CXXXVII. Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes, In things right true my heart and eyes have err'd, When my love swears that she is made of truth, O, call not me to justify the wrong Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press CXLI. [wide. In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes, CXLII. Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate, If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide, Lo, as a careful house-wife runs to catch CXLIV. Two loves I have of comfort and despair, CXLV. Those lips that Love's own hand did make, CXLVI. Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, CXLVII. My love is a fever, longing still O me! what eyes hath love put in my head, Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not, CL. O, from what power hast thou this powerful might, CLI. Love is too young to know what conscience is: In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn, Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep; The little love-god lying once asleep, Was sleeping by a virgin hand disarm'd. The ancient editors of Shakspeare's works deserve at least the praise of impartiality. If they have occasionally corrupted his noblest sentiments, they have likewise depraved his most miserable conceits; as, perhaps, in this instance. I read (piteous constraint, to read such stuff at all!) 66 -this glutton be; To eat the world's due, be thy grave and thee," i. e. be at once thyself and thy grave. The letters that form the two words were probably transposed. I did not think the late Mr Rich had such example for the contrivance of making Harlequin jump down his own throat. STEEVENS. I do not believe there is any corruption in the text. Mankind being daily thinned by the grave, the world could not subsist if the places of those who are taken off by death were not filled up by the birth of children. Hence Shakspeare considers the propagation of the species as the world's due, as a right to which it is entitled, and which it may demand from every individual. The sentiment in the lines before us, it must be owned, is quaintly expressed; but the obscurity arises chiefly, I think, from the awkward collocation of the words for the sake of the rhyme. The meaning seems to me to be this Pity the world, which is daily depopulated by the grave, and beget children, in order to supply the loss; or, 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 (who by the course of nature must die, and by your own remissness are likely to die childless) thus "living and dying in single blessedness," consume and destroy the world's due to the desolation of which you 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. MALONE. Id. l. 33. Whose un-ear'd womb Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?] Thus, in Measure for Measure: P. her plenteous womb Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry." STEEVENS. Un-ear'd is unploughed. MALONE. 696, c. 1, l. 15. Music to hear, &c.] I have sometimes thought, Shakspeare might have written - Music to ear, &c. i. e. thou, whose every accent is music to the ear. So, in the Comedy of Errors: "That never words were music to thine ear." Hear has been printed instead of ear in the Taming of the Shrew; or at least the modern editors have supposed so. MALONE. Id. 1. 32. like a makeless wife ;] As a widow bewails her lost husband. Make and mate were formerly synonymous. So, in Kyng Appolyn of Tyre, 1510: "Certes, madam, I sholde have great joy yfe ye had such a prynce to your make." Again, in The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562: "Betwixt the armes of me, thy perfectloving make." MALONE. Id. 1. 65. -for store,] i. e. to be preserved for use. MALONE. Id. c. 2, l. 14. Save breed, to brave him] Except children, whose youth may set the scythe of Time at defiance, and render thy own death less painful. MALONE. Id. 1. 24. Which husbandry in honour might uphold-] Husbandry is generally used by Shakspeare for economical prudence. So, in King Henry V.: Id. Id. "For our bad neighbours make us early stirrers, Which is both healthful and good husbandry." MALONE. l. 36. By oft predict-] Dr Sewel reads,-By aught predict; but the text is right. So, in the Birth of Merlin, 1662: "How much the oft report of this bless'd hermit "By Hath won on my desires!" MALONE. The old reading may be the true one. oft predict" may mean.-By what is most frequently prognosticated. STEEVENS. 1. 40. If from thyself to store thou would'st convert] If thou would'st change thy single state, and beget a numerous progeny. So, before: "Let those whom nature hath not made for store." Again, in Romeo and Juliet: "O, she is rich in beauty; only poor, P. 697. c. 2, l. 65. So should the lines of life-] This | Id. 1. 61. Making a couplement-] That is, an appears to me obscure. Perhaps the poet wrote "the lives of life:" i. e. 'children.' MALONE. The "lines of life" perhaps are living pictures,' viz. children. ANON. This explanation is very plausible. Shakspeare has again used line with a reference to painting in All's Well That Ends Well: "And every line and trick of his sweet favour" MALONE. Id. l. 66. my pupil pen,] This expression may be considered as a slight proof that the poems before us were our author's earliest compositions. STEEVENS. Id. l. 69. To give away yourself, keeps yourself still; To produce likenesses of yourself (that is children), will be the means of preserving your memory. MALONE. P. 697, c. 1. 1. 19. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven, &c.] That is, the sun. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "Now ere the sun advance his burning eye-." Again, in King Richard II. : Id. 1 24. Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest,] Of that beauty thou possessest. Fair was, in our author's time, used as a substantive. To owe in old language is to possess. MALONE. Id. l. 44. - the master-mistress of my passion;] 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 Shakspeare to denote the height of encomium, is used by Dryden to express the extreme of reproach: "That woman, but more daub'd; or if a man Corrupted to a woman; thy man-mistress.” DON SEBASTIAN. Let me be just, however, to our author, who has made a proper use of the term male varlet, in Troilus and Cressida. See that play, Act V. Sc. 1. STEEVENS. 