SHAKESPEARPS 
 SONNETS 
 
 S. BUTLER 
 
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 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924013143445 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS 
 
THE WORKS OF the late SAMUEL BUTLER, 
 
 NOW ALL PUBLISHED BY 
 
 A. C. FIFIELD, LONDON. 
 
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SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS 
 
 RECONSIDERED, AND IN PART REARRANGED 
 WITH INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS, 
 
 NOTES, AND A REPRINT 
 OF THE ORIGINAL 1609 EDITION 
 
 SAMUEL BUTLER 
 
 AUTHOR OF "EREWHON," "LIFE AND HABIT," "THE AUTHORESS OF THE ODYSSEY," 
 "THE WAY OF ALL FLESH," ETC. 
 
 They say best men are moulded out of faults, 
 And for ttie most become much more the better 
 For being a little bad. 
 
 Measure for Measure, Act V. Sc. i. 444-446. 
 
 London: A. C. FIFIELD 
 
 [All rights reserved^ 
 E.V 
 
\\.1[AkoZS 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I WAS led to take up tlie tliorny questions which. 
 Shakespeare's Sonnets so abundantly raise, by the 
 appearance of two articles in the Fortnightly Eeviem 
 for Dec. 1897 and Feb. 1898. In the first of these, 
 ■Mr WilKam Archer, inclining to the theory that the 
 
 Additional Erbata. 
 
 ' Bdf onTMalon?''" "'' '""^ ^'^° '" ^able of Contents, ,ele " The Eev " before 
 Page 16, line 12, for " By ^^^ ^^.^ „ ,, 
 
 6 reaa But waiving this." 
 
 referred to, Mr oianey judo, .^ 
 
 that many of the Sonnets were addressed to Lord 
 Southampton, shewed how baseless was the conten- 
 tion that Mr W. H. could have been Lord Pembroke, 
 and declared him to have been a mere go-between, 
 who procured the copy for Thomas Thorpe the 
 publisher. 
 
 Convinced that neither Mr Archer nor Mr Lee 
 had made out a case, except in so far as each of 
 them was destructive of the other, and fired by the 
 success which, I believe, the simple method of study- 
 ing text much and commentators little, had obtained 
 for me as regards the Odyssey, it occurred to me 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I WAS led to take up the thorny questions which 
 Shakespeare's Sonnets so abundantly raise, by the 
 appearance of two articles in the Fortnightly Review 
 for Dec. 1897 and Feb. 1898. In the first of these, 
 Mr "William Archer, inclining to the theory that the 
 Mr W. H. of Thorpe's prefatory address was William 
 Herbert Earl of Pembroke (which involves that the 
 Sonnets were mainly inspired by him), shewed how 
 baseless was the contention that most, or indeed any, 
 of them were addressed to Henry Wriothesley Earl 
 of Southampton. In the second of the articles above 
 referred to, Mr Sidney Lee, inclining to the theory 
 that many of the Sonnets were addressed to Lord 
 Southampton, shewed how baseless was the conten- 
 tion that Mr W. H. could have been Lord Pembroke, 
 and declared him to have been a mere go-between, 
 who procured the copy for Thomas Thorpe the 
 publisher. 
 
 Convinced that neither Mr Archer nor Mr Lee 
 had made out a case, except in so far as each of 
 them was destructive of the other, and fired by the 
 success which, I believe, the simple method of study- 
 ing text much and commentators little, had obtained 
 for me as regards the Odyssey, it occurred to me 
 
IV PEEFACE. 
 
 that the Sonnets offered a problem on which the 
 same method might be hopefully tried. My mind 
 was a blank in respect o£ them, for it was many 
 years since I had given them any attention ; I 
 resolved, therefore, that as soon as my translation 
 of the Iliad was off my hands, I would treat the 
 Sonnets much as I had done the Odyssey, and as 
 a preliminary measure began to commit them all 
 to memory. By September 1898 I had them at 
 my finger's ends, and have daily from that time 
 repeated twenty-five of them, to complete the pro- 
 cess of saturation. I may say that there was hardly 
 a sonnet which I did not find that I understood much 
 better after I had learned it by heart than before I 
 had done so. 
 
 The first thing that struck me was that the last 
 29 sonnets of the received editions were out of their 
 proper places, and that many of them belonged to 
 the episode referred to in sonnets 40-42. It was 
 idle to try and understand the Sonnets till they were 
 placed approximately in their original order, I there- 
 fore got two copies and cancelled the odd numbers 
 of the one, and the even ones of the other, so as to 
 be able to lay them all face upwards on a large 
 table — as many, that is to say, as raised any suspicion 
 of displacement. Having laid them out, I shifted 
 them again and again tentatively till I had got 
 them into the order in which I have printed them. 
 This turned out to be that of the original Quarto 
 
PEKFACE. 
 
 edition, except in the cases of sonnets 35, 121, and 
 126-154 — of course all of the Quarto numbering-. 
 It was some time before I got to understand tlie 
 displacement of 121, and to see bow it bad come 
 to be placed after 120 instead of anywhere else, 
 and until I had got hold of this I was aware that 
 the riddle was yet unread. On placing it where I 
 have done I found everything explain itself. The 
 displacement of 35 (of the Quarto) was a simpler 
 matter to catch and to correct. 
 
 Though attending to the Sonnets as a bye-work 
 during the first half of 1898, it was not until October 
 that I was free to devote myself wholly to them, 
 and to those so-called editions that appeared before 
 1780 — the year in which Malone's great work was 
 published. As regards these I found myself con- 
 tinually asking, 
 
 Whether we are mended, or whether better they, 
 Or whether revolution be the same ? 
 
 I should be ^lad if record could with a forward 
 look, even of one hundred courses of the sun, reveal 
 to me what people will then be saying of our boasted 
 criticism, and indeed of our literature as a whole. 
 How, I wonder, shall we stand as compared with 
 G-ildon, Sewell, and the ineffable Benson ? Perhaps, 
 however, I might find it just as well to have remained 
 contentedly in ignorance. 
 
 As for the editions and commentaries that have 
 appeared since 1795, at the close of which year the 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 younger Ireland's forgeries were printed in facsimile, 
 I cannot call to mind a single one from that day to 
 this, with the exception of Mr Aldis Wright's in- 
 valuable Cambridge edition, which has not been 
 misled in one direction or another by the direct or 
 indirect consequences of that disastrous fraud. 
 
 I am not sanguine about the reception of my 
 conclusions by eminent Shakespearean scholars. One 
 might as well try to convince an anti-Drefusard 
 French general of the innocence of Dreyfus, or an 
 average English or foreign Greek professor that the 
 Odyssey was written at Trapani by Nausicaa, as 
 to make a Herbertite, Southamptonite, Impersonalite, 
 or Baconian devotee give up his own particular 
 heresy. Still even among hot partisans there are 
 always some with minds more open than others, 
 and when a man begins to open his mind at all, 
 the thin end even of a poor wedge, and that but 
 clumsily inserted, will sometimes prise it open 
 altogether. I look hopefully in this respect to Mr 
 Sidney Lee, who, as I shall show in some of the 
 following chapters, has opened his mind so re- 
 peatedly, and at such short intervals, that he may 
 well open it again. It will give me great pleasure 
 if I can succeed in inducing him to do so. 
 
 Turning now to matters of bibliographical detail 
 in connection with this work, I have followed the 
 usual practice of referring to the original Quarto 
 of 1609, as "Q"— I have, by Mr Tyler's kind 
 
PREFACI"). Vll 
 
 permission, reprinted his fac-simile of this edition. 
 The reprint has been compared with the fac-simile, 
 independently by my friend Mr H. Festing Jones 
 (to whom, as in so many others of my books, I am 
 indebted for many valuable suggestions) and by 
 myself ; I heartily hope, therefore, and believe, 
 that misprints, if any, will be few and unimportant. 
 Oooasionally it has been impossible to say what a 
 given letter in Q really was ; in these cases I have 
 either had a letter cut to imitate the one in Q as 
 nearly as possible, or if satisfied that it was only 
 a case of ink failing to catch, or of the type being- 
 damaged, I have given the letter which I believe 
 to have been set up in Q. In no case, however, 
 has any material question turned upon the doubt. 
 
 As regards my own text, I have adhered to all 
 Q's capitals and italics, and have kept Q's Arabic 
 numerals for the sonnets instead of the Roman ones 
 now commonly adopted. 
 
 If a departure from the text of Q is more than 
 a mere modernising of spelling or punctuation, I 
 have called attention to it in a note. Small and 
 obvious emendations, such as occasional hyphens, 
 or the addition of inverted commas (none of which 
 are found in Q) I pass over without notice, inasmuch 
 as if the reader is in doubt he can turn to the^ 
 reprint. 
 
 I have endeavoured to select the best variorum 
 readings given in the Cambridge edition (generally 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 referred to ae " Camb.") and have added what few 
 emendations occurred to me aB likely to bring the 
 text nearer to the actual words of Shakespeare. 
 Those who turn to the Cambridge edition will see 
 that there are comparatively few sonnets in which 
 the text of Q does not require more or less correction. 
 Confident that it would be a mere waste of time to 
 verify Mr Wright's variorum readings, I have re- 
 frained from doing so. 
 
 I have headed each sonnet with a date, for 
 which I have given my reasons in Chapters X, XI, 
 and also with a short statement indicating the 
 addressee, and epitomising the contents. Some of 
 those which I have headed as addressed to Mr W. H. 
 are not so addressed ostensibly, e.g. sonnets 19 
 and 146 (123, Q), in which Time is the nominal 
 addressee. If convinced that Mr. W. H. was the 
 person for whom the sonnet was written I have 
 considered it as addressed to him. 
 
 In Chapter IX I have justified my retention of 
 the order of the sonnets in Q, with the exceptions 
 already referred to. 
 
 I have drawn lines at the end of those sonnets 
 where T consider that there is a break either in 
 time or continuity of thought. 
 
 I have said nothing about " Willobie his Avisa." 
 The attempt to suppose that Shakespeare was alluded 
 to in that work rests on the use of the initials 
 W. S, — and that too in a publication so scurrilous 
 
PRBFjiCE. IX 
 
 that it was suppressed shortly after its appearance. 
 No one should give it a moment's serious considera- 
 tion. I once had a small object lesson in the danger 
 of trusting to initials, having been repeatedly taxed 
 with writing a poem which appeared in the Spectator, 
 I think early in 1882, and was signed S. B. but 
 which I have never seen, miich less written. And 
 what an awful object lesson have we not all lately 
 had in France ! 
 
 Octoher i, 1899. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGH 
 
 THE ORIGINAL EDITION, AND THE PARTIAL REPUBLICATION OF 16-10 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 GILDON, SEWELL, THEOBALD, TYRWHITT, STEEVBNS, CAPELL, JOHNSON, 
 
 BELL , _ 7 
 
 CHAPTER III, 
 
 THE RET. EDMOND MALONE 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 ME. GEORGE CHALMERS AND HIS INTERPRETATION OP THE WORD 
 
 'BEGETTER" IN THORPE'S PREFACE 
 
 15 
 
 23 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 DR DRAKE AND THE LORD SOnTHAMPTON THEORY . . . 32 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MR SIDNEY lee's "LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE" . . . . 40 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 MR SIDNEY lee's "LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE" (CONTINUED) . . 48 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THB I.TIPERSONAL, AND THE WILLIAM HERBERT THEORIES— ON THE SOCIAL 
 
 STATUS OF Mr W. H. .... . .59 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ON THE ORDER IN WHICH THE SONNETS WERE WRITTEN, AND ON THE 
 
 STORY WHICH THEY REVEAL . ... . . 66 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 ON THE DATES OP THE SONNETS . . . . . ,88 
 
XU CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 Orr THE DATES OF SONNET 127 (107, Q) AND THE REMAINING SONNETS 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Hn. W. H. — CONCLUSION OF INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS 
 
 PAGE 
 102 
 
 . 114 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS 
 
 WITH NEW NUMBERING, EMENDATIONS AND NOTES 123 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS 
 A REPRINT OlT MR, TTLER'S FACSIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION OF 1609 277 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 28. I have said that Mr. Sidney Lee in his life of WiUiam Shakespeare 
 has not cited Dekker's Satiromastix, as supporting the view that " begetter " in 
 Thorpe's dedicatory address should be taken to mean not " inspirer " but " procurer."' 
 On reading Mr. Lee's work again I find that he has done so in his appendix V 
 (p. 405). 
 
 Page 67, last line, for " two or more years," read, " three or more years," 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ORIGINAL EDITION, AND THE PARTIAL REPUBLICATION 
 
 OF 1640. 
 
 Shakespeare's Sonnets were first published, in quarto, 
 together with a poem called "A Lover's Complaint" in 1609. 
 The Title-page of the British Museum copy of this edition 
 (which is generally quoted as Q) is as follows : — 
 
 SHAKE - SPEARES 
 SONNETS. 
 
 Nener before Imprinted. 
 
 At London. 
 
 By G. Eld for T. T. and are to be solde by John Wright, 
 
 dwelling at Christ Church gate. 
 
 1609. 
 
 Other editions vary the name of the vendor to William Aspley. 
 
 The prefatory address or dedication reads : — 
 
 TO . THE . ONLIE . BEGETTER . OF - 
 
 THESE . INSVING . SONNETS . 
 
 M"^ . W . H . ALL . HAPPINESSE . 
 
 AND . THAT . ETERNITIB . 
 
 PROMISED . 
 
 BY. 
 
 OVR . EVER - LIVING . POET , 
 
 WISHBTH . 
 
 THE . WELL - WISHING . 
 
 ADVBNTVRER . IN . 
 
 SETTING . 
 
 FORTH . 
 
 T.T. 
 
2 shakespeake's sonnets. [ohap. I- 
 
 T. T. is identifiable as Thomas Thorpe hy means of an entry 
 in the Stationers' Eegister dated May 20, 1609, which declares 
 that Thomas Thorpe "Entred for his copie vnder th[eh]andes 
 of master wilson and master lownes Warden a Booke called 
 shakbspeares sonnettes vj^."* 
 
 It may be confidently affirmed that Shakespeare had 
 nothing to do with this edition. It is very carelessly printed, 
 and though it has infinite claims on onr gratitude, it has none 
 upon our respect. It has, however, every appearance of having 
 intentionally preserved the order in which the Sonnets were 
 written — except as regards those to which attention will be 
 called later. For this mercy we should be grateful, for had 
 the order been irrecoverably disturbed the Sonnets would have 
 been a riddle beyond all reading. 
 
 It is surprising that A Lover's Complaint is not mentioned 
 on the title-page of Q. It is only the internal evidence of 
 style (which, however, admits of no doubt) that enables us to 
 ascribe the poem to Shakespeare, but the fact of its having 
 been printed along with sonnets of which Mr W. H. is 
 declared to be the " only begetter," appears to connect it with 
 him, and it is quite possible that T. T. did not mention it as 
 considering it to be a series of sonnets, and as included in the 
 word "insuing." Whether this be so or not it is hard to 
 refrain from surmising that the youth described in stanzas 
 12 — 20 is drawn from Mr W. H. — in which case the poem 
 should be associated with the earlier sonnets, and dated not 
 later than 1585. I am glad to find myself here to some extent 
 in agreement with Mr Sidney Lee, who says that if the work 
 is by Shakespeare " it must have been written in very early 
 days."t 
 
 Two of the Sonnets 46, (138, Q) and 52 (144, Q), had 
 appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim, published by Jaggard 
 in 1599, with some not very important variations from the 
 reading of Q. The remaining 152 were, as stated on the 
 
 * Introduction to Mr Tyler's facsimile of Q p. iii. (Mr Tyler refers to Arber's 
 Transcript, Vol. III., p. 183 b.) 
 
 t " Life of William Shakespeare." Smith, Elder & Co., 1898, p. 91. 
 
BENSON S MEDLEY. 
 
 title-page of Q, published for the first time in 1609. This 
 unimportant deviation from literal accnracy in a statement 
 that is substantially true leaves us at liberty to hold that 
 though Mr W. H. is declared by Thorpe to be "the only 
 begetter " of the insuing Sonnets, some few of them may not 
 have been directly begotten by him, though he was the 
 begetter of by far the greater number. 
 
 We do not know whether the original edition of the 
 Sonnets sold out or no, but no second edition was called for, 
 nor were any of the sonnets reprinted till 1640, when 
 J. Benson published a medley of the Passionate Pilgrim 
 type, but on a more extensive scale. It is entitled " Poems : 
 Written by Will. Shakespeare, Gent." It contains the 
 greater number of the sonnets, but omits seven — probably 
 through sheer inadvertence — for among the omitted is the 
 incomparable "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" 
 (sonnet 18).* Sonnets 48 (138, Q) and 52 (144, Q) are given 
 in their Passionate Pilgrim form. Venus and Adonis and 
 Lucrece are not included, but A Lover's Complaint is given, 
 and many poems from the Passionate Pilgrim are interspersed 
 among the Sonnets, which are arbitrarily grouped, each group 
 being accorded a heading of its own. The series begins thus : 
 
 " The glory of beautie," 
 
 under which head we find sonnets 87, 88, 89 (67, 68, 69, Q) ; 
 
 " Injurious Time," 
 
 sonnets 80, 83 — 86 (60, 63 — 66, Q), 
 
 Presently we reach : — 
 
 " Love's crueltie," 
 
 sonnets 1, 2, 3 ; 
 
 " Youthful glory," 
 
 sonnets 13 — 15 ; 
 
 " Quick prevention," 
 
 sonnet 7 ; 
 
 and so on, till we come to " Fast and Loose," under which we 
 
 find "Did not the heavenly Khetoric of thine eye?" from 
 
 * The omitted spnnets are 18, 19, 43, 5G, 75, 7(3, 96, 126 of the quarto edition. (Camb.) 
 
 b2 
 
4 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. i. 
 
 Love's Labour's Lost, given in The Passionate Pilgrim; 
 presently we find "A sweet provocation" and "A constant 
 vow," which head " Sweet Cytherea sitting by a brook " and 
 "If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?" both 
 from The Passionate Pilgrim — the second appearing also in 
 Love's Labour's Lost. 
 
 These examples should be enough to show that Benson was 
 devoid of any kind of literary instinct. It will be incredible 
 to those who do not know Benson's book, how terribly the 
 Sonnets suffer when read under his headings, and in the 
 juxtaposition in which he has seen fit to disarrange them ; it 
 is as though some one were to break up an old stained glass 
 window, the story of which could be determined sufficiently 
 though not perhaps easily, and present it to us in the form of 
 six or seven dozen of kaleidoscopes. " Cursed be he that 
 moves my bones," indeed I If the Sonnets are not bones of 
 Shakespeare they are nothing. 
 
 Not only is The Passionate Pilgrim, or at any rate most of 
 it, interspersed among the Sonnets, but some poems are added 
 which are not Shakespeare's ; among these are " The Amorous 
 Epistle of Paris to Helen," and " Helen to Paris," both of them 
 translations from Ovid. Milton's noble epitaph on Shake- 
 speare is reprinted from the preface to the Second Folio, 
 published in 1632, when Milton was only 24 years old, and two 
 other elegies on Shakespeare are added. The medley, as 
 Mr Wyndham justly calls it, concludes with "An addition 
 of some excellent poems, to those precedent, of renowned 
 Shakespeare, by other gentlemen." 
 
 Each page is headed " poems," which word is not infre- 
 quently printed "poemes." Some of the misprints of the 
 1609 edition are corrected, as for example "Bare rn'wd 
 quiers" in the fourth line of 93 (73, Q), but the greater 
 number are retained as in my Appendix G (146, Q) where the 
 second line still begins as in Q, with a repetition of the 
 " my sinful earth " from the end of the preceding line. The 
 original spelling is generally retained, but is sometimes 
 corrected and sometimes made even worse than it was in Q,. 
 
 Among other barbarisms is that of sometimes changing 
 
Benson's medley. 5 
 
 "he" and "his" into "she" and "her," as in sonnet 121 
 (1<^1> Q); where Benson reads : — 
 
 Because lie needs no praise wilt thou be dumb ? 
 
 Excuse not silence so, for 't lies in thee 
 
 To make her much outlive a gilded tomb, 
 
 And to be praised of ages still to be. 
 
 Then do thy office, Muse, I teach thee how 
 
 To make her seem long hence as she shows now. 
 
 Here the "he" of the first line quoted is allowed to stand 
 while the gender is changed in the succeeding lines. 
 
 Sonnet 145 (122, Q) is headed "On the receipt of a Table 
 Book from his mistress " when the presumption seems 
 irresistible that the book of tablets had been given to 
 Shakespeare by the male friend to whom the first 126 sonnets 
 of Q appear to have been exclusively addressed. Sonnet 148 
 (125, Q) is headed "An intreaty for her acceptance," when 
 it should surely have been "for his acceptance," if the sonnet 
 can be called " an intreaty " at all. 
 
 Other examples may or may not be found. The above are 
 all that caught my eye, and I did not think it worth while 
 to look for more. 
 
 The most interesting thing about the book is the short 
 preface which tells us, firstly, that Shakespeare during his 
 lifetime had " avouched the purity " of the Sonnets, and 
 implies, secondly, that they failed to attract many readers. 
 The preface opens : — 
 
 "I here presume (under favour) to present to your view some 
 excellent and sweetely composed Poems of Master William Shake- 
 speare, which in themselves appear of the same purity as the 
 authour himself then living avouched ; they had not the fortune by 
 reason of their infancie in his death to have the due accommodation 
 of proportionable glory with the rest of his ever-living Workes, yet 
 the lines themselves will afford you a more authentic approbation 
 than my assurance any way can, to invite your allowance. 
 * * * * * *" 
 
 We do not know where Benson got the statement that 
 Shakespeare had defended the Sonnets, and cannot be certain 
 that the whole story is not an invention ; but considering that 
 
6 shakespbaeb's sonnets. [chap. i. 
 
 Benson was writing only 24 years after Shakespeare's death, 
 when there were many still living who must have known how 
 the publication of the Sonnets had affected him, and con- 
 sidering also that there is no inherent improbability in what 
 Benson tells us, it will be more consonant with the rules of 
 evidence to accept his assertion, under reserve, than to reject 
 it. As regards the implied statement that the Sonnets fell 
 flat, it is probably correct. 
 
 The almost universal reproduction of Benson's medley 
 rather than of Q when the Sonnets were wanted — a practice 
 which continued until Malone's Supplement to Johnson's 
 and Steevens' edition of the Plays in 1780 — was perhaps 
 due to an impression that the Sonnets wanted Bowdlerising 
 for the public, and that this operation had been sufficiently 
 performed by dislocation, intercalation, and occasional change 
 of sex. As for the omission of seven sonnets, it would remain 
 unknown to all except a very few, for Q appears soon to 
 have become scarce. 
 
 I cannot find that there was any other even partial edition 
 of the Sonnets until Lintott published the whole of Shake- 
 speare's Poems, it is believed in 1709, but his edition is 
 undated. The Sonnets are reprinted in the order given in Q, 
 and for the most part with the original spelling. "Bare 
 rn'wd quiers " which became " Bare ruined quires " in 
 Benson's book, is with Lintott "Barren 'wd quiers," and 
 there is no attempt to correct the repetition of "My sinful 
 earth" in line 2 of my Appendix C (146, Q). On the title- 
 page of one of the copies of this edition in the British 
 Museum, the Sonnets are declared to be " all of them " in 
 praise of Shakespeare's Mistress. When, however, we come 
 to them in the book, we find a title-page prefixed to them, 
 " Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Musicke," which seems almost 
 as strange as the statement that they were addressed to a 
 woman. But there are puzzles in connection with the title- 
 pages of this edition with which I need not detain the reader. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 GILDOir, SEWBLL, THEOBALD, TYRWHITT, STKEVENS, CAPKLL, 
 JOHNSON, BELL. 
 
 Charles Gildon [1665 — 1724], whose name nowhere 
 appears, bnt whose connection with the work is made known 
 to us by Dr Sewell, published in 1710, a seventh volume, sup- 
 plementary to Rowe's edition of the Plays in six volumes. As 
 regards Rowe's edition I would remind the reader that we 
 are hardly less indebted to Rowe than to the editors of the 
 First Folio. If the Folios snatched Shakespeare as a brand 
 from the burning, it was Rowe who kindled the smouldering 
 Folios into that flame of Shakespearian cult which cannot now 
 be extinguished. 
 
 Retmming to Gildon, his supplement to Rowe professes 
 to give "Venus and Adonis, Tarquin and Lucrece, and his 
 [Shakespeare's] Miscellany Poems," but as regards the 
 " Miscellany Poems " it is a mere rejjrint of Benson's medley, 
 with the same dislocation, barbarous headings, omissions, and 
 occasional substitutions of " she " and " her " for " he " and 
 "his." Sometimes he makes a small and very obvious 
 correction, but it is so very small and so obvious that I am 
 much inclined to credit the printer's reader with it. I do 
 not remember to have seen Malone refer to him, though he 
 occasionally makes a correction which Gildon had already 
 made. He probably never consulted Gildon at all. 
 
 Gildon omits the elegies by Milton, and other poets, and 
 also the "excellent poems by other gentlemen,'^' but he 
 includes the translations from Ovid and other pieces which 
 Benson assigned to Shakespeare. Of these, as well as of 
 the Sonnets, Gildon declares that they "everyone of them 
 carry its Author's Mark and Stamp upon it." Whether he 
 
8 shakbspharb's sonnets. [chap. II. 
 
 considers the author's mark and stamp to be Shakespeare's 
 does not appear, but there can be no doabt that he means 
 the reader to think that he considers this. 
 
 It is plain that Gildon's work is a piece of mere book- 
 making, and I am perhaps dwelling upon it unduly if I 
 give the following extract from the dedication to Charles 
 Mordaunt Earl of Peterborough, which is signed S. N. It 
 will at any rate serve to show into what kind of hands 
 Shakespeare had fallen at the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century. It runs : — ^ 
 
 What can I, my Lord, say of your Generosity, a heav'nly 
 Quality, and visible in all the Actions of a great Heroe ? What, 
 I say, can I speak of it equal to those noble Proofs which are 
 on Record? If I shou'd assert that your Lordship was always 
 liberal of Your own, and always frugal of the Treasure of the Public, 
 are there not a thousand Instances, as well as Witnesses of so evi- 
 dent a Truth ? When you took whole Countries almost without Men, 
 and maintain'd Armies without Money? But, my Lord, what can 
 a Poet ? What can all the Art of the best Orator say equal to that 
 unparallel'd Act of Beneficence to the Public, when Your Lordship 
 refus'd a Compensation for the Loss of your Baggage at Huete ? 
 
 Gildon's own work in connection with this volume consists 
 in an Essay some fifty pages long on the Art, Rise, and 
 Progress of the Stage in Greece, Rome, and England, of about 
 150 pages of Remarks on the Plays, and some 15 pages of 
 Remarks on the Poems, 
 
 From the Essay I take the following :^ 
 
 There is likewise ever a Sprightliness in his [Shakespeare's] 
 Dialogue, and often a Genteelness, especially in his Much Ado about 
 JVothincf, which is very surprizing for that Age, and what the 
 learned Ben could not attain by all his Industry : and I confess if 
 we make some small allowance for a few Words and Expressions, 
 I question whether any one has since exoell'd him in that particular. 
 (pp. iii., iv.) 
 
 From the " Remarks on the Poems of Shakespeare " the 
 following passage may suffice : — • 
 
 All I have to say of the Miscellaneous Poems " [which of 
 pourse include those of the Sonnets which were published in 
 
GILDON, AND SEWELL. 9 
 
 Benson's medley] " is that they are generally Epigrams, and those 
 perfect in their kind according to the best Rules that have been 
 drawn from the Practice of the Ancients, by Scaliger, Lilliua 
 Giraldtis, Minturnus, Rolortellus, Correas, Possovinus, Pontatrus, 
 Raderus, Donatus, Vossius, and Vavasser the Jesuit, at least as far 
 as they agree, but it is not to be suppos'd that I should give you 
 here all that has been said of this sort of Poesie by all these 
 Authors, for that would itself make a Book in Folio, 1 shall 
 therefore here only give you some concise Pules for this and some 
 other Parts of the lesser Poetry on which Shahespeare has touched 
 in these Poems ; for he has something Pastoral in some, Elegiac in 
 others. Lyric in others, and Epigrammatiok in most. And when 
 the general Heads of Art are put down in all these it will be no 
 hard Matter to form a right Judgment on the several Performances, 
 (p. 401.) 
 
 Gildon's work was republished in 1714 as the ninth and 
 supplementary volume to an edition of the Plays in eight 
 Volumes — also edited by Eowe. 
 
 The so-called edition of the Poems by Dr Sewell, published 
 in 1725, a year or so before his death in 1726, as a seventh 
 and supplementary volume to Pope's Edition of the Plays, is 
 dedicated to Lord Walpole. From the dedication I take the 
 following : — 
 
 YO UR Lordship Tcnowing Ms [Shakespeare' s]-2'»c«J?(?»c««s can happily 
 compare them with the Antients, and have thereby a peculiar Right to 
 this offering. That Nurse of Arts and Sciences, that Builder and 
 Refiner of Mankind, {with what Pride I say our common Mother ETON !) 
 has furnished You with a true Taste of Letters; so that tho 
 SHAKESPEAR might fear You as a Judge, yet he now prides 
 himself in courting You as a Patron. 
 
 LN Your Travels, Your Name, the lest Harbinger, prepared for you 
 at every Court a Reception suitable to the Son of Mr WALPOLE. 
 You was then the Representative of the EngHsh Genius Abroad, dis- 
 playing that Probity, Integrity, and Openness of Soul that distinguishes 
 this Nation from all others. 
 
