Hallow'd with sighs that burning lungs did raise;
What me your minister, for you obeys,
Works under you; and to your audit comes
Their distract parcels in combined sums.

"Lo, this device was sent me from a nun,
Or sister sanctified, of holiest note;

Which late her noble suit in court did shun,
Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote;
For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,
But kept cold distance, and did thence remove,
To spend her living in eternal love.

"But, O my sweet, what labour is 't to leave
The thing we have not, mastering what not strives,

228 Hallow'd] Thus Sewell. The original reading is Hollowed (i. e., carved), which in so stilted a context may be right.

229-230 What me your minister. . . under you] Whatever is under the control of me (who am your minister or slave) is at your service, works under your influence. With this punctuation some verb like "controls" has to be supplied from "obeys," thus giving "me your minister" a governing verb.

230 audit] final reckoning or account. "Audit" is thrice used in the Sonnets, iv, 12; xlix, 4; cxxvi, 11.

comes] The singular verb has a plural subject "parcels," no uncommon grammatical usage of the day.

231 Their distract parcels

sums] The separate items or details (of all

these similes) in compound units. 234-236 Which late... coat] Who lately escaped from the solicitation of noble admirers at court, whose rare accomplishments caused the young nobility to fall hopelessly in love with her, for she was solicited by men of the highest lineage. "Coats" here means "coats-of-arms.” Cf. Lucrece, 205: "my golden coat" (i. e., my high lineage). 239-242 But, O my sweet... gyves?] This passage is obscure. The

230

240

Playing the place which did no form receive,
Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves?
She that her fame so to herself contrives,
The scars of battle 'scapeth by the flight,
And makes her absence valiant, not her might.

66

“O, pardon me, in that my boast is true:
The accident which brought me to her eye
Upon the moment did her force subdue,
And now she would the caged cloister fly:
Religious love put out Religion's eye:
Not to be tempted, would she be immured,
And now, to tempt all, liberty procured.

poet refers to the nun, and asks what merit is it to abandon that
which we have no opportunity of enjoying, or to restrain desire which
does not agitate our heart, or to trifle with the heart which has re-
ceived no impression of love, or patiently to pass one's leisure in
willingly borne fetters which give no sense of restraint. The repetition
of Playing suggests a corruption in the text, and many emendations
have been suggested for the first Playing. The best of these seems to
be Malone's Paling, which might give the line the meaning, "Keep-
ing within the pale of the cloister the heart which has received no
impression of love." For "form" in the sense of "impression," cf. line
308, infra:" all strange forms receives," and Tw. Night, II, ii, 28-29:
"How easy is it for the proper-false In women's waxen hearts to set
their forms!"

243 to herself contrives] keeps to herself; keeps free from the contamination of the world.

250 Religious love] The bonds of love. Cf. Sonnet xxxi, 6: "dear religious love."

251-252 Not to be tempted... liberty procured] In order to escape temptation did she enter the cloister, and now she would claim her liberty in order to encounter all manner of temptation. The reading is due

250

"How mighty then you are, O, hear me tell!
The broken bosoms that to me belong

Have emptied all their fountains in my well,
And mine I pour your ocean all among:

I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong,
Must for your victory us all congest,

As compound love to physic your cold breast.

"My parts had power to charm a sacred nun,
Who disciplined, ay, dieted in grace,
Believed her eyes when they to assail begun,
All vows and consecrations giving place:
O most potential love! vow, bond, nor space,
In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine,
For thou art all, and all things else are thine.

"When thou impressest, what are precepts worth
Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame,
How coldly those impediments stand forth
Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame!

to Gildon, who edited the work in 1709. For immured and procured the original Quarto readings are enur'd and procure. Inured, i. e., hardened, may possibly be right; the word is twice used by Shakespeare: Lucrece, 321, and Tw. Night, II, v, 132.

254 The broken bosoms] The broken hearts.

258 us all congest] heap us together.

260 nun] Thus Malone. The original reading is Sunne, i. e., luminary (of the cloister).

262 Believed... begun] Yielded to her eyes when they, captivated by her lover, began to assail her chastity.

260

270

Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense, 'gainst shame;

And sweetens, in the suffering pangs it bears,
The aloes of all forces, shocks and fears.

"Now all these hearts that do on mine depend,
Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine;
And supplicant their sighs to you extend,

To leave the battery that you make 'gainst mine,
Lending soft audience to my sweet design,
And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath
That shall prefer and undertake my troth.'

"This said, his watery eyes he did dismount,
Whose sights till then were levell'd on my face;
Each cheek a river running from a fount
With brinish current downward flow'd apace:
O, how the channel to the stream gave grace!
Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses
That flame through water which their hue encloses.

"O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies

In the small orb of one particular tear!

271 Love's arms . . . rule] The working of Love gives lovers peaceful enjoyment, which outweighs breaches of rule, etc.

273 aloes] bitterness.

279 credent] credulous.

280 prefer... my troth] recommend and give security for, or guarantee,

my fidelity.

281-282 his watery eyes.

levell'd on my face] Again, as in line 22, supra, the eyes are likened to a gun on a gun-carriage.

280

But with the inundation of the eyes

What rocky heart to water will not wear?
What breast so cold that is not warmed here?
O cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath,
Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath.

"For, lo, his passion, but an art of craft,
Even there resolved my reason into tears;
There my white stole of chastity I daff'd,
Shook off my sober guards and civil fears;
Appear to him, as he to me appears,

All melting; though our drops this difference bore,
His poison'd me, and mine did him restore.

"In him a plenitude of subtle matter, Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives, Of burning blushes, or of weeping water,

Or swounding paleness; and he takes and leaves,

290-291 the inundation... will not wear] Cf. Lucrece, 560, 592 and 959, where the destructive effect of water on stone or rock is again described.

293 O cleft effect!] O discordant or paradoxical effect! The Quarto reads wrongly Or cleft effect.

294 Both fire . . . extincture hath] From the lover's tear come both fire and chilling extinction of heat. The form "extincture" is not met elsewhere. Cf. 185, 66 supra: acture."

296 resolved] dissolved; a common usage.

298 civil fears] fears of decorum. Cf. Rom. and Jul., III, ii, 10: "Come,

civil night."

303 Applied to cautels] Applied to insidious purposes.

305-308 swounding . . . swound] swooning.

swoon. The Quarto

290

800