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?

IV

Sweet Cytherea, sitting by a brook

With young Adonis, lovely, fresh and green,
Did court the lad with many a lovely look,
Such looks as none could look but beauty's queen.
She told him stories to delight his ear,

She show'd him favours to allure his eye;

To win his heart, she touch'd him here and there;
Touches so soft still conquer chastity.

But whether unripe years did want conceit,
Or he refused to take her figured proffer,

11 Exhale] Draw up, as the sun draws vapour up from the earth. L. L. L., IV, iii, 66 reads "Exhalest." Cf. Rom. and Jul., III, v, 13: “It is some meteor that the sun exhales."

12 If broken, then] L. L. L., IV, iii, 67 reads "If broken then."

14 To break] L. L. L., IV, iii, 69 reads "To lose."

IV This sonnet, like Nos. VI, IX, and XI, infra, treats of the same subject as Shakespeare's first narrative poem, Venus and Adonis. No. XI(see note, infra) is assignable with certainty to B. Griffin. The other three may possibly be from the same pen.

1 Cytherea] A frequent appellation of Venus in classical literature, from the island Cythera, where the goddess spent her infancy. Cf. VI, 3, infra. Shakespeare calls Venus by this name in Wint. Tale, IV, iv, 122, Cymb., II, ii, 14, and T. of Shrew, Induction, ii, 49.

3 lovely] amorous.

10

The tender nibbler would not touch the bait,
But smile and jest at every gentle offer:

Then fell she on her back, fair queen, and toward:
He rose and ran away; ah, fool too froward.

If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love? O never faith could hold, if not to beauty vowed: Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll constant prove; Those thoughts, to me like oaks, to thee like osiers bowed.

Study his bias leaves, and make his book thine eyes, Where all those pleasures live that art can comprehend. If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice; Well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend: All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder; Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts admire: Thine eye Jove's lightning seems, thy voice his dreadful

thunder,

Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet fire

13 toward] willing, ready. Cf. Venus and Adonis, 1157: "where it [love] shows most toward."

V Biron's address to Rosaline from L. L. L., IV, ii, 100–113; see No. III, supra, and XVII, infra.

2 O] L. L. L., IV, ii, 101 reads "Ah."

3 constant] L. L. L., IV, ii, 102 reads "faithful."

4 like oaks] L. L. L., IV, ii, 103 reads "were oaks.” 5 Study his bias leaves] Study leaves its proper bent.

6 art can] L. L. L., IV, ii, 105 reads "art would."

10

Celestial as thou art, O do not love that wrong,
To sing heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue.

VI

Scarce had the sun dried up the dewy morn,
And scarce the herd gone to the hedge for shade,
When Cytherea, all in love forlorn,

A longing tarriance for Adonis made
Under an osier growing by a brook,

A brook where Adon used to cool his spleen:
Hot was the day; she hotter that did look
For his approach, that often there had been.
Anon he comes, and throws his mantle by,
And stood stark naked on the brook's green brim:
The sun look'd on the world with glorious eye,
Yet not so wistly as this queen on him.

13 O do not love that wrong] L. L. L., IV, ii, 112 reads "O, pardon love this wrong."

14 To sing] L. L. L., IV, ii, 113 reads "That sings."

VI See note on IV, supra. The incident of Adonis bathing is unnoticed in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis. It is not found in Ovid's story. Ovid introduces a like bathing episode into his tale of Salmacis' amorous pursuit of the boy Hermaphroditus (Metam., iv). The poet here echoes some phrases of Golding's translation of Ovid's narrative. 4 tarriance] a stay or wait. Cf. Golding's translation of Ovid's Metam., iv (1612 ed., f. 48 a): "Scarce could she [i. e., Salmacis] tarriance make"; Two Gent., II, vii, 90: "I am impatient of my tarriance.” 5-6 Under an osier his spleen] Cf. T. of Shrew, Induction, ii, 49–50: "Adonis painted by a running brook, And Cytherea all in sedges hid." 11-12 The sun look'd . . . on him] Cf. Golding's translation of Ovid's Metam., iv (1612 ed., f. 48 a): "And euen as Phoebus' beames Against a myrrour Euen so her eyes did sparkle fire" (of Salmacis watching the boy Hermaphroditus strip for a bath).

12 wistly] wistfully, earnestly.

10

He, spying her, bounced in, whereas he stood:
"O Jove," quoth she, "why was not I a flood!"

VII

Fair is my love, but not so fair as fickle,
Mild as a dove, but neither true nor trusty,
Brighter than glass and yet, as glass is, brittle,
Softer than wax and yet as iron rusty:

A lily pale, with damask dye to grace her,
None fairer, nor none falser to deface her.

Her lips to mine how often hath she joined,
Between each kiss her oaths of true love swearing!
How many tales to please me hath she coined,
Dreading my love, the loss thereof still fearing!

Yet in the midst of all her pure protestings,
Her faith, her oaths, her tears, and all were jestings.

She burn'd with love, as straw with fire flameth;
She burn'd out love, as soon as straw out-burneth;

VII This piece, like Nos. X, XIII, XIV, and XIX, are all in the common six-line stanza of Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis. None of these pieces is found elsewhere. All may possibly be by Richard Barnfield, the author of Nos. VIII, XVIII, and XXI. See notes on those pieces.

1 Fair is my love] Cf. a lyric in Greene's Perimedes, the Blacke-Smith, 1588: "Fair is my love, for April is her face."

...

5 A lily pale to grace her] So Venus and Adonis, 589: "a sudden pale, Like lawn being spread upon the blushing rose.”

10

She framed the love, and yet she foil'd the framing;
She bade love last, and yet she fell a-turning.
Was this a lover, or a lecher whether?
Bad in the best, though excellent in neither.

VIII

If music and sweet poetry agree,

As they must needs, the sister and the brother,
Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me,
Because thou lovest the one and I the other.
Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch
Upon the lute doth ravish human sense;
Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such
As passing all conceit needs no defence.

VIII This sonnet, like Nos. XVIII and XXI, infra, was by Richard Barnfield. With No. XXI it was published in 1598 in Barnfield's Poems in diuers humors in the fourth section of the volume bearing the preliminary title "The Encomion of Lady Pecunia, or the Praise of Money." There the present poem is headed "Sonnet I. To his friend Maister R. L. In praise of Musique and Poetrie." R. L. was doubtless Richard Linche, author of a collection of sonnets called Diella, which appeared in 1596.

5 Dowland] The reference is to John Dowland, a famous lutenist and composer whose First Book of Songs and Ayres of four partes, with tablature for the lute was issued in 1595.

7 Spenser] Barnfield repeats his compliment to the poet Spenser in the next poem but one in his Poems in diuers humors. That piece is entitled "A remembraunce of some English poets," and opens with the line "Live Spenser ever in thy Fairy Queene." Previously, in 1595, Barnfield had published in Spenserian stanza a poem called Cynthia, which he described in the preface as "the first imitation of the verse of that excellent Poet Maister Spenser in his Fayrie Queene." 7-8 conceit... conceit] imagination . . . conception.