594, No. 23); "No coral is her
lips" (Lodge's Phillis, 1595, No. 8). "Ce beau coral" are the opening words of
Ronsard's Amours, livre 1, No. 23, where a list is given of stones and metals
comparable to women's features. (Life, p. n8n.)

4. wiers. Verity: Cf. Spenser's Epithalamion: " Her long loose yellow locks
like golden wire"; [Barnes,] Parthenophil, 13: "Her hair disordered, brown and
crisped wiry"; England's Helicon, (Bullen ed., p. 83): "Her tresses are like
wires of beaten gold"; Diella, S. 3: "Her hair exceeds gold forced in smallest
wire"; Hero & Leander, 4th sestiad, 290: "Her tresses were of wire, knit like a
net"; Peele, Praise of Chastity: "Whose ticing hair, like nets of golden wire,"
etc. Was it something in the Elizabethan coiffure which suggested the com-
parison? Lee: Wires in the sense of hairs was peculiarly distinctive of the son-
neteers' affected vocabulary. Cf. Daniel, Delia, 26: "And golden hair may
change to silver wire"; Lodge, Phillis: "Made blush the beauties of her curled
wire"; Barnes, Parthenophil, 48: "Her hairs no grace of golden wires want."
{Life, p. n8n.) Walsh: Sh. himself has "wiry friends," of hairs, in K.J., III,
iv, 64. [Already noted by Rolfe.] And the expressions continued to be used.
Thus Drummond has "dear coral lip" and "threads of golden wire" (Works,
i, 45; ii, 151). Of the latter phrase perhaps the last appearance, swathed in
quotation marks, is in Strangford's translation of Camoens' Poems [1803],
where the translator says he has taken it from Drummond (though he uses it
in a form more similar to Daniel's); while the former has passed over into Ger-
many and reappears lustily in Lenau's "schonen Munds Korallenrand." (Trias
Harmonica.) [The comparison of hair to wires is further discussed and illus-
trated in a note by Horace Davis, Critic, n.s., 19: 419.]

5. damaskt. Schmidt: Of a mingled red and white. [Cf. A. Y. L., Ill, v,
123:

A little riper and more lusty red

Than that mix'd in his cheek; 't was just the difference

Betwixt the constant red and mingled damask.]

8. reekes. Rolfe: Properly = emits vapour, steams; but here probably
used for the sake of the rhyme. [Cf. L. L. L., IV, iii, 140: "Saw sighs reek
from you."]

11. goe. See note on 51, 14.

Minto [regards this mocking sonnet as evidence for his view that this whole
group of sonnets "to a courtesan" are best regarded] as exercises of skill, under-

cxxx] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 317

taken in a spirit of wanton defiance and derision of commonplace. When young
Hal was told of his father's triumphs, the humorous youth indulged in a curious
eccentricity, which, if I am not in error, represents exactly the spirit of these
sonnets:

His answer was, he would unto the stews,

And from the commonest creature pluck a glove,

And wear it as a favour; and with that

He would unhorse the lustiest challenger.

[R. 2, V, iii, 16-19.]

. . . The new sonneteer lays down a humorous challenge — Give place, ye
lovers, who boast of beauty and virtue: my mistress is neither fair nor faithful.
{Char, of Eng. Poets, pp. 211-12.)

Isaac [cites a passage in Nash's Pierce Penniless, 1592, already noted by
Elze, regarding "an Inamorato Poeta " who will "sonnet a whole quire of paper
in praise of Ladie Manibetter, his yellow faced mistress," and thinks it may be
significant in connection with this sonnet.] The name Manibetter fits the sonnet-
lady strikingly both in physical and moral relations. [He also comments on the
sonnet as] the most complete contradiction of S. 99. And if we compare the
whole series, the sonnets of Travel [see his note on S. 27] and those dealing with
the Pain and Pleasure of Love [a group in which he puts 21, 36, 49, 56-58, 69-
7°. 75. 87, 91-96, 127, 130-132, 149, 151,] we find the same contrast throughout
them: the former entirely under the domination of the Italian taste and the
Italian theories of love, even if poetically carried out through the genuineness
of the imagination; the latter so fresh and unadorned, so purely poetic, as to
seem to proceed only from a poet who is writing a drama with a view to lashing
the unnaturalness of euphuism. (Jahrb., 19: 21 1, 208.)

[See Massey's note at the end of S. 96.]

3i 8 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxxi

131

Thou art as tiranous, so as thou art,

As those whose beauties proudly make them cruell ;

For well thou know'st to my deare doting hart

Thou art the fairest and most precious Iewell.

Yet in good faith some say that thee behold, 5

Thy face hath not the power to make loue grone;

To say they erre, I dare not be so bold,

Although I sweare it to my selfe alone.

And to be sure that is not false I sweare 9

A thousand grones but thinking on thy face,

One on anothers necke do witnesse beare

Thy blacke is fairest in my iudgements place.

In nothing art thou blacke saue in thy deeds,

And thence this slaunder as I thinke proceeds.

1. art as] art a 1640; art G2, S2, E. so as] yes so G1, S1; 50 G2, S2, E.

3. deare doting] Hyphened by Del, Sta, Dy2, Hu2.

9. sweare] sweare, [or swear,] G1, S1, C, M, etc.; swear; G2, S2, E.

1-4. Krauss: Cf. Sidney, A. & S., 5th Song, 56-61:
I lay then to thy charge unjustest tyranny!
If rule by force without all claim a tyrant showeth.
For thou dost lord my heart, who am not born thy slave;
And, which is worse, makes me most guiltless torments have.
A rightful prince by unright deeds a tyrant groweth.

(Jahrb., 16: 201.)

5. in good faith. Wyndham [thinks these words should not be enclosed in
commas, as by modern editors generally]; it is the author's tribute to the good
faith of his mistress's detractors. [This suggestion is followed in the texts of
Beeching and Walsh.]

6. McClumpha: Cf. R. & J., II, Prol., 3: "That fair for which love groan'd
for and would die." (Jahrb., 40: 188.)

13. Tyler: Cf. 144, 4; 147, 14.

13-14. Butler: The obviously genuine almost fierceness of these two lines
at the conclusion of a conventional sonnet recall the concluding lines of 137,
and also the abrupt changes of tone in the ending of the highly unconventional
sonnets 147, 148, and 125.

14. this slaunder. Isaac: [Contrary to Collier and others, who refer this to

cxxxn] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 319

earlier sonnets such as 70, the sonnet is self-explanatory, alluding to the alle-
gation that the mistress is ugly. In the same way we should understand "black
deeds" only of her tyrannical, distant personality. (Archiv, 61 : 409.)] Dowden:
The slander that her face has not the power to make love groan.

Sharp [conjectures that the group 131-136, together with 128, 139-140, 143
and 149, were actually sent to the mistress, the others in this part of the collec-
tion being "Sh.'s private journal of his passion." (Intro., p. 21.) See his note
on S. 141.]

132

Thine eies I loue, and they as pittying me,

Knowing thy heart torment me with disdaine,

Haue put on black, and louing mourners bee,

Looking with pretty ruth vpon my paine.

And truly not the morning Sun of Heauen 5

Better becomes the gray cheeks of th'East,

Nor that full Starre that vshers in the Eauen

Doth halfe that glory to the sober West

As those two morning eyes become thy face : 9

O let it then as well beseeme thy heart

To mourne for me since mourning doth thee grace,

And sute thy pitty like in euery part.

Then will I sweare beauty her selfe is blacke,
And all they foule that thy complexion lacke.

2. heart] heart, M, A, B, Co*. torment] torments 1640, G, S, E, C, Kt,
Co1-2, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, etc.
6. th' Eastl the east, G2, etc.
9. morning] mourning G, etc.

Lee: [This sonnet reproduces Sidney's conceit (.4. e" S. 7; see under S. 127)
that the lady's eyes are in mourning in order "to honour all their deaths who
for her bleed." (Life, p. 1 I9n.)] Krauss [following Massey (see note on 127, 9),
observes that it is only the eyes that are black, and that the face is by implica-
tion that of a blonde, — Sidney's Stella again. (Jahrb., 16: 188.)]

2. torment. [See the textual notes. Collier, evidently supposing that he
was the first to correct to "torments," says that he owes the emendation to a
correspondent by the name of J. O'Connell.]

320 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxxn

5-9. Dowden: Cf. T. of S., IV, v, 31-32:

What stars do spangle heaven with such beauty,
As those two eyes become that heavenly face?

Sarrazin: Cf. V. & A., 485-86:

And as the bright sun glorifies the sky,
So is her face illumin'd with her eye.

(Sh.'s Lehrjahre, p. 155.)

9. morning. M alone: The context, I think clearly shows that the poet
wrote "mourning." [Cf. line 3.] The two words were, I imagine, in his time
pronounced alike. In a sonnet of our author's, printed by W. Jaggard, 1599,
we find: "In black morne I." The same sonnet is printed in England's Helicon,
1600, and there the line stands: "In black mourn I." Dowden: Probably a
play was intended on the words "morning sun" and "mourning eyes." Mas-
sey, [though he prints the word "mourning," compares the passage with A . &
S., 48; "Soul's joy! bend not those morning stars from me." Miss Porter
would keep "morning," explaining:] Like the morning eye of the sun of heaven.
[With the possible pun Mr. Horace Davis compares a line in Dekker's Shoe-
maker's Holiday, V, ii: "Your morning mirth my mourning day hath made."]

11. Cf. 127, 13.

12. sute. See note on 127, 10. Tyler: Let every part of thee, and not merely
thy eyes, pity me, and let every part wear a similar garb of mourning.

14. Rolfe: Cf. L. L. L., IV, iii, 253 [see under S. 127].

Butler: [This sonnet may have been shown to Sh.'s mistress] instead of the
preceding sonnet, which is much the same in substance.

cxxxm] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 321

133
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groane
For that deepe wound it giues my friend and me;
I'st not ynough to torture me alone,
But slaue to slauery my sweet'st friend must be.
Me from my selfe thy cruell eye hath taken, 5

And my next selfe thou harder hast ingrossed,
Of him, my selfe, and thee I am forsaken,
A torment thrice three-fold thus to be crossed:
Prison my heart in thy Steele bosomes warde, 9

But then my friends heart let my poore heart bale,
Who ere keepes me, let my heart be his garde,
Thou canst not then vse rigor in my Iaile.
And yet thou wilt, for I being pent in thee,
Perforce am thine and all that is in me.

3. alone] along 1640.

4. sweet'st] sweetest G, Ss, E, B, Kly; sweet S1. be.] be? G, etc.
9. Steele bosomes] Hyphened by Kly.

Beechixg: This sonnet treats, from the woman's point of view, the same
subject as Sonnets 34-35, 40-42.

1. Sarrazin: Cf. V. c* A., 785: "No, lady, no; my heart longs not to groan."
(Sh.'s Lehrjahre, p. 155.) Beshrew that heart. [An adaptation of a conven-
tional imprecation. Cf. XI. -V. D., V, i, 295: "Beshrew my heart"; T. c* C,
IV, ii, 29: "Come, come, beshrew your heart"; etc. — Ed.]

6. ingrossed. Schmidt: Taken the whole of. [Cf. XI. W. W., II, ii, 203:
"Engross'd opportunities to meet her."]

8. crossed. Dowden: Cf. 34, 12; 42, 12.

9. Verity: Cf. R. 3, I, ii, 204-05:

Look, how my ring encompasseth thy ringer,
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart;

and Barnes, Parthenophil, 16: "That mine heart in her body lies imprisoned."
Lee: Cf. 22, 5-7; 109, 3-4 [and notes. — Ed.].
13-14. Fleay: Cf. Drayton, Idea, S. 11:

Since you one were, I never since was one;
Since you in me, my self since out of me.

322 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxxiv

Transported from my self into your being,
Though either distant, present yet to either.

(Biog. Chron., 2: 228.)
Walsh: Cf. M.V., III, ii, 16-18:

One half of me is yours, the other half yours,
Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
And so all yours.

134

So now I haue confest that he is thine,
And I my selfe am morgag'd to thy will,
My selfe He forfeit, so that other mine,
Thou wilt restore to be my comfort still :
But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free, 5

For thou art couetous, and he is kinde,
He learnd but suretie-like to write for me,
Vnder that bond that him as fast doth binde.
The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take, 9

Thou vsurer that put'st forth all to vse,
And sue a friend, came debter for my sake,
So him I loose through my vnkinde abuse.
Him haue I lost, thou hast both him and me,
He paies the whole, and yet am I not free.

4. restore to be] restore, to beh, M, etc.; restore to me G1; restore to me, G2,
S, E.

9. thy] my B.
12. loose] lose G, etc.
14. am I] I am 1640, G, S, E.

Lee: The legal terminology in this sonnet (cf. 87, 3-4) again closely resem-
bles that employed by Barnes in his Parthenophil, Sonnets 8, 9, and 11, where
"mortgage," "bail," "forfeit," "forfeiture," "deed of gift" are all applied to
the mistress's hold on the lover's heart. This sort of phraseology, applied to
amorous purposes, was well satirised by Sir John Davies in his Gulling Sonnets,
of which No. 7 opens: " Into the middle temple of my heart." Tyler: It would
seem [from this sonnet] that it was on some business of Sh.'s that his friend had
first gone to the lady. (Quarto Facsimile, Intro., p. xix.)

cxxxv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 323

2. Fleay: Cf. Drayton, Idea, S. 3:

My heart hath paid such grievous usury

That all their wealth lies in thy beauty's books.

(Biog. Chron., 2: 228.)
will. Lee: Her personality, in which "will," in the double sense of stubborn-
ness and sensual passion, is the strongest element. . . . The word is not here
italicised in [the Q], and there is no ground whatever for detecting in it any
sort of pun [i.e., as in S. 135]. {Life, p. 425.)

3. other mine. Dowden: Other myself, my alter ego.

9. statute. M alone: [The word] has here its legal signification, that of a
security or obligation for money.

10. use. See note on 6, 5.

11. came. [For the omission of the relative, see Abbott's note on 4, 4. For
the shortened verb form (" came " = became) see his note on 46, 9.]

12. abuse. Tyler: In exposing him to the danger.

Von Mauntz [thinks that this sonnet is addressed by a woman to her rival,
and that in lines 7-8 she speaks of her marriage contract. (Jahrb., 28: 282. ~)]

135
Who euer hath her wish, thou hast thy Will,
And Will too boote, and Will in ouer-plus,
More then enough am I that vexe thee still,
To thy sweet will making addition thus.
Wilt thou whose will is large and spatious, 5

Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine,
Shall will in others seeme right gracious,
And in my will no faire acceptance shine:
The sea all water, yet receiues raine still, 9

And in aboundance addeth to his store,
So thou beeing rich in Will adde to thy Will,
One will of mine to make thy large Will more.
Let no vnkinde, no faire beseechers kill,
Thinke all but one, and me in that one Will.

2. too] to S, etc.

4. will] Italics by L.

6, 8. thine, . . . shine:] thine, . . . shine? L; thine? . . . shine? G, etc.
13. vnkinde, no] unkind "No" Do conj., Ox; unkind no Ty, Be; unkindness
But, \Va. faire] your Ty conj. kill] skill Rossetti conj.

324 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxxv

Halliwell: Cf. Parrot's Laquei Ridiculosi, or Springes for Woodcocks, 1613:

Kinde Katheren to her husband kist these words,

Mine owne sweet Will, how deerely doe I love thee?

If true, quoth Will, the world no "such affords,

And that 't is true I durst his warrant be:

For nere heard I of woman good or ill

But alwayes loved best her owne sweet Will.

Dowden: In this sonnet, in the next, and in S. 143, the Q marks by italics and
capital W the play on words, Will = William (Sh.), Will = William, the Chris-
tian name of Sh.'s friend (?Mr. W. H.), and Will = desire, volition. Here " Will
in overplus" means Will Sh., as the next line shows, "More than enough am
I." The first " Will " means desire (but as we know that his lady had a husband,
it is possible that he also may have been a "Will," and that the first "Will" here
mayreferto him, beside meaning "desire"); the second " Will " is Sh.'s friend.
Tyler: The dark lady has the "Will " of the poet's friend, meaning, no doubt,
William Herbert. . . . An exceedingly interesting parallel to this and following
sonnets is found in the Dedication by John Davies to his "Select Second Hus-
band for Sir Thomas Overbury's Wife, now a Matchless Widow" (1606). And
it is specially appropriate as being addressed to "William Earle of Pembroke":

Wit and my Will (deere Lord) were late at strife,
To whom this Bridegroome I for grace might send
Who Bride was erst the happiest husbands wife
That ere was haplesse in his Friend, and End.
Wit, with it selfe, and with my Will, did warre,
For Will {good-Will) desir'd it might be YOU.
But Wit found fault with each particular
It selfe had made; sith YOU were // to view; etc.

(Grosart's Chertsey Worthies' Library.)

Lee: The groundwork of the pleasantry is the identity in form of the proper
name with the common noun "will." This word connoted in Elizabethan
English a generous variety of conceptions, of most of which it has long since
been deprived. Then, as now, it was employed in the general psychological
sense of volition; but it was more often specifically applied to two limited mani-
festations of the volition. It was the commonest of synonyms alike for "self-
will" or "stubbornness" — in which sense it still survives in "wilful" — and
for "lust" or "sensual passion." It also did occasional duty for its own dimin-
utive "wish," for "caprice," for "good-will," and for "free consent" (as nowa-
days in "willing" or "willingly "). Sh. constantly used "will" in all these sig-
nifications. . . . [In one] of Iago's sentences, "Love is merely a lust of the blood
and a permission of the will," light is shed on the process by which the word
came to be specifically applied to sensual desire. The last is a favourite sense
with Sh. and his contemporaries. [Cf. M.for M., II, iv, 164; A.W., IV, iii, 19;
Lear, IV, vi, 278; with passages from Sidney, Lodge, and Breton.] ... It was
not only in the sonnets that Sh. — almost invariably with a glance at its sen-

cxxxv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 325

sual significance — rang the changes on this many-faced verbal token. [Cf.
L. L. L., II, i, 99-100; Much Ado, V, iv, 26-29; M. W. W., Ill, iv, 58; etc.] . . .
The corrector of the press recognised that Sonnets 135-136 largely turned upon
a simple pun between the writer's name of Will and the lady's "will." That
fact, and no other, he indicated very roughly by occasionally italicising the
crucial word. Typography at the time followed no firmly fixed rules, and,
although "will" figures in a more or less punning sense 19 times in these son-
nets, the printer only bestowed on the word the distinction of italics in 10
instances, and these were selected arbitrarily. . . . They give no hint of the far
more complicated punning that is alleged by those who believe that "Will" is
used now as the name of the writer, and now as that of one or more of the rival
suitors. . . . Similar passages abound in Elizabethan sonnets, but certain verbal
similarities give good ground for regarding Sh.'s "will" sonnets as deliberate
adaptations — doubtless with satiric purpose — of Barnes's stereotyped reflec-
tions on women's obduracy [e.g., Parthenophil, Sestine 2:

But women will have their own wills, . . .
Since what she lists her heart fulfills.]

The form and the constant repetition of the word "will" in these two sonnets
of Sh. also seem to imitate derisively the. same rival's Sonnets 72-73, in which
Barnes puts the words "grace" and "graces" through much the same evolu-
tions as Sh. puts the words "will" and "wills." (Life, pp. 416-21.) [See Lee's
further notes, especially on 136, 13-14 and 143, 13, with reference to the ques-
tion of more than one Will. In his edition of Sh. he comments further on the
typographical problem, saying that the word "will" is so often printed as here
in Elizabethan books that the typography gives no good ground for detecting
puns.] Cf. John Davies's Summa Totalis (1607), where in the last 26 stanzas
the substantive "Will" is used 30 times; it is italicised with the initial capital
12 times, and has the initial capital without the italics 16 times; such are mere
typographical vagaries. Archer: [This sonnet makes it clear that Sh. speaks
both of his mistress's will and Will his friend.] The only doubtful point ... is
whether there be not a third "Will," a third lover in the case. . . . The whole
thing is flatly meaningless unless there are two. (Fort. Rev., n.s., 62: 832.)
"Mackail: [While these sonnets suggest the view that the friend's name was
Will,] they do not necessitate it: if analysed closely, they will be found to con-
tain no thought or phrase which is not satisfied by a play of words between the
poet's own name and the various senses which the word "will" bears as a
common noun. (Led. on Poetry, p. 194.) Wyndham: We learn from this and
other numbers [that Will was] the name of both the poet and his friend. [See
further, on this matter, the notes on line 2.]

1. Lee: An allusion to the current cant phrase, which was utilised as the
name of a popular comedy by William Haughton, c. 1597, "A woman will have
her will." Beechixg: If "will" [in this line] were a proper name, we should
expect in line 4 "thy sweet wills."

326 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxxv

2. Massey: [This] line only indicates the abundance and overplus of the
lady's capacity of Will (not one or rather two more " Wills" by name) ; hence the
context: ... "To thy sweet will (not Wills) making addition thus." (p. 224.)
From the beginning to the end of the sonnets there is but one "Will"; in
each case he is the speaker, and nowhere is he the person who is spoken to.
(p. 34.) Butler: Both the "Wills" I take to be Mr. W. H. Beeching: The
third Will here must be Sh., because "Will in overplus" corresponds to "more
than enough am I"; and few critics with the 143d Sonnet also in mind would
hesitate to refer the second Will to Sh.'s friend, for whom the "dark lady" had
been laying snares. But the Southamptonites, who cannot allow that the
friend's name was Will, are constrained to deny that there is any pun at all in
143, and to refer that in 135 to the distinction between "will" in its ordinary
sense and "will" in the sense of "desire." But the balance of the line makes it
almost necessary that, as "Will in overplus" must be a proper name, "Will. to
boot" should be a proper name also. (Intro., p. xxxvii.)

3. am I. Halliwell: Query — / am? In Sh.'s time quibbles of this kind
were common. [He cites one from the Book of Merry Riddles, 1613, where iam
added to Will = William.]

4. Butler: I suspect the "will" to be a printer's error for Will, i.e., Sh.

9. Isaac: Cf. T.N., I, i, 11: "Thy capacity receiveth as the sea," and II,
iv, 103: "[My love] is all as hungry as the sea." (Archiv, 59: 252.) Walsh:
Cf. R. & J., II, ii, 133-34:

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,

My love as deep.

Lee: Cf. 3H. 6, V, iv, 8-9:

Add water to the sea
And give more strength to that which hath too much.

12. Walsh: It looks as though the Q had here capitalised and italicised the
wrong "will."

13. Palgrave: Let no unkindness, no fairspoken rivals destroy me. W. M.
Rossetti: "Kill" can hardly be right, and "skill" would make more sense . . .
in the signification of "avail, succeed." {Lives, p. 54.) Isaac: Let not thine
unfriendliness slay sincere admirers. Dowden: If this be the true reading, we
must take "unkind" as a substantive, meaning ''unkind one" (i.e., his lady).
So in Daniel's Delia, S. 2: "And tell th'Unkind how dearly I have lov'd her."
But perhaps the line ought to be printed thus: "Let no unkind 'No' fair be-
seechers kill." Schmidt [defines "unkind," with a query, as a substantive
meaning "unnaturalness, averseness to the works of love." Rolfe feels
"strongly tempted" to adopt Dowden's emendation. Sharp accepts it, with
the interpretation, "Let no unkind rejection of them kill such fair arguments."]
Massey: [Dowden's reading] is to set up a plea on behalf of any number of
rivals, and then to make the speaker ask that they may be mistaken for him,
if they only bespeak her fairly. "Fair" is Shakespearean for to "make fair,"
which shows the antithesis to "unkind " or unnatural. I read the last two lines

cxxxv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 327

as meaning, "Let neither of this class of beseechers conquer or kill, but think
the whole of your suitors one, and that one me." (p. 224.) Tyler: I am in-
clined to accept [Dowden's emendation], with the exception that "your" would
seem preferable to "fair." Wyxdham: The rhythm, clearly indicated by a
comma after "no" [Evidently an error for "after 'unkind.' " — Ed.] in Q,
would be shattered by [Dowden's] emendation. Butler [defending his emenda-
tion "unkindness":] I am told that the abbreviation "ne," with an elongated
e, was in common use for " nesse " at the close of the 16th century. If this " ne "
in the MS. was ever so little detached from the foregoing part of the word, it
would corrupt readily into the text of Q. [Herford, though his text reads as
in Q, writes a note apparently based on Dowden's emendation.] Beeching:
Let no unkindness kill any beseechers. For the adjective used as a noun, cf.
"fair," 16, 11, etc. Dowden's suggestion ... is ingenious; but the next line,
"Think all but one," seems to require "no fair beseechers." Lee: Let not my
mistress in her unkindness kill any of her fair-spoken adorers. {Life, p. 422.)
[Agreement on this line is probably out of the question. Though usually sus-
picious of arguments based on rhythmical taste, I cannot help agreeing with
Wyndham that Dowden's reading is metrically outrageous. On the other hand,
Butler's emendation, perhaps alone of his many efforts to better the text, seems
to me far from despicable; and if one should combine it with Tyler's "your,"
the result would be attractive. There is no warrant in usage for taking "un-
kind" as the abstract noun "unkindness. " "Fair" as a substantive is analogous,
to be sure, but was an independently well-established Elizabethan noun. — Ed.]
14. Lee: Let her think all who beseech her favours incorporate in one alone of
her lovers — and that one the writer, whose name of "Will" is a synonym for
the passions that dominate her. {Life, p. 422.)

Isaac [remarks of this sonnet and 136, as well as of 153-154, that] they are
so filled with subtleties and plays on words, so wholly wrought in the conven-
tional Italian taste, and show so extraordinarily little of Sh.'s specific character-
istics, that [they may be thought to be even earlier than those that stand at the
opening of the collection, and than V. c* A], (Jahrb., 19: 196.)

Butler [believes the sonnet was written for Mr. YV. H. to give to Sh.'s mis-
tress ("who is now in her turn coy'") as if written by himself.]

328 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxxvi

136
If thy soule check thee that I come so neere,
Sweare to thy blind soule that I was thy Will,
And will thy soule knowes is admitted there,
Thus farre for loue, my loue-sute sweet fullfill.
Will, will fulfill the treasure of thy loue, 5

I fill it full with wils, and my will one,
In things of great receit with ease we prooue,
Among a number one is reckon'd none.
Then in the number let me passe vntold, 9

Though in thy stores account I one must be,
For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold,
That nothing me, a some-thing sweet to thee.
Make but my name thy loue, and loue that still,
And then thou louest me for my name is Will.

4. sweet] (sweet) C; between commas by M, etc. (except But, first comma
only).

6. I] Ay, C, M, etc.
, 7. prooue,] prove; M, A, Kt, Hu1, Kly, Co3; prove Dy, Sta, Gl, Cam, Do,
etc.

10. stores] store's G2, S2, E, C, Hal, Do, Hu2, R, Ty, Cam2, But, Be, N, Bull;
stores' M, A, Kt, Co, B, Hu1, Del, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Kly, Wh, Cam1, Ox, Wy, Her.
VVa.

12. nothing me] Hyphened by G1, S1. sweet] (sweet) C; between commas
by Walker conj., Dy2, Co3, Hu2, But, Be, Bull.

1. check. Schmidt: Chide. [Cf. 58, 7.]

2. blind soule. Lee: Sh. refers to the blindness, the "sightless view" of the
soul, in S. 27, and apostrophises the soul as the "centre of his sinful earth" in
S. 146. (Life, p. 422n.) [It is certain that the reference to S. 27 is irrelevant,
for there the soul has a view which is "sightless" only because the eyes cannot
see in the dark; that to S. 146 is somewhat cryptic. — Ed.] thy Will. Beeching:
Perhaps "thy husband Will," or "my friend." But the third line renders the
conjecture unnecessary.

3. will. Beeching: Carnal desire [as in line 5]. Cf. Lucrece, 495: "But
Will is deaf and hears no heedful friends."

6. I. Dowden: The usual way of printing our "Ay" at the time; but possi-
bly there may here (as often elsewhere in Sh.) be a play on the words " I " = ay,

cxxxvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 329

yes, and "I" = myself, wils. Lee: The varied forms of will, i.e., lusts, stub-
bornness, etc.

7. receit. Schmidt: Capacity, power of receiving and containing. ["'Things
of great receipt " = large matters. — Ed.] proove. [The persistence of Malone's
unintelligible semi-colon after this word is remarkable. For the meaning, cf.
72, 4, and note. — Ed.]

8. [See Dowden's note on 8, 14. In connection with the latter passage
Wyndham quotes from Cocker's Arithmetick, 1664: "Most authors maintain
that Unit is the beginning of numbers and it self no number"; also from Mar-
lowe, H. e" L. :

One is no number; maids are nothing, then,
Without the sweet society of men.]

9-10. Dowden: You need not count me when merely counting the number
of those who hold you dear, but when estimating the worth of your possessions
you must have regard to me.

10. stores. See textual notes. Schmidt: Used only in the singular; there-
fore [read] "store's," not "stores'."

11-12. McClumpha: Cf. R. & J., I, i, 183: "O anything, of nothing first
create." (Jahrb., 40: 197.)

12. sweet. [See textual notes. The "sweet" of line 4 is, one might say, an
argument for the reading of Walker and Dyce; on the other hand, "to me"
seems to call for the construction which is generally accepted. — Ed.]

13-14. Dowden: Love only my name (something less than loving myself),
and then thou lovest me, for my name is Will, and I myself am all will, i.e., all
desire. Tyler: You love your other admirer named Will. Love the name alone,
and then you love me, for my name is Will. Lee: "Make 'will' " (i.e., that which
is yourself) "your love, and then you love me, because Will is my name." The
couplet proves even more convincingly than the one which clinches the pre-
ceding sonnet that none of the rivals whom the poet sought to displace in the
lady's affections could by any chance have been, like himself, called Will. The
writer could not appeal to a mistress to concentrate her love on his name of
Will, because it was the emphatic sign of identity between her being and him,
if that name were common to him and one or more rivals, and lacked exclusive
reference to himself. . . . The whole significance of both couplets resides in the
twice-repeated fact that one, and only one, of the lady's lovers is named Will,
and that that one is the writer. (Life, p. 424.)

[After this sonnet Sharp inserts the one appearing as No. 3 in The Passionate
Pilgrim (also in L. L. L., IV, iii, 60-73):

Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye,
'Gainst whom the world could not hold argument,
Persuade my heart to this false perjury?
Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment.
A woman I forswore; but I will prove,
Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee:

330 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxxvn

My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;
Thy grace being gain'd cures all disgrace in me.
My vow was breath, and breath a vapour is;
Then, thou fair sun, that on this earth doth shine,
Exhale this vapour vow; in thee it is:
If broken, then it is no fault of mine;
If by me broke, what fool is not so wise
To break an oath to win a paradise?

He calls attention to the appearance in the present collection of two sonnets
(138 and 144) which were included in The Pass. Pilg., and believes this one fits
in here] with peculiar applicability. It is the last time that Sh. hints there is
anything more in his love than thraldom to a strong and subtle passion.

137

Thou blinde foole loue, what doost thou to mine eyes,

That they behold and see not what they see :

They know what beautie is, see where it lyes,

Yet what the best is, take the worst to be:

If eyes corrupt by ouer-partiall lookes, 5

Be anchord in the baye where all men ride,

Why of eyes falsehood hast thou forged hookes,

Whereto the iudgement of my heart is tide?

Why should my heart thinke that a seuerall plot, 9

Which my heart knowes the wide worlds common place?

Or mine eyes seeing this, say this is not

To put faire truth vpon so foule a face,

In things right true my heart and eyes haue erred,
And to this false plague are they now transferred.

2. see:] see? G, etc.

11. not] not, S\ C, M, etc.

12. face,] face? G2, C, M, etc.

13. right true] Hyphened by Del, Sta, Dy2, Hu2, Bull.

Massey [compares this sonnet, as well as 141, 148, and 150, for the theme of
distorted eyesight, with Sidney's A. & S., 34: "Stella's great powers, that so
confuse my mind." (p. 246.)] Lee [compares it (and 148 and 150), for its un-
flattering attitude, with No. 7 of Jodelle's Contr' Amours {Oeuvres, 1597, pp.
91-94):]

cxxxvn] THE SOXXETS OF SHAKESPEARE 331

Combien de fois mes vers ont-ils dore
Ces cheveux noirs dignes d'une Meduse?
Combien de fois ce teint noir qui m'amuse,
Ay-ie de lis et roses colore?
Combien ce front de rides laboure
Ay-ie applani? et quel a fait ma Muse
Le gros sourcil, ou folle elle s'abuse,
Ayant sur luy l'arc d'Amour figure?
Quel ay-ie fait son ceil se renfoncant?
Quel ay-ie fait son grand nez rougissant?
Quelle sa bouche et ses noires dents quelles?
Quel ay-ie fait le reste de ce corps?
Qui, me sentant endurer mille morts,
Yivoit heureux de mes peines mortelles.

{Life, p. I22n.)

[Most readers would probably find matter for contrast rather than comparison,
in both these instances. — Ed.]

1. blinde foole love. Isaac: Cf. A. Y. L., IV, i, 218: "That blind rascally
boy that abuses every one's eyes because his own are out."

6. M alone: Cf. A. & C, I, v, 33: "There would he anchor his aspect"
[i.e., in Cleopatra's brow.] Rolfe: Cf. M.for M.t II, iv, 4: "My invention . . .
anchors on Isabel"; Cymb., V, v, 393: "Posthumus anchors upon Imogen."

9. severall. M ALONE: Cf. L. L. L., II, i, 223: "My lips are no common,
though several they be." [In a note on the latter passage, Steevens quotes
Fenton's Tragical Discourses (1597): "He entered commons in the place which
the olde John thought to be reserved severall to himself." See other notes,
ibid.] Halliwell: Fields that were enclosed were called "severals" in opposi-
tion to "commons," the former belonging to individuals, the others to the
inhabitants generally. When commons were enclosed, portions allotted to
owners of freeholds, copyholds, and cottages, were fenced in, and termed
"severals." (Quoted by Rolfe.) Tyler: Cf. Peacham, Worth of a Penny:
"Others, not affecting marriage at all, live, as they say, 'upon the Commons';
unto whom it is death to be put into the Several." (Eng. Garner, 6: 261.)

10. F. V. Hugo: Cf. Moliere, Le Misanthrope:

Celimene. Mais de tout l'univers vous devenez jaloux.
Alceste. C'est que tout l'univers est bien recu de vous.

13. Stopes: [Cf. 36, 10.]

[Note the close relation of this sonnet with 148-150, which Walsh not un-
reasonably places immediately after it. — Ed.]

332 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxxvm

138

When my loue sweares that she is made of truth,

I do beleeue her though I know she lyes,

That she might thinke me some vntuterd youth,

Vnlearned in the worlds false subtilties.

Thus vainely thinking that she thinkes me young, 5

Although she knowes my dayes are past the best,

Simply I credit her false speaking tongue,

On both sides thus is simple truth supprest:

But wherefore sayes she not she is vniust? 9

And wherefore say not I that I am old?

O loues best habit is in seeming trust,

And age in loue, loues not t'haue yeares told.

Therefore I lye with her, and she with me,

And in our faults by lyes we flattered be.

7. false speaking] Hyphened by S1, M, etc. «

12. t'haue] to have C, M, etc. (except Bull).
[See below for the text of 1599, 1640, etc.]

[The chief interest of this sonnet is in the fact that it had appeared as the
first poem of The Passionate Pilgrim, 1599, with a somewhat different text, as
follows:

When my Love sweares that she is made of truth,

I doe beleeve her (though I know she lies)

That she might thinke me some untutor'd youth,

Unskilfull in the worlds false forgeries.

Thus vainly thinking that she thinkes me young,

Although I know my yeares be past the best:

I smiling, credite her false speaking toung,

Outfacing faults in Love, with loves ill rest.

But wherefore sayes my Love that she is young?

And wherefore say not I, that I am old?

O, Loves best habite is a soothing toung,

And Age (in Love) loves not to have yeares told.
Therfore He lye with Love, and Love with me,
Since that our faults in Love thus smother'd be.

Delius observes that the P.P. version] clearly shows that the text given by
Thorpe [in the Q] was the original. The sonnet then dates at least before 1599.

cxxxviii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 333

therefore at least before the 35th year of the poet who here represents himself
as an old man in love, — a circumstance which of itself might perplex an auto-
biographical interpreter. (Jahrb., 1 : 53.) Isaac: From a comparison of the two
texts that of 1609 appears the better in every respect. . . . [The P.P. version
was probably] a corruption of the original published in 1609. (Archiv, 61 : 400.)
Massey: [If the two versions] are carefully compared, it will be seen that the
subject involves more than "Age in love," and that the second version was
modified of set purpose to conceal a fact which was manifest in the first one.
As amended it is made to look as though the "Age in love" was applicable to
both lovers, and that both were telling lies on the same ground of fact. But if
both were old there would be no inequality and no need of falsehood or disguise.
That the lady was old, or the elder, is certain. This is proved by the suppressed
lines — "But wherefore says my Love that she is young?" (p. 251.) Tyler:
A comparison of [lines 7-8] can scarcely leave a doubt of intentional alteration.
"Outfacing faults with love's ill rest" agrees with the forced smile of the pre-
vious line: "I smiling credit her falsehood." In the second version, one might
think "smiling" would have been better than "simply"; but "simply" and
"simple" have come in together. [The change in line 4, in 1609. is] a tolerably
manifest improvement, (pp. 135-36.) According to the [P.P. version, line 9].
the dark lady falsely declared herself to be young. But elsewhere, even in 130
and 150, there is no indication of her being other than young; and this indeed
seems implied in such expressions as "pretty ruth," "pretty looks," "lips that
Love's own hand did make." And Sh.'s pretending to be youthful also implies
that the lady was young. It is possible that Jaggard printed 138 from an in-
accurate copy. . . . Perhaps, however, it is more likely that some one altered
the last six lines to conceal Mrs. Fitton, who. in 1599, was in high favour at
Court, (p. 8 in.) Wyndham: [The variations in the P.P. version] with the
unlikely repetition of "tongue" as a rhyme in the third quatrain, after it had
served in the second, confirm the view that Sh.'s numbers in the P.P. were
pirated, perhaps from recollection only. Beeching: It is interesting to have so
clear an example of Sh.'s rewriting. It will be noted that the amended copy gets
rid of the difficult conclusion to line 8, and also of the new idea in line 9, which
interferes with the statement of the two faults in the octave: viz., the woman's
inconstancy and the man's pretence of youth and innocence. Lee: Jaggard
[in the P.P.] seems to have presented an earlier recension of the text than
figured in the edition of 1609. The poet's second thoughts do not seem to have
been always better than his first. . . . Lines 6-9 [in the P.P. text], if less pol-
ished, are somewhat more pointed than the later version. (Intro, to P.P.,
facsimile ed., 1905, pp. 22-23.)

1. truth. See note on 54, 2.

6. Hudson: This was printed in 1509, when [Sh.] was but 35. Surely, in this
case, his reason for using such language must have been that it suited his pur-
pose as a poet, not that it was true of his age as a man. (Intro., ed. 1881. p. 84.)
Isaac explains the passage as meaning, "The best part of my life, the harmless

334 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxxvm

time of youth, is behind me." (Archiv, 61: 412.) [On this subject, cf. notes on
22, 1 and 62, 9-10.]

7. Simply. Schmidt: Absolutely.

9. unjust. Schmidt: Faithless. [Cf. P.P., 331: "Unless thy lady prove un-
just."]

11. habit. Schmidt: Appearance, deportment.

12. t'have. Bullen: [We should keep this reading,] "years" having, as in
many passages, the value of a dissyllable, told. Cf. note on 30, 10.

Isaac: [This and S. 144 show that Sh. had made lyrical preliminary studies
for the character of Cleopatra ten years before the play of A . & C.\. ... As to
the moral side of this sonnet, it is to be admitted that malevolence can attach
to it a flippant interpretation, highly unfavorable for Sh.'s character. One has
only to overlook the deep bitterness of the last lines, and interpret them as the
mocking wisdom of a blase and decayed man of the world. The judgment of
the true admirer, who humbly seeks to approach the real thought and feeling
of this great man through the veil of the words, will here as elsewhere be guided
by the modesty and respect to which the unapproached moral greatness of the
poet raises an imperative claim. It will find in this sonnet a portrayal of feel-
ings such as are natural to a relation from which all mutual confidence has
vanished; it will be forced to marvel at the inexorable self-judgment with which
the poet sets to work. (Archiv, 61: 400, 412-13.)

[With reference to the 1599 version of line 9, Von Mauntz observes that the
identification of the woman referred to with Mary Fitton is improbable, since
a lady of twenty years would scarcely need to exert herself to seem young to a
man of thirty-five.]

cxxxix] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 335

139

O call not me to iustifie the wrong,

That thy vnkindnesse layes vpon my heart,

Wound me not with thine eye but with thy toung,

Vse power with power, and slay me not by Art,

Tell me thou lou'st else-where; but in my sight, 5

Deare heart forbeare to glance thine eye aside,

What needst thou wound with cunning when thy might

Is more then my ore-prest defence can bide?

Let me excuse thee, ah my loue well knowes, 9

Her prettie lookes haue beene mine enemies,

And therefore from my face she turnes my foes,

That they else-where might dart their iniuries:

Yet do not so, but since I am neere slaine,

Kill me out-right with lookes, and rid my paine.

3. eye] eyes Wa.
10. mine] my 1640, G, S, E.

Isaac: [With this sonnet and 140 cf. A. Y. L., Ill, v, 1-7:

Sweet Phebe, do not scorn me; do not, Phebe.

Say that you love me not, but say not so

In bitterness. The common executioner,

Whose heart the accustom'd sight of death makes hard,

Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck

But first begs pardon. Will you sterner be '

Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops?]

Sarrazin: Cf. V. & A., 499-502:

O, thou didst kill me; kill me once again.
Thy eyes's shrewd tutor, that hard heart of thine,
Hath taught them scornful tricks and such disdain
That they have murder'd this poor heart of mine.

(Sh:s Lehrjahre, p. 155.)

3. M ALONE: Cf. R. cV /., II, iv, 14: "Stabb'd with a white wench's black
eye." McClumpha: Cf. R. & J., II, ii, 71: "There lies more peril in thine eye
than twenty of their swords." (Jahrb., 40: 190.)

4. Art Schmidt: Perhaps magic may be meant. [Cf. Prospero, Temp., I, ii,
25: "Lie there, my art"; etc.]

336 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxxxix

5-6. Von Mauntz: Cf. C. of E., Ill, ii, 8-13:

Muffle your false love with some show of blindness;

Let not my sister read it in your eye;

Be not thy tongue thy own shame's orator;

Look sweet, speak fair, become disloyalty;

Apparel vice like virtue's harbinger;

Bear a fair presence, though your heart be tainted;

and Ovid, Amores, I, iv, 69-70:

Sed quaecumque tamen noctem fortuna sequetur,
Cras mihi constanti voce dedisse nega.

[Cf. also note on 140, 5-6.]

7. What. Schmidt [though not citing this passage, notes that "what" is
used with the meaning "why" especially before the verb "to need." Cf.
Abbott, § 253.]

8. bide. Cf. 58, 7.

14. Sarrazin: Cf. R. 3, I, ii. 150-53:

Glou. Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.
Anne. Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead!
Glou. I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.

(Jahrb., 31 : 224.)
Dowden: Cf. Sidney, A. & S., 48:

Dear killer, spare not thy sweet, cruel shot;
A kind of grace it is to slay with speed.

Verity: Cf. Constable, Diana, 4th decade, S. 5:

Dear, if all other favour you shall grudge,
Do speedy execution with your eye.

[I have elsewhere pointed out that this and the following sonnet seem to be
distinct from those which Lee calls "vituperative," and to be addressed to a
mistress who is conventionally unkind and proud:] Many readers connect this
pair with the preceding and the following, and Dowden comments to the effect
that the poet "goes on to speak of his lady's untruthfulness." There is a possi-
bility of reading unfaithfulness into the portrait; but surely the whole tone of
the two sonnets is distinct from that of their neighbors. When we find "the
wrong" done by the lady's "unkindness" developed by means of the conven-
tional conceit — "Wound me not with thine eye," etc., we are naturally dis-
posed to understand by that unkindness the usual hauteur of the besonneted
lady of the period. In 140, too, is "disdain" the word for the lying mistress of
138 or the adulteress of 152? (Kittredge Papers, p. 282n.)

cxl] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 337

140

Be wise as thou art cruell, do not presse
My toung-tide patience with too much disdaine:
Least sorrow lend me words and words expresse,
The manner of my pittie wanting paine.
If I might teach thee witte better it weare, 5

Though not to loue, yet loue to tell me so,
As testie sick-men when their deaths be neere,
No newres but health from their Phisitions know.
For if I should dispaire I should grow madde, 9

And in my madnesse might speake ill of thee,
Now this ill wresting world is growne so bad,
Madde slanderers by madde eares beleeued be.
That I may not be so, nor thou be lyde,
Beare thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart goe
wide.

4. pittie wanting] Hyphened by G, etc.

5. weare] were 1640, etc.

6. yet loue] yet {love) C; yet, love, M, etc.
11. ill wresting] Hyphened by L, etc.

13. be lyde] be-lide 1640; bely'd [or belied] G, etc.; beli'd X.

Krauss: [Cf. Sidney, A. & S., 5th Song, stanzas 3-5:]

But now that hope is lost, unkindness kills delight;
Yet thought and speech do live, thought metamorphos'd quite:
For Rage now rules the reins which guided were by Pleasure.
I think now of thy faults, who late thought of thy praise.
That speech falls now to blame which did thy honour raise.
The same key open can, which can lock up a treasure, [etc.]

5-6. Vox Mauxtz: Cf. Ovid, Amores, III, xiv, 1-4:

Xon ego ne pecces, cum sis formosa, recuso,

Sed ne sit misero scire necesse mihi;
Xec te nostra jubet fieri censura pudicam,
Sed tamen ut tentes dissimulare rogat.
[Marlowe's translation:

Seeing thou art fair, I bar not thy false playing,
But let not me. poor soul, know of thy straying.

338 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxli

Nor do I give thee counsel to live chaste,

But that thou wouldst dissemble, when 't is past.]

11. ill wresting. Schmidt: Misinterpreting to disadvantage.

12. Wyndham: The line may hold a reference to the poet's own case; cf.

112, 1-2; 121, 1-2.

14. Maloxe: [Cf. 93, 4.] Dowden: [Cf. 139, 6.]
Cf. S. 93, and note.

141

In faith I doe not loue thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors note,
But 'tis my heart that loues what they dispise,
Who in dispight of view is pleasd to dote.
Nor are mine eares with thy toungs tune delighted, 5

Nor tender feeling to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be inuited
To any sensuall feast with thee alone :
But my hue wits, nor my hue sences can 9

Diswade one foolish heart from seruing thee,
Who leaues vnswai'd the likenesse of a man,
Thy proud hearts slaue and vassall wretch to be:
Onely my plague thus farre I count my gaine,
That she that makes me sinne, awards me paine.

5. tune] turn E.

6. teeUng] feeling, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, Hal, Cam,
Do, R, Ty, Ox, Wy, Her, N. touches] touch is But.

8. thee] the 1640.

11. leaues] leave Co, Hu1; lives Bo [error].

12. vassall wretch] Hyphened by Kly.

14. awards me] rewards me G1, S1; rewards my G2, S2, E.

[This sonnet is apparently closely connected with 137 and 148-150. Isaac
(Archiv, 60: 62) calls it a "confirmation and elaboration" of 150. — Ed.]
Dowden: Cf. Drayton, Idea, S. 29:

When conquering Love did first my heart assail,
Unto mine aid I summon'd every Sense:
Doubting, if that proud tyrant should prevail,
My heart should suffer for mine eyes' offence.

cxli] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 339

But he with beauty first corrupted Sight,
My Hearing brib'd with her tongue's harmony,
My Taste by her sweet lips drawn with delight,
My Smelling won with her breath's spicery;
But when my Touching came to play his part
(The King of Senses, greater than the rest),
He yields Love up the keys unto my heart,
And tells the others how they should be blest.
And thus by those of whom I hop'd for aid
To cruel Love my soul was first betrayed.

Sarrazin: Cf. V. & A., 437-42:

Though neither eyes nor ears to hear nor see,
Yet should I be in love by touching thee.
Say, that the sense of feeling were bereft me,
And that I could not see, nor hear, nor touch,
And nothing but the very smell were left me,
Yet would my love to thee be still as much.

(Sh.'s Lehrjahre, p. 155.)

Acheson: [This sonnet again alludes to Chapman's Banquet of Sense. (Sh. e*
the R.P., p. 127.)]

1-4. F. V. Hcgo: Cf. Moliere, Le Misanthrope, I, i:

Xon. L'amour que je sens pour cette jeune veuve
Ne ferme point mes yeux aux defauts qu'on lui treuve;
Et je suis, quelque ardeur qu'elle m'ait pu donner,
Le premier a les voir, comme a Iss condamner. [etc.]

Von Mauntz: Cf. Ovid, Amores, III, xi, 33-34:

Luctantur pectusque leve in contraria tendunt
Hac amor, hac odiam; sed, puto, vincit amor.

[Marlowe's translation:

Now love and hate my light breast each way move;
But victory, I think, will hap to love.]

5. Tyler: Cf. 130, 9-10.

6. feeling. Beeching: I follow Q ... in reading no comma. The poet says
that his delicate feeling is not "prone to base touches," not that it is.

8. feast Isaac: Cf. L.C., 181: "Feasts of love I have been call'd unto."

9. five wits. Malone: "The wits," Dr. Johnson observes, "seem to have
been reckoned five, by analogy to the five senses, or the five inlets of ideas.
'Wit' in our author's time was the general term for the intellectual power."
From Stephen Hawes's poem called Graunde Amour and La Bell Pucel, 1554,
ch. 24, it appears that the five wits were "common wit, imagination, fantasy,
estimation, and memory." nor. [For the construction, without "neither," cf.
"He, nor," 86, 9, and see Abbott, § 396.]

340 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxli

ii. Collier: The relative "who" agrees with the five wits and the five
senses, so that "leaves" ought to be "leave." Isaac: ["Unsway'd" refers to
"heart";] for clearly the man must here sway the heart (he is only the empty
likeness of a man, if it is "unsway'd"), not the heart the man. (Archiv, 60: 62.)
Dowden : My heart ceases to govern me, and so leaves me no better than the
likeness of a man — a man without a heart — in order that it may become slave
to thy proud heart. Tyler: I cannot agree with Dowden's explanation. ... I
should take the meaning to be, in accordance with what goes before: the poet is
entirely governed by his heart, which still does not sway his five senses, etc.,
these constituting together "the likeness of a man," that is, a man minus the
heart. Wyndham: I agree with Tyler's [interpretation.] "The likeness of a
man" = the five wits and five senses. Butler: Unswayed by anything that
either wits or senses can urge, my heart as it were unmans itself, and is con-
tented to be your drudge. Beeching: ["Who" is the heart.] The heart by
ceasing to rule leaves the man a mere likeness. Lee: Which, foregoing its con-
trol, makes of a man the mere husk or simulacrum of a human being. [I do not
see that it follows, because "who" refers to the heart, that "unswayed" must
mean "unswayed by the heart." The heart, as Tyler remarks, is having its
way; but I cannot follow his corollary, being disposed rather to agree with
Butler's rendering, "unswayed by wits or senses." My friend Professor W. D.
Briggs brings to my attention a parallel for the notion that he whose heart has
left him is the mere "likeness of a man," in an Elegy of Jonson's {Underwoods,
59; in Gifford's edition, 60):

How shall I do, sweet mistress, for my heart? . . .
And so I spare it: come what can become
Of me, I'll softly tread unto my tomb;
Or, like a ghost, walk silent amongst men,
Till I may see both it and you again.

— Ed.]

14. paine. Schmidt: Heavy suffering. Walker: In its old etymological
sense of punishment. [So Dowden, Wyndham, Beeching, and Porter.
Tyler and Rolfe dissent, and in a division I should join them, in view of
132, 4; 139, 14; and 140, 4. — Ed.]

Sharp: [This sonnet was certainly not sent to the lady; and] it may be noted
that the personal address characterizing the opening lines is forgotten in the
couplet, where "she" usurps "thou." (Intro., p. 22.)

cxlii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 341

142

Loue is my sinne, and thy deare vertue hate,

Hate of my sinne, grounded on sinfull louing,

O but with mine, compare thou thine owne state,

And thou shalt finde it merrits not reproouing,

Or if it do, not from those lips of thine, 5

That haue prophan'd their scarlet ornaments,

And seald false bonds of loue as oft as mine,

Robd others beds reuenues of their rents.

Be it lawfull I loue thee as thou lou'st those, 9

Whome thine eyes wooe as mine importune thee,

Roote pittie in thy heart that when it growes,

Thy pitty may deserue to pittied bee.

If thou doost seeke to haue what thou doost hide,
By selfe example mai'st thou be denide.

1. thy] my 1640, G, S, E.

2. my sinne] sin G, S, E. on] upon G2; on a S, E.

3. state] sate G1.

8. beds] beds, S1; beds' Kt, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Cam, Do, etc.; bed's
Co3. beds reuenues] bed-revenues C.

9. Beit] Be't Hu, Dy*.
10. wooe] woe 1640.

12. to pittied] pityd to C.

13. hide] chide Sta conj., But.

14. selfe example] Hyphened by G2, S2, etc.

Isaac: [This sonnet] is dependent in content on S. 152, but distinguished
from it through the less passionate tone. (Archiv, 61: 177.) Wyndham: This
sonnet is the last of four written in an unbroken chain, — the sense and even
the phrasing of the concluding lines in each being taken up in the opening lines
of the next. [Perhaps; but no more obviously than in many another doubtful
case of sequence. — Ed.]

1. M asset: Cf. Sidney, A. & S., 52: "A strife is grown between Virtue and
Love." (p. 249.) deare. Schmidt: Inmost. [Cf. 131, 3.] Tyler: Cherished.
Rolfe: Thy cherished virtue — the only virtue she has.

2. Wyndham: You hate my love, not because it is sinful, but because you
love, sinfully, elsewhere. Butler: Hatred of my sin which is based upon my

342 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxlii

love of you. Rolfe: She hates him for his love, and his love is sin; and so far
she is right.

6. scarlet ornaments. Malone: [Cf. Edward III (1596), II, i, 10. The fol-
lowing is the context, from line 6:]

Loe, when shee blusht, even then did he looke pale,

As if her cheekes by some inchaunted power

Attracted had the cherie blood from his:

Anone, with reverent feare when she grew pale,

His cheekes put on their scarlet ornaments;

But no more like her oryentall red,

Than Bricke to Corrall or live things to dead.

Dowden: This line occurs in the part of the play attributed by several critics
to Sh. [See notes on 94, 14. — Ed.] A. Platt [(M. L. Rev., 6: 511) discusses
the repetition of the line, as that of 94, 14, and finds it to be absurd in the play
but in point in the sonnet, because here having reference to the scarlet wax with
which the bond is sealed. Hence the dramatist was the borrower. Mackail,
in his lecture published in the same year (1911), makes the same suggestion:
the lady's wax-red lips are compared to the seal on a deed. But his inference is
different:] The strong presumption is that the phrase in the play, whether Sh.'s
own or another's, had clung in his mind and was here reproduced by him in a
new application. {Led. on Poetry, p. 187.) Beeching: The parallel would
suggest that this is an early sonnet, and the writing confirms the suggestion.

7. seald. Malone [cites four other instances of Sh.'s figurative use of a seal
for a kiss; e.g., M. for M., IV, i, 5-6:

But my kisses bring again,
Seals of love, but seal'd in vain.

Isaac (Archiv, 61: 180) raises the list to more than a dozen.]
7-8. Fleay: I would point:

And sealed false bonds of love, as oft as mine
Robbed others' beds' revenues of their rents.

(Biog. Chron., 2: 224.)

Godwin: The text, besides being ungrammatical, is so gross that it must be
corrupt. . . . What the poet meant to say, I think, was, that she had no right to
reproach him on the subject of kissing, because her lips had doubtless offended,
as often as his lips had robbed the best revenues of the lips of their proper dues,
(p. 144.)

8. Isaac [discusses the construction of this line, inferring from their reading
of "beds," not "beds'," that Malone, Collier, and Hazlitt took "revenues of
their rents" as a double accusative with "others' beds." Since this construc-
tion does not appear elsewhere in Sh., most editors follow Knight in reading
"beds'." But if we read "of their rents" as a genitive object, "Thou hast
robbed the income of other beds of their rents," what is the meaning? Rents
and income are the same thing. To avoid this difficulty, one may take "reve-

cxlii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 343

nues of their rents" as a single idea, as Lachmann did in translating it Zinser-
trag. But "their" remains troublesome, as we should expect "revenues of
rents." (Archiv, 61: 181.) Most readers doubtless find no difficulty in the
prevalent text, understanding "revenues" as rightful receipts, and "rents" as
the portion of these revenues which had been robbed. — Ed.] Lee: Cf. Daniel,
Complaint of Rosamund, 756: "The revenue of a wanton bed."
9-10. Fleay: Cf. Drayton, Idea, 43:

Why should your fair eyes, with such sovereign grace,
Disperse their rays on every vulgar spirit,
Whilst I in darkness, in the self-same place,
Get not one glance to recompense my merit?

{Biog. Chron., 2: 224.)

[These two lines might be regarded as the germ of the following sonnet. — Ed.]

10. Dowden: [This] carries on the complaint of 139, 6 and 140, 14. im-
portune. [Regularly accented thus, on the penult, in Sh. — Ed.]

11. Isaac: [Cf. Wyatt, "The Lover Sendeth his Complaints," etc.:

So wet her barren heart,
That pity there may grow.]

11-12. Wykdham: [The first "pity" = compassion; the second "ground or
subject for compassion."]

13. hide. Schmidt: Not let appear, suppress.

14. By selfe example. Dowdex: On the precedent of your own example.

[Those concerned with the identification of the dark mistress find this sonnet
a matter of contention, as to whether it indicates that she was an adulteress
in the strict sense of being a married woman. Tyler explains line 8 as implying
"that the lady had received the attentions of other married men." But those
who oppose his Pembroke-Fitton argument say, with Miss Porter, that this
line and 152, 3 "constitute the practically insuperable obstacle to the theory
that Mary Fytton was the mistress meant, for she was not married until 1607."]

Taixe [refers to this sonnet as representing "the intoxications, the excesses,
the delirium into which the most refined artists fall" when they yield to the
seductions of the flesh. (Hist. Eng. Lit., van Laun trans. 2: 57.)]

344 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxliii

143
Loe as a carefull huswife runnes to catch,
One of her fethered creatures broake away,
Sets downe her babe and makes all swift dispatch
In pursuit of the thing she would haue stay:
Whilst her neglected child holds her in chace, 5

Cries to catch her whose busie care is bent,
To follow that which flies before her face:
Not prizing her poore infants discontent;
So runst thou after that which flies from thee, 9

Whilst I thy babe chace thee a farre behind,
But if thou catch thy hope turne back to me:
And play the mothers part kisse me, be kind.
So will I pray that thou maist haue thy Will,
If thou turne back and my loude crying still.
1. huswife] houswife G2; housewife S2, E, A, etc. (except Be); house-wife M.

Wyndham: This sonnet, also, belongs to the unbroken chain of the preceding
four. [The couplet restates the sense of 142, 11-14.]

Acheson: [This] sonnet seems to be a reflection of some verses in the poem
of "The Two Italian Gentlemen" [upon which the story of T. G. V. is usually
supposed to be founded]. . . . Cf.:

Lo! here the common fault of love,

To follow her that flies,
And fly from her that makes her wail
With loud lamenting cries.

(Sh. & the R.P., pp. 46, 48.)

[A closer relationship with the situation represented in Sonnets 133-134 is
suggested than with those which intervene. — Ed.]

4. pursuit. Walker [collects a number of parallels for the accent on the
penult. Cf. the verb in M.V., IV, i, 298].

9. Tyler: Cf. 41, 7.

13. Will. Dowden: Possibly, as Steevens takes it, Will Shakspere; but it
seems as likely, or perhaps more likely, to be Sh.'s friend "Will" (?W. H.). . . .
Sh. will pray for her success in the chase of the fugitive (Will?), on condition
that, if successful, she will turn back to him, Sh. [So Rolfe.] Tyler: Meaning
probably her purpose, and also William Herbert. [This outpost of the Pern-

cxliii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 345

brokists may be said to have been captured, and its guns turned against them,
by Sarrazin (Sh.'s Lehrjahre, p. 158), who reads "as in a palimpsest" the
original text of these lines, as follows:

So will I pray that thou mayst have thy Hen,
If thou turn back, and my loud crying pen.

This was later changed by the poet to a less objectionable form. The reader
must admit that if the couplet was not thus written by Sh., with reference to
Henry Wriothesiey, it ought to have been! — Ed.] Lee: [In italics] by what is
almost certainly a typographical accident. . . . The poet . . . lightly makes
play with the current catch-phrase ("a woman will have her will"), and amia-
bly wishes his mistress success in her chase, on condition that, having recap-
tured the truant bird, she turn back and treat him, her babe, with kindness. . . .
No pun on a man's name of "Will" can be fairly wrested from the context.
(Life, p. 426.) Beeching: It is certain from the sonnet which follows that a
play is intended upon the name of the poet's friend.

Steevens: The image with which this sonnet begins is at once pleasing and
natural; but the conclusion of it is lame and impotent indeed. We attend to the
cries of the infant, but laugh at the loud blubberings of the great boy Will.
Isaac: As to the amusing character of this picture, I am of the opinion that
one could find a large number of similar images in the plays, which, if they are
depicted with painful precision by the imagination of the reader, have some-
thing of the comic about them. It is just these numerous similes of gripping
reality which produce, often not a congenial or beautiful, but always a powerful
effect. . . . The image overflowed from his full -heart, and even then he would
certainly not have expressed it, if he could have suspected that after some centu-
ries certain critics would discover the comic in it, — something which resides,
after all, only in the esthetic point of view. (Archiv, 59: 256, 260.) [Isaac also
discusses interestingly the implications of the sonnet respecting the character
of Sh.] Beeching: The sonnet is no doubt intended to be only half serious,
like the one that follows. Lee: The moral of the sonnet is somewhat equivocal.
. . . The poet, so far from regarding the escaping thing as a serious rival, wishes
the woman success in the chase on condition that she will then come back and
kiss his tears away. There is some suggestion of a "menage a trois." [See note
on S. 40.]

Horace Davis: I am reminded by this sonnet of some of the features of the
situation in A. Y. L., Ill, v. There is Rosalind the charming youth, Phebe
the dark beauty, and Silvius the rejected lover, whose devotion under adverse
circumstances finds utterance in these lines (99-104):
So holy and so perfect is my love,
And I in such a poverty of grace,
That I shall think it a most plenteous crop
To glean the broken ears after the man
That the main harvest reaps. Loose now and then
A scatter 'd smile, and that I '11 live upon.

346 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxliv

144

Two loues I haue of comfort and dispaire,
Which like two spirits do sugiest me still,
The better angell is a man right faire :
The worser spirit a woman collour'd il.
To win me soone to hell my f email euill, 5

Tempteth my better angel from my sight,
And would corrupt my saint to be a diuel :
Wooing his purity with her fowle pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd finde, 9

Suspect I may, yet not directly tell,
But being both from me both to each friend,
I gesse one angel in an others hel.
Yet this shal I nere know but Hue in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

2. sugiest] suggest 1640, etc.

6. sight] side 1640, etc.

9. finde] feend 1640; fiend G, etc.

[See below for the text of 1599, 1640, etc.]

This sonnet, like 138, appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim, 1599, — the sec-
ond number in the collection. The following is the P.P. text:
Two Loves I have, of Comfort, and Despaire,
That like two Spirits, do suggest me still:
My better Angell is a Man (right faire)
My worser spirite a Woman (colour'd ill.)
To winne me soone to hell, my Female evill
Tempteth my better Angell from my side,
And would corrupt my Saint to be a Divell,
Wooing his purity with her faire pride.
And whether that my Angell be turnde feend,
Suspect I may (yet not directly tell :
For being both to me: both, to each friend,
I ghesse one Angell in anothers hell:

The truth I shall not know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad Angell fire my good one out.

Tyler: [The changes in lines 3, 8, 13 from the P.P. version] may possibly
have proceeded from revision. Lee: Jaggard's second sonnet [in the P.P.]

cxliv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 347

shows fewer discrepancies with that of 1609 [than his version of 138], and his
version is on the whole the better of the two. {Intro, to P.P., facsimile ed.,
I9°5> PP- 23-24-) Beeching: ["Fair," line 8, the only important variation
in the P.P. text,] is clearly a blunder.

Dowden: [Cf. Drayton, Idea, S. 20; especially lines 1, 3, 13-14:]

An evil Spirit (your beauty) haunts me still,

Wherewith, alas, I have been long possest;

Which ceaseth not to attempt me to each ill,

Nor give me once but one poor minute's rest.

In me it speaks, whether I sleep or wake:

And when by means to drive it out I try,

With greater torments then it me doth take,

And tortures me in most extremity.

Before my face it lays down my despairs,

And hastes me on unto a sudden death:

Now tempting me to drown myself in tears;

And then in sighing to give up my breath.
Thus am I still provok'd to every evil,
By this good-wicked Spirit, sweet Angel-Devil.

Tyler: A comparison of this sonnet with Sh.'s can scarcely make it other than
probable that the resemblance is not accidental. But as S. 144 was contained
in the Passionate Pilgrim (1599), it might seem possible that Drayton had seen
it in this collection, and that he imitated it later in the same year. [Other sim-
ilarities, however (see notes on Sonnets 19, 46, 74, 141), lead Tyler to believe
that Drayton was familiar with Sh.'s Sonnets as a whole.] (pp. 39-42.) Fleay:
The possession of the dark woman by the angel-man exactly corresponds to
that of Drayton by his angel-woman. {Biog. Chron., 2: 226.) Lee: This son-
net is adapted from Drayton. . . . But Sh. entirely alters the point of the lines
by contrasting the influence exerted on him by the woman with that exerted
on him by a man. {Life, p. 153m) Wyndham: The likeness is but of phrasing,
for Drayton refers only to one person, and if, as I believe, [Sonnets 127-152
were written at the same time as 33-42,] — perhaps in 1598 or the early part of
1599 — Drayton's sonnet seems just such a superficial plagiarism as are his
later sonnets, published first in 1619, of Sh.'s numbers in the later groups. [See
notes on 116, 5-8.] Beeching: Both sonnets appeared in 1 599/ and probably
one was suggested by the other, but which by which? Mr. Lee says, tout court,
"Even this sonnet is adapted from Drayton." I should say, "Even this sonnet
is adapted from Sh.!" On Mr. Lee's theory one has to believe that Sh. built up
his whole sonnet subject of "a man right fair" and "a woman colour'd ill" from
this germ sonnet, for which he was indebted to a suggestion from Drayton. It
may have been so, but one desiderates a grain of proof, (p. 137m) [For myself, I
desiderate a grain of proof that either sonnet must have been suggested by the
other. Surely the subjects are distinct; and as to phrasing, the words "evil,"
"spirit," and "devil," were no less familiar in Sh.'s time than now. — Ed.]

348 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxliv

Krauss: [Cf. Sidney, A. & S., 5th Song, st. 14:]

Yet witches may repent. Thou art far worse than they.

Alas! that I am forc'd such evil of thee to say.

I say thou art a devil! though cloth'd in angel's shining;

For thy face tempts my soul to leave the heavens for thee,

And thy words of refuse do pour even hell on me.

Who tempt, and tempted plague, are devils in true denning.

Walsh: In 2 H. 4, II, iv, 362-66 (supposed to have been written in 1598),
there is something about a boy with "a good angel about him," but whom "the
devil binds too," and a woman who "is in hell already, and burns poor souls";
which may, or not, be reminiscent.

2. sugiest. Malone: Tempt. [So Dowden, Rolfe, Tyler, Wyndham, etc.]
Schmidt: Prompt or inform underhand, whisper. Beeching: Not necessarily
"tempt," but "whisper advice," whether good or bad. [The absolute personal
object favors Malone's interpretation. — Ed.]

4. collour'd ill. [Shall space be found here to record a discovery of Ache-
son's, connecting this line with his identification of the dark lady with Mistress
Jane Davenant? One of the poems prefixed to Willobie his Avisa (see p. 478,
below) opens with the line " In Lavine Land though Livie boast," and the first
thirteen letters of this form the anagram "111 Jn. Davenant." This, says Mr.
Acheson, is an obvious allusion to the present passage, and the discovery pro-
vides the title of his pamphlet, "A Woman Coloured 111."]