 The reader will know how much to expect from Dr Sewell, 
 whose work indeed is only a reprint of Gildon's with hardly 
 any modification, including Gildon's Essay on the Art, Rise, 
 
10 Shakespeare's sonnets. [ohap. ii. 
 
 and Progress of the Stage and his 150 pp. of Remarks on 
 the Plays and Poems of Shakespeare. Speaking of Gildon, 
 Dr Sewell says in his Preface : — 
 
 This Gentleman republished these Poems [i.e. the whole of 
 Benson's medley] from an old Impression in the Year 1710, at the 
 same time with Mr Eowe's Publication of his Plays. He uses 
 many Arguments to prove them genuine, but the best is the Style, 
 Spirit, and Fancy of SHAKBSPEAE, which are not to be mis- 
 taken by any tolerable Judge in these Matters. 
 
 After showing that Venus and Adonis and Lucrece are 
 indisputably by Shakespeare, Dr Sewell continues : — 
 
 , IF we allow the rest of these Poems to be genuine (as I think 
 Mr Gildon has prov'd them) the occasional ones [consisting mainly 
 of the Sonnets] will appear to be the first of his Works. A young 
 Muse must have a Mistress to play off the beginnings of Fancy, 
 nothing being so apt to raise and elevate the Soul to a pitch of 
 Poetry as the Passion of Love. We find, to wander no further, 
 that Spenser, Cowley, and many others paid the First Fruits of 
 Poetry to a real or imaginary Lady. 
 
 No weight should be attached to Dr Sewell's opinion here 
 implied that the Sonnets were written before Venus and 
 Adonis. I believe him to be right, but as he is evidently 
 ■wishing to convey the impression that they were addressed to 
 Shakespeare's Mistress, actual or imaginary, and is only 
 arguing, and arguing insincerely, on this baseless supposition, 
 his opinion cannot be appealed to. 
 
 Dr Sewell's preface concludes ; — 
 
 I HAVE already run this Preface to a great length, otherwise 
 I should have taken Notice of some beautiful Passages in the 
 Poems; but a Eeader of Taste cannot miss them. 
 
 FOE my own part, as this Eevisal of his Works obliged me to 
 look over SHAKESPEAEE'S Plays, I can't but think the Pains 
 I have taken in correcting, well recompensed by the Pleasure 
 I have receiv'd in reading: And if after this, I should attempt 
 anything Dramatic in his Vein and Spirit, be it owing to the 
 Flame borrowed from his own Altar ! 
 
 Dr Sewell had already written one Tragedy, Sir Walter 
 
Theobald's emendations. 11 
 
 Ealeigh, and two Acts of an unfinished Tragedy, Eichard the 
 First, were published after his death, but if he had borrowed 
 flame from Shakespeare's altar, that flame had refused to 
 kindle Dr Sewell's offering. 
 
 Lewis Theobald [1688 — 1744], who in 1733 pubHshed an 
 edition of " The Works of Shakespear " in seven volumes, did 
 not include the Poems, and much as he has done for the Plays 
 has left us very little about the Sonnets. It was probably the 
 example of the editors of the Pirst Folio that led so many 
 later editors to treat the Poems as if they were not an integral 
 part of the Works of Shakespeare. That this is so appears 
 from Gildon's Remarks on the Poems of Shakespeare, where he 
 answers some who had contended that the poems were " not 
 valuable enough to be reprinted," and had further urged that 
 the first editors must have been of this opinion or they would 
 have published them along with the Plays. Gildon rejoined, 
 not without a certain amount of truth, firstly that the poems 
 are in reality " much less imperfect in their kind than even 
 the best of the plays," and secondly that " the first editors 
 were Players who had nothing to do with anything but the 
 Dramatic Part " (9th and supplementary volume to the 1714 
 edition of Shakespeare's Plays by Rowe, p. 392). 
 
 The little that Theobald has left us about the Sonnets will 
 be found hidden away in Vol. 11. of Jortin's " Miscellaneous 
 Observations upon Authors," to which the Cambridge Edition 
 gives a welcome reference. The textual emendations are only 
 five in number, three of which will be found noted in sonnets 
 25, 85 (65, Q), and 97 (77, Q). The other two would not have 
 been made at all if Theobald had been working with Q instead 
 of with either Gildon or perhaps more probably Sewell. They 
 are to be found in sonnets 138 (118, Q), and 139 (147, Q) ; in 
 the first case Q has : — 
 
 Even so, being full of your nere cloying Sweetnesse, 
 where " nere " is clearly intended for an abbreviated " never." 
 Benson emended "nere" to "neare," and was followed by 
 Gildon and Sewell, who read "near." Theobald, who had 
 evidently never seen Q, restored the text to that of Q, except 
 as regards modernising the spelling. 
 
12 shakespeake's soknets. [chap. n. 
 
 In sonnet 147 Q reads : — 
 
 "Past cure I am now reason is past care," 
 
 The " a " in " care " is very faulty in Benson's edition, and 
 both Gildon and Sevrell have : — 
 
 "Past cure I am now reason is past cure." 
 which will not rhyme with the alternate line. Theobald again 
 restored the text of Q without knowing that he was doing so. 
 
 Malone in his 1780 edition declares Theobald's emendation 
 to be unnecessary, but evidently failed to understand how 
 Theobald came to make it. In fact his note on the subject in 
 his edition of 1780 is not intelligible, and his omission of part 
 of it in his 1794 edition indicates that by that time he had 
 discovered how it was that Theobald came to make his 
 emendation. 
 
 Thomas Tyrwhitt [1730—1786] made many valuable sug- 
 gestions to Malone — duly acknowledged by him — but I cannot 
 find that he published any work bearing on the Sonnets, and 
 do not suppose that he has left more than Malone has given us. 
 
 George Steevens [1736—1800] in 1766 published the text of 
 the Sonnets with their original spelling, errors and all, 
 adhering faithfully to the Quarto edition, but he did not 
 annotate. He contributed many notes and some emendations 
 — both notes and emendations mostly unsatisfactory — to 
 Malone's edition of the Poems, and Boswell has printed, at 
 the end of the Sonnets in his 1821 edition of Malone's 
 Shakespeare, a discussion concerning them between him and 
 Malone which does him no credit. I am reminded by Mr 
 Sidney Lee's " Life of W. Shakespeare " that Steevens wrote 
 as follows concerning the Sonnets : — 
 
 We have not reprinted the Sonnets, &c. [sic] of Shakspeare 
 because the strongest Act of Parliament that could be framed, 
 would fail to compel readers into their service ; notwithstanding 
 these miscellaneous Poems have derived every possible advantage 
 from the literature and judgement of their only intelligent editor, 
 Mr Malone, whose implements of criticism, like the ivory rake and 
 golden spade in Prudentius, are on this occasion disgraced by the 
 objects of their culture. — Had Shakspeare produced no other works 
 
CAPELL's MS. EMENDATIONS. 13 
 
 than these, his name would have reached us with as little celebrity 
 as time has conferred on Thomas Watson, an older and much more 
 elegant sonetteer.* 
 
 Astonishing as the above passage must appear to ns, it 
 reflects an estimate of the Sonnets which seems to have been 
 largely held at the close of the last and beginning of the 
 present century. In 1800 a writer in the Monthly Review, 
 reviewing Mr. Chalmers's " Apology " for the believers in the 
 Ireland forgeries, could write : — 
 
 It would be much better to admit that there are obscurities 
 in these Pieces [The Sonnets] which cannot be fairly explained, in 
 consequence of their allusion to some private circumstances long 
 since forgotten.- — Few persons of good taste will regret those 
 obscurities, in poems so greatly inferior to the other productions of 
 Shakespeare; and for which his name alone can now procure a 
 single reader. 
 
 Edward Capell [1713—1781] did not publish anything 
 about the Sonnets, but there can be little doubt that many 
 suggestions and emendations acknowledged by Malone as 
 having been communicated to him by a correspondent C, were 
 Capell's. Among the many books which he gave in his own 
 lifetime to Trinity College Library is a copy of Lintott's 
 edition of the Sonnets. Of this the Cambridge editors say: — 
 
 In Capell's Copy with which he evidently intended to go to 
 press, there are many corrections and emendations, which we have 
 referred to as " Capell MS." This volume appears afterwards 
 to have passed through Farmer's hands, as there is a note in 
 his handwriting at the end of the " Advertisement." Possibly, 
 therefore, it may have been seen by Malone, and as many of the 
 alterations proposed by Capell were adopted by Malone or 
 subsequent editors, we have indicated this coincidence by quoting 
 them as "Malone (Capell MS.)" or the like. 
 
 This note struck me as likely to suggest to some readers 
 that Malone might have profited by Capell's MS. notes 
 without saying so, I, therefore, called Mr Aldis Wright's 
 attention to it, and he assured me that nothing could be 
 
 * Preface to the 1793 edition of Johnson's and Steevens' Shakespeare, p. vii. 
 
14 shakhspeake's sonnets. [ohap. II. 
 
 farther from his intention than to convey any snch impression. 
 He said that on further consideration he did not think that 
 Farmer had ever owned Capell's copy, but rather that he had 
 written the note after the volume had come into the possession 
 of the College ; he added that there was no evidence that 
 Malone ever saw the book in question. 
 
 I asked Mr Wright if I was at liberty to say this, and 
 he said he should be very glad if I would do so. In passing I 
 may say that Farmer's note is of no importance ; as for 
 Capell's emendations, they are almost always sensible, but 
 there are few, if any, which would not readily suggest 
 themselves to any intelligent reader who was editing the 
 Sonnets, and trying to correct Q's very numerous errors. 
 
 Saml. Johnson [1709—1784] in 1771 published his edition of 
 the Plays in 12 vols.— the thirteenth vol. consisting of what 
 professes to be Shakespeare's Poems, but is in reality only 
 a reprint of Benson's medley, with the spelling modernised. 
 No better proof of Johnson's indolence, and, one is tempted 
 to add, of his unfitness to edit Shakespeare at all, can be 
 found than the fact that five years after Steevens had 
 reprinted the text of Q with great fidelity, Johnson should 
 be still content to pass off" Benson's medley as Shakespeare's 
 Poems. 
 
 In 1774 J. Bell and C. Etherington published an edition of 
 the Plays in 8 vols., with a supplementary vol. containing the 
 Poems. They again content themselves with reprinting 
 Benson's medley. The anonymous writer of the preface to 
 the Poems says : — 
 
 If Shakespeare' s merit as a poet, a philosopher, or a man, was to 
 be estimated from his Poems, though, they possess many instances 
 of powerful genius, he would, in every point of view, sink beneath 
 himself in these characters. Many of his subjects are trifling, his 
 versification mostly laboured and quibbling, with too great a degree 
 of licentiousness. 
 
( 15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE KEV. EDMOND MALONE. 
 
 Edmond Malone [1741—1812] published in 1780 the 
 Poems of Shakespeare as a supplementary volume to Johnson 
 and Steevens' 1778 edition of the Plays, and with this book, 
 which appears 171 years after the original quarto, we have 
 the first serious attempt at textual emendation and intelligent 
 critical notes. Steevens was quite correct in saying, as 
 already quoted, that Malone was the only intelligent editor of 
 the Poems of Shakespeare ; indeed so far as the Sonnets are 
 concerned he might have gone further and said that he was 
 their only editor — for a mere reprint such as those of Lintott 
 and Steevens can hardly claim to be called an edition. 
 
 By waiving this, Malone was the first writer to publish 
 an edition of the Sonnets which shows the instincts of a 
 scholar and a gentleman. Granted that he was a shade too 
 conservative, as for example in sonnets 85 (65, Q) line 10, 
 where he rejects the emendation " quest " for " chest," though 
 he tells us that it had occurred to him, and that Theobald had 
 also proposed it. Or again in sonnet 23 line 9, where he 
 retains " Oh let my books be then the eloquence," when 
 "looks" is obviously right. Malone tells us that this 
 emendation has been suggested to him by a correspondent 
 whose suggestions he has marked with the letter C, and 
 who as I have said is generally believed to have been Capell. 
 
 He also rejects the emendation "griefs strength" for 
 "grief's length," line 14 of sonnet 28, which he again says had 
 been suggested to him by "an anonymous correspondent, 
 whose favours are distinguished by the letter 0." Sometimes 
 he makes an emendation that does not carry conviction, but 
 though I remember to have rejected one or two, I cannot 
 
16 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. hi. 
 
 lay my hand on an example ; on the whole, however, I find his 
 text preferable to that of the Cambridge editors, who reject 
 many of his emendations, which one would say commend 
 themselves to common sense. Those, however, which they 
 have adopted are enough to establish him as having done 
 more for the text of the Sonnets than anyone (except perhaps 
 Capell, who, however, did not publish) had done before, or 
 than can ever be done again. 
 
 He is not always accurate. First class men will sometimes 
 blunder worse than any sloven ; it is for the most part only 
 third rate men whose accuracy never fails them. In his 
 original edition of the Poems he wrote : — 
 
 Mr Tyrwhitt has pointed out to me a line in the twentieth 
 Sonnet which inclines me to think that the initials W. H. [in the 
 dedication*] stand for William Hughes. Speaking of this person 
 the poet says — 
 
 ' A man in hew all Heivs in his controlling — ' 
 So the line is exhibited in the old copy. [The name Hughes was 
 formerly written Hews*]. When it is considered that one of these 
 Sonnets is formed entirely on a play on our author's Christian 
 name, this conjecture does not seem improbable. To this person, 
 whoever he was, one hundred and twentyf of the following poems 
 are addressed. The remaining twenty-eight are to a lady. 
 
 In this short paragraph, in a preface, too, when people are 
 generally most careful, there are three considerable mistakes, 
 and one considerable omission. There is another matter, also 
 on the same page, to which exception may be justly taken. 
 Malone gives Thorpe's dedicatory preface, but he does not 
 adhere to the punctuation of the original. 
 
 In the first place, " the old copy " does not exhibit the line 
 quoted by Malone, in the form he gives. Q does not print the 
 word "hew" in italics. It is the Hews which is alone 
 italicised, and the correct form of the Quarto version lends 
 more support to Mr Tyrwhitt's suggestion than the incorrect 
 form in which Malone has given it. The error here noted 
 
 * The words enclosed in brackets do not appear in the 1780 edition, but are found 
 in that of 1794. 
 
 + Corrected to " a hundred and twenty-six " in 1794. 
 
maloxe's preface. 17 
 
 is repeated in the 1794 edition, and in Boswell's edition 
 of 1821. 
 
 Secondly, Malone meant to say not that 120, bnt that 126, of 
 the sonnets were addressed to Mr W. H. 120 and 28 make 
 148, whereas the Sonnets are 154 in number. This error is 
 corrected in the 1794 edition and in Boswell's edition of 1821 ; 
 I should perhaps say that the Boswell here named is not 
 Johnson's biographer, but his son. 
 
 Thirdly, even a cursory examination of the last 28 sonnets 
 should have convinced Malone that some of them were not 
 written to a woman, and that of the others, several, though 
 written to a woman, were not intended to be taken by that 
 woman as coming from Shakespeare. 
 
 The omission above referred to consists in the failure to 
 observe what Mr Wyndham has more than once urged. I 
 mean that many of the last 28 sonnets belong to the series 
 40—42, and are therefore misplaced in Q. 
 
 As regards Malone's assertion that the last 28 of the 
 sonnets were written to a woman, 129 Q cannot be so held; 
 145 Q is not addressed to a woman, though it has a woman 
 for its subject ; 153, 154 Q, are mere paraphrases, addressed to 
 nobody; 146 Q is an occasional introspective meditation, 
 priceless, as revealing Shakespeare's truest and most un- 
 clouded mind more certainly and directly than anything else 
 he has left us. It contains nothing to suggest its having been 
 written to or for a woman. 
 
 Sonnets 130, 131, 137, 138, 141, 144 (all of them according 
 to the Q numbering) cannot have been intended to be shown 
 to their addressee, and hence can hardly be held as having 
 been addressed to her. Sonnets 135, 136, 151, 152 (all of 
 them Q) were obviously written to a woman, and written by 
 Shakespeare, but I cannot doubt that three at any rate of 
 these four sonnets were written for Mr W. H. to give to 
 Shakespeare's mistress as though he had written them him- 
 self, and if so they cannot be included among sonnets addressed 
 by Shakespeare to a woman. 
 
 • Wyndham's " Poems of Shakespeare," pp. ox., exi., and 325. 
 
 C 
 
18 Shakespeare's sonnbts. [chap. hi. 
 
 Sonnets 147—150 (Q) do not on the face of them say 
 whether they are addressed to a man or a woman, but the 
 passionate emotion which they breathe in every line indicates 
 an intensity of feeling which the dark woman does not seem 
 elsewhere able to excite. Assuming, as we may do, that 
 Shakespeare's mistress and the dark woman are one and the 
 same person, Shakespeare tells us that it might " be said " he 
 " loved her dearly " (42 Q), but it is a far cry from this to 
 being "frantic mad with evermore unrest," as he declares 
 himself in sonnet 147 Q. No man can write such a line as 
 this unless he really is what he says he is, but I can find no 
 such pathos in anything written by Shakespeare to the dark 
 woman ; nothing, therefore, will persuade me that sonnets 
 147—160 Q were not addressed to Mr W. H., and that too at 
 a time when Shakespeare was heart-broken at becoming more 
 and more convinced of his idol's utter worthlessness. Of the 
 whole 28, therefore, which Malone includes in his second 
 group, and which he declares to have been addressed to a 
 woman, only 9, i.e. 127, 12», 132, 133, 134, 139, 140, 142, 143 
 (all Q), can be admitted as in reality so addressed. 
 
 As regards his failure to see that the last 28 sonnets belong 
 mainly to the episode which is alluded to in sonnets 35, 40, 41, 
 42 (Q), but nowhere else in the first group, I refer it to the fact 
 that he had too much on his hands to be able to give the 
 Sonnets that long, close, undivided attention which could alone 
 unriddle them. 
 
 If he had come after a capable man, who had already done 
 the rough work of textual emendation ; if again he had not 
 been also engaged in editing Shakespeare's other Poems, and 
 been anxious to proceed to his own edition of the Plays ; if, in 
 fact, he had put everything else on one side and saturated 
 himself with the Sonnets, committing them all to memory, and 
 thus acquiring a mastery over them which nothing else can 
 give so fully — then I cannot doubt that he would not only 
 have seen the point on which Mr Wyndham has so justly 
 insisted, but would have also seen his way to shuflling the 
 Sonnets, at any rate approximately, into their original order. 
 
 Lastly (so true is it that Time can kill judges more readily 
 
MALONE AND STEEVBNS. 19 
 
 than he can ripen judgements), if the Sonnets had not lien 
 among the pots for near two hundred years— the very Cinderella 
 of literature— at best patted half contemptuously on the back 
 by such men as Gildon and Sewell — if Malone had had the 
 benefit of the additional hundred years of reflection which he 
 did so much to aid, he would have been less apologetic in the 
 discussion with Steevens, already referred to as given by 
 Boswell immediately after the Sonnets themselves. 
 In that discussion Malone writes : — 
 
 I do not feel any great propensity to stand forth as the 
 champion of these compositions. However, as it appears to me 
 that they have been somewhat under-rated, I think it incumbent 
 upon me to do them that justice to which they seem entitled. 
 
 He must be a bold man who thinks himself competent to 
 do justice to the Sonnets. The Sonnets may be criticised, 
 studied, elucidated, emended, found fault with — for they are 
 full of faults— but doing justice to them is another and very 
 different thing — one might as well try to do injustice to 
 Benson's medley, or to Gildon and Sewell. A little later 
 Malone writes, concerning the Sonnets :— 
 
 When they are described as a mass of affectation, pedantry, 
 circumlocution, and nonsense, the picture appears to me over- 
 charged. Their great defects appear to be a want of variety, and 
 the majority of them not being directed to a female, to whom alone 
 such ardent expressions of esteem could with propriety be addressed; 
 It cannot be denied, too, that they contain some far-fetched conceits ; 
 but are our author's plays entirely free from them ? Many of the 
 thoughts that occur in his dramatic productions are found here 
 likewise ; as may appear from the numerous parallels that have 
 been cited from his dramas, chiefly for the purpose of authenticating 
 these poems. Had they therefore no other merit, they are entitled 
 to our attention, as often illustrating obscure passages in the plays. 
 
 I do not perceive that the versification of these pieces is less 
 smooth and harmonious than that of Shakespeare's other com- 
 positions. Though many of them are not so simple and clear as 
 they ought to be, yet some of them are written with perspicuity 
 and energy. A few have been already pointed out as deserving 
 this character, and many beautiful lines scattered through these 
 
 C2 
 
20 Shakespeare's sonnrts. [chap, in. 
 
 poems will, it is supposed, strike every reader wlio is not deter- 
 mined to allow no praise to any species of poetry except blank 
 verse or heroic couplets. 
 
 "With the appearance, however, of Malone's 1780 Supple- 
 ment, it seemed as though the Sonnets were about to emerge 
 from the slough of both outrage and neglect in which they 
 had remained so long. Between 1780 and 1797 there was 
 no advance made upon Malone save what few corrections 
 he made in his edition of 1794, but there had been nothing 
 retrograde or extravagant, and the reception of Malone's 
 conclusions seems to have been favourable among Shake- 
 sperean scholars generally. I can find nothing to indicate 
 that any doubt existed among literary men as to the 
 interpretation that should be put upon Thorpe's preface. We 
 know what Malone, Tyrwhitt, Farmer, and I think I may 
 add Steevens and Capell took it to mean. I can find no trace 
 of its being even supposed capable of more than one inter- 
 pretation. Those who have left any record of their opinion 
 took it to mean that the Sonnets were all of them, or at 
 any rate very nearly all of them, inspired by, or in some way 
 engendered by, a person whose initials were W. H. Granted 
 that only a few have expressed any opinion on the subject, 
 but we may assume confidently that if Malone had known 
 of any other opinion he would have told us of it. 
 
 Again, that Jeroboam the son of Nebat who has made 
 all subsequent criticism of the Sonnets to sin, I mean 
 Mr George Chalmers — when in 1799 he first broached the 
 theory that " begetter " only means " procurer," would have 
 been only too glad to appeal to any earlier authority had such 
 authority existed. So would Dr Drake when in 1817 he 
 advanced the theory that the Sonnets were addressed to 
 Lord Southampton. See how he clutches at such straws as 
 Gildon and Sewell — misrepresenting both of them, and then 
 stultifying his appeal by declaring them to have been editors 
 of " extreme carelessness." 
 
 The silence of Malone, Chalmers, and Drake — the first 
 of whom would have told us in good faith had he known of 
 any other interpretation of Thorpe's preface than the one 
 
THE SONNETS AND THOEPe's PREFACE. 21 
 
 he pnts upon it, while the others wonld have been sure to 
 do so in the interests of their theories — the silence of these 
 men, so placed, will I believe satisfy the reader that the 
 earliest serious students of the Sonnets understood Thorpe's 
 prefatory address to mean, that having undertaken the risk of 
 publishing some Sonnets (which have been stated upon the 
 title-page to be by Shakespeare) he is offering his good wishes 
 to a certain Mr W. H. >who, he declares, was the sole cause of 
 the Sonnets having been written, and to whom Shakespeare 
 had promised an eternity of fame. 
 
 Looking at the Sonnets apart from the dedicatory address 
 they found them so clearly dominated by one man, that 
 this person, whoever he was, might be justly called their only 
 begetter. They found Shakespeare repeatedly promising him 
 an eternity of fame ; they found what seemed to them, and has 
 seemed to most people ever since, conclusive evidence that his 
 christian name was William, while from another sonnet they 
 gathered that his surname was probably Hughes. 
 
 Looking at the preface apart from the Sonnets, they found 
 it appearing to declare that the person who had been the sole 
 cause of the Sonnets having been written was a man whose 
 initials were W. H., and also appearing to declare that Shake- 
 speare had promised this person an eternity of fame. Being 
 reasonable people, and not having any theoiy as to who 
 Mr W. H. might have been, nor having as yet found anything 
 in the Sonnets to suggest that he was of higher birth than 
 Shakespeare himself, they did not think it an unwarrantable 
 assumption, even though qualifying their acceptance of the 
 name of Hughes with some reserve, to conclude that the 
 addressee of the Sonnets and of the preface were one and 
 the same person. 
 
 If the Sonnets had been lost, and nothing had remained 
 to us but the title-page and dedication, who would have 
 doubted that our loss had consisted of certain sonnets by 
 Shakespeare, which were mainly conversant about a Mr W. H. 
 — that is to say, either addressed to him directly or written for 
 his delectation, or in his real or supposed interests ? Admitting 
 the title-page as correct, "only begetter" would have been 
 
22 Shakespeare's sonkets. [chaf. hi. 
 
 taken to mean that thoagh Shakespeare's brain was the womb 
 wherein the Sonnets grew, the influence which had fecundated 
 that brain had proceeded solely from Mr W. H. ISTor would 
 any one have doubted that the eternity mentioned in the 
 prefatory address as haying been promised by Shakespeare 
 was supposed by T. T. to have been promised to Mr W. H. 
 and not to any one else. 
 
 Happily the Sonnets have not been lost, and so well do 
 they bear out the statements of the preface, that, as their 
 general tenour is found to be correctly deducible from the 
 prefatory address, so, had the prefatory address been lost, 
 its tenour would have been sufficiently deducible by such 
 men as Malone, Tyrwhitt, Steevens, Farmer, and doubtless 
 Capell, except, of course, in so far as Thorpe and his good-will 
 to Mr W. H. are concerned — ^these being developments of later 
 date than the writing of the Sonnets, 
 
 When the interpretation of words in their most usual sense 
 reveals to us so perfect a correspondence between a collection 
 of poems and its preface, who will doubt, in the absence of 
 conclusive countervailing evidence, that the usual interpre-. 
 Ration is the one that ought to be adopted ? 
 
( 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MR GEORGE CHALMERS AND HIS INTERPRETATION OF THE 
 WORD "begetter" IN THORPE's PREFACE. 
 
 One would have thought no man ; but the course of true 
 criticism never did run smooth. In 1795, a year or so after 
 the second edition of Malone's supplement,* and some 15 years 
 after his previous edition had been allowed to go unchallenged, 
 the famous Ireland forgeries threw the Shakespearean world 
 into confusion. 
 
 These forgeries were published in facsimile by the forger's 
 father, in a volume entitled "Miscellaneous Papers and legal 
 Instruments under the hand and seal of William Shakespeare" ; 
 the volume was published in December 1795, but is dated 1796. 
 The documents themselves had already been on view for some 
 months at the house of the elder Ireland, who was completely 
 taken in by them, as also were many of the best scholars of 
 the day, — among them Dr. Parr. 
 
 One of these forgeries was a letter from Queen Elizabeth 
 to Shakespeare, which begins : — 
 
 "Wee didde receive your prettye Verses goode Masterre William 
 through the hands of oure Lord Chambelayne, ande wee doe 
 complemente thee onne theyre greate excellence. 
 
 Malone, in his "Inquiry into the authenticity of certain 
 Miscellaneous Papers, &c.," published in 1796, showed how 
 impossible it was to accept this letter as genuine, and among 
 other more serious objections, expressed his surprise (pp. 97, 
 98) that these " pretty verses " should not have been preserved 
 either by the Queen, or by some of her courtiers. 
 
 In 1797 Mr George Chalmers [1742 — 1825], who was then 
 
 * Thia edition, which is in rather smaller type than the first, makes few alterations 
 
24 iSaAKES^BARE's SONNETS. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 Chief Clerk of the Board of Trade, wrote a book of over 
 600 pages entitled " An Apology for believers in the Shake- 
 speare Papers," the scope of which was to show that though 
 the supposed Shakespearean documents must be admitted to 
 be spurious, yet Malone was wrong in his reasons for rejecting 
 them. This work, according to the British Critic (Yol. IX., 
 Lond. 1797, p. 512), was, 
 
 a book composed to prove not that the believers of a certain 
 allegation were right, for that is given up, but that they might 
 possibly have been right. 
 
 Let us now see how Mr Chalmers meets Malone's surprise 
 that the " pretty verses " mentioned in the forged letter from 
 Queen Elizabeth to Shakespeare were nowhere to be found. 
 With that strange power of having things both ways, which, 
 like conscience, " so greatly boons yet greatly banes " those in 
 whom it is well developed, he declares that, whether they ever 
 existed outside young Ireland's brain or no, they had at any 
 rate not been lost, a,nd if Malone had not been dull of sight he 
 would have detected them. Malone, he says, 
 
 has seen them, he has criticised them ; but, whatever may be the 
 keenness of his eye, or the acuteness of his criticism, he has not 
 discerned them, though he had the daily help of able coadjutors. 
 
 But I will ... no longer conceal the secret. The sugr'd sonnets, 
 of which Meres spoke in 1598,* and which were first printed by 
 Thorpe in 1609 are the pretty e verses of honey-tongu' d Shakspeare. 
 Impossible ! cries Mr Malone, with the monotonous tongue of hia 
 own Pretty Poll. I will now maintain .... that the sugr'd 
 sonnets, which were handed about before, and in- the year 1598, 
 among Shakspeare's private friends, were the very verses which he 
 addressed to Elizabeth in his fine filed phrase: that the SONNETS 
 of Shakspeare were addressed, by him, to Elizabeth, although I 
 do not mean to contend for the spurious performances of booksellers, 
 the intermixtures of critics, nor the interpolations of Mr Malone. 
 In order to see this curious point, in its true light, it will be 
 necessary to advert, with discriminative eye, to the character of 
 Elizabeth, and to the situation of Shakspeare (pp. 41 — 48). 
 
 • See "Palladiu Tamia," pp. 282, left page (S.B.). 
 
CBALMEftS AND " ONLY BEGETTER." 25 
 
 This man's very commas are enough to raise prejudice 
 against him. See, too, how all these finders of literary mare's 
 nests try to focus the reader's eye, not on the work under 
 consideration, but on something else. Can there be a doubt 
 that Mr Chalmers had made his theory while still a believer 
 in the Ireland forgeries, and was not going to be balked merely 
 because young Ireland had proved to be forger ? 
 
