In all four Sonnets the movement of the quatrains leads up to a climax in the couplet: in all four, the sense of the couplet tallies with the climax of its sound, giving a sudden and fantastic resolution of accumulated difficulties.

CXIII. 3. part his function, perhaps='share his function with the mind'; but more probably, depart, abandon. Cf. Richard II., 11. i. 3:

'Since presently your souls must part your bodies.'

The distinction of sense and the similarity of sound-'doth part his function and is partly blind'- -are in Shakespeare's manner. 6. latch Malone, lack Q. He explains, 'to latch formerly signified to lay hold of. So, in Macbeth :

"But I have words,

That should be howl'd out in the desert air,

Where hearing should not latch them."

'Latch' in Old English meant a 'cross-bow'; also a 'snare,' akin perhaps to leash,' French laisse.

10. favour is countenance, Malone.

14. My most true mind thus maketh mine untrue. substantive. Cf. Measure for Measure, 1. iv. 170:—

'Untrue' is a

'Say what you can my false o'erweighs your true.'

But there is also a phonetic suggestion of 'mine' m' eyne = my eyes.

CXIV. 2. this flattery:-In immediate sequence to the preceding Sonnet, this flattery' this false presentment of other shapes in your more pleasing shape, as the truth is improved for a monarch's' ear.

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4. Alchemy, Alcumie Q. The sense of the passage is this:-Or is my eye truthful, and has your love taught it to transmute, as base metals are transmuted by Alchemists into gold.

10. most kingly:-Reverting to the image of a monarch' and 'flattery,' 1. 2.

11. 'greeing Gildon, greeing Q.

13, 14. If it be poison'd, 'tis the lesser sin,

That mine eye loves it and doth first begin :

The imagery changes a third time, and instances, after the Flatterer and the Alchemist, the Taster to a King.

CXV. 5. million'd, milliond Q., Million Gildon :-But Q. is right, as we say 'doubled,' 'decupled,' 'centupled.'

9. Time's, times Q.:-Tyler has 'Time's' and the analogy to 'Time's fool' (Q.) in the next sonnet is obvious.

10. Now I love you best.' Printed as a quotation by Malone.
13, 14.
Love is a Babe, then might 1 not say so,

To give full growth to that which still doth grow. 'babe' in modern editions, but the reference is, obviously, to Cupid the God of Love.

14. grow. Q. and Tyler; grow? Gildon, Cambridge, Dowden, Bell. The emendation defeats the sense of the whole Sonnet. The ictus or stress on 'not,' l. 13-(cf. the ictus on 'then' and 'now' in l. 10)-shows that the couplet refutes the argument of the third quatrain it is a contradiction, not a reiterated interrogative. The Poet asks, 'Might I not then'in those early days, 'fearing time's tyranny,' say 'Now I love you best'? And he answers in the negative: Love is a Babe; then might I not say so.

CXVI. Let me not to the marriage of true minds, etc.:-The index number of this Sonnet is printed '119' in Q. for '116.'

Having opened his attack on Time (c.-cvIII.), explained his apparent inconstancy (cIx.-CXII.), and asserted his absorption in the Friend (CXIII.-CXIV.), in cxv. the Poet reverted to his main theme, 'Time's tyranny,' l. 10, and in this sonnet he develops it:-'Love's not Time's fool,' 1. 9.

4. Or bends with the remover to remove; cf. xxv. 13, 14 :—

"Then happy I that love, and am beloved,

Where I may not remove, nor be removed.'

5. mark=sea-mark.

Cf. Coriolanus, v. iii. 74:—

'Like a great sea-mark, standing every flaw
And saving those that eye thee.'

7. It is the star to every wandering bark :—The kindred image of a star by which ships steer.

8. whose worth's unknown :- -A mystical 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. S. Walker suggested 'North's,' which does not add to the sense and destroys the alliterated stresses on Wandering .. worth.' Cf. Drayton, Idea, (1619), Sonnet XLIII., which first appears in that edition :

.

'So doth the ploughman gaze the wandering star,
And only rest contented with the light;
That never learned what constellations are,
Beyond the bent of his unknowing sight.

CXVII. Accuse me thus, etc. :-The poet takes up again his extenuation of apparent inconstancy.

5. been, binne Q.

6. And given to Time, time Q.:-'To society, to the world, or, given away to temporary occasion what is your property, and therefore an heirloom for Eternity.'-DowDEN. Given to them,' Staunton conj. But 'Time' is the personified object of the whole argument (c.-cxxv.), and appears as such in the two preceding Sonnets: 'Time's tyranny,' 'Love's not Time's fool.' When the peroration is reached (cxxIII. 1) the Poet apostrophises this personal object of his attack, and arraigns him :-'No, Time thou shalt not boast. . . .' Cf. the fools of Time' (cxxiv. 13). The Sonnets must be read in the light of contemporary verse. E.g. Drayton (Idea, Lv., 1619), writes:

'With so pure love as Time could never boast.'