5. win me soone to hell. Massey: Sh.'s meaning can only be apprehended
by following it according to the laws of [the old game of] Barley-Break. . . .
The game turns upon breaking the law, and also on being caught and con-
demned to Hell. Those who are in Hell are the bad angels; those who are out-
side are the good. To tempt, or lure, catch or carry, the good one to Hell, the fe-
male pursues the male player. When she has caught him he must go to Hell with
her and become a devil in the Hell of the bad angels. The catching is followed
by kissing in Hell as it is in the game of "Kiss-in-the-Ring." And the speaker
in the sonnet has a presaging fear lest this part of the game should be carried
out in earnest. [See the account in the Arcadia; Lamon's song of Strephon and
Klaius, Bk. 1.] . . . [Since, according to the rules,] the "man right fair" could
only be the "better angel" to a speaker who is a woman, [and] the "better
angel" as a male could only be tempted from the side of a woman, ... it is
doubly impossible for the speaker to be Sh. or any other man. (pp. 135-36.)
[Sidney's description is as follows:

Then couples three be streight allotted there;
They of both ends, the middle two doe flie,
The two that in mid place Hell, called were,
Must strive with waiting foot and watching eye
To catch of them, and them to Hell to beare,
That they, as well as they, Hell may supplie. . . .

cxuv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 349

There may you see, soone as the middle two
Doe coupled towards either couple make,
They false and fearefull do their hands undoe,
Brother his brother, friend doth friend forsake,
Heeding himselfe, cares not how fellow do,
But of a stranger mutuall help doth take.

(Poems, Grosart ed., 2: 134-35.)

In his note, Grosart states that, "whatever the rules under which the couple in
hell attacked and pursued the couple they singled out, either of the pursued
were saved by joining with one of the other out-couple of the opposite sex."
It will be noticed that there is no warrant in Sidney's account for the implica-
tion that the players called themselves "angels" and "devils," and the whole
analogy is very doubtful. Even if Sh. alluded in his phrasing to the terms of the
game, it does not follow that he was careful to identify his three characters
with persons of the appropriate sex. — Ed.]

6. Steevexs: Cf. Oth., V, ii, 208: "Curse his better angel from his side."
[This parallel is interesting for the suggestion that the image in the sonnet has
to do with the speaker's guardian angel. — Ed.]

9. McClumpha: Cf. R. & J., Ill, ii, 75: "Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angeli-
cal!" (Jahrb., 40: 202.)

9-10. Lee: Cf. Jodelle, Contr' Amours, No. 6:

Ja si long temps faisant d'un Diable un Ange
Vous m'ouvrez l'ceil en l'iniuste louange,
Et m'aveuglez en l'iniuste tourment.

{Life, p. I22n.)

11. from. Dowden: Away from. each. Abbott: For "each other." (§12.)

12. Shindler: [A] reference to a well-known story of Boccaccio. {Gent.
Mag., 272: 78.) [Shindler probably refers to the tale of " putting the devil in
hell," the 10th of the third day in the Decameron. — Ed.]

14. Beeching: The reference here, which the Elizabethans thought jocular,
is made plainer by 2 H. 4, II, iv, 365, quoted by Dowden. [See Walsh's note
above.] fire . . . out. Lee: The expression . . . had a literary character in Sh.'s
day. . . . Cf. Guilpin's Skialetheia (1598, ed. Grosart, p. 17): "But He be
loth (wench) to be fired out." [Lee discusses the history of the phrase at some
length in the Ath., Jan. 19, 1901, p. 80. See also, in N. cf Q., 10th s., 8: 454.
some account of it in relation to modern slang.]

[Interpreters of all schools tend to make this a "key sonnet": those who
divide the collection into two "series" finding here the two persons respectively
addressed: Massey finding a clue to his "dramatic" theory; and Simpson and
others one to the philosophy of the Sonnets. Simpson says:] The two loves
answer to friendship and concupiscence, the amor amicitiae and amor concupis-
centiae of the schools. The former love has its revolutions, but each time it
returns to itself with renewed strength. . . . The other love is the false infinite

350 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxlv

— the eternal alternation yes and no, . . . fickle, false, and fraudulent — per-
verse, self -contradictory, and full of change, (p. 37.)

Rolfe: [The view that the publication of this sonnet in 1599 shows that the
others dealing with the same subject were written before that time] is clearly
a misinterpretation of that sonnet, which, instead of marking the end of the
story, really belongs to a comparatively early stage of it. . . . The poet says
that the woman "tempteth" (not, has succeeded in seducing) his friend. She
"would corrupt" him, but whether she has actually done it, he adds, "Suspect
I may, but not directly tell." ... In Sonnets 34-35 he had no doubt that the
"woman coloured ill" had corrupted his "better angel." (Intro., rev. ed., pp.
38-39-)

145
Those lips that Loues owne hand did make,
Breath'd forth the sound that said I hate,
To me that languisht for her sake:
But when she saw my wofull state,
Straight in her heart did mercie come, 5

Chiding that tongue that euer sweet,
Was vsde in giuing gentle dome :
And tought it thus a new to greete:
I hate she alterd with an end, 9

That follow'd it as gentle day,
Doth follow night who like a fiend
From heauen to hell is flowne away.

I hate, from hate away she threw,

And sau'd my life saying not you.

2. I hate] Italics by M, A, Kly, Co3, Hu2; quoted by Kt, Co1.2, B, DeL.Hu1,
Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, R, etc.

7. dome] doome 1640, G, etc.

8. a new] a-new G, S, E, M; anew A, etc.

9. 13. I hate] Italics by G2, S2, E, M, A, Kly, Co3, Hu2; quoted by Kt, Co1.2,
B, Del, Hu1, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, R, etc.

11. fiend] friend G2.

13. from . . . threw] — away from hate she flew Stee conj.

14. not you] Italics by G2, S2, E, M, A, Kly, Co3, Hu2; quoted by Kt, Co1-2,
B, Del, Hu1, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do, R, etc. you] Italics by
Su,-yet Hal [error].

cxlv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 351

Dowden*: The only sonnet written in eight-syllable verses. Some critics,
partly on this ground, partly because the rhymes are ill-managed, reject it as
not by Sh. Wyndham: This sonnet . . . [has] an unpleasing assonance between
the rhyme-sounds of the first quatrain, and but little in it that recalls Sh.'s
hand save "That follow'd it as gentle day doth follow night." Acheson: Sh.
certainly did not write [this sonnet], nor did any one to whom the title of poet
might be applied: it is possibly a flight of Southampton's own muse. (Sh. cf the
R. P., p. 48.) Beeching: An occasional sonnet, having no connection with the
series. There is no reason to doubt its Shakespearean authorship. [See Mas-
sey's note on S. 96, and Mackail's on 128.] Lee: A playful lyric in octo-
syllabics, like Lyly's song of " Cupid and Campaspe"; its tone has close affinity
to that and other of Lyly's songs. (Life, p. 98.) [Isaac quotes W. Koxig
(Jahrb., n : 137) as noting that Giordano Bruno wrote sonnets in four-foot
iambics, and adds that one of Wyatt's is in the same metre. (Archiv, 60: 49.)]

7. dome. Schmidt: Judgment, sentence.

11. Steevexs: Cf. H. 5, IV, Prol., 21: "Night who, like a foul and ugly
witch," etc.

13. Steevens: Such sense as these sonnets abound with may perhaps be
discovered as the words at present stand; but I had rather read: "i" hate —
away from hate she flew," etc., [i.e.,] Having pronounced the words "I hate,"
she left me with a declaration in my favour. Maloxe : The meaning is — she
removed the words "I hate" to a distance from hatred; she changed their
natural import ... by subjoining "not you." The old copy is certainly right.
[Cf. Lucrece, I534~37:]

"It cannot be," quoth she, "that so much guile" —
She would have said "can lurk in such a look";
But Tarquin's shape came in her mind the while,
And from her tongue "can lurk" from "cannot" took.

Horace Davis: Cf. Longfellow's translation of Purgatorio, 5: 66 ("Pur che
il voler nonpossa non ricida"): "Unless the I cannot cut off the I will."

Brandl [observes that this sonnet is addressed to a good-natured sweetheart
— wholly different from the dark lady. He finds pleasure in reflecting that
there was one worthy soul in London "for whom Sh. warmed with tenderness."
(pp. xxv, xix.)]

352 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxlvi

146

Poore soule the center of my sinfull earth,

My sinfull earth these rebbell powres that thee array,

Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth

Painting thy outward walls so costlie gay?

Why so large cost hauing so short a lease, 5

Dost thou vpon thy fading mansion spend?

Shall wormes inheritors of this excesse

Eate vp thy charge? is this thy bodies end?

Then soule Hue thou vpon thy seruants losse, 9

And let that pine to aggrauat thy store;

Buy tearmes diuine in selling houres of drosse:

Within be fed, without be rich no more,

So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on men,
And death once dead, ther's no more dying then,

1. center] tenant Sebastian Evans conj.

2. My . . . these] Fool'd by those M, A, Co, B, Hu1, Kly; Fool'd by these Kt,
Del, Dy, Sta, CI, Wh1, Hal, Ox; Starv'd by the Stee conj.; Starv'd by these But;
Thrall to these Kinnear conj., N, Wa; Slave of these Cartwright; Leagued with
these Brae conj., Hu2; FoiVd by these Palgrave conj., Massey conj.; Hemm'd
with these Furnivall conj.; Press' d by these Do, R; Why feed' st these Ty; Sport
of these Sharp; Lord of these Her conj.; Feeding these Sebastian Evans conj.;
Spoil'd by these Spenceconj.; Vex'd by these Rushton conj.; My sins, those Bul-
loch conj.; Sinful thro' Nicholson conj.; . . . these Gl, Cam, Wh2, Her, Be.
rebbell powres] powers C. that thee array] array Massey conj., Wy, Bull,
array] aray 1640, G1, Hu2; warray Sebastian Evans conj., Guiney conj.

4. walls] wall Wa. so] in 1640, G. so costlie gay] in costly clay S, E.

6. fading] faded S, E.

7. inheritors] in heritors 1640; in Herriots G2.
10. thy] my L.

C. A. Brown: An address to his own soul, the solemn nature of which cannot
be regarded as congruous with the rest. [This sonnet and 145 should be ex-
punged from the poem constituted by 127-152.] [See Massey's note on 129,
for his view of the two sonnets as a pair suggested by two of Sidney's. The
6econd of Sidney's is as follows:]

Leave me, O love! which reachest but to dust!
And thou, my mind! aspire to higher things!

cxlvi] THE SOXXETS OF SHAKESPEARE 353

Grow rich in that which never taketh rust!

Whatever fades but fading pleasure brings.

Draw in thy beams, and humble all thy might

To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be!

Which breaks the clouds, and opens forth the light

That doth both shine and give us sight to see.

O take fast hold! Let that light be thy guide!

In this small course which birth draws out to death :

And think how evil becometh him to slide,

Who seeketh heaven, and comes of heavenly breath!

Then farewell, world! Thy uttermost I see!

Eternal Love, maintain thy love in me!
Simpson [also compares this sonnet with Sidney's, and adds that its phrase-
ology recalls that of Chaucer's "recantation" at the close of the Canterbury
Tales:] "This blisful regne may men purchace by poverte espirituel, and the
glorie by loweness, the plente of joye by hunger and thurst, and the rest by tra-
vaile, and the life by deth and mortificacioun of synne." (p. 73.) Main [notes
other sonnets of similar religious tone: Barnes, 49 and 97 of the Divine Century:
Griffin, 27 and 29 of Fidessa; Davies, 13 of Wit's Pilgrimage; and one of Breton's
Soul's Harmony (Grosart ed., p. 5), beginning, "The worldly prince doth in
his sceptre hold."] Furnivall [describes the sonnet as] a remonstrance with
himself on spending too much, either on dress or outward self-indulgence, and
exhorting himself to give it up for inward culture. (Intro., p. lxvi.) Tvler
[even more definitely makes his interpretation secular; see his note on line 11.]
Rolfe: Eminently a religious sonnet, though it seems to have been misunder-
stood by Tyler. Brandl [connects the sonnet with 144, finding in it the poet's
solution of the problem of choice between good and evil. Like the old man in
Marlowe's Faustus, who lost his body to the devil but saved his soul, so Sh.
hopes that his soul will live through its "servant's loss." (p. xxv.)] G. H.
Palmer [also treats the sonnet as an integral part of the series, — as fitted,
indeed, to stand as the conclusion of the whole, and as related to the dark-lady
group, since it is precisely "in the intensity and bewilderment of sin" that "the
possibility of a spiritual immortality is revealed."] Sh. saw his passions to be
matters of a moment, and so by contrast became aware of an imperial Self
which could not be subjected to temporary influences without shame. . . . Was
he true to that deep insight? ... Or did he lose himself again in solicitations of
the flesh? Who but himself can say? Once at least, we know, he looked into
immortality, (pp. 47, 56, 57.)

1. Malone: Cf. R. e* /., II, i, 1-2:

Can I go forward when my heart is here?
Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out;
and M.V., V, i, 63-65:

Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

354 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxlvi

2. The textual notes tell their own sad story of the succession of editorial
labors on this line. M alone: It is manifest that the composer inadvertently
repeated the last three words of the first verse in the beginning of the second,
omitting two syllables, which are sufficient to complete the metre. What the
omitted word or words were, it is impossible now to determine. Rather than
leave an hiatus, I have hazarded a conjecture. Steevens: I would read
"Starv'd by," etc. The dearth complained of in the succeeding line appears to
authorise the conjecture. The poet seems to allude to the short commons and
gaudy habit of soldiers. Ingleby [discusses the line at length, especially in
defence of his interpretation of "array" as "afflict, ill-treat." Malone's emen-
dation is untenable, because it implies that the rebel powers stultify the soul in
the matter of her raiment; on the contrary, the soul herself is said to deck and
paint her tenement, not herself. The leading words seem to have a direct
application to the proximate substantive, "earth," and the second line should
be a justification of the expression "sinful earth." Hence Brae's emendation,
"Leagu'd with," is preferable, because it implies that the earth is the accom-
plice of the rebel powers: the flesh and its lusts are leagued in the work of
defrauding the soul of her rightful nutriment. (The Soule Arayed, passim.)
Furnivall, for his conjecture, "Hemmed," cites V. & A., 1022, "Hemm'd
with thieves." (Intro., p. lxvi.)] Dowden: What is the meaning of "array"?
Does it mean to put raiment on? . . . There is no doubt that the word "aray"
or "array" was used in [the sense of "abuse," "afflict," according to Ingleby],
by Elizabethan writers, and Sh., T. of S., Ill, ii, 53 and IV, 1, 3, uses "raied,"
though nowhere "aray," except perhaps here, in this or a kindred sense. ... In
support of the general opinion that "array" means invest in raiment, cf. M.V.,
V, i, 64 [quoted above]. The "rebel powers" and the "outward walls" perhaps
receive some illustration from the following lines, Lucrece, 722-26:

She says her subjects with foul insurrection
Have batter'd down her consecrated wall,
And by their mortal fault brought in subjection
Her immortality, and made her thrall
To living death and pain perpetual.

. . . Some emendation being necessary, I suggest "Pressed by." Cf. 139, 8.
Kinnear [cites the passage quoted by Dowden from Lucrece (line 725) in sup-
port of the emendation "Thrall'd." (Cruces, p. 503.)] Rolfe: [Dowden's
conjecture] is on the whole as good a guess as any that has been made. . . .
We prefer [the interpretation of Ingleby] to that which makes "array" =
clothe — which seems to us forced and unnatural here — but we should prefer
Massey's "set their battle in array against" to either, if any other example of
this meaning could be found. Perhaps the turn thus given to the military sense
is no more remarkable than the liberties Sh. takes with sundry other words;
and here the exigencies of the rhyme might justify it. Verity: I think that
"array" must mean clothe; the body is the vesture which encloses the soul,
and the soul says, with St. Paul, "Who will deliver me from the body of this

cxlvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 355

death? " Massey [having in his first work proposed to read, " My sinful earth
these rebel powers array," in his second work (The Secret Drama) proposes
"Foiled by" etc., seemingly unaware that it had already been proposed by
Palgrave. He finds the word suggested by Sidney's poem beginning " If I could
think how these my thoughts to leave":

If rebel sense would reason's law receive,
Or reason foiled would not in vain contend.]

Here the "rebel sense" presents the original of the "rebel powers," and "rea-
son foiled" suggests the right word at last. (p. 226n.) Tyler [defending the
emendation "Why feed'st"]: The principal subject is manifestly the feeding
of the body and soul; and the conclusion come to is, that the latter, and not
the former, is to be fed. . . . Moreover, the "my" of line 1 and the "why"
commencing alike lines 2 and 3 may have been the cause of confusion and error.
Then, too, there is a verse of Southwell's "Content and Ritche" which Sh.
may have had in view:

Spare diett is my fare,

My clothes more fitt than fine;
I knowe I feede and cloth a foe

That pamprd would repine.

B. Nicholson, [(N. cV Q., 7th s., 11: 364), defends his emendation, "Sinful,
thro'," on the ground that the most probable cause of the compositor's mis-
taken repetition of the three words is that one of them was repeated in the MS.
The poet's earth is sinful not merely through hereditary taint, but through her,
because of the charms that the devil and his angels had given her. In 12: 423

C. C. B. objects to this, on the ground that it is not conceivable that the sonnet
is addressed to the dark lady.] Wyxdham: Massey 's emendation [of "powers
array"] has the merit of adding nothing to the text, and of restoring euphony
to one of the finest among Sh.'s sonnets. There is warrant for repeating the
last words of a preceding line; cf. 142, 1-2; 90, 1-2; V. & A., 963-64:

Both crystals, where they view'd each other's sorrow,
Sorrow that friendly sighs sought still to dry.

. . . There may well, as so often in the Sonnets, be double meaning in the word
["array":] (1) beleaguer, afflict; (2) adorn. Beechixg: The difficulty is in-
creased by the uncertainty of what was the image in the poet's mind. It seems
at first to be that of a castle besieged by rebels, as in Liicrece, 722-23; then it
changes to that of a mansion with an improvident householder. If "array"
can mean "hem in like a besieging army," we could read equally well "Lord of,"
or "Thrall to," or "Starv'd by." [Massey's and Wyndham's reading does not
account for the words "that thee"; and in the parallel repetitions cited by
Wyndham there is none of more than a single word.] Porter: The repetition
is so poetically effective that it seems intentional. . . . The extra foot, though
it may have been an oversight, lends an explicitness needed as to the array of
the body's powers . . . against the soul; and the repetition adds an emphasis

356 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxlvi

to the further explicitness. Miss L. I. Guiney [(N. & Q., nth s., 4: 84), appar-
ently not knowing of its having been long since proposed by Sebastian Evans,
proposes "warray" for "array," in the sense of invade and beleaguer; cf. F.Q.,
bk. i, c. 5, st. 48: "That first the world with sword and fire warrayed"; and
Selimus, "The earth with unknown armour did warray." That a soul can be
fooled, or foiled, or hurt by rebel powers warraying her, is eminently intelligible,
and is built on a magnificent metaphor. Miss Guiney also suspects that
"centre" (line 1) may be for "centrie" = sentry; but the word is not used by
Sh., and if the spelling of the Q, "center," had been noticed, the suggestion
might not have been made.] Lee: [For "array"] the ordinary meaning of
"clothe" or "adorn" seems alone consistent with the "costly gay" ornament
in which, according to line 4, the powers of sin have invested the soul's external
home. [For the meaning "trouble, afflict," see N. E. D., s. v., 10, 5, where is
quoted The Passion of Christ (ab. 1600): "Vyce, . . . Whiche hathe hym so
Encombered and arayed." No evidence is given for the meaning "beleaguer"
or "besiege." — Ed.]

4. Wyndham: Cf. Macb., V, v, 1: "Hang out our banners on the outward
walls." Beeching: There seems reason to suppose that this idea was in the
poet's mind, but that he modified the expression in order to suit the human
body rather than the castle with which he was comparing it. Sarrazin [finds
here evidence that Sh. had been in Italy, as the practice of painting the exterior
of buildings was unknown in England. (Jahrb., 31: 229.)]

5. short a lease. Cf. 124, 10.

7-8. Tyler: Cf. Haml., IV, iii, 23: " We fat all creatures else to fat us, and
we fat ourselves for maggots"; and V, i, 99: " Did these bones cost no more the
breeding, but to play at loggats with 'em?"

8. charge. Schmidt: Expense. Tyler: What has cost thee so much.

9. Porter: The royal right of the Soul is to live by the body's service, and
by its defeat and at its expense to outlive it.

9-14. J. M. Robertson: An echo of much of Montaigne's discourse. . . .
It more particularly echoes two passages in the 19th essay: "There is no evil
in life for him that hath well conceived how the privation of life is no evil. To
know how to die, doth free us from all subjection and constraint." "No man
did ever prepare himself to quit the world more simply and fully . . . than I
am fully assured I shall do. The deadest deaths are the best." (Sh. & Mon-
taigne, p. 162.)

10. Walsh: Cf. L. L. L., I, i, 25: "The mind shall banquet, though the
body pine." aggravat. Schmidt: Make greater, thy. Malone: The error
that has been so often already noticed, has happened here; the original copy,
and all the subsequent impressions, reading "my." [Here Homer nodded rather
strangely; for not only is the error in question confined to the Lintott volume,
but the error of "my" for "thy" has not been often noticed in the Sonnets.
As the Cambridge editors remark, the Bodleian copy of Q, which belonged to
Malone himself, reads "thy." It was doubtless Malone's note which led
Collier to say that some of the copies of Q read "my store."]

cxlvi] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 357

11. tearmes divine. Schmidt [glosses "divine" as "holy."] Walker:
"Terms" in the legal and academic sense: long periods of time, opposed to
hours. [Cf. 92, 2. — Ed.] Tyler: To be understood most probably of immor-
tal renown, which is to be purchased by sacrificing a few years of life to intent
study and enthusiastic literary work. Verity: I think "terms" means condi-
tions, as though it were the terms of some bargain and compact between soul
and body. Beeching: "Terms divine" = eternity. [This last is undoubtedly
right; "heavenly periods" (literally) are opposed to "hours of dross." — Ed.]

12. rich. Massey [finds here a pun on the name of Lady Penelope Rich, as
in Sidney's A. & S. (p. 238.) This is also the view of Henry Brown (p. 252.)]

13. feed on death. Beeching: By withdrawing food from what dies and so
diminishing the diet of death, we are said to "feed on death."

14. Furnivall: He declares his belief in the immortality of the soul. [Cf.
Donne, Sonnet 10:

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

— Ed.]

This sonnet was translated into Latin verse by E. D. S., N. & Q., 10th s., 1 :
204.

358 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxlvii

147
My loue is as a feauer longing still,
For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserue the ill,
Th'vncertaine sicklie appetite to please:
My reason the Phisition to my loue, 5

Angry that his prescriptions are not kept
Hath left me, and I desperate now approoue,
Desire is death, which Phisick did except.
Past cure I am, now Reason is past care, 9

And frantick madde with euer-more vnrest,
My thoughts and my discourse as mad mens are,
At randon from the truth vainely exprest.

For I haue sworne thee faire, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as darke as night.

2. disease] decease E.

4. Th'vncertaine] The uncertain M, A, Kt, B, Del, CI, Gl, Kly, Cam, Do, R,
VVh2, But, Her, Ox, Be, N. vncertaine sicklie] Hyphened by Del, Sta, Dy2, Hu2.
7. desperate] {desperate) C. approoue,] approoue. L; approve. S\ Co3;
approve; G, S2, E; approve, — C; approve Kt, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Cam, Do, etc.
9. care] cure G, S, E.

10. frantick madde] Hyphened by M, B, Del, Dy, Sta, Gl, Cam, Co3, Do, Hu2,
R, Wh2, Wy, etc.
12. randon] randome 1640, etc.

Isaac [discusses the parallel treatment of love as a disease or madness, noting
Petrarch, Triumph of Love, 3d Song, v. 106, and Epist. Poet., 1,7; Michelangelo,
S. 36; a sonnet of Giordano Bruno's (see Jahrb., 11 : 136); Lodge, Phillis, S. 26;
Drayton, Idea, S. 41 ("Love's Lunacy"); etc. In Sh.'s own works, cf. S. 119;
L. L. L., IV, iii, 95; M.for M., I, ii, 132-34; Cor., I, i, 182. Cf. also Plato in
the Phcedrus, passim. (Archiv, 61: 191-93.)] Krauss: Cf. Sidney, A. & S.,
5th Song, 1. 78: "No witchcraft is so evil, as which man's mind destroyeth."

[Mr. Horace Davis notes the resemblance of this sonnet to Sonnets 1 18-1 19.
Cf. especially the repetition of the notions "fever," "disease," "appetite,"
"prescriptions" ("medicine").]

3-4. Dowden [is able to persuade himself that these lines furnish a link with
146, 12-13.]

cxlvii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 359

5. M alone: [Cf. M. W. W., II, i, 5, in Farmer's reading: "Though Love use
Reason for his physician," — the Folio reading "precisian."] Massey: Cf.
Sidney, "If rebel sense would reason's law receive." [In the poem beginning,
"If I could think how these my thoughts to leave," 1598.]

7. approove. Cf. 70, 5. Beeching: Find by experience. [The impression of
the comma following this word in some copies looks much like a period, and it
is so described by the Cambridge editors; this may account for the reading in
Lintott's edition. — Ed.]

7-8. Dowden: I, who am desperate, now experience that desire which did
object to physic, is death.

8. except. Schmidt: Object to.

9. Malone: A proverbial saying. [Cf. L. L. L., V, ii, 28: "Great reason;
for past cure is still past care"; and Holland's Leaguer (1632): "She has got
this adage in her mouth: 'Things past cure, past care.'"]

14. Steevens: Cf. L. L. L., IV, iii, 254-55:

Black is the badge of hell,
The hue of dungeons and the suit of night.
Tyler: Cf. 131, 12-14.

[My friend Professor H. D. Gray observes:] The bitterness of this and Son-
nets 150-152 could scarcely be due to the same cause as that which led Sh. to
the denodment of his series 40-42. Compare the concluding couplets of 42 and
the present sonnet. They cannot belong to the same story — at least not in
the same stage of that story.

[On the vituperative element, cf. Lee's notes under S. 127, and further as
follows:] Every sonneteer of the 16th century, at some point in his career,
devoted his energies to vituperation of a cruel siren. Ronsard in his sonnets
celebrated in language quite as furious as Sh.'s a "fierce tigress," a " murderess,"
a "Medusa." ... In Sh.'s early life the convention was wittily parodied by
Gabriel Harvey in "An Amorous Odious sonnet intituled The Student's Loove
or Hatrid, or both or neither, or what shall please the looving or hating reader,
either in sport or earnest, to make of such contrary passions as are here dis-
coursed." [Cf. also the Contr' Amours of Jodelle, quoted under 137 and 144.]
The dark lady of Sh.'s sonnets may therefore be relegated to the ranks of the
creatures of his fancy. It is quite possible that he may have met in real life a
dark-complexioned siren, and it is possible that he may have fared ill at her
disdainful hands. But ... it was the exacting conventions of the sonneteering
contagion, and not his personal experiences or emotions, that impelled Sh. to
give "the dark lady" of his sonnets a poetic being. {Life, pp. 121-23.)

E. S. Bates: Sh.'s attack upon the morality of his mistress [is wholly un-
Petrarchistic]. Mr. Lee has indeed cited a number of alleged parallelisms from
poems of Ronsard and others calling their mistresses "tigresses" and "Me-
dusas" because of their hard hearts, but the cases are not in point, since these
remonstrances are caused by the immovable chastity of the mistress, while in
Sh. they are caused by her fickle unchastity. {Mod. Philology, 8: 17.)

3<So THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxlviii

148

O me! what eyes hath loue put in my head,

Which haue no correspondence with true sight,

Or if they haue, where is my iudgment fled,

That censures falsely what they see aright?

If that be faire whereon my false eyes dote, 5

What meanes the world to say it is not so?

If it be not, then loue doth well denote,

Loues eye is not so true as all mens: no,

How can it? O how can loues eye be true, 9

That is so vext with watching and with teares?

No maruaile then though I mistake my view,

The sunne it selfe sees not, till heauen cleeres.

O cunning loue, with teares thou keepst me blinde,
Least eyes well seeing thy foule faults should finde.

7. loue] that Lettsom conj., Hu2.

8. eye] ay [italics] Co3. all mens] mens E. mens: no] men's no. Walker-
Lettsom conj., Dy2, Co3, Hu2, R [no in italics in Co3]; men's "No." Gl, Wh2.

[See note at the end of S. 137, on its connection with this and the following
sonnets.]

Massey: [Cf. Sidney's sonnet in Arcadia (Poems, Grosart ed., 2: 87):]

Transform'd in show, but more transform'd in mind,

I cease to strive, with double conquest foiled ;

For (woe is me!) my powers all I find

With outward force and inward treason spoiled, [etc.]

(p. 248.)
Isaac: Cf. M. N. D., I, i, 232-37:

Things base and vile, holding no quantity,

Love can transpose to form and dignity.

Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind,

And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.

Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;

Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.

Walsh: Cf. T. & C, V, ii, 110-112:

The error of our eye directs our mind.

What error leads must err; O, then conclude

Minds sway'd by eyes are full of turpitude.

cxlviii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 361

Von Mauntz: Cf. Ovid, Metam., vii, 20-21: "VTideo meliora proboque:
deteriora sequar."

4. censures. M alone: Estimates.

7. denote. Schmidt: Indicate.

7-8. Tyler: The sense may be, that the fact of a man's being in love is suf-
ficient evidence (sufficiently "denotes") that he cannot see aright.

8. Walker: Ought we not to affix a longer stop to "no"? Otherwise the
flow seems not to be Shakespearian. Lettsom: Ought we to stop here? Ought
we not to expunge the colon before "no," and write "as all men's no"? Sh.
seems to intend a pun on eye and I, i.e., ay. Staunton: We believe with Lett-
som that a quibble was intended, and that the poet wrote, "Love's eye (I =
aye) is not so true as all men's no." Wyndham: This exquisite piece of punctu-
ation in Q has been frequently destroyed by emendation. [To this Percy
Simpson agrees, regarding the punctuation as important for a "passage of
exceptional beauty." {Sh. Punctuation, p. 9.)] Beeching: Probably the pun
belongs to the second "eye" in line 9, and line 8 should read, "Love's 'ay' is
not so true as all men's ' no. ' " The punctuation, howeevr, of Q is so unusually
precise that I have not ventured to change it. Lee: Xo particular sanctity
attaches to this perplexing punctuation of the Q. The colon looks like a typo-
graphical superfluity and may well take the place of the comma after "no."
A pun . . . seems obviously intended. [A respectable pun must have a meaning
on each side of it, and it does not seem to have occurred to the commentators
who find one here to provide such a meaning for a line with the "eye" standing
in it. (Beeching, .of course, avoids this objection by introducing the pun in
the following line only.) Moreover, is it not rather pointless to read, "Love's
affirmative is not so true as all men's negative? " Whereas "Love's eye is more
inaccurate than that of any man" is just the meaning needed. I shall not
undertake to defend this position on purely textual grounds; for it is quite true,
as Lee observes, that the punctuation of the Q is far from sacred, and the
rhythm of "mens: no," while it may be "exquisite," is very exceptional. — Ed.]

9-10. Sarrazin: Cf. R. j, I, ii, 167: "Made them blind with weeping."
{Sh.'s Lehrjahre, p. 155.)

12. McClumpha: Cf. R. & J., II, iii, 73: "The sun not yet thy sighs from
heaven clears." {Jahrb., 40: 196.)

13. love. Dowden: He is perhaps speaking of his mistress, but if so, he
identifies her with Love, — views her as Love personified. Tyler: There is
manifestly some distinction between the "Love" here spoken of [and. in line 1]
and the "Love" of lines 8-9.

362 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cxlix

149

Canst thou O cruell, say I loue thee not,
When I against my selfe with thee pertake:
Doe I not thinke on thee when I forgot
Am of my selfe, all tirant for thy sake?
Who hateth thee that I doe call my friend, 5

On whom froun'st thou that I doe faune vpon,
Nay if thou lowrst on me doe I not spend
Reuenge vpon my selfe with present mone?
What merrit do I in my selfe respect, 9

That is so proude thy seruice to dispise,
When all my best doth worship thy defect,
Commanded by the motion of thine eyes.
But loue hate on for now I know thy minde,
Those that can see thou lou'st, and I am blind.

3. I forgot] I, forgot, Wa.

4. Am] All S, E. my selfe,] myself But, Wa. all tirant] all, tyrant, S1,
C; all tyrant, M, A, Kt, Co, B, Del, Hu, Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Wh, Hal, Cam, Do,
R, Ty, Ox, Her, N, Wa; all-tyrant, Hazlitt, Kly, Be; all truant M conj.

5. hateth thee] hateth thou G1; hatest thou S, E. I doe] do I G1, S1.
friend,] friend ? G2, S2, etc.

6. vpon] upon ? G2, etc.
12. eyes.] eyes? G2, S2, etc.

Isaac: Who would not think [in reading this sonnet], of the third scene of
Act I of A. & C, which has precisely the same situation as a basis?

2. pertake. Steevens: Take part.

4. all tirant. See textual notes. M alone: For the sake of thee, thou tyrant.
Dowden: Thou complete tyrant! Tyler: When I . . . am reckless of my own
interests, and thus play the tyrant towards myself. [Yet Tyler keeps the comma
after "tyrant"; and he admits the possibility of referring the word to the lady,
in view of "cruel" in line I.] Wyndham: The Q reading is almost certainly
correct; and the plain sense is: "I forget myself, a tyrant to myself for your
sake." [So Butler and Porter.] Beeching: [Wyndham's] paraphrase omits
"all," which has no force as applied to the poet. Rolfe: Possibly vocative.
[If the comma is omitted after "tyrant," and the word is referred to the speaker,
I should prefer to read it as explained by line 2 (a little differently from Tyler):

cl] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 363

tyrannically cruel — like you — to myself; or, in like manner, explained by
the second quatrain, — cruel to everyone on whom you frown. — Ed.]

5- Cf. 89, 14.

5-6. Simpson: Cf. H. 8, II, iv, 27-33:

When was the hour
I ever contradicted your desire,
Or made it not mine too? Or which of your friends
Have I not strove to love, although I knew
He were mine enemy? What friend of mine
That had to him deriv'd your anger, did I
Continue in my liking?

12. Tyler: Cf. Sonnets 132, 139.

14. Massey: Cf. Sidney, A. & S., 62: "That love she did, but lov'd a love
not blind." (p. 247.)

Isaac: The last four lines . . . indicate that the poet is no longer sinking
hopelessly in his passion, but already begins to view it objectively; so that this
sonnet, despite all its fervour, is to be looked at as the beginning of the end of
the connection. (Archiv, 60: 52.)

Oh from what powre hast thou this powrefull might,

With insufficiency my heart to sway,

To make me giue the lie to my true sight,

And swere that brightnesse doth not grace the day?

Whence hast thou this becomming of things il, 5

That in the very refuse of thy deeds,

There is such strength and warrantise of skill,

That in my minde thy worst all best exceeds?

Who taught thee how to make me loue thee more, 9

The more I heare and see iust cause of hate,

Oh though I loue what others doe abhor,

Writh others thou shouldst not abhor my state.

If thy vnworthinesse raisd loue in me,

More worthy I to be belou'd of thee.

2. sway,] sway? G1, M, etc.
8. best] bests G, S.
10. cause] chuse G1. hate,] hate? G, etc.

364 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cl

[With this, and the related sonnets, Von Mauntz compares Ovid, Amores,
III, xi, 43-48:]

Facta merent odium, facies exorat amorem:

Me miserum! vitiis plus valet ilia suis!
Parce, per o lecti socialia jura, per omnes,

Qui dant fallendos se tibi saepe, deos,
Perque tuam faciem, magni mihi numinis instar,
Perque tuos oculos, qui rapuere meos!

[Marlowe's translation:

Her deeds gain hate, her face entreateth love;

Ah, she doth more worth than her vices prove.

Spare me, O by our fellow bed, by all

The gods who by thee to be perjur'd fall,

And by thy face, to me a power divine,

And by thine eyes whose radiance burns out mine!]

2. insufficiency. Schmidt: Incompetency. Dowden: Defects. [The only
other occurrence of the word in Sh. is in M. N. D., II, ii, 128:

Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,
That I did never, no, nor never can,
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,
But you must flout my insufficiency?

— a passage which seems to support Dowden's gloss. The choice of the word
here, however, would seem to be due to its meaning "absence of power," "im-
potency." "This is the paradox of your 'powerful might,' that you rule by
qualities which elsewhere would appear to be the want of might." — Ed.]

4. Steevens: Cf. R. & J., Ill, v, 18-19:

I am content, if thou wilt have it so:

I '11 say yon grey is not the morning's eye.

5. becomming. Schmidt: Grace. [Cf. A. & C, I, iii, 96: "My becomings
kill me when they do not eye well to you."] Malone: Cf. A. & C, II, ii, 244:
"Vilest things become themselves in her"; and ibid., I, i, 49: "Fie, wrangling
queen! whom everything becomes."

5-8. F. V. Hugo: Cf. Moliere, Le Misanthrope, II, v:

L'amour, pour l'ordinaire, est peu fait a ces lois,

Et Ton voit les amants vanter toujours leurs choix. . . .

lis comptent les defauts pour des perfections.

7. warrantise. Schmidt: Pledge. Tyler: Evidence.
9-10. Malone: Cf. Catullus, 85:

Odi et amo; quare id faciam, fortasse requiris:
Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.

cli] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 365

[and Terence, Eunuchus, 70-73]:

O indignum facinus! nunc ego
Et illam scelestam esse et me miserum sentio;
Et taedet, et amore ardeo, et prudens, sciens,
Vivus, vidensque pereo, nee quid agam scio.

[Isaac makes this sonnet the basis for an interesting excursus on Sh.'s
women, emphasizing especially its suggestiveness in connection with Cleo-
patra. (Archiv, 60: 55-61.)]

151
Loue is too young to know what conscience is,
Yet who knowes not conscience is borne of loue,
Then gentle cheater vrge not my amisse,
Least guilty of my faults thy sweet selfe proue.
For thou betraying me, I doe betray 5

My nobler part to my grose bodies treason,
My soule doth tell my body that he may,
Triumph in loue, flesh staies no farther reason,
But rysing at thy name doth point out thee, 9

As his triumphant prize, proud of this pride,
He is contented thy poore drudge to be
To stand in thy affaires, fall by thy side.
No want of conscience hold it that I call,
Her loue, for whose deare loue I rise and fall.

2. loue,] love ? G, etc.
6. grose] great Bo.
8. farther] further Hu, Ox.
10. this] his E, Walker conj.

13. hold] holds Wh2, N [error; not Tu].

14. loue] Italics by Co3, Hu2; quoted by Dy, Sta, CI, Gl, Cam, Do, R, etc.

[Massey, with what Dowden calls "unhappy ingenuity," interprets this
sonnet as based on Sidney's A. & S., 91, the theme (in Sidney's words, "you
in them I love") being that the poet is betrayed into sin with others by his
mistress's image, (pp. 247-48.)]

Wyndham: A piece of amatorious argument. The reference to "conscience "
in lines 1, 2, 13 suggests that it was written in reply to an appeal, probably
playful, addressed to the poet's conscience.

366 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cli

i. Massey: Cf. Sidney, A. & S., 73: "Love still a boy and oft a wanton is."
(p. 250.)

2. Dowden: Cf. M. W. W., V, v, 32: "Why, now is Cupid a child of con-
science." [The similarity of these passages, even though contradictory, sug-
gests that there may be an allusion to some current proverb, of which, how-
ever, I know no evidence. — Ed.]

3. cheater. Staunton: Escheator, an official who appears to have been
regarded by the common people in Sh.'s day much the same as they now look
upon an informer. Dowden: The more obvious meaning "rogue" makes bet-
ter sense. Schmidt: Swindler, amisse. Cf. 35, 7.

8. Porter: This and other such expressions in this sonnet have caused it
to be taken merely in a fleshly sense. While all that such expressions suggest
underlies the phraseology, they constitute but a metaphor of the deeper sense.
This sense asserts the triumph and rise of love by the subservience to it of the
body. [This is, on the whole, the most remarkable of all the examples of the
process of viewing Sh. as meaning two different things at the same time. — Ed.]

9. thy name. [Tyler and Brandl are disposed to think this implies a pun-
ning allusion, in the sonnet, to the lady's name.]

10. triumphant. Schmidt: Victorious (the prize of his triumph), pride.
Tyler: Proud conquest, alluding most likely to the lady's rank.

14. rise and fall. Tyler: Rise in the triumph of the flesh, and fall in the
subjugation and humiliation of the soul. Rolfe: [This paraphrase] is too seri-
ous for the general tone of the sonnet, which is the only one in the series which
is frankly and realistically gross.

Isaac: It goes without saying that this sonnet was written earlier than S.
129. (Archiv, 60: 45.)

clii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 367

152
In louing thee thou know'st I am forsworne,
But thou art twice forsworne to me loue swearing,
In act thy bed-vow broake and new faith torne,
In vowing new hate after new loue bearing :
But why of two othes breach doe I accuse thee, 5

When I breake twenty: I am periur'd most,
For all my vowes are othes but to misuse thee :
And all my honest faith in thee is lost.

For I haue sworne deepe othes of thy deepe kindnesse: 9
Othes of thy loue, thy truth, thy constancie,
And to inlighten thee gaue eyes to blindnesse,
Or made them swere against the thing they see.

For I haue sworne thee faire: more periurde eye,

To swere against the truth so foule a lie.

2. me loue swearing] me, Love-swearing S1.
6. twenty:] twenty? G, etc.

13. eye] / S, etc. (except \Ya).

2-4. Isaac [would omit the comma after "swearing." reading: Thou art
twice forsworn, (1) to me love swearing in act, etc.; (2) new faith torn, etc.
(Archiv, 60: 37.)] Fleay [would punctuate:]

But thou art twice forsworn to me (love) swearing;
In act — thy bedvow broke and new faith torn;
In vowing — new hate after new love bearing.

(Biog. Chron., 2: 223.)

3. In act Tyler: As the words are commonly regarded, they are unsuitable
and superfluous. If, however, in accordance with Elizabethan usage, we take
these words as meaning "in fact," "in reality," much light is thrown on the
place. [Cf. Oth., I, i, 150-52:

For he's embark'd
With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars,
Which even now stands in act.]

. . . Says Iago, "The appointment is already as good as made; it 'even now
stands in act.'" . . . Similarly, in the Sonnet — taking "in act" as equivalent
to "in reality," "in fact" — Sh.'s mistress had broken her marriage vow in act,
though she may have alleged that the marriage was set aside, or was treated as

368 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [clii

null and void. [All this with reference to an hypothetical early marriage of
Mrs. Fitton.] (Academy, Dec. 15, 1888, p. 389.) bed-vow broake. [See note
following S. 142.] Rolfe: This seems to imply that the lady was married, but
"bed-vow" may possibly refer to her illicit relations with the poet, to whom
she had pledged a "faith unfaithful, falsely true." ... It is singular that else-
where in the Sonnets we should find no reference to a husband if she had one.
Fleay: I take the "bed vow broke" to mean, not her unfaithfulness to her
husband, but her refusal to fulfil a promised assignation with Sh. (Biog.
Chron., 2: 223.)

3-5. Wyndham: This reference to a double infidelity shows that the Dark
Lady, who had broken her bed- vow, soon also broke off her "new faith" with
the friend. The numbers of the Second Series were written at the same time
as Group C (33-42), and on the same theme. That group is but episodical in
the First Series; and ... it seems probable, from the tenor of the two main
discourses of the Second Series, that the friend, after an explanation from the
poet, so acted as to lead the Dark Lady to break off her "new faith" and to
enter on a reintegratio amoris with the customary argument that it was her
lover, and not she, who had been remiss in love [cf. 149, 1]. Beeching: The
breach of "new faith" is in vowing "new hate" to the poet. There is no refer-
ence to breaking off the intrigue with the friend.

7. misuse. Schmidt: Speak falsely of, misrepresent. [There is no Shake-
spearean parallel for this meaning of the word; but it may be taken as a kind of
ironic variant of the meaning "speak ill of," as in A. Y. L., IV, i, 204: "You
have simply misus'd our sex." — Ed.]

9. kindnesse. Schmidt: Affection, tenderness.

9-10. Walsh: We possess no sonnets expressing such praise, unless some
usually applied to the friend belong to her (e.g., 105).

11. Dowden: To see thee in the brightness of imagination I gave away my
eyes to blindness, made myself blind. Wyndham: To shed a more favourable
light on thee, I shut my eyes.

13. eye. See textual notes. Wyndham: [The Q] may be correct, with a
play on the two words "I . . . eye," since it follows on line 12. Porter: The
reference is to the eye of sense and " eyes " of line 11, now forsworn by himself.
Walsh: Here the sonnets leave the mistress and Sh.'s love for her — with a
bad pun. How he recovered from his "fever" we are not told; perhaps he son-
neted and punned himself out of it.

Isaac: [This sonnet] either shortly preceded or followed the breaking off of
the connection. (Archiv, 60: 39.)

Butler: [The love of Sh.'s mistress for W. H.] had been but recent, and
already she was hating him. Whether the disappointment was on her side or
on Mr. W. H.'s does not appear, but I suspect it to have been on the lady's
[cf. 70, 8 and 94, 3].

Wyndham : The Second Series ends with this sonnet. ... It is important ... to
remember that the numbers of this series rank chronologically with 33-42, and

cliii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 369

that, like them, they are early as well as episodical, and in the main playful,
with but little, by comparison to the later groups, of grave speculation and
ethereal beauty. The poet's love for the Dark Lady may well have been over
some three years before he took up his pen to write a "Satire to Decay" (100-
125).

153
Cupid laid by his brand and fell a sleepe,
A maide of Dyans this aduantage found,
And his loue-kindling fire did quickly steepe
In a could vallie-fountaine of that ground :
Which borrowd from this holie fire of loue, 5

A datelesse liuely heat still to indure,
And grew a seething bath which yet men proue,
Against Strang malladies a soueraigne cure:
But at my mistres eie loues brand new fired, 9

The boy for triall needes would touch my brest,
I sick withall the helpe of bath desired,
And thether hied a sad distemperd guest.
But found no cure, the bath for my help lies,
Where Cupid got new fire; my mistres eye.

5. this] his G, S, E.

6. datelesse liuely] Hyphened by Sta, Hu1.

8. Strang] strange 1640, G, etc.

9. eie] eyes S, E.

11. withall] with all 1640, G.

12. thether] thither G, etc.
14. eye] eyes 1640, G, etc.

M ALONE: This and the following sonnet are composed of the very same
thoughts differently versified. They seem to have been early essays of the poet,
who perhaps had not determined which he should prefer. He hardly could
have intended to send them both into the world. Collier: [They are to be
looked upon] as if the author had first composed one, and, not quite pleasing
himself, had afterwards written the other. Possibly they were not by the same
hand, two different poets dealing with the same fancy.

W. Hertzberg [(Jahrb., 13: 158) points out that the original source of this
pair of sonnets was apparently an epigram in the Palatine Anthology-, Bk. ix,
No. 637:

370 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cliii

T£5 virb ras irXardvovs airaXQ rtrpv^vos Cirvy

elSev'Epus, vv/upais \ap.Trdda Tra.pdtp.evos.
NtjfMpai 5' a\\r)\r/<ri, ' ' rl p.c'Wop.ev; aWe 5t Toirry

cpfoffa/xep," ehov, " ofiov irvp Kpadiys /xepdiruv."
Aap-iras 5' ws e0\e£e /cat v8ara, Otp/xbv iKtWtv

Ntf/^cu EpwTi&des Xovrpoxoevviv vdup.

The author is Marianus, a Byzantine, probably of the 5th century. Hertz-
berg observes that the germ of the poem appears in an epigram attributed to
a certain Zenodotus, of uncertain date:

His y\v\pas rbv'Epiora irapa Kprjvgcrtv %6r)Kevt
Olop.et>os wavcruv tovto t6 irvp i/dari.

The Palatine collection was first published 1815-17; but an abridgment, made
by Maximus Planudes about 1350, was widely circulated in western Europe;
and of Latin translations there were also a number, — Selecta epigrammata>
Basel, 1529, and some eight others before the end of the century. One or
another of these would surely have found its way to England. — Hertzberg be-
lieved himself to be the original discoverer of this Greek source of the sonnet,
and has been generally credited with it accordingly. J. C. Collins, however,
says that " it had been known long before, . . . and indeed was so notorious that
Dr. Wellesley in his Anthologia Polyglotta (1849), p. 93, printed S. 154, without
any remark, underneath the Greek original." {Fort. Rev., n.s., 73: 848m)]
The following is Mackail's translation of the Marianus epigram:

Here beneath the plane-trees, overborne by soft sleep, Love slumbered,
giving his torch to the Nymphs' keeping; and the Nymphs said one to another,
"Why do we delay? and would that with this we might have quenched the fire
in the heart of mortals." But now, the torch having kindled even the waters,
the amorous Nymphs pour hot water thence into the bathing pool. {Epigrams
from the Greek Anthology, 1890, p. 191.)

S. Von Hegedus [has recently pointed out {Ungarische Rundschau fur soziale
Wissenschaften; reported in Jahrb., 50: 153) that a version of the epigram is
found in the Anthologia Latina (Codex Salmasiani), No. 271. The following is
the text (ed. Biicheler & Riese, 1: 216):]

Ante bonam Venerem gelidae per litora Baiae

Ilia natare lacus cum lampade iussit Amorem.

Dum natat, algentes cecidit scintilla per undas;

Hinc vapor ussit aquas: quicumque natavit, amavit.
[Meantime M. J. Wolff {Jahrb., 47: 191) had noted an Italian version quoted
in Tolomei's Versi el Regole, 1539, as follows:

Tradotto da M. Statio Romano.

De l'acque di Baia.

Al lido gia di Baia, sotto un bel Platano Amore
Dormendo stanco presso pos6 la face,
Naiade Calliroe, de li gioveni amanti pietosa,
Toltola, l'immerse nel vago freddo rio.

cliii] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 371

Ilqual, mentre dee smorzarla, accesi et arse,
Quinci le belle acque serapre coccenti sono.

And P. Tausig (Jahrb., 40: 231) cites an analogue in a German poem purport-
ing to explain the origin of the baths of Vienna. Sarrazin (Jahrb., 31: 229),
ready, as always, to see evidence of a continental journey of Sh.'s, suggests that
he may have seen the Latin version of the epigram used as a motto at one of the
popular Italian spas.]

Lee: An added detail Sh. borrowed from a very recent adaptation of the
epigram in Giles Fletcher's Licia, 1593 (S. 27), where the poet's Love bathes in
the fountain, with the result not only that "she touched the water and it
burnt with love," but also

Now by her means it purchas'd hath that bliss
Which all diseases quickly can remove.

(Life, p. 113.)

6. datelesse. Cf. 30, 6.

8. Strang. Tyler: [This] might possibly represent "strong."

11. bath. Steevens: Query, whether we should read Bath (i.e., the city of
that name). The following words seem to authorise it. Malone: The old copy
is certainly right. [Cf. line 7 and 154, 11.] Plumptre [(Contemp. Rev., 55:584)
argues for the view that Sh. actually wrote the sonnet at Bath, and notes a
tradition that Diana was a kind of tutelary deity of the place.] Beechixg:
There is undoubtedly a reference to the Bath waters, for the Greek original says
nothing about curative powers. [H. Pemberton (New Shakespeareana, 8: 64)
develops the same view (following an argument of Greenwood's in The Sh.
Problem Restated, p. 127) ; the term "valley fountain " is thought to be especially
appropriate; and Queen Elizabeth may be the "maid of Dian's" and "the
fairest votary." Sh. may, then, have written the sonnets for Lord Hunsdon,
who went to Bath for the waters in 1602, where the Queen was also expected.]

Dowden: Shenstone versifies anew the theme of this and the following son-
net in his "Anacreontic":

[T was in a cool Aonian glade,

The wanton Cupid, spent with toil,
Had sought refreshment from the shade,

And stretch'd him on the mossy soil.

A vagrant Muse drew nigh, and found

The subtle traitor fast asleep;
And is it thine to snore profound,

She said, and leave the world to weep? . . .

Sleep on, poor child! whilst I withdraw,

And this thy vile artillery hide, —
When the Castalian fount she saw,

And plung'd his arrows in the tide. . . .

372 THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE [cliv

. . . Every dart,
Dipt in the Muses' mystic spring,
Acquir'd new force to wound the heart,
And taught at once to love and sing.]

154
The little Loue-God lying once a sleepe,
Laid by his side his heart inflaming brand,
Whilst many Nymphes that vou'd chast life to keep,
Came tripping by, but in her maiden hand,
The fayrest votary tooke vp that fire, 5

Which many Legions of true hearts had warm'd,
And so the Generall of hot desire,
Was sleeping by a Virgin hand disarm'd.
This brand she quenched in a coole Well by, 9

Which from loues fire tooke heat perpetuall,
Growing a bath and healthfull remedy,
For men diseasd, but I my Mistrisse thrall,
Came there for cure and this by that I proue,
Loues fire heates water, water cooles not loue.

2. heart inflaming] heart in flaming 1640, G, S, E; hyphened by C, M, etc.

Isaac [discusses the writing of two sonnets on the same theme as a conven-
tion for which parallels are to be found in Petrarch, Michelangelo, Surrey,
Sidney, etc. (Archiv, 60: 34.)]

7. Generall. Tyler: Chief cause and promoter.

9. Well. [One of the three words in Q whose capitalization Wyndham can-
not explain, (p. 264.)]

13. this. Dowden: This statement which follows.

H. W. Barrett: We know not how a more touching conclusion [to the Son-
nets] could have been conceived, than this beautiful allegory. Its very repeti-
tion is one of the finest strokes of poetical art. It is scarcely inferior to that
most affecting scene, in which Ophelia appears — deliriously singing fragments
of wild songs, and dancing so recklessly and unfeelingly over the hot embers of
her misery. . . . Those who read the preceding sonnets most worthily, will be
most fully prepared to appreciate the fine allegory of tears. (American Rev.,
6: 309.) [An instructive example of the lengths to which divinatory criticism,
with the unity of the sonnet collection as a basic assumption, can go. — Ed.]

cliv] THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 373

Isaac [has a suspicion, which we may be grateful to him for stating tenta-
tively, with a "ware es zum Beispiel," that this pair of sonnets may be inter-
preted symbolically, the healing spring standing for marriage. In that case
they may have been written after a journey home to Stratford. (Archiv, 60: 36.)
Dowden observes (rev. ed.) that this hardly agrees with 154, 12-13. Miss
Porter suspects an esoterically "playful adaptation of this Cupid fable to
the Sonnets," S. 153 referring especially to the "first Series," S. 154 to the
second. In that case the closing line sums up both:] Love's fire heats genially
the cold valley fountain of platonic love, but no such water is cold enough
to cure the fever-heat of sexual love.

APPENDIX

GENERAL CRITICISM

(Selected with special reference to the question of the personal elements in the
Sonnets, and to their poetic form and qualities)

Charles Gildox: I am confident, that tho' the Poems this Volume con-
tains are extreamly distinguish'd in their Excellence, and Value, yet there is
not one of them, that does not carry its Author's Mark, and Stamp upon it.
Not only the same Manner of Thinking, the same Turn of Thought, but even
the same Mode of Dress and Expression, the Decompounds, his peculiar sort
of Epithets, which distinguishes his from the Verses of all his Contempories
or Successors. . . . Whoever knows any thing of Shakespear will find his Genius
in every Epigram of these Poems in every- particular I have mention'd, and the
frequent Catachreses; his Starts aside in Allegories, and in short his Versifica-
tion, which is very unequal; sometimes flowing smoothly but gravely like the
Thames, at other times down right Prose. He never touches on an Image in
any of them, but he proves the Poem genuine.

But some, perhaps, who are for undervaluing what they have no Share in
may say, that granting them to be Shakespears, yet they are not valuable
enough to be reprinted, as was plain by the first Editors of his Works who wou'd
otherwise have join'd them altogether.*

To this I answer — That the Assertion is false, or were it not it is more,
than the Objector knows by his own Judgment, and Understanding, but to
prove it false we need only consider, that they are much less imperfect in their
Kind, than ev'n the best of his Plays, as will appear from the Rules I shall lav-
down immediately; in the next Place the first Editors were Players, who had
nothing to do with any thing but the Dramatic Part, which yet they publish'd
full of gross Mistakes, most of which remain to this Day; nor were they by any
means Judges of the Goodness or Badness of, the Beauties or Defects of either
Plays or Poems.

There is next an Objection, that if these Poems had been Genuine, they had
been publish'd in the Life time of the Author and by himself, but coming out
almost thirty Years after his Death there is great Reason to suspect that they
are not Genuine.

To this I answer, that if nothing was to be thought his but what was pub-
lish'd in his Life time, much the greater Number of his Plays wou'd be as
lyable to this Objection as his Poems. Next there is indeed, no weight in the
Objection, is there any thing more common, than the Publication of Works
of great Men after their Death. . . . No, no, there is a Likeness in one Man's
Children generally, which extends not beyond the Family, and in the Children
of the Brain it is always so, when they are begot by a Genius indeed. Besides
these Poems being most to his Mistress it is not at all unlikely, that she kept
* [All this, of course, is directed against Rowe and his edition of the Works. — Ed.]

378 APPENDIX

them by her till they fell into her Executors Hands or some Friend, who would
not let them be any longer conceal'd. But after all there were more in Propor-
tion of these Poems of this Volume, printed in his Lifetime, than of his Plays,
as is plain from his Venus and Adonis, his Tarquin and Lucrece, and several
Epigrams and Sonnets. . . .

Tho' Love and its Effects are often happily enough touch'd in many of these
Poems, yet I must confess that it is but too visible, that Petrarch had a little
infected his way of thinking on that Subject, yet who ever can admire Mr. Cow-
ley's Mistress, has a thousand Times more Cause of Admiration of our Shake-
spear in his Love Verses, because he has sometimes such touches of Nature
as will make Amends for those Points, those Epigrammatic Acumina, which
are not or ever can be the Product of a Soul truly touch'd with the Passion of
Love. . . .

All that I have to say of the Miscellaneous Poems is, that they are gener-
ally Epigrams, and those perfect in their kind according to the best Rules that
have been drawn from the Practice of the Ancients, by Scaliger, Lillius
Giraldus, Minturnus, Robertellus, Correas, Possovinus, Pontatrus Raderus,
Donatus, Vossius and Vavasser the Jesuit, at least as far as they agree. . . .

Vavassor defines [the Epigram] in his Treatise on this Subject, thus. An
epigram is a short Copy of Verses, with Beauty and Point treating of one only
thing, and concluding with a more beautiful Point. ... So that its Parts (says
Vavassor) are but two the expressing or reciting the Subject, and the Conclu-
sion; and its Beauties are Brevity, and Acumen which I term Point. . . .

The Way to attain Brevity is not to aim at many Things in the whole Epi-
gram, then to express even that little as concisely as possible, and in such
Words, that to extend it into more wou'd enervate, and lose the Force and
Strength of the Thought, and the Point or Acumen.

The next Quality is Beauty, that is an exact and harmonious Formation of
the whole, and the apt Agreement of all the Parts of the Poem from the Begin-
ning to the End, with a certain sort of Sweetness, as of a natural Colour with-
out any Fucus on the one Hand, and yet without any thing low and mean on
the other; and tho' it be plain and rude Nature, yet not a meer rustic Simplic-
ity void of all Art, but that which is agreeable to a Court Conversation; and
the Language of the Polite. The Beauty of the Epigram must always be ac-
company'd with Sweetness. And this varies according to the Subject. If that
be delicate, soft, tender, amorous, &c. those Qualities will arise from the well
expressing the Nature of the Subject that will give Beauty and Sweetness.
In the Language we ought rather to avoid that, which is harsh, or an enemy to
Sweetness, than to study too much to find out that which may help and increase
it. The Point is what the Epigrammatical Critics stand much upon, which is
chiefly in the Conclusion by ending with something unexpected, or biting.

All things are the allow'd Subject of the Epigram; as long as they are treated
of with Brevity, Point, and Beauty.*

* [That Gildon includes the Sonnets under the term "epigram" may be explained by two
circumstances: the fact that he is reprinting them from the edition of 1640, in which the term

GENERAL CRITICISM 379

How far Shakespear has excell'd in this Way is plain from his Poems before
us; but this must be allow'd him, that much of the Beauty and Sweetness of
Expression, which is so much contended for is lost by the Injury of Time and
the great Change of our Language since his Time; and yet there is a wonderful
Smoothness in many of them, that makes the Blood dance to its Numbers.

("Remarks on the Poems of Shakespear," in The Works of W. Sh., Volume
the Seventh, 1710, pp. 445-50, 457-63.)

George Steevens: Of the sonnets before us, 126 are inscribed (as Mr.
Malone observes) to a friend: the remaining 28 (a small proportion out of so
many) are devoted to a mistress. Yet if our author's Ferdinand and Romeo
had not expressed themselves in terms more familiar to human understanding,
I believe few readers would have rejoiced in the happiness of the one, or sym-
pathized with the sorrows of the other. Perhaps, indeed, quaintness, obscurity,
and tautology are to be regarded as the constituent parts of this exotic species
of composition.

Edmund Malone: I do not feel any great propensity to stand forth as the
champion of these compositions. However, as it appears to me that they have
been somewhat underrated, I think it incumbent on me to do them that jus-
tice to which they seem entitled. . . . When they are described as a mass of
affectation, pedantry, circumlocution, and nonsense, the picture appears to
me overcharged. Their great defects seem to be a want of variety and the
majority of them not being directed to a female, to whom alone such ardent
expressions of esteem could with propriety be addressed. It cannot be denied
too that they contain some far-fetched conceits; but are our author's plays
entirely free from them? Many of the thoughts that occur in his dramatic pro-
ductions are found here likewise, as may appear from the numerous parallels
that have been cited from his dramas, chiefly for the purpose of authenticating
these poems. Had they therefore no other merit, they are entitled to our at-
tention, as often illustrating obscure passages in his plays. I do not perceive
that the versification of these pieces is less smooth and harmonious than that
of Sh.'s other compositions. .Though many of them are not so simple and clear
as they ought to be, yet some of them are written with perspicuity and
energy.

Steevens: The case of these sonnets is certainly bad, when so little can
be advanced in support of them. ... I must add that there is more conceit in
any thirty-six of Sh.'s Sonnets than in the same number of his plays.

Boswell: I cannot but admit that Mr. Malone, in his answers to Mr. Stee-
vens, — though I think, to use Dr. Johnson's expression, they are conclusive
ad hominem, — has done but scanty justice to these beautiful compositions.*
(Plays and Poems of Sh., Malone-Boswell ed., 20: 358-63.)

"sonnets" did not occur, and the fact that he bases his remarks on the critics who were con-
cerned with classical poetry and for whom, therefore, the sonnet had no recognized existence.
In this connection it may be noted (as Professor VV. D. Briggs brings to my attention) that Jon-
aon's 56th Epigram, " On Poet-Ape," is in the Shakespearean sonnet form. — Ed.]

* [It should be noted that the greater portion of this controversy, not represented by these
extracts, concerned the merit of the sonnet as a form of poetry rather than that of the Sonnets

380 APPENDIX

William Wordsworth: Among us it is a current, I might say an established
opinion, that Sh. is justly praised when he is pronounced to be "a wild irregu-
lar genius, in whom great faults are compensated by great beauties." How
long may it be before this misconception passes away, and it becomes uni-
versally acknowledged that the judgment of Sh. in the selection of his materials,
and in the manner in which he has made them, heterogeneous as they often
are, constitute a unity of their own, and contribute all to one great end, is not
less admirable than his imagination, his invention, and his intuitive knowledge
of human nature!

There is extant a small volume of miscellaneous poems, in which Sh. ex-
presses his own feelings in his own person. It is not difficult to conceive that
the editor, George Steevens, should have been insensible to the beauties of
one portion of that volume, the Sonnets; though in no part of the writings of
this poet is found, in an equal compass, a greater number of exquisite feelings
felicitously expressed. But, from regard to the critic's own credit, he would not
have ventured to talk of an act of parliament not being strong enough to compel
the perusal of those little pieces,* if he had not known that the people of Eng-
land were ignorant of the treasures contained in them.

(Essay supplementary to the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, 1815.)

Nathan Drake: We altogether deny that either affectation or pedantry
can, in the proper sense of the terms, be applied to the Sonnets of Sh. Were
any modern, indeed, of the nineteenth century to adopt their language and
style, he might justly be taxed with both; but in Sidney and Sh. it was habit,
indissoluble habit, and not affectation; it was the diction in which they had
been practised from early youth to clothe their sentiments and feelings; it
was identified with all their associations and intellectual operations; it was the
language, in fact, the mode of expression, in a greater or less degree, of all their
contemporaries; and to have stripped their thoughts of a dress which to us
appears quaint and artificial would have been to them a painful and more
elaborate task. When once, indeed, we can attribute this artificial, though
often emphatic style, as we ought to do, to the universally defective taste of
the age in which it sprang, and not to individual usage, we shall be prepared to
do justice to injured genius, and to confess, that frequently beneath this la-
boured phraseology are to be found sentiments simple, natural, and touching.
We may also very safely affirm of Sh.'s Sonnets that, if their style be compared
with that of his predecessors and contemporaries, in the same department of
poetry, a manifest superiority must often be awarded him, on the score of force,
dignity, and simplicity of expression; qualities of which we shall very soon af-
ford the reader some striking instances.

of Sh. Steevens's last word, and most notorious, appeared in the Advertisement to his 1793
edition of Sh., where he defended his omission of the Sonnets and observed that "the strongest
Act of Parliament that could be framed would fail to compel readers into their service." — Ed.]
* This flippant insensibirty was publicly reprehended by Mr. Coleridge in a course of Lec-
tures upon Poetry given by him at the Royal Institution. For the various merits of thought and
language in Sh.'s Sonnets, see Numbers 27. 29, 30, 32, 33, 54. 64, 66, 68, 73, 76, 86, 91, 92, 93,
97, 98, 105, 107, 108, 109, in, 113, 114, 116, 117. 129. and many others.

GENERAL CRITICISM 381

To a certain extent, we must admit the charge of circumlocution, not as
applied to individual sonnets, but to the subject on which the whole series is
written. The obscurities of this species of poem have almost uniformly arisen
from density and compression of style, nor are the compositions of Sh. more
than usually free from this source of defect; but when it is considered that our
author has written 126 sonnets for the sole purpose of expressing his attach-
ment to his patron, it must necessarily follow that a subject so continually
reiterated would display no small share of circumlocution. Great ingenuity has
been exhibited by the poet in varying his phraseology and ideas; but no effort
could possibly obviate the monotony, as the result of such a task.

We shall not condescend to a refutation of [Steevens's] fourth epithet, which,
if at all applicable to any portion of Sh.'s minor poems, can alone apply to
Sonnets 135 and 136, which are a continued pun upon his Christian name, a
species of trifling which was the peculiar vice of our author's age.

That an attempt to exhaust the subject of friendship; to say all that could be
collected on the topic, would almost certainly lead, in the days of Sh., to ab-
stractions too subtile and metaphysical, and to a cast of diction sometimes too
artificial and scholastic for modern taste, no person well acquainted with the
progress of our literature can deny; but candour will, at the same time, admit
that the expression and versification of his sonnets are often natural, spirited,
and harmonious, and that where the surface has been rendered hard and re-
pulsive by the peculiarities of the period of their production, we have only to
search beneath, in order to discover a rich ore of thought, imagery', and senti-
ment. . . .

So far from affectation and pedantry being the general characteristic of
these pieces, impartial criticism must declare that more frequent examples of
simple, clear, and nervous diction are to be culled from them than can be
found among the sonnets of any of his contemporaries. [Sonnet 71] is given,
not as a solitary' proof, but as the exemplar of a numerous class of Shake-
spearean sonnets; and with the remark that neither in this instance, nor in
many others, is there, either in versification, language, or thought, the small-
est deviation into the regions of affectation or conceit. . . . Simplicity of style
and tenderness of sentiment form the sole features of this sonnet; but in [Son-
net 116,] with an equal chastity of diction, are combined more energy and dig-
nity, together with the infusion of some noble and appropriate imagery. It
must also be added that the flow and structure of the verse are singularly
pleasing. ... In spirit, however, in elegance, in the skill and texture of its
modulation, and beyond all, in the dignified and highly poetical close of the
third quatrain, no one of our author's sonnets excels the 29th.

(Sh. and his Times, 2: 75-82.)