 Malone made no reply, but some one seems to have pointed 
 out to Mr Chalmers that Thorpe's preface declared the kSonnets 
 to have been inspired solely by a Mr W. H., and he must have 
 felt it incumbent upon him to show that this was not the case. 
 In 1799, therefore, he published another 600 pp. entitled "A 
 Supplemental Apology, &c.," and in this he says : — 
 
 Thorpe, the first publisher of them [the Sonnets], dedicated those 
 Amatory effusions "to the only hegetter of these ensuing Sonnets, 
 Mr W. H." How he was the hegetter of them, it is not easy to tell ; 
 unless we presume, what is not improbable, that he begot a desire 
 in Shakspeare to deliver a copy to the Bookseller, for publication : 
 W. H. was the getter of the manuscript, imperfect as it was, from, 
 which the Sonnets were printed inaccurately (p. 62). 
 
 Later on, on p. 90, he says farther to the same purpose : — 
 
 They [the Sonnets] . . . were published ... by Thorpe, from 
 an imperfect Copy, which may have come into the hands of W. H. 
 who gave it to the Bookseller, without the apparent consent of the 
 author. But, there was no intimation, to whom they were addressed, 
 except that Thorpe dedicated them to W. H. as the only hegetter of 
 these sonnets. 
 
 In a note on the word " begetter " in the foregoing passage 
 Mr Chalmers writes : — 
 
 See Minsheu, 1616, in vo. to heget, signifying in one sense to 
 bring foorth. W. H. was the bringer forth of the Sonnets. Beget 
 is derived by Skinner from the A. S. legettan, obtinere. Johnson 
 adopts this derivation and sense ; so that hegetter in the quaint 
 language of Thorpe the Bookseller, Pistol, the ancient, and such 
 affected persons, signified the ohtainer ; as to get, and getter, in the 
 present day, mean ohtain, and ohtainer, or to 'procure, and the 
 procurer. 
 
26 shakespkaee's sonnets. [chap. iv. 
 
 Turning to Minsheu I read : — 
 
 SStgct or Engender, a Belg. 6e et gaeUen, i. formare generando. 
 G. Engendrer. H. Engendrdr. P. Gerar. I. L. Genera/re a gignere, 
 vel genus creare, Propagare, Procreare. Gr. yevj/aw, a yivoQ, i. genus, 
 B. «Kene««tt, a2a[oo|t6?c«S«ni i- proferre, Unde Ang. to bring foorth. 
 T. ^t\x%m, forte a gr. supra. Heb, jaladh, "J^7in holidh. 
 
 So schoolboys making Latin verses with the help of a 
 gradns, if they find a word with the required quantity at the 
 end of the synonyms, will force it into their line, as hoping that 
 their master will not know, or be too jaded with other like 
 rubbish to remonstrate. 
 
 Turning to Johnson I find that he does indeed derive Beget 
 from the Anglo-Saxon Begettan, to obtain ; but this is not 
 saying that " beget " has meant " obtain " within the last 
 several hundred years. The only uses of the word that he 
 gives are, 
 
 1. To generate; to procreate; to beconae the father of, as 
 children. 
 
 2. To produce as effects. 
 
 3. To produce as accidents. 
 
 The only example given of this last sense is. 
 
 It is a time for story when each minute Begets a thousand 
 dangers. 
 
 There is little difference between the second and third 
 senses ; both mean " engender." As for the substantive 
 "begetter," Johnson simply says that it means "he that 
 procreates or begets." He gives no example of either verb 
 or noun in the sense of " to procure," or " procurer." 
 
 It seems, then, that Mr Chalmers has first tampered with 
 plain words, and then with the authorities to whom he appeals 
 in order to show that he had not been tampering. 
 
 It is especially incumbent upon me to demolish Mr 
 Chalmers's interpretation of " begetter " inasmuch as to do so 
 kills two birds with one stone ; indeed I should say three, only 
 that the third bird — Mr Chalmers's own theory — is so dead 
 that there is no killing it. The two birds that a reasonable 
 
THE VERB " TO BEOET." 27 
 
 interpretation of " begetter " will kill, are the theory that the 
 Sonnets were most of them addressed to Lord Southampton, 
 and that other even more fatuous supposition, that they were 
 not, or, at any rate not many of them, addressed to or inspired 
 by any one at all. Both these theories are very much alive at 
 the present time. It is obvious, however, that what few and 
 poor pleas for existence either of them can urge may be 
 disallowed at once unless their upholders can make a good 
 case in the outset for setting aside the prima facie interpre- 
 tation of Thorpe's preface. 
 
 1 shall waive this point presently and consider what pleas 
 can be urged without regard to the fact that I believe them to 
 have been effectually barred by the words of Thorpe's preface ; 
 but for the present I will harp a little longer on the meaning 
 of the word " begetter." 
 
 Doubtless the word " beget " is only " get " with a prefix 
 added, and hence, doubtless, its earliest sense was the same as 
 that of "get." Murray gives "to get, to acquire," as the 
 primary meaning of the word, but the only use of " beget " in 
 this sense which he adduces within a couple of hundred years 
 of Shakespeare's time, is one from Shakespeare himself, to wit, 
 "You must acquire and beget a temperance that may give 
 it smoothness."* Surely, however, Shakespeare meant " You 
 must acquire temperance, aye, and so assimilate it that yon 
 may beget it in your speech, and give smoothness to the very 
 torrent of your passion." It is inconceivable that he should 
 have intended his " beget " in this passage to have no further 
 significance than that of the word that he had just used — 
 as though he had written "You must acquire and acquire 
 a temperance, &c." Murray's case, therefore, is not in point. 
 
 As for the substantive " begetter," Dr Murray says that it 
 means, "the agent that originates, produces, or occasions," 
 and he quotes Thorpe's preface to the Sonnets ; but whether he 
 meant that Mr W. H. was "the agent that originated" the 
 Sonnets, or " that occasioned them," in which case he is on the 
 
 * The passage runs : — " for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, 
 Vrhirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it 
 amoothness." Hamlet III., ii,, 6 — 9. 
 
28 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. iv. 
 
 side of Malone, or " the agent that produced the Sonnets," in 
 which case he may or may not be on the side of Mr ( Jhalmers 
 and Boswell, I must leave it to the reader to determine. The 
 other three examples of the use of the word which he adduces 
 are incontestably in support of the view that "begetter" 
 means " engenderer." 
 
 Boswell, indeed, has trumped up a passage which he 
 pretends bears out his view, though he must have very well 
 known that it cannot equitably be made to do so. In a note 
 on Thorpe's dedicatory address in his 1821 edition of Malone 
 he writes : — 
 
 The legetter is merely the person who g«ts or procures a thing, 
 with the common prefix le added to it. So in Decker's Satiro- 
 mastix : " I have some cousin-germans at Court shall beget you the 
 reversion of master of the king's revels." W. H. was probably one 
 of the friends to whom Shakespeare's sug'red Sonnets, as they are 
 termed by Meres, had been communicated, and who furnished the 
 printer with his copy. 
 
 Struck with the fact that Dr Murray has not cited the 
 foregoing passage from Dekker, and has adduced no later 
 example of " beget " being used as " get " or " gain," than one 
 from Gower in 1393 — struck also with the fact that Mr Sidney 
 Lee, for whom it is a sine qua non that " begetter" should be 
 misinterpreted, appealed to Dekker in his article on Shake- 
 speare in the " Dictionary of National Biography," but has not 
 done so in his " Life of W. Shakespeare," I turned to Dekker's 
 Satiromastix, and find that the passage in question is put into 
 the mouth of Sir Rees Ap Vaughan, a Welshman, who by way 
 of humour is represented as murdering the English language 
 all through the piece ; I then understood why Dr Murray did 
 not refer to it and why Mr Sidney Lee desisted from doing so ; 
 but I did not and do not understand how Boswell could have 
 adduced it, unless in the hope of hoodwinking unwary readers, 
 who he knew would accept his statement without verifying it. 
 This single factitious example has done duty with Southamp- 
 tonites and impersonalites for the last 80 years, without 
 anyone's having been able to cap it with another. With 
 
CANON AINGER AND "BEGET." 29 
 
 the metaphorical use of the word we are, of coarse, all familiar 
 — the use, indeed, is metaphorical ia Thorpe's preface — but 
 the idea behind the metaphor is always that of engendering 
 from within, not of procuring from without. 
 
 Canon Ainger, indeed, in the Athenceum, Jan. 28, 1899, 
 asks leave to " cite yet one more classical example of the use 
 of ' beget,' in the sense of ' procure,' " as though there were 
 many such instances already familiar to well-read persons. 
 He then quotes from The Critic a passage in which 
 Mr Puif proposes to open his piece with the firing of a 
 morning gun. This, Mr Puff declares, will at once " beget 
 an awful attention in the audience." Canon Ainger pretends 
 to have failed to see — for I hold it more polite to suppose 
 he is pretending — that " beget " in the passage just quoted 
 is not used " in the sense of ' procure,' " but of " engender." 
 The gun will not " procure " the required attention ab extra, 
 and present it to the audience ; it will breed the attention 
 within them. 
 
 Another consideration of less weight, but one that so far as 
 I know has not been noted, arises from the prefixing the word 
 " only " to " begetter " in Thorpe's preface. The fact that the 
 Sonnets are so almost exclusively conversant, directly or 
 indirectly, about a single person, suggests that they would all 
 he in the hands of this person, whoever he may have been. 
 There is nothing to support the view that copies were circulated 
 in MS. We have Meres' testimony to the fact that Shakes- 
 peare's " private friends " had seen or heard more or fewer of 
 his "sug'red sonnets" — doubtless the ones we have under 
 consideration — but if copies had been going about in MS. 
 they would have reached many another beyond the circle of 
 Shakespeare's private friends, and Jaggard would have been 
 able to get hold of more than two of them for his Passionate- 
 Pilgrim. There is no reason, then, for thinking that more 
 than one person would have to be asked for the copy, and in. 
 this case, supposing "begetter" to mean nothing more than 
 "procurer," the addition of the word "only" appears too. 
 emphatic for the occasion—" begetter " alone should have been 
 ample. If on the other hand Mr W. H. was the only cause 
 
30 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. iv. 
 
 of the Sonnets having been written at all, the fact is one of 
 sufficient interest and importance to make record reasonable 
 even in a preface so tersely worded as the one in question. 
 Again the word " only," had, through the Creed, become so in- 
 separably associated with " begotten," that I cannot imagine 
 any one's using the words " only begetter " without intending 
 the verb " beget " to mean metaphorically what it means in 
 " only begotten." 
 
 Lastly I should say a few words about Mr Chalmers's 
 attempt to make out that Thorpe's preface is couched in 
 extravagant language such as that of "Pistol, the ancient, 
 and such affected persons," and hence that the word "begetter" 
 is to be taken in an unusual sense. I see Canon Ainger in 
 his letter already referred to has endorsed this. He writes : — 
 
 I do not suppose that even Mr Lee would plead that the word 
 "begetter" was a natural word for Thorpe to have used. But the 
 whole style of the dedication is euphuistic — the vein of Armado or 
 Osric— and the first thought of euphuists of that calibre was never 
 to use a common word when an uncommon one would do. 
 
 I leave it to the reader to say whether he can find a single 
 uncommon word, or a single word used in an uncommon sense, 
 or a single sign of extravagance, in a preface which errs 
 indeed deplorably on the side of conciseness, but in no other 
 direction. Have we not here too, as in so much else that 
 Mr Chalmers has written, all the criteria whereby we may 
 detect men who are shaping, not theory by fact, but fact by 
 theory ? 
 
 Mr Chalmers and his followers have told equitable pre- 
 Bumption to stand aside on no other ground than that of the 
 exigencies of their own conjectures. Having formed their 
 conjectures on insufficient grounds, they have taken them for 
 granted ; on the ground so laid they have built other con- 
 jectures ; nor is it easy to say what further folly they will not 
 commit unless they are effectually dealt with, for men's eyes 
 are being now focussed upon the Sonnets as they have never 
 been focussed hitherto, and freedom from extravagance is not 
 a virtue on which modern theorists can plume themselves. 
 
CHALMEBS ON SONNET 20. 31 
 
 The little that Mr Chalmers has to say about Tyrwhitt's 
 conjecture, approved by Malone, that " Heios," in sonnet 20, 
 is a play on Mr "\V. H.'s surname, will be found on pp. 53 — 63 
 of the Supplemental Apology. His remarks are intended to 
 prove that sonnet 20 was addressed not to a man but to a 
 woman — a supposition so absurd that it is not necessary to do 
 more than refer the reader to Mr Chalmers himself. 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DB DRAKE AND THE LOED SOUTHAMPTON THEORY. 
 
 But it is not Mr Chalmers's fataousness that is so 
 deplorable — it is the fatuousness of which he has been the 
 cause in others, and which has vitiated more or less all that 
 has been written about the Sonnets during the last hundred 
 years. His two absurd books unsettled people's minds, and 
 even though it was obvious that the Sonnets were not addressed 
 to Queen Elizabeth, his interpretation of "begetter" opened 
 the door for supposing them to have been addressed to some 
 more interesting person than a plain Mr W. H. whom nobody 
 knew, or was likely to know. The same thing happened to 
 the Sonnets after Mr Chalmers's paradox, as happened to the 
 Iliad and Odyssey after Wolf had started his multiple-author- 
 ship theory on its long and mischievous career : each successive 
 would-be commentator must set out on a new wild-goose chase 
 of his own. It seems as though sound criticism had something 
 of the Prince Rupert's drop about it — once injure it and it 
 shivers into a thousand fragments. 
 
 It was some eighteen years before Mr Chalmers's extrava- 
 gance bore its due fruit, in the form of two large quartos each 
 containing more than 600 pp., entitled " Shakspeare and his 
 Times," by Dr Nathan Drake, M.D. This work appeared in 
 1817, but its author tella us that he had been engaged upon it 
 for several years— during which if he treated his patients with 
 the recklessness with which he treated the Sonnets, he must 
 have sent many a soul hurrying down to Hades. 
 
 Being about to maintain that the Sonnets were mainly 
 addressed to Lord Southampton, he is of course compelled to 
 adopt Mr Chalmers's interpretation of " begetter." I find I 
 was wrong in my letter to the Athenceum of Dec. 24, 1898, in 
 
DK DRAKE. 33 
 
 Saying that he had not acknowledged his indebtedness. He 
 has done so ; he quotes, moreover, Mr Chalmers's reference to 
 Minsheu already given, but gives no more reason than that 
 gentleman did for adopting an unusual instead of a usual 
 meanino-.* 
 
 O 
 
 Dr Drake contends that Gildon must have agreed with him 
 about the meaning of "begetter," inasmuch as he has said 
 that all the Sonnets were written in praise of Shakespeare's 
 Mistress.! There is no trace of any such saying in either of 
 the editions of the Poems with -which we can connect Gildon. 
 Dr Drake must have been thinking of Lintott's title-page. 
 He appeals to Sewell as of the same opinion, on the score of a 
 passage quoted on an earlier page of this book, from which it 
 is plain that Sewell neither said nor thought what Dr Drake 
 says he did, though wishing to appear to do so. He then 
 implies that Mr Chalmers's interpretation of " begetter " had 
 been universally accepted until 1780, when it was first disturbed 
 by Malonef — the fact being, as I trust I have made snfBciently 
 clear, that no one whose opinion is worth the paper it is written 
 on had published anything or left us any opinion about the 
 Sonnets. How far Dr Drake himself is competent to discuss 
 the subject the following extract may suffice to show. 
 
 Dr Drake writes : — 
 
 We may also very safely afflrm of Shakspeare's Sonnets, that if 
 their style be compared with that of his predecessors and con- 
 temporaries, in the same department of poetry, a manifest 
 superiority must often be awarded him, on the score of force, 
 dignity, and simplicity of expression ; qualities of which we shall 
 very soon afford the reader some striking instances. 
 
 To a certain extent we must admit the charge of circumlocidion, 
 not as applied to individual sonnets, but to the subject on which the 
 whole series is written. The obscurities of this species of poem 
 have almost uniformly arisen from density and compression of 
 style, nor are the compositions of Shakspeare more than usually 
 free from this style of defect; but when it is considered that 
 our author has written one hundred and twenty-six sonnets for the 
 sole purpose of expressing his attachment to his patron, it must 
 
 * Vol. II., pp. 58, 59. t P- 59. 
 
S4 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. v. 
 
 necessarily follow that a subject so reiterated would display no 
 small share of circumlocution. Great ingenuity has been exhibited 
 by the poet in varying his phraseology and ideas ; but no effort 
 could possibly obviate the monotony, as the result of such a task.* 
 
 But not to deal with Dr Drake in too cavalier a fashion, 
 let as see whether he may not after all have more reason 
 on his side than we might expect. If he can show strong 
 reasons for thinking that the Sonnets were addressed to 
 Lord Southampton, we may be even compelled to think 
 that Thorpe had used the word "begetter" in an unusual 
 sense. Mr Chalmers's theory was on the face of it so absurd 
 that it was not necessary to refute it, but as regards Dr Drake 
 let us at any rate see what the grounds are on the strength of 
 which he would have us set the ordinary meaning of " begetter " 
 on one side. 
 
 They are to be found on pp. 62—72 of Dr Drake's second 
 volume, and rest mainly on a certain, though by no means very 
 remarkable, analogy between sonnet 26 and the dedication of 
 Tarquin and Lucrece to Lord Southampton. 
 
 That dedication is as follows : — 
 
 The love I dedicate to your lordship is without end ; whereof 
 this pamphlet, without beginning, is but a superfluous moiety. The 
 warrant I have of your honourable disposition, not the worth of my 
 untutored lines, makes it assured of acceptance. What I have done 
 is yours, what I have to do is yours ; being part in all I have, 
 devoted yours. Were my worth greater, my duty would show 
 greater, mean time as it is, it is bound to your lordship to whom I 
 wish long Kfe, still lengthened with happiness. 
 
 Your lordship's in all duty, William Shakspeare. 
 
 It may assist the reader to compare the above dedication 
 with sonnet 26, if I repeat the sonnet in this place : — 
 
 Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage 
 Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit. 
 To thee I send this written ambassaga 
 To witness duty not to show my wit : 
 
 • " Shakspeare and hia Times," by Nathan Drake, M.D., Cadell and Daries. 
 1817. Yol. n., p. 76. 
 
DR DllAKE. 35 
 
 Duty so great, -which wit so poor as mine 
 
 May make seem bare, in wanting words to show it, 
 
 But that I hope some good conceit of thine 
 
 In thy soul's thought, all naked, will bestow it ; 
 
 Till whatsover star that guides my moving 
 
 Points on me graciously with fair aspect, 
 
 And puts apparel on my tattered wooing 
 
 To show me worthy of thy sweet respect ; 
 
 Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee ; 
 
 Till then not show my head where thou may'st prove me. 
 
 The imagined closeness of analogy between this sonnet and 
 the dedicatory preface to Tarquin and Lncrece was the sheet 
 anchor of those who upheld the Southampton theory until Mr 
 Sidney Lee in his recent " Life of Shakespeare " put forward 
 an argument which I suppose he must consider even stronger, 
 and with which I will deal presently. Granting, however, that 
 the analogy is greater than I am able to find it, it is a 
 bold measure to argue that because there is some analogy 
 between two documents of like purport, and written by the 
 same person, that they must also be written not only by, 
 but to, the same person. This, however, is what Dr Drake 
 insists on ; — 
 
 Shakspeare [he writes] opens his dedication to his Lordship 
 with the assurance that his love for him is without end. In corre- 
 spondence with this assertion the sonnet commences with this 
 remarkable expression, " Lord of my Love " ; while the residue 
 tells us, in exact conformity with the prose address, his high sense 
 of his Lordship's merit and his own unworthiness. (Vol. II., 
 pp. 63, 64.) 
 
 We cannot suppose that Dickens had read Dr Drake, 
 but have we not here Serjeant Bazfuz pure and simple, with 
 his " chops and tomato sauce " and his " very very remarkable 
 expression, ' Don't trouble yourself about the warming pan' " ? 
 Is it not plain that to Dr Drake everything is going so to 
 adhere together that no dram of a scruple, no scruple of a 
 scruple, no obstacle, no incredulous or unsafe circumstance — 
 what can be said ? Nothing that can be — can come between 
 him and the conclusion he means to draw. 
 
 d2 
 
36 shakbspeaee's sonnets. [chap. v. 
 
 Dr Drake continues : — 
 
 That no doubt may remain of the meaning and direction of this 
 peculiar phraseology, we shall bring forward a few lines from 
 the 110th* sonnet, which uniting the language of both the 
 passages just quoted [i.e., the preface to "Lucrece" and sonnet 26] 
 most incontrovertibly designates the sex, and, at the same time, we 
 think, the individual to whom they are addressed : — 
 
 My best of love, 
 Now all is done, save what shall have no end ; 
 Mine appetite I never more will grind 
 On newer proof to try an older friend, 
 A God in love, to whom I am confin'd. 
 
 Let alone the hardihood of making " My best of love " a 
 vocative beginning, instead of the accusative ending that it 
 really is, how can evidence that these lines were addressed to 
 Lord Southampton be extracted from the foregoing quotation 
 except by one who was predetermined to extract it ? I have 
 given all that Dr Drake has said uj)on this point. 
 
 Dr Drake then answers a supposed objector, who has asked 
 how the first seventeen sonnets, which are written for the sole 
 purpose of persuading their object to marry, can have been 
 addressed to Lord Southampton since that nobleman, in 1594, 
 when he was only twenty-one, was madly in love with Elizabeth 
 Vernon. Dr Drake replies that Queen Elizabeth opposed the 
 marriage, and succeeded in delaying it till 1599 ; during this 
 period Lord Southampton may perhaps have impatiently said 
 that if he could not marry Elizabeth Vernon he would die 
 single. This would alarm Shakespeare, who would im- 
 mediately set about writing the first seventeen sonnets. 
 
 After more rubbish of a like kind, Dr Drake quotes 
 sonnet 121 (101, Q) in full, with much use of Roman Capitals, 
 and declares that it " distinctly marks " " in the mo-st em- 
 phatic and explicit terms " " the sex, the dignity, the rank, 
 and the moral virtue " of his friend. 
 
 To whom [he asks] can this sonnet or indeed all the passages 
 which we have quoted apply, if not to Lord Southampton, the 
 
 * 120 of my numbering. 
 
DK DRAKE. 37 
 
 bosom friend, the munificent patron of Siiakspeare, the noble, the 
 elegant, the brave, the protector of literature and the theme of many 
 a song ? And let it be remembered, that if the hundreth [sic] and 
 first sonnet* be justly ascribed to Lord Southampton, or if any one 
 of the passages adduced be fairly applicable to him, the whole of 
 the 126 sonnets must necessarily apply to the same individual, for 
 the poet has more than once affirmed this to have been his plan and 
 object. 
 
 Why write I still all one, ever the same — 
 
 Son. 76 (Q) 
 
 ' all alike, my songs and praises ha 
 
 To one, of one, still such and ever so. 
 
 Son. 105 (Q) 
 
 If the reader on tnrning to Dr Drake can find any weightier 
 arguments for the view that Shakespeare's Sonnets were 
 mainly addressed to Lord Southampton, he will do more than 
 I can ; on the strength, then, of such flimsy stuff as he has 
 alone adduced, we are to set aside the apparently clear state- 
 ment of the preface that the Sonnets were engendered solely 
 by a Mr W. H. and adopt the interpretation invented when he 
 was in great straits by Mr Chalmers — an interpretation of 
 which it may be said that it was begotten by forgery out of 
 folly, to the breeding of issue wondrously like its parents. 
 
 It would not have been necesssary to dwell so long upon 
 Dr Drake, if his theory were not still vigorous — being now, 
 perhaps, more prominently before the public than any other 
 concerning the Sonnets, and having been adopted in the 
 "Dictionary of National Biography," as well as to a considerable 
 extent in Mr Sidney Lee's " Life of William Shakespeare." 
 
 Dr Drake, however, deserves credit for having seen that 
 Mr Chalmers was not out of the wood by merely tampering 
 with the meaning of the word " begetter." Thorpe's preface 
 appears to say not only that Mr W. H. was the sole cause of 
 the Sonnets having been written, but also that Shakespeare 
 had promised him an eternity of fame. 
 
 Now it is certain that Shakespeare promised the male 
 
 * No. 121 of this edition. 
 
38 Shakespeare's sonnets. [ceiap. t. 
 
 addressee of the Sonnets an eternity of fame. It might indeed 
 have been better if in sonnet 101 (81, Q) he had said "your 
 initials " (not " your name ") " from hence immortal life shall 
 have," but he may have thought he had indicated his friend's 
 name sufficiently clearly in sonnet 20. This, however, is a 
 detail, and j)ace Mr Lee I regard it as certain that all the first 
 126 sonnets and the greater number of the remaining 28 were 
 so far influenced by the addressee — whoever he was — ^that but 
 for him not one of them would ever have been written ; if, 
 then, Mr W. H. be taken as the addressee, or at any rate 
 engenderer, of all or nearly all the sonnets, Thorpe's seeming 
 statement is obviously true ; for Shakespeare repeatedly 
 promises his friend eternal fame. If, on the other hand, 
 Mr W. H. is only the obtainer or procurer of the copy for 
 Thorpe, and none of the sonnets were addressed to him — • 
 what becomes of "that eternity promised by our ever-living 
 poet " ? We know of no eternity promised to a Mr W. H. 
 by Shakespeare. If such eternity were promised, never has 
 promise of an ever-living poet failed more signally of fulfil- 
 ment, and never was poet so certain not to fail if he had made 
 such a promise. 
 
 But Dr Drake is not a man to be non-plussed easily. It 
 seems that we have again misunderstood Thorpe's preface. 
 Thorpe does not say "promised to him," i.e. "promised to 
 Mr W. H." All he says is, " promised." The eternity was 
 not promised to Mr W. H. but 
 
 to another, namely to one of the immediate subjects of his sonnets. 
 That this is the only rational meaning which can be annexed to 
 the word "promised," will appear when we reflect that for Thorpe 
 to have wished, W. H. the eternity that had been promised him by 
 an ever-living poet, would have been not only superfluous but 
 downright nonsense ; the eternity of an ever-living poet must 
 necessarily ensue, and was a proper subject of congratulation, but 
 not of wishing or of hope.* 
 
 I must leave those readers who feel convinced by the 
 foregoing to think as they will, but for my own part shall 
 
 * "Shakespeare and His Times," II., p. 59. 
 
DH DRAKE. 39 
 
 still interpret Thorpe as meaning that Shakespeare had 
 promised the eternity to Mr W. H. and in a very terse 
 dedication omitted the word " him." 
 
 At the risk of wearying the reader beyond endurance, 
 I will show how Dr Drake meets Tyrwhitt's very plausible 
 conjecture that Mr W. H.'s surname was Hughes, or Hews as 
 the name in Shakespeare's time was very commonly spelt. 
 Dr Drake writes : — 
 
 Mr Tyrwhitt, founding his conjecture on a line in the twentieth 
 sonnet, which is thus printed in the old copy, 
 
 "A man in hew all Hews in his controlling,"* 
 conceivea that the letters W. H. were intended to imply William 
 Hughes. If we recollect, however, our bard's uncontrollable passion 
 for playing upon words ; that A«w frequently meant in the language 
 of the time, mien and appearance, as well as tint, and that Daniel who 
 was probably his archetype in these pieces has spelt it in the same 
 way, and once, if not oftener with a capital, see his "Queen's Arcadia," 
 we shall not feel disposed to place much reliance on this supposition. 
 
 No one will dispute Shakespeare's love of playing on 
 words ; it is precisely because we admit this that we suspect 
 him of having played upon one in this instance. As for 
 Daniel, whose first sonnets were published in 1592, it will be 
 time enough to argue about him when we have settled whether 
 he did not form his sonnets on Shakespeare's, the last of 
 which I believe to have been written in 1588. But here for 
 once I agree with Mr Chalmers, who in his " Supplemental 
 Apology" declares that there is "between Daniel's sonnets and 
 Shakespeare's no other analogy, than the same construction 
 as Sonnets, and similar topics as amatory verses ."f 
 
 * I have already pointed out that thia is not how tha Une stands in Q. 
 t pp. 42, 43. 
 
( 40 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ME SIDNEY lee's " LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARM." 
 
 It is possible, however, especially when we consider what 
 vitality Dr Drake's theory has proved to have, that he may 
 not have done full justice to it : let ns turn, therefore, to its 
 latest exponent Mr Sidney Lee, with whom I regret to find 
 myself in disagreement. 
 
 Not only have I heard Mr Lee's recent " Life of William 
 Shakespeare" highly spoken of by men to whose opinion I 
 willingly defer, but like all who dabble in literature I am his 
 daily debtor for the great work over which he has presided so 
 ably for so many years. To whom do I owe the dates of the 
 births and deaths of so many Shakespearean editors that I 
 have given in this book, if not to the staff of writers in the 
 " Dictionary of National Biography " ? As bees, wasps, hornets, 
 and all winged insects swarm in mid autumn round some full- 
 flowering ivy-bush, and the air is resonant with the busy 
 buzziness of their flight, even so do readers in the British 
 Museum swarm towards that part of the shelves in which the 
 " Dictionary of National Biography " resides. 
 
 A year or two ago I was allowed to take some foreign 
 visitors into the gallery that over-looks the reading-room. 
 