The major theme of the whole First Series is the defeat of Time, by Breed, by Fame, and by Love. Cf. v. 5:—

'For never-resting Time leads summer on.'

XII. 13. 'And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
Save breed, to brave him. . . .

xv. 13.

XVI. 2.
XIX. 13, 14.

LX. 9.

LXIV. 1, 12.

'And all in war with Time for love of you.'
'Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time.'

Yet do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.'

Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth.'

When I have seen by Time's fell hand defacéd . . .
That Time will come and take my love away.'

And this major theme-the defeat of Time-is restated in the last movement, as in a symphony, with greater emphasis :—

c. 10-13. 'If Time have any wrinkle graven there,
If any, be a Satire to decay,

And make Time's spoils despised every where.

Give my love fame faster than Time wastes life.'

CVII. 13. 'Finding the first conceit of love there bred

Where Time and outward form would show it dead.'
CXXI. 1, 14. 'No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change . .
I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee.'

CXXIV. 3, 13. 'As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate..
To this I witness call the fools of Time.

Let me illustrate the contemporary vogue of these attacks on Time, once more, from an address to Guillim by John Davies of Hereford:

'Thy matchlesse Art,

Incites my Muse to raise her Armes of power,

With princes to lay open thy desert,

To make it all-devouring Time devoure.'

7. That I have hoisted sail to all the winds:-Cf. the image of a 'wandering bark' which, in the preceding Sonnet, immediately precedes the reflexion, 'Love's not Time's fool.'

11. Bring me within the level of your frown,

But shoot not at me.

'Level' = effective range, here; elsewhere, generally=aim.

Lover's Complaint, 22, 23 :

'Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride,

As they did battery to the spheres above.'

Cf. A

Malone quotes from Winter's Tale (11. iii. 6) :—' Out of the blank and level of my aim':-where 'blank' the white centre of an archer's target, whence 'point-blank.'

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CXVIII. Like as, to make our appetites more keen, etc. :—This Sonnet, developing the sense of the last couplet, continues the apology for apparent inconstancy.

12. rank of goodness:-Dowden cites 2 King Henry IV., Iv. i. 64:'To diet rank minds sick of happiness,

And purge the obstructions which begin to stop

Our very veins of life.'

CXIX. What potions have I drunk, etc.:-The apology continues. 1. Siren, Syren Q. See Note V. on Typography of the Quarto, and Note II. on Lucrece.

2. Limbecks, Lymbecks Q. =alembics.

7. spheres Spheares Q.; fitted :- how have my eyes started from their hollows in the fever-fits of my disease' (Dowden), who cites Hamlet, I. v. 17:

'Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres.'

But 'Fit' sometimes = a sudden emission. Cf. Coleridge:'A tongue of light, a fit of flame.'

10. rememb'red = 'reminded, an active verb governing sense in 1. 11.’—DowDEN. I agree; and, that being so, our night of woe clearly refers to some one occasion of great sorrow, well-known to the Friend and to the Poet, which the Friend' once' caused by his 'crime,' (1. 8), but for which he soon tendered' the fitting salve.

13. But that, your trespass, But that your trespass Q. and modern Editions. I place a comma after 'that' to show that it is a demonstrative pronoun, referring back to 'your crime,' and forward to 'your trespass.' The rhythm, apart from the sense, shows that it is not a conjunction, for, unless it be stressed, the line collapses.

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CXXI. 2. When not to be when not to be vile. I retain the comma of Q. which makes this clear.

3, 4. 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. 7. frailer spies :—Cf. cxxv. 13, 'Hence, thou suborn'd Informer.' 8. in their wills = according to their wishes.

9. level aim. Cf. Note on cxvII. 11.

11. bevel='Crooked; a term used only, I believe, by masons and joiners.'-STEEVENS. The sense is rather 'oblique' than 'crooked.'

CXXII. 1. thy tables a book of tables, note-book, memorandum. Cf. Bacon, New Atlantis :-' he drew forth a little scroll of parchment (somewhat yellower than our parchment, and shining like the leaves of writing tables, but otherwise soft and flexible).'

2. Full character'd with lasting memory = Filled up with the notes of lasting memory. Cf. Hamlet, 1. v. 97-103:—

the attack on Time's dates, records and registers in the next sonnet. 13. adjunct:-Sir Henry Wotton uses this word of a colleague with the sense of an 'assistant' :

'An adjunct of singular experience and trust.'