James Boswell [the younger]: Whoever the person might be to whom the
greater part of these sonnets was addressed, it seems to have been generally
admitted that the poet speaks in his own person; and some of his critics have
attempted, by inferences drawn from them, to eke out the scanty memorials

382 APPENDIX

which have come down to us of the incidents of his life. I confess myself to
be as skeptical on this point as on [Drake's theory respecting Southampton]. . . .
If [the Sonnets] were composed before Meres's publication, he could not have
been at a more advanced age than thirty-four; and even if we were to adopt the
theory of Dr. Drake, and suppose that most of them were produced at a sub-
sequent period, and fix upon the latest possible year, 1609, yet still the descrip-
tion of decrepitude which is found in the 73d Sonnet could scarcely, without
violent exaggeration, be applicable to a man of forty-five. But he must not
only have been old, he must also have been grossly and notoriously profligate.
To say nothing of the criminal connection (for criminal in a high degree it
would certainly have been in a married man) which is frequently alluded to in
those Sonnets which are said to be addressed by him in his own character to
a female, we find him, in a passage already quoted, speaking in terms of shame
and remorse of his "harmful deeds," of' something from which his "name had
received a brand," and of "the impression which vulgar scandal had stamped
upon his brow." I trust it will not require much argument to show that this
picture could not be put for gentle Sh. We may lament that we know so little
of his history; but this, at least, may be asserted with confidence, that at no
time was the slightest imputation cast upon his moral character; and that, in
an age abounding, as Mr. Steevens has observed, with illiberal private abuse and
peevish satire, the concurring testimony of his contemporaries will confirm the
declaration of honest Chettle, that "his demeanour was no less civil, than he
excellent in the quality he professed." Upon the whole, I am satisfied that
these compositions had neither the poet himself nor any individual in view,
but were merely the effusions of his fancy, written upon various topics for the
amusement of a private circle.

(Plays and Poems of Sh., 1821, 20: 219-20.)

Henry Hallam: No one, as far as I remember, has ever doubted their gen-
uineness; no one can doubt that they express not only real but intense emo-
tions of the heart: but when they were written, who was the W. H. quaintly
called their begetter, by which we can only understand the cause of their
being written, and to what persons or circumstances they allude, has of late
years been the subject of much curiosity. These sonnets were long over-
looked: Steevens spoke of them with the utmost scorn, as productions which
no one could read: but a very different suffrage is generally given by the lovers
of poetry; and perhaps there is now a tendency, especially among young men
of poetical tempers, to exaggerate the beauties of these remarkable productions.
They rise, indeed, in estimation, as we attentively read and reflect upon them;
for I do not think that at first they give us much pleasure. No one ever entered
more fully than Sh. into the character of this species of poetry, which admits
of no expletive imagery, no merely ornamental line. But, though each sonnet
has generally its proper unity, the sense (I do not mean the grammatical con-
struction) will sometimes be found to spread from one to another, indepen-
dently of that repetition of the leading idea, like variations of an air, which a

GENERAL CRITICISM 3S3

series of them frequently exhibits, and on account of which they have lat-
terly been reckoned by some rather an integral poem than a collection of son-
nets. But this is not uncommon among the Italians, and belongs, in fact, to
those of Petrarch himself. They may easily be resolved into several series,
according to their subjects: but, when read attentively, we find them relate
to one definite, though obscure, period of the poet's life; in which an attach-
ment to some female, which seems to have touched neither his heart nor his
fancy very sensibly, was overpowered, without entirely ceasing, by one to
a friend; and this last is of such an enthusiastic character, and so extravagant
in the phrases that the author uses, as to have thrown an unaccountable mys-
tery over the whole work. It is true that in the poetry as well as in the fictions
of early ages we find a more ardent tone of affection in the language of friend-
ship than has since been usual; and yet no instance has been adduced of such
rapturous devotedness, such an idolatry of admiring love, as one of the greatest
beings whom nature ever produced in the human form pours forth to some
unknown youth in the majority of these sonnets. . . .

If we seize a clew which innumerable passages give us, and suppose that
they allude to a youth of high rank as well as personal beauty and accomplish-
ment, in whose favor and intimacy, according to the base prejudices of the
world, a player and a poet, though he were the author of Macbeth, might be
thought honored, something of the strangeness, as it appears to us, of Sh.'s
humiliation in addressing him as a being before whose feet he crouched, whose
frown he feared, whose injuries, and those of the most insulting kind — the
seduction of the mistress to whom we have alluded — he felt and bewailed
without resenting; something, I say, of the strangeness of this humiliation, and
at best it is but little, may be lightened, and in a certain sense rendered in-
telligible. [I.e., by the Pembroke theory.] . . .

Notwithstanding the frequent beauties of these sonnets, the pleasure of
their perusal is greatly diminished by these circumstances; and it is impossible
not to wish that Sh. had never written them. There is a weakness and folly
in all excessive and misplaced affection, which is not redeemed by the touches
of nobler sentiments that abound in this long series of sonnets. But there
are also faults of a merely critical nature. The obscurity is often such as only
conjecture can penetrate; the strain of tenderness and adoration would be too
monotonous, were it less unpleasing; and so many frigid conceits are scattered
around, that we might almost fancy the poet to have written without genuine
emotion, did not such a host of other passages attest the contrary.

(Introduction to the Literature of Europe, Part III, chap. 5, §§ 48-50.)

Charles Knight: The publication of The Passionate Pilgrim was unques-
tionably unauthorized and piratical. The publisher got all he could which
existed in manuscript; and he took two poems out of L. L. L., which was
printed only the year before. In 1609 we have no hesitation in believing that
the same process was repeated; that without the consent of the writer the 154
Sonnets — some forming a continuous poem, or poems; others isolated, in the

384 APPENDIX

subjects to which they relate and the persons to whom they were addressed
— were collected together without any key to their arrangement, and given
to the public. . . . Where is the difficulty of imagining, with regard to poems
of which each separate poem, sonnet, or stanza, is either a "leading idea,"
or its "variation," that, picked up as we think they were from many quarters,
the supposed connection must be in many respects fanciful, in some a result
of chance, mixing what the poet wrote in his own person, either in moments of
elation or depression, with other apparently continuous stanzas that painted
an imaginary character, indulging in all the warmth of an exaggerated friend-
ship, in the complaints of an abused confidence, in the pictures of an unhallowed
and unhappy love; sometimes speaking with the real earnestness of true friend-
ship and a modest estimation of his own merits; sometimes employing the
language of an extravagant eulogy, and a more extravagant estimation of the
powers of the man who was writing that eulogy? Suppose, for example, that in
the leisure hours, we will say, of William Herbert Earl of Pembroke, and Wil-
liam Sh., the poet should have undertaken to address to the youth an argu-
ment why he should marry. Without believing the Earl to be the W. H. of the
Dedication, we know that he was a friend of Sh. There is nothing in the first
17 Sonnets which might not have been written in the artificial tone of the
Italian poetry, in the working out of this scheme. Suppose, again, that in other
Sonnets the poet, in the same artificial spirit, complains that the friend has
robbed him of his mistress, and avows that he forgives the falsehood. There
is nothing in all this which might not have been written essentially as a work of
fiction, — received as a work of fiction, — handed about amongst "private
friends" without the slightest apprehension that it would be regarded as an
exposition of the private relations of two persons separated in rank as they
probably were in their habitual intimacies, — of very different ages, — the one
an avowedly profligate boy, the other a matured man. But this supposition
does not exclude the idea that the poet had also, at various times, composed, in
the same measure, other poems, truly expressing his personal feelings, — with
nothing inflated in their tone, perfectly simple and natural, offering praise,
expressing love to his actual friends (in the language of the time "lovers"),
showing regret in separation, dreading unkindness, hopeful of continued
affection. These are also circulated amongst " private friends." Some"W. H."
collects them together, ten, twelve, or fifteen years after they have been writ-
ten; and a publisher, of course, is found to give to the world any produc-
tions of a man so eminent as Sh. ... In the same volume with these Sonnets
was published a most exquisite narrative poem, A Lover's Complaint. The
form of it entirely prevents any attempt to consider it autobiographical. The
Sonnets, on the contrary, are personal in their form; but it is not therefore to
be assumed that they are all personal in their relation to the author.

(" Illustration of the Sonnets," Pictorial Sh., vol. 6.)

George G. Gervinus: What a living picture would our poet have left
behind if, when prompted by his love, he had sung the union of soul with his

GENERAL CRITICISM 385

sweet youth in the free forms suggested by the moment and by the nature
of the circumstances! But as he moulded all into this one angular form, which
admits of no distinctness and which spreads a dim mist over each tangible mean-
ing, we can readily understand how it was that for so long a time the bare
actual circumstances could be misunderstood or overlooked. This one draw-
back is followed by another, arising equally naturally from the style. The want
of reality in these indistinct poems was to be supplied by poetic brilliancy; the
relation between the means and the object, between cause and effect, dis-
appears; far-fetched thoughts, strange exaggerated images,, and hyperbolic
phrases, mislead the understanding; profound conceits and epigrammatic
fancies, sparkling for their own sake, cast the subject in question on this very
account into the shade. This intensely poetic language does not prevent even
the repetition of matter and expression in the same monotonous form, so that
the tautology' is constant. And as in Lucrece the poet involuntarily experienced
surprise at the peculiarities of that conceit-style of the Marinists. here also in
the midst of his work he acknowledges (S. 76) that his verse is "barren of new
pride, so far from variation or quick change," that he writes "all one, ever
the same," and keeps his "invention in a noted weed." In this weed it is not
easy to recognize the true and real purport; tact and comparison must teach
us not to accept it all too much as simple truth, and yet also not unthinkingly
to lose the certain meaning.

We are of opinion, with Cunningham and others, that the sonnets of our
poet, aesthetically considered, have*been overestimated. With respect to their
psychological tenor, they appear to us, with the total lack of all other sources
for the history of Sh.'s inner life, to be of inestimable value. They exhibit the
poet to us just in the most interesting period of his mental development, when
he passed from dependent to independent art, from foreign to national taste.
from subserviency and distress to prosperity and happiness; aye. even from
loose morality to inner reformation. And in addition to the gigantic, scarcely
comprehensible picture of his mental development which is presented to us in
his dramas of this period, we here receive a small intelligible painting of his
inner life, which brings us more closely to the poet himself. . . . [The friend-
ship treated of in the Sonnets] is a connection in itself of no great importance;
nay, in the way in which it is poetically expressed, it is not without distortion.
But it testifies to a strength of feeling and passion in our poet, to a childlike
nature and a candid mind, to a simple ingenuousness, to a perfect inability to
veil his thoughts or to dissemble, to an innate capacity for allowing circum-
stances to act upon his mind in all their force and for re-acting upon them —
in a word, it testifies to a nature as truthful, genuine, and straightforward
as we imagine the poet from his dramatic works to have possessed.

{Shakespeare Commentaries, Bunnet trans., pp. 451-52; 463.)

Hexry N. Hudson: Great effort has been made to find in the Sonnets
some deeper or other meaning than meets the ear, and to fix upon them,
generally, a personal and autobiographical character. It must indeed be

386 APPENDIX

owned that there is in several of them an earnestness of tone, and in some few
a subdued pathos, which strongly argues them to be expressions of the poet's
real feelings respecting himself, his condition, and the person or persons ad-
dressed. This is particularly the case with a series of ten, beginning with the
109th. Something the same may be said of the 23d, 25th, and 26th, where we
find a striking resemblance to some expressions used in the dedications of
the V. & A. and of the Lucrece. But, as to the greater part of the Sonnets,
I have long been growing more and more convinced that they were intended
mainly as exercises of fancy, cast in a form of personal address, and perhaps
mingling an element of personal interest or allusion, merely as a matter of
art; whatever there is of personal in them being thus kept subordinate and in-
cidental to poetical beauty and effect. ... It was a common fashion of the
time, in sonnet writing, for authors to speak in an ideal or imaginary char-
acter as if it were their real one, and to attribute to themselves certain thoughts
and feelings, merely because it suited their purpose, and was a part of their
art as poets, so to do. And this, I make no doubt, is the true key to the mys-
tery which has puzzled so many critics in the Sonnets of Sh. In writing son-
nets, he naturally fell into the current style of the age; only, by how much
he surpassed the others in dramatic power, by so much was he better able to
express ideal sentiments as if they were his own, and to pass out of himself
into the characters he had imagined or assumed. . . .

Touching the merits of the Sonnets, there need not much be said. Some of
them would hardly do credit to a school-boy, while many are such as it may well
be held an honor even to Sh. to have written; there being nothing of the kind
in the language approaching them, except a few of Milton's and a good many
of Wordsworth's. That in these the poet should have sometimes rendered his
work excessively frigid with the euphuistic conceits and affectations of the
time, is far less wonderful than the exquisite beauty, and often more than
beauty, of sentiment and imagery that distinguishes a large portion of them.
Many might be pointed out, which, with perfect clearness and compactness
of thought, are resplendent with the highest glories of imagination; others are
replete with the tenderest pathos; others, again, are compact of graceful fancy
and airy elegance; while in all these styles there are specimens perfectly steeped
in the melody of sounds and numbers, as if the thought were born of music,
and the music interfused with its very substance.

(Works of Sh., Harvard Edition, 20: 83-86.)

Alexander Dyce: Repeated perusals of the Sonnets have well nigh con-
vinced me that most of them were composed in an assumed character, on dif-
ferent subjects, and at different times, for the amusement, if not at the sug-
gestion, of the author's intimate associates (hence described by Meres as *
"his sugred Sonnets among his private friends"): and though I would not deny
that one or two of them reflect his genuine feelings (e.g., S. in), I contend that
allusions scattered through the whole series are not to be hastily referred to the
personal circumstances of Sh. In the general excellence of these Sonnets, —

GENERAL CRITICISM 387

in their depth of thought, their tenderness, their picturesqueness, their grace,
their harmony, — we forget their occasional conceits and quibbles: and indeed
no English sonnets are worthy, in all respects, of being ranked with Sh.'s, if we
except the few by Milton.

(Life of Sh., Works, 3d ed., 1: 98-102.)

William Minto: The sonnets addressed to a friend . . . depart very
strikingly from the sonnets of Sh.'s predecessors. He ceases to reiterate
Petrarch's woes, and opens up a new vein of feeling." Love is still the argument
— love's fears and confidences, crosses and triumphs — but it is love for a
different object under different conditions. We find in Sh.'s sonnets most of
the commonplaces of the course of true love, coldness and reconciliation, inde-
pendence and devoted submission, but they are transferred to the course of
impassioned friendship, and thereby transfigured. Are, then, these moods ot
impassioned friendship real or feigned, utterances from the heart, or artificial
creations to break the monotony of the language and imagery of passionate
admiration between the sexes? ... It is bad enough to defy all indications
of gender and declare that none of these sonnets were addressed to a young
man: it is perhaps worse to say that some are and some are not, and to make an
arbitrary selection, taking one's own feelings as the exact measure of the
poet's. Admiration of the personal beauty of his friend is too closely woven intD
the sonnets to be detached in this way. They are interpenetrated with it: it
is expressed as warmly in sonnets when the sex happens to be unequivocal,
as in others where the rashness of dogmatic ingenuity is restrained by no such
accident.

The friendship expressed in Sh.'s sonnets was probably no less real than the
love professed for their mistresses by other sonneteers. Friendship is not quite
dead even in these degenerate days. There are still people alive to whom the
warmth of the warmest of Sh.'s sonnets would not appear an exaggeration. But
there would seem to have been a peculiar exaltation of the sentiment of friend-
ship among the Elizabethan poets. The titles of Edward's plays are Daman
and Pythias and P alamort and Arcite; and in the one that has been preserved
friendship is extolled above all other blessings. The Paradise of Dainty Devices
is full of "praises of friendship." The dramatists did not hesitate to bring it
into collision with love, and to represent it as rising in some cases higher than
love itself. Marlowe makes Edward II desert his queen for the sake of Gave-
ston, and declares that he will rather lose his kingdom than renounce his
favorite. In Lyly's Endymion, Eumenides affirms that "such is his unspotted
faith to Endymion, that whatsoever seemeth a needle to prick his finger is a
dagger to wound his heart"; and when it is in his power to obtain whatever he
asks, he hesitates between the recovery of his friend Endymion and the pos-
session of his mistress Semele, and is finally decided by an old man in favour
of the friend. Sh. himself has treated the problem in his T. G. V. . . . All these
that I have mentioned, with the exception of Edward and Gaveston, were cases
of friendship between equals. Bacon laid down that friendship could not exist

388 APPENDIX

between equals; and the Elizabethans were familiar with the often quoted
friendships between Alexander and Hephaestion, Hercules and Hylas, Achilles
and Patroclus, Socrates and Alcibiades, in which the sentiment was enhanced
by the charms of strength on the one hand, and youth and beauty on the other.
It is not impossible that the influence of the maiden queen had something to do
with the laudation of friendship in the Elizabethan age; and the representation
of women's parts on the stage by boys may have fostered to an unusual degree
the sentimental admiration of beautiful youths. This last influence could
hardly but have affected Sh., seeing that he acted up to boys in that char-
acter, and that they must occasionally have crossed his mind with their "small
pipes" and "smooth and rubious" lips when he was composing praises of the
beauty that they represented. And it is difficult to see what can have been
meant by the expression Socratem ingenio —J3. Socrates in disposition — in
Sh.'s epitaph, if it does not point to his sentiment for beautiful young men.

(Characteristics of English Poets, pp. 213-16.)

Frederick J. Furnivall: Were it not for the fact that many critics really
deserving the name of Sh. students, and not Sh. fools, have held the Sonnets to
be merely dramatic, I could not have conceived that poems so intensely and
evidently autobiographic and self-revealing, poems so one with the spirit
and inner meaning of Sh.'s growth and life, could ever have been conceived
to be other than what they are, the records of his own loves and fears. And I
believe that if the acceptance of them as such had not involved the conse-
quence of Sh.'s intrigue with a married woman, all readers would have taken
the Sonnets as speaking of Sh.'s own life. But his admirers are so anxious to
remove every stain from him, that they contend for a non-natural interpreta-
tion of his poems. They forget the difference in opinion between Elizabethan
and Victorian times as to those sweet sins of the flesh, where what is said to be
stolen is so willingly given. They forget the cuckoo cry rising from nearly all
Elizabethan literature, and that the intimacy now thought criminal was then
in certain circles nearly as common as handshaking is with us. They forget
Sh.'s impulsive nature, and his long absence from his home. They will not face
the probabilities of the case, or recollect that David was still God's friend
though Bathsheba lived. The Sonnets are, in one sense, Sh.'s Psalms. Spiritual
struggles underlie both poets' work. For myself, I 'd accept any number of
"slips in sensual mire" on Sh.'s part, to have the "bursts of (loving) heart"
given us in the Sonnets.

The true motto for the first group of Sh.'s Sonnets is to be seen in David's
words, " I am distrest for thee, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant hast thou
been unto me. Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of woman."
We have had them reproduced for us Victorians, without their stain of sin and
shame, in Mr. Tennyson's In Memoriam. We have had them again to some
extent in Mrs. Browning's glorious sonnets to her husband, with their iter-
ance, "Say over again, and yet once over again, that thou dost love me." We
may look upon the Sonnets as a piece of music, or as Sh.'s Pathetic Sonata, each

GENERAL CRITICISM 389

melody introduced, dropped again, brought in again with variations, but one
full strain of undying love and friendship through the whole. Why could Sh.
say so beautifully for Antonio of The Merchant, "All debts are cleared between
you and I, if I might but see you at my death: notwithstanding, use your
pleasure"? Why did he make Viola declare —

And I most jocund, apt, and willingly,

To do you rest, a thousand deaths would die?

Why did he paint Helena alone, saying —

'T was pretty though a plague
To see him every hour; to sit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eyes, his curls,
In our heart's table, — heart too capable
Of every line and trick of his sweet favour!
But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Must sanctify his relics.

Because he himself was Helena, Antonio. A witchcraft drew him to a "boy,"
a youth to whom he gave his

Love without pretension or restraint,
All his in dedication.

Sh. towards him was as Viola towards the Duke. He went

After him I love more than I love these eyes,
More than my life.

In the Sonnets we have the gentle Will, the melancholy mild-eyed man, of the
Droeshout portrait. Sh.'s tender, sensitive, refined nature is seen clearly here,
but through a glass darkly in the plays. . . .

Whatever their date, I wish to say with all the emphasis I can, that in my
belief no one can understand Sh. who does not hold that his Sonnets are auto-
biographical, and that they explain the depths of the soul of the Sh. who wrote
the plays. I know that Mr. Browning is against this view, and holds that if
Sh. did "unlock his heart in his Sonnets," then "the less Sh. he." But I'd
rather take, on this question, the witness of the greatest poetess of our Vic-
torian — nay of all time yet, and ask whether she was the less, or the greater
and truer, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, or poet, because she unlocked her
heart in her sonnets, or because she "went forward and confessed to her critics
that her poems had her heart and life in them, they were not empty shells!"

(Introduction to the Leopold Shakspere, § II.)

Algernon* C. Swinburne: A name so illustrious has recently been added
to the list of theirs who dispute or deny the supposition that even in his sonnets
the most inscrutably impersonal of poets did actually "unlock his heart," that it
might seem negligent if not insolent to take no account of such antagonism
to the opinion which to me seems so clearly just and right. Mr. Browning, per-

390 APPENDIX

haps in all points the furthest removed from Wordsworth of all poets in this
century, cites with something of a sneer the well-known expression of Words-
worth which gives us his opinion to that effect; and,, as if scornfully rejecting
a supposed suggestion that he also should do likewise, retorts in a tone of as-
sured defiance —

Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shakespeare he!

No, I must venture to reply; no whit the less like Shakespeare, but un-
doubtedly the less like Browning. . . . Even in default of his personal and
articulate evidence to that effect, we should have guessed that Mr. Browning
was in no wise wont to unlock his heart with any metrical key to any direct
purpose — except, as it might be, "for once," when exchanging, with such
happy effect, a "bronze" for a "silver" instrument. But Shakespeare, not
being simply "a great dramatic poet" like Browning or like Landor, but a
great dramatist in the most absolute and differential sense of the phrase, might
(it seems to me) be the likelier and the more desirous, under certain circum-
stances which for us must be all uncertain, to relieve and disburden his mind
— to unload his heart rather than to unlock it — in short personal poems of
a kind as alien from the special genius or spiritual instinct of Mr. Browning
as is the utterly impersonal gift of impersonation, not in one form at a time
but in many forms at once, by dint of more than dramatic renunciation or
annihilation of himself, which makes him the greatest of all dramatists as
surely as he is not the greatest of all dramatic poets.*

("Short Notes on English Poets"; Miscellanies, pp. 12-13.)

Edward Dowden: The student of Sh. is drawn to the Sonnets not alone
by their ardour and depth of feeling, their fertility and condensation of thought,
their exquisite felicities of phrase, and their frequent beauty of rhythmical
movement, but in a peculiar degree by the possibility that here, if nowhere
else, the greatest- of English poets may — as Wordsworth puts it — have
"unlocked his heart." t It were strange if his silence, deep as that of the secrets

* [In his Study of Sh. Swinburne avoids the discussion of the Sonnets, with the explanation
that upon them "such a preposterous pyramid of presumptuous commentary has long since
been reared by the Cimmerian speculation and Boeotian 'brain-sweat' of sciolists and scholi-
asts, that no modest man will hope and no wise man will desire to add to the structure or sub-
tract from it one single brick of proof or disproof, theorem or theory." — Ed.]

t Poets differ in the interpretation of the Sonnets as widely as critics.

'With this same key
Shakespeare unlocked his heart' once more!
Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shakespeare he!

So, Mr. Browning', to whom replies Mr. Swinburne, "No whit the less like Shakespeare, but
undoubtedly the less like Browning." Some of Shelley's feeling with reference to the Sonnets
may be guessed from certain lines to be found among the "Studies for Epipsychidion and
Cancelled Passages" (Poetical Works, ed. Forman, 2: 392-93), to which my attention has been
called by Mr. E. W. Gosse:

If any should be curious to discover

Whether to you I am a friend or lover,

Let them read Shakespeare's Sonnets, taking thence

A whetstone for their dull intelligence

That tears and will not cut, or let them guess

How Diotima, the wise prophetess,

GENERAL CRITICISM 391

of Nature, never once knew interruption. The moment, however, we regard
the Sonnets as autobiographical, we find ourselves in the presence of doubts
and difficulties, exaggerated, it is true, by many writers, yet certainly real.

If we must escape from them, the simplest mode is to assume that the Son-
nets are "the free outcome of a poetic imagination" (Delius). It is an in-
genious suggestion of Delius that certain groups may be offsets from other
poetical works of Sh. Those urging a beautiful youth to perpetuate his beauty
in offspring may be a derivative from V. & A.; those declaring love for a
dark-complexioned woman may rehandle the theme set forth in Berowne's
passion for the dark Rosaline of L. L. L.\ those which tell of a mistress re-
signed to a friend may be a non-dramatic treatment of the theme of love
and friendship presented in the later scenes of the T. G. V. Perhaps a few
sonnets, as iio-m, refer to circumstances of Sh.'slife (Dyce). The main body
of these poems may still be regarded as mere exercises of the fancy.

Such an explanation of the Sonnets has the merit of simplicity; it unties no
knots but cuts all at a blow. If the collection consists of disconnected exer-
cises of the fancy, we need not try to reconcile discrepancies, nor shape a story,
not ascertain a chronology, nor identify persons. And what indeed was a
sonneteer's passion but a painted fire? What was the form of verse but an
exotic curiously trained and tended, in which an artificial sentiment imported
from Italy gave perfume and colour to the flower?

And yet, in this as in other forms, the poetry of the time, which possesses
an enduring vitality, 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, submitting to
the poetical fashions of the day, were raised to an ideal expression. Spenser
wooed and wedded the Elizabeth of his Amoretti. The Astrophel & Stella tells
of a veritable tragedy, fatal perhaps to two bright lives and passionate hearts.
And what poems of Drummond do we remember as we remember those which
record how he loved and lamented Mary Cunningham?

. . . That [Sh.] should have given admiration and love without measure to a
youth high born, brilliant, accomplished, who singled out the player. for pe-
culiar favour, will seem wonderful only to those who keep a constant guard upon
their affections, and to those who have no need to keep a guard at all. In the
Renascence epoch, among natural products of a time when life ran swift and
free, touching with its current high and difficult places, the ardent friendship
of man with man was one. To elevate it above mere personal regard a kind of
Neo-Platonism was at hand, which represented Beauty and Love incarnated
in a human creature as earthly vicegerents of the Divinity. "It was then not
uncommon," observes the sober Dyce, "for one man to write verses to another
in a strain of such .tender affection as fully warrants us in terming them ama-

Instructed the instructor, and why he
Rebuked the infant spirit of melody ■
On Agathon's sweet lips, which as he spoke
Was as the lovely star when morn has broke
The roof of darkness, in the golden dawn.
Half -hidden and yet beautiful.

392 APPENDIX

tory." Montaigne, not prone to take up extreme positions, writes of his dead
Estienne de la Boetie with passionate tenderness which will not hear of modera-
tion. The haughtiest spirit of Italy, Michael Angelo, does homage to the worth
and beauty of young Tommaso Cavalieri in such words as these:

Heavenward your spirit stirreth me to strain;
E'en as you will I blush and blanch again,
Freeze in the sun, burn 'neath a frosty sky,
Your will includes and is the lord of mine.

The learned Languet writes to young Philip Sidney: "Your portrait I kept
with me some hours to feast my eyes on it, but my appetite was rather increased
than diminished by the sight." And Sidney to his guardian friend: "The chief
object of my life, next to the everlasting blessedness of heaven, will always be
the enjoyment of true friendship, and there you shall have the chief est place."
... In Allot's Wit's Commonwealth (1598) we read: "The love of men to women
is a thing common and of course, but the friendship of man to man infinite
and immortal." (I find this quotation in Elze's William Shakespeare, p. 497.)
"Some," said Jeremy Taylor, "live under the line, and the beams of friendship
in that position are imminent and perpendicular. Some have only a dark day
and a long night from him [the Sun], snows and white cattle, a miserable life
and a perpetual harvest of Catarrhes and Consumptions, apoplexies and dead
palsies: but some have splendid fires and aromatic spices, rich wines and well-
digested fruits, great wit and great courage, because 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 East. Just so it is in friendship." Was Sh. less a courtier
of the sun than Languet or Michael Angelo? . . .

Sh. of the Sonnets is not the Sh. serenely victorious, infinitely charitable,
wise with all wisdom of the intellect and the heart, whom we know through
the Tempest and Henry VIII. He is the Sh. of V. & A. and R. & J., on his
way to acquire some of the dark experience of M.for M., and the bitter learn-
ing of T. & C. Sh.'s writings assure 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 inacces-
sible to temptations of the senses, the heart, and the imagination. We can
only guess the frailty that accompanied such strength, the risks that attended
such high powers; immense demands on life, vast ardours, and then the void
hour, the deep dejection. There appears to have been a time in his life when
the springs of faith and hope had almost ceased to flow; and he recovered these,
not by flying from reality and life, but by driving his shafts deeper towards
the centre of things. So Ulysses was transformed into Prospero, worldly wis-
dom into spiritual insight. Such ideal purity as Milton's was not possessed
nor sought by Sh. Among these Sonnets, one or two might be spoken by
Mercutio, when his wit of cheveril was stretched to an ell broad. To compen-
sate — Sh. knew men and women a good deal better than did Milton, and
probably no patches in his life are quite as unprofitably ugly as some which
disfigured the life of the great idealist. His daughter could love and honour

GENERAL CRITICISM 393

Sh.'s memory. Lamentable it is, if he was taken in the toils, but at least we
know that he escaped all toils before the end. May we dare to conjecture
that Cleopatra, queen and courtesan, black from " Phcebus' amorous pinches,"
a "lass unparalleled," has some kinship through the imagination with the
dark lady of the virginal? "Would I had never seen her," sighs out Antony;
and the shrewd onlooker Enobarbus replies, "O sir, you had then left unseen
a wonderful piece of work, which not to have been blest withal would have dis-
credited your travel." . . .

If Sh. "unlocked his heart" in these Sonnets, what do we learn from them
of that great heart? I cannot answer otherwise than in words of my own
formerly written. "In the Sonnets we recognize three things: that Sh. was
capable of measureless personal devotion; that he was tenderly sensitive,
sensitive above all to every diminution or alteration of that love his heart so
eagerly craved; and that, when wronged, although he suffered anguish, he
transcended his private injury, and learned to forgive. . . . The errors of his
heart originated in his sensitiveness, in his imagination (not at first inured to
the hardness of fidelity to the fact), in his quick consciousness of existence, and
in the self-abandoning devotion of his heart."

(Sonnets of Sh., Introduction, pp. 4-12; 34.)

J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps: The words of Meres, and the insignificant
result of Jaggard's efforts, when viewed in connection with the nature of these
strange poems, lead to the inference that some of them were written in clus-
ters, and others as separate exercises, either being contributions made by their
writer to the albums of his friends, probably no two of the latter being favoured
with identical compositions. There was no tradition adverse to a belief in their
fragmentary character in the generation immediately following the author's
death, as may be gathered from the arrangement found in Benson's edition of
1640; and this concludes the little real evidence on the subject that has de-
scended to us. It was reserved for the students of the present century, who
have ascertained so much respecting Sh. that was unsuspected by his own
friends and contemporaries, to discover that his innermost earnest thoughts,
his mental conflicts, and so on, are revealed in what would then be the most
powerful lyrics yet given to the world. But the victim of spiritual emotions
that involve criminatory reflections does not usually protrude them volun-
tarily on the consideration of society; and, if the personal theory be accepted,
we must concede the possibility of our national dramatist gratuitously con-
fessing his sins and revealing those of others, proclaiming his disgrace and
avowing his repentance, in poetical circulars distributed by the delinquent
himself amongst his most intimate friends.

There are no external testimonies of any description in favour of a personal
application of the Sonnets, while there are abundant difficulties arising from
the reception of such a theory. ... It will be observed that all the hypotheses
which aim at a complete biographical exposition of the Sonnets necessitate
the acceptance of interpretations that are too subtle for dispassionate rea-

394 APPENDIX

soners. Even in the few instances where there is a reasonable possibility that
Sh. was thinking of living individuals, as when he refers to an unknown poeti-
cal rival or quibbles on his own Christian name, scarcely any, if any, light is
thrown on his personal feelings or character.

{Outlines of the Life of Sh., 9th ed., 1 : 173-75.)

Mark Pattison: The pre-eminent series of poems known as Sh.'s sonnets
mock at criticism, and I can but echo the despair of . . . Ashcroft Noble, and
say that the rank they hold is such that to ignore them is impossible, and to
treat them adequately not less so. Here I have only to speak of them as to
form. They only present an occasional approach to perfection of type. First:
each sonnet does not stand independently, but relies upon that which goes
before, or on that which follows it, to complete the impression. The sonnet is
thus robbed of its individuality, and becomes a stanza in a poem. To borrow an
illustration from architecture, the sonnet becomes a house in a row, instead of
a palace satisfying the eye from whichever side it is viewed. Secondly: in the
struggle of meaning and melody with the unmalleable metal of our language,
Sh.'s sonnets show us the poet frequently succumbing. In a small number out
of the whole 154 does the poet distinctly emerge as master of his instrument,
and only in a very few instances does he achieve an uncontested triumph over
the obstinate and unpliant material. When he does so, the result is a poem,
notable, distinguished, stamped with an individuality which cannot be mis-
taken. It was an unfortunate choice of vehicle when Sh. selected the sonnet
form. It was a form in which his superabounding force strangled itself. He is
baffled by the language just in proportion to the power of his thought. Sh.
required freedom, and when free, he spoke English such as no other English-
man ever had skill to utter. But the sonnet's narrow bounds demand con-
densation. Now the formal requirement of terse expression is a boon to watery
or diffuse thinkers. The compression of fourteen lines effects the expulsion of
superfluities, and lends the external support of stays to a weakly frame. Quite
opposite is the effect of restricted space upon a teeming fancy and a robust
intellect. In him force is concentrated to begin with. In his endeavour after
still further compression of energy, he becomes laboured instead of pithy,
obscure instead of nervous.

As in the drama Sh. ignored the classical unities, so he will know nothing of
the established laws of the sonnet. It has been said that he "disclaimed the
smaller economies." May it not be that he did not know of them? What he
knew of, that he followed. As in the substance of his verse he fell in with the
reigning fashion of ingenious distortions, so in the form of the sonnet he
adopted the metrical arrangement of Daniel, without any suspicion that there
existed a better type.* Sh.'s sonnets, like Daniel's, contain seven rhymes.
Their analysis is not into an octave and a sestet, but into three verses of four
lines each, closed by a couplet. And such has been the fame of the series of

* [This extraordinary suggestion is the more remarkable because Pattison had just mentioned
Sidney as among Sh.'s "models." — Ed.)

GENERAL CRITICISM 395

Shakespearean poems, that English historians of poetry have to recognize this
form, and to create a new species to cover it. . . . Milton"s distinction in the
history of the sonnet is that, not overawed by the great name of Sh.. he eman-
cipated this form of poem from the two vices which depraved the Elizabethan
sonnet — from the vice of misplaced wit in substance, and of misplaced rhyme
in form. He recognized that the sonnet belonged to the poetry of feeling, and
not to the poetry of ingenuity. And he saw that the perfection of metrical
construction was not reached by tacking together three four-line verses rounded
by a couplet at the end.

{The Sonnets of John Milton, Introduction, pp. 40-46.)

A. Wilson Verity: What primarily do we look for in a poem, more espe-
cially in a poem of great scope? I suppose there are two things of essential value:
perfect harmony of expression and interest of subject. The poem should bear
criticism from the standpoint of the artist and of the moralist: it should bi
flawless in manner and of vital significance in matter. What is said — the way
it is said: these are two cardinal points, and of these twin essentials the latter,
to my mind, is the greater. And if we ask what should regulate the expression
of a poem, the answer is simple: above all things we require of the singer a true
and perfect sense of melody. . . . Xow from either standpoint — from that of
the artist, from that of the critic of life — whether we look to their manner
or their matter — the Sonnets of Sh. are great with greatness unmistakable.
It is not that we come across an exquisite piece of verbal beauty from time to
time; every poem reaches a standard unattainable save by the true singer;
from first to last it is the

Adventurous song
That with no middle flight intends to soar.

The power of the language is taxed to its utmost; it can do no more; its merit
as a means of poetic expression, as an instrument for the expression of a thousand
varying shades of emotion, must stand or fall by such passages as these: [40,
1-4; 116, i-io; 71, 5-8; 102, 5-12; 107, 1-3; 86, 1-4.] In lines such as these we
have the last word in felicity of expression: a noble instrument sends forth its
noblest notes in the master's hands, and if we ask for more piercing, more per-
fect melody of words, we must look to some other tongue; English can give us
nothing greater than this. And such passages are not the exception: we have
picked them almost at random. Open the Sonnets where we will, we find the
same unerring sense of what makes for the music that, heard once, never dies
from our recollection.

(Introduction to the Sonnets, Henry Irving Sh., 8: 404-05.)

Barrett Wendell: Even if the Sonnets be self-revealing, their self-revela-
tion takes a very deliberate shape. Nothing could be much further from a spon-
taneous outburst than these Shaksperean stanzas, whose form is among the
most highly studied in our literature. During the Elizabethan period there

396 APPENDIX

were at least three well-defined varieties of sonnet: the legitimate Italian, or
Petrarchan, generally imitated by Wyatt, Surrey, and Sidney; the Spenserian,
in which the system of rhymes resembled that of the Faerie Queene; and that
now before us, whose most familiar example is in the work of Sh. If not so
intricately melodious as the Spenserian sonnet, nor yet so sonorously sustained
as the Petrarchan, this Shaksperean sonnet is constantly fresh, varied, dig-
nified, and above all idiomatic. Why certain metrical forms seem specially
at home in certain languages, it is hard to say; but as surely as the hexameter
is idiomatically classic, or the terza rima Italian, or the alexandrine French, so
the blank verse line of Elizabethan tragedy and the melodiously fluent quatrains
of the Shaksperean sonnet are idiomatically English. . . .

Whatever else the Sonnets reveal, then, they surely reveal the temperament
of an artist, — a temperament, as we have seen, which is not only exquisitely
sensitive to emotional impressions, but is found to find the best relief from the
suffering of such sensitiveness in deliberate, studied expression of it. . . . To
phrase an emotional mood an artist must, as it were, cut his nature in two.
With part of himself he must cling to the mood in question, or at least revive
it at will. With another part of himself he must deliberately withdraw from
the mood, observe it, criticise it, and carefully seek the vehicle of expression
which shall best serve to convey it to other minds than his own. . . . Undoubt-
edly this process is not always conscious. Beyond question, remarkable artis-
tic effects are sometimes produced by methods which seem to the artist spon-
taneous. Such effects, however, wonderful though they be, are in a sense rather
accidental than masterly; and whatever else the art of Sh.'s Sonnets may be
called, it is beyond doubt masterly, not accidental.

. . . What they express, in terms of emotional moods, cannot be much ques-
tioned. The real doubt, after all, concerns only what caused these moods; and
that is a question rather of gossip and of scandal, of impertinent curiosity, than
of criticism. What the Sonnets surely express — what no criticism can take
from us — is the eagerness, the restlessness, the eternally sweet suffering of a
lover whose love is of this world. Love, sacred or profane, idealizes its object.
If this object be earthly or human, experience must finally shatter the ideal.
Religion is a certainty only because the object of its love is a pure ideal, which
nothing but change of faith can alter. So long as any human being cares pas-
sionately for anything not purely ideal, so long will he surely find life tragic.
The lasting tragedy of earthly love, then, is what the Sonnets phrase; and this
they phrase in no impersonal terms, but rather in the language of one whose
temperament, as you grow year by year to know it better, stands out as indi-
vidual as any in literature. . . . The deep depression, the acute suffering, the
fierce passion which should normally result from what we have seen, Sh. seems
fully to have known. Instead of expressing it, however, in such wild outbursts
as one might naturally expect, he displays throughout a power of self-mas-
tery, which gives his every utterance, no matter how passionate, the beauty
of restrained and mastered artistic form.

{William Shakspere, pp. 226-36.)

GENERAL CRITICISM 397

George Wyndham: [Sh.'s] poetic themes are figured and displayed through-
out the Sonnets by means of an imagery which, as in V. & A. and Lucrece, is
often so vividly seized and so minutely presented as to engross attention to
the prejudice of the theme. Indeed, at some times the poet himself seems rather
the quarry than the pursuer of his own images — as it were a magician hounded
by spirits of his summoning. Conceits were a fashion, and Sh. sometimes fol-
lowed the fashion; but this characteristic of his lyrical verse is rather a passive
consequence of such obsession than the result of any deliberate pursuit of an
image until it becomes a conceit. Put "his" for "her," and in Lucrece he himself
describes the process:

Much like a press of people at a door,
Throng his inventions which shall go before.

The retina of his mind's eye, like a child's, or that of a man feverish from the
excitement of some high day, is as it were a shadow-sheet, on which images
received long since revive and grow to the very act and radiancy of life. . . .
Taine insists, perhaps too exclusively, on the vivid imagery- of Sh.'s verse;
Minto and Mrs. Meynell, perhaps too exclusively, on the magic of sound and
association which springs from his unexpected collocation of words till then
unmated. The truth seems to lie in a fusion of the two theories. When Sh. takes
his images from nature, the first excellence is predominant; the second, when
he takes them from the occupations of men. Often, in the Sonnets, he illus-
trates his theme with images from inheritance, or usury-, or the law; and then
his effects are rather produced by the successful impressment of technical
terms to the service of poetry than by the recollections they revive of legal
processes:

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past.

Among such occupations he draws also upon journeys (50), navigation (80,
86, 116), husbandry (3), medicine (118), sieges (2), and a courtier's career
(7, 114). . . . He draws also on the arts of painting (frequently), of music (8,
128), of the stage (23); on the dark sciences [14. 15, 107]; on alchemy (33) and
distillation [5, 6, 54, 119]. When, as in these examples, he takes his illustra-
tions from professions and occupations, or from arts and sciences, his magic,
no doubt, is mainly- verbal; but it springs from immediate perception (as in the
case of annual and diurnal changes), when his images are taken from subtler
effects of sensuous appreciation, be it of shadows, of the transparency of win-
dows (3, 24), of reflections in mirrors (3, 22, 62, 77, 103), or of hallucinations
in the dark [27, 43, 61]. And this source of his magic is evident also, when, as
frequently, he makes use of jewels (27, 34, 48, 52, 65, 96), apparel (2, 26, 76),
the rose (1, 35, 54, 67, 95, 99, 109), the grave (1, 4, 6, 17. 31, 32, 71, 72, 77, 81),
sepulchral monuments (55, 81, 107), the alternation of sunshine with showers
(33. 34). the singing of birds (29), and their silence (97, 102). Realism is the
note of these imaginative perceptions, as it is when he writes:

'T is not enough that through the cloud thou break

To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face;

398 APPENDIX

[and 23, 1-2:50, 5-6; 60, 1; 73, 2-3]; when he instances the "dyer's hand" (ill)
and the "crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air" (70) — a clue to carrion —
or when ho captures a vivid scene of nursery comedy (143). In all such pas-
sages the magic springs from imaginative observation rather than from unex-
pected verbal collocutions. And, while this observation is no less keen, the
rendering of it no less faithful, than in the earlier lyrical poems-, conceits,
though still to be found, are fewer: e.g., of the eye and heart (24, 46, 47), of the
four elements — earth, air, fire, water (44, 45), and of the taster to a king (114).

On the other hand, the eloquent discourse of the earlier poems becomes the
staple of tha Sonnets and their highest excellence. It is for this that we chiefly
read them. . . . The charm of Sh.'s verbal surprises — e.g., "a lass unparalleled,"
"multitudinous seas," instanced by Mrs. Meynell — once noted, is readily
recognized, but much~of his verbal melody defies analysis. Yet some of it, re-
minding you of Chaucer's "divine liquidness of diction, his divine fluidity
of movement," * . . . may be explained by that absolute mastery he had over
the rhythmical use of our English accent. . . . No other English poet lets the
accent fall so justly in accord with the melody of his rhythm and the emphasis
of his speech, or meets it with a greater variety of subtly affiliated sounds. . . .
[Take Sonnet 1,] and you observe (1) the use of kindred sounds, of alliteration
or of assonance or of both, to mark the principal stresses in any one line; e.g.,
line 1, creatures and increase, where both are used; line 3, riper and time; line
4, heir and bear; line 5, contacted and bright; line 9, Thou and now; — and (2),
and this is most characteristic, the juxtaposition of assonantal sounds where
two syllables consecutive, but in separate words, are accented with a marked
pause between them: e.g., line 5, bright eyes; line 8, too cruel; line 11, bwd
bwriest; line 12, mafe'st waste. Mr. Patmore points out (Essay on English
Metrical Law) that "ordinary English phrases exhibit a great preponderance
of emphatic and unemphatic syllables in consecutive couples," and our eight-
eenth century poets, absorbed in metre and negligent of varied rhythm,
traded on this feature of our tongue to produce a number of dull iambic lines
by the use of their banal trochaic epithets, "balmy," "mazy," and the rest.
Sh. constantly varies his rhythm in the Sonnets, and frequently by this bring-
ing of two accented syllables together, with a pause between. But, when he
does so, he ensures a correct delivery by affiliating the two syllables in sound,
and prefixing to the first a delaying word which precludes any scamping of
the next ensuing accent: e.g., "own" before "bright eyes," "self" before "too
cruel," "churl" before " mak'st waste." Cf. "earth" before "sings hymns"
in 29, 12; and 15, 8: "and wear their brave state out of memory."

It is by this combination of accent with rhyme that Sh. links the lines of each
quatrain in his Sonnets into one perfect measure. If you except two [116 and
129], you find that he does not, as Milton did afterwards, build up his sonnet,
line upon line, into one monumental whole: he writes three lyrical quatrains,
with a pronounced pause after the second and a couplet after the third. Taking
the first sonnet once more, you observe (3) the binding together of the lines

* Matthew Arnold.

GENERAL CRITICISM 399

in each quatrain by passing on a kindred sound from the last, or most impor-
tant, accent in one line to the first, or most important, in the next: e.g., from
2 to 3, from die to riper by assonance; from 2 to 4, from time to tender by allitera-
tion; from 6 to 7, horn fuel to famine; [etc.] Cf. 60, 6-7:

Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight.
... (4) For a further binding together of the quatrain the rhyme, or last syl-
lable, though not accented, is often tied by assonance to the first syllable,
though not accented, of the next line: e.g., lines 3, 4, decease — his; lines 7, 8,
lies — thyself; lines 10, II, Spring — within; lines 12, 13, niggarding — pity.
Sh.'s effects of alliteration, apart from this use of them for the binding together
of the quatrain, are at some times of astonishing strength:
When rocks impregnable are not so stout
Nor gates of steel so strong but Time decays; (65, 7-8)
and at others of a strange sweetness:

The world will be thy widow and still weep. (9, 5)
Again, at others he uses the device antithetically in discourse:

Were it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave; (39, 10)

and his rhythm is at all times infinitely varied; [cf. 19, 14; 33, 7; 86, 4; 11, 10.]
. . . Works of perfect art are the tombs in which artists lay to rest the pas-
sions they would fain make immortal. The more perfect their execution, the
longer does the sepulchre endure, the sooner does the passion perish. Only
where the hand has faltered do ghosts of love and anguish still complain. In
the most of his Sonnets Sh.'s hand does not falter. The wonder of them lies
in the art of his poetry, not in the accidents of his life; and, within that art,
not so much in his choice of poetic themes as in the wealth of his imagery, which
grows and shines and changes: above all, in the perfect execution of his verbal
melody. That is the body of which his imagery is the soul, and the two make
one creation so beautiful that we are not concerned with anything but its

beauty.

{Poems of Sh., Introduction, pp. cxxxii-cxlvii.)

George Brandes: It has been insisted that love for a beautiful youth, which
the study of Plato had presented to the men of the Renaissance in its most at-
tractive light, was a standing theme among English poets of that age, who,
moreover, as in Sh.'s case, were wont to praise the beauty of their friend above
that of their mistress. The woman, too, as in this case, often enters as a dis-
turbing element into the relation. It was an accepted part of the convention
that the poet should represent himself as withered and wrinkled, whatever his
real age might be; Sh. does so again and again, though he was at most thirty-
seven. Finally, it was quite in accordance with use and wont that the fair
youth should be exhorted to marry, so that his beauty might not die with
him. Sh. had already placed such exhortations in the mouth of the Goddess
of Love in V. & A. . . .

400 APPENDIX

All this is true, and yet there is no reasonable ground for doubting that the
Sonnets stand in pretty close relation to actual facts. The age, indeed, deter-
mines the tone, the coloring, of the expressions in which friendship clothes itself.
In Germany and Denmark, at the end of the eighteenth century, friendship was
a sentimental enthusiasm, just as in England and Italy during the sixteenth
century it took the form of platonic love. We can clearly discern, however,
that the different methods of expression answered to corresponding shades
of difference in the emotion itself. The men of the Renaissance gave them-
selves up to an adoration of friendship and of their friend which is now unknown,
except in circles where a perverted sexuality prevails. Montaigne's friend-
ship for Estienne de la Boetie, and Languet's passionate tenderness for the
youthful Philip Sidney, are cases in point. Sir Thomas Browne writes in his
Religio Medici (1642): "I never yet cast a true affection on a woman; but I
have loved my friend as I do virtue, my soul, my God. ... I love my friend
before myself, and yet, methinks, I do not love him enough: some few months
hence my multiplied affection will make me believe I have not loved him at all.
When I am from him, I am dead till I be with him; when I am with him, I am
not satisfied, but would still be nearer him." But the most remarkable example
of a frenzied friendship in Renaissance culture and poetry is undoubtedly to
be found in Michael Angelo's letters and sonnets. Michael Angelo's relation to
Messer Tommaso de' Cavalieri presents the most interesting parallel to the
attitude which Sh. adopted towards William Herbert. We find the same ex-
pressions of passionate love from the older to the younger man; but here it is
still more unquestionably certain that we have not to do with mere poetical fig-
ures of speech, since the letters are not a whit less ardent and enthusiastic than
the sonnets. The expressions in the sonnets are sometimes so warm that Michael
Angelo's nephew, in his edition of them, altered the word Signiore into Signora,
and these poems, like Sh.'s, were for some time supposed to have been addressed
to a woman. (Ludwig von Scheffier: Michel Angelo. 1892.)

... As regards the form, the first and most obvious remark is that, in spite
of their name, these poems are not in reality sonnets at all, and have, indeed,
nothing in common with the sonnet except their fourteen lines. In the structure
of his so-called Sonnets Sh. simply followed the tradition and convention of his
country. . . . The chief defect in Sh.'s Sonnets as a metrical whole consists in
the appended couplet, which hardly ever keeps up to the level of the beginning,
hardly ever presents any picture to the eye, but is, as a rule, merely reflective,
and often brings the burst of feeling which animates the poem to a feeble, or
at any rate more rhetorical than poetic, issue.

In actual poetic value the Sonnets are extremely uneven. The first group
undoubtedly stands lowest in the scale, with its seventeen times repeated and
varied exhortation to the friend to leave the world a living reproduction of his
beauty. They necessarily express but little of the poet's personal feeling. . . .
The last two Sonnets in the collection, dealing with a conventional theme bor-
rowed from the antique, are likewise entirely impersonal. . . . Next in order
stand the Sonnets of merely conventional inspiration, those in which the eye and

GENERAL CRITICISM 401

heart go to law with each other, or in which the poet plays upon his own name
and his friend's. These cannot possibly claim any high poetic value. But the
poems thus set apart form but a small minority of the collection. In all the
others the waves of feeling run high, and it may be said in general that the
deeper the sentiment and the stronger the emotion they express, the more ad-
mirable is their force of diction and their marvelous melody. There are Sonnets
whose musical quality is unsurpassed by any of the songs introduced into the
plays, or even by the most famous and beautiful speeches in the plays them-
selves. The free and lax form he had adopted was of evident advantage to Sh.
The triple and quadruple rhymes, which in Italian involve scarcely any diffi-
culty or constraint, would have proved very hampering in English. As a mat-
ter of fact, Sh. has been able to follow out every inspiration unimpeded by the
shackles of an elaborate rhyme-scheme, and has achieved a rare combination
of terseness and harmony in the expression of sorrow, melancholy, anguish, and
resignation. . . .

Sh.'s Sonnets are for the general reader the most inaccessible of his works, but
they are also the most difficult to tear oneself away from. . . . The reader who
can reconcile himself to the fact that great geniuses are not necessarily models
of correctness will pass a very different judgment [from Browning's "the less
Shakespeare he."] He will follow with eager interest the experiences which rent
and harrowed Sh.'s soul. He will rejoice in the insight afforded by these poems,
which the crowd ignores, into the tempestuous emotional life of one of the great-
est of men. Here, and here alone, we see Sh. himself, as distinct from his poeti-
cal creations, loving, admiring, longing, yearning, adoring, disappointed, hu-
miliated, tortured. Here more than anywhere else can we, who at a distance
of three centuries do homage to the poet's art, feel ourselves in intimate com-
munion, not only with the poet, but with the man.

(William Shakespeare, i: 342-56.)

Thomas R. Price: So soon as the world ceases to seek in the sonnets for
morbid details of the poet's biography, and for the revelation of his adventures
and intrigues, those poems assume their true value as works of art. And, if
.the stages of a poet's artistic development be in truth the vital facts of a poet's
life, then the sonnets become of monumental worth, stages in the attainment
of his perfect art, the training-school of his transcendent genius for poetic
form. They are the abiding record of his studies in poetry. ... In essence . . .
the sonnets are as purely and intensely dramatic as the dramas themselves.
There is, under the lyrical form, the same movement and process of the imagi-
nation. For, in each drama, each dramatic speech that the poet creates is
the utterance, as conceived by the poet, of some imagined person as evoked by
some imagined situation. . . . And in the sonnets, in like manner, for the crea-
tion of each sonnet, there is the situation that the poet imagines and the per-
sonality that he poses in the situation. Thus, in fitting dramatically the style,
in all its details of language and versification, to the character and to the situa-
tion a6 he imagined them, he struck the deepest fountain of lyrical inspiration.

402 APPENDIX

Hence the infinite variety and impersonality of the sonnets themselves. Sh.
made of them, in the mighty studies of his youth, no trivial revelation of wo-
men that had kissed him nor of friends that had betrayed him, but the gen-
eralized utterance of human passion. The characters that he imagined were so
placed in a series of imaginary situations, as to exhibit, in the widest possible
range of emotion, the full play of theiiuman soul. . . .

For Sh. himself, as for all the great writers of his time, the chief problem of
style, in the poetic handling of their English language, was the dainty choice
of words. ... In Sh., within the compass of the sonnets, the chief character to
be noted is the wide range of his choice, the flexibility of his style. In all the
sonnets taken together, there is the average of i6§ per cent of foreign words
to 83! per cent of native words. But in separate sonnets, and in groups of son-
nets, there is large divergence from this normal average. The percentage of
foreign words, at its lowest, falls to 7 \ per cent, and at its highest rises to 26§
per cent. . . . The sonnets that show the largest excess of foreign diction are
107, 125, 15, 66, 85, 129, 127, 4, 8. The sonnets in which the diction is purest
are 43, 73, 22, 24, 42, 61, 9, 72, 92, 140. Several in each class are supremely
beautiful. They show with what skill the poet knew how to secure the tone of
his emotion. . . .

The leading words of each verse were chosen habitually for their delicate
alliterative harmony with one another. In composing the sonnets [Sh.] became,
as we shall see, almost infallible in the proper placing of the csesural pause.
Thus, as the result of the caesura was to cut the verse into two halves, he
felt, like the older poets, the need of linking the two parts by most ingenious
harmonies of sound. In many cases, this could be done without formal allitera-
tion, by the correspondence of his accented vowels. Apart from this means, and
apart from those innumerable cases in which alliteration is used only to deco-
rate a single half-verse, there is in the sonnets careful alliteration of verse-
structure in 38 per cent of his verses. In general, Sh. confines the process to the
single verse; but in some sonnets he binds together by alliteration groups of
verses, e.g., 82, 10-11; 71, 2-3; 135, 1-2; 127, 2-3-4; io9> °~7- • • •

In almost all sonnets there is lack of lucidity in syntax, lack of logical pre-
cision in the arrangement of sentences, either a too violent compression of the
thought to be expressed or an excessive looseness and prolixity. It is here that
the young Sh. shows the supreme mastery of his art. For him, the perfect pose
of his thought upon the "sonnet's Procrustean bed" reveals neither cramping
nor stretching. Except in two or three passages, where the text is doubtful, the
syntax of the sonnets is faultless and even luminous. He has solved in his son-
net-composition not only the problem of choosing and grouping his sentences
according to their sensuous rhythm, but also the problem of constructing and
grouping his sentences according to their intellectual relations. Thus, in the
best of the sonnets, above all in those in which he has revealed the fulness of
his imaginative power, there is the attainment of the highest poetic harmony,
the harmony of cadence with emotion and truth of thought. . . .

The last and the highest point of view from which the poetical style of Sh.

GENERAL CRITICISM 403

is to be studied, so far as displayed in the sonnets, is the extent to which his
vocabulary is penetrated and colored by his imagination. For, according to
the purpose to be attained, words are to be chosen either because they involve
the figure and thus transfer the movement of the imagination, or because,
being so far as possible freed of figure, they make their appeal only to the pure
reason. It is in making this choice of words between the limits thus given, that
the style of Sh. shows the infinite range of its emotional variation. There are
in fact, within the group of sonnets, intermingled with each other, two sets of
poems formed on principles of art that are fundamentally diverse. 'On the one
hand, composed with the highest attainable splendor of imaginative diction,
there are poems formed of verses that are made each to sparkle and coruscate
with brilliant touches of natural poetry. On the other hand, composed in
words from which all touch of figure is carefully withheld, there are poems in
which the subtle play of pure thought, rising sometimes into ingenious conceit,
is made to take the place of imaginative fervor. l Whether a poem belongs to
the one or to the other class may be roughly tested by the presence or the
absence of consciously suggested figure^ Thus among the sonnets there are 45
that may be fairly described as purposely left bare of figure and of imaginative
decoration. And there are 44 others in which the play of figure is, except upon
close analysis, almost invisible. . . . Intermingled with these 89 there are 21
others that are unsurpassed in human literature for their concentrated splendor
of poetical imagery. In them the poet, instead of developing a curious thought,
embodies an overwhelming emotion, in symbols and figures of natural beauty,
drawn from all the sources of the poetical imagination. Watch, for example.
the magical effect of Sonnet 33, as, full-orbed in radiance, it falls into its place
after the more subdued harmonies of 30, 31, and 32. And so, again, Sonnet 73,
with its incomparable fulness of sensuous charm, is set, like a precious gem,
between the almost unadorned movements of Sonnets 72 and 74. Between the
two extremes that have been defined and exhibited, there are 44 sonnets that
partake, in ever shifting degrees, of both characters. They are poems in which,
while there is more or less development of natural figure, there is also the
purely psychological delight in situation and dramatic movement.

("The Technic of Sh.'s Sonnets," Studies in Honor of Basil L. Gildersleeve,
PP- 363-75-)

H. C. Beeching: The form of quatorzain invariably used by Sh. for his
sonnets was not the strict Petrarchan form, but one in three quatrains and
a couplet; devised, it is believed, by the Earl of Surrey, who wrote in it at least
one memorable sonnet, "The soote season which bud and bloom forth brings."
Surrey's example seems to have had weight with the Elizabethan critics, for
as early as 1575, i.e. before any of Daniel's sonnets had appeared, we find
George Gascoigne defining the sonnet as "a poem of fourteen lines, every
line containing ten syllables, the first twelve rhyming in staves of four lines
by cross metre, and the last two rhyming together." The publication, however,
of Sidney's Astrophel & Stella (1591) drew attention once more to the Italian

404 APPENDIX

form with its marked division into octave and sestet, and both Daniel and
Barnes, whose sonnets immediately followed (1592-1593), used this form oc-
casionally, while Constable used it always. It is therefore significant that Sh.
should have preferred the form devised by Surrey. I cannot do better than
quote here some remarks made on this point by Mr. Bowyer Nichols* in
refutation of the idea put forward by Mark Pattison that Sh. blundered into
this form "without any suspicion that there existed a better type":

"Whether Sh. could read Italian and French may still be disputed, though
it is tolerably certain that he had a working acquaintance with them both. He
may or may not have read Petrarch and Desportes; certainly he did not borrow
wholesale in the fashion of contemporaries. He must at any rate have been
perfectly familiar with the Italian type of the sonnet in the work of his fellow-
countrymen. ... It could not have been ignorance or accident (as it might have
been with lesser men like Barnes or Griffin) which prevented the greatest of Eng-
lish sonneteers from using what he must have recognised to be the ideally more
perfect form. The only explanation seems to be that he considered the form
evolved by Surrey and other English poets to have on the whole for English
practice the advantage. He judged, as we may believe, that the classic sym-
metry of the Petrarchan sonnet was in English too difficult of attainment, that
it cramped invention, and imposed too many sacrifices and concessions; and
that the artistic end could better be achieved in the inferior medium.t And
indeed, as a matter of fact, he gets nearer to the Petrarchan quality than any
other sonneteer in the dignity, sweetness, variety, and freedom of his effects.
. . . One word may be said as to the final couplet. There is no doubt that,
to an ear attuned to the Italian scheme, this is a disturbing element. It has an
over-emphatic and epigrammatic effect. It has also this effect, at any rate in
most Elizabethan writing, that the most marked rhythmical break comes at the
end of the three quatrains, at the twelfth instead of, as in the Italian, at the
eighth line. Nevertheless the couplet has great expressive character, and it
sums up the situation or feeling in a way that no other form could do:

Now if thou wouldst, when all have given him over
From death to life thou mightst him yet recover,
and

If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ nor no man ever loved.

Keats, following certain elder examples, when he uses the Elizabethan form,
runs on the sense from the third stanza into the couplet; but it would seem
really most in consonance with the genius of the form frankly to make the
pause at the twelfth line, and this Sh., I think, always does." J

. . . The reader who passes from the V. & A . or Lucrece to the Sonnets un-
doubtedly perceives a difference in point of style, but it is not so easy to describe

* A Little Book of Sonnets, Introduction, p. xviii.

t Mr. Nichols notes that the choice and practice of Sh. are confirmed by Keats, whose ear-
lier sonnets were Italian in form, but the later Shakespearean.

% The one exception seems to be S. 35. (

GENERAL CRITICISM 405

as the corresponding change that came over Sh.'s method of writing blank
verse, which can, to a certain extent, be formulated, especially in regard to the
position of the pause. In the sonnets, as in the poems, the pause comes regu-
larly at the end of the line, and a central pause is rare, though it is occasionally
found; for instance in 63, 4; 104, 3; 116, 2. The difference between the poems
and the sonnets is largely a difference of substance; the latter impress us as
the work of a maturer mind. The poems, with all their beauty, are somewhat
thin; the matter seems stretched out to fit the form; while in the sonnets the
mould of form is exactly filled; thought has deepened; passion has taken the
place of rhetoric, and limpidity is exchanged for richness. If we would find a
parallel in the plays to the balance of style and substance, thought and imagi-
nation, that is so striking in the greater number of the sonnets, we must turn
not to the rhymed scenes of the early plays but to the more lyrical passages
of the blank verse in the poet's middle period; to such lines, for instance, as these
from the M . V. :

A day in April never came so sweet,

To show how costly summer was at hand,

As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord (II, ix, 93-95);

or these, from the same play:

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins (Y, 60-62).

{Sonnets of Sh., Introduction, pp. xlviii-li.)

Sidney Lee: Though Sh.'s sonnets are unequal in literary merit, many reach
levels of lyric melody and meditative energy which are not to be matched
elsewhere in poetry. Numerous lines like

Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy
or

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

seem to illustrate the perfection of human utterance. If a few of the poems
sink into inanity beneath the burden of quibbles and conceits, others are almost
overcharged with the mellowed sweetness of rhythm and metre, the depth of
thought and feeling, the vividness of imagery, and the stimulating fervour of
expression which are the finest fruits of poetic power.

... In spite of the vagueness of intention which envelops some of the poems,
and the slenderness of the links which bind together many consecutive son-
nets, the whole collection is well calculated to create the illusion of a series
of earnest personal confessions. The collection has consequently been often
treated as a self-evident excerpt from the poet's autobiography. . . . But any
strictly literal or autobiographical interpretation has to meet a formidable
array of difficulties. Two general objections present themselves on the thresh-
old of the discussion. In the first place, the autobiographic interpretation is
to a large extent in conflict with the habit of mind and method of work which

406 APPENDIX

are disclosed in the rest of Sh.'s achievement. In the second place, it credits
the poet with humiliating experiences of which there is no hint elsewhere.

On the first point, little more needs saying than that Sh.'s mind was domi-
nated and engrossed by genius for drama, and that, in view of his supreme mas-
tery of dramatic power, the likelihood that any production of his pen should
embody a genuine piece of autobiography is on a priori grounds small. Robert
Browning, no mean psychologist, went so far as to assert that Sh. "ne'er so
little" at any point of his work left his "bosom's gate ajar," and declared him
incapable of unlocking his heart "with a sonnet-key." That the energetic fer-
vour which animates many of Sh.'s sonnets should bear the living semblance of
private ecstasy or anguish, is no confutation of Browning's view. No critic
of insight has denied all tie of kinship between the fervour of the sonnets and
the passion which is portrayed in the tragedies. The passion of the tragedies
is invariably the dramatic or objective expression, in the vividest terms, of emo-
tional experience, which, however common in human annals, is remote from
the dramatist's own interest or circumstance. Even his two narrative poems,
as Coleridge pointed out, betray "the utter aloofness of the poet's own feelings
from those of which he is at once the painter and the analyst." Certainly the
intense passion of the tragedies is never the mere literal presentment of the
author's personal or subjective emotional experience, nor does it draw sus-
tenance from episodes in his immediate environment. The personal note in
the sonnets may well owe much to that dramatic instinct which could repro-
duce intuitively the subtlest thought and feeling of which man's mind is
capable.

The particular course and effect of the emotion, which Sh. portrayed in
drama, were usually suggested or prescribed by some story in an historic
chronicle or work of fiction. The detailed scheme of the sonnets seems to stand
on something of the same footing as the plots of his plays. The sonnets weave
together and develop with the finest poetic and dramatic sensibility themes
which had already served, with inferior effect, the purposes of poetry many
times before. The material for the subject-matter and the suggestion of the
irregular emotion of the sonnets lay at Sh.'s command in much literature by
other pens. The obligation to draw on his personal experiences for his theme
or its development was little greater in his sonnets than in his dramas. Hun-
dreds of sonneteers had celebrated, in the language of love, the charms of
young men — mainly by way of acknowledging their patronage in accordance
with a convention which was peculiar to the period of the Renaissance. Thou-
sands of poets had described their sufferings at the hands of imperious beauty.
Others had found food for poetry in stories of mental conflict caused by a
mistress's infidelity or a friend's coolness. The spur of example never failed
to incite Sh.'s dramatic muse to activity, and at no period of literary history
was the presentation of amorous adventures more often essayed in sonnets
than by Sh.'s poetic contemporaries at home and abroad during the last
decade of the 16th century. ... To few of the sonnets can a controlling artistic
impulse be denied by criticism. The best of them rank with the richest and

GENERAL CRITICISM 407

most concentrated efforts of Sh.'s pen. To pronounce them, alone of his extant
work, free of that "feigning" which he identified with "the truest poetry," is
tantamount to denying his authorship of them, and to dismissing them from
the Shakespearean canon.

The second general objection which is raised by the theory of the sonnets'
autobiographic significance can be stated very briefly. A literal interpretation
of the poems credits the poet with a moral instability which is at variance with
the tone of all the rest of his work, and is rendered barely admissible by his con-
temporary reputation for "honesty." Of the "pangs of despised love" for a
woman, which he professes to suffer in the sonnets, nothing need be said in this
connection. But a purely literal interpretation of the impassioned protesta-
tions of affection for a "lovely boy," which course through the sonnets, casts
a slur on the dignity of the poet's name which scarcely bears discussion. Of
friendship of the healthy manly type, not his plays alone, but the records of his
biography, give fine and touching examples. All his dramatic writing, as well
as his two narrative poems and the testimonies of his intimate associates in life,
seems to prove him incapable of such a personal confession of morbid infatua-
tion with a youth, as a literal interpretation discovers in the sonnets.