 "And why," said one of them, looking towards case 
 No. 2036, "is there a knot of people always forming and 
 reforming at that particular point, though the shelves are 
 nearly empty ? And why do they all look so unhappy ? " 
 
 " That, Madam," I answered, " is where the ' Dictionary of 
 National Biography ' would be found, if the volume one wants 
 were not almost always in use, so universal is the demand for 
 it. The people, therefore, have to go away disappointed." 
 
 If, then, I use great plainness in dealing with Mr Lee's 
 theories concerning the Sonnets, I must beg both him and the 
 
MR SIDKEY LEK. 41 
 
 reader to understand that I mean no discourtesy, and shall 
 expect like plainness from himself, if he should think fit to 
 take any notice of my remarks. 
 
 My greatest difficulty in dealing with him lies in the deter- 
 mining what his opinions really are. This, indeed, should be 
 no hard matter, for he has had time enough to make up his 
 mind. In the Preface to his recent " Life of William Shake- 
 speare," he writes : — 
 
 After studying Elizabethan literature, history, and bibliography 
 for more than eighteen years, I believed that I might, without 
 exposing myself to a charge of presumption, attempt something in 
 the way of filling up this gap, and that I might be able to supply, 
 at least tentatively, a guide-book to Shakespeare's life and work that 
 should be, within its limits, complete and trustworthy, p. vi. 
 
 Xothing can be better. We are reminded of the opening 
 paragraph of " The Origin of Species," and feel at once that 
 we are in the hands of one who is both able and willing to 
 inform us ; we turn eagerly, therefore, not only to Mr Lee's 
 recent work, but to those earlier ones that have led up to it. 
 The first of these with which I am acquainted was the article 
 on William Herbert Earl of Pembroke, written for the 
 "Dictionary of National Biography" in 1891. Mr Lee, after 
 more than ten years study of Elizabethan literature, then 
 wrote : — 
 
 Shakespeare's young friend was doubtle_ss Pembroke himself, 
 and " the dark lady " in all probability was Mary Fitton. Nothing 
 in the sonnets directly contradicts the identification of W. H. their 
 hero and " onlie begetter" with Wilham Herbert, and many minute 
 internal details directly confirm it. (cf T. Tyler, Shakespeare's 
 Sonnets, 1890, passim, and esp. pp. 44 — 73). 
 
 This is very confident, and proceeding to Mr Lee's article 
 on Shakespeare written for the " Dictionary of National Bio- 
 graphy " in 1897, I was surprised to read : — 
 
 Some phrases in the dedication to " Lucreoe " so clearly resemble 
 expressions that were used in the sonnets to the young friend as to 
 identify the latter with Southampton. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Other theories of identification rest on wholly erroneous premises. 
 
42 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. Vi. 
 
 Iq a note, again, on p. 406 of Mr. Lee's " Life of W. 
 Shakespeare," published in 1898, we read:— 
 
 The Pembroke theory, whose adherents have dwindled of late, 
 will henceforth be relegated, I trust, to the category of popular 
 delusions. 
 
 On p. ix. of the preface to the last named work he telle us 
 that he has given in an appendix a review of the facts that 
 seem to him, — 
 
 To confute the popular theory that Shakespeare was a friend and 
 proUge of William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, who has been 
 put forward quite unwarrantably as the hero of the sonnets. 
 
 This again is very confident. Granted that in six or seven 
 years a man may modify or even reverse his opinion, but a 
 reader-respecting writer will give prominence to the fact of his 
 own recantation. A certain amount of penance is requisite 
 before the absolution can be given which on moderate penance 
 will very readily be granted. Mr Lee did nothing to warn us, 
 or to explain so complete a change of front, and as a natural 
 consequence he changed his front again in 1898, with the same 
 lightness of heart and absence of apology or explanation. In 
 1897, after expressing some doubt as to whether we have the 
 Sonnets in exactly the same order as that in which they were 
 written, he wrote : — 
 
 But when all allowance is made for internal difficulties, the story 
 the poems tell is, in its general outlines unmistakable. Sonnet 144 
 (published by Jaggard in 1599) supplies the key. 
 
 Two loves I had of comfort and despair, 
 
 Which like two spirits do suggest [i.e. tempt] me still ; 
 
 The better angel is a man right fair, 
 
 The worser spirit a woman coloured ill. 
 
 This is very confident, but there is a good deal of difference 
 between "had" and "have" and neither The Passionate 
 Pilgrim nor Q support Mr Lee's reading. They both read 
 " Two loves I have of comfort and despair," not " Two loves 
 I had, &c." — but let this pass. Mr Lee continues : — 
 
 A young man and a young woman, both of whom are proved by 
 a variety of touches to be of superior rank to his own, crossed the 
 
ME SIDNEY LEE. 43 
 
 poet's path. To the former he became devotedly attached ; the 
 latter excited in him an overmastering passion. . . . The sonnets 
 divide themselves into two groups corresponding with this two-fold 
 influence. In the first group (I — 126) Shakespeare addresses the 
 young man, and traces the fluctuations of an affection which was 
 three years old (104, Q). 
 
 ***** 
 The second group (126 — 152) narrates the course of the poet's 
 maddening passion for a disdainful and accomplished siren. 
 
 Here it is plain Mr Lee holds that the first 126 sonnets of 
 Q were all of them addressed to the same person, who, he tells 
 ns later, may be identified as Southampton. In the " Life of 
 W. Shakespeare " written in the following year, we read : 
 
 It is usual to divide the sonnets into two groups and to repre- 
 sent that all those numbered i. — cxxvi. by Thorpe, were addressed 
 to a young man, and all those numbered cxxvii. — oliv. were 
 addressed to a woman. This division cannot be literally justified. 
 In the first group some eighty of the sonnets can be proved to be 
 addressed to a man by the use of the masculine pronoun, or some 
 other unequivocal sign ; but among the remaining forty there is no 
 
 clear indication of the kind And there is no valid objection 
 
 to the assumption that the poet inscribed the rest of these forty 
 sonnets to a woman (of. xxi., xlvi., xlvii.). Similarly the sonnets 
 in the second group (cxxvii. — cliv.) have no uniform written super- 
 scription.* 
 
 Confidence is the one point in which Mr Lee appears to be 
 consistent. Here we have nearly a third part of those sonnets 
 that had been declared to have been addressed to Lord 
 Southampton taken away from him in one breath. Many, 
 indeed, are still left him, for Mr Lee says :— 
 
 I am at one with Mr Massey in identifying the young man to 
 whom many of the sonnets are addressed with the Earl of 
 Southampton. (Note on p. 91). 
 
 When, however, we try to discover even approximately how 
 many, and which, these sonnets may be, we are baffled ; but 
 
 ♦ " Life of W. Shakespeare," p. 97. 
 
44 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. vi. 
 
 as far as we can collect anything at all there cannot be very- 
 many, for in Mr Lee's preface we read : — 
 
 My conclusion is adverse to the claim of the sonnets to rank as 
 autobiographical documents (p. vii.), 
 
 And on the following page he says that in his study of the 
 European sonnet-literature of Shakespeare's time, he has 
 
 gone far enough, I think, to justify the conviction that Shakespeare's 
 collection of sonnets has no reEtsonable title to be regarded as a 
 personal or autobiographical narrative. 
 
 So again on p. 109 we learn that "the autobiographic 
 element in his sonnets, although it may not be dismissed 
 altogether, is seen to shrink to very slender proportions." 
 
 I will say no more about confidence. If by "auto- 
 biographical" Mr Lee means the intentional and deliberate 
 record of one's own history for the delectation of other people, 
 which we commonly associate with the word "autobiography," 
 all readers will agree with him in holding that Shakespeare's 
 Sonnets are not autobiographical. No one supposes that 
 Shakespeare had any idea of writing his own life. If, on the 
 other hand, Mr Lee means that the Sonnets were not dictated 
 by actual facts and feelings — that they did not grow out of 
 actual occurrences — I prefer the view which he took after 
 only more than seventeen years' study of Elizabethan litera- 
 ture, to the radically different one which a single additional 
 year has, as I will almost immediately show, revealed to him. 
 
 The Sonnets are a series of unguarded letters in verse, 
 written as the spirit moved a young poet who had just 
 discovered his own gift, and was glorying in the pride of flight 
 without much either forecast or retrospection. Such letters 
 inevitably record varying phases of the writer's mind, and 
 must occasionally afford a clue to incidents in his life ; to this 
 extent, therefore, they are autobiographical, as an invitation 
 to dinner is in some sense autobiographical, as recording the 
 fact that the writer had got a dinner, but this is not the sense 
 in which the word is commonly used. In 1897 Mr Lee 
 recognised this quite correctly, and without contending that 
 
MR SIDNEY LKE. 45 
 
 the Sonnets were strictly autobiograpliical, he admitted that 
 they bear to Shakespeare's biography 
 
 a relation wholly different from that borne by the rest of his 
 literary work. Attempts have been made to represent them as 
 purely literary exercises, mainly on the ground that a personal 
 interpretation seriously reflects on Shakespeare's moral character 
 (cf. Halli well- Phillips). But only the two concluding sonnets 
 cliii., cliv.) can be regarded by the unbiassed reader as the artificial 
 product of a poet's fancy. ... In the rest of the "Sonnets" 
 Shakespeare avows, although in language that is often cryptic, 
 the experiences of his own heart (cf. 0. Armitage Brown, "Shake- 
 speare's autobiographical poems," 1838). Their uncontrolled 
 ardour suggests that they came from a youthful pen — from a man 
 not more than thirty. 
 
 See how all this changed in 1898 ; on page 100 of his " Life 
 of Shakespeare," Mr Lee writes : — 
 
 In whatever order Shakespeare's sonnets be studied, the claim 
 advanced on their behalf, to rank as autobiographical documents 
 can only be accepted with many qualifications. Elizabethan sonnets 
 were commonly the artificial products of the poet's fancy, (p. 100.) 
 
 From which the only reasonable inference is that Mr Lee 
 so regards Shakespeare's Sonnets — with a few exceptions. 
 Again : — 
 
 .... a vast number of Shakespeare's performances prove to be 
 little more than professional trials of skill, often of superlative 
 merit, to which he deemed himself challenged by the efforts of 
 contemporary practitioners (p. 109), 
 
 i.e. "a vast number" of Shakespeare's not very vast nnmber 
 of 154 sonnets are merely academic, and have no heart in 
 them. Again : — 
 
 It is likely enough that beneath all the conventional adulation 
 bestowed on Southampton there lay a genuine affection, but his 
 sonnets to the Earl were no involuntary ebullitions of a devoted 
 and disinterested friendship ; they were celebrations of a patron's 
 favour in the terminology — often raised by Shakespeare's genius to 
 the loftiest heights of poetry — that was invariably consecrated to 
 such a purpose by a current literary convention. Very few of 
 
46 shaekspkabb's soisNEts. [chap. vt. 
 
 Shakespeare's "sugared sonnets" have a substantial right to be 
 regarded as untutored cries of the soul. p. 151. 
 
 Earlier in the same page Mr Lee says : — 
 
 The imitative element in his sonnets is large enough to refute 
 the assertion that in them as a whole, he sought to "unlock his 
 heart." 
 
 There is, however, according to Mr Lee, " one group, com- 
 posed of six sonnets scattered throughout the collection," 
 which really do reflect " a love adventure of no normal type." 
 This scattered group he declares to consist of 52 (144, Q), 
 57, 58, 69 (40, 41, 42, Q), and 60, 61 (133, 134, Q). These six 
 are allowed to remain in 1898, as telling the story which in 
 1897 was declared to have been nnmistakeably told by the 
 whole series. The story (according to Mr Lee) is this : — that 
 a young nobleman to whom Shakespeare is under great 
 obligations has been seduced by, or has seduced, Shakespeare's 
 mistress. Mr Lee does not take a high view of Shakespeare's 
 attitude in this transaction, he writes : — 
 
 The sonnetteer's complacent condonation of the young man's 
 offence chiefly suggests the deference that was essential to the 
 maintenance by a dependent of peaceful relations with a self-willed 
 and self-indulgent patron. Southampton's sportive and lascivious 
 temperament might easily impel him to divert to himself the 
 attention of an attractive woman by whom he saw that his poet 
 was fascinated, and he was unlikely to tolerate any outspoken 
 protest on the part of his protege, (pp. 154, 155). 
 
 And again : — 
 
 The sole biographical inference deducible from the sonnets is, 
 that at one time in his career Shakespeare disdained no weapon of 
 flattery in an endeavour to monopolise the bountiful patronage of a 
 young man of rank (p. 159). 
 
 This amounts to saying that at the no longer immature age 
 of thirty, by which time, indeed, a man's character is well set, 
 Shakespeare would eat any amount of dirt with apparent 
 gusto, if mercenary considerations counselled his doing so. 
 
 I am confident, however, that Mr Lee does not mean what 
 
ME SIDNEY LEE. 4/ 
 
 he Las written ; he has been writing in baste ; be has been 
 fatigued with having too many irons in the fire ; be has been 
 ill ; for the moment he has lost connt of his words, and of the 
 horrible revulsion of feeling which they must produce in all 
 those to whom the essential nobleness of Shakespeare's 
 character is a well-grounded article of faith. 
 
 There is no remorse in the tone with which Mr Lee has 
 written; no appearance as though he had been driven into 
 accepting a theory which has been inexpressibly painful to 
 him. He has adopted a conjecture which, as I have already 
 shown, rests on no foundation but the flimsy stuff which 
 was all that Dr Drake could find in its support. In my next 
 chapter I will show that he adduces no additional arguments 
 which deserve a moment's consideration ; nevertheless, like Dr 
 Drake and Mr Chalmers, he settles everything otf-hand in his 
 own favour, and then bases upon ground so laid one of the 
 most sordid accusations which it is possible to conceive — and 
 that, too, against the man whose fair fame is no less dear 
 to all right-minded people than is the splendour of that legacy 
 which he has bequeathed us. 
 
 Again I repeat my conviction that Mr Lee does not realise 
 the import of his own words. 
 
 Roughly, then, to bring this to me most painful chapter 
 to a conclusion, there are three principal views concerning 
 the Sonnets now before the public — The Southampton, the 
 Pembroke, and the Impersonal. Mr Lee began with the 
 Pembroke ; he went on to the Southampton, and it is plain 
 that in spite of all be now urges in support of Lord South- 
 ampton's claim to be in some way connected with the Sonnets, 
 he has veered round to the Impersonal view, though terribly 
 hampered by his article in the " Dictionary of National 
 Biography." By the time that work reaches Wriothesley 
 I venture to predict that he will have thrown over both 
 Lord Southampton and the Impersonal theory as completely 
 as he has thrown over Lord Pembroke. For his own sake 
 I heartily hope that my prediction may be verified. 
 
( 48 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MR SIDNEY lee's " LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE " CONTINUED. 
 
 In the preceding chapter I have shown that no matter 
 how long Mr Lee may have been learning, he has not come 
 to any permanent knowledge either of trnth or error. His 
 acquaintance with the thousands of sonnets that teemed from 
 the French, Spanish, and Italian presses— not to mention the 
 English — is no doubt both accurate and profound, but I 
 venture to think that if his judgement had not been impaired 
 by long companionship with so much that was insincere, he 
 would have recognised sincerity better when he fell in with it. 
 I am told that when a new assistant comes to the British 
 Museum coin-room with his art yet to learn, he is not allowed 
 to see any of the spurious coins in the collection for several 
 years, lest they should vitiate his eye. So with the critical 
 faculty in literature, nothing wrecks it so hopelessly as the 
 tolerating anything that is written for display. It is impossible 
 that any man should read Shakespeare in singleness of heart 
 when he has been living for so many years in an atmosphere 
 so reeking with affectation as that of the sixteenth century 
 sonnetteers. 
 
 That Mr Lee has read the Sonnets amiss will hardly be 
 contested. See, for example, how he declares sonnet 143 
 (119, Q) to be addressed to "benefit of ill";* is, then, sonnet 
 115 (95, Q) addressed to "what a mansion," or 129 (109, Q) to 
 " never say " ? A couple of pages further on he says that 
 in sonnets 131, 132 (111, 112, Q) Shakespeare speaks of 
 himself as "weary of the profession of acting," that in 91—94 
 (71—74, Q) he "foretells his approaching death," that sonnets 
 23, 37, 120, 121, 123, 124 (23, 37, 100, 101, 103, 104, Q) abound 
 
 * "Life of William Shakespeare," p. 97. 
 
MR SIDNEY LEE (CONTINUED). 49 
 
 With " obsequious addresses to the youth iu his capacity of sole 
 patron of the poet's verse." 
 
 See, again, how he says on p. 139 that Shakespeare 
 " assured his friend that he could never grow old." Shakes- 
 peare's words are : — 
 
 To me, fair friend, you never can be old.* 
 
 Is it conceivable that Mr Lee should seriously believe this 
 to be telling a man that be can never grow old ? 
 
 Impatient, however, as we may well be of such obvious 
 misrepresentation, we must still see whether Mr Lee may 
 not have succeeded in strengthening Dr Drake's position, 
 notwithstanding his very evident desire to retreat from it. 
 What, then, are the grounds on which he asks us to believe 
 that many, at any rate, of the Sonnets are addressed to Lord 
 Southampton ? 
 
 These will be found on pp. 125—150 of Mr Lee's book. He 
 tells us that twenty sonnets are addressed to one who is 
 declared "without periphrasis and without disguise to be a 
 patron of the poet's verse."t These sonnets are 23, 26, 32, 37, 
 38, 89 (69, Q), 97-106 (77-86, Q), 120, 121, 123, 124 (100, 101, 
 103, 104, Q). I have not been able to discover a single 
 passage, neither in the sonnets to which Mr Lee has referred 
 nor in any of the others, which even suggests that, at the time 
 when he was writing the Sonnets, Shakespeare had any patron 
 at all, while in more than one sonnet he intimates that he 
 is poor, friendless, and in disgrace alike with Fortune and 
 men's eyes. Mr Lee, however, quotes one passage from the 
 above-named sonnets in support of his assertion, and it may 
 be assumed that he has selected the strongest in his own 
 favour. Here are the lines ; they are from sonnet 98 
 (78, Q): 
 
 So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse 
 And found such fair assistance in my verse, 
 As every alien pen hath got my use 
 And under thee their poesy disperse. 
 
 * Son. 124 (104, Q). t P. 125. 
 
50 Shakespeare's sonkets. [chap. vii. 
 
 This is " without periphrasis and without disguise " declaring 
 that the addressee had often been the theme of Shakespeare's 
 verse, and that this theme was so congenial to him as to make 
 him write upon it both well and easily ; but if Shakespeare 
 meant to say that the addressee was his patron, in the sense 
 which the word then generally conveyed, the " periphrasis and 
 disguise " have been impenetrably complete. 
 
 True, there is the word " assistance." Beggars often say, 
 " Would you be kind enough to assist me with a trifle ? " 
 "Assist" is to the necessitous person a euphemism akin to 
 " remove " in the mouth of a dentist, or " punish " in that of a 
 schoolmaster — it means that the man wants money. Shake- 
 speare says that his verse has received " assistance " from the 
 addressee. What can be plainer ? Words are written for the 
 use of the reader as well as of the writer ; is the writer to have 
 everything his own way ? If the writer may write to his liking, 
 may not the reader read to his liking also? Shakespeare's 
 verse, then, has received a " fair " round sum of money from 
 the addressee ; therefore the addressee was a patron of Shake- 
 speare's verse ; Shakespeare dedicated Venus and Adonis 
 without permission, and Lucrece with permission, to Lord 
 Southampton ; we do not know of his having dedicated 
 anything to any other patron ; Lord Southampton, therefore, 
 must have been the patron referred to in the lines last quoted. 
 Let me give Mr Lee's own words ; he writes : — 
 
 The problem presented by the patron is simple. Shakespeare 
 states unequivocally that he has no patron but one. 
 
 Sing [sc. Muse !] to the ear that doth thy lays esteem, 
 And gives thy pen both skill and argument. 
 
 120(100, Q). 
 For to no other pass my verses tend 
 Than of thy graces and thy gifts to tell. 
 
 123 (103, Q). 
 
 The Earl of Southampton, the patron of his narrative poems, is 
 the only patron of Shakespeare that is known to biographical 
 research. No contemporary document or tradition gives the faintest 
 suggestion that Shakespeare was the friend or dependent of any 
 other man of rank. (p. 126.) 
 
MR SIDNEY LEE (CONTINUED). 5] 
 
 Very likely not, bnt on reading the Sonnets from which Mr 
 Lee has quoted I cannot find the faintest suggestion that 
 Shakespeare was in any way the "dependent" of the person 
 whom he was addressing, if the word " dependent " is taken in 
 its usual sense. He declares himself to be his friend's vassal, 
 but what man who is as devotedly attached to another as 
 Shakespeare evidently was to the worthless fellow whom he 
 was addressing, does not hold himself the vassal of that friend, 
 without for a moment considering himself as his dependent? 
 Indeed I have known cases in which a friend has for years held 
 himself the vassal of another whom he believed to be 
 absolutely dependent upon him. 
 
 But to return to Mr Lee. That the youth vdiom Shake- 
 speare was addressing was Shakespeare's theme, goes without 
 saying ; that he was his patron does not appear from any 
 passage referred to or quoted by Mr Lee. Mr Lee then repeats 
 in substance Dr Drake's contention that sonnet 2G is but a 
 poetical rendering of the dedication of Lucrece to Lord 
 Southampton. In Chapter V 1 have said what I think of 
 this contention, and I shall endeavour presently to show that 
 the sonnet was writtten when Lord Southampton was only 
 twelve years old, and cannot conceivably be the person to 
 whom it was addressed. 
 
 Every compliment, says Mr Lee, 
 
 paid by Shakespeare to the youth, whether it bo vaguely or 
 definitely phrased, applies to Southampton without the least 
 straining of the words. In real life, beauty, birth, wealth, and 
 wit, sat "crowned"' in the Earl whom poets acclaimed the 
 handsomest of Elizabethan courtiers, as plainly as in the poet's 
 verse (pp. 141, 142). 
 
 'SVe are not only never told that his friend was richer or 
 better born than Shakespeare himself, but the general tone of 
 the Sonnets negatives any sach supposition. True we read in 
 sonnet 37, 
 
 Eor whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit, 
 Or any of these all, or all, or more 
 Intitled in thy parts do crowned sit, 
 
 e2 
 
52 bhakespeake's sonnets. [chap. vn. 
 
 Bat there is as much virtue in a " whether " as in an " if." 
 Shakespeare does not say "you have beauty, birth, wealth, 
 and wit." He says, " if you have any single one of these four, 
 or if you even have them all, and others that I have not 
 named — whatever you may have, I shall graft my love there- 
 on." Granted that Shakespeare would not name beauty if 
 his friend was remarkably plain ; birth, if he was notoriously 
 base-born ; wealth, if he was necessitous ; or wit, if he was 
 next door to a fool ; but if he was good-looking, of the 
 same social status as Shakespeare himself, not living from 
 hand to month, and not a fool (which by the way I 
 think he probably was) Shakespeare would be well within 
 his rights in writing the lines last quoted, nor can I find 
 clearer proof that nothing in the Sonnets suggests that their 
 addressee was in a higher social position than Shakespeare's, 
 than the fact that these lines are the strongest which those 
 who would have him to have been a great nobleman are able 
 to bring forward. Mr Lee continues : — 
 
 The opening sequence of seventeen sonnets, in which a youth of 
 rank and wealth is admonished to marry and beget a son so that 
 his " fair house " may not fall into decay, can only have been 
 addressed to a young peer like Southampton, who was as yet 
 unmarried, had vast possessions, and was the sole male repre- 
 sentative of his family. 
 
 It is indeed true that the word " house " is often used as 
 meaning not the house itself, but the generations of those who 
 have lived in it, i.e. a lineage. It is also used metaphorically 
 for the body, which is held to be the tenement within which the 
 spirit, or more essential part of a man, resides ; so Christians 
 are held to be temples of the Holy Ghost. It is the context 
 that can alone decide us as to the meaning a writer may have 
 chosen to put upon it in any given place. 
 
 In Sonnet 10, Shakespeare wrote: — 
 
 For thou art so possessed with murderous hate 
 That 'gainst thyself thou stick'st not to conspire, 
 Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate 
 Which to repair should be thy chief desire. 
 
MR SIDNEY LEE (CONTINUED). 53 
 
 The "beauteous roof" liere is not his friend's family, nor 
 yet his family mansion. Shakespeare does not mean to say 
 that the roof of his friend's house is very much out of repair, 
 and that uuless he has new slates put on to it at once it will 
 become a ruin. The "beauteous roof" is the flesh and blood 
 roof of that particular tenement within which his friend's mind 
 was housed. With this metaphor still fresh in his remem- 
 brance, he wrote in sonnet 13 : — 
 
 Who lets so fair a house fall to decay 
 
 Whicli husbandry ia honour might uphold, 
 
 Against the stormy gusts of winter's day 
 
 And barren rage of death's eternal cold 
 
 O, none but unthrifts ; dear my love you know 
 You had a father ; let your son say so. 
 
 Mr Lee says : — 
 
 The sonnetteer's exclamation, ' ' 3'ou had a father, let your son 
 say so," had pertinence to Southampton at any period between his 
 father's death in his boyhood, and the close of his bachelorhood in 
 1598. To no other peer of the day are they exactly applicable. 
 
 Southampton's father died when Southampton was only 
 eight years old, it is not easy, therefore, to see what pertinence 
 they could have to Southampton for another eight years or so, 
 but let that pass ; when, however, Mr Lee says that Shake- 
 speare's words are exactly applicable to no other peer than to 
 Lord Southampton, he presumes too far on the indolence of 
 his readers. The words are applicable to any male, peer, or 
 not peer, in whom Shakespeare may have taken sufficient 
 interest to wish that he might have children. The only thing- 
 required to make them applicable is that the young man, 
 whoever he was, should have been born in the ordinary course 
 of generation. 
 
 It is surprising enough that Mr Lee should have ventured 
 on the passage last quoted, but the following is more surprising 
 still. We are now coming to Mr Lee's strongest point, the only 
 one of any even seeming importance that he has added to those 
 of Dr Drake. He writes : — 
 
 But the most striking evidence of the identity of the youth of 
 
54 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. vii. 
 
 the sonnets of " friendsliip " with Southampton is found in the like- 
 ness of feature and complexion which characterises the poet's 
 description of the youth's outward appearance and the extant 
 pictures of Southampton as a young man (pp. 143, 144). 
 
 The eyes are blue, the cheeks pink, the complexion clear, and 
 the expression sedate ; rings are in the ears ; beard and moustache 
 are at an incipient stage, and are of the same bright auburn hue as 
 the hair in a picture of Southampton's mother that is also at 
 Welbeck. But, however, scanty is the down on the youth's cheek, 
 the hair on his head is luxuriant. It is worn very long, and falls 
 over and below the shoulder. The colour is now of walnut, but 
 was originally of lighter tint (pp. 145, 146). 
 
 ***** 
 
 Many times does he tells us that the youth is fair in complexion, 
 and that his eyes are fair. In Sonnet Ixviii., when he points to the 
 youth's face as a map of what beauty was " without all ornament itself 
 and true " — before fashion sanctioned the use of artificial " golden 
 tresses," there can be little doubt that he had in mind the wealth 
 of locks that fell about Southampton's neck (p. 146). 
 
 Looking at the illustration with which Mr Lee has furnished 
 us, I can see no indication of any natural springing of the hair 
 from the head. I should be as ready to believe that the hair 
 was a wig as that it was natural. I do not suppose there lives 
 the man who can say with even tolerable confidence whether 
 the hair is true or false, and it is just as competent to me to 
 maintain (though heaven forbid that I should do so) that it is 
 but an example of that custom against which Shakespeare had 
 inveighed some eight years earlier in sonnet 88 (68, Q) as it 
 is to Mr Lee to say that "there can be little doubt" about 
 Shakespeare's having alluded to the hair displayed in the 
 portrait given of Lord Southampton. All one can say for 
 certain is that whereas the moustache indicates the spring of 
 hair from flesh in a way which forbids our supposing the 
 moustache false, the hair on the scalp gives no such indication. 
 
 "The eyes," says Mr Lee, "are blue." Very likely; but 
 there is nothing in the Sonnets to show that the youth's eyes 
 were also blue — therefore, of course, the addressee must be 
 Lord Southampton. Mr Lee, indeed, says that Shakespeare 
 
MR SIDNEY LEK (cONTIXDEd). 55 
 
 tells us many times ..." that the youth is fair in complexion 
 and that his eyes are fair " p. 146. 
 
 Let us see how Shakespeare uses the word "fair " in the first 
 twenty-five sonnets — not to fatigue the reader by going through 
 the whole number. 
 
 Son. 1. From fairest creatures, &c. 
 
 "Fair" here means "beautiful," not "of light complexion," 
 to the exclusion of dark complexion. 
 
 Son. 2. This fair child of mine. 
 
 Here again "fair" means "beautiful" not "light." 
 
 Son. 3. For who is she so fair. 
 
 Son. 5. And that unfair, which fairly, &c. 
 
 Son. 6. Thou art much too fair to be death's conquest. 
 
 Shakespeare does not mean "thou art much too light 
 complexioned," &c. 
 
 Son. 10. Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love " ? 
 Son. 13. "Who lets so fair a house fall to decay ? 
 
 Son. 18. And every fair from fair sometimes declines, 
 
 * * « 
 
 Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest. 
 
 This I presume is one of the many passages in which 
 Shakespeare, according to Mr Lee, declares the youth to have 
 been fair in complexion. 
 
 Son. 19. carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow. 
 
 Again no doubt Mr Lee supposes Shakespeare to mean that 
 the youth's forehead was light in complexion. 
 
 Son. 21. Who every fair with his fair doth rehearse, 
 
 • * * 
 
 Oh then believe me my love is aa fair. 
 
