CXLIV.

Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still;
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman, colour'd ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell.

Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

8

12

14

CXLIV. The lady and the poet's male friend (whose beauty was celebrated in the first series of Sonnets) are the poet's "two loves," the one a good, the other an evil, angel. He suspects they are together, but cannot, for the present, ascertain the truth. This is the second Sonnet given in the Passionate Pilgrim with variations:

TWO Loues I haue, 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 euill
Tempteth my better Angell from my side,
And would corrupt my Saint to be a Diuell,
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 liue in doubt,

Till my bad Angell fire my good one out.

The change from " my" to "the" in line 3; from "faire" to "fowle" in 8; from "The truth I shall not know" to "Yet this shall I nere know," may possibly have proceeded from revision. In "from my side" of 6 the Passionate Pilgrim has probably preserved the true reading.

1 Despair.-As being hopelessly corrupt.

2 Suggest.-Insinuate temptation, tempt, as not infrequently in Shakespeare. Compare "To suggest thee from thy master," All's Well that En s Well, Act iv. sc. 5, line 47.

The worser spirit, &c. -As to the resemblance to Drayton's Idea, 22 (1599 ed.), see Introd., p. 38. Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, Act. i. sc. 2, lines 177, 178,"Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love." 6Side.-Q. has "sight."

9 Fiend.-Q. "finde."

U

CXLV.

THOSE lips that Love's own hand did make
Breath'd forth the sound that said, 'I hate,'
To me that languish'd for her sake:
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue, that ever sweet
Was us'd in giving gentle doom;
And taught it thus anew to greet:
'I hate' she alter'd with an end
That follow'd it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away.

'I hate,' from hate away she threw,
And sav'd my life, saying-not you.'

8

12

14

CXLV. The poet had heard his mistress say, "I hate." When she saw the effect which this utterance produced, she consoled her lover by adding, "not you." This is the only Sonnet in the book written in eight-syllable metre. Dowden remarks that some critics, partly on this account, and "partly because the rhymes are illmanaged, reject it as not by Shakspere."

7 Was us'd in giving gentle doom.-Had been used in pronouncing the words previously mentioned, the doom" of her lover.

8 Greet.-Schmidt explains "greet" here as meaning "to speak to me." 13 I hate, from hate, &c.-"I hate " ceased to import hatred, or to seem to do so.

CXLVI.

POOR soul, the centre of my sinful earth,

[Why feed'st] these rebel powers that thee array ?
Why dost thou pine within, and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend ?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end?
Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more :

So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And, Death once dead, there's no more dying then.

8

12

14

CXLVI. In this Sonnet, which apparently stands alone, the poet reflects on the folly of bestowing excessive care on the body, the soul's outer covering and ministering servant. In conclusion, he expresses the resolution to attain immortality, by nourishing the soul at the body's expense.

1 The centre of my sinful earth.-The soul is here spoken of as a "centre," encompassed by "sinful earth." "Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out," Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. sc. 1, line 2, has been justly compared; but here "centre" has a somewhat different meaning.

2 [Why feed'st].-"Feed'st" is used in i. 6. In Q. the first three lines of this Sonnet stand thus:

"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."

It is manifest that the second line as thus given is wrong, but how it is to be corrected is a matter concerning which the opinions of critics have very greatly varied. The general scope of the Sonnet must be taken into account. 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. The emendation, "Why feed'st," is thus suitable. Moreover, the "my" of the first line and the "why" commencing alike the second and third lines may have been the cause of confusion and error. Then, too, there is a verse of Southwell's "Content and Ritche" which Shakespeare may have had in view :

66

Spare diett is my fare,

My clothes more fitt than fine;
I knowe I feede and cloth a foe,

That pampred would repine"

(Grosart's Reprint in Fuller Worthies' Library, p. 74).

These rebel powers.-An excellently illustrative passage is to be found in Lucrece, lines 719-723, where the rebellion of Tarquin's fleshly lusts is spoken of :

"His soul's fair temple is defac'd,

To whose weak ruins muster troops of cares
To ask the spotted princess how she fares.

She says, her subjects with foul insurrection

Have battered down her consecrated wall," &c.

Array.-Clothe, bedeck. The late Dr. Ingleby maintained "that ‘array' in this Sonnet means ill-treat or bring into evil condition" (Shakespeare: the Man and the Book, Pt. I. p. 166). But the context seems to preclude this meaning here, whatever might be the possible sense of “ another connection.

array" in

4 Painting, &c.—A slight change of the metaphor involved in "array." 8 Thy charge.-What has cost thee so much. Cf. Hamlet, Act v. sc. I, lines 99-101, "Did these bones cost no more the breeding but to play at loggats with 'em?" and Act iv. sc. 3, lines 23, 24, "We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots." 10 To aggravate.-To increase.

11 To be understood most probably of immortal renown, which is to be purchased by sacrificing a few years of life to intent study and enthusiastic literary work.

13, 14 Feeding on thy mortal body thou wilt feed on Death, and gain complete victory over him by a literary immortality.

CXLVII.

My love is as a fever, longing still

For that which longer nurseth the disease;
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
Th' uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now Reason is past care,
And frantic mad with evermore unrest ;

My thoughts and my discourse as mad men's are,
At random from the truth vainly express'd;

8

12

For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

14

CXLVII. The poet cannot subject his passion to the sway of reason. It has gained complete mastery over him; and his thoughts and words concerning his mistress fly far away from truth.

4 My reason, the physician to my love.—" Compare The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii. sc. 1, 1. 5, 'Ask me no reason why I love you; for though Love use Reason for his physician [so Farmer and most editors; precisian, Folio], he admits him not for his Counsellor.''

7,8 Now approve desire is death.-Now recognise the truth that desire is death. Except.-"To object to, to protest against, to refuse."-SCHMIDT. The antecedent to "which" must be "desire," which had not kept the prescriptions of the physician Reason, refusing his physic.

9 Past care.-Hopelessly diseased, so that care is useless. Cf. King Richard II., Act. ii. sc. 3, end, "Things past redress are now with me past care."

14 Cf. cxxxi. 12-14.