It is in the light not merely of aesthetic appreciation but of contemporary
literary history that Sh.'s sonnets must be studied, if one hopes to reach any
conclusions as to their precise significance which are entitled to confidence. . . .
Of chief importance is it to realize that the whole vocabulary of affection — the
commonest terms of endearment — often carried with them in Renaissance
or Elizabethan poetry, and especially in Renaissance and Elizabethan sonnets,
a poetic value that is wholly different from any that they bear to-day. The
example of Tasso, the chief representative of the Renaissance on the continent
of Europe in Sh.'s day, shows with singular lucidity how the language of love
was suffered deliberately to clothe the conventional relations of poet to a help-
ful patron. Tasso not merely recorded in sonnets an apparently amorous devo-
tion for his patron, the Duke of Ferrara, which is only intelligible in its his-
torical environment, but he also carefully describes in prose the precise senti-
ments which, with a view to retaining the ducal favour, he sedulously culti-
vated and poetized. In a long prose letter to a later friend and patron, the
Duke of Urbino, he wrote of his attitude of mind to his first patron thus: "I
confided in him, not as we hope in men, but as we trust in God. ... It appeared
to me, so long as I was under his protection, fortune and death had no power
over me. Burning thus with devotion to my lord, as much as man ever did
with love to his mistress, I became, without perceiving it, almost an idolater."
(Tasso, Opere, Pisa, 1821-32, 13: 298.) . . . There is practical identity between,
the alternations of feeling which find touching voice in many of the sonnets
of Sh. and those which colour Tasso's confession of his intercourse with his
Duke of Ferrara. Both poets profess for a man a lover-like idolatry. Both at-
test the hopes and fears which his favour evokes in them, with a fervour and
intensity of emotion which it was only in the power of great poets to feign.
(Sh.'s Sonnets, Facsimile edition, 1905, Introduction, pp. 7-13.)

408 APPENDIX

Walter Raleigh: These Sonnets, by general consent, were private docu-
ments; they were not intended by Sh. for our perusal, but were addressed to
individuals. To say that they do not "express his own feelings in his own per-
son" is as much as to say that they are not sincere. And every lover of poetry
who has once read the Sonnets knows this to be untrue. It is not chiefly their
skill that takes us captive, but the intensity of their quiet personal appeal.
By virtue of this they hold their place with the greatest poetry in the world; they
are rich in metaphor and various in melody, but these resources of art have
been subdued to the feeling that inspires them, and have given us poems as
simple and as moving as the pleading voice of a child.

. . . No one whose opinion need be considered will maintain that Sh.'s
Sonnets are destitute of feeling. Some, whose opinions claim respect, maintain
that the feeling which inspires them has nothing to do with their ostensible
occasions: that they are free exercises of the poetic fancy, roaming over the
dramatic possibilities of life, and finding deep expression for some of its imag-
ined crises. Those who hold this view have not taken the trouble to explain
how some of the sonnets came to be addressed or sent to any one. ... If the
sonnets were never sent, how did Thorpe get hold of them? If they were cir-
culated among disinterested lovers of poetry, would not some of them, which
deal not with general themes, but with personal relations quite inadequately
explained, be as unintelligible to contemporary readers as they are to us? These
are not self-contained poems, like Daniel's sonnet on Sleep, or Sidney's sonnet
on the Moon; they are a commentary on certain implied events. If the events
had no existence, and the sonnets are semi-dramatic poems, it is surely essen-
tial to good drama that the situation should be made clear. Moreover,' the son-
net form was used by the Elizabethans, who followed their master Petrarch,
exclusively for poems expressive of personal feeling, not for vague dramatic
fantasies.

. . . Poetry is not biography; and the value of the Sonnets to the modern
reader is independent of all knowledge of their occasion. That they were
made from the material of experience is certain: Sh. was not a puny imitative
rhymester. But the processes of art have changed the tear to a pearl, which
remains to decorate new sorrows. The Sonnets speak to all who have known
the chances and changes of human life. Their occasion is a thing of the past;
their theme is eternal. The tragedy of which they speak is the topic and inspira-
tion of all poetry; it is the triumph of Time, marching relentlessly over the
ruin of human ambitions and human desires. It may be read in all nature and
in all art. . . . All things decay; the knowledge is as old as time, and as dull as
philosophy. But what a poignancy it takes from its sudden recognition by the
heart:

Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go.

. . . The poems of Sh. in no way modify that conception of his character and
temper which a discerning reader might gather from the evidence of the plays.
But they let us hear his voice more directly, without the intervening barrier

GENERAL CRITICISM 409

of the drama, and they furnish us with some broken hints of the stormy trials
and passions which helped him to his knowledge of the human heart, and en-
riched his plays with the fruits of personal experience.

{Shakespeare, pp. 87-93.)

George Saixtsbury: [In the Sonnets Sh.] has a medium which is absolutely
congenial to him, and with which, as with blank verse, he can do anything he
likes. With his usual sagacity he chooses the English form, and prefers its ex-
tremest .variety — that of the three quatrains and couplet, without any inter-
lacing rhyme. Nevertheless he gives the full sonnet-effect — not merely by
the distribution (which he does not always observe, though he often does)
of octave and sestet subject, but very mainly by that same extraordinary
symphonising of the prosodic effects of individual and batched verses, which
was his secret in blank verse itself. If it seem surprising that so difficult and
subtle a medium should be mastered so early, let it be remembered that the
single-line mould, properly used, is by no means unsuitable to the sonnet, the
effect of which is definitely cumulative. ... It is by this combined cumulative
and diversifying effect, this beating up against the wind as it were, that the
ordinary and extraordinary "tower" of these sonnets is produced; and this
tower is to some readers their great and inexhaustible charm. No matter what
the subject is, the "man right fair" or "the woman coloured ill," the incidents
of daily joy and chagrin, or those illimitable meditations on life and love and
thought at large which eternise the more ephemeral things, — the process,
prosodic and poetic, is more or less the same, though carefully kept from
monotony. In the very first lines there is the spread and beating of the wing;
the flight rises till the end of the douzain, when it stoops or sinks quietly to the
close in the couplet. The intermediate devices by which this effect is produced
are, as always with Sh., hard to particularise. Here, as in the kindred region
of pure style, he has so little mannerism, that it is easier to apprehend than to
analyse his manner. It may be a concidence, or it may not. that in a very large
proportion of the openings what we may call a bastard caesura, or ending of a
word without much metrical scission at the third syllable, precedes a strictly
metrical one at the fourth. (In other words the fourth half-foot is constantly
monosyllabic. "Look in thy glass" (S. 3) is the first, and there are a dozen
others in the first two dozen sonnets.) Another point is that, throughout, full
stops or their equivalents in mid-line are extremely rare, and even at the end
not common, till the twelfth, so that the run of the whole is uninterrupted,
though its rhythm is constantly diversified. Redundant syllables are very rare,
except where, as in 87, they are accumulated with evident purpose. The
trisyllabic foot, though used with wonderful effect sometimes, is used very
sparingly. On the whole Sh. seems here to have had for his object, or at any
rate to have achieved as his effect, the varying of the line with as little as pos-
sible breach or ruffling of it. He allows himself a flash or blaze of summer
lightning now and then, but no fussing with continual crackers. All the pro-
sodic handling is subdu2d to give that steady passionate musing — that

410 • APPENDIX

"emotion recollected in tranquillity" — which is characteristic of the best
sonnets, and of his more than almost of any others.

{History of English Prosody, 2: 59-61.)

It is possible to lay rather too much stress on the possibility of there being
no interpretation at all or very little; of the Sonnets being merely, or mainly,
literary exercises. It is, of course, perfectly true that the form, at this time,
was an extremely fashionable exercise; and, no doubt, in some cases, a fashion-
able exercise merely. It is further true that, great as are the poetical merits
and capacities of the sonnet, historically it has been, and from its nature was
almost fated to be, more the prey of "common form" than almost any other
variety of poetic composition. The overpowering authority of Petrarch started
this common form; and his Italian and French successors, enlarging it to a
certain extent, stereotyped and conventionalized it even still more. It is per-
fectly possible to show, and has been well shown by Sidney Lee, that a great
number, perhaps the majority, of sonnet phrases, sonnet thoughts, sonnet
ornaments, are simply coin of the sonnet realm, which has passed from hand
to hand through Italian, French and English, and circulates in the actual
Elizabethan sonnet like actual coin in the body politic or like blood in the body
physical. All this is true. But it must be remembered that all poetry deals
more or less in this common form, this common coin, this circulating fluid of
idea and image and phrase, and that it is the very ethos, nay, the very essence,
of the poet to make the common as if it were not common. That Sh. does so
here again and again, in whole sonnets, in passages, in lines, in separate phrases,
there is a tolerable agreement of the competent. But we may, without rash-
ness, go a little further even than this. That Sh. had, as perhaps no other man
has had, the dramatic faculty, the faculty of projecting from himself things and
persons which were not himself, will certainly not be denied here. But whether
he could create and keep up such a presentation of apparently authentic and
personal passion as exhibits itself in these Sonnets is a much more difficult
question to answer in the affirmative. The present writer is inclined to echo
seriously a light remark of one of Thackeray's characters on a different mat-
ter: "Don't think he could do it. Don't think any one could do it." *

At the same time, it is of the first importance to recognize that the very
intensity of feeling, combined, as it was, with the most energetic dramatic
quality, would almost certainly induce complicated disguise and mystifica-
tion in the details of the presentment. ... To attempt to manufacture a biog-
raphy of Sh. out of the Sonnets is to attempt to follow a will-o'-the-wisp.
It is even extremely probable that a number, and perhaps a large number,
of them do not correspond to any immediate personal occasion at all, or only
owe a remote (and literally occasional) impulse thereto. The strong affection
for the friend; the unbounded, though not uncritical, passion for the lady; and

* [The reverse of this argument is presented though to the same effect, by H. D. Grat,
Publ. M. L. A., n.s., 23: 635: "If Sh. had been writing as much of a story as these sonnets
tell, and writing it as an imaginary or a borrowed or reflected experience, this Prince of Drama-
tists would have done it better." I think Professor Gray's reasoning the more sound of the two.
See also Bradley to the same effect, p. 413 below. — Eu.J

GENERAL CRITICISM 411

the establishment of a rather unholy "triangle" by a cross passion between
these two — these are things which, without being capable of being affirmed
as resting on demonstration, have a joint literary and psychological probability
of the strongest kind. All things beyond, and all the incidents between, which
may have started or suggested individual sonnets, are utterly uncertain.
Browning was absolutely justified when he laid it down that, if Sh. unlocked
his heart in the Sonnets, "the less Shakespeare he."

. . . The Sonnets have some mechanical, and many more not mechanical,
peculiarities. The chief of the first class is a device of constantly, though not
invariably, beginning with a strong caesura at the fourth syllable, and a tend-
ency, though the sonnet is built up of quatrains alternately rimed with final
couplet, to put a still stronger stop at the end of the second line (where, as yet,
is no rime), and at each second line of these non-completed couplets through-
out. The piece is thus elaborately built up or accumulated, not, as sonnets on the
octave and sestet system often are, more or less continuously wrought in each
of their two divisions or even throughout. This arrangement falls in excel-
lently with the intensely meditative character of the Sonnets. The poet seems
to be exploring; feeling his way in the conflict of passion and meditation. As
fresh emotions and meditations present themselves, he pauses over them, some-
times entertaining them only to reject them or to qualify them later; sometimes
taking them completely to himself. Even in the most artificial, such as Sonnet
66, where almost the whole is composed of successive images of the wrong way
of the world, each comprised in a line and in each beginning with "and," this
accumulative character is noticeable; and it constitutes the strongest appeal
of the greatest examples. While, at the same time, he avails himself to the full
of the opportunity given by the English form for a sudden "turn" — anti-
thetic, it may be, or it may be, rapidly summarizing — in the final couplet. . . .

The attraction of the Sonnets, almost more than that of any other poetry,
consists in the perpetual subduing of everything in them — verse, thought,
diction — to the requirements of absolutely perfect poetic expression. From the
completest successes in which, from beginning to end, there is no weak point,
such as [Sonnets 30 and 116,] through those which carry the perfection only
part of the way, such as [Sonnet 106,] down to the separate batches of lines
and clauses which appear in all but a very few, the peculiar infusing and trans-
forming power of this poetical expression is shown after a fashion which it has
proved impossible to outvie. The precise subject (or, perhaps, it would be more
correct to say the precise object) of the verse disappears. It ceases to be a mat-
ter of the slightest interest whether it was Mr. W. H. or Mistress M. F. or any-
body or nobody at all, so that we have only an abstraction which the poet
chooses to regard as concrete. The best motto for the Sonnets would be one
taken from not the least profound passage of the Paradiso of Dante:

Qui si rimira nell' arte ch' adorna
Con tanto affetto.

And this admiration of the art of beautiful expression not only dispenses the

412 APPENDIX

reader from all the tedious, and probably vain, enquiries into particulars which
have been glanced at, but positively makes him disinclined to pursue them.
{Cambridge History of English Literature, 5: 230-33.)

Jules J. Jusserand: It is open to the humblest of [Sh.'s] admirers to read
[the Sonnets] without any preconceived opinion and to form their own unprej-
udiced judgment. They will find in them, somewhat as in all the master's
works, a mixture of the exquisite and the hideous; pearls and mire; songs of
love, triumphant or despairing, ideal or bestial; passionate accents so piercing
that they cannot come, it seems, but from the heart; details that would have
no interest if they were not taken from reality; and with that, conceits, word-
plays, samples of clever craftsmanship, imitation of others, the working anew
of those sonnet themes which, in that epoch of amourists, were common prop-
erty; in short, a mixture of the real and the imaginary, such as is to be met with
to some extent in all poets, including the most sincere, and which would have
been recognized, no doubt, in Sh. too, were it not for his privilege of exciting sen-
timents excessive, passionate, and absolute. To believe that everything in his
sonnets corresponds to the realities of his life, or to believe that nothing does,
is equally venturesome. Because a poet puts in his verses a literary reminis-
cence, an irrevelant witticism, or because he takes up several times the same
theme, some want him not to have felt anything: what a mistake! It happens
to the truest poets, and the most sincerely moved, to hear their passion sing at
various moments, in diverse keys, to transcribe several times its chant or
plaint, and to mingle it too with distant strains, heard in days gone by, they
know not where, nor from whose lips. But the prime mover has nevertheless
been their passion. To admit that Sh.'s sonnets are mere literary exercises
seems impossible, not only on account of their ring and tone, which bespeak
realities (though this has been disputed), not only because it seems very im-
probable that such a sensitive nature never felt anything, and that, having
felt something, he would have availed himself, when writing his lyrics, of his
book learning rather than of his experience, but also because too many of the
facts, details, and incidents inserted by him, are absolutely uninteresting if
not true, and are, moreover, quite opposed to the aesthetics of the genre, to the
credo of the amourist, of the poet who writes to exercise his pen. . . .

Something morbid exhales from these poems. The spirit of the Renaissance
is clearly discernible in them, as well as an unconscious and involuntary
platonism, the platonism of Plato, and not that of latter-day commentators,
the real one, that which, for all that it rose as high as the clouds, none the less
struck its roots beneath the miry earth. Here the roots are partly visible, and
pagans never wrote anything more pagan than this series of sonnets. That which
causes most of the poet's transports and ecstasies is the mere material beauty
of his friend, the beauty of his eye, his lips, his hand, his foot. . . . Physical
beauty is of such value that it secures its owner pardon for every sin; physical
ugliness is the fault for which there is no remission. ... As for the shadowy be-
yond, Sh. speaks of it in his sonnets, but in the same strains as Claudio or

GENERAL CRITICISM '413

Hamlet; he does not seem to have even their doubts; he will be " hid in death's
dateless night"; to die is to go

From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell.

No allusion to a Christian paradise, not even to a possible meeting in classical
Elysian Fields; he expresses here fewer hopes than the pagans themselves. If
his spirit survives, it will be in the memory of his friend. ... If his friend sur-
vives, it will be in his posterity and in the poet's sonnets. At that thought, a
reaction takes place in him, as happens so easily in the changeful soul of artists;
pessimism vanishes for a moment, and we have marvellous songs of triumph,
bursting forth on the desolate moor strewn with lost illusions, among the
graves of the churchyard where lie buried youth, hopes, virtues. He too dis-
poses of that supreme gift, beauty; he can bestow that halo, the most splendid
and durable of all; in his wretchedness, which in the abjection of his hours of
gloom he fancied irremediable, he remembers that power which is his: what the
blind fates above and the forces of nature cannot do, he can; he can bestow
immortality. That thought is for him the main consolation: neither priests nor
philosophers have taught him anything that could soothe his troubled heart;
the Muse works this wonder, and dictates to him his finest lines.

(A Literary History of the English People, 3: 234-41.)*

A. C. Bradley: The sonnets to the friend are, so far as we know, unique in
Renaissance literature in being a prolonged and varied record of the intense
affection of an older friend for a younger, and of other feelings arising from their
relations. They have no real parallel in any series imitative of Virgil's second
Eclogue, or in occasional sonnets to patrons or patron-friends couched in the
high-flown language of the time. The intensity of the feelings expressed, how-
ever, ought not, by itself, to convince us that they are personal. The author
of the plays could, I make no doubt, have written the most intimate of these
poems to a mere creature of his imagination and without ever having felt them
except in imagination. Nor is there any but an aesthetic reason why he could
not have done so if he had wished. But an aesthetic reason there is; and this
is the decisive point. No capable poet, much less a Sh., intending to produce
a merely "dramatic" series of poems, would dream of inventing a story like
that of these sonnets, or, even if he did, of treating it as they treat it. The
story is very odd and unattractive. Such capacities as it has are but slightly
developed. It is left obscure, and some of the poems are unintelligible to us
because they contain allusions of which we can make nothing. ... It is all
unnatural, well-nigh incredibly unnatural, if, with the most skeptical critics,
we regard the sonnets as a free product of mere imagination.*

... If then there is, as it appears, no obstacle of any magnitude to our taking

the sonnets as substantially what they purport to be, we may naturally look

in them for personal traits (and, indeed, to repeat a remark made earlier, we

might still expect to find such traits even if we knew the sonnets to be purely

* I find that Mr. Beeching, in the Stratford Town edition of Sh. (1907). has also urged
these considerations.

4H APPENDIX

dramatic). But in drawing inferences we have to bear in mind what is implied
by the qualification "substantially." We have to remember that some of these
poems may be mere exercises of art; that all of them are poems, and not let-
ters, much less affidavits; that they are Elizabethan poems; that the Eliza-
bethan language of deference, and also of affection, is to our minds habitually
extravagant and fantastic; and that in Elizabethan plays friends openly express
their love for one another as Englishmen now rarely do. Allowance being
made, however, on account of these facts, the sonnets will still leave two
strong impressions — that the poet was exceedingly sensitive to the charm
of beauty, and that his love for his friend was, at least at one time, a feeling
amounting almost to adoration, and so intense as to be absorbing. . . . Most of
us, I suppose, love any human being, of either sex and of any age, the better
for being beautiful, and are not the least ashamed of the fact. It is further the
case that men who are beginning, like the writer of the sonnets, to feel tired
and old, are apt to feel an increased and special pleasure in the beauty of the
young. (Mr. Beeching's illustration of the friendship of the sonnets from the
friendship of Gray and Bonstetten is worth pages of argument.) If we remem-
ber, in addition, what some critics appear constantly to forget, that Sh. was
a particularly poetical being, we shall hardly be surprised that the beginning of
this friendship seems to have been something like a falling in love; and, if we
must needs praise and blame, we should also remember that it became a
"marriage of true minds." And as to the intensity of the feeling expressed in
the sonnets, we can easily believe it to be characteristic of the man who made
Valentine and Proteus, Brutus and Cassius, Horatio and Hamlet; who painted
that strangely moving portrait of Antonio, middle-aged, sad, and almost indif-
ferent between life and death, but devoted to the young, brilliant spendthrift
Bassanio; and who portrayed the sudden compelling enchantment exercised by
the young Sebastian over the Antonio of T.N.

(" Shakespeare the Man," Oxford Lectures on Poetry, pp. 330-34.)

Ernest Sutherland Bates: No better example of the results to which a loss
of the clear sense of literary values may lead could be adduced than the tend-
ency to confound the imaginative value and sincerity of Sh.'s sonnets with
that to be found in the work of his contemporaries. The mistake has largely
arisen from the old-fashioned tendency to regard the Shakespearean sonnets
as a unit, and to assume that what can be said of any of them applies equally
well to all. That some of them belong among the most conventional and con-
ceited sonnets of the century has never been doubted, though it may be said
that here as often elsewhere Sh. was unconventionally conventional. When
he takes up a convention he tends to carry it to its logical extreme as his con-
temporaries could not do. I doubt if the punning sonnets on his own name
035> x36), or the sonnet treating the theme of his love's being painted on his
own heart (24), can quite be equalled for perverse ingenuity among all his con-
temporaries. So the other conventionalities that he adopts are either unusually
intellectualized or unusually emotionalized.

GENERAL CRITICISM 415

But the whole matter of the conceits in Sh.'s sonnets has recently been em-
phasized more than it deserves. The following are practically all the impor-
tant instances: punning, Sonnets 135, 136, 143; the conceit of the portrait of
his beloved as painted on his heart, Sonnet 24; personification of eyes and heart,
Sonnets 46, 47; play upon the idea of the four elements. Sonnets 44, 45; elabo-
rate legal similes, Sonnets 46, 87, 134; purely Petrarchistic complaints of the
lady's cruelty, Sonnets 57, 58, 139, 140, 149; tendency to see his beloved in all
the objects of Nature, Sonnets 98, 99, 113, 114; comparison of his beloved to
people of the past, Sonnets 59, 106; love- wracked, sleepless nights, Sonnets
27, 28, 43, 61 ; the eternizing theme, lamentation over the passage of youth
and beauty, and consolation in the thought of his beloved's eternity in his own
poetry-, Sonnets 15, 18, 19, 54, 55, 60, 63, 64, 65, 81, 100. 101, 107. It will be
seen that, with the exception of the last, these conceits appear in only 26 out
of the total collection of 154 sonnets — surely a small proportion. In regard
to the eternizing theme, I should myself have characterized it as a natural
although conventional thought rather than as a conceit, but I place it in the
list out of deference to Mr. Lee, to whom it is a source of peculiar umbrage. . . .
On the whole, the surprising fact in connection with the Shakespearean sonnets
is that conventional ideas and conceits are as few as they are. His was the
largest Elizabethan collection of love-sonnets: yet no contemporary collection
of a quarter the size exists in which there will not be found many more con-
ceits and conventionalities. The eternal tears and sighs of the lover, his despair,
his long-continued dying for the sake of the beloved, the elsewhere omni-
present alternate fire and ice of the lover's passion and his fears, the hackneyed
classical allusions, these receive no countenance from Sh. He alone was never
caught in the net of his lady's hair or imprisoned in her eyes; we have no evi-
dence from him that she was ever sick, or that she lived beside a river; she is
not shown to us in similes of jewels or precious stones. One reading Sh.'s
sonnets by themselves is likely to be unduly sensitive to the conceits that are
to be found there, but one reading them after acquaintance with the work of
his contemporaries is continually surprised by the absence of the well-known
and expected phraseology. . . .

It had become the universally accepted superstition of the sonneteers, even
as of the modern novel, that romantic love is not only the chief blessing of
earthly existence, but that it is actually the be-all and end-all. Sadness, sorrow,
and even death, appear only as experiences connected with love between the
sexes. For the typical Petrarchist to have repined for any other cause than the
loss of his mistress would have seemed a kind of sacrilege. In Sh. all this is
changed. The misfortunes of life are given their true place as results from many
causes. In S. 29 the poet's sorrow arises from his self-doubt, recognition of his
"disgrace with fortune and men's eyes," "desire for this man's art and that
man's scope"; in S. 30 he beweeps "precious friends hid in death's dateless
night"; in S. 66 he contemplates with bitterness the injustice of human life;
and in each case the thought of his friend's love comes to him as a consolation.
What could be more completely opposed to the usual sonneteering conventions?

4i6 APPENDIX

To the Petrarchist, however great the real joys with which he is surrounded,
love is sufficient to spoil them all and turn them into sentimental sorrow; to
Sh., however great the real sorrow, his love is sufficient to mitigate it and bring
consolation. Likeness to these three sonnets will be sought in vain among all the
other Renaissance sonneteers, excepting again Michelangelo. And if ever
poetry carried in its features the indubitable marks of genuine emotion, these
three sonnets of Sh., and a dozen others in only a slightly less degree, are among
the noblest witnesses of that power in ours or any language. . . .

Sh.'s superiority to his sonneteering predecessors and contemporaries lies
therefore not only in his unmatchable technique, but also in the greater truth
and depth of his attitude toward life. His sonnets show us feelings that are
convincing and intensely human; we have in them a pre-eminent example of
imaginative sincerity.

("The Sincerity of Sh.'s Sonnets," Modern Philology, 8: 100-06.)

J. W. Mackail: Those who profess to find in the Sonnets a body of meta-
physical doctrine; those who extract from them, with as much violence to psy-
chology as to the rules of evidence or to common propriety, a Procopian Secret
History of Sh.'s own life; those who argue that they are mere literary exercises
on a conventional theme; all at least agree that they are an unequalled master-
piece of imaginative power, of psychological skill and pictorial vision, of mas-
tery in rhythm and phrase. They combine, with a perfection of which Sh. alone
had the secret, the most sumptuous richness with the most direct simplicity.
Beside them the whole of that mass of Elizabethan sonnet-literature of which
they are the crown grows pale, mannered, and thin. Here all is at a higher
power; it is poetic quality distilled and concentrated. That this quality is
mixed with the conceits and mannerisms of the age is true, as it is true of all
Sh.'s work even at its finest, as it is true of Much Ado or of Hamlet. This must
be allowed and even emphasized if we are to keep our feeling for Sh. sane, and
on this side idolatry. It is true too that in some of the Sonnets Sh. is sounding
on a dim and perilous way; of this he has given, in words which I have already
quoted [from S. 121], his own vindication.

The concentration of poetry in the Sonnets is so great, its sweetness so con-
densed, that we can only appreciate it fully through a sort of process of separa-
tion and dilution. . . . "Roses, damask and red," says Bacon in his Essay
of Gardens, "are fast flowers of their smells, so that you may walk by a whole
row of them and find nothing of their sweetness." They must be approached
closely and singly, if their "royal scent" is to produce its full effect. . . . And
the only way to appreciate the Sonnets fully is, I think, to know them by heart,
^ to become saturated with them, and then to let passage after passage, phrase

after phrase, line after line, expand and germinate as memory recalls it, asso-
~o» ciation touches it, imagination kindles it. Then an enhanced richness, a subtler

grace, a more essential beauty will flash upon that inward eye which is the
bliss of solitude.

{Lectures on Poetry, pp. 206-07.)

THE TEXTS OF 1609 AND 1640

The Sonnets Quarto was entered on the Stationers' Register on May 20, 1609,
in the following terms: "Thomas Thorpe Entred for his copie vnder th [h]andes
of master Wilson and master Lownes Warden a Booke called Shakespeares
sonnettes vjd." It was issued, as the Bibliography indicates, with two imprints,
that of John Wright and that of William Aspley; the text of both are iden-
tical. A single extant copy (now in the Bridgewater Library) contains a tri-
fling variant noted in the textual notes for 78, 6; and the extant copies also dif-
fer in the catchword at the bottom of folio F3 recto, — circumstances which,
as Sir Sidney Lee observes, "illustrate the common practice among Elizabethan
printers of binding up an uncorrected sheet, after the sheet has been corrected."
{Sonnets, 1905, p. 46m) The text as given in this quarto was reprinted by
Lintott in 1709-10, by Steevens in 1766, and by Malone (1780 and 1790) with
many corrections. Its authority and accuracy remained practically undis-
cussed until the 19th century, and even then were considered for the most part
only in connection with the question whether Sh. authorized the publication
and whether the quarto arrangement of the Sonnets is of significance. It
was for this purpose that Knight was led to observe: "The edition of 1609, al-
though, taken as a whole, not very inaccurate, is full of those typographical
errors which invariably occur when a manuscript is put into the hands of a
printer to deal with it as he pleases, without reference to the author, or to any
competent editor, upon any doubtful points. Malone, in a note upon the 77th
Sonnet, very truly says, ' This, their, and thy are so often confounded in these
Sonnets, that it is only by attending to the context that we can discover which
was the author's word.' He is speaking of the original edition. It is evident,
therefore, that in the progress of the book through the press there was no one
capable of deciphering the obscurity of the manuscript by a regard to the con-
text. The manuscript, in all probability, was made up of a copy of copies;
so that the printer even was not responsible for those errors which so clearly
show the absence of a presiding mind in the conduct of the printing." {Pic-
torial Sh., 6: 486.) In comparatively recent times the same line of argument
was developed by Rolfe, with special emphasis on the printing of S. 126 (see
the commentary).

Stauxton, in connection with his heroic efforts to correct the Sh. text in
general, gave attention to the Sonnets, and, when presenting his emendations,
remarked: "The Sonnets carry all the appearance of having been put in type
from copy much damaged, and in many places illegible. This would be the
natural condition of writings which had been copied and re-copied for a dozen
years. ... At the same time, they do not appear to have been sent to press
without examination by a qualified person. The metrical arrangement is re-

418 APPENDIX

markably free from error, and it would seem as if the editor had taken some
pains to supply the deficiencies of the MS. in other respects. . . . [The mis-
prints] are seldom utterly nonsensical, or absolutely negligible, like the blunders
of a stupid or negligent typographer, but the true expression, or what we may
suppose to have been so, is superseded by another, more or less resembling it
in form." (Athenaum, Jan. 3, 1874, p. 20.) Dowden gave comparatively little
attention to the text; he observes, however, that the quarto, "though riot
carelessly printed, is far less accurate than V. & A.," taking this to be evidence
that it had "neither the superintendence nor the consent of the author."
(Intro., p. 13.) Tyler's statement is that "the book is not printed quite so
accurately as was possible at the time, but still it is printed fairly well. It is
pretty evident that Sh. did not correct successive proofs," but one need not go
so far as to think it impossible that he furnished the MS. (Intro., pp.

136-37.)

It was reserved for Wyndham, in his edition of the Poems, to undertake the
vindication of the quarto text. In particular, he maintains that the printer's
use of capitals and italics was much less erratic than has been generally as-
sumed, a matter of some importance for particular passages (see commentary,
notes on 1, 2; 20, 7; 125, 13). Capitals, for instance, are used for personal
appellations, terms of foreign extraction, titles of dignity, personifications,
names of arts and sciences, of animals and plants used emblematically or typi-
cally, etc. All this goes to show "that the Quarto was not carelessly issued, and
to defeat many conclusions drawn from the opposite assumption." The same
thing is true of the punctuation: allowing for stops placed, contrary to modern
usage, to mark rhythmical or rhetorical pauses, and for a number of cases of
transposition, "the remainder of error to be accounted for by careless editing
is by no means abnormal. On the other hand, in many instances the punctua-
tion is so exquisitely adapted to the sense, rhetoric, and rhythm of the phrase
as to confirm my plea for the authority of the text." The use of the apostrophe
as a guide to the metrical pronunciation, i.e., when a syllable is not to be sounded ,
gives further support to this claim. "Having considered every case in which a
word imports an extra syllable into a line, I can find but two in which the
Quarto can be said with any certainty to err," viz., 104, 10-12 and 124, 2-4.
On the opposite side may be set the following errors, certain or probable: the
repetition in 146, 2; the repetition in 34, 10-12; the want of rhyme in 25, 9-1 1 ;
the repetition of 36, 13-14 and 96, 13-14; the occasional confusion of "their"
with "thy"; the seeming deficiency in S. 126; together with "some half-dozen
of trifling misprints." Wyndham's conclusion is that "the number of un-
doubted corruptions is so small as to be negligible." (Intro., p. 268.)

To this argument Beeching replies. As to punctuation: in order to main-
tain Wyndham's thesis "it is not sufficient to show . . . that occasionally the
punctuation is admirable; ... it is necessary also to show that in no, or very
few, cases is the punctuation unintelligent or absurd. Such cases, as a matter
of fact, are not infrequent." (Cf. 16, 10; 39, 7-8; 55, 7-8; 99, 2-5; 113, 13;
117, 10; 118, 9-10; 126, 7-8.) As to corruptions in the text, and "trifling mis-

THE TEXTS OF 1609 AND 1640 419

prints," Wyndham's list is far too short; cf. 12, 4; 39, 12; 40, 7; 41, 8; 44, 13;
51, 10; 54, 14; 56, 13; 58, io-ii; 65, 12; 69, 3; 73, 4; 76, 7; 91, 9; 99, 9; 102, 8;
106, 12; 108,3; 113,6; 127, 9; 129,9-11; 144,6. Comparing the texts of V. & A.
and Lucrece, which Sh. saw through the press, we find there but three misprints
in each (not reckoning eccentricities of spelling). (Intro., pp. lix-lxiii.) The
same position is maintained by Lee, in his careful account of the Quarto text
in the introduction to the Clarendon Press facsimile edition (1905). To the list
of errors enumerated by Beeching he adds those in 23, 14; 28, 14; 47, 11 ; 77, 10;
88, 1; 90, II; 96, 11; 1 12, 14; 132, 2; 132, 9; 140, 13; 152, 13; 153, 14; besides
many instances of unintelligent and unusual spelling. "The substitution, fif-
teen times, of their for thy or thine [see list in note on 26, 12], and once of there
for thee [31, 8], even more forcibly illustrates the want of intelligent apprehen-
sion of the subject-matter of the poems on the part of those who saw the volume
through the press. Few works are more dependent for their due comprehension
on the correct reproduction of the possessive pronouns, and the frequent re-
currence of this form of error is very damaging to the reputation of the text.
. . . The like want of care, although of smaller moment, is apparent in the fre-
quent substitution of the preposition to for the adverbial too (38, 3: 61, 14; 74,
12; 83, 7; 86, 2; the reverse mistake appears in 135, 2). At least thrice were is
confused with wear (77, 1; 98, 11; 140, 5)." There are also a number of errors
in the catchwords at the bottom of the page. " Punctuation shows, on the whole,
no more systematic care than other features of composition. Commas are
frequent, both in and out of place. At times they stand for a full stop. At
times they are puzzlingly replaced by a colon or semicolon, or again they are
omitted altogether. Brackets are occasionally used as a substitute for commas
[cf. 57, 6; 58, 5; 71, 9-10; 80, n], but not regularly enough to justify a belief
that they were introduced on a systematic plan." Both capital letters and
italic type "appear rarely and at the compositor's whim." Lee's conclusion
is that the text of the quarto fully confirms the belief "that the enterprise
lacked authority, and was pursued throughout in that reckless spirit which in-
fected publishing speculations of the day." (Intro., pp. 40-48.)

In his note on the text of the Sonnets as issued in the Stratford Town Shake-
speare (1907), Buelen observes: "While I wholly dissent from Mr. Wynd-
ham's view that Sh. authorised and superintended the publication, I cannot
agree with Canon Beeching that the 1609 Sonnets is exceptionally ill-printed.
Errors there are, but they are generally of trifling import." (10: 448.) He
adds that a number of the errors in Lee's list may be regarded as fairly normal
variants of spelling.

Beyond these arguments there does not seem to be much prospect of ad-
vancing. In general, it may be said with assurance that Wyndham's view of
the quarto text has not proved tenable, and that most critics would stand, on
the whole, with Beeching and Lee. To this there are two exceptions deserving
of notice, though the critics in question have not discussed in detail the evi-
dence under consideration. Mr. Percy Simpson, in his useful book on Shake-
spearean Punctuation (191 1), includes the original texts of the Sonnets and

420 APPENDIX

other poems together with matter relating primarily to the First Folio of the
plays, — a work published, of course, under very different conditions from
the quarto of 1609. The method followed by Simpson is to infer, by induction,
a general rule as to the practice of Shakespeare's printers, — such as that the
comma may be used to indicate a purely metrical pause, or that it may be
omitted after a noun in the vocative, — and to note characteristic examples.
There is no question of the utility of his work, especially if we confine our-
selves to a single volume, like the Folio, presumably made up under a single
group of compositors and correctors; and it may also be admitted without
hesitation that he has given a needed warning against the prevalent assumption
that Elizabethan printers, in general, distributed marks of punctuation with
wholly erratic — and consequently negligible — abandon. Nevertheless, it
still remains necessary to prove, for any given piece of printing, that it was care-
fully composed; and the fallacy in a number of Simpson's inferences is similar
to that noted by both Beeching and Lee in the case of Wyndham. We may
properly note, in explanation of an otherwise mysterious capital letter, that
the printer often used a capital for a personification or for a technological
term; but this raises no presumption that he did so with authoritative con-
sistency, provided one finds many such words left without capitals. We may
explain a comma on the ground that it marks a merely metrical pause, but this
has no significance for the value of the punctuation of the text as a whole, if
it turns out that this is not done with any degree of regularity. And no such
regularity has been shown, by Simpson any more than by Wyndham, for the
quarto of 1609. The second notable instance of devotion to the quarto text is
Miss Porter's "First Folio" edition of the Sonnets. There can be no objec-
tion to the publisher's extending the title of this edition to cover the poems,
assuming that it was desired to include the whole text of Shakespeare; nor
would it be fair to emphasize the fact that the editor carelessly reprints the
explanatory notes (p. xxiv) in the same form in which they appear for the
plays, beginning with the statement that the text is that of the "First Folio,
1623." These details, however, are more or less significant of the fact that
Miss Porter carries over her reverence for the Folio text, apparently without
pausing for inquiry or reasoning, to that of the Sonnets quarto. Her only
statement regarding the authority of the latter is that "the poet had nothing
to do with the publication" (with proof, borrowed without acknowledgment
from Rolfe, based on S. 126) ; but she commonly treats the eccentric printings of
the edition as of almost mystical importance, — with what results many of the
notes cited in the commentary sufficiently indicate. On the other hand, stu-
dents of the Sonnets are grateful for the careful reprint of the original text
to which this devotion gave rise.

There remains a single additional matter which may be noted in connection
with the quarto of 1609. Von Mauntz is the only editor of the Sonnets who has
found any significance in the head-pieces which appear on the title-page and
the first page of the text. He assumes, apparently, that they were made for the
particular volume, and is disposed to connect the design of the three inverted

THE TEXTS OF 1609 AND 1640 421

fishes on the title-page with the three gold fishes in the arms of the Lucy f amily ;
this, with the hares and other animal figures, may involve an allusion to the
traditional poaching episode of Sh.'s youth. The design on the page containing
the first sonnets is more difficult to interpret; but Yon Mauntz is tempted to
discern a pair of woodcocks on either side, and the amputated leg of a fowl
(with three claws) at the right of the lower center; the inference is that there
may be a satiric allusion to the poet's defeated hopes. (Gedichte von W. Sh.,
p. 153.) It is only just to add that Von Mauntz himself marks this conjecture
with both an exclamation point and a mark of interrogation. Having asked the
opinion of Mr. Alfred \V. Pollard on this matter of the head-pieces, I find that
he confirms the natural supposition that they are stock-designs, in no way to
be associated with the particular volume in question. " I have only been able,"
Mr. Pollard writes, "to look up ten volumes printed by Eld before 1609. In
three of these I have found an earlier version of the three-fishes headpiece, in
which the centre agrees, but the amoretti are leaning back instead of forwards.
. . . The other design, which the Baconians usually interpret as two A's, is one
of the commonest of headpieces, and there are many variations of it."

The first collected edition of Sh.'s Poems appeared in 1640, with the imprint
of John Benson (see the Bibliography for full title, etc.; and for the arrange-
ment of the Sonnets as found in it, see p. 434). Benson's address "To the
Reader" is as follows: " I here presume (under favour) to present to your view,
some excellent and sweetely composed Poems, of Master William Shakespeare,
Which in themselves appeare of the same purity, the Authour himselfe then
living avouched; they had not the fortune by reason of their Infancie in his
death, to have the due accomodation of proportionable glory, with the rest
of his everliving Workes, yet the lines of themselves will afford you a more
authentick approbation than my assurance any way can, to invite your allow-
ance, in your perusall you shall finde them Seren, cleere and eligantly plaine, such
gentle straines as shall recreate and not perplexe your braine, no intricate or
cloudy stuffe to puzzell intellect, but perfect eloquence, such as will raise your
admiration to his praise: this assurance I know will not differ from your ac-
knowledgement. And certaine I am, my opinion will be seconded by the suf-
ficiency of these ensuing Lines; I have been somewhat solicitus to bring this
forth to the perfect view of all men; and in so doing, glad to be serviceable
for the continuance of glory to the deserved Author in these his Poems."

Lee comments on this volume as follows: "The volume came from the
press of Thomas Cotes, the printer who was at the moment the most experi-
enced of any in the trade in the production of Shakespearean literature. Cotes
had bought in 1627 and 1630 the large interests in Sh.'s plays which had
belonged respectively to Isaac Jaggard and Thomas Pavier. He printed the
Second Folio of 1632 and a new edition of Pericles in 1635. . . . But, closely
associated as the Poems of 1640 were, through the printer Cotes, with the cur-
rent reissues of Sh.'s works, it may be doubted whether Benson depended
on Thorpe's printed volume in his confused impression of the sonnets. The

422 APPENDIX

word 'sonnets,' which loomed so large in Thorpe's edition, finds no place in
Benson's. In the title-pages, in the head-lines, and in the publisher's 'Adver-
tisement,' Benson calls the contents 'poems' or 'lines.' He avows no knowl-
edge of ' Shakespeares Sonnets.' Thorpe's dedication to Mr. W. H. is ignored.
The order in which Thorpe printed the sonnets is disregarded. . . . The varia-
tions from Thorpe's text, though not for the most part of great importance,
are numerous. . . . Benson's text seems based on some amateur collection of
pieces of manuscript poetry, which had been in private circulation. His pref-
ace implies that the sonnets and poems in his collection were not among those
which he knew Sh. to have 'avouched' (i.e. publicly acknowledged) in his
lifetime. By way of explaining their long submergence, he hazards a guess that
they were penned very late in the dramatist's life. John Warren, who con-
tributes new commendatory lines ('Of Mr. William Shakespear') for Benson's
edition, writes of the sonnets as if the reader was about to make their ac-
quaintance for the first time. He says of them that they

Will make the learned still admire to see
The Muses' gifts so fully infused on thee.

The theory that the publisher Benson sought his copy elsewhere than in Thorpe 's
treasury is supported by other considerations. Sonnets 138 and 144, which take
the 31st and 32nd places respectively in Benson's volume, ignore Thorpe's
text, and follow that of Jaggard's Passionate Pilgrim (1599 or 1612). The omis-
sion of eight sonnets tells the same tale. ... It is difficult to account for [their
exclusion] except on the assumption that Benson's compiler had not discovered
them." (Sonnets, 1905, pp. 55-58.)

These arguments of Lee are in themselves plausible, but a comparison of
the exact texts of Benson's volume and Thorpe's quarto soon showed me that
the former was unquestionably printed from the latter. For the detailed evi-
dence, see my article in Modern Philology, vol. 14 (May, 1916). This maybe
summarized by the statement that, despite many differences, the general
effect is that of a fairly close following, in the details of spelling, punctuation,
and typography, of the text of 1609. In the case of italicized words — the item
least likely to be dependent on MS. copy — there is not a single instance of
divergence; in the matters of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, differ-
ences are not infrequent, but are far too few to be accounted for by an inde-
pendent copy. As to the printing of Sonnets 138 and 144 from the text of the
Passionate Pilgrim, they were the first poems in that collection, and so the first
to be chosen for reprinting in Benson's volume; the contents of the Pilgrim
volume were, in general, inserted in their original order. As to the remarks in
Benson's Preface, they must be regarded as deliberately intended to deceive;
the book was made by reprinting the contents of three or four volumes issued
some thirty years before, but purchasers were to be led to think that the
material in it was new. The only piece of evidence offered by Lee in proof of
the view that the volume of 1640 was not based on that of 1609, which presents
any difficulty, is that concerning the eight omitted sonnets. Of this circum-

THE TEXTS OF 1609 AND 1640 423

stance I know no wholly satisfactory explanation, though I have made some
suggestions regarding it in the article cited above. The upshot of all this is
that the text of 1640 is without independent interest or authority. It corrects
errors of the quarto in something like twenty passages, and makes new errors
in about fifty more; all these, of course, are duly indicated in the textual notes.

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SONNETS

The volume of Poems of 1640 (see page 434) contains no discussion or ex-
planation of the order of the Sonnets as there reprinted, nor did the contrasting
arrangements of that collection and the Quarto of 1609 attract special attention
in the 18th century. Knight, in the Pictorial Sh. (1843), seems to have been
the first modern critic to propose a new arrangement, though he prints the
sonnets in the original order. "Believing as we do," he said, "that 'W. H.,'
be he who he may, who put these poems in the hands of 'T. T.,' the publisher,
arranged them in the most arbitrary manner (of which there are many proofs),
we believe that the assumption of continuity, however ingeniously it may be
maintained, is altogether fallacious. ... It is our intention, without at all pre-
suming to think that we have discovered any real order in which these ex-
traordinary productions may be arranged, to offer them to the reader upon a
principle of classification, which, on the one hand, does not attempt to reject
the idea that a continuous poem, or rather several continuous poems, may be
traced throughout the series, nor adopt the belief that the whole can be broken
up into fragments; but which, on the other hand, does no violence to the mean-
ing of the author by a pertinacious adherence to a principle of continuity, some-
times obvious enough." (6: 455-56.) Again: "The transpositions we have
made in the arrangement are justified by the consideration that in the original
text the 50th, 51st, and 52nd Sonnets are entirely isolated; that the 27th and
28th are also perfectly unconnected with what precedes and what follows; that
the 6 1st stands equally alone; and that the 43rd, 44th, and 45th are in a simi-
lar position." (p. 465.) Both Knight's argument and his arrangement were
approved, on the whole, by Hudson, in his edition of 1856. In the following
year, 1857, Francois Victor Hugo presented his translation in a new arrange-
ment of his own. In 1859 Cartwright issued his rearrangement, and in 1862
Bodenstedt his — translated into German. Meantime Delius, following
the original order in his text, had stated that that order was the result of mere
chance, "for if now and then sonnets treating the same theme with variations
are placed together, on the other hand sonnets which obviously belong together,
or strike the same note, are separated from one another in Thorpe's edition, and
a systematically maintained plan — according to either content or chronology
— can nowhere be recognized." (Works, 2d ed., 7: 114.) It may, then, have
been Delius who made the rearrangement which appeared in a German edition
of 1864 (see Bibliography under that date), in the same year with his revised
(second) edition of the standard text. Grant White, in his edition of 1865,
asserted that except in Sonnets 1-17 no continuity could be discovered. In
1866 Massey issued his commentary, including an arrangement based on his
new theory of the Sonnets, and hence incommensurable with any other. In

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SONNETS 425

1879 Burgersdijk, translating the Sonnets into Dutch, revised Bodenstedt's
order. In 1881 Stengel discussed {Englische Studien, 4: 1) the problem of
arrangement, and presented a new order in which he thought the poet's in-
tention might be discerned. In the same year appeared Dowdex's well made
edition, with a thorough-going defence of the Quarto arrangement, and a
series of notes designed to show the well-nigh perfect continuity of the Son-
nets, read in that order. It was perhaps owing to this strengthening of the
conservative position that the problem of arrangement had rest for more than
a decade.

In 1892 Shixdler contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine (272: 70) the
most cogent attack upon the Quarto order that had yet been made, and showed
that to take this position did not imply the ability to reconstruct the original
order of composition; on the contrary, he held that the theory of one or more
connected series of sonnets must be abandoned, "and each sonnet left to tell its
own story." His argument, severely condensed, is as follows. There is abun-
dant evidence that the Quarto was not published under Sh.'s authority or
direction. If it is a piratical publication, it is possible that it includes a number
of sonnets not Sh.'s, and highly probable that it does not by any means include
all the sonnets he wrote; he wrote sonnets, as Meres's remark about " his private
friends" would indicate, to many persons, and Thorpe published whatever he
could lay hands on, without reference to the person addressed. The disorder
of the Quarto "is not absolute chaos; there are signs of continuity, there are
numbers which clearly stand together, but the breaks and gaps, the omissions
and the wrong arrangements, are just as clear. . . . Thorpe, left without any
help from the author, could only print the Sonnets just as they stood in his
MS. Those that, either in books or on sheets of paper, stood together, he
printed together, and so produced those traces of orderly arrangement which
we see." On the other hand, there are many evidences of displacement. "The
confusion of Sonnets 33-35 and 40-42 with 69-70 ought to be enough of itself
to show that the hypothesis of a single series chronologically arranged is al-
together untenable." "39 probably, and certainly 26 and 27, belong to the
series of Absence Sonnets, which begins with 43 and concludes with 52, and the
right position of the two latter is probably after 51. And this sequence, from
43 to 52, is rudely interrupted by 49, which is manifestly out of place." In the
Rival Poet group (76-86) 77 and 81 are intrusions. In the sonnets after 126
"the traces of order are fewer and we have almost utter chaos." All this should
discourage dogmatism. "The same cause which makes the arrangement wrong
will prevent us from ever putting it right."

Lee's Life of Sh. (1898) restated the argument against the order of the Q.
"Fantastic endeavours have been made to detect in the original arrangement a
closely connected narrative, but the thread is on any showing constantly inter-
rupted. . . . The choice and succession of topics in each ' group ' give to neither
genuine cohesion. ... In tone and subject-matter numerous sonnets in the
second as in the first ' group ' lack visible sign of coherence with those they im-
mediately precede or follow. . . . There remains the historic fact that readers

426 APPENDIX

and publishers of the 17th century acknowledged no sort of significance in the
order in which the poems first saw the light. When the sonnets were printed
for a second time in 1640 — 31 years after their first appearance — they were
presented in a completely different order." (pp. 96-100.)

Undeterred by this agnosticism, reconstructed arrangements of the Sonnets
soon began to reappear. Von Mauntz's German translation of 1894 presented
one; Butler's edition of 1899 another; Godwin's discussion of 1900 a third.
(Butler's rearrangement, however, involves comparatively few changes, and
he defended the Quarto order, on the whole, as the only possible one for the
presentation of a coherent story.) Acheson, in his work on Sh. and the Rival Poet
(1903), attacked the Quarto arrangement on partially new grounds, and began
a reconstruction, based on a theory of disarranged sequences of 20 sonnets each,
which he has not yet completed — or at any rate made public. Mrs. Stopes,
in her edition of 1904, proposed a rearrangement which she did not profess
to find authoritative, but believed to be nearer the true order than the original.
Meantime Rolfe, in successive revisions of his edition, became increasingly
emphatic in distrusting the Quarto order; see his note on Sonnet 70, in the com-
mentary, for the impossibility of reading it consistently, in the given order,
with 33-35 and 40-42. "One broken link," he adds, ""spoils the chain; if the
order of the poems is wrong here, it may be so elsewhere."

The most important recent editorial discussion and rearrangement is that
of Walsh, in his edition of 1908. "Thorpe's arrangement of the sonnets," he
says, "is as poor as could be expected of a purloiner who published stolen goods
without a title, without a preface, without a note, but with innumerable mis-
prints and with two misstatements in the little information he did vouchsafe
to give. We need not hesitate to pronounce it worthless. It is neither chrono-
logical nor according to subjects. It opens with the longest of the possible
groups of sonnets, and so at the start conveys the impression of orderliness —
a clever trick, which has deceived most of the subsequent editors. . . . But after
this group there is a breaking up and a scattering. Occasionally two or three
sonnets which obviously treat of the same subject and of which one is a direct
continuation of another are brought into juxtaposition; but these can be
matched by others that plainly belong together and are placed apart. Almost
all editors have complained of the inappropriate position of some particular
sonnets. It is strange they do not admit unauthoritativeness in the entire se-
quence. Yet nothing can be plainer than that Thorpe's arrangement of the
sonnets is of no more help to our understanding of their development than is
the Folio-editors' arrangement of the plays." (Intro., pp. 31-32.) With this
as a starting-point, Walsh rearranges them, not with reference to some at-
tempted reconstruction of a continuous story, but on the basis of the usual
stylistic evidence of chronology and the natural grouping suggested by sub-
ject-matter. Professor H. D. Gray (Publ. M. L. A., n.s., 23: 635n.) comments
to this effect: "Mr. Walsh considers each sonnet as a law unto itself, and he
breaks up the obvious sequences rather needlessly. Still, one who came to the
Sonnets for the first time in his edition would, I think, gain a truer impression

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SONNETS 427

of their meaning and value than he would from the Quarto arrangement."
In this opinion the present editor concurs. Gray, in the article just cited, sums
up the question thus: " In the face of such facts as we have, it seems odd that
the arrangement of the Sonnets in the Quarto of 1609 should ever have been
taken as of any authority whatever. The Sonnets were presumably written
at intervals during several years and given out in small groups or singly; they
were copied and recopied; we know from the Passionate Pilgrim, as well as
from a preserved MS. of S. 8, that there existed various differing copies; it is
conceded by all that Sh. did not supervise nor authorize Thorpe's Quarto (note
both the errors and the dedication by the publisher) ; no one denies that Thorpe
took some liberties with the arrangement, since he removed to the end those
Sonnets that did not apply to the youth; we find in the first series . . . inno-
cence attributed to the young man after guilt has been recorded; we find se-
quences interrupted by sonnets which have nothing to do with the sonnets
about them. There can be no real possibility, therefore, that Thorpe's collection
of manuscripts could have been supplied in their proper order either by the
author or by the person to whom so many of them were addressed." (p. 630.)
After examining certain peculiarities of the text (such as the use of "thou"
and "you," the misprint of "their" for "thy," and the use of italics). Gray
draws the conclusion "that various MSS. of sonnet groups came into Thorpe'^
hands, some of the MSS. bearing characteristics not found in the others, and
that Thorpe seems not to have disturbed his MS. groups more than was neces-
sary to remove duplicates and to put at the end sonnets which could not be
read as concerned with Mr. W. H. Indeed, the very fact that every sonnet
which can be read as addressed to the youth is placed in the first series, and that
no other sonnet, though dealing with the same theme, is to be found there, is
evidence of just such an obvious sorting out as Thorpe could and would be re-
sponsible for." (p. 634.)

Turning now to the argument in behalf of the arrangement of 1609, we may
consider Charles Armitage Brown to be the first name of note, since, in his
volume of 1838, he laid much stress on a grouping of the Sonnets designed to
make the continuity of the standard text intelligible. On the whole, this group-
ing may be said still to represent the orthodox view of the sonnet story. It is
as follows:

First Poem. — 1-26. To his friend, persuading him to marry.

Second Poem. — 27-55. To his friend — who had robbed the poet of his
mistress — forgiving him.

Third Poem. — 56-77. To his friend, complaining of his coldness, and warn-
ing him of life's decay.

Fourth Poem. — 78-101. To his friend, complaining that he prefers another
poet's praises, and reproving him for faults that may injure his character.

Fifth Poem. — 102-126. To his friend, excusing himself for having been some
time silent, and disclaiming the charge of inconstancy.

Sixth Poem. — 127-152. To his mistress, on her infidelity.
Brown, however, admitted some disorder in the "sixth poem." Flrxivall,

428 APPENDIX

in his introduction to the Leopold Sh. (1877), presented another and more de-
tailed outline of the Sonnets, dividing the First Group (1-126) into fifteen
sections, and the Second Group into eleven; but this outline rather emphasizes
than relieves the difficulty of finding continuity in such an analysis. In the
following year T. A. Spalding, in an article in the Gentleman's Magazine,
made a rather more consistent analysis, dividing Sonnets 1-126 into three
groups and a number of smaller sections, interpreted as developing an intel-
ligible story.

Dowden, as has already appeared, made a new defence and interpretation
of the Quarto arrangement, in his edition of 1881. "That the Sonnets are not
printed in the Quarto, 1609, at haphazard," he said, "is evident from the fact
that the envoy (126) is rightly placed; that poems addressed to a mistress follow
those addressed to a friend; and that the two Cupid and Dian sonnets stand
together at the close. A nearer view makes it apparent that in the first series,
1-126, a continuous story is conducted through various stages to its termina-
tion ; a more minute inspection discovers points of contact or connection between
sonnet and sonnet, and a natural sequence of thought, passion, and imagery."
(Intro., p. 24.) He admits, however, that this does not apply to the series 127-
154. The Quarto order seems also to be confirmed, he argues, by certain aspects
of the puzzling variation in the use of the pronouns "thou" and "you": "in
the first 50 sonnets 'you' is of extremely rare occurrence; in the second 50 'you'
and 'thou' alternate in little groups of sonnets, 'thou' having still a prepon-
derance, but now only a slight preponderance; in the remaining 26 'you' be-
comes the ordinary mode of address, and 'thou' the exception." (p. 25.) This
argument, we may note at once, is answered by Beeching, himself a believer
in the Quarto order: "How little dependence can be placed on such an argument
is shown by the fact that in the sonnets about the Rival Poet, which undoubt-
edly form a series, sometimes 'thou' is used and sometimes 'you.' And in face
of the fact that 97 and 98, which are almost identical in sense, employ different
pronouns, it is impossible to discriminate between them." (Intro., p. Ixv n.)

Since Dowden's time there has been no thorough-going defence of the Quarto
arrangement, but its authority has been assumed, and sometimes explicitly
sanctioned, by a number of editors and critics. Tyler, in his introduction to
the Praetorius Facsimile (1886), observed that "it has been assumed that the
order given in the First Quarto is the right order; and this must certainly be
maintained until the contrary has been proved" (p. xxvi); and he took the
liberty of adding on the margins of the facsimile text the captions "Series I,"
"Series II," and "Series III," opposite Sonnets I, 127, and 153 respectively.*
Gollancz, in the Temple Sh. (1896), went further than almost any other com-
mentator: "If it could be proved," he said, "that any one sonnet is out of

* A liberty that has lately resulted in one of the most amusing phenomena in the whole
mass of sonnet criticism. Clira de Chambrun, in her work on the Sonnets (1913). makes the
amazing statement that in th Thorpe edition the poems are "divided into three separate series
by a note in the margin," a division which she very truly adds "has never been referred to by
any commentator." (p. 15.) In confirmation she reproduces what is called "a facsimile of
page 57 of the Thorpe edition," but is really a photograph of the Praetorius facsimile, including
one of Tyler's captions in modern lettering on the margin!

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SONNETS 429

place, the whole chain would perhaps be spoilt, but no such 'broken link' can
be adduced." (Intro., p. vi.) Wyndham, in his edition of the Poems (1898),
also represents an extreme position, since he believed that the Quarto of 1609
is a more authoritative publication than has been generally supposed: " Whether
or not [the Sonnets] were edited by Sh., [they] must so far have commanded his
approval as to arouse no protest against the form in which they appeared. It
would have been as easy for him so to re-shuffle and re-publish as it is impossible
to believe that he could re-shuffle, and re-publish, and no record of his action
survive." Wyndham also went so far as to say that all critics "not quixotically
compelled to reject a reasonable view are agreed that the order in the First
Series can scarce be bettered." (Intro., p. cix.) Herford, in the Eversley Sh.
(1900), took similar ground. "Displacement maybe here and there suspected ;
but on the whole [the sonnet groups] form a connected sequence, passing by
delicate gradations through a rich compass of emotion." (10: 374.) Beeching,
in his edition of 1904, followed to the same effect: "Most modern critics are
agreed that at least the first division of the Sonnets is approximately in the
order intended by the poet" (Intro., p. lxiii); on the other hand, "it may very
well be the case that some few are misplaced," such as 36-39. 75, 77, 81, 97-99
(p. lxv). Beeching adds two arguments wholly or partly new: the fact "that
some of the sonnets in the appendix throw light on those addressed to the
friend, confirms the theory that the sonnets form a sequence and are not a
mere bookseller's haphazard collection" (p. lxiv); and "some further con-
firmation is afforded by the fact that a printer "s error of 'their' for 'thy'
occurs 14 times in the series of sonnets from 26 to 70 inclusive, and only once
besides, viz. in 128. (This last instance forbids us to explain it by a mere change
of compositors.) S. 26 appears to open a new division, and 71 certainly opens
another. It looks, therefore, as if the printer has used for this division of the
sonnets a separate MS., less plainly written than those he had before him for
the rest, and so it becomes almost certain that — at any rate for this section —
the order of the sonnets was fixed when it came into Thorpe's hands. S. 128 may
very well have been in the same MS." (p. lxv). The present editor has elsewhere
commented on this last argument as follows: "Admitting the utmost which these
facts can imply, viz., that the misreadings indicate that the MS. of the son-
nets in question was in a different handwriting from later ones, we can apply
the argument only to the 21 sonnets from 26 to 46 [the errors occurring in 26,
27- 35» 37. 43i 45. 46]; and the recurrence of the error in 69 and 70, after an
interval without it, suggests that we may have come back to the same MS.,
and that consecutiveness has been lost!" (Ktttredge Anniversary Volume, 1913,
pp. 286-87.)

Mackail, in his lecture on the Sonnets (Lectures on Poetry, 191 1), observes:
" I see no reason to doubt that they were arranged by Sh., or at all events that
they left his hands, in their present order, and that this order is substantially
the order of their composition. But this belief is subject to two reservations:'
in the first place, those sonnets which constitute a consecutive group may have
been arranged by him in an order different from that of the dates of their writ-

430 APPENDIX

ing; in the second place, he may have been working on more than one of those
groups contemporaneously. As the Sonnets extend over a period of several
years, and as different groups of them were clearly sent to their recipient at
different times, it was obviously possible either for him, or for some third person
into whose hands they had come before they went to the printer, to alter the
arrangement ; but there is no proof, and no probability, that this was in fact
done." (pp. 203-04.) Finally, a partial defender of the Quarto arrangement is
found in Brandl, who, in his introduction to Fulda's translation of the Son-
nets (191 3), argues: "The traditional order deserves a serious attempt to find
it intelligible; if it can be maintained, it has — in comparison with all free
attempted arrangements — the authority of the publisher, whose interest must
lie not in making an error but in avoiding it. Nor need this arrangement dis-
play the complete development of its formation in all details; it may be a later
redaction by the author. . . . Finally, it is to be queried whether Francis Meres
would have openly praised the friendship sonnets, if they had existed only
singly and in unintelligible confusion, and not in self-explanatory grouping —
in a MS. collection arranged for a wider circle of friends." (p. xv.) This ar-
gument especially concerns what Brandl finds to be the chief series of "friend-
ship sonnets," 18-74; on the other hand, he finds the "political sonnets" to
be out of chronological order, those of 1603 preceding at a long interval those
of 1601. (p. xxii.)

Mention has already been made of an article on this subject by the present
editor, in the Kittredge Anniversary Volume (1913). What follows is substan-
tially a reproduction of a portion of that article, having chief concern with
the burden of proof in the argument on the Quarto arrangement. (See also,
with reference to Dowden's argument from the so-called "envoy," the notes
to S. 126.)

If we should approach the sonnets without knowledge of their content, as
if discovering them for the first time, our first inquiry would naturally be
whether the collection appears on the face of it to be one of the "sequences" so
familiar in the Elizabethan age. Of this type of collection the leading traits are
well understood. A series of sonnets is addressed to a lady of great beauty, to
whom a fanciful name is given (Stella, Diana, Idea, or the like), which com-
monly forms the title of the whole. This lady is usually cold of heart, and the
sequence of poems represents the successive efforts of the writer, her lover, to
win her to yield to his passion. Turning to the Sh. Quarto, we find that the title-
page bears no conventional title; no lady's name gives it a name; no lady's
name is mentioned within it. The book is called simply "Sh.'s Sonnets: never
before imprinted." It is not, we may say tentatively, a conventional se-
quence. A second approach will naturally be the inquiry whether the volume
appears to have been published by the author's authority or under his super-
vision. The discussion of this would be an important matter, were the facts
not all but universally admitted. The Quarto is dedicated not by the author
but by the publisher, a well-known pirate in his trade; it contains numerous
unintelligent misprints; whereas the two poems which Sh. is known to have

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SONNETS 431

published contain dedications from his hand and seem to have been carefully
proof-read. These are the chief (but not the only) considerations which have led
critics to agree on the surreptitious character of the Quarto of 1609.

In 1640 appeared a new issue of the Sonnets, now printed in an entirely
different order, and grouped by the editor with sub-titles as the text suggested.
In this edition, of course, there is nothing authoritative; the only significance
to be found in its character is negative — to the effect that there was no tra-
dition implying a continuous or two-part text as of 1609.

It is clear, then, so far as this preliminary evidence goes, that the burden of
proof is on any attempt to call these sonnets a sequence in the usual meaning of
the term. If the character of the contents, examined in detail, indicates a consec-
utive and significant order, then just to that extent we may regard the arrange-
ment of the Quarto as important; but we have no warrant for beginning to read
the collection with the assumption that it is to be interpreted as one interprets a
series of poems, much less chapters of a story, set forth by the author in prede-
termined form. On the contrary, in the absence of further and conflicting
evidence, we should expect to find that we have before us a collection of all the
sonnets written by Sh., so far as the publisher was able to get hold of them ; — an
expectation strengthened by the fact that two of the sonnets in the volume,
138 and 144, had been published ten years earlier in another pirated collection,
The Passionate Pilgrim.

But while the sonnets do not appear to be a sequence of the usual sort, they
may give evidence of being an unconventional sequence; that is, they may
form a series, either from having been written in the present order or from hav-
ing been carefully arranged. This, if true, is not to be assumed but proved.
Our next task should be, therefore, to read the collection through with a view
to asking, not how far it would be possible to conceive the sonnets to be signi-
ficantly consecutive if we knew that they had been put in this order by the
writer, but how far they imply such consecutiveness when we know nothing
of the circumstances of their arrangement. Here, of course, there is room for
great diversity of judgment. All that can be done here is to set down the re-
sults of such a reading as has just been described, in the attitude of one who
does not disbelieve in the existence of a large amount of continuity, but who
requires to see evidence of it in the text. From this standpoint, apparently
connected sonnets, forming — through contiguity — natural groups, may be
observed as follows: 1-17; 18-19; 26-28; 33-35; 40-42; 43-45; 46-47: 50-52;
54-55; 5&-58; 63-65; 66-68; 60-70; 71-74; 78-80; 82-86; 87-93: 94-96; 97-99;
100-103; 109-112; 117-120; 123-125; 131-132; 133-134; 135-136; 137-138;
139-140; 141-142; 143-144; 147-152; 153-154. It will be understood that this
list includes only those sonnets whose text seems to imply some immediate con-
nection with their immediate neighbors; the omitted sonnets being those which,
in the absence of any theory of sequence, may naturally be read as independent
compositions, together with some which are most naturally associated with
others not standing in contiguity with them. No two readers would be likely
to reach identical results in pursuing such an attempt as this; but there has been

432 APPENDIX

no effort to make the list as presented err on the side of discontinuity (for ex-
ample, the continuity of 147-152 is by no means certain). What is the general
impression resulting? One considerable series has appeared; — and it is proper
to add that another might be admitted as plausible, formed by connecting all
the sonnets from 109 to 125. Three short series appear to number respectively
five, six, and seven sonnets; there are three groups of four each; there are
twelve sonnet trios, and twelve pairs. To an unbiased reader the result would
seem to be in accord with the hypothesis already suggested by the more external
evidence, viz., that the publisher of this collection gathered all of Sh.'s sonnets
that he could obtain, in various MSS. — some arranged, some unarranged, —
and made an attempt to set them in order. He placed at the beginning of the
book the longest obvious series, or, possibly, the series which he knew had been
addressed to the person to whom he wished to dedicate the volume. In other
cases his MS. furnished him with pairs and trios which he preserved intact; in
still other cases he may have made a pair or a trio of sonnets which appeared
to be similar in theme or tone. Finally, observing that the sonnets plainly
addressed to women were in the minority, he reserved them for the end of the
collection, together with certain other poems on independent topics.

It may be objected that the want of a clearly continuous thread of thought
does not prove the collection to be inconsecutive; can one trace such continuity
in any Elizabethan sequence? Probably not. But the point in the present case
is that the burden of proof is on those seeking to view this collection as a se-
quence. Moreover, a more detailed survey of the contents would reveal not
merely a want of continuity but no little evidence of discontinuity. Dowden
describes an Elizabethan sequence as "a chain or series of poems, in a designed
or natural sequence, viewing in various aspects a single theme, or carrying on
a love-story to its issue, prosperous or the reverse." (Intro., p. 26.) Would any
one examining these sonnets of Sh.'s without a predetermined theory be led to
find them within the scope of this definition?