 There are no other examples of the word "fair " in the first 
 twenty-five sonnets, nor have I been able to detect the word 
 as used otherwise in any of the remaining sonnets.* The 
 
 * It occurs (to use the numbers of my own edition only) in sonnets 40, 43, 45, 52, 
 53, 59, 62, 66, 74, 89, 90, 98, 102, 103, 107, 112, 115, 124, 125, 126, 110, 141, 144. 
 
56 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. vii. 
 
 passage from which Mr Lee gathers that the youth's eyes 
 must have been blue — for this is what his contention cornea 
 to — is from sonnet 103 (83, Q) :— 
 
 There lives more life in one of your fair eyes 
 Than both your poets can in praise devise, 
 
 I can find no passage in the Sonnets that enables us to 
 determine a single feature in the youth's personal appearance, 
 neither will any one else, and yet Mr Lee declares his identifi- 
 cation by means of the extant portraits of Southampton as 
 a young man to be "the most striking evidence" that the 
 youth and Southampton were one and the same person. One 
 would think that identification of the Box and Cox order could 
 go no further, were it not for the passage above quoted about 
 the colour of Lord Southampton's hair and that of his mother. 
 Mr Lee there said that the colour of Southampton's hair, 
 as shown in the portrait which he has reproduced, is of 
 "the same bright auburn hue as the hair in a picture of 
 Southampton's mother which is also at Welbeok." Ee here 
 refers to sonnet 3, in which Shakespeare says that the youth is 
 his mother's glass, and she, in him, calls back the lovely April 
 of her prime ; from this we may feel quite certain that mother 
 and son must have had hair of the same shade of colour — ^ 
 which seems according to Mr Lee to be in both cases bright 
 auburn, though in one of them it is not bright auburn, for Mr 
 Lee goes on to say that the colour of the hair in Southampton's 
 portrait is walnut, but that it is darker now than when the 
 picture was painted. One would like to know how Mr Lee 
 has ascertained this. Judging from the illustration given 
 by Mr Lee (the negative for which we may be sure was taken 
 with a lens that had been duly isochromatized) when he says 
 that the hair is " walnut " in colour, he must mean " pickled 
 walnut " — fot a pickled walnut really is as black as the hair 
 in the illustration ; but how pickled walnut can be called 
 " bright auburn " is one of those puzzles the frequent recur- 
 rence of which detracts so seriously from the value of Mr Lee's 
 in many respects most interesting and useful work. 
 
 Here I take my leave of Mr Lee's arguments in support of 
 
MR GKRA.LD MASSET. 57 
 
 tlie view that many of the Sonnets are addressed to Lord 
 Southampton. He has left the nothingness of Dv Drake as 
 nothing as he found it. 
 
 So also has Mr Gerald Massey in his " The Secret Drama 
 of Shakespeare's Sonnets unfolded" pnblished in 1872. He 
 refers to Mr Chalmers's attempt to show that the Sonnets 
 were addressed to Queen Elizabeth and says, 
 
 It may be mentioned by way of explanation that this pre- 
 posterous suggestion was hazarded in support of a desperate case — 
 the Ireland forgeries (p. 8). 
 
 Headers of my Chapter IV will see how incorrect this 
 statement is. Mr Chalmers admitted in both his books that 
 young Ireland's documents were forged. Mr Massey makes no 
 attempt to justify the attaching an unusual meaning to the 
 word " begetter." AH he says on this head is 
 
 Drake contended that as a number of the Sonnets were most 
 certainly addressed to a female, it must be evident that " W. H." 
 could not be the only "begetter" of them in the sense which is 
 primarily suggested. He therefore agrees with Chalmers and 
 Boswell that Mr W. H. was the oMainer of the Sonnets for Thorpe, 
 and he remarks that the dedication was read in that light by some 
 of the earlier editors. 
 
 I have dealt with this last contention earlier, and must decline 
 to follow Mr Massey or any other of the Southamptonites 
 further, being convinced that in dealing with the earliest 
 and latest of them I have shown the reader the strongest 
 points of their argument. Mr Lee may be quite trusted not to 
 have ignored any tolerably effective argument that had been 
 urged by any of his predecessors. 
 
( 58 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE IMPERSONAL, AND THE WILLIAM HERBERT THEORIES — ON 
 THE SOCIAL STATUS OF MR W. H. 
 
 The reader will observe that the greater part of the three 
 preceding chapters has been occupied in showing that no such 
 case has been made out in support of the opinion that Lord 
 Southampton was the friend addressed in the Sonnets as will 
 justify the attempt to take the words " only begetter " in an 
 irnusual sense. 
 
 There is, however, another theory concerning the Sonnets 
 which is also based on the supposition that " only begetter " 
 means " only procurer," or " obtainer " ; it is to the effect that 
 the Sonnets are merely creations of Shakespeare's fancy, 
 having no reference to actual persons or occurrences. This 
 theory made its first appearance in 1821, in Boswell's edition 
 of Malone's Shakespeare, published nine years after Malone's 
 death ; it has since been adopted unreservedly by Staunton, 
 reservedly by Dyce, and in great measure, as we have seen, 
 by Mr Sidney Lee— not to mention others whose names will 
 carry less weight. It is rejected, however, by all the 
 Herbertites, by all thorough-going Southamptonites, by all 
 those who put the only reasonable interpretation on the 
 words of Thorpe's preface, and, I think I may add, by far 
 the greater number of those most competent to form an 
 opinion on the subject. 
 
 If such a case had been made out for it as should compel 
 us to set Thorpe's preface aside, we might have had to submit, 
 as we might have had to do if an overwhelming case had been 
 made out in favour of Lord Southampton ; but there has been 
 no attempt at making out a case, and if ground for doing so 
 had existed it would have been as easy to state it as regards 
 
IJirERSONALITES AND HERBEBTITES. 59 
 
 the other sonnets as it wonld be, if it were worth while, in 
 regard to five of those that I have excluded from my series. 
 These are obviously impersonal, but no one has attempted to 
 show that any of the others suggest their not having been 
 written to, or for, a real person. The opinion, when advanced, 
 has always been put forward ex cathedra, as by Boswell, whose 
 gross disingenuousness we have seen, by Staunton, Mr Lee (in 
 so far as he adopts it), and Dyce, which last writer, however, 
 only goes so far as to say that he is " well-nigh convinced " of 
 its truth, and we know what " well-nigh " means. 
 
 I credit the upholders of this theory with adopting it mainly 
 because they hope by doing so to free Shakespeare from an 
 odious imputation ; they fail, however, to see what will appear 
 more plainly later on, I mean, that the imputation under 
 which they would thus leave him is far worse than any for 
 which there is a shadow of evidence. To me it is as unthinkable, 
 and as repulsive, as I believe the reader will also find it when 
 he sets himself to consider what it involves ; I therefore dismiss 
 it with no greater display of argument than that adduced by 
 its upholders. 
 
 Neither do I propose to spend much time in arguing 
 against the view that the Mr W. H. of Thorpe's preface 
 was William Herbert Earl of Pembroke. This opinion, first 
 put forward in private conversation and letters by Mr 
 Heywood Bright about the year 1819, and advanced publicly 
 some years later by Mr Boaden, was warmly espoused by 
 Hallam, and by several other writers who command respect, 
 but it was refuted, one wonld have thought sufficiently, by 
 Dyce, in the " Life of Shakespeare " which precedes his 
 edition of Shakespeare's works published in 1864,* and more 
 recently by Mr Sidney Lee in the Fortnightly Review for 
 February 1898. Both Dyce and Mr Lee point out how im- 
 possible it is to suppose that Thorpe would have ventured 
 to address the Earl of Pembroke as " Mr." Their arguments 
 appear as conclusive against Lord Pembroke's claim to be 
 in any way connected with the Sonnets, as those of Mr Archer 
 
 » pp 97, 98, 
 
60 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. viii. 
 
 in the preceding number but one of the Fortnightly had done 
 against the claims of Lord Southampton; but I will not repeat 
 them here, for I propose to show that there is nothing in the 
 Sonnets which indicates that the friend to whom they were 
 mainly addressed was titled, or even rich, and in a later 
 chapter shall endeavour to establish, that when the last of the 
 Sonnets was written Lord Pembroke was under nine years old, 
 which is an impossible age for the addressee of Shakespeare's 
 Sonnets. 
 
 As regards the social status of the youth whom Shakespeare 
 is addressing, almost all who have written about the Sonnets 
 in this century assume that he was a man of exalted rank and 
 great wealth. I have dealt in the preceding chapter with the 
 passage on which they mainly rely for this opinion, but there 
 is another which is also brought forward, I mean the opening 
 line of sonnet 147 (124, Q) : — 
 
 If my dear love were but the child of state. 
 
 Surely, however, as Mr Archer pointed out in his article in the 
 Fortnightly for December 1897, the line that follows. 
 
 It might for Fortune's bastard be unfathered, 
 
 shows by the word " it " that the " dear love " of the preceding 
 line refers not to the person to whom the sonnet was addressed 
 but to Shakespeare's affection for that person. The lines 
 should be construed, " If my love for you depended only on 
 outward circumstances, it might prove to be no lawfully 
 begotten offspring, but a mere base-born child, subject to 
 the vicissitudes of Fortune " ; this line, therefore, fails as com- 
 pletely as the one in sonnet 37 to afford any presumption that 
 Mr W. H. was highly born. No other passages than these 
 two singularly inconclusive ones have ever been, or are ever 
 likely to be, brought forward — for we cannot take seriously 
 Mr Lee's contention that "so fair a house" in sonnet 13 refers 
 to the line of the addressee's ancestry ; it would be as easy to 
 believe that Shakespeare referred to an actual roof and an 
 actual house. 
 
 Is it conceivable that in the first seventeen sonnets, when 
 
SOCIAL STATUS OF JIU W. H. 61 
 
 the poet is urging his friend to marry, there shonld be no plain 
 indication that he had other and weightier reasons for marrying 
 than his mere good looks ? Is it possible, again, that Shake- 
 speare shonld apparently regard his own verse as the only 
 thing that was likely to rescue his friend from oblivion, if that 
 friend was one before whom a great career presumably lay 
 open ? If the friend is to be remembered after death, it will, 
 according to the Sonnets, be Shakespeare's doing, not his own ; 
 but great noblemen are not apt to remain long on intimate 
 terms with an inferior in rank who harps on such a theme 
 whether with reason or without it. It is not unnoteworthy 
 that Shakespeare should have been so elated with his own 
 compositions as to assert their immortality so repeatedly, even 
 when addressing one who was socially his equal ; the explana- 
 tion of this is probably to be found in the newness of his 
 discovery that he was a poet — a discovery over which he 
 was as exultant as a father over his first born son ; but if 
 Shakespeare was addressing a man of exalted rank, and if 
 lie was also the cringing parasite which Mr Lee requires us 
 to suppose him, would he not rather have congratulated his 
 own muse at being rescued from oblivion by her connection 
 witb one who was so assured of fame ? Even without accepting 
 Mr Lee's estimate of Shakespeare's conduct, we may admit 
 that the writer of the dedications to Venus and Adonis 
 and Lucrece shows himself courtier enough, in the best 
 sense of the word, to know wbat he had better say or leave 
 unsaid when addressing one who was socially far above him. 
 Great men do, indeed, detest having their wealth and dignity 
 perpetually paraded, but neither on the other hand do they 
 quite like seeing it perpetually ignored. 
 
 Might we not expect, for example, that sonnet 25 should 
 have begun, 
 
 Let you who are in favour with your stars 
 Of public honour and proud titles boast, 
 
 instead of as we find it, 
 
 Let those who are in favour with their stars, &c. 
 
 Shakespeare in this same sonnet congratulates himself ou 
 
62 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. viii. 
 
 loving and being loved where lie may not "remove nor be 
 removed," whereas had he been a great prince's favourite he 
 would have been subject to all the caprices of the great ; but 
 in those days a great nobleman, such as Southampton or 
 Pembroke, was all that was intended by Shakespeare when 
 he speaks of a " great prince." The whole tenor of the sonnet 
 implies that both the writer and his friend lived in a sphere 
 which was far removed from the incidents of rank and great- 
 ness. 
 
 True, as Dr Drake long since pointed out, in the following 
 sonnet Shakespeare addresses his friend as " Lord of my 
 love " ; but it is only Dr Drakes who will insist that this 
 really means " Earl of my love." When Shakespeare (sonnet 
 77, 57 Q, line 5) calls his friend his " sovereign," it is only 
 Mr Chalmerses who will hold that the friend was actually on 
 the throne ; I wonder, by the way, that no modern Mr 
 Chalmers has argued on the strength of this line, that the 
 Sonnets were addressed to James the First. So again in 
 sonnet 78 (58, Q) Shakespeare says that he is his friend's 
 "vassal," and "bound to stay his leisure," but sober readers 
 do not take these words literally. 
 
 Look again at sonnet 29, which follows very closely after 
 the one just referred to ; if Shakespeare was the familiar 
 friend of a great and wealthy nobleman, it is not to be 
 believed that he would write of himself as " in disgrace 
 with fortune and men's eyes," and as wishing himself like 
 one more rich in hope and less unfriended. What is it 
 that consoles him ? His friend's love, but nothing, apparently, 
 except this love. Those who can detect in this sonnet any 
 sign as though patronage or material advantage arising out 
 of his friend's love was present to Shakespeare's mind when 
 he wrote, must have a penetration so far beyond my own 
 that I must leave them to their own opinion ; I can see 
 nothing in the poem but the cry of one who was very poor, 
 and very hopeless, but who was sustained by- the confidence 
 that he possessed the love of a friend, who by the mere 
 fact of loving him could comfort him beyond all material 
 comfort. 
 
SOCIAL STATUS OF Mil \Y. H. 03 
 
 Look, again, at sonnet 58 (41, Q), 
 
 Those petty wrongs that liberty commits 
 When I am sometime absent from thy heart 
 Thy beauty and thy years full well permits — 
 
 It is the friend's youth and beauty that excuse him ; but 
 surely if he had been a great and wealthy nobleman some 
 excuse for him might have been found on the score of his rank 
 and public duties, if not on that of the great social demands 
 upon his time. 
 
 Is it conceivable that in sonnet 78 (58, Q) Shakespeare 
 should tell a powerful nobleman that he could not even 
 think of controlling his liberty or requiring him to give 
 an account of his time? Later on he tells this supposed 
 great peer that his hold over him is so great that he may 
 go where he likes and arrange his hours according to his 
 own liking; "lam to wait," he exclaims, " though waiting 
 so be hell, nor blame your pleasure be it ill or well." Shake- 
 speare is evidently very angry ; likely enough the friend had 
 been promising to come "if he could," knowing very well 
 all the time that he meant to go elsewhere ; and Shakespeare 
 had been waiting hour after hour for his coming. I do not 
 doubt that he was quite justiiied in being angry, but I find 
 it inconceivable that he should have written as in this and the 
 preceding sonnet to any one who was in a social position 
 much higher than his own. Still more, by the way, incon- 
 ceivable do I find it that such sonnets as the two just dealt 
 with should have been written as mere literary exercises. 
 
 Can we imagine the wise world looking into Lord South- 
 ampton's or Lord Pembroke's moan for the death of 
 Shakespeare, and mocking them with him when he was 
 gone ? The wise world would take for granted that whatever 
 either of these two personages chose to do was right, but the 
 personages themselves would care very little about what the 
 wise world might or might not say. 
 
 Can we fancy Shakespeare telUng a great nobleman that 
 though he had been dropping him for some time past in favour 
 of new acquaintances with whom he had become rapidly 
 
64 shAkbspeaek's sonnetS; [chap, viit 
 
 intimate, yet he was determined not to do so any more, 
 inasmuch as his recent experiences had all been in favour of 
 the great nobleman ? 
 
 Lastly, to take the sonnet with which the series evidently 
 ended. — How does it conclude ? 
 
 No, let me be obsequious in thy heart 
 
 And take thou my oblation, poor but free. 
 
 Which is not mix'd with seconds, knows no art, 
 
 But mutual renders, only me for thee. 
 
 Hence thou suborned Informer ! a true soul 
 When most impeached stands least in thy control. 
 
 It is impossible to follow the train of thought that was 
 passing in Shakespeare's mind, and which enabled him to 
 offer his friendship frankly if his friend would take it on equal 
 terms, and in the following couplet to call that friend a 
 " suborn'd informer " and to defy him — but it is even more 
 difficult to understand how either the offering or the defiance 
 could be addressed to a man of greatly higher rank than that 
 of the writer. 
 
 I have by no means dealt with all the passages which 
 negative the supposition that Mr W. H. was a yotmg man of 
 rank and wealth — but in the first place those who make this 
 assumption have advanced nothing to which I have not already 
 called attention, and in the nest, Thorpe's dedication to a plain 
 Mr W. H. ought to be enough to convince all who hold him to 
 have been the engenderer of the Sonnets that whatever else he 
 was, he was not a man of rank. All the other statements 
 in Thorpe's title-page and prefatory inscription are correct. 
 The Sonnets are certainly by Shakespeare ; they had never 
 (with two exceptions) been published before ; they appear to 
 have been addressed to a young man whose Christian name 
 was certainly William, and whose surname seems to have 
 been Hughes ; Shakespeare, as the preface implies, had 
 promised this person an eternity of fame ; the names and 
 addresses of the printer and publisher will not be doubted— 
 these are all the statements that can be extracted from the 
 preface and title-page, except the fact that W. H. is styled 
 
SOCIAL STATUS OF MR W. H. 65 
 
 Mr. Why, then, when we find all the rest of Thorpe's state- 
 ments on title-page and preface to be correct, should we admit 
 of doubt that this last fact also is truly stated ? More 
 especially when it appears to be borne out by the whole tenor 
 of the Sonnets themselves ? 
 
 This being so we may dismiss the idea that Mr W. H. was 
 William Herbert Earl of Pembroke, as confidently as we have 
 already dismissed the supposition that he was merely the 
 person who procured the Sonnets for Thorpe. Lord South- 
 ampton's claims being also disposed of, and the impersonal 
 theory being ordered out of court, we are left without any 
 theory as to who Mr W. H. may have been, except the very 
 plausible conjecture of Tyrwhitt, endorsed by Malone, that he 
 was a person named William Hughes, or Hewes, or Hews, 
 as the name was very commonly spelt at the close of the 
 sixteenth century. 
 
( 66 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ON THE OEDBE IN "WHICH THE SONNETS WERE WfilTTEN, 
 AND ON THE STOEY WHICH THET KETEAL. 
 
 A CASUAL reader of the Sonnets as nnmbered in Q and 
 in almost all modern editions, will be apt to conclude as 
 Malone did, that the first 126 were addressed to a man 
 and the last 28 to a woman ; and unless he concentrates 
 his attention on the whole series for a considerable time, he is 
 likely enough to remain, as Malone appears to have done, 
 in this opinion. He will, in fact, divide the Sonnets into 
 two main groups, of (to use the Q numbering) 1—126 and 
 127—154. 
 
 I believe I have shown in Chapter III that only nine 
 Bounets of the second group can be correctly held to have 
 been addressed by Shakespeare to a woman. I believe, more- 
 over, that most readers will agree with me in thinking that 
 126 Q should be considered not as the last of the first group, 
 but as the first of the second. Let alone its change of form — 
 which seems to forbid its having been an envoi to a series 
 of 125 sonnets all of them in another form — it comes after 
 125 as a May morning after a November afternoon; it is 
 redolent with the spirit in which the earlier sonnets were 
 written, but presents no affinity with the later ones ; I 
 imagine, therefore, that it was an occasional piece, written, 
 perhaps, for some one to speak to Mr W. H. when he was 
 playing the part of Cupid, in some mask now lost ; but 
 it would by no means necessarily follow from this that 
 Mr W. H. was an actor by profession. Nothing would 
 surprise me less than to find that this sonnet had been 
 originally the first of the whole series, and had been trans- 
 ferred to the beginning of what we should consider as an 
 
ORDKK OF THE SONNETS IN Q. 67 
 
 appendix collection, on the score of its being in a different 
 form from those that follow ; and also less attractive as an 
 opening sonnet. But whatever may have been the cir- 
 cumstances under which 126 Q was written, and wherever 
 it may have originally stood, it has no connection with the 
 story of the sonnets. 
 
 I turn now to the question whether Q gives us the Sonnets 
 iu the order in which they were written. As regards the first 
 125 (of course, of Q) all of which, I would repeat, appear to 
 have been addressed directly or indirectly to Mr W. H., I can 
 only find two, i.e. 35 and 121, which I believe to have got mis- 
 placed. Of the remaining 29 sonnets, several suggest them- 
 selves as written {inter se) in the order in which we have them, 
 but some are obviously misplaced, while others are irrelevant to 
 the series. For example, 144 Q, in which Shakespeare cannot /-^ 
 determine whether or no Mr "W. H. has enjoyed his mistress, 
 cannot come after 134 Q, in which he confesses that Mr W. H. 
 is now his mistress's property. The same holds good with 
 143 Q, from which it appears that though Shakespeare's [^ 
 mistress is doing her best to catch Mr AV. H., she has not yet 
 caught him. Furthermore, as Mr Wyndham has more than 
 once justly insisted, the greater number of these sonnets 
 should be intercalated among some of the earlier ones. 
 Speaking of the second series (which he opens with 127 Q) 
 Mr Wyndham says : — 
 
 Most of the numbers were evidently written at the same time as 
 the numbers of group (xxsiii. — xlii.) and on the same theme.* 
 
 I am convinced that those which belong to the series at all 
 belong to 40 — 42 Q, as also does 35 Q, to which I will return 
 shortly. Shakespeare would not write 125 sonnets to Mr 
 W. H., four of the earlier of which refer to an intimacy 
 between him and Shakespeare's mistress — which is never in 
 these 125 sonnets touched upon after 42 Q, though the friend- 
 ship between Mr. W. H. and Shakespeare seems to have been 
 continued for two or more years afterwards — and then after 
 
 * See Mr Wyndham's "Poems of Shakespeare," Methuen, 1897, p. 325, of. also 
 Mr Wyndham's Preface pp. ci, cxi. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. ix. 
 
 breaking with him, write some 20 additional sonnets, rettirning 
 with apparent warm interest to this long discarded theme. 
 An explanation, therefore, must be sought for the fact that 
 these and a few other sonnets or so-called sonnets appear 
 where we find them in Q. 
 
 I can discover none more simple than to suppose that 
 Thorpe (for Mr W. H. would have known how to avoid some 
 of the misplacements which we find in Q) intended to keep all 
 the sonnets addressed to Mr W. H. in one group, and in the 
 original sequence, in which Mr W. H. had either kept or 
 rearranged them. In a second category he placed, with less 
 care about their due order, the sonnets which I have given as 
 appendices A — F, all the sonnets to or about a woman, all 
 sonnets which were not either directly or indirectly addressed 
 to Mr W. H., and four which, as I have explained in 
 Chapter III, were addressed to Mr W. H., but which reflected 
 upon him so severely that Thorpe determined to place them 
 where they might be taken as having been addressed to 
 Shakespeare's mistress. These four sonnets (147 — 150 Q) 
 appear to have been taken out en bloc, and we may be thankful 
 that they were so taken, for had they been dispersed it would 
 have been impossible to guess what they really were. The not 
 inconsiderable traces of order which can be detected in the last 
 29 sonnets are probably due not to design but to Thorpe's 
 having never quite lost the original order, even when seriously 
 interfering with it — to luck, in fact, not cunning. 
 
 I will now go through the first 125 sonnets as they stand 
 in Q, and see how far they bear out the view that we have 
 them, with only two exceptions, in their right order. It would 
 indeed be almost sufficient to refer the reader to the brief 
 headings which I have prefixed to each sonnet, but he will 
 perhaps be glad to have these headings brought together with 
 what few additional lemarks may seem likely to assist his 
 judgement. 
 
 The first 17 sonnets present every appearance of being in 
 their right order, and have, I believe, been generally considered 
 to be so. They all of them turn upon the same theme, i.e. the 
 
ORDER OF THE SONNETS IN Q. 69 
 
 urging (obviously bonA fide) Mr W. H. to marry and leave 
 children. After the end of sonnet 17 this theme is abandoned, 
 for good and all, not, I imagine, because Shakespeare had it 
 any the less at heart, but more probably because Mr W. H. 
 showed signs of impatience at being so persistently urged to 
 marry when he had no wish to do so. 
 
 I can find nothing in sonnets 18 — 25 Q, to compel the 
 belief that we have them in their right order, but neither can 
 I find anything to suggest the contrary. Speaking of sonnets 
 26 — 32, Mr Wyndham says, as it seems to me quite justly, 
 that they are, 
 
 a continuous poem on absence, dispatched it may be in a single 
 letter since it opens with a formal address and ends in a full close 
 (p. ex.). 
 
 Of these sonnets, 27 and 28 are certainly in their right 
 order inter se ; so also are 30 and 31 ; 26 and 32 appear to be 
 the opening and close of the series ; there is nothing to suggest 
 that the noble sonnet 29 (" When in disgrace," &c.) is out of order ; 
 I have no hesitation, therefore, in holding that in these seven 
 sonnets, as in the first 17, the original order has been un- 
 disturbed. Surely in the absence of anything to suggest the 
 contrary we must admit a strong presumption that sonnets 
 18 — 25 are also in their right order. 
 
 Sonnets 1 — 25 Q seem to have been written while Shake- 
 speare was within easy reach of his friend, whereas 26 — 32 
 indicate, as we have seen, a time of absence, and also of deep 
 depression. On his return — we may suppose to London, 
 though there is nothing in the Sonnets which fixes London 
 as the place in which Shakespeare and Mr W. H. were then 
 residing — a trap was laid for him, into which sonnet 23 had 
 shown that he would be only too ready to fall. I think no ill 
 of sonnet 20, considering the conventions of the time, but it is 
 impossible not to see that in sonnet 23 Shakespeare was in a 
 very different frame of mind to that in which he had been 
 when he wrote sonnets 1 — 17 — for there can be no question 
 that " looks " should be read in line 9, and not " books " as 
 given in Q^I find it also impossible to believe that the change 
 in Shakespeare's mental attitude evidenced in sonnet 23 would 
 
70 Shakespeare's sonnets, [chap, ix, 
 
 have been effected unless Mr W. H. had intended to amuse 
 himself by effecting it. Shakespeare's " looks " would never 
 have become " eloquent," unless he had believed Mr W. H.'s 
 to have already been so. Mr W. H. must have lured him on — 
 as we have Shakespeare's word for it that he lured him still 
 more disastrously later. It goes without saying that Shake- 
 speare should not have let himself be lured, but the age was 
 what it was, and I shall show that Shakespeare was very 
 young. 
 
 Between sonnets 32, therefore, and 33 Q, I suppose that 
 there has been a catastrophe. The trap referred to in the 
 preceding paragraph I believe to have been a cruel and most 
 disgusting practical joke, devised by Mr W. H. in concert with 
 others, but certainly never intended, much less permitted, to 
 go beyond the raising coarse laughter against SLakespeare. 
 I do not suppose that the trap was laid from any deeper 
 malice than wanton love of so-called sport, and a desire to 
 enjoy the confusion of any one who could be betrayed into 
 being a victim ; 1 cannot, however, doubt that Shakespeare 
 was, to use his own words, made to "travel forth without" 
 that " cloak," which, if he had not been lured, we may be sure 
 that he would not have discarded. Hardly had he laid the 
 cloak aside before he was surprised according to a pre- 
 concerted scheme, and very probably roughly handled, for 
 we find him lame soon afterwards (sonnet 37, lines 3 and 
 9) and apparently not fully recovered a twelve-month later. 
 Of. 109 (89, Q) line 3. 
 
 The offence above indicated — a sin of very early youth — for 
 which Shakespeare was bitterly penitent, and towards which 
 not a trace of farther tendency can be discerned in any 
 subsequent sonnet or work during five and twenty years of 
 later prolific literary activity — this single offence is the 
 utmost that can be brought against Shakespeare with a 
 shadow of evidence in its support. 
 
 I cannot pretend to certainty, or even confidence, but am 
 inclined to think that the lines in sonnet 110 (90, Q), 
 
 Ah, do not when my heart hath scaped this sorrow, 
 Come in the rearward of a conquered woe, 
 
ORDER OF THE SONNETS IN Q. 71 
 
 refer to the matter now ia question, as thongli some eight 
 or nine months after the occnrrence* Shakespeare had begun 
 to find that people held him to have been more sinned against 
 than sinning. So also in 115 (95, Q) we read, 
 
 That tongue that tells the story of thy days. 
 Making lascivious comments on thy sport, 
 Cannot dispraise but in a kind of praise. 
 
 If tlie same matter is here referred to it would seem that it 
 was generally regarded as blackguard sport rather than as 
 deliberate malice. 
 
 After sonnet 32 I have placed 121 Q, which has no 
 relevancy to its surroundings where it stands in Q, beyond the 
 fact that in 120 Q there are lines which strongly suggest a 
 reference to the catastrophe of 33, 34, Q. When sonnets 
 126—154 Q were taken out of their original order it is easy 
 to suppose that some few others might get displaced, and 
 assuming 121 Q to have been among these, an editor who did 
 not know exactly how to replace it correctly, but who knew 
 enough of the facts to see that it bore upon a catastrophe then 
 still notorious — an editor, moreover, who, as we shall find when 
 we come to 35 Q, was hasty in forming his opinions — would 
 be more likely to place 121 Q after 120 Q, than anywhere 
 else. This misplacement goes far to convince me that the 
 mischievous division of the sonnets in Q into two groups was 
 the work not of Mr W. H. but of Thorpe. I was in great 
 doubt whether to place 121 Q before sonnets 33, 34 Q, or after 
 them, but I think it should come before, for it suggests a 
 writer who has not yet calmed down after a gross outrage, 
 while in sonnets 33, 34 Q, everything has been forgiven. 
 