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 esteemed indecorous. To regulate our judgment of Shakspeare's poems by the modes of modern times, is surely as unreasonable as to try his plays by the rules of Aristotle. Master-mistress does not perhaps mean man-mistress, but sovereign mistress. See Mr Tyrwhitt's note on the 165th verse of the Canterbury Tales, vol. iv. p. 197. MALONE. Id. l. 49. A man in hue all hues in his controlling,] This line is thus exhibited in the old copy: "A man in hew all Hews in his controlling." Hews was the old mode of spelling hues (colours), and also Hughes, the proper name. MALONE. Id. 1. 55. But since she prick'd thee out, &c.] To prick is to nominate by a puncture or mark. So, in Julius Cæsar : "These many then shall die, their names are prick'd" Again, in King Henry IV. Part II. : “Shall I prick him, Sir John?". I have given a wrong explanation of this phrase elsewhere. STEEVENS. union. So, in Love's Labour's Lost: "I wish you the peace of mind, most royal couplement." I formerly thought this word was of our author's invention, but I have lately found it in Spenser's Faery Queene: "Allide with bands of mutual couplement.” MALONE. seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death." MALONE. Id. c. 2, l. 26. The region cloud-] i. e. the clouds of this region or country. So, in Hamlet: "I should have fatted all the region kites With this slave's offal." STEEVENS. Id. 1. 50 Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are:] The old copy here also has their twice, latter words of this line, instead of thy. whichever reading we adopt, are not very intelligible. MALONE. Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are,” I believe means only this: "Making the excuse more than proportioned to the offence." STEEVENS. Id. 1.51. For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense,] Thus the quarto. The line appears to me unintelligible. Might we read: "For to thy sensual fault I bring incense—” A jingle was evidently intended: but if this word was occasionally accented on the last syllable (as perhaps it might formerly have been), it would afford it as well as the reading of the old copy. Many words that are now accented on an early syllable, had formerly their accent on one more remote. Thus, in A MidsummerNight's Dream: "It stands as an edíct in destiny." "Did slay this Fortinbras, who by a seal'd Again, in Measure for Measure: "This is the hand, which with a vow'd contrách...,” Again, in King Henry V. : "Tis no sinister, nor no awkward claim- " "As if by some instinct the wretch did find-" Again, in the 128th Sonnet: "Do I envy' those jacks that nimble leap—.” Again, in Tarquin and Lucrece : "With pure aspects did him peculiar duties." I believe the old reading to be the true one. The passage, divested of its jingle, seems designed to express this meaning.- "Towards 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. STEEVENS. P. 698, c. 2, 1.62. Though in our lives a separable spite,] A cruel fate, that spitefully separates us from each other. Separable for separating. MALONE. P. 699, c. 1, l. 3. So I, made lame by fortune's dearest spite,] Dearest is most operative. So, in Hamlet: "Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven." A late editor, Mr Capell, grounding himself on this line, and another in the 89th Sonnet, 'Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt-" conjectured that Shakspeare was literally lame: but the expression appears to have been only figurative. So again, in Coriolanus: I cannot help it now, 66 Unless by using means I lame the foot Again, in As You Like It: "Which I did store to be my foster-nurse, When service should in my old limbs lie lame." In the 89th Sonnet the poet speaks of his friends imputing a fault to him of which he was not guilty, and yet, he says, he would acknowledge it: so (he adds), were he to be described as lame, however untruly, yet rather than his friend should appear in the wrong, he would immediately halt. If Shakspeare was in truth lame, he had it not in his power to halt occasionally for this or any other purpose. The defect must have been fixed and permanent. The context in the verses before us in like manner refutes this notion. If the words are to be understood literally, we must then suppose that our admired poet was also poor and despised, for neither of which suppositions there is the smallest ground. MALONE. 66 -made lame by fortune's dearest spite." Id. 1. 7. Entitled in thy parts do crowned sit,] This is a favourite expression of Shakspeare. "And on thy eyelids crown the god of Again, in Twelfth Night: "It yields a very echo to the seat Where love is throned." Again, in Timon of Athens: "And in some sort these wants of mine are crown'd, That I account them blessings." Entitled means, I think, ennobled. The old copy reads-in their parts. The same error, as has been before observed, has happened in many other places. MALONE. "Entitled in thy parts-" So, with equal obscurity, in Tarquin and Lucrece: "But beauty, in that white intituled, From Venus' doves doth challenge that fair field." I suppose he means, that beauty takes its 66 -I am air and fire, my other elements I give to baser life." STEEVENS. "He is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him." MALONE. Id. l. 65. To 'cide this title is impanelled-] To 'cide, for to decide. The old copy reads side. MALONE. P. 700, c. 1, l. 67. Shall neigh (no dull flesh) in his fiery race;] The expression is here so uncouth, that I strongly suspect this line to be corrupt. Perhaps we should read: "Shall neigh to dull flesh, in his fiery race." Desire, in the ardour of impatience, shall call to the sluggish animal (the horse), to proceed with swifter motion. MALONE. Perhaps this passage is only obscured by the awkward situation of the words no dull flesh. 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! STEE Seldom, but sumptuous, showed like a feast, And won by rareness much solemnity." MALONE. -feasts so solemn and so rare." He means the four festivals of the year. STEEVENS. Id. 1. 8. Or captain jewels in the carcanet.] Jewels of superior worth. So, in Timon of Athens: "The ass more captain than the lion, and the fellow Loaden with irons, wiser than the judge." Again, in the 66th Sonnet : "And captive Good attending captain Ill." The carcanet was an ornament worn round the neck. MALONE. Id. 1. 25. The other as your bounty, &c.] The foison, or plentiful season, that is, the autumn, is the emblem of your bounty. So, in The Tempest: "How does my bounteous sister (Ceres) ?" There was no winter in't; an autumn That grew the more by reaping." MALONE. |