Another objection to this agnostic position may be stated as follows: ad-
mitting that the series is not a sequence in the usual sense, this does not pre-
vent us from regarding the sonnets as standing, on the whole, in the order of
Sh.'s MS. But does this mean the order of Sh.'s original MS., — that is, the
order of composition — or that of some final MS. in which he arranged his
sonnets? The first alternative no one supposes to be applicable to the whole
collection, for about the only certain inference to be drawn from the text
is that some of the poems in the "second series" were written at the same time
as some in the "first series." The most that is claimed, then, is that sonnets
1-125 are in the original order, — preserved, perhaps, among the papers of
the person to whom they are supposed to have been addressed. This view
cannot be shown to be impossible; but it remains "not proven." And since
some misplacements are admitted by nearly all critics, how can a limit be set?
If the MSS. of " W. H." were once disarranged, by a wanton breeze or a careless
servant, what may not have happened? The only answer is, that we must fall
back on the text as it stands. As to the second alternative, that the existing

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SONNETS 433

order represents Sh.'s wishes at the time the sonnets were collected, we have
already seen what the probabilities are that he made any copy for the purpose
of publication, and it is a pure assumption that he brought his sonnets into
one MS. for any purpose whatever. But even if he did, the argument from
disarrangement still applies.

Another possible objection (and here I pass from the matter previously pub-
lished) may be drawn from the fact that there is no sonnet certainly addressed
to a woman in the whole "series" 1-126, and that this could hardly be the case
if the order were purely haphazard. This is doubtless a real hindrance to the
theory of a purely accidental arrangement — if any one holds such a theory;
and it might, not unreasonably, be viewed as implying that Thorpe obtained
the great part of the MS. or MSS. containing Sonnets 1-126 from a single
source, or from sources such as led him to think that they dealt with identical
persons or themes. On the other hand, it will be noted that Professor Gray,
in the argument cited above, regards this very circumstance as evidence
of Thorpe's desire to attach all the sonnets to "W. H." unless their content
absolutely forced him to relegate them to an appendix.

In conclusion, it cannot be too strongly emphasized that to find a connected
story in the Sonnets is not to have proved anything regarding their order.
Even if only one story could thus be made, it would remain purely hypothetical
unless the order of the poems were ascertained on unquestionable grounds.*
The history of criticism is full of the wrecks of theories dependent on the notion
that an individual interpretation was the only possible one. In the case of the
Sonnets we have more than a dozen rearrangements, each one telling the true
story to its maker. The very existence of these is made a reproach to agnosti-
cism on the subject, just as the multiplication of sects is made a reproach to
Protestantism. "You reject the existing order," it is said, "but cannot make
a better, which will find general acceptance." But this in itself, of course, is
absolutely without pertinence to the question whether the traditional order
rests on an adequate basis. The only safety is in definite and substantial rea-
sons for believing that it represents the work of the author. And no such reasons
have been found.

There follow outlines of various rearrangements of the Sonnets which have
been made or proposed.

* Sir Sidney Lee has truly observed that "if the critical ingenuity which has detected a con-
tinuous threafl of narration in the order that Thorpe printed Sh.'s Sonnets were applied to the
booksellers' |aiscellany of sonnets called Diana, that volume . . . could be made to reveal
the sequence of an individual lover's moods quite as readily." {Life, p. 94n.) To which Her-
ford (Ererslek Sh., 10: 374x1.) replies: "He may be invited to try." For myself, as I have said
elsewhere (rot in frivolity, but with a serious view to the analogy with much work which has
been done on the Sonnets), I should dislike to make the experiment with the monotonous pages
of the Diana; but if only Wordsworth's minor poems, including his sonnets, had come down to us
without date, author's title, or note, in an order perhaps determined by the convenience of the
publisher, I should undertake to read them in a plausible sequence, and even to show that that
sequence went far toward solving the one mystery of the poet's hie — the personality of "Lucy."
I should trace her among the lakes, along the River Duddon, and the vicinity of Tintern Abbey,
show why she was instrumental in preventing the poet from visiting Yarrow, indicate the in-

434 APPENDIX

Poems of 1640*

67-69 (The glory of beautie).
60; 63-66 (Injurious Time).
53-54 (True Admiration).
57-58 (The force of love).

59 (The beautie of Nature).
1-3 (Loves crueltie).
13-15 (Youthfull glory).
16-17 (Good Admonition).
7 (Quicke prevention).
4-6 (Magazine of beautie).
8-12 (An invitation to Marriage).
138 (False beleefe). [Pass. Pilg. version.]

144 (A Temptation). [Pass. Pilg. version.]

*

21 (True content).

23 (A bashfull Lover).

22 (Strong conceite).

* *

20 (The Exchange).

27-29 (A disconsolation).

* *

30-32 (The benefit of Friendship).

* *

38-40 (A congratulation).

41-42 (Losse and gaine).

* * *

44-45 (Melancholy thoughts).

33-35 (Loves Releefe).
36-37 (Unanimitie).

*

24 (A Master-peece).

25 (Happinesse in content).

26 (A dutifull Message).
50-51 (Goe and come quickly).
46-47 (Two faithfull friends).

48 (Carelesse neglect).

49 (Stoute resolution).

* * * *

fluence on him of her views on the Visitation of the Sick, Old Abbeys, and the Emigrant French
Clergy, and probably demonstrate that she was a daughter of the Leech-Gatherer and a niece of
Simon Lee.

* The occasional asterisks indicate other poems introduced from The Passionate Pilgrim or
elsewhere, the number of asterisks corresponding with the number of such pieces.

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SONNETS 435

62 (Sat fuisse).

55 (A living monument).

52 (Familiaritie breeds contempt).

61 (Patiens Armatus).
71-72; 74 (A Valediction).

70 (Nfl magnis Invidia).
80-81 (Love-sicke).

116 (The Picture of true love).
82-85 (In prayse of his Love).
86-87 (A Resignation).

88-91 (A request to his scornefull Love).

92-95 (A Lovers affection though his Love prove unconstant).
'97-99 (Complaint for his Loves absence).
100-101 (An invocation to his Muse).
104-106 (Constant affection).
102-103 (Amazement).

109-110 (A Lovers excuse for his long absence).
111-112 (A complaint).
113-115 (Selfe flattery of her beautie).
117-119 (Tryall of loves constancy).

120 (A good construction of his Loves unkindenesse).

121 (Errour in opinion).

122 (Upon the receit of a Table Booke from his Mistris).

123 (A Vow).

124 (Loves safetie).

125 (An intreatie for her acceptance).

128 (Upon her playing on the Virginalls).

129 (Immoderate Lust).

127; 130-132 (In prayse of her beautie though black).

I33-I34 (Unkinde Abuse).

135-136 (A Love-Suite).
137; 139-140 (His heart wounded by her eye).

141-142 (A Protestation).
143 (An Allusion).

145 (Life and death).

146 (A Consideration of death).

147 (Immoderate Passion).
148-150 (Loves powerfull subtilty).

78-79 (Retaliation).

73; 77 (Sunne Set).
107-108 (A monument to Fame).
151-152 (Perjurie).

I53-I54 (Cupids Treacherie).

436 APPENDIX

Knight (1843)

Group I. 135-136; 143; 127; 131-132; 128; 130; 21; 139-140; 149; 57-58;
56; 145; 129; 137-138; 141-142; 147-148; 150-152; 133-134; 144; 33-35;
40-42; 94-96; 1 18-120.

Group II. 29-32; 36-39; 50-52; 27-28; 61; 43-45; 48; 75; 49; 88-93; 97-99;
109-117; 122-125; 26; 25; 23-24; 46-47; 77; 76; 78-80; 82-87; 121; 146.

Group III. 1-8; 10; 9; 11-20; 53-55; 100-108; 59-60; 126; 22; 62-74; 81.

Francois Victor Hugo (1857)

Group I. 135-136; 143; 145; 128; [Sonnet from Pass. Pilg.]; 139-140; 127;
131-132; 130; 21; 149; 137-138; 147-148; 141; 150; 142; 152; 154-155; 151;
129.

Group II. 133-134; 144-

Group III. 33-35; 40-42.

Group IV. 26; 23; 25; 20; 24; 46-47; 29-31; 121; 36; 66; 39; 50-51; 48; 52;
75; 56; 27-28; 61; 43-45; 97-99; 53; 109-120; 77; 122-125; 94-96; 69; 67-68;
70; 49; 88-93; 57-58; 78; 38; 79-80; 82-87; 32.

Group V. 146; 100-103; io5; 7b; IQ6; 59-

Group VI. 126; 104; 1— 19; 60; 73; 37; 22; 62; 71-72; 74; 81; 64; 63; 65; 108;
107; 54-55-

Cartwright (1859)

■ Group I. 1-20; [Sonnet from Pass. Pilg.]; 53~55.

Group II. 100-108; 59-60; 25-26; 29-32; 109-112; 121; 36-39; 50-52; 48;
76; 78-80; 82-87; 49; 88-93; 67-70; 126; 77.

Group III. 33-35; 40-42; 94-96; 62-66; 81; 71-74; 1 16-120; 122-125.

Group IV. 21-24; 27-28; 61; 43-47; 75; 56-58; 97-99; 113-115; 153-154;
128; 145; 130; 127; 131-132; 135-136; 143; 139-140; 149; 137-138; 141-142;
147-148; 150-152; 144; 133-134; 129; 146.

BODENSTEDT (1862)

Group I. [Sonnet from Pass. Pilg.]; 128; [Sonnet from Pass. Pilg.]; I35-I36;
143; 23; 121; 153-154; 152; 137; 151; 145; I49-I50; 141-142; 75; 147-148; 130;
127; 132; 131; 138:46-47; 113-114; 57; 97-99; 56; 96; 95; 88; 87; 89; 139-140;
129.

Group II. 133-134; 144; 33-35; 40-42; 26; 20; 24; 29-31; 36; 66; 39; 38;
48; 52; 50-51; 27-28; 61; 43-45; 53; 80; 82; 85-86; 78-79; 37: 58; 49; 62; 83;
70; 69; 67-68; 93; 81; 71; 74; 32.

Group III. 1-19; 22; 21; 126; 110-112; 84; 64-65; 107-108.

Group IV. 100; 109; 118; 90; 92; 125; 1 19-120; 117; 103; 63; 104-106; 122;
115-116; 73; 72; 91; 76; 101-102; 59-60; 54-55; 123; 94; 146; 124; 77; 25.

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SONNETS 437
Delius (?) (1864)

I. (Will.) 135-136; 143-
II. (Black eyes.) 127; 131-132.

III. (Virginal.) 128.

IV. (False Compare.) 130; 21.
V. (Tyranny.) 139-140; 149.

VI. (Slavery.) 57-58.
VII. (Coldness.) 56.
VIII. (I hate not you.) 145.
IX. (Love and Hatred.) 129; 137-138; 141-142; 147-148; 150-152.
X. (Infidelity.) I33~I34; 144-
XL (Injury.) 33-35; 40-42.
XII. (A Friend's Faults.) 94-96.

XIII. (Forgiveness.) 11 8-120.

XIV. (Confiding Friendship.) 29-32.
XV. (Humility.) 36-39.

XVI. (Absence.) 50-52; 27-28; 61; 43-45.
XVII. (Estrangement.) 48; 75; 49; 88-93.
XVIII. (A Second Absence.) 97-99.
XIX. (Fidelity.) 109-117; 122-125.
XX. (Dedications.) 26; 25; 23.
XXI. (The Picture.) 24; 46-47.
XXII. (The Note-Book.) 77.

XXIII. (Rivalry.) 76; 78-80; 82-87.

XXIV. (Reputation.) 121.
XXV. (The Soul.) 146.

XXVI. (The Poet to a Friend.) 1-19.
XXVII. (The Friend's Beauty.) 20; 53-55.
XXVIII. (Immortality of Verse.) 100-108; 59-60.
XXIX. (Death.) 126; 22; 62-74; 81.
XXX. (Cupid.) I53-I54-

MASSEY (1866-1888)

I. (Sh. to Southampton.) 1-26; 38.
II. (Southampton to Elizabeth Vernon.) 29-31.

III. (Sh. to Southampton.) 32.

IV. (Elizabeth Vernon to Southampton.) 33-35; 41-42.
V. (Elizabeth Vernon to Lady Rich.) 133-134; 40.

VI. (Elizabeth Vernon; Soliloquy.) 144.
VII. (Sh. to Southampton.) 39.
VIII. (Southampton to Elizabeth Vernon.) 36-37; 27-28; 43; 61 ; 44-52; 56.
IX. (Sh. to Southampton.) 53-55: 59-60; 62-65.
X. (Elizabeth Vernon; Soliloquy.) 66-69.
XI. (Sh. to Southampton.) 70-74; 76-86.

438 APPENDIX

XII. (Southampton to Elizabeth Vernon.) 87; 75; 88-93.

XIII. (Elizabeth Vernon to Southampton.) 94-96.

XIV. (Southampton to Elizabeth Vernon.) 97-99.
XV. (Sh. to Southampton.) 100-106; 108.

XVI. (Southampton to Elizabeth Vernon.) 109-114; 1 17-122.
XVII. (Sh. to Southampton and Elizabeth Vernon.) 116.
XVIII. (Southampton; Soliloquy.) 123-125.
XIX. (Sh. to Southampton.) 115; 107; [126; misplaced fragment].
XX. (William Herbert.) 127-132; 135-143; 57~58; I45~i54-

Stengel (1881)
[1-126 only]

26; 1; 4; 8; 7; 11; 3; 5-6; 2; 9-10; 12; 20; 14; 13; 15-17; 59; 106; 53; 105;
54; 104; 81; 55; 64; 19; 63; 65; 60; 107; 18; 126; 108; 77; 122; 100-101; 38; 23;
73-74; 32; 39; 78-79; 82; 21; 76; 103; 83; 85; 80; 86; 71-72; 102; 84; 58; 57;
67-68; 123; 66; 116; 115; 124; 25; 29-31; 37; 125; 9 1-94; 69-70 133-35; 95-96;
40-42; 36; 87; 50-51; 27-28; 43; 61-62; 22; 24; 46-47; 44-45; 97-99; 48-49;
88-90; 109; 117; no; 121; 111-112; 75; 52; 113-114; 118-120; 56.

Von Mauntz (1894)

Group I. 128; [3 sonnets from L. L. L.]\ 145; 135-136; 57-58; 127; 138; 149;
132; 131; 151; 150; 148; 142; 141; 130; 139; 152; 147; 140; 137; 144:41-42; 143;
129; 146.

Group II. 1-17; 23; 26; 20; 59; 106; 22; 62; 53; 39; 126; 68; 64; 21; 103;
76; 108; 105; 38; 78-80; 86; 85; 83-84; 82; 77; 70; 67; 69; 94-96; 104; 49; [The
Phcenixand Turtle}; 56; 29; 116; 100; 102; 32; 73; 71-72; 74; 101; 54; 18-19; 60;
65; 55; 63; 81; 115; 124; 107; 122; 33-36; 97-99; 40; 133-134; 123; 125.

Group III. 24:46-47; 25:30-31:37; 52; 50-51; 113-114:27-28; 43; 61; 48;
44-45; 87-93; 109-112; 117-120; 75; 121; 66; 153-154-

Butler (1899)

1-32; 121 ; 33-34; 36-39; 127-128; 130-132; 137-144; 135-136; 151 ; 35; 40-42;
134; i33; 152; 43-118; 147-150; 119-120; 122-125.
Appendix: 126; 129; 145; 146; 153-154.

Godwin (1900)

I. (The Central and Explanatory Sonnet.) 77.
II. (The Independents or Solitaries.) 145; 126; 153-154; 19; 122; 81; 63; 26.

III. (A Plea for Creative or Poetic Art.) 12; 1; 4; 10; 3; 5-6; 2; n; 9; 13; 7-8;

15-17; 14.

IV. (A Young Love-Time.) 25; 21; 130; 18; 104; 22; 32; 50-51; 27-28; 44-47;

52; 30-31; 48; 116; 115; 137; 54; 69-70; 121; 94; 66-68; 73; 71-72; 74;
97-99; 29.
V. (The Episode of the Dark Lady.) 23; 127; 131-132; 24; 141; 140; 149; 138;

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SONNETS 439

128; 136; 135; 142; 139; 61; 58; 143; 57; 134; 133; 41; 40; 42; 35; 151;
150; 147-148; 144; 146; 95-96; 120; 152; 87; 109; 119; 129.

VI. (The Poet's Communion with the Higher Muse.) 38; 43; 113-114; 53; 20;
106; 59; 75; 64-65; 60; 62; 103; 39; 37; 36; 76; 78-79; 82-85; 80; 86; 49;
88-93; 33_34; 56; IOO-101; 107; 110-112; 117-118; 107-108; 123-125;
105; 55-

Stopes (1904)
I. (Poetical Experiments.) 153-154.
II. (Urging the Youth to mam-.) 1-7; 12; II.

III. (Personal affection develops.) 8-10; 13-19; 24; 20-21; 25; 22.

IV. (Complimentary Badinage.) 127; 132; 128; 149; 145; 138; 130.
V. (The Poet sends Manuscripts.) 23; 26.

VI. (His Friend's Love.) 29; 112; 30-32.
VII. (Temptations.) 148; 141; 131; 140; 139; 150.
VIII. (Departure.) 50-51; 44-47.
IX. (Travel.) 27-28.

X. (After return sees the lady.) 136; 151-152; 142-143; 135.
XI. (Hears that his friend superseded him.) 33-34; 41; 40; 42; 35.
XII. (Reproaches the Lady.) 133-134.
XIII. (Love's Fever.) 137; 147; 144.
XIV. (The Poet's Meditations.) 146; 129.
XV. (Gift to reconciled Friend.) 77.
XVI. (Beauty and Time.) 62-63; 60; 64-65; 55.
XVII. (Rumours concerning Rivals.) 75; 48-49; 88-90; 121; 36; 91-93.
XVIII. (The Rivals.) 76; 78-80; 82-87.
XIX. (Healing of the Breach.) 57-58; 43; 61; 56.
XX. (He feels old and weary.) 73-74; 71-72; 81.
XXI. (Absence, which gives pain.) 97-99; 53.
XXII. (The Friend is coming of age.) 104-106; 59.

XXIII. (Gossip concerning Friend.) 66-68; 54; 94; 69; 95-96; 70.

XXIV. (The Poet forgets to sing.) 100; 103; 101-102; 52; 39; 37-38; 108.
XXV7. (Clears himself from charge of faithlessness.) 122; 109-m; 117-118;

113-114; I 19-120.
XXVI. (Triumph of Love over Time.) 115-116; 123; 107; 124-125.
XXVII. (Time's Control of Nature.) 126.

Walsh (1908)

I. (Early Miscellaneous Sonnets.) 145; 154; 153. [With sonnets from the
Pass. Pilg. and the plays.]
II. (To his Fair Effeminate Friend.) 20; 53; 59; 106; 67-6S; 54; 18-19; 60;
63-65; 15-17: 1; 7; u: 12; 11; 8; 3; 2; 9-10; 13; 4; 5-6.
III. (To his Dark Disdainful Mistress.) 21; 130; 127; 132; 131; 24; 46-47;

128; 136.
IV. (On his Loves.) 50-51; 27-28; 61; 48; 52; 75; 44-45: 97; 43; 113-114;

44Q APPENDIX

98-99; 57-58; 33-34; 120; 118; 111-112; 109; 117; no; 119; 29; 25;

22; 37; 62; 39; 36; 71-74; 81; 91; 49; 88-90; 92.
V. (Episode of the Dark Mistress Wooing the Fair Friend.) 144; 133-134;

40-42; 35; 143; 135; 138; 151; 139-140; 93; 142; 94-96; 69; 137; 148-

150; 141; 147; 152.
VI. (On the Constancy of the Poet's Love, in spite of the Decay of Beauty.)

100-102; 56; 105; 108; 104; 124-125; 123; 115-116; 107; 55.
VII. (Sonnets addressed to his Patron.) 26; 38; 23; 103; 76; 78-79; 84; 82-83;

86; 80; 85; 32.
VIII. (Late Miscellaneous Sonnets.) 77; 122; 70; 87; 129; 121; 146; 66; 30-31.

THE DATE OF COMPOSITION*

The date question is perhaps the most tantalizing of all the problems in the
Sonnets. Theories regarding other problems at least have the advantage that.
since there is no positive evidence anywhere, one argument has as much impor-
tance as another. For the date question, however, there are just enough ac-
cepted facts to check the critical Pegasus in mid-career. They are these: (i)
In Francis Meres's Palladis Tamia (1598) occurs the sentence, "As the soule of
Euphorbus was thought to live in Pythagoras, so the sweete wittie soule of
Ovid lives in mellifluous and hony-tongued Shakespeare, witnes his Venus and
Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred Sonnets among his private friends." (2) In
*599 Jaggard brought out The Passionate Pilgrim, in which were included
Sonnets 138 and 144, which Mrs. Stopes (Ath., 1898, 374, 405) calls "the two
maturest, the climax of the whole series." (3) In 1609 Thorpe published the
whole number of Sonnets as we have them now. Every theorist adds to these
dates certain "indisputable" dates of his own, based on internal evidence; but
none of them approach in definiteness these three. And these do not give any-
direct clue to the date or dates of composition, save that the sonnets pirated
by Jaggard suggest that the whole story has been acted to the end, and that
it has been among the "private friends" for some time;f — otherwise Jaggard
could not have secured the two.

Of other external evidence, much consists of references which are applied
to the Sonnets in order to prove some theory in regard to " Mr. VV. H." or the
Dark Lady. Thus Isaac places the love-sonnets in 1591-92 because of a refer-
ence in Xash's Piers Penniless (1592): "Sometimes ... he will be an Inamo-
rato Poeta, and sonnet a whole quire of paper in praise of Ladie Maniebetter,
his yelow-faced mistress" (see note at end of S. 130); and also finds a reference
to Sh. in Xash's Anatomie of Absurditie (1590), where mention is made of "new
found songs and sonnets, which every red-nosed fiddler hath at his fingers'
end." (Jahrb., 19: 211.) Sarrazix very properly criticises these clues as
doubtful (Jahrb., 31: 218 ff.).

In 1593, Sh. alluded to Venus & Adonis as "the first heir of my invention";
may this set bounds for the beginning of the Sonnets? (Gollanxz, Preface to
Temple ed., xi-xii.) But it is possible that Sh. did not consider occasional son-
nets as a formal expression of his invention; the quotation, too, is from a dedi-
cation to a patron.

Corney (N. 6* Q., 3d s., 1 : 87) suggests that the dedication to Lucrece (1594)

— "What I have done is yours; what I have to do is yours" — is a promise, of

which the Sonnets are the fulfilment. But "what I have to do" may mean

just as well "whatever I hope to accomplish at any time."

* [This section was prepared by Miss Margery Bailey, A. M. — Ed.]
t But even this is disputed; see Rolfe's note at the end of S. 144.

442 APPENDIX

Fleay and several other critics have found a reference to the aonnet-story
in Willobie his Avisa (1594); but for the doubtful basis for this notion, see be-
low, pp. 478-82.

Returning for a moment to the allusion in Palladis Tamia, we may note
that some critics (as Fleay) use this date (1598) to limit that of the whole
series; but Mackail doubts whether Meres alluded to this particular series at
all; Gray {Publ. M.L.A., 1915) holds that "only the 'sugred' sonnets need
come before 1598, and indeed it is more appropriate that the others should
not"; Tyler and Archer also believe that Meres was not speaking of the
entire series.

Internal "evidence" for the date problem is named legion, but much of it
may receive the title of balderdash. Every theory seems able to twist every
other to its own use. We may consider the evidence under four heads: (I)
Interpretations of sonnet wording; (II) The relation of the Southampton-
Pembroke- Dark Lady controversy to the question of date; (III) Parallels
with other authors; (IV) Parallels with other works of Sh.

I. In S. 2 Sh. describes a man of forty as old, and this furnishes Butler
with a starting-point for his early dating of the Sonnets, on the simple ground
that no one could have written the sonnet who was much over twenty-one;
hence it may be dated 1585!

S. 14 is the first which has been thought to allude to contemporary events.
Fleay finds in it reference to the plagues of 1592-3, the dearths of 1594-6, and
the irregularity of the seasons in 1595-6. Archer replies (Fort. Rev., n.s., 62:
817) that the passage is very general in tone, but that, even if it were taken
literally, 1597 or 1598 would be found as appropriate. (Needless to say, Fleay
is a Southamptonist and Archer a Pembrokist!)

The "pupil pen" of S. 16 is supposed by Steevens to be a "slight proof that
the poems before us were our author's earliest compositions." Butler and
Gollancz approve this suggestion; Walsh and Porter incline to Archer's
interpretation of the phrase as one of exaggerated humility. This applies to
the similar view, taken by Malone, of the "poor rude lines" of S. 32.

Fleay believes the "books" of S. 23 to be Venus & Adonis and Lucrece;
hence this sonnet, with all which contain "repeated references to the Lucrece
dedication" (18, 26, 34, 81, 108), must come later than May, 1594.

Sonnets 27, 48, and 50, the "Travel Sonnets," Fleay uses to show that the
players were touring the provinces — probably in 1593 or 1597, on account
of the plague. As an alternative we are offered the possibility that Sh. was
rusticating in Bristol or Dover, waiting for the ire of Sir John Oldcastle (who
considered himself maligned in Henry IV, 1597) to cool. "In all probability
the later date is the correct one." Sarrazin, however, holds to the early date,
since he thinks that these sonnets were written on the occasion of the poet's
leaving the estate of Southampton, where he had remained during the plague

of 1593-

The "precious friends" of S. 30 Fleay explains to be Marlowe (died 1593)
and Sh.'sson Hamnet (died 1596). For S. 35 we have the assumption that the

THE DATE OF COMPOSITION 443

eclipse of the moon and sun refers to a period when Sh. was out of favor with
the Queen or the court, and with Southampton; "and no such date can I find
but 1597, circa June." These notes characterize Fleay's whole method, and
those of similar theorists. We have, of course, no reason for thinking that
"precious friends" refers to definite persons; and a reference to S. 35 will show
that Fleay twists the whole meaning awry. Incidentally, as Gray observes.
Sh. produced Love's Labour's Lost at court in 1597 — hardly an indication of
disgrace.

Sonnets 62 and 63 contain references to the poet's age: "tann'd antiquity,"
"Time's injurious hand," etc. (See also 22, 1; 73; 138, 6.) Archer claims
that they must have been written at a time when the poet could, without too
great poetic license, have described himself as old in contrast with his friend.
Fleay, Lee, and others, on the other hand, have shown that such expressions
were conventional in the period (see notes on the sonnets in question).

S. 66, according to Garnett (see note on line 9), aims a blow at the sup-
pression of the theatres ordered in July, 1597, in the phrase "art made tongue-
tied by authority." Other interpretations are at least equally plausible.

The "shame" of S. 72 (with the "motley" of no and the "brand" of in)
are referred by Fleay not to the mere profession of player, but to a particular
occasion, especially the Oldcastle affair — again — of 1597. It is also possible
that the "vulgar scandal" of 112 and the "vile esteemed" of 121 belong with
them. The expressions of 1 12 Tyler relates to a private scandal and a theatri-
cal quarrel of about 1601 (see the notes).

In S. 76 the words "invention in a noted weed" and "new-found methods"
are also rich in possibilities. Was Sh. writing when the sonnet was noted be-
cause it was the height of fashion, about 1594 (Gray, Publ. M.L.A., 1915),
or after the fashion had spent itself in the various sonnet sequences? The word
seems to preclude the belief that he wrote many of the Sonnets at a time when
the fashion was just coming in — about 1590 (Beeching, Intro., p. xxiii). If
we inquire as to Sh.'s attitude toward the sonnet form, Fleay notes that in
L.L.L. he uses sonnets in dialogue, and quite seriously; they are spoken of
(IV, iii) as a means of gaining favor in love. In T. G. V. (Ill, ii, 68, 92) Proteus
recommends the form to Thurio, and the Duke approves the "force of heaven-
bred poesy." The choruses of R. 6? J. (1598) are sonnets; after this there exist
no evidences of favor toward it (unless the letter of Helena, in sonnet form,
in A.W., III, iv, — of uncertain date). Sarrazin (Jakrb., 34: 368) notes that
in the middle dramas the art is made laughable (M. W. W., I, i, 206; M. Ado,
V, ii, 4; A. Y. L., Ill, iv, 25; H. 5, III, vii, 42; A.W., IV, iii, 355); only exag-
gerated or comic figures practice it. Certainly the inferences from all this are
not definite. It is possible that Sh. ceased to use the sonnet in plays as soon as
he discovered its power as an instrument of sincere self-expression; at any rate,
the serious employment of sonnets in the plays is in the early, "italianate"
style. Fleay implies that the "noted weed" restrains the sonnets within the
bounds of its popularity, ending about 1595; but see Mackail's notes (under
S. 76) to the effect that Sh. refers to his use of "a poetical form which was

444 APPENDIX

passing out of vogue." On the other hand, the phrase may not refer to the
sonnet form at all, but merely to the familiar dress of the poet's language of
praise.

Sonnets 79, 80, and 86, raise the question of the connection between the date
problem and that of the Rival Poet. (For this, see the separate discussion,
pp. 472-77.) The uncertainty here is too great to admit of useful inferences.
It may be noted that those who identify the rival poet as Marlowe assume,
of course, a very early date. On the other hand, Chapman's Seven Iliades
appeared in 1598, and Tyler considers this to fix the date of the sonnets
concerned; "in 1599 it was still a new book, likely to excite the interest of
Mr. W. H."

Of the words "spite of fortune" in S. 90, Beeching asks: "Does this refer
to the troubles of Sh.'s company, due to the popularity of boy actors?" — ■
i.e., in 1601. See the notes on the sonnet, for other suggestions respecting Sh.'s
troubles. Nothing could be less conclusive.

In S. 98 Wyndham discovers a new clue in the allusion to "heavy Saturn,"
leading him to date the sonnet in 160 1 or 1602. See the notes for his reasoning,
and some comment thereon.

S. 100 has suggested some vain clues to a date, coming apparently after a
period of silence; but the inferences drawn are various and indefinite (see the
notes).

S. 104 has been called a "key-sonnet" for the date, but roams pretty wildly
about the calendar of the years. Here Sarrazin's argument, based on points
of style, is of most interest (see the notes for some account of it) ; it results in
the date of 1595, with 1592 for the earlier sonnets. At best it is only for the
relative dating of different portions of the series that this sonnet has any more
significance than any other.

S. 107, in the view of many critics, gives the only definite evidence of date.
The notes set forth the character of this evidence in full, and show that, while
the majority of critics infer the date either of 1601 or 1603, there is a hopeless
want of agreement even on the question whether the allusions of the sonnet
are to historical events at all.

The same thing is true of S. 124, with two theories standing out conspicu-
ously: that there is reference to the execution of Essex, 1601, and that there is
reference to the Jesuit powder plot of 1605. See also the notes on 125, 13, where
those favoring the "Essex theory" find further support for their opinion.

Finally, on S. 144 see Professor Gray's discussion of the possible relation of
this sonnet to the two versions of Love's Labour's Lost. In a MS. note he has
summed up his view as follows: "This sonnet must have been written after the
additions to L. L. L. in 1597-98; for it is a psychological impossibility that Sh.
could have treated his 'black' heroine in the heart-whole and care-free way
he does in his revision of that drama, after this tormenting doubt had got hold
of him. And as this sonnet, and 138, were published in 1599, we may safely
date the crucial event in the story of the Sonnets as occurring in 1598 or 1599."

II. For the Pembroke-Southampton question, one must refer chiefly to the

THE DATE OF COMPOSITION 445

outline found in pp. 464-68 below. The inferences from the two theories re-
specting dates may be noted here, and to this end one should have in mind an
outline of the early lives of the two earls.

Henry Wriothesley was born in 1573, nine years after Sh.; he became Earl
of Southampton on the death of his father in 1581, and was brought up as a
"child of state" under Lord Burleigh, who in 1590 wrote of his desire to marry
the young man to Burleigh's granddaughter; Southampton, however, did not
care to marry. In 1593 Sh. dedicated to him V. e" A., and in 1594 Lu-
crece. In 1595 he fell in love with Elizabeth Vernon, and in 1598 secretly mar-
ried her, thus losing the favor of the Queen. In 1601 he was implicated in the
Essex conspiracy, and imprisoned in the Tower, being liberated only on the
accession of James in 1603. Thereafter he was active in public life, civil and
military, until his death in 1624.

William Herbert was born in 1580, sixteen years after Sh. In 1597 it is
known that he was desired by his family to marry, but refused, and won con-
sent to a period of life in town, coming to London in 1598. In 1600 began his
intrigue with Mary Fitton, one of the Queen's maids: their illegitimate son
was born in 1601, and both lovers were imprisoned for a time by Elizabeth.
In the same year Herbert became Earl of Pembroke, on the death of his father.
Like Southampton, he returned to favor at court only on the accession of
James. In 1604 he married Lady Mary Talbot, — apparently for a fortune.
In 1623 Heminge and Condell dedicated to him and his brother the First Folio
of Sh.'s plays, on the ground that they had "prosecuted the plays and their
author living with much favor." He lived till 1630.

It is obvious that if the Pembroke theory be accepted, the evidence points
to a relatively late date for the Sonnets: the first group (urging to marry) can-
not date earlier than 1597 or 1598. The "three years" of 104 would then con-
form to the suggestions found for the date 1 601 in certain of the later ones. On
the other hand, if we accept the Southampton theory, the earlier sonnets might
date anywhere from 1590 to 1595, the period of Sh.'s first plays and first poems,
and one would assume that the whole number of sonnets had been written
(with possible individual exceptions) before the publication of The Passionate
Pilgrim in 1599.

The Dark Lady has not received much attention as affecting the question
of date, since there is no important claim for identification here, except in
connection with the Pembroke theory. It has been noticed, however, that dark
ladies appear in certain of the plays: — chiefly, unfortunately, in one of early
date {Loves Labour's Lost) and in another — in which the lady is at her witch-
ing best — of late date {Antony e* Cleopatra). Dowden observes that in the
later play the poet seems to be safely reminiscent, rather than deeply involved
in a love-affair. The dark lady of L. L. L. is treated more tenderly than Cleo-
patra, — and this play is thought to have been produced no later than 1591.
Notice, however, the interesting theory of Gray {Publ. M. L. A., 1915): "In
1597-98 Sh. revised L. L. L., and . . . added all those portions which refer to Rosa-
line as 'dark.' The Rosaline of 1590 or so was a 'whitely wanton with a velvet

446 APPENDIX

brow,' and an irresponsible madcap. The later added portions deepen her
character, as they do that of her lover, Biron. ... It is notable that the analo-
gies . . . between the 'early' play and the Sonnets occur almost wholly in the
additions of 1597-98. . . . But Sh. could not in 1597 have made such a point
of the 'blackness' of his heroine, and have treated her with such easy grace,
just after his betrayal by the Dark Lady of the Sonnets. And . . . the two son-
nets contained in the Passionate Pilgrim (1599) come after this crucial event.
1598 would accordingly be the year of the 'key sonnet' (144), and from this
date we should have to build out our sequence." Sarrazin, on the other hand,
thinks that the wooing lady must have been of the same period as the Venus
of Venus & Adonis; we need not follow him in his discovery of her in upper
Italy, during an hypothetical journey thither of Sh.'s in 1592. Mrs. Stopes has
another conjecture: the lady was Jaquinetta Vautrollier, the French wife of
Field, the printer, and the intrigue took place in 1595-96, just before Field
signed the petition against the Blackfriars Theatre. Finally, those critics who,
like Fleay and Acheson, identify her with the heroine of Willobie his Avisa,
must suppose that the affair shortly preceded the issue of that book, in 1594.

From all of which it is evident that our need of information respecting the
date of the Sonnets, in order to identify the friend and the lady, is neither more
nor less great than the need of such identification in order to throw light on the
question of the date.

III. For the question of parallels with other authors, see especially the fol-
lowing section of the Appendix. We should note, in the first place, that the
sonnet fashion began to be noticeable with the posthumous appearance of
Sidney's Sonnets, 1591 , and the publication of the first edition of Daniel's
Delia, 1592. The influence of both these works on Sh. is generally admitted,
and is consistent with almost all the theories as to the date of his Sonnets,
though naturally emphasized by those who place them early. In the case of
Drayton, whose sonnets first appeared in 1594, the question of the borrower is
disputed (see the details below); but since both sides admit that whatever bor-
rowing there was probably depended on the reading of MS. poems rather than
of published ones, the decision could not in any case be used as proof of the
date of composition. The same thing is true of the alleged parallels between
the Sonnets and Marlowe's Hero & Leander, with which it may be assumed that
Sh. was familiar long before its publication in 1598. Other parallels, such as
some which have been noted for the sonnets of Constable, give no clue whatever
(even if they are due to something other than coincidence) as to which passage
was the original.

In S. 32, 12 Tyler discovers a borrowing from Marston's Pigmalion's Image
(1598); but it will be seen by a reference to the notes that the inference is base-
less. In like manner, he traces the phrasing of S. 55 to Meres's language in
Palladis Tamia (1598), and some have found this plausible; but the notes on
the sonnet, again, will show how doubtful is the inference.

Sonnets 94 and 142 contain interesting parallels with the play of Edward VI,
published 1596, which to a number of critics, such as Dei.ius and Isaac, have

THE DATE OF COMPOSITION 447

made it appear that these sonnets were in circulation in 1595, — the dramatist
being the apparent borrower. On the other hand, see Gray's note, quoted
under S. 94, for an interesting contrary conjecture.

IV. Parallels with other writings of Sh., while lacking in evidential definite-
ness, form on the whole the most promising of all the kinds of internal evidence
for the date of the Sonnets. Of the efforts to arrange and draw inferences
from this material, the most important is that made by Isaac in his article in
the Jahrbuch for 1884. The only drawback is his subjective rearrangement of
the Sonnets in ten groups based on content, with the assumption that all the
sonnets in each group are of substantially the same date. But his parallels
can, of course, be used apart from this. First of all, Isaac divides the mass of
the Sonnets into two portions: (1) those which may be termed conventional,
dealing with platonic love and other familiar Renaissance themes, forming
eight of his ten "cycles"; and (2) those which may be called original, bearing
no resemblance to any other contemporary product. The former group he finds
paralleled by the relatively light and thoughtless manner of the early plays and
poems, the latter by the broader outlook and the melancholy of later plays.
Coming to the more particular parallels in thought and style, he finds that
in the more conventional Sonnets there are five such parallels suggestive of
Sh.'s early work to one of later work, indicating the period closing with 1592;
on the other hand, the maturer sonnets show few resemblances to the early
plays, but a preponderance of parallels with the plays of the period of 2 Henry
IV and Hamlet. Very few parallels, again, appear for the late plays.

An independent study of this phase of the subject has been made by Mr.
Horace Davis, whose manuscript notes have been deposited, for the use of
students of the Sonnets, in the Library of Stanford University. In order to
compare his work with that of Isaac, the approximate numbers of parallels
listed by both critics are enumerated in the following table; and there is added
for each play a conjectured date, based on a combination of two recent tables
of such dates — that of MacCracken and Pierce, in An Introduction to Sh.
(1910), and that of Neilson and Thorndike, in The Facts about Sh. (1913).

Number of Sonnets parallels noted
by Isaac by Davis

Love's Labour's Lost (1590-91; revised 1597-98)
Comedy of Errors (1590-91)

1 Henry VI (1590-91)

2 Henry VI (1590-92)

3 Henry VI (1590-92)

Two Gentlemen of Verona (1591-92)

Romeo & Juliet (1591, revised 1596-97; or 1594-95)

Venus & Adonis (1592)

Richard III (1592-93)

King John (1592-93)

Lucrece (1593-94)

Titus Andronicus (1593-94)

34

49

12

22

15

12

21

14

14

17

3i

35

48

48

37

64

25

24

17

22

39

60

10

18

448 APPENDIX

Midsummer Night's Dream (1593-95)
Richard II (1593-95)
Merchant of Venice (1594-96)
Taming of the Shrew (1596-97)

1 Henry IV (1597)

2 Henry IV (1598)
Merry Wives of Windsor (1598-99)
Much Ado about Nothing (1599)
Henry V (1599)
As You Like It (1599-1600)
Julius Ccesar (1 599-1 601)
Twelfth Night (1601)
Troilus & Cressida (1601-02)
All's Well that Ends Well (1602)
Hamlet (1602-04)
Measure for Measure (1603)
Othello (1604)
King Lear (1604-06)
Macbeth (1605-06)
Antony 6f Cleopatra (1607-08)
Timon of Athens (1607-08)
Pericles (1607-08)
Coriolanus (1609)
Cymbeline (1610)
Winter's Tale (1610-11)
The Tempest (161 1)
Henry VIII (161 2-13)

Considering the remarkably subjective character of the method of selection
of such parallels, one must regard the general tendency to coincidence in these
two lists as fairly significant. On the other hand, it is obvious that when they
are applied to the question of the date of composition of the Sonnets, various
queries must be noted. The character of a given play is significant: if it is
largely prose, like the Merry Wives, the small number of parallels counts for
nothing. Some will have it that the character of the parallels is of much more
importance than the number: the mass of resemblances to the early plays, it is
said, is made up of conventional ideas and expressions, which might be recalled
and used again years after their first employment, whereas the resemblances
to Hamlet and Troilus & Cressida are less conventional and more significant.
Further, one must note the annoying circumstance that the two plays which
stand at the head of both Isaac's and Davis's lists, for the number of parallels
(Love's Labour's Lost and Romeo & Juliet), are thought to have been revised
about 1597, so that they can be used in support of the claims of both the first
and the second period.

Number of Sonnets parallels noted

by Isaac

by Davis

18

45

21

26

7

23

8

7

8

10

13

13

6

7

9

7

3

7

26

13

1

3

14

15

24

16

11

10

17

15

H

8

6

12

2

II

3

5

H

7

5

4

7

0

4

4

13

7

5

6

3

2

7

4

THE DATE OF COMPOSITION 449

Sarrazin followed up Isaac's studies of parallels, to some extent supporting
his method but reaching rather different conclusions. Like Isaac, he emphasizes
the rhetorical conventions of the love-sonnets, counting them to be the earliest:
there are rhetorical questions and answers (as in 135, 137, 148, 149); the style
is fantastic, toying with trifles, full of the casuistry of love: a close, sultry air
hangs over them, that of the city rather than the field and woods. The man-
ner of the "sonnets of procreation" (the opening group) is close to that of the
love-sonnets, but riper and rather more artistic; it corresponds somewhat
to that between Venus e* Adonis and Lucrece. Antitheses, repeated words,
and the like, are still abundant; but the tone is less agitated and restless, more
moderate and contemplative; the diction is richer in metaphor — sometimes
to the point of profusion and contradiction, as in Sh.'s later style — and has
now the breath of out-door air, with images drawn especially from summer and
autumn. (Sh.'s Lehrjahre, pp. 155, 171.) In his articles in the Jahrbuch (1896
and 1898), Sarrazin considers more in detail characteristics of style like re-
peated words, plays on repeated or reversed phrasing, and the like, and also
the mere word-likenesses which may be grouped as "dislegomena" and "trisle-
gomena"; the general conclusion being that the greater portion of the Sonnets
date from the period of Loves Labour's Lost, Romeo 6? Juliet, Venus &f Adonis,
Richard III, and Lucrece, or 1592-95.

Other critics, basing their judgment rather on general impressions of the
parallelism with the plays, reach various conclusions. Krauss and von
Mauntz agree substantially with Sarrazin, emphasizing the resemblances
to Venus & Adonis. Dowden observes that the Sh. of the Sonnets is the
man who wrote Venus c* Adonis and Romeo & Juliet — about to acquire the
bitter experience later reflected in Measure for Measure and Troilus; some of
the Sonnets, as 64-74, may be thought to echo the tone of these later plays
and of Hamlet. Tyler holds that there is no key like the Sonnets for the under-
standing of Troilus c* Cressida. Goodlet, in his article in Poet Lore, 1891,
emphasizes the connection of the Sonnets with the story of Two Gentlemen of
Verona, and believes that they probably preceded the play. E. K. Cham-
bers "would go to the stake for it," that the language and thought of the
Sonnets are those of the plays written during the years 1592-94 (Academy,
July 31, 1897). Wyndham would place the earliest groups (as 1-42) before
x599> but believes that the melancholy languor, metaphysical speculation,
and poetical perfection, of the group 56-125 display an affinity for Hamlet.
Beeching is especially impressed by the parallels with Henry IV, and goes
so far as to say — what is scarcely warranted — that the greater number of
parallels "hitherto recognised" are found in the two parts of that play, in
Love's Labour's Lost, and in Hamlet. Since Love's Labour's Lost was revised
in 1597, the date also of 1 Henry IV, the period beginning about that time seems
particularly likely. Mac kail goes still further in this direction, asserting that
"in the large majority of the Sonnets, the power of thought, the charged ful-
ness of language, the compressed and allusive style, are qualities not of the
Sh. of Venus & Adonis, not of the Sh. of A Midsummer Night's Dream; . . .

450 APPENDIX

they are those of the Sh. who has fully mastered his art in the great comedies,
who has deepened his hold on life and the human soul to the potency of the
great tragedies; they are those ... of the Sh. who is face to face with the whole
vexing sorrow of the world, the Sh. who was writing or preparing himself to
write Hamlet and Troilus & Cressida." (Lectures on Poetry, p. 191.) Gray
emphasizes the likeness between the Sonnets and the theme of the love of an
older man for a younger as appearing in The Merchant of Venice — "the exal-
tation of friendship, and the isolation and self-pity of Antonio." He also notes
the Sonnets mood of "out of favor with fortune but happy in love" as being
closely akin to that of Romeo, and adds, "No correspondence of phrase could
be half so significant as this amazing similarity of idea." Professor Gray finds,
too, as we have seen, that the significant parallels with Love's Labour's Lost
are to be thought of as belonging to the revision of 1597.

Walsh finds the argument from parallels suggestive of rather more liberal
and less definite results than have been inferred by most of those who have
used it. "The same characteristics that have led the editors to arrange the
plays in a tolerably well-agreed-upon series are traceable in the sonnets. These
characteristics are, that in his early writings Sh. showed a command of lan-
guage superior to his thought, that in his middle period his language and thought
matched each other, and that in his last period his thought outran the power
of expression. S. 129 exhibits the characteristic of the last period, and S. 145
that of the first period, as plainly as do the Tempest and the Comedy of Errors."
(Intro., p. 31.) His conclusion is that all the usual tests would result in string-
ing out the sonnets "over a tract of time beginning at least as early as 1592
and extending as late as 1603 and possibly 1605." This is in harmony with the
opinion of Furnivall, who, while placing the Sonnets between the second and
third periods of the plays, said that he believed they stretched "over many
years." (Intro., p. lxvi.)

Finally, for the matter of parallels, we may note that some critics reject the
whole method as invalid. Thus Archer sums up his convictions by saying,
"Like occasions beget like expressions," and to Gollancz's remark that no
long time could have elapsed between Romeo & Juliet and Sonnet 116 he re-
plies that five years could have passed quite as well as five days. (Fort. Rev.,
n.s., 62: 821.) This view is also that of Swinburne, if one may judge from his
mocking account, in the " Report of the Proceedings of the Newest Sh.
Society," of a proof by parallels that Love's Labour's Lost and Othello are of the
same date. (A Study of Sh., Appendix.)

Casting up accounts, we have these arguments for an early date:

1. By far the larger number of parallels with the Sonnets are found in the
poems and the early plays, indicating a common ground both for ideas and
craftsmanship.

2. The situation in the Sonnets is also paralleled in early plays.

3. Ideas and images in the Sonnets are paralleled also in the poetry of others
who wrote early; if they borrowed from Sh., he must have written very

THE DATE OF COMPOSITION 451

early; if he borrowed from Marlowe, Sidney, and Daniel, it is natural to
suppose that he did so under the influence of comparatively fresh impres-
sions.

4. Meres mentions Sh.'s Sonnets as in familiar circulation in 1598; Jag-
gard prints in 1599 two which have been thought to tell the whole story.

5. The melancholy of the Sonnets may be attributed to the death of Sh.'s
son in 1596 or to the ordinance against the theatres in 1597.

6. Sh.'s allusions to the sonnet form are early, and it is unlikely that he
should have begun to write in that form after the height of its vogue was over.

7. To this we may add the Southampton theory of the friend, for those to
whom that seems plausible.

For a later date, in Sh.'s middle period, we have these arguments:

1. Parallels with the later comedies and with the tragedies, though relatively
few, are very striking; especially note the theme of the infidelity of woman.

2. The theme of dark beauty in Love's Labour's Lost shows some evidence of
having been introduced in the revision of 1597.

3. The maturity of thought and style of a great number of the Sonnets
points to the period of the poet's developed art.

4. The sincere ring of the allusions to weariness and age makes it doubtful
that this "assumption of years" is wholly fictitious or conventional.

5. The melancholy of Sh. is quite well accounted for by events of i6or.

6. The only suspected allusions to contemporary- events are commonly re-
ferred to 1 60 1 or 1603.

7. To this is to be added the Pembroke theory, for those who find it plausible.
The outcome remains uncertain. Evidence for an early date for at least a

certain number of the Sonnets seems to preponderate; but this need not be
applied to the whole collection. If one follows the division made by Isaac and
others into conventional and original groups, remembering also that the Son-
nets themselves appear to refer to lapses of time between periods of composi-
tion, the seeming plausibility of the arguments for both the early and the
middle period may be explained. The student's opinion as to the date of the
larger number of the Sonnets will probably depend on his judgment respecting
other matters which are equally uncertain with that of chronology-.

The following table outlines, in a summary and necessarily arbitrary fashion,
the opinions of the principal editors and critics who have discussed the ques-
tion of date. A single date followed by a dash indicates the earliest limit pro-
posed, with no definite view as to a terminus ad quern.

Acheson 1594-1600

Alden i 59 1 — (chiefly I593~97)

Archer 1597 —

Beeching 1 597-1 603

Brandl 1591-1603 (chiefly 1591-94)

Butler 1585-88

452

APPENDIX

DOWDEN

i 592-1 605

Fleay

1594-97

GOLLANCZ

1595-98

Gray

1595-99

Isaac

1589 —

Lee

1 594-1 603 (chiefly 1594)

Mackail

1 598-1 603

Massey

1 590-1 603

Porter

Before 1598

Rolfe

1597 —

Sarrazin

1592 — (chiefly 1592-95)

Stopes

1592-96

Tyler

1598-1601

Walsh

1592-1603

Wyndham

1 598-1 603

SOURCES AND ANALOGUES*

The age of discovery of sources and analogues is of course a late one, and
for the Sonnets practically nothing was done in this direction prior to the last
quarter of the nineteenth century. Malone, to be sure, had remarked that
"in these compositions Daniel's Sonnets, which were published in 1592, appear
to me to have been the model that Sh. followed." (Boswell ed., 1821, 20: 217.)
With this Drake agreed, emphasizing Daniel's influence on the metrical form
of the sonnet, and observing that there is in Daniel "much of that tissue of
abstract thought, and that reiteration of words," which distinguish the Son-
nets of Sh. (Sh. and his Times, 2: 57.) The same subject was developed by
Dowden, in his edition of 1881: "In reading Sidney, Spenser, Barnes, and
still more Watson, Constable, Drayton, and others, although a large element
of the art-pottery of the Renascence is common to them and Sh., the student
of Sh.'s Sonnets does not feel at home. It is when we open Daniel's Delia that
we recognize close kinship. The manner is the same, though the master proves
himself of tardier imagination and less ardent temper. Diction, imagery,
rhymes, and, in sonnets of like form, versification, distinctly resemble those
of Sh. Malone was surely right when he recognized in Daniel the master of
Sh. as a writer of Sonnets — a master quickly excelled by his pupil. And it is
in Daniel that we find sonnet starting from sonnet almost in Sh.'s manner,
only that Daniel often links poem with poem in more formal wise." (Intro.,
p. 27.) The matter was carefully examined by Isaac in his article in the
Jahrbuch for 1882, with the conclusion that Sh. felt the influence of the best
work of Daniel, but rather less than that of Surrey, Sidney, and the Italians.
Finally, Sh.'s indebtedness to Daniel was emphasized by Sarrazin in his Sh.'s
Lehrjahre (1897). The important parallels are duly noticed in the commentary
in the present volume, and may be traced by reference to the index. But, as
appears from remarks like Dowden's, in this case the alleged resemblance is
not so much dependent on striking analogies in particular sonnets as on some
general similarity of tone and style. Instances of similar phrasing, not of suf-
ficient significance to be recorded in the notes, may nevertheless have a cumu-
lative effect. Cf., for example, with 2, 2, Delia 4, 8: "Best in my face, where
cares hath tilled deep furrows"; 3, 10 with Delia 29, 2: "The April of my
years"; 5, 7-8 with Delia 37, 1-2:

When Winter snows upon thy golden hairs,
And frost of Age hath nipped thy flowers near;
24, 2 with Delia 13, 6-7:

I figured on the table of my heart

The goodliest shape that the world's eye admires;

* (The first portion of this section, concerning English sources, is based on a still unpublished
paper by Miss Ruth Kelso, A. M., of the University of Illinois. — Ed.]

454 APPENDIX

and more of the same character. Of itself none of these parallels is especially
striking. Time's furrows is a sufficiently familiar notion; cf., for instance, these
lines from Turberville's Epitaphs, Epigrams, etc.:

For crooked age his wonted trade is for to plough the face
With wrinkled furrows, that before was chief of beauty's grace.

The conceit of the mistress's picture on the lover's heart is employed by Watson,
Sidney, and Spenser, not to go further. The case is strengthened, however,
by the general method of Daniel's treatment of one of Sh.'s principal themes,
the quick decay of beauty and the consequent need of putting it to use; cf.
Delia 35, cited in the notes on S. i. Other themes common to both, poets are
the oppressiveness of night to the lover, and the eternizing power of verse; but
these, again, were common also to the body of sonnet literature. In general,
since many of the sonnets by Daniel which have been thought to resemble
Sh.'s were published in 1591 and 1592, and since few critics would date Sh.'s
as early, the hypothesis of Daniel's influence is not improbable.

In connection with his theory that the latter portion of Sh.'s sonnet col-
lection is concerned with Penelope, Lady Rich, supposed to be Sidney's
"Stella," Massey found reason to develop the subject of parallels between the
Sonnets and Sidney's writings. He was followed in Germany by Krauss,
who in the Jahrbuch for 1881 pointed out many such parallels. In Massey 's
later work (1888) Sh.'s indebtedness to Sidney was again made much of: "The
earliest sonnets on marriage could not have been written until after Sh. had
read the Arcadia"* (p. 71); "With S. 14 the likeness to or borrowing from
[Astrophel & Stella] begins" (p. 74); see also pp. 248-51 (of The Secret Drama)
for a comparison of the sonnets near the end of the collection with Sidney's.
Again the more significant of Massey's parallels will be found in the commentary
in this edition. This subject has attracted less discussion than the alleged
influence of Daniel; but one of the most recent commentators, Brandl, puts
the case more strongly than any predecessor: "[Sidney] gave him, in A. & S.,
the example of celebrating a lady with eyes of black — the opposite of beau-
tiful, of writing of her as married, and of emphasizing her unhappy marital
relations. . . . Sidney had already introduced the role of the friend who warns
against illicit passion; Sh. took it over in such a manner as to be, in his own
person, concerned about the beloved youth. Sidney had already opposed
himself to rival poets, who flaunted 'new-found tropes' and 'strange similes,'

* Professor Edwin Greenlaw has lately (Studies in Philology, 13: 13s) called attention to
the song of Geron, Arcadia, Book 1 (ed. 1500, f. 94 b), which he thinks "parallels the first
seventeen sonnets of Sh. so closely as to render it practically certain that Sh. had it in mind."
Cf. especially these lines:

Nature above all things requireth this.

That we our kind doo labour to maintaine;

Which drawne-out line doth hold all humane blisse.

Thy father justly may of thee complaine.

If thou doo not repay his deeds for thee.

In granting unto him a grandsires gaine.

Thy common-wealth may rightly grieved be.

Which must by this immortall be preserved.

If thus thou murther thy posteritie.

SOURCES AND ANALOGUES 455

while he would write only what appeared in reality; this was developed by
Sh. to defence against a particular rival, who by such means approached his
friend. Censors, guardian angels, old stories, the politics of the day, astrology,
natural scenery, legal procedure, play a part in Sidney's verse, and in like
manner with Sh.'s: the former speaks of his official duties as soldier and states-
man, the latter of his calling as an actor; both enjoy enlarging upon their
journeys and their observations while journeying; both glance at remoter ob-
jects but are finally led back, by clever turns, to the person beloved, even if
these turns find expression in artificial or far-fetched form. Sidney had not
been ashamed to confess a moral error, and the rhetoric of Sh. seeks to outdo
him with self-reproaches; like Sidney, Sh. has employed his talents inade-
quately; and as Sidney in the end rejoices that by means of his troubles in
love he has learned the difference between poison and true love, so Sh. finds
content (i 10) in the fact that through his wanderings he has won a second youth
of the heart. . . . Surely the appearance of the Astrophel sonnets in 1591 must
have given the literary impulse for Sh.'s lyrical poetry." (Intro., pp. xxxii-iii.)
Again, since the publication of Sidney's sonnets belongs to the same period as
that of Daniel's earlier collections, it is plausible that Sh. should have studied
the lyrical conceits of the one with those of the other.

A third inspirer of the Sonnets has been found in Drayton, notably by Fleay,
who in his Biographical Chronicle (1891) cited many parallels, and concluded:
" [Sh.] has at least three corresponding passages with him for one with any other
writer; and the likeness is much closer, especially in those parts of Drayton
which are most removed from commonplace. It is impossible here to give full
evidence; but any one who will saturate himself with Sh.'s Sonnets, and then
read Drayton's, will find, as I have done, that hardly a stanza of Drayton has
been left unused by Sh.; and as we cannot, from the manifest allusions in the
sonnets of the latter, date them earlier than the Dedication to Lucrece (1594),
which was printed in the same year as Idea's Mirrour, we are necessitated to
reject the alternative hypothesis that Drayton may have copied Sh." (2:
230-31.) But Tyler had already (1890), while admitting some of the resem-
blances, observed that they were not to be found in the poems of Drayton as
published in 1594, but appeared first in his volume of 1599; he therefore con-
cluded that in the interval Drayton had made the acquaintance of Sh.'s Son-
nets, — an acquaintance made not improbable by Meres's well-known remark
as to their circulation. (Intro., pp. 39-42.) This argument was further de-
veloped by Wyndham (Poems, 1898, p. 256), who remarked on further imita-
tions by Drayton in poems which first appeared as late as 1619 (but not with-
out error here; cf. note on S. 116); and again by Beechixg (in a note appended
to his edition, 1904), who argued that Drayton was an arch-imitator, having
first written sonnets in the manner of Daniel, then in that of Sidney, then in
that of Sh. (p. 133). Beeching's conclusion is: "If a poet at one time could
write so like Daniel that his ' Clear Ankor, on whose silver-sanded shore' is as
good and as characteristic of Daniel as any sonnet that charming writer ever
produced, and at another time so not unlike Sidney that his 'My heart was

456 APPENDIX

slain, and none but you and I' suggest at once the A. & S., is it reasonable,
when in turn we find him writing in the school of Sh., that he should be ac-
counted Sh.'s master and not his pupil?" (p. 139.) Lee, on the other hand,
supports the position of Fleay: "The whole of Drayton's century of sonnets,
except twelve, were in print long before 1609, and it could easily be shown that
the earlier 53, published in 1594, supply as close parallels with Sh.'s sonnets as
any of the 47 published subsequently. Internal evidence suggests that all but
one or two of Drayton's sonnets were written by him in 1594, in the full tide
of the sonneteering craze. Almost all were doubtless in circulation in manu-
script then. . . . Sh. would have had ready means of access to Drayton's manu-
script collection." {Life, p. no n.) Finally, Elton {Michael Drayton, 1905)
views the matter as uncertain, but tends to support the position of Wyndham
and Beeching, on the ground that "the passages in Drayton with that deeper
sound, which we have learnt to call Shakespearean, hardly begin till his edi-
tions of 1599 or 1602. ... It is natural to think that Drayton, glancing round
after his assimilative fashion, early caught some deep accents and noble
rhythms from Sh.'s poems, which he, like others, may have seen unprinted"
(pp. 56-58). All which goes to show that in this instance, no matter what
amount of parallelism is noted, inferences regarding borrowing are unsafe.
The resemblances are in part, again, of the nature of current conceit-themes:
identity of lover and friend, the madness of the lover, the supreme beauty of
the beloved, the eternizing power of verse, and the like. In part they affect
details of imagery and phrasing; for examples, see the index to the commentary
as usual. With Sonnets 33-34 (to note one or two instances not mentioned
in the notes) have been compared some lines from Drayton's S. 60:

Behold the clouds which have eclipsed my sun!
And view the crosses which my course do let !
Tell me, if ever since the world begun
So fair a rising had so foul a set?

The parallel may have interest, but surely little evidence of borrowing. With
S. 107, much mooted for other reasons, has been compared Drayton's 51:

Calling to mind since first my Love begun,

The uncertain times, oft varying in their course;

How things still unexpectedly have run,

As it please the Fates, by their resistless force;

Lastly, mine eyes amazedly have seen

Essex's great fall, Tyrone his peace to gain,

The quiet end of that long living Queen,

This King's fair entrance, and our peace with Spain,

We and the Dutch at length ourselves to sever;

Thus the world doth and evermore shall reel:

Yet to my goddess am I constant ever!

In case Sh.'s sonnet contains those allusions to contemporary events which
many have supposed, the parallel is surely an interesting one; but the point in

SOURCES AND ANALOGUES 457

the one case, even then, is different from that of the other. With S. 134, 7-1 1,
a parallel has been found in Drayton's 3, 9-14:

And thus mine eye a debtor to thine eye,
Which by extortion gaineth all their looks;
My heart hath paid such grievous usury,
That all their wealth lies in thy Beauty's books.
And all is thine which hath been due to me;
And I a bankrupt, quite undone by thee.

But the abundant use of legal imagery in the various sonnet cycles deprives
this analogy- of any independent suggestiveness. Even more conventional is
the representation of love as "frantic-mad," in S. 147, which has been com-
pared with Drayton's S. 9: "I am lunatic!" — the playfulness of the latter
being in strong contrast with the tone of Sh.'s. Of the analogies mentioned in
the commentary, the most interesting are those found in Sonnets 46 (with
Drayton's 33, on eye and heart), 116 (with Drayton's 43, on the plowman
and the star), and 144 (with Drayton's 20, on the "evil spirit your beauty").
In all these cases the similarity of phrasing is decidedly suggestive, but see
the notes, especially on the last two, for comment on its elusiveness. It is par-
ticularly odd that the "evil spirit" of Drayton should have been viewed as so
conclusively related to Sh.'s "two loves"; in the one case the terms "angel"
and "devil" are applied to the same person, in the other case to different
persons, the former being a sufficiently familiar type of conceit, the latter a
wholly novel situation.* Finally, we may note Drayton's S. 44, perhaps the
most closely Shakespearean of them all, not so much in detailed phrasing as
in general theme and style:

Whilst thus my pen strives to eternize thee,

Age rules my lines with wrinkles in my face;

Where, in the map of all my misery,

Is modeled out the world of my disgrace:

Whilst in despite of tyrannizing times,

Medea-like, I make thee young again,

Proudly thou scorn'st my world-outwearing rhymes,

And murder'st virtue with thy coy disdain.

And though in youth my youth untimely perish,

To keep thee from oblivion and the grave,

Ensuing ages yet my rhymes shall cherish,

Where I entomb'd my better part shall save;

And though this earthly body fade and die,

My name shall mount upon eternity.

* Still less reason is there to draw a parallel between Drayton's S. 10 and Sh.'s collection,
as has been done on the ground that it appears to have been addressed to a young man (" To
nothing fitter can I thee compare Than to the son of some rich penny-father ';. There is not
the slightest reason to suppose that it does not concern a woman, like all the others; the compari-
son with prodigal son is sufficiently explained by the fact that there is no such type as a prodi-
gal daughter.

458 APPENDIX

Other sonneteers than Drayton were introduced as sources for Sh. by Lee:
"The thoughts and words of the sonnets of Daniel, Drayton, Watson, Barnabe
Barnes, Constable, and Sidney were assimilated by Sh. in his poems as con-
sciously and with as little compunction as the plays and novels of contempo-
raries in his dramatic work." {Life, p. 109.) Of these men, Lee's peculiar
emphasis is laid on Barnes; thus, in his Introduction to Elizabethan Sonnets
(1904) he observes, "Constantly [Barnes] strikes a note which Sh. clearly
echoes in fuller tones." (1 : lxxv-vi.) The use of conceits drawn from legal pro-
cedure, and of puns, are the chief specifications. (See the index, as usual, for
particular passages.) But these, according to Lee's own argument, are among
the practically universal conventions of the age; and it would be hard to find
a sonnet style more different from Sh.'s, in general, than that of Barnes. No
other critic finds him a plausible source.

The three sonnets which furnish suggestive parallels to Constable's verse are
24, 99, and 106 (see the notes for details). This is another instance where it is
difficult to discriminate between conventional and individual elements; and it
will be noted that in at least one sonnet (106) it has been argued that Constable
is the borrower.

For an instance of possible borrowing from Giles Fletcher's Licia (1593), also
noted by Lee, see notes on S. 153.

To Lee's list W. C. Hazlitt added the name of Barnfield, believing that it
was the latter's Affectionate Shepherd (1594) which suggested to Sh. the writing
of sonnets to a young man (Sh., Himself & his Work, ed. 1912).

Finally, a number of parallels have been noted for the Sonnets and Marlowe's
Hero & Leander, especially by Isaac in his article in the Jahrbuch for 1884.
Isaac (see note on S. 4) was disposed to view Marlowe as the borrower, but
Anders (Sh.'s Books, 1904, pp. 90-100) argues plausibly for Sh.'s indebted-
ness.*

Turning to the matter of foreign sources and analogues, we find, of course,
very great difficulty in disentangling the matter of special influences from the
general question of the Renaissance lyric. Isaac, for example, in his articles
in Herrig's Archiv for 1879 and the Jahrbiicher of 1882 and 1884, makes much
of the Italian elements in what he takes to be Sh.'s earlier sonnets, with
special emphasis on Petrarch and Tasso, but without exact consideration of
the evidences respecting Sh.'s probable acquaintance with the Italian sonnets.
In recent times Sir Sidney Lee has become the chief authority in this field,
and has emphasized the influence of the French, but again with some vague-
ness as to the matter of direct and indirect sources for Sh. The conceits of the
Renaissance lyric, he tells us, "figure in Sh.'s pages clad in the identical livery
that clothed them in the sonnets of Petrarch, Ronsard, De Baif, and Desportes,
or of English disciples of the Italian and French masters. . . . Such resem-
blances as are visible between Sh.'s sonnets and those of Petrarch or Desportes
seem due to his study of the English imitators of those sonneteers. Most of
Ronsard 's 900 sonnets and many of his numerous odes were accessible to Sh.
* In general Anders explicitly slights the subject of the sources of the Sonnets.

SOURCES AXD ANALOGUES 459

in English adaptations, but there are a few signs that Sh. had recourse to Ron-
sard direct." {Life, pp. iio-ii.) In his work on The French Renaissance in
England Lee recurs to the subject: "In Sh.'s sonnets no instances of exact
translation or direct imitation [of the poetry of the Pleiade] appear. But thought
and expression occasionally resemble French effort closely enough to suggest
that the processes of assimilation wrought at times on Sh.'s triumphant achieve-
ment in much the same way as on the mass of the sonneteering efforts of his
day. Constantly Sh. seems to develop with magnificent power and melody
a familiar theme of foreign suggestion." (p. 266.) Special themes of this char-
acter are the urging of youthful beauty to propagate itself, the praise of patrons,
the denunciation of false mistresses, and the poetic vaunt of immortality. In
addition to the various passages cited in the commentary from Lee, he notes
(as a parallel for S. 104) a sonnet by Yauquelin de la Fresnaie:

La terre ia trois fois s'est desaisie
De sa verdure, et ia de leurs vertus
Se sont trois fois les arbres devetus,
Depuis qu'a toi s'est mon ame asservie;

again, on the theme of "unthrifty loveliness," a sonnet by Amadis Jamyn:

Si la beaute perist, ne l'esparge, maistresse,
Tandis qu'elle fleurist en sa jeune vigueur;
Crois moi, je te supply, devant que la vieillesse
Te sillonne le front, fais plaisir de ta fleur;

and again, in praise of a patron, a sonnet by Etienne Jodelle:

Combien que veu ton sang, ton rang, ton abondance,

Serviteur je te sois: j'ose prendre envers toy

Un nom plus haut, plus digne, et plus grand, puis qu'a moy

Tu daignes t'abaissant en donner la puissance.

Je suis done ton ami, mais tel que l'excellence

Du beau mot n'orgueillit mon devoir ny ma foy:

Car plus que mille serfs je puis ce que je doy

Payer, et croy qu'amour doit toute obeissance.