 That sonnets 33, 34 Q are in their right order inter se will 
 not be questioned; not so as regards 35 Q, which I take it was 
 placed where we find it by some one who knew what Shake- 
 speare had been referring to in 33, 34 Q, but did not trouble 
 himself to read more than the opening line of 35 Q, which I 
 must suppose to have got out of its proper place in the 
 
 * See the dates with which I have headed each Sonnet in my text, 
 
72 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. it. 
 
 disturbance of the original order occasioned by the formation 
 of the second group. Knowing that Mr W. H. had done 
 Shakespeare a great wrong, to which he was referring in 
 33, 34, Q, and finding a sonnet which began "No more be 
 grieved at that which thou hast done," he jumped to the 
 conclusion that the wrong and the sonnet should be connected, 
 without noting the last lines, which prove that the sonnet 
 belongs to those in which Shakespeare is condoning Mr 
 W. H.'s real or supposed enjoyment of his, Shakespeare's, 
 mistress — to which, indeed, he there declares himself to have 
 been "accessory." Had Thorpe read the sonnet, he would 
 surely have remembered that the words in line 9, " For to thy 
 sensual fault" &c., could not refer to any sensual fault 
 committed by Mr W. H. in connection with the events 
 referred to in 33, 34, Q, for there had been no sensual fault 
 committed, or even intended, by him ; there had been treachery 
 and blackguardism on the part both of Mr W. H. and his 
 confederates, so gross and infamous that nothing viler can 
 be well conceived ; but there had been nothing that can be 
 called sensual, and however odious Mr W. H.'s other faults 
 may have been, sensuality does not appear to have been one of 
 them. He was one of those 
 
 Who do not do the thing they most do show, 
 Who moving others are themselves as stone, 
 Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow. (Sonnet 94 Q). 
 
 The "sensual fault" intended by Shakespeare is the one 
 which he then supposed Mr W. H. to have committed with his 
 mistress ; nothing, then, can be more obviously out of place as 
 coming between 34 and 36, Q, than a sonnet which accuses 
 Mr W. H. of having committed a " sensual fault " in respect 
 of the catastrophe of 33 and 34, Q ; on taking out 35 Q, 36 Q 
 follows 34 Q naturally enough. We cannot demonstrate that 
 37 Q, is connected either with 36 Q, or 38 Q, but it follows 
 the first and precedes the second quite smoothly ; 39 Q seems 
 to fiow out of 38 Q, and appears to refer to the separation that 
 was deemed expedient in 36 Q. As this separation is not 
 likely to have lasted vei-y long, I think the six sonnets 33, 34, 
 
ORDER OF THE SONNETS IN Q. 73 
 
 36, 37, 38, 39, Q, all belong to one another and are presumably 
 in their right order. 
 
 Between 39 and 40, Q, I intercalate 16 sonnets from the 
 second group, and after them 35 Q (56 in my text). Being 
 anxious to confine attention for the moment as far as possible 
 to the first 125 sonnets of Q, I must refer the reader to the 
 headings which I have prefixed to the intercalated souuets, 
 which will sufficiently indicate what I suppose to have taken 
 place between the writing of 89 and 40, Q. Briefly, Shake- 
 speare, unable to induce his friend to marry, and indignant 
 that he should continue to be so unappreciative of the charms 
 of woman, resolved to bring his own mistress and his friend 
 together — believing this (for the age was lax) to be the greatest 
 service that he could render him. 
 
 Sonnets 40, 41, 42, Q (57, 58, 59 of my own text) are 
 a sequence, each growing out of the one that precedes it ; after 
 these I intercalate 133, 134, and 152, Q, none of them addressed 
 to Mr W. H. The last of these brings the episode to which 
 the preceding 23 sonnets (of my own text) refer to a con- 
 clusion ; it appears to have been written by Shakespeare for 
 Mr W. H. to give to Shakespeare's mistress as his own 
 composition on breaking off a liaison which had lasted but 
 a short time and had given satisfaction to neither party. 
 
 As a commentary on the part played by Shakespeare in the 
 story above given, I take the following from a letter signed 
 J. M. S., which appeared in the Spectator, Dec. 3, 1898. The 
 writer is quoting from St Evremond, whose mental attitude 
 he contends to be not unlike Shakespeare's as set forth in 
 sonnet 40, 41, 42, Q. The passage runs : — 
 
 Peut-^tre ne savez vous pas, que si je n'ose me plaindre de vous, 
 pour vous aimer trop, je n'oserais me plaindre de lui, pour ne 
 I'aimer gu^re moins : et s'il faut de n^oessite me mettre en colore, 
 apprenez moi centre qui je me dois fdcher davantage ; ou centre 
 lui qui m' enleve une maitresse, ou contre vous qui me volez un 
 
 ami j'ai trop de passion pour donner rien au ressentiment ; 
 
 ma tendresse I'emportera toujours sur vos outrages. J'aime le 
 perfide, j'aime I'infid^le, et crains seulement qu'un ami sincere ne 
 soit mal avec tous les deux. 
 
74 Shakespeare's sonnets, [chap, ix. 
 
 With 62 (of my text), the last of the three intercalated 
 sonnets ahove referred to, all trace of anything erotic dis- 
 appears finally from the sonnets. There is not a word which 
 suggests any further desire on Shakespeare's part to interfere 
 with Mr W. H.'s remaining celibate for as long or as short 
 a time as he might please. 
 
 I now return to the question whether Q has preserved the 
 remaining sonnets in the order in which Shakespeare wrote 
 them. There appears to be a lapse between 42 Q, and 43 Q, 
 and when writing this latter sonnet Shakespeare is at a dis- 
 tance from his friend. Sonnets 43—51, Q, appear all of them 
 to belong to this time, and when we examine them, we find 44 
 and 45 certainly in right order inter se, 45 growing out of 44 : 
 so again 47 grows out of 46, 49 grows out of the last three 
 lines of 48, and 51 grows out of 50. The right order between 
 each member of the above-named pairs of sonnets having been 
 obviously preserved, and all of them suggesting absence, the 
 presumption is strong that the order between the pairs has 
 been preserved as truly as it has evidently been between the 
 component members of the pairs. 
 
 After 51 Q,' we must suppose an interval during which 
 Shakespeare has returned to London, for I think we may 
 assume that he was now living in London. Absence has 
 quieted him, and 52 Q is a somewhat lame apology for his 
 not having come to see his friend as often as he used to do ; 
 this sonnet, written, as I shall show in a later chapter, about 
 six months after Shakespeare and Mr "W. H. had met, marks 
 the beginning of the end. 53 Q deluges Mr W. H. with that 
 praise of which Shakespeare knew him to be more than com- 
 monly fond,* and must be looked upon as a peace-offering ; 
 64, which grows out of the last line of 53, is a continuation of 
 the same peace-offering, and 55 grows out of the last line of 54. 
 
 Here we must suppose another interval, probably of no very 
 long duration. Mr W. H. having been sufficiently flattered, 
 and having, as he imagined, re-established his ascendancy over 
 Shakespeare, has been neglecting him, so that it becomes 
 
 * Cf. Bonnet 84 Q, line 14. 
 
OBDER OF THE BONNETS IN Q. /O 
 
 necessary to tell sweet love to renew its force ; there has been 
 a " sad interim " dnriug which the two nieu have evidently- 
 been seeing less of one another, the whole of sonnet 56 Q, 
 thongh it implies a conviction on Shakesjjeare's part that 
 Mr "W. H. is still very much attached to him, nevertheless 
 betrays a sense that the relations between the writer and his 
 friend are not what they were. Sonnets 57 and 58, Q, which 
 are certainly in right order inter se, make it plain that thongh 
 matters had been set right for a time they had soon got wrong- 
 again. Sonnets 59 and 60 Q cannot be shown to be in their 
 right order, but there is nothing to suggest that they are 
 wrongly placed, and it would be exactly like Shakespeare to 
 smooth his friend down after reproaching him as he had done 
 in 57 and 68 ; 61 Q is written much in the same vein as 57 
 and 58, and 62 again suggests self-reproach for having been 
 too exacting ; 63 Q grows out of the two last lines of 62 ; 
 64, 65, 66, Q, all continue the same vein of melancholy reflec- 
 tion upon the effects of time and the wrongs with which the 
 world is filled, 64 and 65 being very closely allied, and 66 
 appearing to profess weariness and almost despair. 
 
 In 67 Q we find Shakespeare remonstrating with Mr "W. H. 
 for associating with what Shakespeare evidently considers to 
 be bad company ; 68 Q grows out of 67 ; 69 Q, though not 
 directly growing out of 68, is in the same vein as the two 
 sonnets that have preceded it, and warns Mr W. H. that 
 people are giving him a bad name ; 70 Q is certainly in its 
 right order after 69, and is another attempt to soften the effect 
 of sonnets that have gone before it. I cannot doubt that 
 71_74 Q are in right order inter se, but can find nothing 
 to indicate that they grew immediately out of the preceding 
 sonnets ; they are all tinged with the deepest melancholy, and 
 with a sense of the growing estrangement which it is plain 
 that Shakespeare deplores and is doing his utmost to conceal ; 
 75, Q, again, appears to stand alone ; from it we gather that 
 though Shakespeare is still devoted to Mr W. H. the inter- 
 course between the two has become intermittent. 
 
 Between 75 and 76 Q, I suppose a gap of no very long 
 duration, but there is nothing to indicate that 76 is out of 
 
76 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. ix. 
 
 order ; the most interesting inference that can he drawn from 
 this sonnet is to the effect that Shakespeare had not yet begun 
 to write plays, nor yet poems other than these sonnets. There 
 is, as I have just said, no sign of any connection between 
 
 77 and 76, Q. I shall have more to say about both these 
 sonnets when I come to the dates of the sonnets. For the 
 present I will only say that 77 seems to have accompanied the 
 present of a book of tablets given by Shakespeare to Mr W. H. 
 Jan. I, 1585-6, i.e. 1586 according to our present reckoning.* 
 Here I suppose another interval. 
 
 From 78 Q we learn that Shakespeare, after having set the 
 fashion of sonneteering, is jealous of his imitators, and more 
 particularly of one whom he supposes to have supplanted him 
 in his friend's affections, I do not see how it is possible to 
 doubt that sonnets 78—86, Q, all of them dealing with his 
 jealousy, mainly of a single poet, are in right order inter se. 
 From three of these (83, 85, 86) we find that Shakespeare has 
 left off writing, finding his muse tongue-tied by the favour 
 shown to his rival by Mr W. H. "We also find from 83 that 
 Mr W. H. has upbraided him for his silence. In 87, Q 
 Shakespeare, convinced, or affecting to be convinced, that all is 
 now over between him and his friend, bids him farewell, and 
 the following six sonnets all of them express a conviction 
 against which he is continually fighting, to the effect that 
 Mr W. H. is trying to " steal himself away," and bring the 
 intimacy to an end ; these six sonnets are, I think I may say 
 certainly, in right order inter se, and the whole series 78—93, Q, 
 form a single sequence. All direct reference, indeed, to the 
 rival poet ceases with the last two lines of 86 Q, but the tenor 
 of the following seven sonnets is obviously dictated by jealousy 
 ■ — of which, however, there is no sign in any sonnet later 
 than 93 Q. 
 
 I may say in passing that I suspect, though I can find 
 nothing in the words of the jealousy series to bear me out, that 
 it was rather fear lest after all the rival poet's verses should 
 
 * Some readers may need to be reminded that the official year in Shakespeare's 
 time did not begin till March 26. The first three months, therefore, of what we should 
 call 1586 were then still 1586. 
 
ORDEU OF THE SONNETS IN Q. 77 
 
 be better than his own, than lest Mr "W. H. sliould become 
 fonder of another friend, that stirred Shakespeare so pro- 
 foundly. Poor, and almost hopeless as he as yet evidently 
 is, he ap23ears to have felt that he was writing as never man 
 had yet written, and further, that his lines must li^'e for ever. 
 In this last conviction he narrowly escaped proving to have 
 been over-confident, for the Sonnets have been only saved to 
 US by the skin of their teeth, but the conviction would sustain 
 him, and be a more solid satisfaction than he ever probably 
 obtained from Mr W. H. How, then, if his one stay was to 
 be removed ? How if he was flattering himself, and the rival 
 poet's verses were as good as, or perhaps better than, his own ? 
 Mr W. H. appeared to think so ; no doubt other poets made 
 ill-natured remarks. How if they were right ? I do not say 
 that we have here the sole cause of Shakespeare's jealousy, 
 but it is impossible that it should not have been enhanced and 
 embittered by some such considerations. No one will probably 
 ever succeed in finding out who the rival poet was, but I 
 should myself incline to Thomas Watson, whose 'EKaTo/xTradia 
 or " Passionate Centurie of Love " was published (see Arber's 
 reprint, p. 9), March 31, 1582. Dates exclude Sidney. 
 
 Returning to the order in which we find the sonnets in Q, 
 the jealousy series comes to an end with 95 Q. In 94, 95, 
 96, Q, we have a short sequence which seems to stand alone, 
 but there is nothing to suggest that it is out of order. In 
 94 Q, Shakespeare again warns his friend of the ill-report in 
 which he is living, and according to his wont in 95 and 96 he 
 gilds the pill of his reproof. 
 
 With 97 Q we are in another atmosphere. So great is the 
 difference between the tone of 96 and 97 that we may suppose 
 a lapse of months, in the course of which Shakespeare has 
 probably been travelling in the country with some company, 
 and time, with freedom from provocation, has restored him to 
 his more serene and genial mind. There is now not a trace of 
 either sense of injury or remonstrance. There appears to be 
 an interval of many months between the writing of sonnets 
 97 and 98, Q, for while 97 implies autumn, 98 and 99, which 
 follow in right order inter se, imply spring and early summer. 
 
78 shakespeabb's sonnets. [chap. IX. 
 
 It is quite likely that sonnets 97, 98, 99, Q, as well, perhaps, 
 as some others written during absence, were enclosed in prose 
 letters which have perished. 
 
 We are left in no uncertainty about there having been a 
 long interval between 99 Q and 100 Q, for Shakespeare opens 
 100 Q by complaining to his Muse that she has forgotten for 
 so long a time to speak of that which gave her all her might, 
 though she has now found time to inspire him to write some 
 worthless songs on other subjects. Sonnets 100—103 all seem 
 to be in their right order inter se, the three last of them 
 continuing the theme started in 100. Sonnet 102 admits an 
 apparent falling off in the intensity of the writer's aifection. 
 Shakespeare denies that there has been any real falling off, 
 and excuses himself on grounds which, though they leave no 
 doubt that his love was "more weak in seeming," make it 
 hard to believe that it had " been strengthened." The fol- 
 lowing sonnet (103 Q) shows even more clearly that the 
 outward evidences of his affection were less convincing than 
 formerly ; " oh blame me not," he exclaims, " if I no more 
 can write " ; but in the old days he found no difficulty in 
 writing when the excuse which he now urges was to the full 
 as valid. The only difficulty he then found was in leaving 
 off writing. " Our love was new," he says in 102 Q, 
 . . . and then but in the spring 
 When I was wont to greet it with my lays. 
 
 In 103 Q, he excuses himself ifor not writing, on the ground 
 that his friend's looking glass would say all that could be said 
 more effectually than words could do. In 104 we are told 
 that three years had elapsed since he and Mr W. H. met ; 
 assuming, as I think we may, that sonnets 100—106 Q, were 
 written much about the same date, the tone of these sonnets 
 as compared with that of the earlier ones fits in well with the 
 statement that there was an interval of three years between 
 them, and hence tends to confirm the opinion that Q gives us 
 the series in their right order — except as regards the forma- 
 tion by Thorpe of an appendix group. 
 
 As regards the order inter se of sounets 100—106 Q, 100- 
 103 appear to be a sequence, and though lOi— 106 are not so 
 
ORDER OF THE SONNETS IN Q. 79 
 
 closely iuterpendent, there is nothing to suggest their having 
 been misplaced. They are exactly what one might expect 
 from Shakespeare when he was trying to atone for a long 
 course of silence, by a double dose of affectionate flattery. 
 
 We may note that there is not a trace in any of these seven 
 sonnets of the dissatisfaction and remonstrance which from 
 52—96 Q, had been becoming more and more marked. Further- 
 more we may suspect both from 100 and 104 (as still more 
 from 108 Q) that Mr W. H.'s good looks were no longer all 
 that they had been, and this would take time to bring about ; 
 if, then, this suspicion is held to be well founded, we are again 
 confirmed in accepting the order of Q. 
 
 I intend to show in Chapter X that there was an interval 
 of about three or four months between 106 and 107, Q. This 
 last named sonnet does not appear to have been dictated by 
 any thing that had passed between Shakespeare and Mr 
 W. He, nor yet to have been written in his interest ; in this 
 respect it stands alone, or nearly so, as it stands also alone in 
 referring to passing events of national importance. It gives 
 expression to a sense of relief, shared by the whole nation, on 
 delivery from what seemed an inevitable national disaster of 
 extreme gravity. Nothing short of a foreboding that England's 
 name and place among nations had been in great jeopardy is 
 large enough for the event that looms behind the words : — 
 
 Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul 
 Of the wide world dreaming on things to come, 
 Can yet the lease of my true love control 
 Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom. 
 
 When I deal with the dates of the several sonnets I will 
 give my reasons for thinking that the defeat of the Spanish 
 Armada is the event referred to in these lines. 
 
 I "imagine," but am shocked to note how frequently I fall 
 back upon this or some kindred word, that Shakespeare was 
 moved by the universal rejoicing to write a sonnet to Mr 
 W. H. to whom he had not written for three or four months. 
 Mr W. H. had been accustomed in the old times to receive a 
 sOnnet by Shakespeare, specially written for him on an average 
 
80 Shakespeare's sonnets. [ohap. ix. 
 
 two days a week ; this would be enough to spoil any man ; 
 when the stream of sonnets slackened off so that only two 
 appear to have been written in the year 1587, Mr W. H. 
 would argue that Shakespeare had got tired of him and 
 would naturally enough be piqued ; there was a little flow 
 again in the spring of 1588, in the course of which Mr W. H. 
 seems to have reproached Shakespeare with not caring about 
 him now that he had got to look old ; Shakespeare met this 
 with sonnets 104—106, Q, but here again the stream ceased to 
 flow, and Shakespeare, knowing that Mr W. H. would be 
 offended, took advantage of the occasion of the defeat of the 
 Armada to write him a friendly sonnet. 
 
 The result does not seem to have been satisfactory, for from 
 108 Q it is tolerably plain that Mr W. H. has been taxing 
 Shakespeare with want of constancy, and has especially galled 
 him by repeating the accusation that Shakespeare had ceased 
 to care for him now that he had got to look old. Hence the 
 asseveration in 108 Q that such a love as his "weighs not the 
 dust and, injury of age," and that although " time and outward 
 form " would show that which had at first attracted Shake- 
 speare to be now dead, this had nothing to do with what he 
 still felt, and should ever continue to feel, for Mr W. H. 
 
 Shakespeare seems to have been stung to the quick, and 
 sonnets 109—112 Q, are a sequence growing out of 108, and oat 
 of the reproach of being " false of heart," which Mr W. H. 
 had brought against him. They are, one would say, certainly 
 in right order inter ae, and it must be admitted that they do 
 to a certain extent explain how Mr W. H. had come to be 
 nettled. One can have no sympathy with him, but no matter 
 how worthless a man is he resents being dropped, and Shake- 
 speare had been far too fond of him to relish the dropping, or 
 even to admit the fact to himself The knowledge, indeed, 
 that there was a grain of truth and justice in what Mr W. H. 
 had said would make his words more telling, and Sbakespeare^s 
 defence more vehement. In 109 Q he admits that absence 
 may have " seemed " his " flame to qualify," and if it had 
 seemed to do so, it had probably done so in reality; 110 is 
 a sequel to 109; 111, 112 Q, are certainly in right order 
 
ORDER OF THE SONNETS IN Q. 81 
 
 inter se, and appear to be a continuatioa of the penitence 
 already expressed in the three or fonr immediately preceding 
 sonnets. From all these we gather that Mr W. H. has been 
 accusing Shakespeare of Iceeping bad company, much as 
 Shakespeare himself had earlier remonstrated with Mr W. H. 
 Shakespeare pleads guilty, but we need not take his self-^ 
 abasement very literally. No doubt he had his wild oats to 
 sow, and no doubt his frank and fearless nature would lead 
 him in his youth to be hail fellow well met with many 
 a man and many a woman who was utterly unworthy of him. 
 Falstaff, Bardolph, Pistol, Mrs Quickly, and Doll Tearsheet 
 must all have been drawn from life, and if Shakespeare had 
 not been frequent with these people he could not have drawn 
 them as he has. Let us be thankful that he was what he was, 
 and did whatever he did, without asking questions for con- 
 science sake or taking his confessions in 109—112, Q, au pied 
 de la lettre. 
 
 In 111 Q Shakespeare lays .the blame of his misdeeds on 
 his profession. Let any one contrast the tone of this sonnet 
 with that of 29, and he will observe that whereas in 29 
 Shakespeare does not seem to have anything on his conscience, 
 his fortunes are at a very low ebb. He holds himself as in 
 an "outcast state" with small hope of betterment. In 111 Q 
 he is fall of self-reproach on the score of moral delinquencies — 
 real or imaginary — but neither in this, nor in any of the later 
 sonnets is there so much as a hint that he is in an outcast or 
 hopeless state. In 29 Q he appears to be living from hand to 
 mouth ; in 111 Q he has a fixed profession. True be makes 
 this profession a scape-goat for the deterioration of his moral 
 and spiritual nature, but it would be unsafe to argue from this 
 that it was in itself irksome to him. 
 
 Sonnets 11&, 114, Q, are again in right order inte7' se ; they 
 indicate that Shakespeare is travelling, but there is nothing 
 to connect them, with those that immediately precede and 
 follow ; both of them asseverate the strength and permanence 
 of Shakespeare's affection ; so also does 1 1 5 Q, but in the old 
 days no such asseveration was needed, and 116 Q implies a 
 recognition of "impediments" to those happy relations between 
 
 G 
 
82 Shakespeare's soknets. [chap. ix. 
 
 him and his friend, which he would fain restore, or rather 
 flatter himself that he was restoring, for in his heart he must 
 ha.ve known that the friendship had been a one-sided affair 
 from first to last. No one insists when writing to a friend 
 that love is not love on finding alteration in its object, or 
 when it meets coldness with coldness, unless he is aware both 
 of coldness and alteration. 
 
 Shakespeare concludes this lovely sonnet by saying that 
 Love is not Time's fool. If this, he continues, 
 
 ... be error and upon me proved 
 I never writ, nor no man ever loved. 
 
 But it was an error ; and it was going to be finally proved 
 upon himself very shortly ; and there can be no doubt that he 
 had written ; and many another man has loved as fondly and 
 as foolishly as he did. 
 
 Sonnets 117, 118 Q, follow so naturally on 116 that it is 
 difficult to question their being in their due order ; we saw in 
 
 116 that Shakespeare recognised a difference in his friend's 
 manner towards him ; we may infer from the opening Line of 
 
 117 Q that Mr W. H. has been explaining why and how he 
 considers himself aggrieved. Shakespeare kisses the rod as 
 usual, but it must be admitted that his defence is lame. He 
 says that his having been " frequent with unknown minds " — 
 which can only mean his having kept low company — was due 
 to nothing but a desire to prove his friend's constancy. Who 
 can fail to see that the relations between the two friends, 
 already strained, are on the point of snapping ? 
 
 I suppose them to have snapped almost immediately, and 
 find in sonnets 119, 120 Q — a pair which cannot be sej)arated 
 and which appear to be in due order inter se — an apology 
 couched in the most affectionate and self-abasing tones for 
 some unkindness of which Shakespeare confesses himself to 
 have been guilty. I may be speculating too boldly, but I 
 imagine that Mr W. H., not too well pleased at the excuses 
 made in 117, 118, Q, said things to Shakespeare in return 
 which outraged him not a little, and that Shakespeare in the 
 beat of anger and passionate regret, wrote the four sonnets 
 
ORDER OF THE SONNETS IN Q. 83 
 
 147—150, Q, which Thorpe excluded from the first group, and 
 which I have restored to what I beheve to have been their 
 proper place. The two last of these, as usual, offer a golden 
 bridge for his friend's retreat. On the quarrel being again 
 patched up Shakespeare would be almost sure to apologise 
 with a good deal more confession of having been wrong than 
 the occasion warranted. In sonnet 119 Q he ia aghast at 
 what he has done, and in 120 Q he refers to a wrong done to 
 him by Mr W. H. a considerable time previously, and appeals 
 to him to set this against his own recent unkinduess. This 
 wrong, as I have already said, was no doubt the one not 
 obscurely shadowed forth in 33, 34, Q ; the word " once " in 
 line 1 of 120 Q, repeated in line 8, makes it clear that the 
 event referred to was of old date and tends to confirm our 
 opinion that we have the sonnets in right order ; if it was 
 what I suppose it to have been, we may be sure that it was 
 one of common notoriety, so that Thorpe would be at no loss 
 to know what Shakespeare was alluding to. Hence, as I 
 have earlier said, his blundering misplacement of 121 Q. 
 
 For the moment, then, the ruin'd love between Shakespeare 
 and his friend, was built anew, and Shakespeare, ever sanguine, 
 allowed himself to hope that the reconciliation would be perma- 
 nent. He declares that he returns rebuk'd to his content and 
 has gained in the restoration of friendship thrice more than he 
 had lost in the quarrel; but the very next sonnet, i.e. 122 Q, 
 (for 121 Q must not be counted) shows that Mr W. H. has 
 been upbraiding him for having given away a book of tablets 
 of which he had made him a present ; Shakespeare excuses 
 himself with much fervour, but in the old days he would never 
 have let those tablets out of his own pocket. In sonnets 123, 
 124 Q he again insists on the permanence of his devotion to 
 his friend, but there has been another quarrel between 124 
 and 125 Q. From this last sonnet it is plain that Mr W. H. 
 has been complaining of Shakespeare for having borne, or 
 schemed to bear, a canopy, presumably held over some person 
 of high rank on a great occasion. We cannot gather from 
 the words of the sonnet whether Shakespeare did or did not 
 take any part in the bearing of this canopy, but the two last 
 
 g2 
 
84 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. ix. 
 
 lines suggest that information given by Mr W. H. may have 
 defeated some hope of advancement which Shakespeare had 
 entertained. 
 
 With these two indignant Knes, 
 
 Hence thou suhorii'd Informer, a true soul 
 When most impeaoh'd stands least in thy control, 
 
 the Sonnets, as 1 read them, come to a conclusion, and 
 considering the cat and dog life which, in spite of all Shake- 
 speare's infinite sweetness and forbearance, the two men have 
 evidently long been leading, and considering also how utterly 
 unworthy Mr W. H. was of the affection which Shakespeare 
 lavished so prodigally upon him, there is nothing to regret 
 or be surprised at in the apjjarent cessation of further inter- 
 course between them. 
 
 Having now satisfied myself, and I trust the reader, that 
 the Sonnets were printed in Q in the order in which Shake- 
 speare wrote them with the exception of 35 and 121, Q, — and 
 with the further exception that the last 29 sonnets were taken 
 out of the series, so that they should be replaced as far as 
 possible by one who would read the Sonnets in the order in 
 which Shakespeare left them — I shall assume that sonnet 
 107 Q is in due order, and shall not argue further on this 
 head. This point being established I can go on to the question 
 of the dates when the Sonnets were written. 
 
 But before I do so I would ask the reader to consider 
 whether any other arrangement than the one we find (with 
 the exceptions already noted) in Q could be made to show any 
 thing like so coherent a story as the one indicated in this 
 chapter. Let him take Benson's medley, and see what he can 
 make of that. Let him shuflie the Sonnets into any order he 
 pleases and see whether he can make any story out of them at 
 all. It may be asked why have a story, when the one which 
 Q alone permits is throughout painful and in parts re- 
 pulsive ? Many, indeed say, " Eead the Sonnets if you like, 
 but do not go below their surface ; let their music and beauty 
 of expression be enough." I do not write for these good 
 
OEDEE OF THE SONNETS IN Q. 85 
 
 people, nor are they likely to read me ; I therefore pass them 
 by at as wide a distance as I can, and confine my attention 
 to those who will not read anything that fell from snch a man 
 as Shakespeare without doing their best to fathom it. 
 
 No such persons can even begin to read the Sonnets with- 
 out finding that a story of some sort is staring them in the 
 face. They cannot apprehend it, but they feel that behind 
 some four or five sonnets there is a riddle which more or less 
 taints the series with a vague feeling as though the answer, 
 if found, would be unwholesome. There the Sonnets are ; 
 there is no suppressing them ; they are being studied yearly 
 more and more, and will continue to be so, in spite, pace 
 Steevens, of the strongest act of parliament that can be 
 framed to prevent people from reading them. Therefore 
 they should be faced for better or worse, and until they are 
 restored approximately to the order in which Shakespeare 
 wrote them and until they are approximately dated, it is 
 impossible to face them. Their date is the very essence of 
 the whole matter ; for the verdict we are to pass upon some 
 few of them — and these colour the others — depends in great 
 measure on the age of the writer. And furthermore, what we 
 think of Shakespeare himself must depend not a little on what 
 we think of the Sonnets. 
 
 If we date them early we suppose a severe wound in youth, 
 but one that was soon healed to perfect wholesomeness. If we 
 date them at any age later than extreme youth, there is no 
 escape from supposing what is morally a malignant cancer. 
 If the evidence points in the direction of the cancer, we must 
 with poignant regret accept it. I submit, however, that it 
 will be found to point with irresistible force in the direction 
 of the mere scar. 
 