For the vituperative sonnets of Jodelle, see the notes on Sonnets 127 and
147. For the theme of poetic immortality, both Ronsard and Du Bellay fur-
nish notable parallels, as may be traced through the index to the commentary.
On the other hand, for some observations as to the contrast between Sh.'s use
of these themes and that characteristic of his predecessors, too little remarked
by Lee, one should compare the essay of E. S. Bates, a part of which is quoted
above under General Criticism.

Lee's theory of the close relationship between the sonnets of Sh. and those
of the Renaissance lyrists of the continent receives notable support in the re-
cent article by Wolff (Englische Studien, 49: 161) on the evidence to be drawn
from a study of Petrarchism in Italy. In Wolff's view there is hardly a char-
acteristic theme of the Sonnets which was not conventionally familiar in the

460 APPENDIX

period. Particular analogies of interest are the following: the glorifying of the
object of the poet's love as a type of all beauty; the want of distinction between
male and female beauty, and between love directed toward one of the same sex
and that directed toward one of the opposite sex, — with a tendency, however,
to preference for the former, as being free from ordinary physical passion;
the praise of manly beauty in terms commonly associated with womanly
charms, notably fair skin and blond hair; the doctrine that it is the part of
beauty to propagate itself; the willingness to demean one's self before a patron
even to the point of self-contempt and self -accusation; the fashion of depreci-
ating one's own poetry in comparison with that of rivals; the attitude of
melancholy, with scorn of life and desire for death; the disposition, in other
moods, to rebel against the conventional standards, and to celebrate persons
of both dark beauty and doubtful morals; the portrayal of a conflict between
loves of opposite character; the recognition of rivalry in love, with a tendency
to forgive and even to yield to the rival. Particular instances cited in connec-
tion with some of these themes may also be noted. "Michelangelo calls Vit-
toria Colonna, for her greater honor, grande amico, and interprets it as her
highest praise that she is uomo in una donna." "Tasso writes to . . . Leonora
Sanvitale, that no artist would be able to preserve her likeness, but only she
herself through the birth of a son. . . . He warns the beautiful Duke of Joyeuse
not to fall in love with himself, like Narcissus, as Bernardo Capello admonishes
his beloved that God had not given her beauty that she should hide it within
herself." "Annibal Caro is so wholly submissive to the will of his lord, that he
wishes nothing, thinks nothing, is nothing, apart from him." "Sannazaro
speaks of his stato indigno, Giovanni Guidiccione of his misero stato, G. Stampa
represents himself as brutta e vile, Mezzabarba as rough and common, and
Philoxeno (in a strambotto) as turpe e streno." " Bembo is so dazzled with the
splendor of his lord, that he can find no words. Angelo di Costanzo on the
other hand rebukes the pigro sonno of his Muse, which has hindered him from
fulfilling his duty, and Tansillo is dumb because so many other poets pay hom-
age to his patron." "Delia Casa praises the young Antonio Soranzo as his sole
light and comfort, and Christoforo Madruzio as the last virtuous soul in the
ruined world; Bembo calls Trifon Gabriele a surviving evidence of the golden
age; the patron of Sannazaro is the triumphant renewer of a former time; and
Galeazzo do Tarsia announces that with his Prospero beauty was brought to
birth and done away." Molza "finds all the splendor of the world united in
Ippolito de' Medeci, to whom his spirit wholly belongs and follows as a shadow. "
"Bernardo Tasso is consumed with passion for a youth without whom he
cannot live and wishes to die, ... as Francesco Coppetta prays his friend that
he will restore the sun of his eyes and illumine his night." "Angelo di Costanzo
calls his style poor and weak, and, like Sh., prefers to be silent rather than to
injure the glory of his patron by his words. . . . Molza recognizes the defects
of his art, which can only be raised through his splendid subject-matter, the
worth of his lord." "Bembo places the art of Trissino high above his own;
della Casa calls himself a common water-fowl, Bembo a swan in contrast. . . .

SOURCES AND ANALOGUES 461

In the same way Angelo di Costanzo sets his incapacity over against the mag-
nificence of Antonio Carafa." Berni's beloved has ''silver hair, black brows,
white lips, and so on; and in Petrarchista the pilgrim returned from Yaucluse
relates that he had been shown the picture of Laura, but had been able to
discover nothing of its wonders — neither snow, nor roses, nor gold." "Poli-
zian pays homage to his Brunettina, Tasso calls Leonore Sanvitale bruna, ma
bella. and in a sonnet to Giulia Negri he plays with the words negra and alba.
. . . The mistresses of Mezzabarba and Alamanni have dark hair." "Tasso
declares flatly that his mistress is not beautiful, that her hair is not golden;
... he deplores her inconstancy and knows that she scorns him; but her scorn
and her hate appear to him better than the kindness of others." Alamanni
"asserts sadly that he and his friend love the same lady. Then it runs: In-
constant, not to say faithless, sweet friend, why wilt thou destroy the old nest
of my thoughts? In the same way he bewails in a madrigal the treachery of the
friend." Finally, there are narratives of the period, notably a play called
Erofilomachia or Duello d'Amore e d'Amicitia, in which one friend turns over
to another the lady whom he loves; in the prologue to this Duello it is pointed
out how noble it is to possess so lofty a soul as to prefer friendship to one's own
desires. All this (with more, of course, not represented here) surely forms an
impressive support for those who emphasize the conventional interpretation of
the Sonnets of Sh., even if one does not go so far as to accept Wolff's conclusion
that they give us "practically nothing" on the life of the author, except what
concerns his life as an artist. Wolff does not assume a direct borrowing by
Sh. from the Italians, but rather through the French poets, who must be
further studied along the line of investigation already begun by Lee.

Many of these continental influences are, of course, ultimately platonic.
The more definitely platonic and neo-platonic elements in the Sonnets were
first discussed in detail by Simpson, in his interesting essay on The Philosophy
of Sh.'s Sonnets (1868); see his notes on Sonnets 1, 22, 31, etc. Isaac followed,
in Germany, with a section on "Sh. and Plato" in his article in Herrig's
Archiv, 1879, in which he described the platonic academies of the Italian Re-
naissance. More eccentrically, but with no little learning, the nameless author
of the articles on "New Views of Sh.'s Sonnets" in Blackwood's Magazine,
1884-86, represented Sh. as a devout student of Dante, and also noted a num-
ber of Elizabethan media for the influence of medieval mysticism. Wyndham,
in his edition of the Poems (1898), newly emphasized the platonic elements in
the Sonnets (see especially his note on S. 37, 10), comparing them with those
in Spenser's "Hymn in Honour of Beautie." "Mr. Walter Raleigh," he says,
"has pointed out to me that Spenser and Sh. must have been familiar with
Hoby's translation of Baldassare Castiglione's II Cortegiano, published in
1561. . . . Plato's theory of Beauty had been ferried long before from Byzan-
tium to Florence, and had there taken root. . . . And from Italy young noble-
men, accredited to Italian courts or traveling for their pleasure, had brought
its influence to France and England. . . . Sh. must have read Spenser's Hymn
and Hoby's Courtier, in which Plato, Socrates, and Plotinus are all instanced;

462 APPENDIX

the phrase — genio Socratein — applied to him in the epitaph on his monument
attests his fondness for Platonic theories, and in the Sonnets he addressed a
little audience equally conversant with them; it is, therefore, not surprising
that he should have borrowed their terminology. In some sonnets he does so,
but the Sonnets are not, therefore, as some have argued, an exposition of
Plato's theory or of its Florentine developments. Sh. in certain passages does
but lay under contribution the philosophy of his time, just as, in other passages,
he lays under contribution the art and occupations of his time." (Intro., pp.
cxix-exxii.) The same subject is discussed by Brandes, in his William Sh.
(1898; 1: 341-49). Tyler, in his edition of the Sonnets (1890), emphasizes
rather the mysticism of Giordano Bruno, believing that Sh. may have derived
from him the doctrine of "the soul of the world" and the doctrine of "cycles";
see comment on this doubtful conjecture in the notes on Sonnets 59 and 107.
All the Renaissance influences, both poetic and philosophic, are considered,
with some analysis of the leading poetic themes connected therewith, in
Klein's article on "Foreign Influence in Sh.'s Sonnets" in the Sewanee Re-
view, 1905.

Of classical sources the only notable name which has been instanced, aside
from Plato's, is that of Ovid.* For this the chief authority is Lee's article in
the Quarterly Review, 1909, where the special influence on Sh. of Golding's
translation is emphasized. See the index, as usual, for particular references.!
Certain of the philosophic themes which by others have been referred to the
neo-platonists, such as the doctrine of "cycles," are shown by Lee to be ex-
plicable by reference to Ovid alone. Since Sh., he observes, "was no professed
metaphysician," we may explain his use of these philosophic subtleties by the
digression in the last book of the Metamorphoses. "A poetic master's inter-
pretation of Life and Eternity involuntarily claimed the respectful attention
of a loyal disciple" (p. 466). Again: "Some of the ideas common to Ovid and
Sh. are the universal food of poetry. . . . [Sh.] by no means stood alone among
Elizabethan poets in assimilating Ovid's Neo- Pythagorean doctrine. Nor is
the cyclical solution of Nature's mysteries the exclusive property of Ovid, or
of his Neo-Pythagorean tutors; it is shared by the Stoics and the Neo-Plato-
nists. But the poets of Europe first learnt its outlines in Ovid's pages, even if
curiosity impelled some of them subsequently to supplement Ovid's informa-
tion by resort to metaphysical treatises of one or other of the Greek schools
and to current Italian adaptations of Neo-Pythagoreanism or Neo-Platonism "

(P- 474)-
Though Lee gives evidence in this essay, as commonly when source-hunting,

* But note also the (originally) Greek source of Sonnets 153-154; see the commentary thereon.
J. C. Collins instances this as evidence of Sh.'s classical scholarship, in his article, "Had Sh.
Read the Greek Tragedies?" {Fortnightly Review, n.s., 73: 848); and some of the Baconians, per
contra, have offered it as proof that the Sonnets cannot be the work of the ignoramus of Strat-
ford-on-Avon.

t Von Mauntz, in his commentary on the Sonnets, also provides many of these references,
especially to the Amores and other elegies; but these are to be understood not as suggesting the
source of Sh.'s thought so much as the analogous treatment of similar themes — particularly
that of odi el amo. On the other hand, Sh.'s familiarity with Marlowe's version of the Amores
may be fairly assumed.

SOURCES AND ANALOGUES 463

of magnifying beyond reason the theme of the moment, no reader will quarrel
with his final comment, nor question its appropriateness to this whole discus-
sion of Sh.'s sources: "Critical lovers of the Sonnets, who recognise in them
the flower of poetic fervour, will probably be content to draw, from the fact
of Sh.'s absorption of the Ovidian philosophy, fresh evidence of that mirac-
ulous sympathy and receptivity whereby

all the learnings that his time
Could make him the receiver of, . . . he took,
As we do air, fast as 't was ministered,
And in 's spring became a harvest."

THE FRIEND*

The commentary on the Dedication sets forth the various interpretations
of it as a sentence, and of the meaning of the word "begetter." The sentence
has, for the most part, been understood to mean that Thorpe wished "Mr.
W. H." happiness and "eternity"; the word "begetter" has been rendered
both as "inspirer" and as "procurer." Because of the importance of the
Dedication in influencing theories concerning the friend to whom many — if
not most — of the Sonnets were addressed, it may be taken as a basis for a
classification of those who have written on the subject of this friend's identity.
Three groups may be roughly distinguished.

i. Those who comprise the first group make much of the Dedication. They
believe that Mr. W. H. and the young man whom Sh. sonnetized are identical,
and that, with the initials as a hint, we can put our finger upon the individual.
Some find him in William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke; others present such
varied names as William Harte, William Hughes, William Hammond, William
Hall, and (mystically understood) William Himself; still others propose Wil-
liam Shakespeare, regarding "H" as a misprint for "S"; and others, finally,
Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, viewing the initials as reversed as
a blind. All these interpret "begetter" as "inspirer."

2. The critics in the second group do not attach so much importance to the
Dedication. " Mr. W. H." may offer corroborative evidence as to the identity
of the friend, but is not himself the friend. Characteristic of this group are
those who find the friend in Southampton, but take Mr. W. H. to be a mere
"procurer," — William Hall, a stationer's assistant; or William Hathaway, Sh.'s
brother-in-law; or Sir William Hervey, who married Southampton's mother.

3. The third body of students find even less to influence them in the Dedica-
tion than do those belonging to the second group. They adopt varying posi-
tions, some avoiding the search for a friend by means of such theories as that
the Sonnets are an allegory or that they are a work of fiction, others admitting
his existence but holding that there is no evidence warranting speculation
as to his identity.

Having indicated these general positions, we may proceed to consider the
evidence brought forward by the members of the first and second groups
just described.

I. The Pembroke Theory

This theory was proposed by Bright (1819) and Boaden (1832), and reached
its height in Tyler's presentation (1890). Since then, the attacks of Lee,
Beeching, and others have somewhat weakened it. As the arguments for Pem-
* [This section was prepared by Mr. Frank E. Hill, A.M. — Ed J

THE FRIEND

465

broke as the friend, and for his chief rival Southampton, have been widely scat-
tered, and frequently veiled under misleading verbiage, it seems worth while to
set down in compact and definite form the principal evidence offered for and
against both these hypotheses. In the following outlines, sources and author-
ities are briefly indicated where it is practicable to do so; — usually the origi-
nator of the argument or objection in question, sometimes the one who has
first developed a long standing but apparently negligible idea into something
worthy of consideration. Fuller references to these sources can be traced in
the Bibliography.*

Arguments for Pembroke

I. The Dedication offers evidence
that the friend's initials were YV. H.,
since he is spoken of as the "begetter"
or inspirer of the Sonnets (Boaden,
Dowden); he is also wished the "eter-
nity" which Sh. had promised him.

II. Sonnets 135, 136, and 143 indi-
cate that the friend's name is "Will,"
as more than one person of that name
is implied (Dowden).

III. Pembroke fits the require-
ments of the name, for he was known
as William Herbert until 1601 (Boa-
den). The "Mr." is not a bar, for
Thorpe may have found "W. H." on
the MS. and have added the "Mr."
(Dowden), or he may have added it
as a disguise (Archer).

IV. Both Sonnets and Dedication
suggest that the friend is a nobleman.
S. 37 speaks of "birth" and "wealth"
(Tyler); 36 of "public kindness" and
"honour" (Boaden) 149, 69, 70,71,72,
95, 96 in a general way, and 78, 79, 80,
85, 86 in connection with the homage
of poets, indicate prominence of sta-
tion (Boaden, Tyler). The tone of
the Dedication also implies some social
standing (Beeching).

V. Pembroke's age fits the demands
of the Sonnets, for the evidence points
to a date of composition running from
1598 to 1 60 1. Pembroke was 18 in
1598, and is known to have been urged
to marry in 1597-98 (Tyler). His being

Objections to Pembroke

I. The Dedication offers no evi-
dence that the friend's initials were
W. H., for "begetter" means pro-
curer (Drake); while "eternity"
could not appropriately be wished to
the friend, who was already assured
of his eternity through the praise of
an "ever-living poet."

II. The "Will" sonnets do not refer
to more than one person of the name,
but play upon the name of Sh. and the
common meanings "determination"
and "desire" (Lee).

III. Pembroke does not fit the re-
quirements of the name, for he was
known as Lord Herbert to 1601, and
Earl of Pembroke thereafter: to ad-
dress him as "Mr." would have been
a star-chamber offence (Stopes, Lee).
Moreover, Thorpe's dedication to
Pembroke in 1616 shows that he gave
full titles in addressing nobility
(Stopes).

IV. Nobility is not implied by
either Sonnets or Dedication, the most
that can be inferred being a position
socially higher than an actor or printer
(Butler, Beeching). Pronouns of
address, and other evidences of inti-
macy on equal terms, make a noble
station very improbable (Jusserand,
Gray).

V. The evidence points to a date,
or dates, between 1593 and 1596. with
special probability attaching to the
time when the sonnet vogue was at its
height, viz.. about 1594. At this time
Pembroke was but 14. On the other

* See also in the section on the Date of Composition, pp. 441-52 above, an outline of the sig-
nificant details in the lives of Southampton and Pembroke.

466

APPENDIX

Sh.'s junior by 16 years also corre-
sponds to the language of a number of
the Sonnets.

VI. Pembroke's person corresponds
with the youth of the Sonnets, for
Anthony a Wood and Clarendon tes-
tify to his impressive appearance in
later years, and a poem of Davison's
(1602) notes his "outward shape" as
being "most lovely" (Tyler).

VII. Pembroke's character corre-
sponds with that of the youth of the
Sonnets, for he was both sensual and
a lover of poets (Boaden, Tyler).

VIII. Heminge and Condell dedi-
cated the Folio plays to Pembroke
(and his brother) in 1623, and men-
tioned his having "prosecuted both
them, and their author living, with so
much favour" (Boaden).

IX. Pembroke's connection with
the "dark lady" is indicated by the
evidence, for he had illicit relations
with Mary Fitton, maid of honor to
the Queen, whose character corre-
sponds closely with that of Sh.'s mis-
tress; Will Kemp's dedication to her
of his Nine Dates Wonder also suggests
acquaintance between her and Sh.
(Tyler). The dark lady of a number
of the plays also corresponds with
Mrs. Fitton (Harris).

hand, Southampton came of age and
was still unmarried in 1594 (Lee).

VI. Wood's and Clarendon's de-
scriptions give no impression of
beauty, and Davison's tribute is a
cautious qualification (Lee). Pem-
broke's hair, too, was dark, whereas
that of the hero of the Sonnets is com-
pared with reddish buds of marjoram
(Stopes).

VII. Southampton's character fits
the case at least as well (see argu-
ments for Southampton).

VIII. The Folio dedication has
little weight, being purely formal; and
Pembroke, being Lord Chamberlain
at the time, was the only logical choice
(Lee).

IX. Pembroke's mistress cannot
be identified with the "dark lady."
S. 152 indicates that the latter was
married, and Mrs. Fitton had not
been married at the time in question
(cf. Chambers, Academy, July 31,
1897); moreover, Mary Fitton. seems
not to have been dark (cf. Bridge-
man, in appendix to Lady Newdigate-
Newdegate's Gossip from a Muniment
Room, 2d ed.; Lee; Beeching).
Kemp's dedication, so far from indi-
cating intimacy with Mrs. Fitton,
mistakes her Christian name (Lee).

The negative evidence here appears to be at least as strong as the positive.
At best, the case for Pembroke rests upon a purely inferential kind of cir-
cumstantial evidence, and practically no part of it remains unassailed. It
is noteworthy that it depends, first of all, upon a relatively late date for the
composition of the Sonnets. If this be accepted, the disparity of years between
Sh. and Pembroke is favorable to the claim of the latter; and the Folio dedica-
tion makes it at least possible that Sh., after 1594, changed patrons. But this
claim is weakened, rather than strengthened, by its connection with the Mary
Fitton theory, which may be said to have been disproved. Tyler's argument
for this goes far to upset itself. The lady is introduced in order to strengthen
Pembroke's claim to be called the friend. Now if we could point to a woman
who was both Sh.'s mistress and Pembroke's mistress, we might agree that
Pembroke's claim was strengthened, though even then it might be argued
that, when the woman in the case is called "the bay where all men ride," there
is room for much uncertainty. Tyler, however, does not provide the least
we could expect as proof, — namely, that Mrs. Fitton was both Sh.'s and

THE FRIEND

467

Pembroke's mistress. He does show that she was Pembroke's, and attempts
(without great success) to show that her character matches that of the siren
of the poems. Then, forgetting that he had called forth Mrs. Fitton in order
to prove Pembroke the friend, and feeling — what is true — that before she
can be of use to him she must be definitely proved the "dark lady," he alleges
that, because Pembroke was the friend, therefore his mistress was Sh.'s mis-
tress (the friend might have had more than one, but let us pass that), there-
fore she was the "dark lady." Pembroke, therefore (finally), was the friend!

II. The Southampton Theory

This theory, since its proposal by Drake (18 17), has maintained a brave
front with the exception of the period 1890-1898, when it seemed likely that
Tyler would establish the claims of Pembroke. Lee's Life of Sh. (1898) gave
new life to Drake's hypothesis, which has all along had more advocates in
Germany, if not in England, than the Pembroke theory. The principal argu-
ments may be outlined as follows:

Arguments for Southampton

I. General evidence favors a date
of composition, for the Sonnets, of
about 1594, the height of the sonnet
vogue; and at this period Southamp-
ton was Sh.'s avowed patron (cf.
dedications to V. & A. and Lucrece);
indeed there is no evidence pointing
to any other (Drake, Lee).

II. The Sonnets give evidence of
being addressed to a patron, for they
are conventional in form, in their use
of the theme of immortality, etc. Some
twenty of them are dedicatory in na-
ture, and Sonnets 26, 32, 38 express
in verse the prose sentiments of the
Lucrece dedication (Drake, Lee).

III. There is also evidence of a
warmer relationship between the two
men than that of poet and patron, for
Anthony a Wood speaks of South-
ampton's generosity to Sh., and Sh.,
in the dedication of Lucrece, tells of
the "love without end" which he
bears his patron, and assures him
that "what I have is yours " (Drake,
Lee).

V. Southampton's age and situa-
tion are appropriate for the friend of
the Sonnets, for in 1594 he was 21, and
was still unmarried (Lee); moreover,
his father had died when he was a
child, a circumstance corresponding

Arguments against Southampton

I. It is very doubtful whether most
of the Sonnets were written as early
as 1594 (Beeching, etc.; see under
Date); and there is no evidence that
Southampton's patronage continued
throughout the later period. In 1598-
1603 the Sonnets could hardly have
been addressed to Southampton (Boa-
den, Tyler).

II. There is no certainty that the
Sonnets celebrate a patron; their con-
ventionality has been exaggerated, and
the "dedicatory sonnets" are not
necessarily dedicatory at all (Beech-
ing). Sonnets 26, etc., no more repeat
the Lucrece dedication than do many-
sonnets by other poets of the time
(Archer).

III. Wood's note is based on mere
hearsay, and if true denotes no more
than admiring generosity; and the
"love" of the dedications is a con-
ventional term for poet to use toward
patron, as Lee himself shows( Archer).
Moreover, S. 125 may be Sh.'s pro-
testation that his attentions to South-
ampton were formal and temporary'
(Tyler).

IV. Southampton's age was too ad-
vanced for the probable date of the
Sonnets (see I above); and it is
highly improbable that Sh. should ever
have addressed him as "sweet boy"
(Beeching). The language of S. 13

468

APPENDIX

to "You had a father" of S. 13. The
argument that he was not enough
younger than Sh. to explain the lan-
guage of the Sonnets is not valid, for
his youthful "prime" at 24 might
well make a man of 33 feel old by
comparison (Lee). Poets are known,
too, to have spoken of men of 30 as
"boys" in Elizabeth's time.

V. Southampton's personal ap-
pearance corresponds with that of the
youth of the Sonnets, for he was "ac-
claimed the handsomest of Elizabethan
courtiers" (Lee); his portraits also
show him to have been handsome, and
to have had light auburn hair, sugges-
tive of the comparison with "buds
of marjoram" (Stopes, Lee).

VI. Southampton's character cor-
responds with that of the friend, for
he was one of the dissipated courtiers
of the time, and was beloved of poets
(Lee).

VII. Southampton's release from
prison on the accession of James I
appears to be alluded to in S. 107
(Lee).

VIII. The fact that Southampton's
initials were H. W. does not conflict
with his claim; for the W. H. of the
Dedication may not refer to the sub-
ject of the Sonnets; or, if it does, the
initials may have been reversed as
a blind. On the other hand, if the
W. S. of Willobie his Aviso, is Sh.,
Southampton's claim is confirmed by
the use, in that poem, of the initials
H.-W. (Fleay, Acheson).

has no bearing on the question, since
the past tense does not imply that the
father was dead (Tyler). The six-
teen years' difference between Pem-
broke and Sh. are far more appropriate
to the conditions (Boaden, Archer).

V. It is more than doubtful whether
Southampton's portraits reveal a hand-
some man; and if the Sonnets date
from 1598 and later, his age makes
the depicted youthful beauty improb-
able (Boaden).

VI. Southampton's character does
not correspond with that of the friend;
he bore no such reputation for sensu-
ality as Pembroke, could not well be
called "lovely" (but was rather dis-
tinguished as tempestuous and quarrel-
some), and was primarily a soldier —
a circumstance of which the Sonnets
give no hint (Boaden, Archer).

VII. The date of S. 107 is quite
uncertain, and it cannot be naturally
explained as a congratulatory address
to Southampton (Beeching).

VIII. Southampton's claim is made
impossible by the fact that his name
was Henry (see I and 1 1 under the ar-
guments for Pembroke). As to Willo-
bie his Aviso, there is no real evidence
for connecting it with Sh.; nor, if the
W. S. of the poem were Sh., would
there be any reason for taking the
Henry Willobie of the poem to be
Henry Wriothesley. (See below, pp.
478-82.)

(To these are to be added the arguments on both sides respecting the
question whether the friend was a nobleman, as noted under the Pem-
broke theory, IV.)

On reviewing these arguments, it becomes evident that the cause of South-
ampton depends upon the known patronage which that earl extended to
Sh., associated with a belief in the comparatively early date of the Sonnets.
The evidence respecting Southampton's personal beauty is perhaps balanced
by the comparative inappropriateness of his age and reputation. Throughout,
as with the Pembroke theory, plausible objections are raised at every step, and
the whole b'ody of evidence is seen to be circumstantial and inferential.

THE FRIEND 469

III. Other Theories

The name of William Harte was suggested by Farmer in Malone's edition
of 1780. Harte was Sh.'s nephew, the son of his sister Joan. Since he was not
baptized until August 28, 1600, after most of the sonnets had — in all proba-
bility — been written, this view has gained no supporters.

William Hughes, a name rather than an individual, was proposed by Tyr-
whitt, also in Malone's edition of 1780, on the basis of the italicised "Hews"
of Sonnet 20. See the notes on that sonnet for the further development of this
theory. It finds no important supporters in recent criticism. Mackail has ob-
served humorously that, if we once undertake to use typographical details
as a means of identification, William Rose should be our choice rather than
Hews or Hughes, since the word "rose" is capitalized no less than ten times
in the text of the Sonnets, and appears in the first sonnet in startling italics.

William Hammond was proposed by W. C. Hazlitt (1874), but this notion
has attracted little evidence and no supporters.

Mrs. Stopes has suggested William Herbert (1890), — not the Earl of Pem-
broke, but a private person; and again, William Hunnis, a minor poet; but has
since withdrawn these names, and supports Southampton as the friend, with
Sir William Hervey (or Harvey) as "begetter" in another sense.

William Hall (not the stationer of Lee's "begetter" theory, but a member of
a Worcestershire family) was proposed by Underhill (see the Bibliography
under V, 1890).

Last of the theories based on the initials of the Dedication, we may note
that of F. A. White (see Bibliography, V, 1900), who finds the friend to be
William Hathaway, junior, son of Sh.'s brother-in-law and a former sweet-
heart (hypothetically) named Susan Hamnet!

Of conjectures not based on the Dedication, the earliest is that of Chalmers
(1797), that the Sonnets were addressed to Queen Elizabeth. Travers (1880)
proposed the view that they were addressed to an illegitimate son of the poet's.
(See note on S. 36.) The only theory of this sort (outside that of the South-
amptonists) offered by a critic deserving of attention is that of Isaac, who in
1884 proposed the Earl of Essex. His main contentions are (1) that the sonnets
bear evidence of a very early date of composition, the late 8o's or early 90's;
(2) that Essex, in both character, beauty, and situation, resembles the friend
of the Sonnets. Stress is laid upon the young earl's beauty, and upon the prob-
ability that such an experience as the dark-lady sonnets represent is one likely
to be gone through by a young man, inexperienced and imaginative, rather
than by one at the height of fame and knowledge of the world. The theory-
has found few adherents, most critics doubtless feeling that the date of the
Sonnets on which it rests is improbable, and that, since Essex was born in
1566, the want of disparity in age between him and Sh. makes his identifica-
tion with the "lovely youth" out of the question.

All these theories remaining mere hypotheses, there remains the view that to
refuse to accept what is unproved is more satisfying, after all, than to try to

470

APPENDIX

support what cannot be demonstrated. Could we produce an Elizabethan whose
initials were W. H., whose birth was gentle, whose position was fairly eminent,
who was born about 1576 (and hence could have been urged to marry as early
as 1594 or as late as 1598), who was lovely to look upon, sensual, capricious,
charming, who was known to have loved a woman — a brunette, clever, and
indiscreet, who both loved and patronized Sh.; — if we could produce such a
person, we might reconcile some, even, of the Pembrokists and Southamptonists,
and win not a few skeptics to the view that the identity of the friend is demon-
strable. For, as Professor Gray observes, "There is something sad about work-
ing over a vexed problem and getting in the end only negative results. One so
wishes to say 'Southampton' or 'Pembroke,' or even, in desperation, 'William
Hughes'!" But the paragon has not been produced; the evidence for all the
"friends" seems, in the view of the most cautious critics, to be conjectural
merely; as Gray puts it, again, "Southampton and Pembroke can play each
other to a tie, but neither can show any compelling reason for the choice of
him." One may admire, then, the more daring critic who will accept sugges-
tive evidence rather than have no theory at all; but one must also try to retain
a sense of the difference between conjecture and proof.

The following table, while making no pretension to completeness, will give
the reader some idea of the position of the critics on the question of the iden-
tity of the friend of the Sonnets.

Pembroke Theory

Southampton Theory

Drake

1817

Bright

1819

Mrs. Jameson

1829

Boaden

1832

Hunter

1845

Cartwright

1859

Jordan

1861

Alger

1862

Gervinus

1862

Corney

1862

Kreyssig

1863

Massey

1866

Sievers

1866

Chasles

1867

Krauss

1872

Minto

1874

VV. Rossetti

1878

Main

1880

Stengel

1881

Mackay

1884

Sharp

1885

Tyler

1886

Fleay

1886

Verity

1890

Shindler

1892

Other Theories

Tyrwhitt and Ma-
lone (William
Hughes) 1780

W. C. Hazlitt (Wil-
liam Hammond) 1865

Furnivall (agnostic) 1877

Dowden (agnostic) 1881
Isaac (Essex) 1884

THE FRIEND

Boas

Archer

Brandes

Rolfe
Harris

1896
1897
1808

1905
1909

von Mauntz
Sarrazin

Sidney Lee
Stopes

Herford

Henry

Acheson

Genee

Brandl

1894
1895

1898
1898

1900
1900
1903

1905

1913

471

Butler (William
Hughes)

1899

Beeching (agnostic) 1904

Luce (agnostic) 1906

Walsh (agnostic) 1908
Jusserand (agnostic) 1909
Mackail (agnostic) 191 1
Porter (agnostic) 19 12

THE RIVAL POET*

The sonnets which give rise to the problem of the "rival poet" are those
numbered 78 to 86 (excluding 81). Some critics have found allusions in other
sonnets, but the basis of identification rests in these. The elements of it are
as follows. In S. 78 is a reference to "every alien pen." If the lines that fol-
low are to be referred primarily to the one poet who in other sonnets is singled
out as rival, he is more "learned "than Sh. (78, 7), and has "grace" (78, 8). His
writing is "polished" (85, 8), and is spoken of as "precious phrase by all the
Muses filed" (85, 4). From the expression "fresher stamp of the time-better-
ing days" (82, 8), it has been inferred that he was a younger man than Sh.
In spite of this, his is a "worthier pen" (79, 6), and a "better spirit" (80, 2).
The "proud full sail of his great verse" (86, 1) is discouraging to others. Sh.
speaks of himself as "tongue-tied" (80, 4) in his presence, and of his own bark
as "a worthless boat" (80, n) in comparison with the rival's, "of tall building
and of goodly pride." (For the more or less conventional character of such
passages, see the evidence given by Wolff, page 460 above.) The unknown
is also distinguished by the fact that he writes "hymns" (85, 7), and that he
"spends all his might" (80, 3) in praise of the patron. In other passages he is
treated with rather less respect. His rhetoric is called "strained" (82, 10) and
"gross painting" (82, 13), in comparison with simple truth, — though this is
rather by way of praise of the patron than of derogation from the rival's art.
Most mysteriously, he is said to be "taught to write" by "spirits" (86, 5),
to be aided by "compeers by night" (86, 7), and to be "gulled" nightly by an
"affable familiar ghost" (86, 9).

All this assumes that but one poet is referred to in these sonnets, after the
general introductory allusion to "every alien pen." Some critics, however,
find evidence of two (see notes on 83, 14) ; and some — notably Massey, Fleay,
and Wyndham — of a number. We may also note one or two other minor
theories. Stronach (N. &f Q.,gth s., 12: 141, 273), viewing the sonnet collection
as a miscellany like the Passionate Pilgrim, finds that among the poems included
are some by Barnabe Barnes, in which Sh. is the subject and not the author
of the rival-poet allusions. In like manner Mackay (Nineteenth Century, 1884)
finds that the sonnets in question are the work of Marlowe. Here may also be
mentioned the theories according to which Dante and Tasso, respectively, are
proposed as rival poet, the first by an anonymous contributor in Blackwood's
Magazine for 1884-86, the second by Leigh, in the Westminster Review for
1897. In both cases the evidence is far-fetched and entirely negligible.

For the great body of critics the question centers about the identification of a
single poet, a contemporary of Sh., and one who might in some sense be thought
* [This section is basid on an unpublished paper by Mr. William T. Ham, A.M. — Ed.]

THE RIVAL POET 473

to be a rival for the patronage naturally sought by a man of letters of the time.
Spenser, naturally enough, was the first to be. suggested, by Maloxe; as
Walsh observes, he was "the only 'better spirit' at the time whose com-
petition Sh. need have feared." No critic, however, has found any historical
evidence to support this view, and the claim has met with general skepticism.
Boadex points out that for the Pembrokists Spenser is impossible, since he
died too young (1599) to dedicate to that nobleman. Not much is gained for
the Spenser theory by the support of Gertrude Garrigues, who (in an article
in the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 1887), viewing the Sonnets as mystical
in character, argues that Sh. realized that he would never be able to attain
the philosophic heights of Spenser, or that of J. E. G. de Moxtmorexcy, who
(in the Contemporary Review, 1912) also views Sh. as a follower of Spenser in
the field of allegory.

The claims of Marlowe also received early attention, and were supported
most elaborately by Massey. Massey believed, to be sure, that Nash was the
"learned" poet of S. 78, but that Marlowe was he with "a double majesty"
of "grace." (See note on 78, 8.) In the use of the word "Arts" (78, 12) he finds
an allusion to Marlowe's degree of M.A., and the supernatural details of S. 86
are explained by his interest in necromancy and by Faustus. As Marlowe died
in 1593, this theory is of course dependent upon the belief in a very early date
for the Sonnets; it is supported by Godwix, in his New Study of the Sonnets of
Sh., and by "C. C. B.," a contributor to Notes & Queries (nth s., 5: 190), on
the basis of theories of such a date. No Pembrokist, of course, could consider
this view; and Mixto points out that there is no reason to suppose that Mar-
lowe knew Southampton either.

Boadex proposed the name of Daniel, on the ground that he was probably
regarded by Sh. as his master in lyrical poetry (see above, under "Sources and
Analogues"). He also calls attention to Daniel's reputation for learning, and
finds the familiar spirit in Dr. Dee, a necromancer having some connection with
the Pembrokes. Dowdex gives some countenance to this view (though with-
out accepting it): "Daniel's reputation stood high; ... he was brought up at
Wilton, the seat of the Pembrokes, and in 1601 he inscribed his Defence of
Ryme to William Herbert." Mrs. Stopes does the same, in her article in Poet
Lore, 1890, recalling that Daniel's Masque of the Twelve Goddesses "introduced
Night and Sleep," and that it has been said that Daniel "supplanted Sh. in
the coveted post of the Master of the Revels." The most ardent defender of
Daniel's claim is Creightox, in his articles in Blackwood's for 1901 ; he finds an
anagram of Daniel (all but the D!) in the italicized "Alien" pen, and develops
an elaborate theory of Daniel and Sh. as rivals for the post of Poet Laureate.
The proof is far too eccentric to deserve serious consideration. On the other
hand, there appear to be no important objections to this theory, based on the
date or character of the claimant.

The view that Drayton may have been the rival poet was proposed by
R. H. Legis, in a communication to Notes & Queries in 1S84. Fear of the great-
ness of Polyolbion, and the "dedicated words" found at the beginnings of

474 APPENDIX

certain books of that poem, are among the details of this theory. "In the com-
position of this, the most extensive poem since Spenser, Drayton was aided on
all sides by his compeers," — who are thus reduced from supernatural to human
beings. Drayton's epithet of " golden-mouthed " is alluded to in the "golden
quill" of 85,3. Legis's argument has found few adherents. Wyndham, however,
believing in several rival poets, concludes: "If compelled to select one, ... I
should select Drayton." {Poems of Sh., p. 258.) Drayton was "one of the
'learned'"; he praised Sh.'s Lucrece in 1594, but withdrew the passage in his
edition of 1596; he was part author of the pamphlet on Sir John Oldcastle,
written in 1600 as a retort on Sh.'s Henry IV. (For his alleged borrowings from
Sh., see the views of Wyndham and others in the section on Sources and
Analogues, above.) These are possible grounds for his claim.

In recent years attention has been attracted to the view that Barnabe Barnes
was the rival poet, through the persistent but practically unseconded nomina-
tion of Sir Sidney Lee. Barnes was "a poetic panegyrist of Southampton and
a prolific sonneteer, who was deemed by contemporary critics certain to prove
a great poet. His first collection of sonnets, Parthenophil & Parthenophe, . . .
was printed in 1593. ... In a sonnet that Barnes addressed in this earliest
volume to the 'virtuous' Earl of Southampton, he declared that his patron's
eyes were the 'heavenly lamps that give the Muses light,' and that his sole
ambition was 'by flight to rise' to a height worthy of his patron's 'virtues.'"
Sh. may be thought to allude to this in S. 78, 5-8. (Life, pp. 132-33.) See also
various passages in the commentary (traceable through the index), where Lee
also finds evidence of Sh.'s sensitive interest in Barnes's verse. The supposed
references to the supernatural (S. 86) he explains by saying that "Sh. detected
a touch of magic in the man's writing"; — on which it may be observed that if
he did, then "the less Shakespeare he." Lee also reiterates the argument that
Barnes was fond of calling his poems "hymns," though he promptly destroys
the force of it by showing the prevalence of the term, as is pointed out in the
notes to S. 85. Most critics find little to be said for this Barnes theory. In the
first place, as Beeching observes (Intro., p. xlvi), the dates are not favorable;
Barnes's collection was entered on the Stationers' Register only a month after
the publication of V. & A. Moreover, even those who consider Barnes's praise
of Southampton as pertinent to the Sonnets question are likely to find it in-
credible that Sh. should have considered him worthy of serious notice as a poet.

Before discussing the most important of the identifications, we may note
rapidly certain lesser theories. Fleay gives some attention to Thomas Nash,
believing {Biog. Chronicle, 2: 218) that S. 86 "refers ironically to a prosaic
sonnet by Nash in Pierce Pennilesse, accompanying a complaint that Amyntas'
(Southampton's) name was omitted in the sonnet catalogue of English heroes
appended to Spenser's F.Q."; the proof being that in this passage Nash
uses the words "full sail." But elsewhere Fleay finds the "better spirit"
to be Gervase Markham, whose non-extant Thyrsis & Daphne he supposes
to have been written in rivalry with V. & A. "He was learned, had 'proud
sail' with a vengeance, and his poem [Sir Richard Grenville, 1595] was die-

THE RIVAL POET 475

tated by the spirit of Grenville." \V. R. Alger, in his essays on "Sh.'s Sonnets
and Friendship " (1862), argues for the recognition of Ben Jonson as the
rival. Henry Brown, in his book on the Sonnets (1870), favors both Francis
Davison and John Davies, chiefly on the ground of dedications which they
penned; see notes on Sonnets, 78, 82, and 86. W. C. Hazlitt identifies Griffin,
author of Fidessa, in S. 80 (see the notes). Butler, with his view of an ex-
traordinarily early date, is inclined toward Watson and his sonnets of 1582.
Wyndham finds a possible case for Marston, who is supposed to have been an
opponent of Sh. in the poetomachia, and who boasts of a "genius that attends
my soul." Von Mauntz, in his Heraldik in Diensten der Sh.-Forschung (1903),
proposes Gabriel Harvey, on the ground of supposed allusions to Sh., Xash,
and the Dark Lady, in Pierces Supererogation ; the familiar spirit of the Son-
nets he takes to be an allusion to " some familiar spright " in the postscript to
Harvey's poem "Gorgon, or the Wonderfull Yeare." And Mac kail {Essays
and Studies by Members of the English Association, vol. 3, 1912, pp. 66-69) con-
jectures that the rival poet is none other than the author of " A Lover's Com-
plaint," which may have been found in the same MS. book with the Sonnets
because written for the same patron.

Lastly, George Chapman has been the most widely accepted claimant for
identification as rival poet, since being proposed by Professor Minto in 1874.
Minto's principal evidence is as follows {Char, of Eng. Poets, pp. 222-23):
"Chapman was a man of overpowering enthusiasm, ever eager in magnifying
poetry, and advancing fervent claims to supernatural inspiration. In 1594 he
published a poem called 'The Shadow of Night,' which goes far to establish
his identity as Sh.'s rival. In the Dedication, after animadverting severely
on vulgar searchers after knowledge, he exclaims: 'Now what a supererogation
in wit is this, to think Skill so mightily pierced with their loves that she should
prostitutely show them her secrets, when she will scarcely be looked upon by
others but with invocation, fasting, watching; yea, not without having drops
of their souls like a heavenly familiar.' Here we have something like a profes-
sion of the familiar ghost that Sh. saucily laughs at. But Sh.'s rival gets his
intelligence by night: special stress is laid in the sonnet upon the aid of his
compeers by night and his nightly familiar. Well, Chapman's poem is called
'The Shadow of Xight,' and its purpose is to extol the wonderful powers
of Night in imparting knowledge to her votaries. He addresses her with fer-
vent devotion:

Rich-taper 'd sanctuary of the blest,

Palace of truth, made all of tears and rest,

To thy black shades and desolation

I consecrate rav life.

And he cries:

All you possess'd with indepressed spirits,
Endued with nimble and aspiring wits,
Come consecrate with me to sacred Night
Your whole endeavours, and detest the light. . .

476 APPENDIX

No pen can anything eternal write

That is not steep'd in humour of the Night.

It is not simply that night is the best season for study; the enthusiastic poet
finds more active assistance than silence and freedom from interruption. When
the avenues of sense are closed by sleep, his soul rises to the court of Skill (the
mother of knowledge, who must be propitiated by drops of the soul like an
heavenly familiar), and if he could only remember what he learns there no
secret would be hid from him.

Let soft sleep,

Binding my senses, loosen my working soul,

That in her highest pitch she may control

The court of Skill, compact of mystery,

Wanting but franchisement and memory

To reach all secrets.

As regards the other feature in the rival poet, ' the proud full sail of his great
verse,' that applies with almost too literal exactness to the alexandrines of
Chapman's Homer, part of which appeared in 1596; and as for its being bound
for the prize of Sh.'s patron, both Pembroke and Southampton were included
in the list of those honoured with dedicatory sonnets in a subsequent edition.
Chapman's chief patron was Sir Francis Walsingham, whose daughter Sir
Philip Sidney had married, and nothing could have been more natural than
that the old man should introduce his favourite to the Countess of Pembroke
or her son."

Later critics have, in a number of instances, not only accepted Minto's evi-
dence but reenforced it. Dowden, though remaining agnostic, thinks this the
most fortunate of the guesses: "No Elizabethan poet wrote ampler verse, none
scorned 'ignorance more,' or more haughtily asserted his learning, than Chap-
man. In 'The Tears of Peace' (1609), Homer as a spirit visits and inspires
him: the claim to such inspiration may have been often made by the trans-
lator of Homer in earlier years." (Intro., p. 20.) Tyler considers the identifi-
cation "so complete as to leave no reasonable doubt on the matter" (p. 33).
Beeching, though not accepting the theory, contributes — for those who do
— the fact that in 1598 Chapman "wrote a poem to that celebrated Doctor
Harriot of whom Marlowe had said in his ' atheistical ' way that he could juggle
better than Moses." (Intro., p. xlv.) But by far the most elaborate contribu-
tion to the Chapman doctrine has been made by Acheson, in his Sh. & the
Rival Poet (1903). It is impossible to outline his argument here, as it involves
an intricate theory of a prolonged quarrel between Chapman and Sh., of which
much evidence is found in the latter's plays. For a number of the alleged
parallels between Chapman's poetry and the Sonnets, see the commentary,
with the aid of the index. The more respectful allusions to Chapman, those
in the rival-poet group, Acheson puts after the publication of the first part
of the Homer, in 1598. Others who support Minto's theory, with varying
degrees of assurance, are Furnivall, Rolfe, Boas, and Brandl.

THE RIVAL POET 477

The objections are largely negative. Lee observes: "Chapman had pro-
duced no conspicuously ' great verse ' till he began his translation of Homer in
1598; and although he appended in 1610 to a complete edition of his translation
a sonnet to Southampton, it was couched in the coldest terms of formality,
and it was one of a series of sixteen sonnets each addressed to a distinguished
nobleman with whom the writer implies that he had no previous relations. . . .
[As to the passages in 'The Shadow of Night,'] there is really no connection
between Sh.'s theory of the supernatural and nocturnal sources of his rival's
influence with Chapman's trite allusion to the current faith in the power of
'nightly familiars' over men's minds and lives, or in Chapman's invitation to
his literary comrades to honour Xight with him. ... It could be as easily
argued on like grounds that Sh. was drawing on other authors. Xash in his
prose tract, called independently The Terrors of the Night, which was also printed
in 1594, described the nocturnal habits of 'familiars' more explicitly than
Chapman." (Life, pp. 134-35.) Wyndham doubts if Chapman can be said
to have "eternized" anybody (p. 254); and Beeching queries, "Was Chap-
man the sort of man to write affectionate sonnets to a youth? " Walsh, com-
menting on Acheson's evidence, remarks: "His argument fails in one item
by himself considered material: he cannot show by external testimony that
Chapman courted the favour of either of Sh.'s known patrons" * (p. 271).
He proceeds, however, to say that the rival poet may have been one who cele-
brated any distinguished patron of the time, — the Countess of Pembroke,
for example.

On the whole, this Chapman theory, while it is far from having been shown
to be impossible, has been accepted with decidedly uncritical assurance. The
case is the same as with the theories respecting the friend: since no other
claimant is provided with better evidence, the disposition is to accept what
is offered rather than be without an identification. In the case of this problem
there is reason for rather more hopefulness than in the other, since the rival
poet would seem less likely than the friend to have been a man unknown to
fame. On the other hand it may be said that if, as some understand it, Sh.'s
praise of the rival poet is ironical, he may well have been an ambitious no-
body destined for oblivion. For the present, at any rate, Dowdex's conclusion
must stand: " In the end we are forced to confess that the poet remains as dim
a figure as the patron."

* For want of this, Acheson devises a theory that Chapman sought the patronage of South-
ampton for his early poems, in 1594 and 1595, and was rejected. (His "dedicated words"
were "undoubtedly still in manuscript" when Sh. wrote S. 82; so we are told on p. 127.) For this
he produces not a particle of real proof, but later repeatedly refers to it as known fact.

"WILLOBIE HIS AVISA"

The book bearing the above title, which appeared in 1594 and in various
subsequent editions, has been associated with the discussion of Sh.'s Sonnets
to an extent which makes some account of it necessary. The fuller title is
"Willobie his Avisa: or the true Picture of a modest Maid, and of a chast
and constant wife"; supplemented, in later editions, by "an Apologie, shew-
ing the true meaning of Willoby his Avisa: with the victory of English Chas-
titie." The work is a moral poem, of bourgeois tone, praising chastity as per-
sonified in the character of Avisa, a young woman who, because of extraordinary
charms, is subjected to great temptation both before and after her marriage.
Of her wooers some are presented as villains of various nationalities; but one,
the supposed author of the poem, Henry Willobie, is afflicted with a persistent
and sincere, though guilty passion, and Avisa treats him with some kindness,
though with inexorable virtue. The poem ends with her final dismissal of him.
In Canto 44 occurs a prose interlude, which is chiefly responsible for the theory
that the story partly concerns Sh. It reads as follows:

H. W. being sodenly affected with the contagion of a fantasticall fit, at
the first sight of A, pyneth a while in secret griefe, at length not able any longer
to indure the burning heate of so fervent a humour, bewrayeth the secresy
of his disease unto his familiar frend W. S. who not long before had tryed the
curtesy of the like passion, and was now newly recovered of the like infection;
yet finding his frend let bloud in the same vaine, he took pleasure for a tyme
to see him bleed, & in steed of stopping the issue, he inlargeth the wound,
with the sharpe rasor of a willing conceit, perswading him that he thought it a
matter very easy to be compassed, & no doubt with payne, diligence & some
cost in tyme to be obtayned. Thus this miserable comforter comforting his
frend with an impossibilitie, eyther for that he now would secretly laugh at his
frends folly, that had given occasion not long before unto others to laugh at
his owne, or because he would see whether an other could play his part better
than himselfe, & in vewing a far off the course of this loving Comedy, he deter-
mined to see whether it would sort to a happier end for this new actor, then it
did for the old player. But at length this Comedy was like to have growen to
a Tragedy, by the weake and feeble estate that H. W. was brought unto, by a
desperate vewe of an impossibility of obtaining his purpose, til Time & Neces-
sity, being his best Phisitions brought him a plaster, if not to heale, yet in part
to ease his maladye. In all which discourse is lively represented the unrewly
rage of unbrydeled fancy, having the raines to rove at liberty, with the dyvers
& sundry changes of affections & temptations, which Will, set loose from Reason,
can devise, &c.

There follows Willobie's complaint, in verse, succeeded (in cantos 45 and
47) by remarks on the part of W. S., inquiring regarding his friend's sadness,
and giving advice for the wooing of cold ladies; thereupon Willobie renews his
vain attacks, and we hear no more of the cynical friend. "W. S.," then, ap-
pears as one of the group of characters who represent the view that woman's
virtue is never wholly impregnable, — the doctrine which it is the professed
purpose of the poem to oppose.

"WILLOBIE HIS AVISA" 479

To this must be added — since to some the circumstance has seemed signi-
ficant — the fact that in some prefatory verses Sh. is incidentally mentioned as
the author of Lucrece.

Ixgleby, having occasion to reprint the passage last mentioned in the
Sh. Allusion Books and Century of Praise, also reprinted the passage from
Canto 44, and expressed the opinion that " W. S." stood for Sh., on the grounds
that he appears "as a standard authority on love" and that he is called an
"old player." (C. of P., ed. 1879, p. 11.) This conjecture found acceptance,
at least as an interesting hypothesis, with a number of persons, including so
distinguished a critic as Swinburne, who, in his Study of Sh., referred to
Willobie his Avisa as "the one contemporary book which has ever been sup-
posed to throw any direct or indirect light on the mystic matter" of the Son-
nets (p. 62). Partly as a result of his encouragement, Grosart brought out
a reprint of the poem in 1880.* Dowden examined the matter in his edition
of the Sonnets (1881), and concluded: "Assuming that W. S. is William Sh., we
learn that he had loved and recovered from the infection of his passion before
the end of 1594. The chaste Avisa is as unlike as possible the dark woman of
the Sonnets; nor does anything appear which can connect Henry Willobie
with Sh.'s young friend of the Sonnets, except the fact that the initials of the
only begetter's name were W. H., those of Henry Willobie reversed, and that
Henry Willobie assails the chastity of a married woman. He is, however, re-
pulsed by the chaste Avisa. Except in the reference to W. S.'s love, and his
recovery from passion, I see no possible point of connection between Willo-
bie's Avisa and Sh.'s Sonnets." (Intro., pp. 42-43.) Fleay, on the other hand,
in his Life and Work of Sh. (1886), represented the work as of the greatest
importance for the study of the Sonnets, and identified Avisa as the Dark
Lady, conjecturing that she was an innkeeper's daughter in the "West of
England." f This notion was further developed by Plumptre, in an article
in the Contemporary Rrciew for 1889, wherein he constructed an outline of
certain provincial journeyings of Sh. in 1593, and located Avisa the Dark
Lady in Glastonbury. Lee gave some further countenance to these conjec-
tures, both in his Life of Sh. and in the account of the actual Henry Willoughby
in the D. N. B. "The mention of ' W. S. ' as 'the old player,' and the employ-
ment of theatrical imagery in discussing his relations with Willobie, must be
coupled with the fact that Sh., at a date when mentions of him in print were
rare, was eulogized by name as the author of Lucrece in some prefatory verses

* Another reprint was made by C. Hughes, 1004; and still another by Acheson, as a supple-
ment to his Mistress Davenant, 1913. In 1886 the Spenser Society reprinted the edition of
1635. Hughes, in his edition, discovered a real Henry Willoughby and a real Avisa (or Avice)
Forward.

t This is due to the single stanza which forms Canto 46, in which Willobie thus locates the
heroine :

Seest yonder howse, where hanges the badge
Of Englands Saint, when captaines cry
Victorious land, to conquering rage,
Loe, there my hopelesse helpe doth ly:
And there that frendly foe doth dwell.
That makes my hart thus rage and swell.

48o APPENDIX

to the volume. From such considerations the theory of W. S.'s identity with
Willobie's acquaintance acquires substance. If we assume that it was Sh. who
took a roguish delight in watching his friend Willobie suffer the disdain of
'chaste Avisa' because he had 'newly recovered' from the effects of a like
experience, it is clear that the theft of Sh.'s mistress by another friend did not
cause him deep or lasting distress." {Life, pp. 157-58.) Beeching, on the other
hand, dismisses the identification with a few words, in his edition of the Son-
nets (1904): "The sole ground for the conjecture is that W. S. is referred
to as the 'old player.' But the love affair had been previously spoken of as 'a
comedy like to end in a tragedy,' and Willobie himself is called the 'new actor.'
There is, therefore, not the slightest reason for taking the one expression more
literally than the other. And where, it may be asked, is there anything in the
Sonnets that could be referred to as a recovery from love? " (Intro., p. xxvii n.)

It remained for Acheson to develop the Ingleby-Fleay view of Willobie
his Avisa in proportions hitherto undreamed-of, in his book called Mistress
Davenant the Dark Lady of Sh.'s Sonnets (1913). It is impossible to outline the
argument of this work in brief,* as it is entangled with the writer's theory of
Chapman as Sh.'s rival and enemy, and with his other theory of Matthew
Roydon as author of Willobie and also of certain verses in The Passionate
Pilgrim (beginning "Whenas thine eye hath chose the dame") which bear
some resemblance to the argument of " W. S." in Canto 47. In Acheson's view
Avisa is to be identified with Mistress Jane Davenant of Oxford, W. S. with
Southampton, and the whole poem is to be viewed as a scurrilous attack upon
Sh. by Roydon, on account of which it was "called in" by the censors in 1599.
This theory is ingenious and at times illusively plausible, but may be said
without hesitation to be wholly destitute of proof in every essential particular.

The same thing is true not merely of this particular form of the theory, but
of the entire hypothesis that Willobie his Avisa forms a commentary on the
Sonnets. In the first place, no real reason has appeared for connecting the
name of Sh. with the W. S. of the poem. W. S. had been in love and professed
to be an authority on love; surely by no means an unique distinction. As to
his being called an "old player," he is so called, as Beeching points out, pre-
cisely as Willobie is called a "new actor," and no one has identified Willobie
with a theatrical personage. It might be argued that, if we knew W. S. to be
Sh., the comedy-tragedy metaphor would have more point because one of the
two persons concerned was a player in other than a metaphorical sense; and
on the other hand it might be argued that its aptness would thereby be les-
sened. But assuming the former, we are still far from having proof that either
of the lovers was an actor, much less that he was Sh. Neither is there any reason
to associate the initials with the fact that Sh. is mentioned in prefatory verses.
No connection with the story of Avisa is suggested in these verses, and the
circumstances could, at most, be used only by way of reply in case any one

* See careful reviews of it, by S. A. Tannenbaum and by the present editor, noted in the
Bibliography, under V, 1914 and 1915- What follows in the present section is in part reprinted
from the latter review, in the Journal of English and Germanic Philology.

"WILLOBIE HIS AVISA" 481

undertook to argue the improbability of Sh.'s being known to the author of
Willobie. The prefatory epistle mentions both Sidney and Spenser in some-
what similar fashion; but should we, on that account, find it significant if any
of the characters in the story bore names with the initials P. S. or E. S.? More-
over, it should be recalled that " W. S." is represented very unflatteringly in the
story; so that, if the prefatory allusion to Sh. is eulogistic, as Lee regards it,
we should not be likely to find the two mentions of him under the same aus-
pices. The only other argument for the identification which can be taken at
all seriously is the alleged resemblance of the verses in The Passionate Pilgrim
(published five years later than AzHsa) to W. S.'s advice on the subject of love.
This resemblance is not very striking, apart from the cynical doctrine of se-
duction, which, as the Preface to Willobie abundantly emphasizes, was highly
conventional; but even if it seemed to be significant, it would be very difficult
to say of what. The author of the Passionate Pilgrim verses is wholly unknown.
and Acheson — oddly enough — disposes of the only apparent ground for
thinking them to represent Sh.'s doctrine, by alleging that they were written
by Roydon. And whether we should suppose that Sh. or some one else imitated
the work of the Avisa poet, or (assuming that the Passionate Pilgrim poem
was written and was known long before it was published) that the latter was
the imitator, there is still no reason for assuming that the personality of Sh.
is to be associated with the speaker in Avisa. The notion, then, that Willobie's
friend was Sh., or that Henry Willobie himself was Henry Wriothesley
(Southampton), is precisely like the various theories that the W. H. of the
Dedication is William Herbert, William Hall, William Hughes, William Hart,
and William Hervey; it is open to any one to hold who finds pleasure in doing
so, provided he does not draw inferences from it as from known facts.*

But even if the identification of Willobie's W. S. with Sh. had been found
probable, there would still be no reason for viewing the poem as a commentary
on the Sonnets. What should we have learned? That Sh. was said to have been
lately in love, and to have recovered from the passion. Can we then assume
that it was with the Dark Lady that he had been in love? This, in the first
place, would imply an earlier date for the Sonnets than most critics find credible
— if the affair was referred to as an old story in 1594. And as to recovery, as
Beeching asks, what is there in the Sonnets of that? Moreover, is it safe to
assume that Sh. was never in love but once? If his friends "laughed at his
folly" in connection with the fascinating adulteress of the Sonnets, is it cer-
tain that this was the only opportunity he ever gave for such laughter? Of
course there are those who believe that a single female personality dominated
the poet's whole life and appears in all his works; but in that case, again, it
would not be an experience from which he had "recovered."

As to the identification of Avisa with the Dark Lady, that is still less rea-

* Acheson supposes that he has confirmed the connection of Arisa with Sh., in showing that
it was written by Roydon; on which it may be remarked (i) that he has not shown this with
anything like adequacy; (2) that if he had, the chain of reasoning would amount to this: Roy-
don was a friend of Chapman's: Chapman was an enemy of Sh.'s another unproved hypothesis ;
therefore when Roydon introduces a \V. S. as a cynical person lately in love, it must be Sh.

482 APPENDIX

sonable. Are we to understand, when W. S. is said to have recovered "from
the like infection," that he had been in love with the same person as Willobie?
There is nothing in the text to indicate it; on the contrary, Avisa's lovers and
their arguments have been enumerated, — the list of them forms the very
structure of this portion of the poem, — and W. S. appears only as Willobie's
friend. Moreover, Avisa's virtue, it will be recalled, remains unconquered.
When all is said, she remains the flower of English domestic virtue. The answer
given by Fleay and Acheson to this is that the whole work is a satire, and is to
be read by inversion. There is evidence, as we have seen, — and as appears
further from the "apology" added in later editions, — that the poem was
understood to involve personal allusions, and to be suspected on that account.
But to admit this is quite a different matter from the supposition that the
whole story is to be read as that of an wnchaste lady. If it is, the point is very
difficult to discover. To put the matter otherwise: suppose it to be the desire
of the author to ridicule Sh. and his friend for having been concerned in an
intrigue with a countrywoman, the circumstances being (if we take the story
hinted in the Sonnets as our authority) that Sh. had first won her as his mis-
tress, and had been supplanted by his friend. There are various satiric tales
which might be devised to represent such a situation; but among them, it is
safe to say, one would hardly find such a plot as this, — a virtuous lady is
wooed by many lovers, and resists them all; H. W. joins the number, and after
a repulse, consults W. S. for advice; W. S. bids him persist and hope for suc-
cess; he does persist, but meets with a final repulse and adieu. If this be a
burlesque, or satire, of the story which has generally been read in connection
with the triangle of characters in the Sonnets, the difficult irony of a Defoe
or a Swift pales into insignificance beside the ambiguity which its author
attained.

It should perhaps be added that Acheson's identification of Avisa with Mis-
tress Jane Davenant of Oxford is based on such proofs as the following. The
Preface to the poem is dated at Oxford; we may therefore locate the action
of the story there. The writer of the Preface refers to a certain "A. D." as
known to him as being equally virtuous with Avisa; and D. is the initial of Dave-
nant. A well-known bit of 17th century scandal associated Sh. with the mother
of Sir William Davenant, — who, to be sure, was born in 1606, ten years after
the period of the poem. Avisa was found at a house "where hangs the badge
of England's saint," and in 1619 John Davenant, husband of Jane, was vintner
of the Cross Inn — probably the cross of St. George.* The theory of the sig-
nificance of Willobie his Avisa in connection with the Sonnets has thus found
an appropriate reductio ad absurdum.

* This is the view of Acheson's later publication, the pamphlet called "A Woman Coloured
111." In the original form his assumption was that Davenant was at one time proprietor of the
George Inn, though evidence for this was wholly wanting.

MUSICAL SETTINGS

Sonnet
Sonnet
Sonnet

The following list of musical settings for the Sonnets is from the account
given in A List of all the Songs and Passages in Sh. which have been set to Music,
published by the New Shakspere Society, 1884; with two items added (in
brackets) from a list compiled by Helen Clarke, in Shakespeariana, 5:

543-44-

5. Richard Simpson. 1878.*

6. Richard Simpson. 1878.

7. Sir Henry Bishop (in As You Like It). 1824. (Lines 1-8.)
Richard Simpson. 1878.

Sonnet 18. Charles Horn (in The Tempest). 1821.
E. Loder (in "Six Songs"). 1838.
J. Reekes (in "Six Shakspere Songs"). Ab. 1850. (Lines

1-3. 9-)
Robert Hoar. 1876.
Lady Ramsey of Banff.
Sonnet 25. Sir Henry Bishop (in Two Gentlemen of Verona). 1821. (Lines
1-4; sung in a duet by Julia and Sylvia, the latter singing
lines 1-4 of S. 97.)
27. Richard Simpson. 1878.

29. Sir Henry Bishop (in T.G.V.). 1821. (Lines 1-4, 9-12.)
33. Sir Henry Bishop (in Twelfth Night). 1820.

J. Reekes (in "Six Shakspere Songs"). Ab. 1850. (Lines 1-4,
9-12.)
40. Sir Henry Bishop (in T.N.). 1820.

Charles Horn (in The Tempest). 1821.
54. Sir Henry Bishop (in T.N.). 1820. (Lines 1-4.)
George Barker (in the "Ballad Album"). 1870.

58. Richard Simpson. 1878.

59. Richard Simpson. 1878.

62. Charles Horn (in The Tempest). 1821.]

63. Richard Simpson. 1878.

64. Sir Henry Bishop (in T.G.V.). 1821. (Lines 5-12.)
71. Richard Simpson. 1878.
73. Sir Henry Bishop (in T.G.V.). 1821. (Lines 1-8.)

Richard Simpson. 1878.
81. Richard Simpson. 1878.

Sonnet
Sonnet
Sonnet

Sonnet

Sonnet

Sonnet
Sonnet
[Sonnet
Sonnet
Sonnet
Sonnet
Sonnet

Sonnet
[Sonnet

84. Sir Henry Bishop (in T.G.V.). 1821.]

* This Richard Simpson, it appears, composed airs for the entire collection of Sonnets, but
only a dozen were published, 1878.

484 APPENDIX

Sonnet 87. J. Reekes (in "Six Shakspere Songs"). Ab. 1850. (Lines 1-4.)

Caracciolo.
Sonnet 92. Sir Henry Bishop (in T.G.V.). 1821.

(Line 1 reads, "Say tho' you strive to steal yourself away.")
Sonnet 96. Richard Simpson. 1878.

Sonnet 97. Sir Henry Bishop (in T.G.V.). 1821. (Lines 1-4.)
Sonnet 109. M. P. King.

Sir Henry Bishop (in T.G.V.). 1821. (Lines 1-4, 13-14.)
Sonnet no. Richard Simpson. 1878. (Two renderings.)
Sonnet 116. John Braham (in Taming of the Shrew). 1828. Lines 5-14.

(Called "Love is an ever- fixed mark.")
Sonnet 123. Sir Henry Bishop (in As You Like It). 1824. (Lines 1-4,

I3-I4-)
Sonnet 148. Sir Henry Bishop (in As You Like It). 1824. (Lines 1-12.)

In the Academy of Feb. 3, 1894 (p. no) is a mention of Sonnets 18, 29, and
99 as having been set to music by A. C. Mackenzie, and sung in London.
Rolfe, commenting on this in a note in The Critic (n.s., 21: 238), states that
Sonnet 29 had been set five times previously, and that Sonnet 109 had had four
musical renderings, but gives no details or authority. Henry Brown, in his
essay on " The Singing of the Sonnets " (in Sh.'s Patrons, 1912), mentions that
Sonnet 33 was sung at a concert after a performance of Cymbeline on June 19,
1822.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

This list is divided into six sections, under each of which it is chrono-
logically arranged :

I. Separate editions of the Sonnets (including those which also con-
tain "A Lover's Complaint").
II. Editions in collected Poems and Works of Shakespeare.

III. Translations.

IV. Books and monographs devoted to the Sonnets.
V. Articles in serial publications.

VI. Books containing incidental matter on the Sonnets.

The first five sections are as complete as the available data have made
possible; Section VI includes only works cited in the commentary, or be-
lieved to be significant for other reasons. Books and articles dealing with
the Baconian theory as applied to the Sonnets are not included, since they
form a special problem of interest to a distinct group of readers.

Publishers' names are in parentheses. The place of publication is London
unless otherwise noted. An asterisk prefixed to the date indicates that the
work has not been seen by the present editor, but is entered from another
bibliography. Second and later editions are not listed separately, but are
mentioned under the date of the first edition. No attempt is made to give
the full contents of title-pages, or to include format and collation.

The index to the Bibliography will be found to refer each title cited to
the year of publication and the group in which it is listed. It can therefore
be used for certain purposes as an independent reference list; thus, the
entry "Dowden. I, 1881," indicates that Dowden edited the Sonnets in
1881, and "Bodenstedt. Ilia, 1862," that Bodenstedt translated them into
German in 1862.

I. SEPARATE EDITIONS

1609. Shake-speares Sonnets. Never before Imprinted.

Two title-pages are distinguishable, one with the imprint ''By
G. Eld for T. T. and are to be solde by John Wright, dwelling at
Christ Church gate," the other " By G. Eld for T. T. and are to
be solde by William Aspley." The former is the basis of the
Praetorius facsimile of 1886, the latter of the Clarendon Press
facsimile of 1905.

1830. Sonnets of Sh. and Milton. (Moxon.)
•1839. Sonnets of Sh. (W. Smith.) [Jaggard. p. 453a.]

1840. Sonnets by W. Sh. A new edition. (Ball & Arnold.)
*i850. Sonnets. . . . Facsimile reprint of the first edition. [Jaggard, p.
453a-]

488 BIBLIOGRAPHY [i

1859. Sonnets of W. Sh., rearranged and divided into four parts. With
an introduction and explanatory notes [by R. Cartwright]. (J.
R. Smith.)

1862. Sh.'s Sonnets: reproduced in facsimile by the new process of
photo-zincography in use at Her Majesty's Ordnance Survey
Office. From the unrivalled Original in the Library of Bridge-
water House [etc.]. (Lovell Reeve & Co.)

1865. Sh.'s Sonnets. Boston. (Ticknor & Fields.)

1868. Sh.'s Sonnets, with Commentaries by T. D. Budd. Philadelphia.
(J. Campbell.)

1870. Sh.'s Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint. Reprinted in the
orthography and punctuation of the original edition of 1609.
(J. R. Smith.)

1877. Sh.'s Sonnets. Vest-pocket Series. Boston. (Osgood.)

1878. Sonnets by W. Sh., illustrated by Sir John Gilbert and others

Emerald Series. (Routledge.)

In 1862, 1863, 1875, 1877, etc-> appeared volumes entitled
"Sh.'s Songs and Sonnets, illustrated by John Gilbert," contain-
ing in some cases only three of the Sonnets, in others fifteen. The
1878 volume is complete.

1881. Sonnets of W. Sh. Edited by Edward Dowden. (Kegan Paul.)
Another edition of the same year (Parchment Series) gives an
abbreviated form of the introduction, and a revision of the notes.
Another abbreviated edition (" Dryden Library") appeared in
I9°5-
*l88l. Sonnets of Sh. English Library. Zurich. (Rudolphi.) [Jaggard,
p. 454a.]
1883. Sh.'s Sonnets. Edited by VV. J. Rolfe. New York. (Harper.)

Introduction and notes. A revised edition in 1890; a new edi-
tion (American Book Co.) in 1905.

[In 1883 also appeared "Some well-known 'Sugar'd Sonnets'
by W. Sh. Resugar'd with ornamental borders ... by E. J. Ellis
and T. J. Ellis." This contains ten Sonnets, with illustrations and
notes in a humorous vein, and is perhaps notable as the only work
in this entire list which does not take the subject seriously.]

[1886.] Sh.'s Sonnets. The first Quarto, 1609, facsimile in photo-
lithography (from the British Museum copy), by C. Praetorius.
Introduction by T. Tyler. (Praetorius.)
1890. Sh.'s Sonnets, edited with Notes and Introduction by Thomas
Tyler. (Nutt.)

A new edition, 1899, with appendix in reply to critics.
1895. Sonnets of W. Sh., with decorations by Ernest G. Treglown,
engraved on wood by Charles Carr [etc.]. Birmingham and
London. (Napier.)
♦1895. Sonnets of Sh., edited by W. A. Brockington ; illustrated by E. G.
Treglown. (Tylston & Edwards, etc.) [Jahrbuch, 33: 317.]

i] BIBLIOGRAPHY 489

1896. Sh.'s Sonnets. Edited by I. Gollancz. Temple Shakespeare.

(Dent.) [Introduction and notes.]

1897. Sh.'s Sonnets. English Love Sonnets series. Boston. (Copeland

& Day.)

1899. Sh.'s Sonnets, reconsidered and in part rearranged, with intro-
ductory chapters, notes, and a reprint of the original 1609
edition, by Samuel Butler. (Fifield.)

1899. Sh.'s Sonnets. Illustrated by Henry Ospovat. (Lane.)

1899. Sh.'s Sonnets, reprinted from the edition of 1609. Seen through
the press by T. S. Moore: with designs by C. S. Ricketts.
(Hacon & Ricketts.)
Another edition in 1903.

1899. Sonnets of \V. Sh. Decorations by C. Dean. (Bell.)

1899. Sonnets of Sh. Seen through the press by Elbert Hubbard. New

York. (Roycroft Press.)

1900. Sh.'s Sonnets. Bibelot edition. Edited by J. P. Briscoe. (Gay &

Bird.) [Introduction.]

1901. Sonnets of Sh., now newly imprinted from the first edition of 1609

by Clarke Conwell at the Elston Press. Xew Rochelle, X.Y.

1901. Sh.'s Sonnets. Old World Series. Portland, Maine. (Mosher.)

Another edition in 1907.

1902. Sonnets of Sh. Lover's Library. (Lane.)

1902. Sonnets of Sh. [Reprinted from the Quarto, with corrections.]

Guildford. (Astolat Press.)
1902. Sh.'s Sonnets, with Introduction and Notes by J. Dennis, and
illustrations by Byam Shaw. Chiswick edition. (Bell.)
*I902, Sh.'s Sonnets. Edited by Mathilde Blind. (De la More Press.)

[Jaggard. p. 455b.]
[1903.] Sonnets by \V. Sh. Ariel Booklets. Xew York. (Putnam.)

[Glossary.]
*I903. Sh.'s Sonnets. Edited with notes by H. X. Hudson. Windsor
edition. Edinburgh. (Jack.) [Jaggard. p. 455b.]
1904. Sh.'s Sonnets. Edited by C. C. Stopes. King's Shakespeare.

(De la More Press.) [Introduction and notes.]
1904. Sh.'s Sonnets. Favorite Classics edition. Introduction by G.
Brandes. (Heinemann.)
[1904.] Sh.'s Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint. Ellen Terry edition.
Edited and compared with the best texts by J. Talfourd Blair.
Glasgow. (Bryce.)
1904. Sonnets of Sh. Edited by H. C. Beeching. Athenaeum Press
series. Boston. (Ginn.) [Introduction and notes.]

1904. Sonnets by W. Sh. Carefully corrected and compared with [the

edition of 1609]. (Astolat Press.)

1905. Sonnets of Sh. Introduction and Xotes by W. J. Craig. Little

Quartos edition. (Methuen.)

490 BIBLIOGRAPHY [n

1905. Sh.'s Sonnets. A reproduction in facsimile of the first edition
(1609). With Introduction and Bibliography by Sidney Lee.
Oxford. (Clarendon Press.)

1905. Sh.'s Sonnets. Stratford-on-Avon. (Sh. Head Press.) [Final

note by A. H. Bullen.]

1906. Sonnets of Sh. [The songs also included.] Royal Library.

(Humphreys.)

1907. Sh.'s Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint. With an Introduction

by W. H. Hadow. Tudor and Stuart Library. Oxford.
(Clarendon Press.) [Introduction and textual notes.]

1908. Sh.'s Complete Sonnets. A new arrangement, with an Introduc-

tion and Notes by C. M. Walsh. (Unwin.)

1909. Sh.'s Sonnets. Tercentenary edition. Hammersmith. (Doves

Press.)

1909. Sh.'s Sonnets. (Sidgwick & Jackson.)

*i9io. Sh.'s Sonnets. Leipzig. (Rowohlt.) L/a/zr£wc/j, 48: 303.]

[191 1.] Sh.'s Sonnets. Langham Booklets.

[191 1.] Sh.'s Sonnets. (Siegle, Hill & Co.) [Contains only Sonnets 1-92.]

[191 1.] Sh.'s Sonnets. Queen's Library. (Siegle.)

[1912.] Sh.'s Sonnets. Decorations by A. J. Iorio. (Harrap.)

1912. Sh.'s Sonnets. Decorations by A. J. Iorio. Boston & New York.

(Caldwell.)
[1912.] Sonnets of Sh. Arden Books.

1913. Sonnets of Mr. W. Sh. Riccardi Press Booklets.

1913. Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint. Edited by R. M. Alden.
Tudor Shakespeare. New York. (Macmillan.) [Introduction
and notes.]

[In 1913 also appeared "Sonnets by Sh." with decorations by
Edith A. Ibbs; fifteen selected Sonnets only. (Constable.)]

II. EDITIONS IN COLLECTED POEMS AND WORKS

[After 1800 editions of the Works of Shakespeare, and collections like Chal-
mers's British Poets, are not listed unless they include a new text or significant
apparatus for the Sonnets.]

1640. Poems, written by Wil. Shake-speare, Gent. Printed at London
by Tho. Cotes and are to be sold by John Benson [etc.].

This contains 146 of the Sonnets (omitting Nos. 18, 19, 43, 56,
' 75- /6, 96, 126), arranged in groups, with group titles, and inter-
spersed with various lyrics by Shakespeare and others. This text
and arrangement formed the basis of most of the 18th century
editions before M alone.

1 7 10. A Collection of Poems, in Two Volumes; Being all the Miscel-
lanies of Mr. William Shakespeare [etc.]. (Bernard Lintott.)
The first volume is dated 1709. The second contains the Son-
nets, printed from the quarto of 1609, with few corrections. The
two volumes are frequently found bound in one. It is Capell's ex-

ii] BIBLIOGRAPHY 491

emplar of this edition, included in his bequest to Trinity College
Library, Cambridge, which he corrected as the copy for a projected
edition, and which is frequently referred to as the "Capell MS."

1710. Works of Mr. William Sh. Volume the Seventh. Containing
Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, and His Miscellany
Poems. (E. Curll & E. Sanger.)

This was issued as a final volume in Rowe's edition, but appears
to have been edited by Charles Gildon. A revised edition appeared
in 1714, supplemental to the Works of Sh. of that year, and was
now called Volume the Ninth. For an account of both volumes,
see the article in Modern Language Notes, cited under V, 1916.1

1725. Venus and Adonis, Tarquin and Lucrece, and Mr. Sh.'s Miscel-
lany Poems. . . . Revised and corrected, with a preface by Dr.
Sewell. (A. Bettesworth, etc.).

Issued as volume 7 of Pope's edition of the Works of 1723-25.
The text is revised apparently from the 17 10 (Gildon j version of
the 1640 edition. A newly revised edition, 1728 (also found with
Tonson's imprint) was issued as volume 10 of Pope's 1728 edition.

[1760.] Poems on Several Occasions, by Sh. (Sold by A. Murden, R.
Xewton, etc.)

Apparently a reprint of the Sewell text of 1728. The exact date
is not known.

1766. Twenty of the Plays of Sh. [etc., edited by] G. Steevens. (Ton-
son.)

The Sonnets are included in volume 4, in accordance with this
statement in the Advertisement: "I have likewise reprinted Sh.'s
Sonnets, from a copy published in 1609, by G. Eld." The exact
text and punctuation of the Quarto are followed, but not the
italics and capitalization. (According to Jaggard, p. 452, the
Sonnets were also issued separately.)

1771. Poems, containing I. Venus and Adonis; . . . IV. Sonnets. (T.
Ewing.) Dublin.

Part of Ewing's 1 77 1 Shakespeare; largely based on the Sewell
text of 1728.

1774. Poems written by Sh. [Edited by F. Gentleman.] (J. Bell & C.
Etherington.)

Uniform with Bell's 1774 Shakespeare. The text is based on
that of 1728 and 1771.

[1775.] Poems written by Mr. W. Sh. Reprinted for Thomas Evans.
Intended (according to Jaggard) as a supplement to the Capell
edition of 1760—68. The text is apparently based on Seweli's of
1728.

1780. Supplement to the edition of Sh.'s Plays published in 1778. . . .
Containing additional observations by several of the former

1 Jaggard lists another 1714 edition (p. 434b), with the title-page of Lintott's 1710 volume,
" A Collection of Poems," etc.; but this is erroneous, as no such volume is in the Boston Li-
brary where Jaggard locates it, nor — apparently — elsewhere.

492 BIBLIOGRAPHY [n

commentators: to which are subjoined the genuine poems of
the same author, . . . with notes by the editor and others.
[E. Malone.] (C. Bathurst, etc.)

The first of the Malone texts, with notes chiefly by him and
Steevens. The text is based on that of 1609, with evident use of
the earlier 18th century versions, and (as the Cambridge editors
suppose) of Capell's MS. revision.

1790. Plays and Poems of W. Sh. . . . with the corrections and illus-
trations of various commentators. E. Malone. (Rivington.)

The Sonnets in volume 10, with the same material as in the
volume of 1780, but revised.

1794. Plays and Poems. . . . Dublin. (Exshaw.)

The "Dublin Shakespeare"; Sonnets in volume 16. The text
and notes are from Malone's of 1790.

1795. Works of the British Poets; with Prefaces, biographical and crit-

ical, by Robert Anderson. (J. & A. Arch; J. Mundell & Co.,
etc.)

The Sonnets are included in The Poetical Works of William Sh.,
volume 2, with separate title-page (dated 1793, Mundell, Edin-
burgh). The text is Malone's of 1780.

[1795.] The Poems of W. Sh., viz., Venus and Adonis, The Rape of
Lucrece, Sonnets, . . . with Mr. Capell's history of the origin
of Sh.'s fables. To which is added a glossary. (E. Jeffery.)

Jaggard lists what is apparently another edition in 1805. The
Sonnets text is that of Malone (1780).

1796. Plays and Poems of W. Sh. Philadelphia. (Bioren & Madan.)

The Sonnets are in volume 8. The Malone text. [In the copy
of this volume belonging to the Boston Public Library is a photo-
graphic facsimile of the title-page of The Poems of William Sh.,
Philadelphia, Bioren and Madan, 1796 (presumably a separate
issue of a portion of volume 8), with a MS. letter alluding to a
copy privately owned in Washington, D.C., as "the unique first
American edition of Shakespeare's Poems." The Library of Con-
gress knows nothing of such a separate issue.]

[1797.] Poetical Works of Sh., with the Life of the Author. Cooke's
edition. (C. Cooke.)

The Malone text (1780) of the Sonnets.

1797. The Poems of W. Sh. (G. & J. Robinson, etc.)

Volume 7 of Robinson's Works of Sh. The Malone text (1780)
of the Sonnets.

1804. Poems by W. Sh., with illustrative remarks, original and select.
[Edited by W. C. Oulton.] (Chappie.)

The Sonnets in volume 2. The 1640 text, with a slight variation
in the order; notes, chiefly from Malone.

1806. Poetical Works of W. Sh. (T. Wilson, etc.)

Malone text of 1780; a few peculiar readings.

n] BIBLIOGRAPHY 493

1807. Poems of Sh., to which is added an account of his life. First
American edition. Boston. (Oliver & Munroe, etc.)

The 1640 arrangement. As to its being the first American edi-
tion, see note under 1796.

1809. Poems of W. Sh. Boston. (Munroe, Francis, & Parker.)

The 1640 arrangement.
[1820.] The Poems of W. Sh., with three engravings. (J. F. Dove.)

Another edition, dated 1830. The Malone text.
182 1. Miscellaneous Poems of VV. Sh. (Sherwin & Co.)

The Malone text.

1821. Plays and Poems of VV. Sh., with the corrections and illustra-

tions of various commentators [etc.]. [James Boswell.]
(Rivington, etc.)

Volume 20 of Boswell's Malone (the "third Variorum"). The
Malone text and notes of 1790, with a few corrections and addi-
tions.

1822. Sonnets of W. Sh., to which are added his minor poems and the

songs from his plays. Whitehaven. (Steel.)

1825. Poems of W. Sh. (Pickering.)

Jaggard lists another edition, in 1826, uniform with Pickering's
Shakespeare of that year.

1826. An Appendix to Sh.'s Dramatic Works. Leipsic. (Fleischer.)

Contains the Poems and Sonnets, as a supplement to the
Fleischer edition of the Plays; with Glossary.

[1830?] Poems and Songs of VV. Sh. The Standard Poets, volume IV.

(Strange.)
1832. Poems of Sh. Aldine edition. [A. Dyce.] (Pickering.)

Memoir and footnotes; a newly revised text. Other issues in
1842, etc.

1834. Plays and Poems of Sh. [1832-34.] A. J. Valpy. (Valpy.)

Sonnets in volume 15; notes. Valpy"s notes were reprinted in
the Bohn ed. of Sh.'s Poetical Works, 1862, etc.

[1837.] Poetical Works of VV. Sh. Campe's edition. Xurnberg and Xew

York. (Campe.)
1838. Poems of VV. Sh., with facts connected with his life [etc.]. Knight's
Cabinet edition. (Knight.)

Life, and footnotes, by Charles Knight. The text follows the
Aldine, with a few exceptions. Other issues in 1842, etc.

1840. Poems of VV. Sh. (Moxon.)

1840. Poems of VV. Sh. (L. A. Lewis.) [A few footnotes.]

1841. Poems of VV. Sh. (Daly.)

Another issue, without date, but about 1850.

494 BIBLIOGRAPHY [n

1843. Pictorial Edition of the Works of Sh. [1838-43.] Edited by

Charles Knight. (Knight.)

Sonnets in volume 6. Notes, and an essay called Illustration
of the Sonnets, which was widely reprinted elsewhere without
acknowledgment.

1844. Works of W. Sh. Edited by J. P. Collier. (Whittaker.)

Sonnets in volume 8. Introduction and notes. Other editions
in 1858 and 1878.

1851. Poems of W. Sh. Philadelphia. (Locker.)

1852. Supplementary Works of W. Sh., comprising his poems and

doubtful plays [etc.]. A new edition by W. Hazlitt. (Rout-
ledge.)

Supplementary to Hazlitt's revision of the 1778 edition of the
Plays. Preface and footnotes.

1852. Poems of W. Sh. Hartford. (Andrus.)

1855. Poems of W. Sh. Edited by Robert Bell. Annotated edition of

the English Poets.

Introduction and footnotes. Other issues in 1861, etc.

[1855.] Poems of W. Sh. Philadelphia. (J. B. Smith.)

1856. Sh.'s Werke, herausgegeben und erklart von N. Delius. Elber-

feld.

Sonnets in volume 7. Other editions in 1864 and 1872. There
also appeared at Leipzig, in 1854 and again in 1864, a one-volume
edition of Sh.'s Works (entirely in English), which is usually listed
as Delius's, the Preface being signed "Dr. D." The text of the
Sonnets in this edition is full of errors, and can hardly have been
revised by Delius; it also presents a new arrangement (see p. 437
above), which may be based on his view of the Sonnets as im-
personal literary performances.

1856. Works of W. Sh. [1851-56.] Edited by H. N. Hudson. Boston.
(Munroe.)

Sonnets in volume II. Introduction and notes. A new edition
(Harvard edition), 1880-81, with the Sonnets in volume 20.

1856. Poetical Works of W. Sh. and the Earl of Surrey; with Memoirs,
Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes, by the Rev.
George Gilfillan. British Poets. Edinburgh. (Nichol.)
Footnotes. Another issue in 1878, in Cassell's Library.

1856. Poems of Sh., with Memoir by A. Dyce, and a few corrections

[etc.]. Boston. (Little, Brown & Co.)

A revision of the Aldine edition, made by F. J. Child. Other
issues in 1864, etc.

1857. Works of Sh., edited by A. Dyce. (Moxon.)

Sonnets in volume 6. Textual notes. Other editions in 1866
and 1875.

1858. Poems of Sh. (C. Little.)

n] BIBLIOGRAPHY 495

i860. Works of W. Sh., edited by H. Staunton. (Routledge.)

Sonnets in volume 4; introduction and footnotes. Another
issue in 1864.

1864. Works of Sh. Edited, with a scrupulous revision of the text, by
Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke. (Bickers.)

1864. Works of W. Sh. Edited by W. G. Clark and W. A. Wright.

Globe edition. (Macmillan.)

Text based on that of the (still unfinished i Cambridge edition,
but not identical with it. Other issues in 1865, etc.

1865. Plays and Poems of W. Sh. Edited by Thos. Keightley. (Bell

& Daldy.)

A newly revised text.

1865. Works of W. Sh., . . . the text formed from a new collation of
the early editions, etc. [Folio; 1S53-65.] J. O. Halliwell.
(Printed for the editor.)

Sonnets in volume 16; introduction and notes.

1865. Songs and Sonnets by W. Sh. [Edited by F. T. Palgrave.]
(Macmillan.)

Various subsequent issues; later called the Golden Treasury
edition. Introduction, notes, and new titles for the Sonnets; a
few omitted.

1865. Sh.'s Works. Edited by R. G. White. Boston. (Little, Brown

&Co.)

Sonnets in volume I ; introduction and notes. A revised edition
(Riverside Sh.) in 1883.

1866. Works of W. Sh. [1863-66.] Edited by W. G. Clark and W. A.

Wright. Cambridge edition. (Macmillan.)

Sonnets in volume 9. Textual notes. Revised edition, edited
by Wright only, in 1891-93.

1877. The Leopold Sh. (Cassell.)

The Delius text; introduction by F. J. Turnivall, treating of the
Sonnets in § 11.

1885. Sh.'s Poems, 1640. (A. R. Smith.)

The only modern reprint of the 1640 text; "printed letter for
letter, line for line, and page for page, as near the original as
modern type will permit" (but with some errors).

1885. Songs, Poems, and Sonnets of Sh. With introduction by William
Sharp. Newcastle. (Walter Scott.)

Introduction and notes. Issued (in the Canterbury Poets) from
London in 1888 and thereafter.

1889. Poems and Sonnets of W. Sh. Chiswick Series. (Bell.)

1890. Works of W. Sh. Edited by Henry Irving and Frank A. Marshall.

The Henry Irving Sh. (Blackie.)

Sonnets in volume 8. Introduction and notes by A. \V. Verity.

496 BIBLIOGRAPHY [n

1891. Works of Sh. Edited by W. J. Craig. Oxford Edition. Oxford.
(Clarendon Press.)
Another issue in 1902.

1893. Poems of W. Sh., printed after the original copies. [Edited by
F. S. Ellis.] (Kelmscott Press.)

The 1609 text, with some emendations and modern punctua-
tion.

1898. Poems of Sh. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by George
Wyndham. (Methuen.)

1898. Sonnets and Poems by W. Sh. Pocket FalstafT edition [of the

Works]. (Sands.)

1899. Poems of W. Sh., according to the text of the original copies. . . .

Collated by F. S. Ellis, and printed at the Essex House Press.
The 1609 text, with some emendations and modern punctuation.

1900. Works of Sh. Edited by C. H. Herford. Eversley edition.

(Macmillan.)

Sonnets in volume 10. Introduction and footnotes.

1903. Poems and Sonnets of Sh., with an introduction by E. Dowrden.
(Kegan Paul.)

In part the same introduction as that in Dowden's edition of
the Sonnets (see I, 1881).

[1904.] Poems and Songs of Sh. Newnes' Pocket Classics.
1905. Sonnets and Poems by W. Sh., with bibliographical introduction
by H. Bennett. Carlton Classics. (Long.)

1905. Sonnets and Poems by W. Sh. Waistcoat Pocket edition.

(Treherne.)

1906. Poems. Edited by E. K. Chambers. Red Letter Shakespeare.

(Blackie.)

Sonnets in volume 2; introduction and footnotes.

1906. Sh.'s Complete Works. Edited by W. A. Neilson. The Cam-

bridge Poets. Boston. (Houghton Mifflin.)
New text, and brief introduction to the Sonnets.

1907. Works of W. Sh. Stratford Town edition. Stratford-on-Avon.

(Printed for A. H. Bullen and F. Sidgwick.)

Sonnets in volume 10; essay on them (pp. 363-72) by H. C.
Beeching.

[1908.] W. Sh., Poems, Songs, and Sonnets. (Sisley.)

Biography by C. Mortemart; footnotes.
[1908.] Complete Works of W. Sh. Sidney Lee, General Editor. The
Renaissance Sh. (Harrap.)

Sonnets in volume 38, with introduction by John Davidson
and notes by Lee. This edition has also appeared under various
other names and imprints, as the Caxton and (in the U.S.) the
Harper.

in] BIBLIOGRAPHY 497

[191 1.] Sonnets and Poems. Edited by H. N. Hudson. The Era Sh.

Introduction and footnotes from the Hudson Sh.
1912. Sonnets and Minor Poems by Sh. Edited by Charlotte Porter.
The First Folio Sh. New York. (Crowell.)

A scrupulous reprint of the quarto text of 1609; introduction
and notes.

III. TRANSLATIONS
(a) German

1820. Sh.'s Sonette, ubersetzt von Karl Lachmann. Berlin.

[Certain of the Sonnets were translated by Tieck in 1826; see
under V, 1826.]

1827. W. Sh.'s sammtliche Gedichte. E. V. Bauernfeld und A. Schu-
macher. (Sonette, ubersetzt von A. Schumacher.) Wien.

1836. Sh.-Almanach. Herausgegeben von Gottlob Regis. I. \Y. Sh.'s

Lyrische Gedichte. Sonnette &c. Berlin.

Introduction and notes; the former chiefly from Drake (see
VI, 1817).

1840. W. Sh.'s sammtliche Gedichte, ubersetzt von Emil Wagner.
(With W. Sh.'s sammtliche dramatische Werke, A. \Y. von
Schlegel und Tieck.) Konigsberg.
Introduction.

1840. Nachtrage zu Sh.'s Werken von Schlegel und Tieck. Uebersetzt
von Ernst Ortlepp. Stuttgart.
Sonnets in volume 3.

1861. Sh.'s Gedichte. Deutsch von Wilhelm Jordan. Berlin.

Introduction and a few notes; the Sonnets divided into five
"books."

1862. W. Sh.'s Sonette in deutscher Nachbildung. F. Bodenstedt.

Berlin.

Introduction, notes, and appendix. A new arrangement. Later
editions in 1866, etc.

1867. Sh.'s Gedichte. Deutsch von Karl Simrock. Stuttgart.

Preface.
1867. Sh.'s Sonette, ubersetzt vpn F. A. Gelbcke.

Introduction, following Massey (see IV, 1866); the Sonnets
rearranged accordingly. The translation reappeared in volume 10
of Sh. in deutscher Uebersetznng, Bibliothek auslandischer Klas-
siker, Hildburghausen, 1871.

1869. Sh.'s Sonette. Uebersetzt von Herm. Freiherr von Friesen.

Dresden.

1870. Sh.'s Sonette. Deutsch von Bruno Tschischwitz. Halle.

Introduction and a few notes.

498 BIBLIOGRAPHY [m

[1870.] Sh.'s kleinere Dichtungen, Deutsch von Alex. Neidhardt. (Clas-
siker des In- und Auslandes.) Berlin.

Introduction and footnotes. Another edition, Leipzig, 1902.

1871. Sh.'s Sonette, iibersetzt von Otto Gildemeister. Leipzig.

Introduction and notes, developing Delius's fiction theory. A
second edition in 1876.

1872. Sh.'s Southampton-Sonette. Deutsch von Fritz Krauss. Leipzig.

Sonnets 1-126, arranged according to Massey*s interpretation,
after correspondence between him and the translator; introduc-
tion and notes also based largely on Massey.

[Certain of the Sonnets were translated by F. A. Leo, Gedichte,
Berlin, 1872, p. 226.]

1875. Probe einer Uebersetzung Shakespearscher Sonette. Dr. Gutt-
mann. Hirschberg. (Gymnasium Programm.)
31 sonnets translated.

[1894.] Gedichte von W. Sh., in's Deutsche iibertragen durch Alfred
von Mauntz. Berlin.

Introduction and notes; a new arrangement of the Sonnets.
*io,03. Sh.'s Sonette, iibersetzt von M. J. Wolff. Berlin.

Introduction, etc.; reviewed in Jahrbuch, 40: 295.

*I909. Sh.'s Sonette; Umdichtung von Stephan George. Berlin.
[Jahrbuch, 46: 266.]

*I909- Sh.'s Sonette, iibertragen von Eduard Saenger. Leipzig. [Jahr-
buch, 46: 266.]

*l9io. Die schonsten Sonette von W. Sh. Uebersetzt und erlautert von
A. Baltzer. Wismar. j^

Reviewed in Archiv fur jarf^ieueren Sprachen, 124: 217.

1913. Sh.'s Sonette, erlautert von Alois Brandl, iibersetzt von Ludwig
Fulda. Stuttgart & Berlin.
Introduction.

(b) French

1836. Poemes et Sonnets de W. Sh., traduits en vers, avec le texte
anglais. E. Lafond. Paris.

Forty-eight selected sonnets. Another edition in 1856.

1857. Les Sonnets de W. Sh., traduits pour la premiere fois en en tier,
par F. Victor Hugo. Paris.

Prose translation. Introduction and notes; a new arrangement
of the Sonnets. The translation was included in Hugo's Oeuvres
Completes de Sh., 1859-66.

1860-62. Oeuvres Completes de Sh. F. Guizot. Paris.
Prose translation.

in] BIBLIOGRAPHY 499

1873. Oeuvres Completes deSh., traduites par Emile Montegut. Paris.
Prose translation.

1888. Les Sonnets de Sh., traduits en vers francais, par Alfred Copin.
Paris.

Introduction; Sonnets rearranged in six parts.

1891. W. Sh., son Poeme, les Sonnets. Traduit par Louis Direy. Pov-
erty Bay, New Zealand. [The Phcenix and the Turtle also
included.]
Preface.
1900. Les Sonnets de Sh., traduits en sonnets frangais, avec Introduc-
tion, Notes, et Bibliographic Fernand Henry. Paris.
English text given also. A fairly full bibliography.

1906-07. Les Sonnets de Sh. Essai d'une Interpretation en vers francais.
C. M. Gamier. Cahiers de la Quinzaine, Paris, Dec. 23, 1906
and March 31, 1907.
Sonnets 1-152.

(c) Italian

1890. I Sonetti di \V. Sh. Tradotti per la prima volta in Italiano, da
Angelo Olivieri. Palermo.

Prose translation; introduction and notes.

1898. I 154 Sonetti di G. Sh. Tradotti in Sonetti Italiani da Ettore
Sanfelice. Velletri.
Introduction.

1909. G. Sh., I Sonetti. Traduzione italiana, con introduzione e noti di
Lucifero Darchini. Milano.
Prose translation.

(d) Swedish

[187 1.] \V. Sh. Sonetter, pa svenska atergifna af Carl Rupert Nyblom.
Upsala.

Introduction and notes.

(e) Danish

1885. Sh. Sonetter, oversatte af Adolf Hansen. Med Indledning og
Anmaerkninger. Copenhagen.
Introduction and notes.

(/) Dutch

1879. Sh. Sonetten, vertaald door Dr. L. A. J. Burgersdijk. Utrecht.
Introduction and notes; a new arrangement.

500 BIBLIOGRAPHY [iv

(g) Spanish

*lSjj. Obras de W. Sh., traducidas fielmente del original ingles, por D.
Matias de Velasco y Rojas, Marques de Dos Hermanas.
[Volume I :] Poemas y Sonetos. Madrid.

Prose translation, with "Estudio sobre los sonetos" and notes;
see Jahrbuch, 14: 393.

(h) Russian

*l88o. [VV. Sh.'s collected Sonnets, translated by Nicolai Gerbel. St.
Petersburg.] [Jahrbuch, 16: 472.]

[Twenty of the Sonnets are to be found translated into Polish,
in Poeci Angielscy, by J. Kasprowicz, Lemberg, 1907.]

(i) Hungarian
*[I9°9-1 Sh. Szonettjeibol. Forditotta. Zoltan Vilmos. Budapest.

[Jahrbuch, 46: 369.

(j) Latin

1913. Gulielmi Sh. Carmina quae Sonnets nuncupantur Latine reddita
ab Alvredo Thoma Barton; edenda curavit J. Harrower.

IV. BOOKS AND MONOGRAPHS

1837. J. Boaden: On the Sonnets of Sh., identifying the person to whom

they are addressed, and elucidating several points in the poet's
history.

62 pp.; a revision of the articles in The Gentleman's Magazine
(see V, 1832).

1838. C. A. Brown: Sh.'s Autobiographical Poems. Being his Sonnets

clearly developed [etc.].

Groups the Sonnets in six "Poems."
i860. D. Barnstorff: Schlussel zu Sh.'s Sonetten. Bremen.

Translated by T. J. Graham, as "A Key to Sh.'s Sonnets,"
1862. Esoteric.

1862. Bolton Corney: The Sonnets of Sh.; a critical disquisition.

16 pp.; based on Chasles's "discovery" regarding the Dedica-
tion (see pp. 6-7).

1865. [E. A. Hitchcock:] Remarks on the Sonnets of Sh., showing that

they belong to the hermetic class of writings, and explaining
their general meaning and purpose. New York.
Esoteric. An enlarged edition in 1867.

1866. Gerald Massey: Sh.'s Sonnets never before Interpreted.

Enlarged from an article in the Quarterly Review (see V, 1864);
on the "dramatic" theory of the Sonnetc, according to which

iv] BIBLIOGRAPHY 501

many of them were written on behalf of Southampton and
Elizabeth Vernon. An enlarged edition in 1872.

1868. R. Simpson: Introduction to the Philosophy of Sh.'s Sonnets.

An essay on Sh.'s use of the platonic and neo-platonic doctrine
of love. First printed in The Chronicle.

1870. Henry Brown: The Sonnets of Sh. Solved, and the mystery of
his friendship, love, and rivalry revealed.

Views a large portion of the Sonnets as satires on the sonnet
fashion; groups them in 57 sections.

1872. C. M. Ingleby: The Soule Arayed; a letter to Howard Staunton,
Esq., concerning Sh.'s Sonnet 146.

16 pp. Reprinted in the author's volume, Sh., the Man and the
Book, 1877.

1877. E. Lichtenberger: De Carminibus Shaksperi, cum nova Thor-
pianae Inscriptioni Interpretatione. Paris.

A thesis; with special reference to the Dedication.
1888. Gerald Massey: The Secret Drama of Sh.'s Sonnets.

Further development of his theory (see under 1866), with replies
to critics.

1890. L. Direy: William Sh., his poem, sonnets and dedication. Pov-

erty Bay, Xew Zealand.
18 pp.; esoteric.

1891. L. de Marchi: I Sonetti di Sh. Milan.

An essay, including translations of eleven of the Sonnets.

1892. "Clelia" [C. Downing]: Great Pan Lives! Sh.'s Sonnets, 20-126.

Esoteric.
1897. E. J. Dunning: The Genesis of Sh.'s Art; a Study of his Sonnets
and Poems. Boston.

Esoteric. An Appendix on the use of "you" and " thou" in the
Sonnets.

1897. E. Freiherr von Danckelmann: Sh. in seinen Sonetten. Leipzig.

23 pp.; discusses the man-friendship as of an ideal, platonic
character.

1898. T. Tyler: The Herbert-Fitton Theory of Sh.'s Sonnets; a Reply.

23 pp.; a defence of the Pembroke theory in reply to critics.

1899. Cuming Walters: The Mystery7 of Sh.'s Sonnets.

Views the sonnets as studies of the themes of the dramas,
partially personal but largely allegorical.

1899. J. Johnson: The Testimony of the Sonnets as to the Authorship

of the Shakespearean Plays and Poems. New York.
Views the sonnets as studies of an older man than Sh.

1900. Parke Godwin: A Xew Study of the Sonnets of Sh. New York.

Esoteric.

502 BIBLIOGRAPHY [iv

1902. Jean I. O' Flanagan: Sh.'s Self- Revelation in his Sonnets.

Stratford-on-Avon.
38 pp.

1903. Arthur Acheson: Sh. and the Rival Poet.

Devoted chiefly to the identification of the "rival poet" as
Chapman.

1903. T. Eichhoff: Unser Sh.: . . . II: (1) Sh.'s Sonette und ihr Wert;

(2) Die Sonettensatire. Halle.

Views the Sonnets as constituting a miscellany by many
authors, relatively valueless.

1904. J. M.: Sh. Self-Revealed in his Sonnets and Phcenix and Turtle.

Esoteric. Followed [no date] by a pamphlet of 4 pp., called
"A Recantation," in which each of the 36 italicised words in the
1609 Quarto is treated as a symbol of one of the Shakespearean
plays.

[1904.] E. A. Jackson: A Consideration of Sh.'s Sonnets.

16 pp.

1909. Anna B. MacMahan: Sh.'s Love Story. Chicago.

The principal Sonnets interpreted as addressed to Anne
Hathaway.

1912. George H. Palmer: Intimations of Immortality in the Sonnets of

Sh. Boston.

Views the Sonnets as concerned with various types of immor-
tality, with S. 146 as the climax.

[1912.] R. M. Garrett: Materials for the Study of Sh.'s Sonnets. Seattle.

A syllabus for the use of students at the University of Wash-
ington.

1913. Arthur Acheson: Mistress Davenant, the Dark Lady of Sh.'s

Sonnets.

Further develops the author's work of 1903, identifying the
"dark lady" as Mistress Jane Davenant of Oxford.

[191 3.] A. Acheson: A Woman Coloured 111.

16 pages. Supplemental to the preceding item.
*I9I3. P. Rodder: Sh.'s Sonette im Lichte der neueren Forschungen.
Konigsberg.

Programm-Dissertation.
1913. Countess de Chambrun [Clara Longworth de Chambrun]: The
Sonnets of W. Sh. ; New Light and Old Evidence. New York.
Follows Acheson in the Mistress Davenant theory.
1915. Sydney Kent: The People in Sh.'s Sonnets.

General and conjectural; favors a very early date; identifies
W. H. as Southampton and the Dark Lady as one (hypothetical)
Alice Bird.

v] BIBLIOGRAPHY

503

V. ARTICLES IN SERIALS
[Book reviews are not included, except when of independent interest.]

1818. "Proh Pudor!": On Sh.'s Sonnets, Blackwood's Magazine, 3:
585-

Appreciative criticism, with an attack on Hazlitt.
•1826. L. Tieck: Leber Sh.'s Sonette einige Worte. nebst Proben einer
Uebersetzung derselben. Penelope Taschenbuch, Leipzig, p.
314.

See Goedeke's Grundriss, 6: 40; § 284, 1, 84,

1832. J. B[oaden]: To what Person the Sonnets of Sh. were actually
addressed. Gentleman s Magazine, 102: 216, 308.

The first exposition of the Pembroke theory. The prior "dis-
covery" of this solution was announced by B. H. Bright in the
October number of the Magazine (p. 296). Boaden's articles were
issued in a reprint (see IV, 1837).

1834. Armand Morlaix [pseud, for A. F. L. de Wailly]: Les Sonnets de

Sh. Reiiie des deux Mondes, 3d sen, 4: 679.
1834. D. L. Richardson: Sh.'s Sonnets: on their poetical merits, and on
the question of to whom are they addressed. Literary Gazette,
Calcutta. April 5.

Reprinted in the author's Literary Leaves, Calcutta, 1836.
1847. [H. W. Barrett:] Sh.'s Sonnets, American Review, 6: 304.
General biographic interpretation.

1857. Anon.: The Sonnets of Sh. Westminster Review, 68: 116.

Discussion of the autobiographical elements as related to
poetic beauty.

1859. J. G. R. : [On S. 107 and Southampton], Notes e" Queries, 2d s.,
7: 125.

1861. D. Asher: [Review of Barnstorff's work (see IV, i860)], Magazin

fur Literatur des Auslatides. 30: 476.

Reviews also the general literature of the subject.

1862. P. Chasles: Hints for the Elucidation of Sh.'s Sonnets, Athe-

naum, Jan. 25. p. 116.

A new interpretation of the Dedication (see p. 6). Comment
by R. Cartwright followed in the number for Feb. 1, p. 155.

1862. B. Corney: M. Philarete Chasles, Notes cr' Queries. 3d s., 1: 87.

Applies Chasles's view of the Dedication to the Southampton
theory.

1862. B. Corney: The Sonnets of Sh., Notes c? Queries. 3d s., 1 : 162.

Discusses date, relation to Southampton, etc.
1862. J. A. Heraud: A New Mew of Sh.'s Sonnets, Temple Bar, 5: 53.
Esoteric. Reprinted as appendix to the author's Sh., his Inner
Life as Intimated in his Works, 1865.

504 BIBLIOGRAPHY [v

1862. [W. R. Alger:] Sh.'s Sonnets and Friendship, Christian Examiner,
Boston, 73: 209, 403.

Argument for the Pembroke theory.

1864. F. Kreyssig: Sh.'s lyrische Gedichte und ihre neuesten Bear-
beiter, Preussische Jahrbiicher, 13: 484; 14: 91.

A review of the Jordan and Bodenstedt translations; discusses
the biographical element in the Sonnets and Sh.'s morality.

1864. [G. Massey:] Sh. and his Sonnets, Quarterly Review, 115: 431.

Develops the writer's "dramatic" theory (see IV, 1866).

1865. N. Delius: Ueber Sh.'s Sonette, Jahrbuch, 1 : 18.

Presents the "fiction" theory.

1865. W. C. Hazlitt: Sh.'s Sonnets; Mr. W. H., Notes & Queries, 3d s.,

8:449.

Identifies W. H. as William Hammond; a reply by B. Corney,
p. 482.

1866. R. Bell: Sh.'s Sonnets, Fortnightly Review, 5: 734.

A review of Massey 's book (IV, 1866); discusses Southampton
and Pembroke theories.

1867. P. Chasles: Sh.'s Sonnets, Athenceum, Feb. 16, p. 223.

Abandons Pembroke theory for William Hathaway. In the
number for Feb. 23 (p. 254) S. Neil calls attention to his earlier
proposal of the same theory in his biography of Sh. (see VI,
1861). Chasles rejoins in the number for March 9, p. 323.

1867. G. Massey: Sh.'s Sonnets, Athenceum, Mar. 16, p. 355.
On the meaning of "begetter."

1867. P. Chasles: Sh.'s Sonnets, Athenceum, Apr. 13, p. 486.

Further defence of his view of the Dedication, with reply to
Massey. Rejoinders follow by Massey and Neil in the number
for Apr. 27, p. 551; the latter summarizing all the conjectures
regarding Mr. W. H. A final reply by Chasles in the number for
May 18, p. 662.

1869. B. Nicholson: Sh.'s 77th Sonnet, Notes & Queries, 4th s., 3: 166.
1869. H. Freiherr von Friesen: Ueber Sh.'s Sonette, Jahrbuch, 4: 94.
Opposes the Pembroke theory, and the views of Massey and
Delius; discusses the relation of the Sonnets to Sh.'s morality.

*i87i. Anon.: Sh.'s Sonette und die deutschen Uebersetzer, Magazin
fur die Literatur des Auslandes, No. 73. [Jahrbuch, 8: 393.]
1873. [Report of a paper by C. M. Ingleby, before the Royal Society of
Literature,] Athenceum, July 5, p. 18.

Favors Brae's theory that W. H. is a misprint for W. S. Reply
by S. N. (Neil?) in the number for Aug. 2, p. 147.

1873. C. E. Browne: Sh.'s Sonnets, an Old Theory, Athenceum, Aug.
30, p. 277.

On the " Hews " of S. 20 and persons of that name. A note from
Ingleby follows on p. 306, and a further note by Browne on p. 335.

v] BIBLIOGRAPHY 505

1873. C. Edmonds: A Shakspearean Discovery-, Athenceum, Oct. 25,

p. 528, and Nov. 22. p. 661.

On a certain W. H. Replies by C. E. Browne on pp. 563, 771.
1873-74. H. Staunton: Unsuspected Corruptions of Sh.'s Text, Athenceum,
Dec. 3, p. 731; Jan. 3, p. 20: Jan. 31, p. 160: Mar. 14. p. 357.
Various emendations.

1874. Jabez: A Sh. Myth Exploded, Notes & Queries, 5th s., 1 : 80.

On the inference from Sonnets 37 and 89 that Sh. was lame.

1875. F. G. Fleay : The Motive of Sh.'s Sonnets: a defence of his Moral-

ity, Macmillaris Magazine, 31: 433.

Sonnets 1-126 interpreted as a poem in defence of Sh.'s pro-
fession.

1875. F. J. Furnivall: Sonnet, 146, 2, Academy, Sept. 11, p. 282.

An emendation.

1876. F. J. F[urnivall]: The \V. H. or Will of Sh.'s Sonnets, Notes £•

Queries, 5th s., 5: 443.

Gives a list of persons named Hews or Hughes.
1875. K. Hillard: On the Study of Sh.'s Sonnets, Lippincott's Maga-
zine, 15: 497.

Reviews the controversy, developing the autobiographic inter-
pretation.

1875. Speriend: Sh.'s Lameness, Notes cf Queries. 5th s., 3: 134.

A reply to "Jabez" (see under 1874 above), who replies on
p. 278; a further note by "Speriend," p. 497.

1875. K. Elze: Sh.'s Character, seine Welt- und Lebensanschauung.

Jahrbuch, 10: 75.

The Sonnets discussed (pp. 81-90) on the lines followed in the
writer's book (see under VI, 1876).

1876. R. H. Legis: Identification of Michael Drayton with the Rival

Poet of Sh.'s Sonnets, Notes ef Queries, 5th s., 6: 163.
1876. E. D. Stone: Sh.'s 18th Sonnet, Notes cf Queries, 5th s., 5: 463.
A Latin translation of the sonnet.

1876. R. H. Legis: Thorpe's Prefix to Sh.'s Sonnets, Notes c? Queries,

5th s., 6: 421.
An esoteric interpretation of the Dedication.

1877. J. W. Hales: From Stratford to London, Cornhill Magazine, 35:

69.

Incidental consideration of Sh.'s allusions to his journeys.

1877. R. H. Legis: Sonnet 86, Notes & Queries, 5th s., 7: 244.

On Drayton and the Polyolbion in relation to the Sonnets.
1877. R. H. Legis: The 126th of Sh.'s Sonnets, Notes cf Queries, 5th s..
7: 261.

Esoteric interpretation of this sonnet and the series generally.
Reply by R. M. Spence, p. 324.

506 BIBLIOGRAPHY [v

1877. Jabez: Sonnet 86, Notes & Queries, 5th s., 7: 283.

On the reading filled: filed. Rejoinder by Legis on p. 384, and
again by "Jabez " on p. 465.

1877. K. Codeke: Ueber die Sonette Sh.'s, Deutsche Rundschau, 10: 386.
Views the collection as a medley, addressed to various persons.

1877. A. E. Brae: Sh.'s Sonnet 116, Lippincotfs Magazine, 19: 761.

1878. VV. Hertzberg: Eine griechische Quelle zu Sh.'s Sonetten, Jahr-

buch, 13: 158.

On the source of Sonnets 153-54.
1878. T. A. Spalding: Sh.'s Sonnets, Gentleman's Magazine, 242: 300.
Sonnets 1-126 discussed as the story of a friendship.

1878. G. Tirinelli: I Sonetti di Sh., Nuova Antologia, 2d ser., 8: 228.

General discussion of the biographical problem.
1878-79. H. Isaac: Zu den Sonetten Sh.'s, Archiv fiir den neueren
Sprachen, 59: 155, 241; 60: 33; 61: 177, 393; 62: 1, 129.

A commentary on those sonnets which the writer views as
dealing with love; Bodenstedt's order followed.

1879. Bibliothecary : The Crux of Sonnet 116, Notes & Queries, 5th s.,

12: 24.

On the meaning of "hight." Replies by B. Nicholson and
"B. C," on p. 250 of 6th s., vol. 1.

1879. L. A. J. Burgersdijk: Zu Sonett 121, Jahrbuch, 14: 363.

1879. F. Krauss: Sh. und seine Sonette, Nord und Slid, 8: 226.

Follows Massey's theory.

1880. T. Tyler: The Date of Sh.'s 55th Sonnet, Athenaeum, Sept. 11,

P- 337-
1880. A. C. Swinburne: Short Notes on English Poets, Fortnightly

Review, 34: 708.

Reviews W. M. Rossetti's criticism (see VI, 1878); replies to
Browning's objection to the autobiographical theory. Reprinted
in the writer's Miscellanies, 1886.

1880. S. S. Travers: Sh.'s Sonnets: to whom were they addressed?
Victorian Review, December.

Interprets the sonnets as addressed to an illegitimate son of
Sh. Reprinted as a pamphlet, Tasmania, 1881.

1880. Anon.: A Talk about Sonnets, Blackwood's Magazine, 128: 159.

Sh.'s Sonnets discussed, pp. 163-67.
1880. C. E. Browne: The Play upon "You" and "Hews" in the Son-
nets, and its relation to the Herberts, Notes & Queries, 6th s.,
1: 210.

On Herbert's title of Lord Fitzhugh.
1880. F. J. Furnivall : An Early MS. Copy of Sh.'s 8th Sonnet, Academy,
Dec. 24, p. 462.
On Add. MS. 15226.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 507

1881. F. Krauss: DieschwarzeSchonederSh.-Sonette, Jahrbuch, 16: 144.
Develops Massey's interpretation of the later sonnets as con-
cerned with Pembroke and Lady Rich.

1881. E. Stengel: Bilden dieersten i26Sonette Sh.'seinenSonettcyclus.

und welches ist die urspriingliche Reihenfolge derselben?
Englische Stadien, 4:1.

1882. H. Isaac: Wie weit geht die Abhangigkeit Sh.'s von Daniel als

Lyriker? Jahrbuch, 17: 165.

1883. B. Nicholson: Sonnet 1 13 and The Phoenix and Turtle, Athenamm,

Feb. 3, p. 150.

The same note (on the interpretation of line 14) contributed to
Notes 6* Queries, 6th s., 7: 464.

1883. J. Crosby: The Crux in Sonnet 126, Literary World, 14: 64.

1884. J. H. Browne: Sh.'s Sonnets in a New Light, Manhattan, 3: 145.

A favorable account of Massey's theory.
1884. C. Mackay: A Tangled Skein Unraveled, Nineteenth Century, 16:
238.

The Sonnets divided into six groups; some viewed as the work of
Marlowe, Pembroke, and others.

1884. H. Isaac: Sh.'s Selbstbekenntnisse, Preussische Jahrbiicher, 54:

237- 313-

Further develops the writer's views of 1878-79 and of the
Jahrbuch article (see preceding item); Sh.'s spiritual biography
outlined from the Sonnets; arguments for Spenser and Marlowe
as rival poets.

1884. [W.J. Rolfe:] XewTheories of the Sonnets, Shakespeariana, 1 : 291.
An account of the recent articles in Blackwood's and of
Mackay 's in the Nineteenth Century.

1884. H. Isaac: Die Sonett-Periode in Sh.'s Leben, Jahrbuch, 19: 176.
Classifies the Sonnets according to themes, and considers the
probable dates on the basis of parallels with the plays.

1884. T. Tyler: The Imprisonment of Lord Pembroke in 1601, Academy,

March 22, p. 204.

Pembroke in relation to certain of the Sonnets.
1884. T. Tyler: Sh. and Lords Pembroke and Southampton. Academy,

Apr. 19. p. 280.
1884. W. A. Harrison: The Dark Lady and Mistress Mary Fitton,

Academy, July 5 and 12, pp. 9, 30.
1884. T. Tyler: Mrs. Fytton and Rosaline in Love's Labour 's Lost,

Academy, July 19, p. 47.
1884. W. E. A. Axon: Mrs. Mary Fitton, Academy, July 26. p. 62.
1884. A. Hall: A Literary Craze, Notes c? Queries, 6th s.. 10: 21, 61,

101, 181.

Primarily a reply to the first of the Blackwood articles on Sh.

and Dante (see following item): discusses Elizabethan dedica-
tions, and proposes Xash as the rival poet.

508 BIBLIOGRAPHY [v

1884-86. Anon.: New Views of Sh.'s Sonnets: the Other Poet Identified,
Blackwood's Magazine, 135: 727; 137: 774; 139: 327.

Proposes Dante as the "rival poet"; discusses Sh.'s medieval
sources.

1885. T. Tyler: Sh. and Lord Pembroke, Academy, June 20, p. 438.
1885. W. A. Harrison: Die "dunkle Dame" in Sh.'s Sonetten und
Mrs. Mary Fitton, Jahrbuch, 20: 327.

The same matter as in Harrison's Academy letters of 1884.
1885. J. G. B.: "Looks" or "Books" in Sonnet 23, Shakes pear iana,

2:495-

1885. A. Morgan: Much Ado about Sonnets, Catholic World, 42: 212.

General discussion, emphasizing the uneven merit of the Son-
nets, and distrusting all biographic interpretations. Reprinted
in the writer's Sh. in Fact and in Criticism, 1888.

1886. E. Dowden: Sh.'s Sonnets, Academy, Jan. 30, p. 67.

A review of Tyler's introduction to the Praetorius facsimile.

1886. Anon.: [Review of the Praetorius Facsimile Quarto and the

Canterbury Edition of the Sonnets,] Athenaeum, Feb. 20, p.

257-

Discusses the autobiographical problem, and the Fitton theory.

1887. T. Bayne: Sonnet 66, Notes & Queries, 7th s., 4: 304.

Proposes an emendation of "disabled." Discussed by D. C. T.,
C. B. M., and R. F. Gardiner, p. 405, and by B. Nicholson, 5: 61.

1887. G Garrigues: Sh.'s Sonnets, Journal of Speculative Philosophy,

21: 241.
Esoteric.

1888. T. Tyler: Mrs. Mary Fitton and Sh.'s 152nd Sonnet, Academy,

Dec. 15, p. 388.
1888. F. A. Leo: Hilfsmittel bei Untersuchungen iiber Sh.'s Sonette,
Jahrbuch, 23: 304.

Gives a classification of the Sonnets and an index of topics.

1888. Horace Davis: Sh.'s Sonnets, Overland Monthly, San Francisco,

n.s., 11: 248.

Interprets the Sonnets in connection with the plays.

1889. W. J. Rolfe: The Sonnets, Shakespeariana, 6: 97.

General; the same matter as in the author's edition of the Son-
nets and Life of Sh.

1889. E. H. Plumptre: Sh.'s Travels, Somerset and Elsewhere, Con-
temporary Review, 55: 584.

On Sonnets 153-154, as evidence that Sh. had been at Bath;
with discussion of the alleged connection of the Sonnets with

Willobie his Avisa.

1889. T. Tyler: Sh. and Marston in 1598, Academy, May 4, p. 306.
On Sonnet 32, line 12.

v] BIBLIOGRAPHY 509

1889. Anon.: Sh.'s Sonnets and Mary Fitton, Academy, Oct. 5, p. 220.
1889. T. Tyler: Mary Fitton and the Dictionary of National Biogra-
phy, Athenceum, Oct. 19, p. 531.
1889. T. W. Norwood: Mary Fitton, Athenceum, Nov. 9, p. 643.
1889. B. N[icholson]: Was Sh. Lame? Notes c? Queries, 7th s., 8: 454.

In reply to a query by W. Blood (p. 367).
1889. C. \V. Franklyn: William Sh., Gentleman, Westminster Review,
132:348-

Doubts the Shakspearean authorship of the Sonnets.

1889. Oscar Wilde: The Portrait of Mr. W. H., Blackwood's Magazine,

146: 1.

Fancifully develops a theory that W. H. was Willie Hughes,
a boy actor; incidentally opposes both the Southampton and Pem-
broke theories, and favors Marlowe as the rival poet. Reprinted
in London (n.d.) and in Portland, Maine (Mosher, 1901).

1890. W. Underhill: Mr. W. H.; Sh.'s Sonnets, Notes cV Queries, 7th

s., 9: 227, 302.

Proposes to read "To Mr. W. Hall happiness" in the Dedica-
tion; discusses the Hall family of Worcestershire. Comment,
p. 303, by W. T. Lynn, C. A. Ward, and A. Hall.

1890. T. Tyler: The Dedication of Sh.'s Sonnets, Academy, June 14.
p. 408.

On the Dedication and the Pembroke theory.
1890. C. C. Stopes: Sh.'s Sonnets, "W. H.," and the Dark Lady, Poet
Lore, 2: 460.

A review of Tyler's edition; opposes the Pembroke and Chap-
man theories.

1890. Dr. Sachs: Sh.'s Gedichte, Jahrbuch, 25: 132.

Sonnets discussed, pp. 148-67; general review and bibliography.
1890. C. C. Stopes: [Review of Tyler 'sedition of the Sonnets,] Jahrbuch.

25: 185.

Identifies W. H. as William Hunnis; this theory withdrawn in
a contribution to the Jahrbuch, 27: 200.

1890. G. Chiarini: II Matrimonio e gli Amori di Guglielmo Sh., Nuova

Antologia, 3d s., 26: 5, 438; 27: 112.

Also issued separately. In general favors the Pembroke-Fitton
theory.

1891. B. Nicholson: Sonnet 77, 10, Notes c? Queries, 7th s., 11 : 24.
1891. F. J. Furnivall: Mary Fitton Again, Academy, March 21, p. 282.

Further discussion by Furnivall, pp. 325 and 370; replies by
Tyler, pp. 304, 346, 395.
1891. W. J. Rolfe: The Mr. W. H. of the Sonnets, Critic, n.s., 16: 334.

On a portrait of Pembroke.
1891. [Report of a paper by Tyler, on "The Latest Objections to the
Herbert-Fitton Theory of the Sonnets," before the New

510 BIBLIOGRAPHY [v

Shakespeare Society, meeting of Dec. nj Academy, Dec. 19,

P- 567-
1891. B. Nicholson: Sonnet 146, 2, Notes & Queries, 7th s., 11 : 364.

Reply by C. C. B. in 12: 423.
1891. B. Nicholson : Was Mr. W. H. the Earl of Pembroke? Athenceum,

July 11, p. 74.
1891. I. Goodlet: A New Word on Sh.'s Sonnets, Poet Lore, 3: 505.

Emphasizes the relationship of the Sonnets to Two Gentlemen
of Verona.

1 89 1. S. Arnaud: Les Sonnets de Sh., Nouvelle Revue, 71: 537.

Discusses Southampton theory; several sonnets translated.

1892. C. G. O. Bridgeman: The Fitton Portraits at Arbury, Academy,

Jan. 9, p. 40.

A reply by Tyler, issue of Jan. 16, p. 66.
1892. B. Nicholson: Sonnet 100, 9, Notes & Queries, 8th s., 2: 5.

On the meaning of resty. Further discussion by Tyler and
E. S. A. on p. 283, and by C. C. B. in 4: 444.

1892. R. Shindler: The Stolen Key, Gentleman's Magazine, 272: 70.

Argues the want of authenticity and continuity of the quarto
of 1609.

1893. E. B. Brownlow: Sonnet 126, Notes & Queries, 8th s., 3: 103.

On the text of line 2; discussed by C. C. B. on p. 285.
1893. A. von Mauntz: Sh.'s Lyrische Gedichte, Jahrbuch, 28: 274.
In part follows up Massey's theory.

1893. Horace Davis: The Comparison of Hair to Wires in Sonnet 130,

Critic, n.s., 19: 419.

1894. W. J. Rolfe: Sh.'s Sonnets set to Music, Critic, n.s., 21: 238.

1894. L. W. Spring: The Friendship of Sh. with Mr. W. H. and the

Dark Lady, Education, 14: 599.

1895. G. Sarrazin: Die Entstehung von Sh.'s Verlorener Liebesmuhe,

Jahrbuch, 31: 200.

Discusses the date of the Sonnets; opposes the Pembroke
theory.

1895. H. Conrad: Sh. und die Essex-Familie, Preussische Jahrbucher,
79: 183.

The possible identification of the friend of the Sonnets with
Essex discussed, pp. 184-90.

1895. W. J. Rolfe: Something New on Sh.'s Sonnets, Critic, n.s., 24:
152.

A theory proposed in George Paston's novel, A Study in Prej-
udices.

*i896. J. Caro: Ueber Sh.'s Sonette, Berichte des freien deutschen
Hochstiftes zu Frankfort a. M., n.s., 12: 1. [Jahrb., 33: 370.]

v] BIBLIOGRAPHY 511

1896. R. M. Spence: The Sonnets; the two Obeli in the Globe edition,

Notes & Queries, 8th s., 10: 450.

On 6o, 13 and 146, 2. Discussed by C. C. B. and Sherborne,
11: 223, 343.

1896. G. Sarrazin: Zur Chronologie von Sh.'s Dichtungen, Jahrbuch,
32: 149.

Discusses parallelisms of style as indications of date.

1897. G. A. Leigh: The Rival Poet in Sh.'s Sonnets, Westminster Review,

147: 173-

Tasso proposed as the rival poet.

1897. F. J. Furnivall: Sh. and Mary Fitton, The Theatre, Dec. 1.

1897. William Archer: Sh.'s Sonnets: the case against Southampton,
Fortnightly Review, n.s., 62: 817.

Sums up the evidence for the Pembroke theory.

1897. T. Tyler: "Mr. W. H." and the "D. X. B.," Academy, July 24,
p. 78.

On Dee's abandonment of the Pembroke theory. Further dis-
cussion by E. K. Chambers, in the issues of July 31 (p. 98) and
Aug. 14 (p. 138), and by Tyler and A. Hall in that of Aug. 7
(pp. 1 17-18).

1897. A. Hall: Sh.'s Sonnets, Academy, Sept. 11, p. 207.

On Lady Penelope Devereux as the Dark Lady.
1897. Anon.: The Dark Lady Unveiled, Academy, Oct. 30, p. 341.

On the Fitton theory and Lady Xewdigate-Xewdegate's Gos-
sip from a Muniment Room.

1897. J. Vaughan: An "Ancient Market Towne," Temple Bar, no:
109.

Sketches the Southampton- Vernon romance in accordance with
Massey's theory of the Sonnets.

1897. A. von Mauntz: Einige Glossen zu Sh.'s Sonett 121, Anglia,
19: 291.

1898. Sidney Lee: Sh. and the Earl of Pembroke, Fortnightly Rrciew,
n.s., 63: 210.

A reply to Archer; the substance included in the writer's Life
of Sh.

1898. J. Churton Collins: Sh.'s Sonnets. Saturday Review, 85: 285.

Opposes both the Southampton and Pembroke theories. Re-
printed in the writer's Ephemera Critica.

1898. C. C. Stopes: The Date of Sh.'s Sonnets, Athenamm, Mar. 19 and
26, pp. 374. 405.

Develops the Southampton theorv; proposes William Harvey
as W. H.

1898. G. Sarrazin: Wortechos bei Sh. (II), Jahrbuch. 34: 119.
List for the Sonnets on pp. 162-63.

512 BIBLIOGRAPHY [v

1898. G. Sarrazin: Zu Sonett 104, Jahrbuch, 34: 368.

On the date of this sonnet, and, in consequence, of the series.
1898. J. M. S. : The Life of Sh., Spectator, Dec. 3, p. 830.

On a parallel in the correspondence of St. Evremond (see p. 109).

1898. Samuel Butler: Sh.'s Sonnets and the Ireland Forgeries, Athe-
naeum, Dec. 24, p. 907.

On the meaning of "begetter" (see p. 10).
1898. Anon.: A German Mare's Nest, Academy, Jan. 15, p. 79.

A critique of Sarrazin's Sh.'s Lehrjahre.
1898. T. Tyler: Dr. Brandes and Sh.'s Sonnets, Academy, Jan. 22,
p. 105.

On the Pembroke theory.

1898. Sidney Lee: Sh. and the Earl of Southampton, Cornhill Magazine,
77:482.

Substantially included in the writer's Life of Sh.
1898. Samuel Butler: Sh.'s Sonnets, AthencBum, July 30, p. 161.

Outlines the argument for an early date.
1898. Sylvanus Urban: [Notes on Wyndham's edition ol the Poems, the
Pembroke theory, etc., in "Table Talk,"] Gentleman' s Maga-
zine, 285: 102.

1898. Sylvanus Urban: A Sh. Mystery Solved, [etc., in "Table Talk,"]

Gentleman s Magazine, 285: 617.

On Lee's view of the Dedication.
1898-99. Cuming Walters: The Mystery of Sh.'s Sonnets, New Century
Review, 4: 440; 5: 89, 207.

Reappeared in book form, with the same title (see under IV,
1899).

1899. Cuming Walters: Sh.'s Sonnets as Clues to the Dramas, New

Century Review, 6: 261.

Supplemental to the writer's book (see under IV, 1899); em-
phasizes the relation of the Sonnets to L. L. L., T. G. V., and
M. N. D.

1899. A. Ainger: The Only Begetter of Sh.'s Sonnets, Athcnccum, Jan.
14 and 28, pp. 59, 121.

Supports Lee's interpretation of the Dedication.
1899. H. C. Beeching: The Sonnets of Michael Drayton, Literature,
5: 181.

Discusses the relation of Drayton's sonnets and Sh.'s. Reprinted
as an appendix to the writer's edition of the Sonnets (see I, 1904).

1899. Cuming Walters: [Letters to the editor,] Literature, 4: 585, 642.

In reply to a review of the writer's book (see IV, 1899), with
special reference to the Pembroke theory.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 513

1899. J. \V. Bright: Two Xotelets on Sh., Modern Language Xotes, 14:

186.

Includes an interpretation of Sonnet I, 14.
1899. W. J. Rolfe: [A reply to Sidney Lee's account of the Sonnets.]

Critic, 35: 737.

1899. W. L. Rushton: Sonnet 146, Xotes cr Queries, 9th s., 4: 142.

An emendation.

1900. F. A. White: Mr. \V. H. of Sh.'s Sonnets, Xew Century Review,

7: 228.

Identifies "W. H." of the Dedication as William Hathaway,
and the youth of the sonnets as his son.

1900. A. Hall: Sh.'s Sonnets, Print 1609, Xotes e5 Queries, 9th s., 6:
248.

Regards S. 126 as written in 1609 to authenticate the sonnet
series. A reply by C. E. H., p. 435.

'1900. F. Henry: [Xote on Lee's theory of the Dedication.] Literature,
6: 320.

In opposition to the identification of W. H. with William Hall
the stationer. Reported in Jahrbuch, 37: 287.

1900. V. Y.: Sh.'s Sonnets in French, Bookmen (X.Y.). 12: 132.

Review of Henry's translation (see under 1 1 lb, 1900), with argu-
ment against the autobiographical theories. The same matter in
The Bookman of London, 18: 13, with the title, "Are Sh.'s Son-
nets Autobiographical?"

1900. Sidney Lee: Beget and Begetter in Elizabethan English, Athe-
nccum, Feb. 24, p. 250.

Replies by Dowden and Butler in the numbers for March 10
and 24, pp. 315, 379: further discussion by Ainger, March 17, p.
346, and by Lee, March 17, p. 345. (See pp. 11-12 above.)

1900. C. F. McClumpha: Parallels between Sh.'s Sonnets and Love's

Labour's Lost, Modern Language Xotes, 15: 188.
1900. C. C. Stopes: "Mr. W. H.." Athenceum, Aug. 4. p. 154.
Further consideration of William Harvey.

1900. R. Garnett: The Date of the Sonnets, Literature. 6: 211.

On the date of Sonnet 66: reported in Jahrbuch, 37: 285. Reply
by T. L. M. Douse, p. 229.

1901. C. F. McClumpha: Parallels between Sh.'s Sonnets and A Mid-

summer Night's Dream, Modern Language Xotes, 16: 164.
1 901. A. Filon: Les Sonnets deSh., Revue des deux Mondes, ser. 5, 2: 795.

Develops the biographic interpretation.
1 901. [C. Creighton:] Sh. and the Earl of Pembroke. Blackuvod's
Magazine, 169: 668, 829.

Maintains that Sh. himself published the Sonnets; interprets
the italic type of the Quarto as significant; views Daniel as the
rival poet. Substantially included in the writer's Sh.'s Story of
his Life, 1904.

514 BIBLIOGRAPHY [v

1902. H. C. Beeching: The Sonnets of Sh., Cornhill Magazine, n.s., 12:
244.

Substantially embodied in the author's edition of the Sonnets
(see I, 1904).

*I902. E. Reichel: Das Portrat des herrn W. H., Die Gegenwart, 62:
250.

[Jahrbuch, 39: 397.]
1902. W. E. Ormsby : Sh.'s 76th Sonnet, Notes & Queries, 9th s.,10: 125.

On the phrase "noted weed" and the Baconians. A consider-
able discussion followed, in vols. 11 and 12.

1902. W. A. Henderson: Sh. in the Sonnets, Notes & Queries, 9th s.,
10: 343-

Views Edmund Sh. as the person chiefly addressed in the

Sonnets.

1902. M. H. L[iddell]: Sh.'s Sonnets in MS., Nation, New York, 75: 10.

Describes a MS. in a Dobell catalogue; see p. 23 above.

1903. J. D. Butler : World without End, Notes & Queries, 9th s., 1 1 : 448.

On the phrase in Sonnet 57.

1903. G. Stronach: Sh.'s Sonnets: a new Theory, Notes & Queries, 9th

s., 12: 141, 273.

Views the collection as a miscellany by various writers, includ-
ing Barnes. Replies by H. Ingleby and "Ne Quid Nimis," pp.
210-11.

1904. R. F. Towndrow: Canker-Blooms and Canker, Athenceum, July

23, p. 123; Aug. 6, p. 188.

On "canker-blooms" in Sonnet 54; opposed by G. Birdwood
in the numbers for July 30 and Aug. 13, pp. 156, 219.

1904. E. D. Sftone]: Sh.'s Sonnet 146, Notes & Queries, 10th s., 1 : 204.

A Latin translation.
1904. T. L. M. Douse: Sh.'s Sonnet 26, Notes & Queries, 10th s., 2: 133.
1904. C. F. McClumpha: Sh.'s Sonnets and Romeo & Juliet, Jahrbuch,

40: 187.
1904. P. Tausig: Zu Sh.'s Sonetten 153 und 154, Jahrbuch, 40: 231.

1904. P. E. More: Sh.'s Sonnets, Evening Post, New York, August 6.

Discusses Sh.'s personality in the Sonnets. Reprinted in the
writer's Shelburne Essays, 2d Series, 1906.

1905. D. Klein: Foreign Influence on Sh.'s Sonnets, Sewanee Review,

I3:454-

On the platonic influences, those of the Pleiade, etc.

♦1907. L. L. Schucking: Die Widmung der Sonette Sh.'s, Frankfurter
Zeitung, March 26.

Interprets the Dedication as meaning that Thorpe wishes Wil-
liam Hall the eternity which Sh. promises ( = may be expected) to
attain. Reported in Jahrbuch, 44: 292.

v] BIBLIOGRAPHY 515

♦1907. R. von Kralik: Sh. Studien, Die Kultur, 8: 385.

Discusses the Dedication (believing \Y. H. a misprint for W. S.)
and the autobiographical element in the Sonnets. Reported in
Jahrbuch, 44: 292, 295-96.

1908. M. J. Wolff: Sh. im BucKhandel seiner Zeit, Jahrbuch, 44: 126.
Discusses Thorpe and the Quarto of 1609, p. 135.

1908. H. Pemberton, Jr.: The Sonnets. New Shake speareana, 7: 105.

On Sonnet 107.

1909. H. Pemberton, Jr.: Topical Allusions in the Sonnets, and the

Identity of the Person to whom the Sonnets were addressed,
New Shakespeareana, 8: 61.
On Sonnets 125, 153, 154; supports the Pembroke theory.
1909. H. W. Mabie: Sonnets of Sh., Outlook, 92: 1025.
Introduction to a reprint of five sonnets.

1909. D. J.: Sh.'s Sonnets, their Dedication, Notes cf Queries, 10th
s., 12: 265.

On another dedication of Thorpe's.

1909. Sidney Lee: Ovid and Sh.'s Sonnets, Quarterly Review. 210: 455.
*I9I0. B. Badt: Erlebnis und Dichtung in Sh.'s Sonetten, Der Zeitgeist,

Jan. 10.

Platonism in the Sonnets. Reported in Jahrbuch, 47: 270.

1910. E. S. Bates: The Sincerity of Sh.'s Sonnets, Modern Philology,

8:87.
1910. S. B. Hemingway: Sonnet 8 and Mr. William Hughes, Musician.
Modern Language Notes, 25: 210.
*l9io. K. Bleibtreu: [Note in] Die Gegenwart, 75: 395.
On Sonnet in; reported in Jahrbuch, 46: 215.
1910. E. A. Kock: Three Shaksperian Passages Explained, Anglia,

3i: 133-

Includes a note on Sonnet 30, 4.

1910. B. Holland: The "Dark Lady" to Mr. W. Sh., National Revira.',
56: 260.

Eleven sonnets, imagined as sent in reply to Sh.'s.

1910. K. Groos & I. Xetto: Psychologisch-statistische Untersuchungen

uber die visuellen Sinneseindriicke in Sh.'s lyrischen und
epischen Dichtungen. Englische Studien, 43: 27.

Statistics on the color-images in the Sonnets, pp. 32-38.
*i9io. F. Gundolf: Sh.'s Sonette, Die Zukunft, Xo. 41, p. 65. [Jahrb.,

47:39o]

191 1. G. Bernard Shaw: The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, Red Book

Magazine. 16: 421.

A one-act play, based on the Fitton theory.

516 BIBLIOGRAPHY [v

191 1. Louise I. Guiney: Sh. and "Warray," Notes & Queries, nth s.,
4:84.

On Sonnet 146, 2. A reply by C. C. B., p. 243.

191 1. M. J. Wolff: Zu den Sonetten, Jahrbuch, 47: 191.

On an Italian version of the source of Sonnets 153-54.

191 1. A. Piatt: Edward III and Sh.'s Sonnets, Modern Language

Review, 6: 511.

On the alleged priority of Sonnets 94 and 142 to the play.

1912. C. C. B.: Sh.'s Sonnets: the Rival Poet, Notes & Queries, nth s.,

5: 190.

Favors Marlowe.

1912. W. B. Brown : The Text of Sh.'s Sonnets 125-126, Notes & Queries,
nth s., 6: 446.

Replies by C. C. B., 7: 32, 153; by "Tom Jones," 7: 32; further
discussion by W. B. Brown, 7: 76, 236.

1912. J. E. G. de Montmorency: The Mystery of Sh.'s Sonnets, Con-
temporary Review, 101 : 737.
Esoteric.

1912. J. E. G. de Montmorency: The "Other Poet" of Sh.'s Sonnets,

Contemporary Review, 101 : 885.
Argument for Spenser.

1913. W. B. Brown: The Mr. W. H. of Sh.'s Sonnets, Notes & Queries,

nth s., 7: 241, 262.

On the Hews of Sonnet 20.

1913. W. M. Blatt: A New Light on the Sonnets, Modern Philology,

11: 135-

Views the Sonnets as written by Sh. as a hired spokesman.

1913. C. C. Stopes: An Early Variant of a Sh. Sonnet, Athenceum, July
26, p. 89.

A MS. variant of Sonnet 2. Other variants of the same sonnet
described by B. Dobell, Aug. 2, p. 112, and by H. T. Price, Sept.
6, p. 230 (see pp. 21-22 above).

1913. W. B. Brown: Buds of Marjoram, Notes & Queries, nth s., 8:
169.

On Sonnet 99, 7. Further discussion by A. R. Bayley, p. 213,
and by C. C. B., p. 237.

*I9I3- S. von Hegediis: [Article in] Ungarischen Rundschau fur historische
und soziale Wissenschaften, 2: 586.

On a Latin medium for the Greek source of Sonnets 153, 154;
reported in Jahrbuch, 50: 153.

1913. Clara L. de Chambrun: The Inspirers of Sh.'s Sonnets, North
American Review, 198: 131.

On the Mistress Davenant theory.

v] BIBLIOGRAPHY 517

1913. A. von Berzeviczy: Die Sonette Michelangelos und Sh.'s, Pester

Lloyd, Dec. 9.

A comparison of the two collections; reported in Jahrbuch, 51:
251-

1914. J. Q. Adams, Jr.: Two Notes on Hamlet, Modern Language

Notes, 29: 1.

Includes a note on "eisel" in S. in.

1914. G. Sarrazin: Sh.'s Sonette, Internationale Monatsschrift, 8: 107 1.

General; develops the Southampton theory, and discusses the
date of the Sonnets.

1914. S. A. Tannenbaum: The Heart of Sh.'s Mystery', The Dial,
Chicago, 56: 494.

Review of books by Acheson and the Countess of Chambrun
(see IV, 1913).

1914. G. C. Moore Smith: Sonnets, 51, Lines iof., Modern Language
Review, 9: 372.

1914. Judge Evans: Venus & Adonis and the earlier Sonnets of Sh.,

Saturday Review, Dec. 26, p. 647.
On Sonnets 1-17.

1915. R. M. Alden: [Review of books by Acheson and the Countess

of Chambrun,] Journal of English and Germanic Philology,
I4:449-

Discussion of the alleged relation of the Sonnets to Willobie
his Avisa (see pp. 480-81).

1915. H. D. Gray: The Arrangement and the Date of Sh.'s Sonnets.
Publications of the Modern Language Association, n.s., 23: 629.

1915. E. H. Wilkins: The Enueg in Petrarch and in Sh., Modern

Philology, 13: in.

On S. 66 as an example of the enueg form.

1916. M. J. Wolff: Petrarkismus und Antipetrarkismus in Sh.'s Son-

etten. Englische Studien, 49: 161.

On the conventional elements in the Renaissance sonnet (see
p. 459 above).

1916. R. M. Alden: The 1640 Text of Sh.'s Sonnets, Modern Philology,
14: 17.

A proof that the text of 1640 was made from that of 1609 (see p.
422 above).

1916. R. M. Alden: The 1710 and 1714 Texts of Sh.'s Poems, Modern
Language Xotes, 31: 268.

An account of the texts which may be attributed to Gildon (see
under II, 1710).

518 BIBLIOGRAPHY [vi

VI. BOOKS CONTAINING INCIDENTAL MATTER ON THE

SONNETS

I797- [G. Chalmers:] An Apology for the Believers in the Sh. Papers
which were exhibited in Norfolk Street.

Pp. 41-66; proposes the view that the Sonnets were addressed
to Queen Elizabeth.

1799. G. Chalmers: A Supplemental Apology for the Believers in the
Sh. Papers [etc.].
Pp. 38-104.

1809-11. A. W. von Schlegel: Ueber dramatische Kunst und Literatur.
Heidelberg.

Passage on the value of the Sonnets as biographical documents
(Black trans., ed. 1840, 2: 116).

1815. W. Wordsworth: Essay, supplementary to the Preface to the
Lyrical Ballads.

Passage on the literary value of the Sonnets (Poems, Globe ed.,
p. 868).

1817. Nathan Drake: Sh. and his Times.

The earliest argument for the Southampton theory (2: 50-86).

1817. S. T. Coleridge: Biographia Literaria.

Remarks on the Sonnets in chapters 2 and 15.

1829. Mrs. [Anna B. M.] Jameson: Memoirs of the Loves of the Poets.
Chapter 15 "On the Love of Sh."; Southampton theory ac-
cepted.

1835. S. T. Coleridge: Table Talk.

Entry for May 14, 1833; remarks on male friendship.

[1835.] R. F. Housman: A Collection of English Sonnets.
26 of Sh.'s Sonnets included, with notes.

1837-39. H. Hallam: Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the 15th,
16th, and 17th Centuries.

Sonnets discussed, vol. 3, chap. 5, §§ 48-50.

1839. H. Ulrici: Ueber Sh.'s dramatische Kunst. Halle.

Translated by Dora Schmitz, 1846. Views of Delius, Neil, and
Massey opposed in detail- (Bk. 2, chaps. 3, 6; Bohn ed., 1876, 1:
206-17, 240-43).

1845. J. Hunter: New Illustrations of the Life, Studies, and Writings
of Sh.

Discusses the relation of the sonnets on marriage to Much Ado
about Nothing (1: 236-41).

[1848?] E. J. Delecluze: Dante Alighieri ou la Poesie Amoureuse. Paris.
On the resemblance between the Vita Nuova and Sh.'s Sonnet9
(pp. 516-37).

vi] BIBLIOGRAPHY 519

1849-50. G. G. Gervinus: Shakespeare. Leipzig.

Translated by F. E. Bunnett, as Sh. Commentaries, 1863.
Southampton theory followed, and Sh.'s personality discussed
with reference to the Sonnets (ed. 1883, pp. 441-74).

[1851.] H. K. S. Causton: Essay on Mr. Singer's "Wormwood" . . .
and a reading of Sh.'s Sonnet III.

Pamphlet; on the meaning of the word "eisel."

1857. Henry Reed: Lectures on the British Poets. Philadelphia.

An appended essay on English Sonnets (2: 235) contains com-
ments on several of Sh.'s.

1857. [C. Bathurst:] Remarks on the Differences in Sh.'s Versification

in different Periods of his Life.

Pp. 1 10-15, on the date of the Sonnets.

1858. F. A. T. Kreyssig: Vorlesungen tiber Shakespeare. Berlin.

Reviews the general literature of the subject (2d ed., 1874,
1: 114-23).
1859- John, Lord Campbell: Sh.'s Legal Acquirements.

Remarks on the legal metaphors in several of the Sonnets.
i860. W. S. Walker: Critical Examination of the Text of Sh. Edited
by W. N. Lettsom.

Grammatical and textual comments, passim.

1861. S. Neil: Shakespeare, a Critical Biography.

Pp. 104-08; W. H. identified as William Hathaway.
1863-64. H. A. Taine: Histoire de la Litterature Anglaise. Paris.

Bk. 2, chap. 4, § 1, on Sh.'s personality with reference to the
love-story of the Sonnets.

1864. T. Kenny: The Life and Genius of Shakespeare.
The male friendship discussed (pp. 79-82).
*l864. A. Bekk: William Sh., eine biographische Studie. Mtinchen.

Mentioned by Kreyssig (see V, 1863), as regarding many of
the Sonnets as addressed to Sh.'s wife.

1866. [R. H. Shepherd:] Tennysoniana.

2d ed., 1879. Chap. 4 on "In Memoriam and Sh.'s Sonnets";
some twenty parallels adduced.

1866. E. W. Sievers: William Sh., sein Leben und Dichten. Gotha.

Pp. 90-110. Discusses the relation of the friendship for South-
ampton to Sh.'s poetical development.

1867. Leigh Hunt and S. A. Lee: The Book of the Sonnet.

For Sh.'s Sonnets, see Hunt's introductory Essay on the Son-
net, 1 : 75~77< and notes on the eight selected sonnets, pp. 154-64.

[1867.] G. Ross, M.D.: Studies. Biographical and Literary.

The Sonnets discussed in the Essay on Sh.'s Mad Characters
(pp. 51-54), with reference to the alleged resemblance of Hamlet
and Sh.

520 BIBLIOGRAPHY [vi

1869. Carl Karpf: To ti en einai: die Idee Sh.'s und deren Verwirk-
lichung. Hamburg.

Esoteric; the Sonnets in their relation to the Aristotelian phi-
losophy (pp. 29-124).

1869. E. A. Abbott: A Shakespearian Grammar.

2d ed., 1870. Grammatical notes, passim.
1872. R. Genee: Sh., sein Leben und seine Werke. Hildburghausen.

Pp. 83-87. Opposes Delius.
1874. W. Minto: Characteristics of English Poets from Chaucer to
Shirley.

2d ed., 1885. Chap. 5, § 7; Chapman proposed as the "rival
poet."

1874. C. M. Ingleby: Sh.'s Centurie of Prayse; being materials for a
history of opinion on Sh. and his works.

Reprinted by the New Sh. Society, 1879. Includes a passage
from Willobie his Avisa, with the suggestion that it has to do with
the story of Sh., the friend, and the dark lady.

1874. W. C. Hazlitt: Prefaces, Dedications, Epistles.

On page 226 two dedications of Thorpe's are discussed, as evi-
dence against the identification of Pembroke as the W. H. of the
Sonnets Dedication.

1874. H. von Friesen: Sh.-Studien. I, Altengland und W. Sh. Wien.

Pp. 324-48. Develops the autobiographical theory.

1874-75. Alexander Schmidt: Shakespeare Lexicon. Berlin.

1875. E. Dowden: Shakspere, a Critical Study of his Mind and Art.

Sonnets discussed in chap. 8. Other issues in 1876, 1880, etc.

1876. Karl Elze: William Sh. Halle.

Translated by Dora Schmitz, 1888. Discusses friendship as a
Renaissance theme; opposes the autobiographical theory (pp.
369-80, 493-505; translation, pp. 320-29, 428-38).

*l877. G. S. Caldwell: Sir Walter Raleigh the Author of Sh.'s Plays and
Sonnets. Melbourne.

Described by Dowden, edition of the Sonnets, 1881, p. 102.

1878. W. M. Rossetti: Lives of Famous Poets.

Pp. 50-56. Discusses the male friendship.

1878. J. Bulloch: Studies on the Text of Sh., with numerous Emenda-

tions.

Pp. 280-95, textual notes; and Appendix, pp. 306-10, on the
Sonnets and Dedication.

1879. Justin Winsor: Sh.'s Poems; a Bibliography of the Earlier Edi-

tions. Bibliographical Contributions of the Harvard Uni-
versity Library, No. 2. Cambridge, Mass.

1880. D. M. Main: A Treasury of English Sonnets.

Contains 57 of Sh.'s, with notes.

vi] BIBLIOGRAPHY 521

1882. J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps: Outlines of the Life of Sh.

Issued in smaller form, privately printed, in 1881; issued in
successive revised editions in 1883, etc. For the Sonnets, see in
the final editions (7th-ioth), 1: 173-76. 226; 2: 303-05.

*l882. F. Krauss: Sh.'s Selbstbekenntnisse. Weimar.

Includes an elaboration of the author's commentary on the
Sonnets; see under Ilia, 1872. Reviewed in Jahrbuch, 18: 248.

1883. B. G. Kinnear: Cruces Shakespearianae ; difficult passages in the

Works of Sh. [etc.].

Various emendations (pp. 496-504).

1883. Mark Pattison: The Sonnets of John Milton [edited].

The Introduction discusses the Shakespearean sonnet form.

1884. A List of all the Songs and Passages in Sh. which have been set

to Music. Compiled by J. Greenhill, Rev. W. A. Harrison,
and F. J. Furnivall. New Shakspere Society Publications.
For the Sonnets, see pp. 75-88.
1886. F. G. Fleay: A Chronicle History of the Life and Work of W. Sh.

Pp. 120-24; 161. Discusses the alleged relationship of the Son-
nets to a passage in Willobie his Avisa.

1891. F. G. Fleay: A Biographical Chronicle of the English Stage.

"Excursus on Sh.'s Sonnets," 2: 208-32; emphasizes their rela-
tionship to Drayton's verse, and discusses their date.

1894. Barrett Wendell : William Shakspere. New York.

Pp. 221-37.

1895. Henry Morley and W. Hall Griffin: English Writers, vol. 1 1.

Pp. 326-34 and (bibliography) 441-42; views the Sonnets as
largely imaginative, and analyzes them into topical series.

1895. F. E. Schelling: A Book of Elizabethan Lyrics. Boston.

The Introduction discusses the Elizabethan sonnet, pp. xvi-
xxi; for notes on eight selected sonnets, see pp. 246-49.

1896. F. S. Boas: Sh. and his Predecessors.

Pages 1 14-2 1. Defends the autobiographic theory and the
Pembroke and Chapman identifications.

1896. J. P. Yeatman: The Gentle Sh., a Vindication.

Pp. 295-301; argues that many of the sonnets are the work of
other writers than Sh.

1896. C. Efllis]: Sh. and the Bible: Fifty Sonnets with their Scriptural

Harmonies.

Eccentric. Embodied in the writer's volume, Christ in Sh., 1897.

1897. G. Sarrazin: W. Sh.'s Lehrjahre. Weimar.

Litterarhisiorische Forschungen, No. 5. Chap. 7 (pp. 149-74)
on " Die Jugend-Sonette "; argument for the Southampton theory,
and on the question of date; relation of the Sonnets to Daniel's
verse emphasized.

522 BIBLIOGRAPHY [vi

1897. J. M. Robertson: Montaigne and Sh.

Some parallels noted for the Sonnets.

1897. Lady Newdigate-Newdegate: Gossip from a Muniment Room;

being passages in the lives of Anne and Mary Fitton.

Contains matter of some interest in connection with the Pem-
broke-Fitton theory. In the second edition, 1898, is an Appendix
by C. G. O. Bridgeman, on the Portraits of Mary Fitton. The
book is fully discussed, in relation to the Sonnets, by A. von
Mauntz, Jahrbuch, 34: 378.

1898. Sidney Lee: A Life of William Sh.

Revised editions, 1909 and 1916. Chapters 7-8, and Appen-
dices 3-10. Opposes the Pembroke theory ; emphasizes the patron-
age of Southampton; discusses the relation of the Sonnets to
continental sonneteering in the Renaissance.

1898. G. Brandes: William Sh., a Critical Study.

Bk. 2, chaps. 5-7. Develops the Pembroke theory, and dis-
cusses Platonism in the Sonnets.

1900. W. Franz: Shakespeare-Grammatik. Halle.

1900. H. W. Mabie: William Sh., Poet, Dramatist, and Man. New

York.

Chap. 9. This chapter also appeared in The Outlook, Aug. 25,

1900.

1902. Studies in Honor of Basil L. Gildersleeve. Baltimore.

Contains paper by T. R. Price, on The Technic of Sh.'s Sonnets
(p. 363); the fiction theory defended.

1903. Bowyer Nichols: A Little Book of English Sonnets.

Introduction (pp. xvii-xxiii) discusses the form of the Shake-
spearean sonnet.

1903. W. C. Hazlitt: Sh., Himself and his Work.

4th ed., enlarged, 1912. Pp. 208-67; views the Sonnets as a
miscellany, in wholly uncertain order.

1903. A. von Mauntz: Heraldik in Diensten der Sh.-Forschung. Berlin.

The sixth and seventh sections ("studies") discuss an alleged

quarrel between Sh. and Gabriel Harvey, proposing the latter as

the rival poet, and a certain Lady Smith as both patroness and

"dark lady."

1903. John Erskine: The Elizabethan Lyric. New York.

Pp. 167-75.
[1904.] W. J. Rolfe: Life of William Sh. Boston.

Pp. 328-65. Opposes the authority of the 1609 arrangement;
supports the Pembroke theory.
[1904.] Sidney Lee: Elizabethan Sonnets, newly arranged and indexed.
[New English Garner.]

Introduction on Elizabethan sonnet literature.

1904. H. R. D. Anders: Sh.'s Books. Berlin.

A few notes on Sonnet sources, passim.

vi] BIBLIOGRAPHY 523

1905. R. Genee: William Sh. in seinem Werden und Wesen. Berlin.

Pp. 181-82; 292-97. The Southampton theory followed.

1906. Morton Luce: A Handbook to the Works of W. Sh.

Pp. 82-97.

*I906. G. Sarrazin: Aus Sh.'s Meisterwerkstatt. Berlin.

Develops the writer's opinions on the date of the Sonnets; see
under V, 1895, 1896, 1898.

1907. Walter Raleigh: Shakespeare [English Men of Letters].

Pp. 85-93. Emphasizes the autobiographic interpretation.

1908. G. Saintsbury: History- of English Prosody, vol. 2.

The metrical form of the Sonnets discussed (pp. 59-61).

1908. H. Reimer: Der Vers in Sh.'s nichtdramatischen Werken. Bonn.

Dissertation; general and perfunctory.

1909. Frank Harris: The Man Sh. and his Tragic Life-Story.

Bk. 2, chaps. 3-5. Discusses the love-story of the sonnets;
develops the Fitton theory.

1909. A. C. Bradley: Oxford Lectures on Poetry.

Pp. 327-36. Discusses the autobiographical significance of the
Sonnets.

1909. J. J. Jusserand: A Literary History of the English People.

Vol. 2, pp. 226-43; discusses the biographic significance and the
literary qualities of the Sonnets.

1910. Sidney Lee: The French Renaissance in England.

Bk. 4, chaps. 12-14: "The Assimilation of the French Sonnet ";
"Sh. and the French Sonnet"; "The Poetic Vaunt of Immortality."

1910. Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. 5.

Pp. 228-33; American ed., 256-61. Sh.'s Poems discussed by
G. Saintsbury.

191 1. Percy Simpson: Shakespearian Punctuation. Oxford.

On the punctuation of the quarto of 1609, passim.
191 1. William Jaggard : Shakespeare Bibliography. Stratford-on-Avon.
Poems, pp. 433-41; Sonnets, pp. 452-56.

191 1. J. W. Mackail: Lectures on Poetry.

Pp. 179-207. Lecture on the Sonnets, defending the 1609
arrangement, and discussing date and literary' value.

1912. E. B. Reed: English Lyrical Poetry. New Haven.

Pp. 169-76.
1912. Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, vol.
3; collected by W. P. Ker.

Contains an essay by J. W. Mackail on "A Lover's Complaint,"
in which he proposes the view (pp. 66-69) that the poem is the
work of the " rival poet " of the Sonnets.
1912. Frank Harris: The Women of Sh.

Discusses, passim, the Sonnets on the basis of the Fitton theory.

524 BIBLIOGRAPHY [vi

1912. Henry Brown: Sh.'s Patrons, and other Essays [posthumous].

Contains essays on Southampton and Pembroke, on the singing
of Sh.'s Sonnets, on Sh.'s preference for blond beauty, and on the
general question of the interpretation of the Sonnets (see the
writer's work under IV, 1870).

1913. Anniversary Papers by Colleagues and Pupils of George Lyman

Kittredge. Boston.

Contains paper by R. M. Alden, on the Quarto Arrangement of
Sh.'s Sonnets (p. 279); see above, p. 430.

1915. C. C. Stopes: Sh.'s Environment.

Contains essay on "The Friends in Sh.'s Sonnets," pp. 135-60,
from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, 1908;
various aspects of the Southampton theory, largely included in the
writer's earlier publications.
♦1915. H. Kliem: Sentimentale Freundschaft in der Sh. Epoche. Jena.
Dissertation. Justifies the man-friendship of the Sonnets.
Reviewed in Jahrbuch, 51: 260.

INDEXES

IXDEX TO BIBLIOGRAPHY

E. S. A. V, 1892.

Abbott, E. A. VI, 1869.

Acheson, A. IV, 1903, 1913.

Adams, J. Q. V, 1914.

Ainger, A. V, 1899, 1900.

Alden, R. M. I, 1913; V, 1915, 1916:

VI, 1913.
Alger, VV. R. V 1862.
Anders, H. R. D. VI, 1904.
Anderson, R. II. 1795.
Archer, VV. V, 1897.
Arnaud, S. V 1891.
Asher. D. V 1861.
Axon, W. E. A. V, 1884.

C. C. B. V, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1896.

1911, 1912. 1913.
J. G. B. V, 1885.
Badt, B. V. 1910.
Baltzer, A. Ilia, 1910.
Barnstorff, D. IV, i860.
Barrett, H. \V. \", 1847.
Barton, A. T. IIIj, 1913.
Bates, E. S. V, 19 10.
Bathurst, C. VI, 1857. ■
Bauernfeld, E. V. 1 1 la, 1827.
Bayley, A. R. V. 1913.
Bayne, T. V. 1887.
Beeching, H. C. I, 1904; II, 1907;

V, 1899, 1902.
Bekk, A. VI, 1864.
Bell, R. II. 1855: V. 1866.
Bennett, H. II, 1905.
Benson, J. II. 1640.
Berzeviczy, A. von. V 1913.
Bibliothecary. V, 1879.
Birdwood, G. V, 1904.
Blair. J. T. I, 1904.
Blatt, W. M. V, 1913.
Bleibtreu, K. V, 1910.
Blind. M. I. 1902.
Boaden, J. IV. 1837; V, 1832.
Boas, F. S. VI, 1896.
Bodenstedt, F. Ilia, 1862.
Boswell, J. II. 1821.
Bradley, A. C. VI, 1909.
Brae, A. E. V, 1873, 1877.

Brandes, G. I, 1904; VI. 1898.

Brandl, A. Ilia, 1913.

Bridgeman, C. G. O. V, 1892; VI,

1898.
Bright, B. H. V, 1832.
Bright, J. W. V, 1899.
Briscoe, J. P. I, 1900.
Brockington, W. A. I, 1895.
Brown, C. A. IV, 1838.
Brown, H. IV, 1870; VI, 1912.
Brown, W. B. V, 1912, 1913.
Browne, C. E. V, 1873, 1880.
Browne, J. H. V, 1884.
Brownlow, E. B. V, 1893.
Budd, T. D. I, 1868.
Bullen, A. H. I, 1905; II, 1907.
Bulloch. J. VI, 1878.
Burgersdijk, L. A. J. 1 1 If, 1879; V,

1879.
Butler. J. D. V, 1903.
Butler, 5. I, 1899; V, 1898, 1900.

B. C. V, 1879.

Caldwell. G. S. VI, 1877.

Campbell, Lord. VI, 1859.

Campe. II. 1837.

Capell, E. II, 1710.

Caro, J. V, 1896.

Cartwright, R. I, 1859: V, 1862.

Causton. H. K. S. VI. 1851.

Chalmers. G. VI. 1797, 1799.

Chambers, E. K. II, 1906: V, 1897.

Chambrun, C. L. de. IV, 1913; V,

I9I3-
Chasles. P. V, 1862. 1867.
Chiarini, G. V, 1890.
Child. F. J. II, 1856.
Clark. W. G. II, 1864, 1866.
Clarke. C. & M. C. II, 1864.
Clelia. IV. 1892.
Coleridge, S. T. VI. 1817, 1835.
Collier, J. P. II, 1844.
Collins, J. C. V, 1898.
Conrad, H. V, 1895.
Conwell, C. I. iqoi.
Cooke. C. II, 1797.
Copin, A. Illb, 1888.

528

INDEX TO BIBLIOGRAPHY

Corney, B. IV, 1862; V, 1862, 1865.
Craig, W. J. I, 1905; II, 1891.
Creighton, C. V, 1901.
Crosby, J. V, 1883.
Cunningham, P. VI, 1841.

Danckelmann, E. von. IV, 1897.

Darchini, L. IIIc, 1909.

Davidson, J. II, 1908.

Davis, H. V, 1888, 1893.

Dean, C. I, 1899.

Delecluze, E. J. VI, 1848.

Delius, N. II, 1856; V, 1865.

Dennis, J. I, 1902.

Direy, L. Illb, 1891; IV, 1890.

Dobell, B. V, 1913.

Douse, T. L. M. V, 1900, 1904.

Dowden, E. I, 1881; II, 1903; V,

1886, 1900; VI, 1875.
Downing, C. IV, 1892.
Drake, N. VI, 18 17.
Dunning, E. J. IV, 1897.
Dyce, A. II, 1832, 1856, 1857.

Edmonds, C. V, 1873.
Eichhoff, T. IV, 1903.
Ellis, C. VI, 1896.
Ellis, E. J. & T. J. 1,1883.
Ellis, F. S. II, 1893, 1899.
Elze, K. V, 1875; VI, 1876.
Erskine, J. VI, 1903.
Evans, Tudge. V, 1914.
Evans, T. II, 1775.
Ewing, T. II, 1771.

Filon, A. V, 1901.

Fleay, F. G. V, 1875; VI, 1886,

1891.
Fleischer. II, 1826.
Franklyn, C. W. V, 1889.
Franz, W. VI, 1900.
Friesen, H. von. Ilia, 1869; V, 1869;

VI, 1874.
Fulda, L. Ilia, 1913.
Furnivall, F. J. II, 1877; V, 1875,

1876, 1880, 1891, 1897; VI, 1884.

Gardiner, R. F. V, 1887.
Garnett, R. V, 1900.
Gamier, C. M. 1 1 lb, 1906.
Garrett, R. M. IV, 1912.
Garrigucs, G. V, 1887.
Gelbcke, F. A. Ilia, 1867.
Genee, R. VI, 1872, 1905.
Gentleman, F. II, 1774.

George, S. Ilia, 1909.
Gerbel, N. Illh, 1880.
Gervinus, G. G. VI, 1849.
Gilbert, J. I, 1878.
Gildemeister, O. Ilia, 187 1.
Gildon, C. II, 1710.
Gilfillan, G. II, 1856.
Godeke, K. V, 1877.
Godwin, P. IV, 1900.
Gollancz, I. I, 1896.
Goodlet, I. V, 1891.
Gray, H. D. V, 1915.
Greenhill, J. VI, 1884.
Griffin, W. H. VI, 1895.
Groos, K. V, 1910.
Guiney, L. I. V, 191 1.
Gundolf, F. V, 1910.
Guizot, F. Illb, 1862.
Guttman. Ilia, 1875.

C. E. H. V, 1900.

Hadow, W. H. I, 1907.

Hales, J. W. V, 1877, 1897, 1900.

Hall, A. V, 1884, 1900.

Hallam, H. VI, 1837.

Halliwell[-Phillipps], J. O. II, 1865;

VI, 1882.
Hansen, A. Hie, 1885.
Harris, F. VI, 1909, 1912.
Harrison, W. A. V, 1884, 1885; VI,

1884.
Hazlitt, W. II, 1852.
Hazlitt, W. C. V, 1865; VI, 1874,

1903.
Hegediis, S. von. V, 1913.
Hemingway, S. B. V, 1910.
Henderson, W. A. V, 1902.
Henry, F. Illb, 1900; V7, 1900.
Heraud, J. A. V, 1862.
Herford, C. H. II, 1900.
Hermanas, Dos. Illg, 1877.
Hertzberg, W. V, 1878.
Hitchcock, E. A. IV, 1865.
Holland, B. V, 1910.
Housman, R. F. VI, 1835.
Hubbard, E. I, 1899.
Hudson, H. N. I, 1903; II, 1856.

1911.
Hugo, F. V. Illb, 1857.
Hunt, L. VI, 1867.
Hunter, J. VI, 1845.

Ibbs, E. A. I, 1913.
Ingleby, C. M. IV, 1872; V, 1873,
1903; VI, 1874.

INDEX TO BIBLIOGRAPHY

529

lorio, A. J. I, 1912.
Isaac, H. [Later Conrad,
1878, 1882, 1884.

H.] V

D. J. V7, 1909.

Jabez [pseud, for Ingleby]. V, 1874,

1875, 1877.
Jackson, E. A. IV, 1904.
Jaggard, \V. VI, 191 1.
Jameson, A. B. M. VI, 1829.
Johnson, J. IV, 1899.
Jones, Tom. V, 19 13.
Jordan, W. Ilia, 1861.
Jusserand, J. J. VI, 1909.

Karpf, C. VI, 1869.

Kasprowicz, J. Illh, 1907.

Keightley, T. II, 1865.

Kenny, T. VI, 1864.

Kent, S. IV, 1915.

Kinnear, B. G. VI, 1883.

Klein, D. L. V, 1905.

Kliem, H. VI, 1915.

Knight, C. II, 1838, 1843.

Kock, E. A. V, 1910.

Kralik, R. von. V, 1907.

Krauss, F. Ilia, 1872; V, 1879, 1881;

VI, 1882.
Kreyssig, F. V, 1864; VI, 1858.

Lachmann, K. Ilia, 1820.

Lafond, E. Illb, 1836.

Lee, S. I, 1905; II, 1908; V, 1898,

1900, 1909; VI, 1898, 1904, 1910.
Lee, S. A. VI, 1867.
Legis, R. H. V, 1876, 1877.
Leigh, G. A. V, 1897.
Leo, F. A. Ilia, 1872; V, 1888.
Lettsom, W. N. VI, i860.
Lichtenberger, E. IV, 1877.
Liddell, M. H. V, 1902.
Lintott, B. II, 1710.
Luce, M. VI, 1906.

C. B. M. V, 1887.
J. M. IV, 1904.

Mabie, H. W. V, 1909; VI, 1900.
Mackail, J. W. VI, 191 1, 1912.
Mackay, C. V, 1884.
MacMahan, A. B. IV, 1909.
Main, D. M. VI, 1880.
Malone, E. II, 1780, 1790.
Marchi, L. de. IV, 1891.
Massey, G. IV, 1866, 1888; V, 1864,
1867.

Mauntz, A. von. Ilia, 1894; V,
1893, 1897; VI, 1897, 1903.

McClumpha, C. F. V, 1900, 1901,
1904.

Minto, \V. VI, 1874.

Montegut, E. I lib, 1873.

Montmorency, J. E. G. de. V, 1912.

Moore, T. S. I, 1899, 1903.

More, P. E. V, 1904.

Morgan, A. V, 1885.

Morlaix, A. V, 1834.

Morley, H. VI, 1895.

Mortemart, C. II, 1908.

Mosher, T. B. I, 1901.

Xeidhardt, A. Ilia, 1870.

Neil, S. V, 1867, 1873; VI, 1S61.

Xeilson, W. A. II, 1906.

Xe Quid Ximis. V, 1903.

Xetto, I. V, 1910.

Xewdigate-Xewdegate, Lady. VI,

1897.
Xichols, B. VI, 1903.
Xicholson, B. V, 1869, 1879, 1883,

1887, 1889, 1891, 1892.
Xorvvood, T. \V. V, 1889.
Xyblom, C. R. Hid, 1871.

O'Flanagan, J. I. IV, 1902.
Olivieri, A. I lie, 1890.
Ormsby, VV. E. V, 1902.
Ortlepp, E. Ilia, 1840.
Ospovat, H. I, 1899.
Oulton, VV. C. II. 1804.

Palgrave. F. T. II, 1865.
Palmer, G. H. IV. 1912.
Pattison, M. VI, 1883.
Pemberton, J. V, 1908, 1909.
Piatt, A. V, 191 1.
Plumptre, E. H. V, 1889.
Porter, C. II, 1912.
Praetorius, C. I, 1886.
Price, H. T. V, 1913.
Price, T. R. VI, 1902.

J. G. R. V, 1859.
Raleigh, W. VI, 1907.
Reed, E. B. VI, 1912.
Reed, H. VI, 1857.
Regis, G. Ilia, 1836.
Reichel, E. V, 1902.
Reimer, H. VI, 1908.
Richardson, D. L. V, 1834.
Robertson, J. M. VI, 1897.

530

INDEX TO BIBLIOGRAPHY

Robinson, G. & J. II, 1797.
Rodder, P. IV, 1913.
Rolfe, W. J. I, 1883; V, 1884, 188
1891, 1894, 1895, 1899; VI, 1904.
Ross, G. VI, 1867.
Rossetti, W. M. VI, 1878.
Rushton, VV. L. V, 1899.

J. M. S. V, 1898.

Sachs. V, 1890.
Saenger, E. Ilia, 1909.
Saintsbury, G. VI, 1908, 1910.
Sanfelice, E. IIIc, 1898.
Sarrazin, G. V, 1895, 1896, 189

1914; VI, 1897, 1906.
Schelling, F. E. VI, 1895.
Schlegel, A. W. von. VI, 1809.
Schmidt, A. VI, 1874.
Schiicking, L. L. V, 1907.
Schumacher, A. Ilia, 1827.
Sewell, G. II, 1725.
Sharp, W. II, 1885.
Shaw, G. B. V, 191 1.
Shepherd, R. H. VI, 1866.
Sherborne, V, 1896.
Shindler, R. V, 1892.
Sievers, E. W. VI, 1866.
Simpson, P. VI, 1911.
Simpson, R. IV, 1868.
Simrock, K. 1 1 la, 1867.
Smith, A. R. II, 1885.
Smith, G. C. M. V, 1914.
Spalding, T. A. V, 1878.
Spence, R. M. V, 1896.
Speriend. V, 1875.
Spring, L. W. V, 1894.
Staunton, H. II, i860; V, 1873.
Steevens, G. II, 1766.
Stengel, E. V, 1881.
Stone, E. D. V, 1876, 1904.
Stopes, C. C. I, 1904; V, 1890, 189

1900, 1913; VI, 1915.
Stronach, G. V, 1903.
Swinburne, A. C. V, 1880.

D. C. T. V, 1887.

Taine, H. A. VI, 1863.

Tannenbaum, S. V, 1914.

Tausig, P. V, 1904.

Tieck, L. V, 1826.

Tirinelli, G. V, 1878.

Towndrow, R. F. V, 1904.

Travers, S. S. V, 1880.

Treglown, E. G. I, 1895.

Tschischwitz, B. Ilia, 1870.

Tyler, T. I, 188.6, 1890; IV, 1898;
V, 1880, 1884, 1885, 1888, 1889,
1890, 1891, 1892, 1897, 1898.

Ulrici, H. VI, 1839.
Underhill, W. V, 1890.
Urban, S. V, 1898.

Valpy, A. J. II, 1834.
Vaughn, J. V, 1897.
Verity, A. W. II, 1890.

Wagner, E. Ilia, 1840.

Wailly, A. F. L. de. V, 1834.

Walker, W. S. VI, i860.

Walsh, CM. I, 1908.

Walters, C. IV, 1899; V, 1898,

1899.
Wendell, B. VI, 1894.
White, F. A. V, 1900.
White, R. G. II, 1865.
Wilde, O. V, 1889.
Wilkins, E. H. V, 1915-
Winsor, J. VI, 1879.
Wolff, M. J. Ilia, 1903; V, 1908,

1911, 1916.
Wordsworth, W. VI, 1815.
Wright, W. A. II, 1864, 1866.
Wyndham, G. II, 1898.

Y. Y. V, 1900.
Yeatman, J. P. VI, 1896.

Zoltan, V. 1 1 II, 1909.

INDEX TO THE COMMENTARY

Words and phrases from the text of the Sonnets are cited without initial capitals.

Absolute infinitive, 149.

abuse, 114.

acceptable, 27.

accessory, 97, 98.

accident, 291.

action, 163.

Adonis, 132.

advance, 193.

advised respects, 124.

^Eschylus, 24.

Age, Sh.'s, 63, 157, 333.

aggravate, 356.

alien, 192.

all (= any), 183.

all away, 186.

all-eating, 21.

all-oblivious, 142.

allow, 266.

all-too-precious, 208.

all tyrant, 362.

amiss (n.), 96, 366.

Anima mundi, doctrine of, 250.

answer (= pay), 302.

Anthologia Latina, 370.

Anthologia Palatina, 369, 370.

antique, 52, 243.

antiquity, 158, 253.

approve, 114, 177, 359.

April, 228.

argument. 104, 194, 234, 238.

Aristotle, 241.

Armada, defeat of, 247.

Arms, grant of to Sh., 77, 99.

array, 354-56.

arrest (n.), 183.

art. 43, 167, 172. 335.

arts, 193.

Assonance, 162, 226, 228.

Aston, Sir R.. 208.

astonished, 208.

astronomy, 42.

attaint (n.), 199.

attainted, 212.

audit, 302.

Augustine, 57.

Ausonius, 56.
aye me, 113.

Baif, de, 79. 182, 227.

Barley-break, 348.

Barnes, B., 200. 206. 209, 279; Divine
Century, 353; Parthenophil, 59, 70,
79, 121, 196, 202. 211. 232. 321. ^,22.

Barnfield, R.. 121, 209; Affectionate
Sliepherd, 63, 228.

barren rage, 41.

Bath, 371.

beated, 157.

Beaumont. F.. 295.

beauteous roof, 36.

beauty's effect, 28.

Beauty, theme of, 86, 135, 233, 235.

becoming, 364.

becoming of. 307.

beds' revenues, 342.

bed- vow broke, 368.

begetter. 5-10, 105.

Belleau, 227.

Belvedere, 13.

beshrew that heart. 321.

besides, 66.

bestow, 76.

better angel, 348. 349.

better part. 106. 184.

better spirit, 195. 209.

bevel, 285.

Beza, 109.

Bible, 31, 38. 146, 151, 167.

bide, 149. 336.

Blackness, 304-06.

blacks, 191.

blazon. 243.

blenches, 259.

blind soul. 328.

Blond beauty, 304-06.

blots, 98.

blunt, 238.

Boccaccio. 349.

Bodenham, J., 13.

Book of Common Prayer, 146, 274.

532

INDEX TO THE COMMENTARY

books, 66.

bore the canopy, 295.

borne, 171.

both your poets, 202.

bounty, 133.

bower, 306.

brand, 263.

brass eternal, 161.

bravery, 93.

breed, 39.

breather, 198.

Breton: Soul's Harmony, 357.

bright in dark, 116.

Browning, 204.

Bruno, G., 103, 151, 250, 351, 358.

Campanella, 151.

Campion, 200.

candles, 59.

canker, 95.

canker-blooms, 134.

canopy, 295.

Capitalization, 146, 167, 197, 224.

carcanet, 131.

care, 145.

Carey: Chrononhotonthologus, 308.

case, 253.

cast his sum, 124.

Catullus, 364.

Chapman, G., 61, 62, 174, 188, 193,

200, 205, 207, 209, 290, 339,
character, 206.
charge, 356.
Chaucer, 243, 353.
check, 45, 149.
cheer, 226.
cherubins, 271.

Chiastic construction, 79, 1 86.
child of state, 290.
choirs, 182.
chopt, 158.
'cide, 121.
clear, 204.

closure of my breast, 123.
Codex anions, 65.
Coleridge: Christabel, 281.
colour, 235.
comment, 45, 212.
common, 174.
commons, 331.
compeers by night, 208.
compile, 193, 205.
composed wonder, 152.
Compound epithets, 146.
comoound sweet, 296.

compounds strange, 188.

conceit, 45, 76.

confound, 27, 33, 153, 173.

Constable, Sonnets of, 60, 69, 70, 121,

226, 230, 242, 243, 308, 314, 336.
contracted, 18, 145.
controlling, 56.
convert, 37, 43.
correct correction, 264.
countenance, 209.
counterfeit, 46, 132.
couplement, 58.
crooked, 153.
Cupid, 300.
curse, 204.
Cycles, doctrine of, 150, 288.

Daiphantus, 32.

damasked, 316.

Daniel: Cleopatra, 106; Complaint of
Rosamond, 68; Sonnets, 16, 26, 41,
59, 63, 65, 69, 77, 78, 89, 104, 139,

I59, 160, 182, 200, 211, 213, 224,
231, 24O.

Dante, 18, 57, 65, 79, 119, 120, 126,

222, 227, 351.
darkly bright, 116.
dateless, 85, 371.
Davenant, Jane, 348.
Davies, J. (of Hereford), 59, 66, 199,

200, 209, 261, 324, 353.
Davies, Sir J. : Gulling Sonnets, 75, 322.
Davies, R., 106.
Davison, F., 193, 199.
dear, 101, 341.
dearths, 43.
dear time's waste, 85.
debate (n.), 213.
debateth, 45.
dedicated words, 199.
Dedication, sonnets of, 75.
Dee, J., 208.
defeat, 56, 156.

Dekker, 72; Satiromastix, 5, II, 12.
denotes, 361.
departest, 37.
desert, 125, 180.
Desportes, 79, 139, 182.
determinate, 211.
determination, 41.
devouring time, 52.
dial, 189.
difference, 241.
disabled, 167.
discloses, 135.

INDEX TO THE COMMENTARY

533

distil, 135.

Dog-rose, 134.

doom, 351.

Drayton, 209; Harmony of the Church.
206; Heroical Epistles, 200; Legend
of Matilda , 16; Moon- Calf, 171;
Polyolbion, 199, 208; Sonnets, 49,
63. 70, 103, 104, 120, 139, 159, 171,
197, 210, 213, 247, 265, 274, 321.

323. 338. 343. 347.358.
dressings of a former sight, 289.
drop in, 214.

Drummond of Hawthornden, 83, 227.
Dryden, 56.

Du Bellay, 61, 118, 141.
dullness, 143.
dumb presagers, 67, 68.

eager, 278.

Ecclesiastes, 151, 167.

eclipse endur'd, 250.

Edward III, 91, 220, 342.

eisel, 263.

Elements, the four, 118, 119.

Elizabeth, Queen, 95, 105, 125, 158,

198, 203, 244-49, 251, 292, 295. 371.
Elliptical construction, 202.
Emaricdulfe, 310.
engrossed, 321.
enlarge, 178.
Ennius, 139, 198.
entertain the time, 106.
Enueg, 168.
Envoy sonnets, 76, 88, 136, 183, 189,

299.
envy, 308.
Erasmus. 28.
Essex, 35. 55, 73, 245-46, 248-49, 273,

288-93. 298.
Euripides, 85.
Eve's apple, 218.
except, 359.
exchang'd, 255.
expense, 85, 220, 312.
expiate, 63.
extern, 296.

Extravagant Shepherd, 316.
eye (or eyes), 19, 21. 34, 218, 240.
Eye and heart, conceit of. 120-21.

Fairfax (Tasso), 59.

fair (n.), 48, 50, 58, 171, 201.

fairing, 306.

favor, 269, 296.

fear of trust, 66.

I feed on death, 357.

Fenton: Monophyle, 57.

Field, R., 250.

filed, 206, 209.

fire out, 349.

fitted, 280.

Fitton, Mrs., 295, 333, 343, 368.

five wits, 339.

fixed, 236.
j fleets, 52.

i Fletcher, G. : Licia, 371.
i Florio, 138, 200, 229.
I flourish, 153.

foison, 132.

fond, 24.

fond on, 204.

fools of time, 292-93.

for (= because), 135.

for (= to prevent), 130.

forlorn, 91.

form, 213.

for my love, no.

for shame, 35.

fortify, 160.

Fortune, 8^.

forty winters, 20.

forward, 231.

frame, 70.

frank, 26.

free, 26.

frequent. 276.

fresh, 49, 253.

friend, 85.

fun.-, 234.

Fytton (see Fitton).

Gascoigne, 63.

gaze. 27.

general, 372.

get, 31.

go, 129, 316.

Golding (Ovid), 52, 106. 1 18, 138,

140, 151, 152, 153, 160, 302.
gored, 257-58.
got my use, 192.
gravity, 124.
greeing. 271.

Greene, R., 209; Orpharion. 113.
greet, 284.

Griffin, 196: Fidessa, 60. 353.
grow (= be), 202.
Guarini, 26.

Guillim: Display of Heraldry, 102.
Gunpowder Plot. 291. 293.
gust, 271.

534

INDEX TO THE COMMENTARY

habit, 334.

had a father, 41.

Hair, false, 172.

hallowed, 253.

Hamnet Sh., 214, 253, 303.

Harvey, G., 359.

Hathaway, Anne, 226.

Hathaway, W., 7.

heavy Saturn, 228.

height, 275.

Helen, 132.

hell of time, 282.

Henry V, character of, 259.

Herbert, W. (see Pembroke).

heretic, 292.

Herodotus, 42.

Hesiod, 182.

Hews, 54.

high-most pitch, 31.

his (= its), 34.

Homer, 182.

honey (adj.), 164.

hope of orphans, 225.

Horace, 130, 136-39, 180, 184.

horse (pi.), 216.

hours, 27.

hue, 54, 240.

hugely politic, 292.

Hughes, W., 55.

Hunnis, W., 203.

husbandry, 41.

hymn, 206.

I (objective), 180.

I (=ay), 328.

I am that I am, 284.

Identity, conceit of, 64, 98, 156.

idolatry, 241.

Ignoto, 315.

ill-wrestling, 338.

imaginary, 79.

Immortality, theme of, 51, 136-41,

198.
importune, 343.
imprisoned absence, 148.
in act, 367.
indigest, 271.
indirectly, 170.
in effect, 207.
influence, 44, 193.
informer, 298.
in hope, 154.
insufficiency, 364.
intend, 79.
interest, 87, 183.

intitled in their parts, 102.
invention, 104, 151, 188, 238, 242.
Italic type, 18, 55-56, 325-
itself, 172.

jacks, 308.

jade, 129.

James I, 244, 246, 295.

Jamyn, 118, 227.

Jesuit plots, 291-93.

Jodelle, 330, 349, 359.

Jonson: E. M. Out of his Humour, 307;
Masque of Blackness, 305 ; Poetaster,
138; Translations, 310; Underwoods,
340; Volpone, 13.

Journeying, sonnets of, 78, 117, 126.

Keats: Endymion, 49.
kind, 36.
kindness, 368.
knife (of death), 184.
knife (of Time), 160.

lace, 169.

Lameness, Sh.'s, 100, 213.

Languet, 42.

latch, 269.

Law, language of, 41, 121, 211, 302,

322.
lay, 236.
learned's, 193.
leese, 28.

Leicester, 125, 158.
length seem stronger, 81.
level, 277, 284.
likeness of a man, 340.
like of hearsay, 59.
Lilly (see Lyly).
limbecks, 280.
Linche: Diella, 59, 72, 300.
lines of life, 47.
Lingua, 315.
Lodge, 209; Golden Legacy, 313; Phillis,

300, 314, 316, 358.
Longfellow: Purgatorio, 351.
lovely, 135.
lovely argument, 194.
lovely boy, 300-01.
lover, 88.

Lucrece, dedication of, 74-76, 88, 296.
Lucretius, 26, 208.
Lyly: Campaspe, 84, 103, 306, 351;

E.ndimion, 135; Euphues, 196; Sapho

& Phao, 28.

INDEX TO THE COMMENTARY

535

main of light, 153.

makeless, 34.

Manuscript, sonnets in, 21-23, 33, 89,

135. 154. 164, 179, 252.
many's, 218.
Marianus, 370.
marigold, 73.
marjoram, 231.
Markham, G., 200.
Marlowe, 193-94, 208-09; Hero cf

Leander, 26, 32. 53, 56, 177; Amores,

307, 337. 339, 364-
Marot, 109.

Marston, Pigmalion's Image, 89.
Martial, 139, 183.
Massinger: Fatal Dowry, 38.
master (v.), 243.
master-mistress, 53.
melancholy, 119.
Meres: Palladis Tamia, 136-38.
Metre, details of, 28, 79, 83, 85, 119,

131, 142, 154, 156, 164, 178, 226,

243, 273, 282.
Michael Angelo, 186, 259, 268, 358.
million'd, 272.
Milton: Comus, 26.
mine untrue, 269.
minion, 302.
misplac'd, 167.
misprision, 211.
misuse, 368.
modern, 201.
moiety, 121.

Moliere, 166, 331, 339, 364.
Montaigne, 130, 356.
more, 68.

morning-mourning. 320.
mortal moon, 246-47, 251.
motley, 257-58.
mouthed, 190.
mouths of men, 198.
moving, 77.
murd'rous shame, 34.
music to hear, 32.
my heaven, 259.

naigh no dull flesh, 128.

Nash, 193, 200, 209: Piers Penniless,

139, 208, 317; Summer's Last Will,

228.
nativity, 153.
nature's truth, 154.
nerves, 281.
new-fangled ill, 216.

oblivious, 142.

obsequious, 86, 297.

o'ergreen, 266.

o'erlook, 199.

offices, 190.

oft predict, 43.

old, 21.

only, 19.

ornament, 133.

or whether, 271.

other (pi.), 157, 206.

other mine, 323.

Ovid, 21, 37, 45. 52. 53. 77. 106. 116,
136-41, 146. 151. 152, 153, 161, 162,
163, I95-96, 2°2- 2I5- 237. 302, 305,
307, 336, 337, 339- 36i, 364-

owe (= own), 51, 178.

pace forth, 142.

page, 254.

pain, 105, 340.

painting, 201.

Palatine Anthology, 369-70.

Parrot: Springes for Woodcocks, 324.

partake, 362.

part his function, 269.

parts of me, 87.

parts the shore, 144.

pass (n.), 238.

passion, 53.

past cure past care, 359.

patent, 211.

Peace of 1609, 249.

peace of you. 185.

Peacham: Minerva Britannia, 135.

Peele, 209.

Pembroke, Countess of, 25.

Pembroke, William Herbert. Earl of,
18, 52, 55, no, 133, 146. 147, 198,
200. 224, 242, 277. 295, 304, 324,

343- 344-
pen, 197, 204.
perfects. 127.
perspective, 71.
Petrarch, 63, 65,

120, 121, 126, 16*

268. 269, 314. 358.
Petronius. 310-n.
Pha>nix c* Turtle, 98,
pibled, 152.
Pindar. 139.

pity- 343-

plagues. 43.

Plato. 17, 180. 221. 358.

Platonism, 86, 103, 229, 235, 268, 349.

70, 78, 79, 83, 109,
186, 227, 231,

107.

536

INDEX TO THE COMMENTARY

Pleiade, 188, 231.

pointing, 43.

policy, 278, 292.

poor beauty, 170.

poor rude lines, 88.

posting, 127.

predict (n.), 43.

prevent, 234.

prime, 176, 225.

privilege (v.), 149.

Profession, Sh.'s, 257, 260-63.

Propertius, 139.

prophetic soul, 250.

prove, 180, 329.

public means, 263.

Punctuation of Quarto, 19, 28, 29, 31,

34. 39- 43, 74. 83, 92, 208, 296.
pupil pen, 48.
Puritanism, 214, 285.
pursuit, 344.
pyramids, 288.

qualify, 255.
quest, 121.
question make, 39.
quick, 187.
quietus, 302.
quires, 182.

rack, 91.

rage, 49.

ragged, 29.

Raleigh, 65.

rank (adj.), 279, 285.

rank (n.), 287.

receipt, 329.

record (n.), 151, 289.

recured, 119.

reeks, 316.

region, 92.

reign, 285.

Relative, omission of, 26, 184, 323.

religious, 87.

remember, 282.

remove, 73, 274.

render, 297, 302.

reserve, 89.

reserve their character, 205.

respect, 99.

resty, 234.

revolt, 217.

revolution, 152.

Rhyme, peculiarities of, 37, 43, 125,

142, 155, 180, 211, 215, 351.
Rich, B., 209.

Rich, Lady Penelope, 146, 304, 357.

riches (sing.), 211.

Romaunt of the Rose, 18.

rondure, 58.

Ronsard, 70, 79, 118, 139-41, 182,

231, 234, 240, 286, 316, 359.
rose, 17, 170, 256.
Russell, Anne, 295.
Rutland, Lord, 264.

St. Evremond, 109.

salutation, 283.

Sappho, 139.

satire, 234.

Saturn, 228.

scanted, 276.

scarlet ornaments, 342.

seal, 342.

seat, 113.

seconds, 297.

seeing (n.), 170.

self-love, 24.

self-substantial, 19.

sense, 96, 266.

sensual, 96.

separable, 99.

servant, 146.

sessions, 84.

set a form, 213.

set light, 212.

several, 331.

shadow, 79, 103, 131, 133, 155, 170.

shady stealth, 190.

shame, 155, 180.

Shenstone, 371.

Shirley, 315.

show, 132, 135, 241.

sickle-hour, 301.

side (v.), 121.

Sidney, 72, 227; Apologie for Poetrie,
139; Arcadia, 16, 21, 25, 28, 29, 33,
36, 41, 48, 64, 278, 360; Astrophel
& Stella, 42, 60, 61, 68, 78, 79, 81,
82, 86, 115, 119, 120, 126, 170, 188,
192, 204, 309, 310, 314, 315, 318,
319. 330, 336, 337, 348, 352, 358,
363, 365, 366.

sight, 85.

simplicity, 167.

simply, 334.

siren, 279.

slander, 318.

slow offence, 127.

Smith, W.: Chloris, 300.

soil, 174.

INDEX TO THE COMMENTARY

537

solve, 174.

Sonnet form or structure, 68, 97, 113,

125, 160, 168, 232, 243.
Sophocles, 24. 177.
soundless, 196.
Southampton, Earl of, 7, 18, 46, 47,

75- 95- 129, 132, 138, 185, 193-94.

200, 208. 209, 232, 242. 244-45.

247-48, 252, 287, 289-91, 295, 298,

345-

Southwell, 66, 355.

sovereign, 146.

Spenser, 65, 141, 195. 243; Amoretti,
44. 52> 59. 60, 66, 138, 139, 168, 186,
231, 268, 315; Colin Clout, 167;
Faerie Queene, 54, 76, 93, 121, 178,
193; Shepherd's Calendar, 182:
Tears of the Muses, 258.

spirit, 208. 312.

spite of fortune, 214.

sport, 223.

sportive blood, 284, 285.

stage, 44.

stain, 92.

stand on thorns, 232.

state, 162, 224, 290.

statute, 323.

stay, 45.

steeled, 70.

steep-up, 30.

steepy, 160.

still, 122.

store (n.), 38, 43, 162, 204, 329.

store (v.), 170.

strained, 200.

strains, 215.

strange, 132.

strangely. 259.

strangle, 213.

stretched metre, 49.

subdued, 263.

subscribes, 251.

successive, 306.

such that. 93.

Suckling: Brennorait, 122, 231.

sufferance, 149.

suggest. 348.

suit, 320.

suited, 307.

summer's front, 237.

summer's story, 228.

suppose, 146.

Surrey, Earl of. 69, 78, 227.

suspect (n.), 177.

sweet boy, 253.

sweet-season'd, 185.
swift extremity, 127.
sympathized, 201.

tables. 286.

tallies, 287.

tame to sufferance, 149.

Tasso. 59, 63. 65. 70. 83, 1 17. 1 18. 132.

tell. 85. 334.

tend. 132.

tender ;n.). 201.

Tennyson, 162. 254, 280.

tenure, 155.

Terence, 365.

terms divine. 357.

that •'= quod), 142.

that due. 87, 106.

their-thy. 77. 79. 96. 102, 113, 116,

119. 121, 173. 178, 308.
this self, no.

Thorpe, dedications of, 7, 10, 208.
thou-you. 40. 71, 240.
thought, 118.
thralled, 291.
thriftless. 21.
tickle. 301.
time. 39. 17;
time remov'd,
times. 37.
Time's chest. 164.
Time's fool, 275.
times in hope, 154.
time's pencil. 47.
tires, 132.

to (= in comparison with), 123.
Tofte: Laura. 300.
Tolomei. 370.
took. 122.
totter 'd. 21.
to west. 92.
transfix. 153.

Transposed phrasing. 255. 263.
Travel, sonnets of, 78, 117, 126.
true in love, 58.
truth. 101. 123. 133. 154. 224. 235.

259. 333-
twire, 81.

T'xo Italian Gentlemen, 344.
Two Xoble Kinsmen. 231.

unbless, 24.
unear'd, 24.
unfair (v.), 27.
unfathered, 291.
unhappily, 167.

277.
225-

538

INDEX TO THE COMMENTARY

unjust, 334.
unkind, 326-27.
unknown minds, 276.
unlook'd for, 72.
unrespected, 116, 135.
unswept, 141.
unthrift, 34.
untrimm'd, 50.
untrue, 180, 269.
use, 26, 29, 323.

vade, 135.
vaunt, 45.
Vautrollier, 250.
Vergil, 139, 240.
Vernon, Elizabeth, 229.
Vervins, Peace of, 249.
vild, 179.
virtuous lie, 180.
vulgar scandal, 265.

Waller, 308.

warrantise, 364.

Watson, 65; Passionate Century, 53;

Tears of Fancy, 69, 70, 211.
wear out, 142.

Webster: Duchess of Malfy, 180.

well-contented day, 88.

what (= why), 336.

where (= whether), 152.

will, 146, 284, 323-26, 328, 329, 344.

Willobies Avisa, 221.

windows (= eyes), 72.

wink, 116, 143.

wit, 76.

without bail, 183.

woo'd of time, 177.

Wordsworth: Prelude, 165.

World-soul, doctrine of, 250.

world- without-end, 146.

worth, 274.

wrack, 302.

wrackful, 164.

wragged, 29.

Wyatt, 64, 65, 343, 351.

youngly, 37.
you-thou, 40, 71, 240.
your self, 40.

Zenodotus, 370.
Zepheria, 76, 316.

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

Accuse me thus, that I have scanted all (117) 276

Against my love shall be as I am now (63) 159

Against that time (if ever that time come) (49) 124

Ah wherefore with infection should he live (67) 169

Alack what poverty my Muse brings forth (103) 237

Alas 't is true, I have gone here and there (no) 257

As a decrepit father takes delight (37) 100

As an unperfect actor on the stage (23) 65

As fast as thou shalt wane so fast thou grow'st (n) 37

A womans face with natures owne hand painted (20) 53

Being your slave what should I doe but tend (57) 145

Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groane (133) • • • • 321

Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is tooke (47) 122

Be wise as thou art cruell, do not presse (140) 337

But be contented when that fell arest (74) 183

But doe thy worst to steale thy selfe away (92) 217

But wherefore do not you a mightier waie (16) 46

Canst thou O cruell, say I love thee not (149) 362

Cupid laid by his brand and fell a sleepe (153) 3^9

Devouring time blunt thou the Lyons pawes (19) 51

Farewell thou art too deare for my possessing (87) 210

For shame deny that thou bear'st love to any (10) 35

From fairest creatures we desire increase (1) 15

From you have I beene absent in the spring (98) 227

Full many a glorious morning have I seene (33) 9°

How can I then returne in happy plight (28) 80

How can my Muse want subject to invent (38) 104

How carefull was I when I tooke my way (48) 123

How heavie doe I journey on the way (50) 125

How like a Winter hath my absence beene (97) 225

How oft when thou my musike musike playst (128) 3°7

How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame (95) 222

If my deare love were but the childe of state (124) 290

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought (44) 117

If their bee nothing new, but that which is (59) l5°

If thou survive my well contented daie (32) 88

If thy soule check thee that I come so neere (136) 328

I grant thou wert not married to my Muse (82) T99

I never saw that you did painting need (83) 201

In faith I doe not love thee with mine eyes (141) 338

In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworne (152) 367

54Q INDEX OF FIRST LINES

In the ould age blacke was not counted faire (127) 303

Is it for feare to wet a widdowes eye (9) 34

Is it thy wil, thy Image should keepe open (61) 155

Let me confesse that we two must be twaine (36) 98

Let me not to the marriage of true mindes (116) 273

Let not my love be cal'd Idolatrie (105) 241

Let those who are in favor with their stars (25) 72

Like as the waves make towards the pibled shore (60) 152

Like as to make our appetites more keene (118) 278

Loe as a carefull huswife runnes to catch (143) 344

Loe in the Orient when the gracious light (7) 30

Looke in thy glasse and tell the face thou vewest (3) . . . . . .24

Lord of my love, to whome in vassalage (26) 74

Love is my sinne, and thy deare vertue hate (142) 341

Love is too young to know what conscience is (151) 365

Mine eye and heart are at a mortall warre (46) 120

Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath steeld (24) 69

Musick to heare, why hear'st thou musick sadly (8) 32

My glasse shall not perswade me I am ould (22) 62

My love is as a feaver longing still (147) 358

My love is strengthned though more weake in seeming (102) .... 236

My Mistres eyes are nothing like the Sunne (130) 314

My toung-tide Muse in manners holds her still (85) 205

No more bee greev'd at that which thou hast done (35) 95

No! Time, thou shalt not bost that I doe change (123) 288

Noe longer mourne for me when I am dead (71) 179

Not from the stars do I my judgement plucke (14) 42

Not marble, nor the guilded monument (55) 136

Not mine owne feares, nor the prophetick soule (107) 244

O call not me to justifie the wrong (139) 335

O for my sake doe you with fortune chide (ill) 260

O how I faint when I of you do write (80) 195

O least the world should taske you to recite (72) 180

O me! what eyes hath love put in my head (148) 360

O never say that I was false of heart (109) 255

O that you were your selfe, but love you are (13) 40

O thou my lovely Boy who in thy power (126) 299

Oh from what powre hast thou this powrefull might (150) .... 363

Oh how much more doth beautie beautious seeme (54) 133

Oh how thy worth with manners may I singe (39) 106

Oh truant Muse what shalbe thy amends (101) 235

Or I shall live your Epitaph to make (81) 197

Or whether doth my minde being crown'd with you (114) .... 271

Poore soule the center of my sinfull earth (146) 352

Say that thou didst forsake mee for some fait (89) 212

Shall I compare thee to a Summers day (18) 50

Since brasse, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundlesse sea (65) .... 163

Since I left you, mine eye is in my minde (113) 268

Sinne of selfe-Iove possesseth al mine eye (62) 156

INDEX OF FIRST LINES 541

So am I as the rich whose blessed key (52) 130

So are you to my thoughts as food to life (75) 185

So is it not with me as with that Muse (21) 58

So now I have conf est that he is thine (134) 322

So oft have I invok'd thee for my Muse (78) 192

So shall I live, supposing thou art true (93) 218

Some glory in their birth, some in their skill (91) 216

Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonesse (96) 223

Sweet love renew thy force, be it not said (56) 143

Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all (40) 108

That God forbid, that made me first your slave (58) 14s

That thou art blam'd shall not be thy defect (70) 175

That thou hast her it is not all my griefe (42) 114

That time of yeare thou maist in me behold (73) 181

That you were once unkind be-friends mee now (120) 28 1

The forward violet thus did I chide (99) 230

The littie Love-God lying once asleepe (154) 372

The two other, slight ayre, and purging fire (45) 119

Th'expence of Spirit in a waste of shame (129) 309

Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now (90) 214

Then let not winters wragged hand deface (6) 29

They that have powre to hurt, and will doe none (94) 219

Thine eies I love, and they as pittying me (132) 319

Those howers that with gentle worke did frame (5) 27

Those lines that I before have writ doe lie (115) 272

Those lips that Loves owne hand did make (145) 350

Those parts of thee that the worlds eye doth view (69) 173

Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits (41) . 112

Thou art as tiranous, so as thou art (131) 318

Thou blinde foole love, what doost thou to mine eyes (137) .... 330

Thus can my love excuse the slow offence (51) 127

Thus is his cheeke the map of daies out-worne (68) . . . . . .171

Thy bosome is indeared with all hearts (31) 86

Thy guift, thy tables, are within my braine (122) 286

Thy glasse will shew thee how thy beauties were (77) 189

Tis better to be vile then vile esteemed (121) 283

To me faire friend you never can be old (104) 239

Two loves I have of comfort and dispaire (144) 346

Tyr'd with all these for restfull death I cry (66) 165

Unthrifty lovelinesse why dost thou spend (4) 25

Was it the proud full saile of his great verse (86) 207

Weary with toyle, I hast me to my bed (27) 78

Wer't ought to me I bore the canopy (125) 294

What is your substance, whereof are you made (53) 131

What potions have I drunke of Syren teares (119) 279

What 's in the braine that Inck may character (108) 252

When fortie Winters shall beseige thy brow (2) 20

When I conbider every thing that growes (15) 44

When I doe count the clock that tels the time (12) 38

When I have seene by times fell hand defaced (64) 161

When in disgrace with Fortune and mens eyes (29) 82

When in the Chronicle of wasted time (106) 242

542 INDEX OF FIRST LINES

When most I winke then doe mine eyes best see (43) 115

When my love sweares that she is made of truth (138) 332

When thou shalt be dispode to set me light (88) . : 211

When to the Sessions of sweet silent thought (30) 84

Where art thou Muse that thou forgetst so long (100) 233

Whilst I alone did call upon thy ayde (79) 194

Who ever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will (135) 323

Who is it that sayes most, which can say more (84) 203

Who will beleeve my verse in time to come (17) 49

Why didst thou promise such a beautious day (34) 93

Why is my verse so barren of new pride (76) 187

Your love and pittie doth th'impression fill (112) . . . . . 265

JAN 5 f984

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