 It is a pious act to show that it does so ; for the man is not 
 dead. The true life of a man is not that which he leads in 
 himself, but the one he leads in others, and of which he knows 
 nothing. Shakespeare is more living in that life of the world 
 to come by virtue of which he entered after death into the 
 lives of millions, than he ever was in that vexed body to which 
 his conscious life was limited. But enough of this. 
 
86 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. iz. 
 
 Those who pass the riddle of the Sonnets over in silence, 
 tacitly convey an impression that the answer would be far 
 more terrible than the facts would show. Those who date the 
 Sonnets as the Southamptonites, and still worse the Herbertites 
 do, cannot escape from leaving Shakespeare suffering as I 
 have said from a leprous or cancerous taint, for they do not 
 even attempt to show that he was lured into a trap, and if 
 they did, he was too old for the excuse to be admitted as much 
 palliation. Those who regard the Sonnets as literary exercises 
 would have us believe that in the naughtiness of his heart, 
 Shakespeare, with a world of subjects to choose from, elected 
 to invent sonnet 23, and to imagine a situation which required 
 the writing of sonnets 33—35 of my numbering. This is the 
 most degrading view of all ; but these four ways of treating 
 the Sonnets are the only ones now before the public, and they 
 are all of them alike slovenly and infamous. True, however 
 early the Sonnets are dated a scar must remain ; but who 
 under the circumstances will heed it whose moral support is 
 worth a moment's consideration ? 
 
 I grant that the story is a very squalid one, but from all 
 we can gather Shakespeare's first few years in London were 
 passed in very squalid surroundings. Furthermore, any one 
 who reads the Sonnets carefully will note that it was not 
 Mr W. H.'s mere good looks which so powerfully attracted 
 Shakespeare. From first to last it is plain that Shakespeare 
 assumed that these were but the outward and visible signs of 
 an inward and spiritual grace. He could not believe that any 
 evil spirit should have so fair a house, and it was the good 
 spirit within, and not the house itself, of which Shakespeare 
 was in truth enamoured ; this appears over and over again, 
 and when he has become convinced that his friend's looks are 
 better than his character, he declares the good looks to be like 
 Eve's apple. 
 
 Considering, then, Shakespeare's extreme youth, which I 
 shall now proceed to establish, his ardent poetic temperament, 
 and Alas 1 it is just the poetic temperament which by reason 
 of its very catholicity is least likely to pass scatheless through 
 what he so touchingly describes as "the ambush of young 
 
ORDER OF THE SONNETS IN Q. 87 
 
 days" ; considering also the license of the times, Shakespeare's 
 bitter punishment, and still more bitter remorse — is it likely 
 that there was ever afterwards a day in his life in which the 
 remembrance of that " night of woe " did not at some time or 
 another rise up before him and stab him ? nay, is it not quite 
 likely that this great shock may in the end have brought him 
 prematurely to the grave ? — Considering, again, the perfect 
 sanity of all his later work ; considering further that all of us 
 who read the Sonnets are as men who are looking over another's 
 shoulder and reading a very private letter which was intended 
 for the recipient's eye, and for no one else's ; considering all 
 these things — for I will not urge the priceless legacy he has 
 left us, nor the fact that the common heart, brain, and con- 
 science of mankind holds him foremost among all Englishmen 
 as the crowning glory of our race — leaving all this on one 
 side, and considering only youth, the times, penitence, and 
 amendment of life, 1 believe that those whose judgement we 
 should respect will refuse to take Shakespeare's grave in- 
 discretion more to heart than they do the story of Noah's 
 drunkenness ; they will neither blink it nor yet look at it more 
 closely than is necessary iu order to prevent men's rank 
 thoughts from taking it to have been more grievous than it 
 was. 
 
 Tout savoir, c'est tout comprendre — and in this case surely 
 we may add — tout pardonner. 
 
( 88 ) 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ON THE DATES OF THE SONNETS. 
 
 Those who believe that Lord Soathampton was the friend 
 to whom Shakespeare addressed the greater number of the 
 Sonnets can date the beginning of the series approximately— 
 for the earlier ones are addressed to a smooth-faced youth who 
 was hardly likely to be more than 18, and may well have 
 been a few months younger. Lord Southampton was born 
 in October 1573; adding, say, 18 years to this date, the 
 earlier spauets should have been written in the second half 
 of 1591, when Shakespeare was 27j years old, while if my 
 own numbering (which is virtually that of Q) be accepted 
 as chronological, sonnet 124 (104 Q) should be dated in the 
 second half of 1594. The remaining 24 sonnets cannot on the 
 Southampton theory be dated with certainty, but should be 
 supposed to have followed sonnet 104 at no very distant date. 
 
 By a like process of seasoning those who take Mr W. H. 
 to have been William Herbert Earl of Pembroke, will date 
 the Sonnets as between 1698 and 1601 or 1602, for Lord 
 Pembroke was born in April 1580. With the dismissal, 
 however, of the claims of both these noblemen, all clue to 
 the date of the Sonnets derivable from their ages disappears, 
 and we are driven back upon the internal evidence of the 
 Sonnets, and what few meagre notices of them we can find 
 elsewhere. 
 
 As regards these last they are limited to the fact that 
 Francis Meres in his "Palladis Tamia," published in 1598, 
 speaks On p. 282 of Shakespeare's " sugred Sonnets among 
 his private friends." It is probable that he was alluding 
 to some, at any rate, of those with which we are familiar. 
 Again in 1599 Jaggard printed the two sonnets 46 and 52 
 
ON THE DATES OF THE SONNETS. 89 
 
 (138, 144, Q), but this does not prove that any of the later 
 ones had been yet written. Practically, then, we have no 
 evidence for the dates of any of the sonnets but what we can 
 gather from the poems themselves. 
 
 Let us go through them as numbered in my own text. 
 
 In sonnet 2, we find that the writer holds a man of forty 
 to be " old." Forty years will have dug " deep trenches " in 
 the field of Mr W. H.'s beauty ; at forty his eyes will be 
 " deep sunken " ; he will feel his blood cold, and must be 
 contented with seeing it warm in the veins of his offspring. 
 In short he is a decrepit old man with one foot in the grave. 
 I cannot think I am forcing a conclusion when I hold that 
 this sonnet can only have been written by one who was still 
 very young. I should say that 21 would be quite old enough 
 for him. I therefore tentatively date this sonnet, and I assume 
 also sonnet 1 as written in the spring of 1585 — say, for con- 
 venience sake, at the beginning of April, shortly after the 
 beginning of the official year. I dare not lay much stress on 
 the words in sonnet 1 : 
 
 Thou that art now this world's fresh ornament 
 And only herald to the gaudy spring, 
 
 but they would be less appropriate if written in any other 
 season than that of early or middle spring. 
 
 The same opinion as to the senility of a man of forty (or 
 indeed six and thirty) may be gathered from sonnet 3. When 
 Mr W. H.'s son — for Shakespeare never contemplates the 
 possibility of the son's turning out to be a daughter — reaches 
 his father's present age of about 18, Mr W. H., "despite of 
 wrinkles," will be able to look " through windows of his age," 
 and see his present golden time in the person of another. But 
 he will not be over six and thirty, or seven and thirty at the 
 outside, for the baby is to be set on foot at once. The opinion 
 of the writer that a man is broken down and old, say, at 
 37, is indeed less obviously expressed in sonnet 3, but the 
 unconsciousness with which it has escaped him is even more 
 convincing as to what he really thought than the directer 
 statement of the preceding sonnet. I again infer that 21 years 
 
90 Shakespeare's soitoets. [chap. x. 
 
 is a reasonable age to give him, of coarse I mean provisionally. 
 The reader will note that the provisional acceptance of, say, 
 mid-April 1585 as the date of the first three sonnets commits 
 me to the date, say mid-April 1588, as that of sonnet 124 
 (104, Q), and I am bound to get the intervening ones within 
 these two dates by the light of whatever hints I may gather 
 from the Sonnets themselves. 
 
 In sonnet 16 Shakespeare speaks of his "pnpil pen." 
 Malone quotes Steevens as thinking this expression to be 
 " some slight proof" that the Sonnets were Shakespeare's 
 earliest compositions. The earliest date commonly assigned 
 to the first 17 sonnets is 1593 or 1594. By this time Shake- 
 speare had written Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, 
 and is confidently believed to have written Love's Labom-'s 
 Lost, Romeo and Juliet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, 
 and at any rate parts of other plays ; all these plays are 
 assigned to 1592 and still earlier years. It is incredible that 
 in 1594 he, being then 30, should speak of his writings as those 
 of a mere beginner. Still more incredible would it be that he 
 should do so at the later date which the Herbertites would 
 assign to the Sonnets. The words "my pnpil pen" will, 
 I believe, suggest to most readers more strongly than they 
 seem to have done to Steevens that in the Sonnets we have 
 Shakespeare's first essays in writing. In this case 1585 seems 
 a very reasonable date for the opening sonnets. 
 
 Against this must be set the fact that Shakespeare, in his 
 dedication of Venus and Adonis to Lord Southampton, calls it 
 " the first heir of his invention " ; he may well, however, have 
 so called it, though aware that he had already written a large 
 number of sonnets. Shakespeare had never seen Shakespeare's 
 Sonnets bound together, and thus made to seem more inten- 
 tionally articulated than they really are. They prove to be in 
 great measure articulated, but this was the doing of time and 
 circumstance, not of invention : no one considers his occasional 
 letters whether in prose or verse as heirs to his invention ; 
 they are determined for him both as regards incident and 
 incidence, and he knows neither the facts nor their grouping 
 inter se till time reveals them ; they are Fortune's bastards, 
 
ON THE DATES OF THE SONNETS. 91 
 
 not begotteu in wedlock with a subject chosen beforehand and 
 developed according to the writer's ideas concerning their 
 fittest exposition. The preface, therefore, to Venus and Adonis 
 does not militate against the view that the Sonnets were 
 Sliakespeare's first essays in poetry. 
 
 Again, as we have just seen, he had written several plays 
 before he published Venus and Adonis, and if he did not hold 
 these as " heirs to his invention," still less would he so hold 
 the sonnets. A concise and formal preface cannot go into 
 details ; if Venus and Adonis was Shakespeare's first elabora- 
 tion of a set subject, and if it was his first published work, 
 this would be enough to justify him in calling it the "first 
 heir of his invention." Of course he ought to have put 
 a parenthesis after these words, in some such precious phrase 
 by all the Muses filed as the following : — 
 
 To be strictly accurate, however, I fihould inform your honour 
 that I have also written a considerable number of Sonnets, and 
 Bome few Plays, none of which have been published, and which 
 I esteem unworthy of your honour's attention. 
 
 Shakespeare perhaps thought that this would be a little 
 long, and that the existence of other unpublished works might 
 be allowed to go without saying. Moreover he knew nothing 
 of eminent Shakespearean scholars. 
 
 For reasons which will appear when I reach sonnet 97, 1 date 
 that sonnet (always provisionally) Jan. 1, 1585-6. I have 
 therefore to date 1—96 as written between April and the end of 
 December 1585. Without, then, having any confidence that 
 the opening line of 18 (" Shall I compare thee to a summer's 
 day ? ") was actually suggested by the beauty of some day in 
 early June, I will suppose that with this sonnet we have 
 reached, say, early June 1585. 
 
 The next apparent clue to Shakespeare's age after those 
 we have deduced from sonnets 2 and 3 and 16 is in 22. Shake- 
 speare here says that his glass shall not persuade him he is 
 old, and this implies that he should have to admit himself old 
 if he believed what his glass told him. Perhaps — but one 
 would like to know exactly what he meant by " old." Shake- 
 
92 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. x. 
 
 speare seems to have regarded male good looks much as 
 Homer, and the writer of the Odyssey did, i. e. to be at their 
 best with the approach of beard and moustaches. Homer 
 makes Mercury appear to Priam in the likeness of a young 
 man " with the down just coming upon his chin, when youth 
 is at its loveliest,"* and the writer of the Odyssey endorses his 
 opinion by taking his line verbatim. So Shakespeare writes in 
 his Lover's Complaint : — 
 
 Small show of man was yet upon his chin ; 
 His phoenix down began but to appear, 
 
 Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin, 
 
 Whose bare outbragg'd the web it seem'd to wear, 
 Yet showed his visage by that coatf more dear ; 
 
 And nice affections wavering stood in doubt 
 
 If best were as it was, or best without. 
 
 Shakespeare, here, presumably much about the same date 
 as that of the earlier sonnets, is describing ideal youthful 
 beauty in a young man. What fluff — for we may as well call 
 things by their right names — there was, might pass, but had 
 there been more the face would have been better without it ; 
 it would have passed its best, and the younger people are, the 
 more apt they are to set down anything that they think past 
 its best, as old, when an older person would give it many 
 another year of youth. Hence from sonnet 46 (138, Q) we may 
 infer that " old," which it seems, from the same sonnet, only 
 means " past the best," may intend nothing more than " past 
 the fluffy stage." Sonnet 22 does indeed show that Shake- 
 speare was older than Mr W. H., but a difference of three or 
 four years would be enough to make him seem old by com- 
 parison both to himself and to his friend, especially when we 
 remember that he had married imprudently at 18. Such 
 a marriage as Shakespeare's would age a man early, for there 
 can hardly be a doubt that it was forced upon him, and his 
 wife was 8 years older than he was, to say nothing of other 
 
 * nrpfvTov i/TTJjl'^Tjj, Toy -jrEp 3(api£(rTdT7j f;'^»). II. XHV., 348. Cf. Od. I. 279. 
 
 t Q reads " cost." Malone points out that the liue means " Yet his yisage 
 showed ...more dear." 
 
ON THE DATES OF THE SONNETS. 93 
 
 evidence that his married life was unhappy, and his youth 
 orageuse. 
 
 One of my own earlier friends was of the same year as 
 myself at Cambridge, but being three or four years (if so 
 much) older than most of us, we always called him " the old 
 one." He was more active and youthful than many of his 
 juniors, but he accepted his name without demur, and rather 
 gloried in it. It is one of the commonest affectations of youth 
 to think itself old— as it is of age to imagine itself still young. 
 In a note on p. 86 of the second edition of his " Life of W. 
 Shakespeare," Mr Lee quotes Daniel at the age of 29, Barnfield 
 at 20, and Drayton at barely 31, all describing themselves not 
 only as old, but apparently as very old. 
 
 Moreover, even the Southamptonites ought not to make 
 Shakespeare older than, say 28, when sonnet 22 was written, 
 and if at this age he could persuade himself into thinking 
 that his glass ought to persuade him he was old, he could so 
 persuade himself at 21. Besides, he repeatedly abases his 
 own appearance by comparison with that of his friend. Seeing, 
 then, how impossible it is that Shakespeare should have been 
 really old, or even elderly, when he wrote sonnet 22, his 
 implying that he was then old points rather in the direction 
 of thinking that he was still very young. 
 
 To return for a moment to the preface to Venus and Adonis. 
 Shakespeare speaks of this poem as " unpolished lines," when 
 he must have known that they were the most highly polished 
 that had yet been written in English. He says he fears the 
 world will censure him for having chosen so strong a prop as 
 Lord Southampton, to support so weak a burden. How far, 
 I wonder, did he really believe his poem to be a weak burden ? 
 He continues : — 
 
 Only if your honour seem but pleased, I account myself highly 
 praised, and vow to take advantage of all idle hours, till I have 
 honoured you with some graver labour. But if the first heir of my 
 invention prove deformed, I shall be sorry it had so noble a god 
 father, and never after ear so barren a land, for fear it yield me 
 etUl so bad a harvest. 
 
 All very proper, pretty, and polite, but every third word a 
 
94 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. x. 
 
 lie duer paid to the reader than the Turk's tribute. " If your 
 honour seem but pleased I shall account myself highly 
 praised " ; I take it that unless Lord Southampton had 
 declared Venus and Adonis to be the loveliest poem ever 
 written, Shakespeare would have been bitterly disappointed ; 
 " honoured you with some graver labour " ; surely the labour 
 of writing Venus and Adonis must have been grave enough 
 for any one. And so on to the end of the preface, Shakespeare, 
 meekest of men, is ever ready to disarm criticism by uprearing 
 his hand against himself. I imagine that this is all he is 
 doing when he calls himself old in Sonnet 22, and in others to 
 which 1 will call attention in due course. Let us, then, 
 hold to our original hypothesis and date the sonnet, summer 
 1585. 
 
 I have said in the preceding chapter that I agree with 
 Mr Wyndham in regarding sonnets 26—32 as written during 
 absence and sent to Mr W. H. " it may be as a single letter." 
 Sonnet 26 will be thus considered not as an envoi to the 
 preceding 25, but as a preface to the six that follow. We 
 have no clue to the length of time this absence lasted, but 
 considering that Shakespeare was, on our present hypothesis, 
 in the white heat alike of his infatuation, and of his 
 discovery that he too was a poet, and considering that he only 
 wrote seven sonnets during this absence, I think a month is 
 enough to allow for them. The extreme depression which 
 they betray, especially the hopelessness and friendlessness of 
 his outcast state as depicted in 29, make it impossible to 
 believe tJiat Shakespeare had as yet got his foot even on 
 the lowest rungs of the ladder up which he was to climb 
 to affluence — much less that he had obtained the powerful 
 patronage of Lord Southampton, or had even reached the 
 position which enabled Greene in 1592 to speak of him as 
 " an upstart crow." I see nothing, therefore, to make the 
 hypothesis difEcult that he wrote the seven sonnets in 
 question during the summer months of 1585, and returned 
 to London, for want of a more exact date, say, at the end 
 of July. 
 
 Another reason for thinking that Shakespeare was still 
 
ON THE DATES OF THE SONNETS. 95 
 
 very young may be gathered from sonnet 32, line 10, where we 
 read in Q : — 
 
 Had my friend's Muse grown with this growing age, 
 
 Malone evidently meant to read " with his growing age," for 
 he writes : — 
 
 We may hence, as well as from other circumstances, infer that 
 these [i.e. the Sonnets] were among our author's earliest com- 
 positions. 
 
 As I have pointed oat in my notes to this sonnet, Malone's 
 words have little force unless he meant to read, not " with 
 this," but " with his " — which is surely right, for the words 
 " with this growing age " add nothing of importance to " had 
 my friend's muse grown," whereas " with his growing age " 
 shows why it might have been expected to do so. I am glad 
 to see that Mr Lee accepts this reading ; he writes that 
 Shakespeare's " occasional reference in the Sonnets to his 
 growing age . . . admits of no literal interpretation."* There 
 is no reference in the Sonnets to Shakespeare's "growing age" 
 unless " his " be read in this passage. It is plain, therefore, 
 that Mr Lee is reading " his," not " this." 
 
 I suppose the trap already referred to was considered and 
 determined on during Shakespeare's absence and that it was 
 laid for him immediately on his return. Let us then place 
 sonnets 33—37 as written in the first half of August 1585, and 
 38, 39 in the second half of the month, there or thereabouts, 
 when Shakespeare and Mr W. H. were seeing less of one 
 another by mutual consent. 
 
 I cannot say that sonnet 38 compels the inference that Mr 
 W. H. was as yet the sole source of Shakespeare's inspiration, 
 but it suggests this. If the inference is equitable, sonnet 38 
 must be thrown back to a date earlier than that of the 
 earliest plays, and I will for the present hold to my hypo- 
 thesis that it was written in the autumn of 1586. 
 
 Shakespeare is not likely to have let his newly-found power 
 rust during the time of his sejDaration from his friend, nor is 
 
 * "Life of W. Shakespeare," p. 85, 
 
96 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. x. 
 
 he likely to have been long in finding some pretext for bringing 
 the separation to an end. 1 imagine that no long time woald 
 elapse before he conceived the idea of introducing his mistress 
 and Mr W. H. to one another, and can well believe that some 
 of the sonnets addressed to the dark lady were written before 
 he had renewed his full intimacy with his friend. The whole 
 of the episode is comprised between sonnets 40 and 62 of my 
 numbering, and considering how slight some of them are, and 
 that the intimacy between Mr W. H. and the dark woman 
 appears from sonnet 62 to have been soon ended, I can see no 
 great difficulty in thinking that the last of these sonnets may 
 have been written, and Mr W. H. dismissed by the lady, 
 before the end of September. 
 
 Sonnets 63—71 (always of my numbering) are written 
 during a second absence from London. We cannot deter- 
 mine how long Shakespeare was away, but let us say a month, 
 and let us then suppose sonnets 72—96 to have been written 
 between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, 1585. 
 
 In sonnet 83 Shakespeare speaks of himself as 
 
 With. Time's injurious hand crush'd and o'erworn. 
 
 The remarks already made as to Shakespeare's ideas of age 
 apply here, as they also do to the whole of sonnet 93. 
 
 It is impossible to believe that sonnet 96 could have been 
 written by one who had even begun to write Venus and Adonis 
 and Lucrece, not to mention the plays of a still earlier time, 
 some of which bear traces of the Sonnets that do not appear 
 nearly so frequently in Shakespeare's later work. The sonnet 
 does not indeed say, " I have never written anything in any 
 other style than that of these sonnets, nor on any other subject 
 than that of yourself, but it does say, ' I never write in any 
 other style than that of these sonnets ; I never write of any- 
 thing but of you, and I have still no other argument than you 
 and my love for you." The word "still" suggests, though 
 I admit that it does not compel, the opinion that the sonnets 
 were Shakespeare's earliest essays. 
 
 I will now give my reasons for thinldng that sonnet 97 was 
 written to accompany the new year's gift of a book of tablets. 
 
ON THE DATES OF THE SONNETS. 97 
 
 The idea is not mine but Malone's. Steevens had said that 
 the sonnet was probably designed to accompany a present 
 of a book consisting of blank paper. Malone added— 
 
 This suggestion appears to me extremely probable. "We learn 
 from the 122nd Sonnet [Q] that Shakespeare received a table-book 
 from his friend. In his age it was customary for all ranks of 
 people to make presents on the first day of the new year. 
 
 Jan. 1, not the ofScial new year, is here intended. 
 
 My friend Mr H. Festing Jones suggests to me that the 
 book referred to in 97 (77, Q) as having been given by Shake- 
 speare to Mr W. H. was in reality a book of tablets, much 
 like the one referred to in 145 (122, Q) as having been given by 
 Mr W. H. to Shakespeare, and that the two friends probably 
 each made the other a present of a book of. tablets on the 
 occasion of a New Year's Day — Shakespeare writing sonnet 97 
 (77, Q) on the first leaf of the book he gave to Mr W. H. 
 
 In a note book started by my grandfather, Dr S. Butler, 
 on New Year's day 1837, I found he began by saying that if 
 Hell was paved with good intentions, a full half of the paving 
 would be found to have been laid on New Year's days. There 
 is a sub-didactic, new-leaf, good resolution tone about sonnet 97 
 which makes me readily accept Malone's suggestion that it was 
 written to accompany a new year's present, and I not less readily 
 accept Mr H. F. Jones's, that on the occasion of some new 
 year Shakespeare and Mr W. H. determined to set up common- 
 place-books or diaries, and each made the other a present of 
 the book he was to use. The question then is which new year 
 we are to fix upon ? 
 
 Adhering to the hypothesis that sonnet 1 was written in mid 
 April 1585, and hence sonnet 124 in mid April 1588, there is 
 only one new year possible, i.e.. that of 1585-6. If sonnet 1 is 
 dated April 1585, and Q's order is taken as correct, sonnet 117 
 should be dated Sej)tember 1586, and sonnets 118, 119 in 
 the following summer, after an absence which had extended 
 over violet-time and rose-time — these two sonnets, therefore, 
 must be dated summer 1587. Between 119, 120 we are told 
 that there was a long interval, and by 124 we are landed 
 
 H 
 
98 shakkspeaek's sonnets. [chap. X. 
 
 in, say, April 1588, Siace, then, sonnet 97 comes before 
 sonnet 117, which cannot have been written later than August 
 or September 1586. Jan. 1, 1585-6, is the only New Year's 
 Day on which we can date it, unless we throw over the con- 
 clusion arrived at in the preceding chapter to the effect that 
 the order of the sonnets in Q is substantially chronological. 
 
 The jealousy series therefore (sonnets 98—113 of my num- 
 bering) must be dated in the spring months of 1585-6, or as 
 we should say 1586. They do not seem necessarily to have 
 been written in rapid succession, for line 5 of sonnet 103, 
 
 And therefore have I slept in your report 
 
 implies that Shakespeare had let some little time go by 
 without writing. We may, however, provisionally set down 
 sonnets 98—113, and also 114—116, as written before Shake- 
 speare left London in the early summer of 1586. Here 
 practically the intimacy between Shakespeare and Mr W. H. 
 (already much shaken in the autumn of 1685) came to an end. 
 It flickered up brilliantly enough more than once, but it died 
 down again as rapidly as it flickered up. One sonnet, 117, as 
 we have just seen, was written in the autumn of 1586, and 
 two, 118, 119, in the summer of 1587; bearing in mind how 
 Shakespeare tells us that there was a long interval between 
 119 and 120, and further being bound down to 124 as having 
 been written about April 1588, noting, moreover, that 
 sonnets 120—126 are very kindred in feeling, I will date 
 them provisionally as all of them written between, say, the 
 end of March 1587-8 and the end of April 1588. 
 
 In order to establish (provisionally) the date of sonnet 97 
 as Jan. 1, 1585-6, I have been obliged to pass over the more 
 detailed consideration of sonnets 97—126. I will now return to 
 whatever evidence we can collect from these sonnets to show 
 that they were written very early in Shakespeare's career. 
 
 That Mr W. H. was the first to inspire his Muse may be 
 gathered from sonnet 98, where Shakespeare says that Mr 
 W. H.'s eyes had "taught the dumb on high to sing and 
 heavy ignorance aloft to fly." Can there be a doubt that he 
 is alluding to himself, and implying that it was his love for 
 
ON THE DATES OF THE SONNETS. 99 
 
 Mr W. H. that set him on to writing, when heretofore he had 
 written nothing ? A few lines lower down he writes ; — 
 
 Tet be most proud of that which I compile, 
 Whose influence is thine and born of thee ; 
 
 In other's works thou dost but mend the style, 
 And arts with thy sweet graces graced be ; 
 
 But thou art all my art and dost advance 
 
 As high as learning my rude ignorance. 
 
 Is not this tantamount to saying that but for Mr W. H. he 
 should never have written at all ? 
 
 Before Shakespeare had written Venus and Adonis and 
 Lucrece, in moments of self-abasement he might, as he does 
 in sonnet 100, call his poems "a saucy bark inferior far" to 
 the work of able and highly educated poets like Thomas 
 Watson, or Daniel, or Chapman ; but it is incredible that he 
 should have done so after Venus and Adonis had assured him 
 of that strength which he had felt at times from the outset, 
 and of which he is so fully aware in 101. He might express 
 himself with excess of modesty in a courtly preface to a great 
 nobleman with whom he was yet slightly, if at all acquainted, 
 but after 1593 he would not do so when writing to an intimate 
 friend of his own rank. Nor would he have been so much 
 afraid of the other poet, as he evidently was, after the publica- 
 tion of Venus and Adonis had assured his own position. 
 
 In sonnet 120 we find Shakespeare rebuking his Muse for 
 having so long forgotten to speak of that which gives her all 
 her might-— i.e. evidently of Mr W. H., — and for spending her 
 fury " on some worthless song," which in illumining a base 
 subject darkens her own power. Here, then, we have it that 
 whereas when sonnet 96 was written Shakespeare had no other 
 argument than Mr W. H., he had now found other things to 
 write about, but it was songs and not a play on which 
 his Muse had been expending her fury. Mr Lee says, 
 I have no doubt correctly, that Shakespeare's first essays 
 as a playwright 
 
 have been with confidence allotted to 1591. To Love's Labour's 
 Lost may reasonably be assigned priority in point of time, of all 
 Shakespeare's productions ("Life of W. Shakespeare," p. 50). 
 
 h2 
 
100 shakespeabb's soknkts. [chap. X. 
 
 In a note on p. 52, Mr Lee very justly says that the name 
 Armado for the Spanish pedant in Love's Labour's Lost was 
 doubtless suggested by the Armada — the defeat of which was 
 first publicly proclaimed in London, August 15, 1588, but 
 must have been commonly known a full week earlier. I 
 would remind the reader that in the literature of the time 
 the Armada was generally, if not universally, called- the 
 Armado. Love's Labour's Lost, then, which has more affinity 
 with the Sonnets than any other of Shakespeare's plays, 
 though some of the other earliest ones run it close, must 
 have been written between 1588 and 1591, and hence, — if I 
 am right (as I shall argue in my next chapter) in supposing 
 the defeat of the Armada to be referred to in 127, not long 
 after the Sonnets. Probably, therefore, Shakespeare was 
 accurate when in 120 he describes himself as having been 
 occupied with lyrical, not dramatic composition, and the 
 introduction of sonnets into Love's Labour's Lost, as well as 
 of passages which at once recall the Sonnets, must be taken 
 not as a foreshadowing of these poems, but as an overflow 
 from them. 
 
 Sonnet 124 throws no direct light upon Shakespeare's age 
 at the date when the earlier sonnets were written, but as I 
 have already insisted, it assures us that that date must be 
 fixed about three years earlier ; for we have three recurrences 
 of each of the four seasons, expressly stated as having inter- 
 vened between sonnet 124 and Shakespeare's first acquaintance 
 with Mr W. H. ; therefore, we should be, roughly, at the same 
 part of the year as when we started. The question then is, 
 whether or no I was right in starting with spring for sonnet 1. 
 
 I think so. For supposing sonnet 1 to have been written 
 in 1585, Jan. 1, 1585-6, may be taken as a fairly certain date 
 for sonnet 97 ; and it is impossible to crowd sonnets 1—96, with 
 all the various incidents and absences therein indicated, into a 
 less space than three quarters of a year ; furthermore the lines. 
 
 Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament. 
 And only herald to the gaudy spring, 
 
 ^ after all suggest spring with some force as the most 
 
ON THE DATES OF THF, SONNETe. 101 
 
 appropriate season at which to date sonnet 1 ; I feel fairly 
 coniident, therefore, in dating sonnet 124 as written in April, 
 or thereabouts, — but whether the April in question be that of 
 1588 or no, and hence whether my initial hypothesis of April 
 1585 for sonnet 1 may stand, will depend on what we think 
 concerning sonnet 127. 
 
 I have said in Chapter IX that I take sonnets 120—126 to 
 be closely connected, It is in evidence that there was a long 
 interval between sonnets 119 and 120 ; it is also, as we have 
 just seen, in evidence that sonnet 124 was written about April ; 
 125 and 126 strongly suggest peace offering as an amende after 
 long silence; I therefore date all the sonnets 120—126 as 
 written in the spring^whenever that spring was— that pre- 
 ceded the writing of 127. 
 
 In the following chapter I shall attempt to show that this 
 last-named sonnet was written early in August 1588. 
 
 From sonnet 125 we gather that whatever may have been 
 the songs on which his mirse had been expending the fury 
 referred to in sonnet 120, they can hardly have been of great 
 importance in Shakespeare's opinion, for in 125 we find him 
 saying that his songs and praises were all alike " To one, of 
 one, still snch and ever so." But these words, it would seem, 
 must be taken cum grano. 
 
( 102 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ON THE DATES OF BONNET 127 (107, q) AND THE 
 EEMAININQ BONNETS. 
 
 I HAVE shown in the preceding chapter that there are many 
 reasons for holding the Sonnets to have been the first poems 
 that Shakespeare wrote ; indeed I know of nothing that points 
 in any other direction, escept his own attempts to make him- 
 self out old — and these I believe I have sufficiently shown to 
 fail. If, then, the Sonnets were Shakespeare's earhest essays 
 in literature, there is nothing strange, when we look at 
 Chatterton whose career ended when he was only 18, in 
 supposing that the first sonnets may have been written when 
 Shakespeare was only 21 years old; for such a prolific genius 
 as his was little likely to be long in finding expression of 
 some sort. 
 
 This is the utmost that I can pretend so far to have 
 established. Whether or no the dates which I have pro- 
 visionally assigned to the various sonnets, or groups of sonnets, 
 may be allowed to stand must depend on what we conclude 
 concerning 127 (107 Q). If we can date this, we can date the 
 whole series, much as I have done ; otherwise we can date 
 nothing with precision. 
 
 It is agreed on all hands that the sonnet in question refers 
 to an event in contemporary history — and it is the only one in 
 which such reference can be detected. It is surprising, there- 
 fore, that neither Malone, nor Steevens, nor any of the earlier 
 students of the Sonnets, should have sought to discover what 
 the event was which so powerfully deflected Shakespeare from 
 
DATES OF THE SONNETS (CONTINUED). 103 
 
 his habitnal reticence about current national events. Let me 
 repeat the sonnet in full : — 
 
 Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul 
 Of the wide world dreaming on things to come, 
 Can yet the lease of my true love control, 
 Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom : 
 The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured, 
 And the sad augurs mock their own presage ; 
 Incertainties now crown themselves assured. 
 And peace proclaims olives of endlesa age. 
 Now, with the drops of this most balmy time, 
 My love looks fresh, and death to me subscribes. 
 Since, spite of him, I'll live in this poor rhyme, 
 While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes ; 
 And thou in this shalt find thy monument. 
 When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent. 
 
 Never vs^as time of universal apprehension more graphically 
 portrayed; who but Shakespeare could have brought so vividly 
 and concisely before us the relief of a nation on finding its 
 fears groundless after having delivered itself over to the 
 gloomiest forebodings? Not England only, but the whole 
 civilised world was in suspense ; no one knew what might 
 happen ; a shadow overhung the throne, and who could say 
 whether it would pass away, or prove to be the doom and date 
 of all things ? Shakespeare feared the worst, and as part of 
 that worst he and Mr W. H. would probably never see one 
 another again — and lo I the shadow had passed ; the prophets 
 of evil were now laughing at their own fears ; every one was 
 breathing freely, for security seemed permanently assured ; 
 Shakespeare and his friend were to be drawn together as 
 closely as in the early days of their acquaintance, and while 
 death is insulting over dull and speechless tribes, Mr W. H. 
 will find a monument in Shakespeare's verse which shall 
 outlive the crests of tyrants. 
 
 This is what the sonnet comes to when its substance is 
 considered in prose. Is there any event, except the Armada, 
 that occurred during Shakespeare's youth, to which the above 
 picture will apply with anything like the same force and 
 
104 SHAEESPEAEE'S sonnets. [chap. XI. 
 
 accnrac}^ ? I may go even further, and ask whether there is 
 any event between 1585 and 1609, to which the sonnet can 
 apply without both doing violence to the most natural meaning 
 of its words, and arbitrarily dating it many years later than 
 the other sonnets ? 
 
 We can see how great a scare had been caused by the 
 Armada from the thanksgiving prayer that was read in 
 all churches after it had been defeated. Stow tells us 
 with what admirable resolution both Queen and nation faced 
 the coming danger, but people may be alarmed though 
 brave, and this naif prayer does not attempt to conceal from 
 the Almighty that the guilty conscience of the nation had 
 
 "looked for the execution of that terrible justice by it so 
 
 much deserved." The enemy had intended " to destroy us, our 
 cities, towns, countries and peoples, and utterly to root out the 
 memory of our nation from off the earth for ever." Happily, 
 it seems, the Almighty was aware that the Spaniards had 
 "offended and do oifend as much or more than we," and 
 therefore he had been pleased 
 
 to remember meroj towards us, turning our enemies from us, 
 and that dreadful execution which they intended towards us, into 
 a fatherly and most merciful admonition of us, to the amendment 
 of our lives, and to execute justice upon our cruel enemies ; turning 
 the destruction that they intended against us upon their own 
 heads, &c.* 
 
 If this is a true picture Shakespeare might well sketch the 
 general apprehension in such a telling touch as " the prophetic 
 soul of the wide world dreaming on things to come," and 
 might well suppose that the lease of his true love for Mr 
 W. H. was to expire very shortly. But as there is no other 
 such sketch, so neither is any such picture to be found, in 
 prayer nor elsewhere, of any event between 1585 and 1609. 
 
 Mr Lee thinks differently ; he says that sonnet 127 (107, Q) 
 is apparently the last of the series, and was 
 
 penned almost a decade after the mass of its companions, for it 
 makes references that cannot be mistaken to three events that took 
 
 * Hichola' " Progresses of Queen Elizabeth," ed. 1823, Vol. II., p. 640. 
 
DATES OF THE SONNETS (CONTINUED). 105 
 
 place in 1603 — to Queen Elizabeth's death, to the accession of 
 James I, and to the release of the Earl of Southampton, who had 
 been in prison since he was convicted in 1601 of complicity in the 
 rebellion of the Earl of Essex. 
 
 I find it easy to avoid discovering reference to any one of 
 the events mentioned by Mr Lee as being referred to in a way 
 " that cannot be mistaken." 
 
 The death of Queen Elizabeth ? To me the sonnet suggests 
 that she was not only not dead, but had emerged from a time 
 of apparent peril with splendour all undimmed. " Cynthia, 
 (i.e. the moon)," says Mr Lee, "was the Queen's recognised 
 poetic appellation."* No one will deny that Queen Elizabeth 
 is intended by the words, " The mortal moon," but not many 
 will admit that Shakespeare would have compared her to the 
 moon, and have said that she had endured her eclipse, unless 
 he had meant to say that she had endured it as the moon 
 endures it, and had passed from under the shadow with 
 undiminished brightness. 
 
 When Anthony, speaking to Cleopatra, but, I presume, 
 speaking of her at the same time, says 
 
 Alack ! our terrene moon is now eclipsed, f 
 
 he does not say that she had " endured " her eclipse, for the 
 shadow was still upon her. 
 
 Granted that the word " eclipse " is sometimes loosely used 
 for "end" ; Shakespeare so used it when he made Talbot say 
 to his son. 
 
 Then here I take my leave of thee, fair son, 
 
 Born to eclipse thy life this afternoon.l 
 
 It is open, therefore, to Mr Lee to urge that Shakespeare 
 has used " endured " loosely first, and " eclipse " loosely after- 
 wards ; but there is a difference between using a single word — 
 a mere passing note — loosely when the context admits of no 
 mistake, and the making a lame simile when the simile is fully 
 developed. Moreover it is not open to any one to set aside 
 the prima facie meaning of words, until he has shown that 
 
 » Life of W. Shakespeare, p. 148. t -int. and Cleo. III. so. xiii., 163, 
 
 X I. Hen. VI., Act. iv., so. Ti., 52. 
 
10^ Shakespeare's sonnets. [ohap. xi. 
 
 this meaning is impossible or highly improbable ; and this, 
 naturally enough, Mr Lee has not attempted. He does indeed 
 write : — 
 
 There was hardly a verse-writer who mourned her [Elizabeth's] 
 loss that did not typify it as the echpse of a heavenly body.* 
 
 Perhaps not, but though Mr Lee brings forward several 
 passages to support him, he has not quoted one which looks as 
 though in sonnet 127 (107, Q) the moon's having endured her 
 eclipse should mean that she has not endured it, but has 
 succumbed to it. 
 
 Let us now see on what grounds Mr Lee bases his 
 conclusion that lines 5—8 of 107 Q can only refer to the 
 accession of James I. If the reasoning contained in the few 
 preceding paragraphs is held as sound these lines cannot refer 
 to the accession of Elizabeth's successor, for the Queen had 
 not died. Is it necessary to say more? Still, let us give 
 Mr Lee a full hearing. After quoting the lines last referred to 
 he says : — 
 
 It is in almost identical phrase that every pen in the spring of 
 1603 was felicitating the nation on the unexpected turn of events, 
 by which Elizabeth's crown had passed, without civil war, to the 
 Scottish King, and thus the revolution which had been foretold 
 as the inevitable consequence of Elizabeth's demise was happily 
 averted.j- 
 
 Some pens no doubt actually did write as Mr Lee says they 
 did, but he has not quoted, nor have I been able to find, any- 
 thing written before the accession of James, which suggests 
 any such grave alarm as was felt all over England when the 
 Armada was off Plymouth, or in sight of Dover. There is no 
 reference to any such alarm in Bishop Creighton's admirable 
 work on Queen Elizabeth. Turning to the article on Elizabeth 
 in the " Dictionary of National Biography," I find nothing to 
 indicate that the nation had been seriously afraid of civil war 
 
 * " Life of W. Shakespeare," p, 148. t Id' P. 1*7. 
 
DATES OF THE SONNETS (CONTINUED). 107 
 
 upon the Queen's demise. Going on to the article on James I, 
 I read : — 
 
 James's eye had for some time been fixed upon the English 
 succession. His hereditary right, combined with his protestantism, 
 gave to his claim a weight which left him the only competitor with 
 any chance of acceptance ^ .;^ ^^ At last on 24 March, 1603 
 Elizabeth died, and James was at once proclaimed King by the 
 title James I. King of England. 
 
 Any previous apprehensions that may have existed were 
 not thought sufficiently important by the writer to require 
 particular attention. 
 
 Nevertheless some apprehension there undoubtedly was. 
 In Howe's continuation of " Stow's Annals " we read that the 
 princes, peers of the land, and privy councillors of estate, 
 within six hours after Elizabeth's death, proclaimed James I. 
 at the court gates— I presume at Richmond where the Qaeeu 
 died, " knowing above all things delays to be most dangerous."* 
 
 But it is not clear from Howes what the danger of delay 
 was ; there is nothing either of undue haste, or of hesitation in 
 posting up a notice of the Queen's death and of the accession 
 of James I. at 8 o'clock in the morning, when the Queen had 
 died six hours earlier. There was no rising, nor manifestation 
 of disapproval in any part of the kingdom, nor yet any sign of 
 dissentient opinion among the lords of the Council, whose 
 meeting, considering the nature of the event that had just 
 happened, was very short. Everything had been cut and dried 
 beforehand ; Cecil, indeed, though the Queen had been kept in 
 ignorance of the fact, had been in correspondence with James 
 during the last two or three years of her life,t and all those 
 who would have to take action on the Queen's death knew that 
 he would be proclaimed at once, and be received gladly by the 
 nation. Everything, however, owing to Elizabeth's extreme 
 jealousy of discussion on this subject, was done with the 
 utmost secrecy — and it is to this cause that what uneasiness 
 there was among the people must be assigned. The following 
 
 * " Stow's Annala," continued by Howes. Ed. 1615, p. 816. 
 
 t Birch's " Memoirs of the reigu of Queen Elizabeth," 1754, 11., p. 514. 
 
108 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. xi. 
 
 passage, written, by the way, some thirty-six years after the 
 events with which it deals, brings this most clearly out, and 
 is the strongest on Mr. Lee's side that I have been able to 
 find. It runs : — 
 
 But nothing did fill foreign nations more with admiration and 
 expectation of this succession than the wonderfull (and by them 
 unexpected) consent of all estates and subjects of England, for the 
 receiving of the King without the least scruple, pause or question ; 
 for it had been generally dispersed by the fugitives beyond the seas 
 ■n. ^ if # that after Elizabeth's decease there must follow nothing 
 in England but confusions interraignes and perturbations of estate, 
 likely far to exceed the ancient calamities of the civil wars between 
 the house of Lancaster and York, by how much more mortal and 
 bloody, when foreign competition should be added to domestic, and 
 divisions for religion to matter of title to the crown ; and in special 
 persons the Jesuit (under a disguised name) had not long before 
 published an express treatise ; wherein whether his malice made 
 him believe his own fancies, or whether he thought it the fittest 
 way to move sedition, .^^ ..f, ^ he laboured to display and give 
 colour to all the vain pretences and dreams of succession he could 
 imagine, and thereby possessed many ^abroad that knew not the 
 afi'airs with those his vanities. 
 
 Neither wanted there divers persons both wise and well afiected, 
 who, though they doubted not the undoubted right, yet setting 
 before themselves the ways of the people's harts, guided no less by 
 Budden and temporary winds, than by the natural course of the 
 waters, were not without fear what might be the event, for Queen 
 Elizabeth being a princess of extreme caution, and yet one that 
 loved admiration above safety, and knowing that the declaration of 
 a successor might, in point of safety, be disputable, but in point of 
 admiration and respect assuredly to her disadvantage, from the 
 beginning set it down as a maxim of state to impose a silence 
 touching succession ; neither was it only reserved as a secret of 
 state, but restrained by severe laws, that no man should presume to 
 give opinion and maintain argument touching the same. So though 
 the evidence of right drew all the subjects of the land to think one 
 thought, yet the fear of the danger of the law made no man privy 
 to others thoughts ; and therefore it rejoiced all men to see so fair a 
 morning of a kingdom, and to be thoroughly secured of former 
 apprehensions, as a man that awaketh out of a fearful dream. 
 
DATES OF THB SONNETS (CONTINUED). 109 
 
 But 80 it was, that not only the consent, but the applause and 
 joy was infinite, and not to be expressed throughout the realm of 
 England, upon this succession, -whereof the consent (no doubt) may 
 be truly ascribed to the clearness of the right ; but the general joy 
 alacrity and gratulation were the effects of differing causes : 
 
 (Genealogical history of the Earldom of Sutherland 
 by Sir Eobert Gordon Bart. Edinburgh 1813, 
 pp. 250, 251.) 
 
 Returning to Howes, a little lower than the passage last 
 quoted from him, he writes : — 
 
 At about 11 o'clock on the same forenoon, [i.e. Mar. 24] at the 
 West side of the high Cross in Cheapside, where were assembled 
 the most part of the English princes, peers, divers principal prelates, 
 an extraordinary and unexpected number of gallant knights, and 
 brave gentlemen of note well mounted, besides the huge number 
 of common persons, all which with great reverence gave attention 
 to the Proclamation, being most distinctly and audibly read by 
 Mr Secretary Cecil, at the end thereof with one consent cried aloud 
 " God save King James," being not a little glad to see their long 
 feared danger so clearly prevented. 
 
 From the passages just quoted it would be easy to infer 
 that the nation was more apprehensive than it really was. 
 Doubtless there had been croakers, and doubtless there was a 
 vague fear that things might not go on so smoothly after the 
 Queen's death as they had done before it, but vague and 
 groundless apprehension is one thing, and the presence of an 
 apparently overwhelming force within sight of the English 
 coast is another ; the one may have been a fearful dream ; the 
 other was a far more fearful reality. Besides, no matter what 
 laws there may be to the contrary, when all the world is of 
 one opinion every one knows pretty well what that opinion is, 
 and how universally it is held — the dream, therefore, is little 
 likely to have been so very fearful after all. Nevertheless what 
 fearfulness there may have been was sure to be exaggerated 
 by poets and courtiers anxious to ingratiate themselves with 
 the new king, and no doubt a good deal of their exaggeration 
 would in time pass current as history. 
 
110 SHi.KESP]i!ARE''s SONKETS. [OHAP. II. 
 
 I repeat, then, that I can find no evidence in anything 
 written before the Queen's death of such general alarm as is 
 naanifested in 127 (107 Q) ; and so far from thinking with 
 Mr Lee that lines 5—8 of that sonnet make a reference " that 
 cannot be mistaken " to a general sense of relief at the 
 accession of James I, if the reference is indeed there, I find 
 it singularly easy to mistake it for reference to the joy of the 
 nation on learning the defeat of the Armada. 
 
 I will not argue about Mr Lee's contention that the con- 
 cluding lines of the sonnet above considered refer to the release 
 of Lord Southampton in 1603. I have already given my 
 reasons for thinking that Lord Southampton was not contem- 
 plated by Shakespeare in any one of the Sonnets. Let me 
 then briefly contrast the line taken by Mr Lee and that taken 
 by myself. 
 
 Mr Lee, leaning upon the broken reed of Lord South- 
 ampton's supposed connection with the sonnets, assumes, 
 with no other ground than this assumption, that the mass of 
 the sonnets were written not later than 1594, nor many of 
 them much earlier. Still leaning on this broken reed, he 
 assumes that the line, "supposed as forfeit to a confin'd 
 doom," can have no other reasonable reference than to Lord 
 Southampton's release from prison in 1603. He confirms 
 himself in this opinion by setting aside the prima facie inter- 
 pretation of the words "The mortal moon hath her eclipse 
 endured," and making them mean that the mortal moon hath 
 not endured her eclipse. 
 
 Intrenched in the above given positions, he separates 
 127 (107, Q) by about ten years from its fellows, which but 
 for the supposed strength of these positions he could not do. 
 This done he finds it easy to declare that the mocking of their 
 own presage by the sad augurs can have no reference but to 
 the relief of the nation on finding that James succeeded 
 Elizabeth without a disturbance which there was no reasonable 
 ground for anticipating. He does all this with the air of a 
 conjurer, who, on the conclusion of some obvious trick, exclaims 
 
DATES OF THE SONNETS (oONTIMUED). Ill 
 
 that there ia no deception, and says of the concluding lines of 
 the sonnet : — 
 
 It is impossible to resist the inference that Shakespeare thus 
 saluted his patron on the close of his day of tribulation (p. 149). 
 
 I again cannot think that most of my readers will find 
 resistance so difficult as Mr Lee imagines. My own position 
 is as follows : — 
 
 I have shown, from the internal evidence of the Sonnets, a 
 strong presumption — for I do not pretend that it is more — ia 
 favour of the opinion that Shakespeare wrote the earliest 
 sonnets when he was about twenty one, i.e. in the spring 
 of 1585. 
 
 I have shown an equally strong presumption, on the same 
 evidence, for thinking that 127 (107 Q) was written more than 
 three years after sonnet 1, i.e. very possibly in August 1588. 
 
 It is certain that this sonnet expresses the relief of the 
 nation at deliverance from a threatened danger of the very 
 gravest kind. 
 
 It is also certain that the defeat of the Armada became 
 known with the first days of August 1588. 
 
 Do not these two certainties harmonise so perfectly with 
 the two presumptions as to raise them to their own rank, or 
 at any rate to render them so probable that they should be 
 accepted in default of any more plausible opinion ? 
 
 I believe they do ; nor do I think tliat competent judges 
 will find any other fault with my argument than that I have 
 developed it at great length when simple statement of the 
 conclusion arrived at should have been enough to carry con- 
 viction. Perhaps it should ; but if Shakespeare did not know 
 anything of eminent Shakespearean scliolars, in this respect I 
 have the disadvantage of him. 
 
 What date, then, shall we assign to 148 (125, Q) which I 
 have supposed to bring the series to a conclusion ? There is 
 nothing in sonnets 128—147 (118—124, Q) which gives any 
 clue to the dates when they were written, but the signs of 
 growing estrangement between Shakespeare and his friend are 
 so numerous as to make it difficult to think that many months 
 
112 Shakespeare's bonnets. [chap. xi. 
 
 or even weeks elapsed between the writing of 127 (107 Q) and 
 148 (125, Q). In this last sonnet there is a reference to the 
 bearing of a certain canopy, apparently on some very great 
 occasion, over some great personage : Shakespeare seems 
 either to have had some part in the bearing of this canopy, 
 which had given rise to ill-natured remarks, or else to have 
 been maliciously foiled in an attempt to be included among 
 the bearers ; on the whole, I should say the second inter- 
 pretation of Shakespeare's words is the more probable. In 
 " Stow's Annals " we read as follows : — 
 
 The four and twentieth day of November [1588], being Sunday, 
 her Majesty having attendant upon her the Privy Council and 
 Nobility, and other honourable persons as well spiritual as temporal 
 in great number, the French Ambassador, the Judges of the 
 Eealme, the heralds, trumpeters, and all on horseback, did come 
 in a chariot-throne made with four pillars behind, to have a canopy, 
 on the top whereof was made a crown imperial, and two lower 
 pillars before, whereon stood a Lion and a Dragon, supporters of the 
 arms of England, drawn by two white horses from Somerset House 
 to the Cathedral church of St Paul, her footmen and pensioners 
 about her : next after rode the Earl of Essex 
 
 Then follow more particulars of the Queen's progress to 
 St Paul's, and how when she got there she kneeled and 
 " made her hearty prayers unto God." The account continues — 
 
 .... which prayers being finished, she was, under a rich canopy 
 brought through the long West aisle to her travers in the quire, 
 the clergy singing the Litany : which being ended she was brought 
 to a closet of purpose made out of the North wall of the Church, 
 towards the pulpit cross, where she heard a sermon made by 
 Dr Pierce Bishop of Sahsbury, and then returned through the 
 church to the Bishop's Palace, where she dined; and returned in 
 like manner, but with great light of torches. Stow's " Annals," 
 Ed. 1615, p. 750. 
 
 Here, then, we have two canopies born over a great person- 
 age on a great occasion, and it does not seem a very forced 
 supposition to think that the footmen who were about the 
 Queen, had some hand in the bearing one or other or both 
 
DATES OJi' THE SONNETS (CONTINUED). 113 
 
 of them, though the pillars would do the greater part of the 
 bearing in the first mentioned canopy. I know what Mr Lee 
 would do if he were arguing my case ; he would say : — 
 
 In 125 Q, we have a reference that cannot be mistaken to the 
 canopy borne over Queen Elizabeth when ehe went in triumph to 
 St Paul's, Nov. 24, 1588, surrounded by her pensioners and foot- 
 men. It is impossible to doubt that the footmen would hold on by 
 tassels to the fringe of the canopy as those who follow a French 
 funeral hold on to the pall, and thus be considered as bearers. 
 This is so absolutely conclusive that no other date than a few days 
 after Nov. 24, 1588, can conceivably be assigned to sonnet 125, Q. 
 
 Seriously, without pretending to confidence, except in the 
 opinion that the friendship between Shakespeare and Mr W. H. 
 did not endure for many weeks after the defeat of the Armada, 
 I am inclined to think that if Mr Lee had argued as I have 
 supposed, he would not have been so far wrong as I have 
 sometimes found him. 
 
 Roughly, then, I date the Sonnets, adhering to the numbers 
 of my text as follows : — 
 
 Sonnets 1—97 (1—77, Q) between April and December 31, 
 1585, or January 1, 1585-6. 
 98—116 (78—96, Q) between January 1, 1585-6, and 
 
 early Summer 1586. 
 117 (97 Q) Autumn 1586. 
 118, 119 (98, 99, Q) Summer 1587. 
 120-126 (100-106, Q) say, March 1587-8 and April 
 
 1588. 
 127 (107 Q) about August 8, 1588. 
 128—148 (108—125, Q) between, say, August 10 and 
 December 1, 1588. 
 I can affix no dates to the sonnets which I have placed as 
 appendices, except that A seems to belong to the time of the 
 earliest sonnets. 
 
( 114 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ME. W. H. — CONCLUSION OF INTRODUOTOBY CHAPTERS. 
 
 I HAVE said in Chapter III that Tyrwhitt and Malone 
 thought it probable that Mr W. H.'s surname was Hughes, 
 or Hewes, or Hews, as the name was then indifferently spelt. 
 That his Christian name was William seems at once so 
 generally received and so self-evident that I shall not follow 
 Mr Lee in his, as it seems to me, singularly inconclusive 
 attempts to show that the 'Will' sonnets (135, 136, 143, Q) 
 dfentain no play upon the name of Shakespeare'e friend, as 
 well as upon his own. 
 
 As regards Mr W. H.'s surname being Hughes, there is 
 considerable presumption that this was so, but no William 
 Hughes can be identified with Mr W. H. unless, inter alia, 
 we can date his birth as having taken place in 1567 or 1568 ; 
 and though we know of many William Hughes's, contem- 
 poraries of Shakespeare, there is none, except the well-known 
 Bishop of St Asaph, the year of whose birth we can even 
 approximately ascertain. This prelate is out of the question ; 
 for he was between 35 and 40 in 1585, and whatever else 
 Mr W. H. may have been we cannot suppose him to have been 
 a Bishop. 
 
 As regards other William Hughes's, seven are mentioned 
 in "Notes and Queries" (5th Series, V, p. 443) not one of 
 them suggesting probable identity with Mr W. H. There 
 was a William Hewes who in 1630 signed a deed of release 
 to Bacon Gawdy,* but we do not know how old he then was, 
 and not to know this is to know nothing. Moreover, I cannot 
 
 * This deed is in the MS. department of the British Museum. Bacon Gawdy was 
 nephew to Sir Edmund Bacon, who left him a legacy of £300, 
 
ME W. H. 115 
 
 think that Mr W. H. was likely in 1630 to be in a position to 
 sign a deed of release to a man so well np in the world as 
 Bacon Gawdy. From " State Papers," domestic series, for 
 1631—1633, I see there was a William Hnghes "guardian of 
 Alexander Ha***n," a ward of King Charles. This man, of 
 age unknown, wanted an allowance from the court to repair 
 the chapel of the church of St Mary Cray, Kent. There is 
 another William Hughes indexed in the same volume. We 
 have no clue to his age ; he had denied " christian burial at 
 Burford, Co. Salop, to the body of William Fox, a gentleman 
 of an ancient house " ; he had also taken the body out of the 
 grave, carried it to Greet in a cart, and there thrown it " near 
 a swine stye." There was a William Hughes, or Hewes (both 
 forms appearing), who after having been "many years" in the 
 navy and served as steward in the Vanguard, Swiftsure, 
 and Dreadnought, applied in 1633-4 for the post of cook, 
 which I learn was rather more highly paid than that of 
 steward; he was appointed, and died in March 1636-7.* 
 This man is quite as likely to have been Mr W. H. as any of 
 the others. There are other William Hughes's, none of them 
 hopeful to be dug out of " State Papers," and Mr Lee mentions 
 a musician of the name William Hughes, f whose existence, 
 I am now informed, is disbelieved in. 
 
 Bearing in mind, then, that for one contemporary William 
 Hughes whose name we know, there must have been many 
 who have left no trace, it is not likely, even though Mr W. H.'s 
 name was Hughes, that we shall learn more about him than 
 what the Sonnets and Thorpe's dedicatory address reveal to us. 
 
 How much is this ? That in the sjoring of 1585 he was 
 more boy than man, good looking, of plausible attractive 
 manners, and generally popular, goes without saying. It 
 is also plain that his character developed badly, and that 
 boy as he was, before the end of the year he had got himself 
 a bad name. He was vain, heartless, and I cannot think ever 
 cared two straws for Shakespeare, who no doubt bored him ; 
 
 * See " State Papers," domestic series, for 1G33-1 and 1636-7. 
 t "Life of W. Shakespeaie," note on p. 93. 
 
 I2 
 
116 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. xii. 
 
 bnt he dearly loved flattery, and it flattered him to bring 
 Shakespeare to heel ; moreover, he had just sense enough to 
 know that Shakespeare laid the praise on thicker and more 
 dtelectably than any one else did, therefore he would not let 
 him go. 
 
 In laying, or abetting the laying, of a trap for Shakespeare, 
 we may charitably suppose that he was too young to fully 
 realise the detestable nature of his own action, and he seems 
 to have been bitterly penitent — at any rate for a time. He 
 was forgiven, but before long the intimacy between him and 
 Shakespeare slackened ; if I am held to be as approximately 
 right in my dates as I trust I may be, the high fever of 
 Shakespeare's infatuation did not last beyond mid autumn 
 1585, if, indeed, so long; from that time onwards, though 
 it again ran high at times, it was intermittent— Mr W. H. 
 playing with him as a cat plays with a mouse. There seems 
 to have been a redintegratio amoris during the first few days 
 after the defeat of the Armada had become known, but before 
 many weeks had passed there was a final break. Whether, if 
 the two men met in after time, Shakespeare passed Mr W. H. 
 strangely, and scarcely greeted him with that sun his eye, or 
 whether a modus vivendi was established between them, we 
 shall never know, but we may be tolerably sure that Shake- 
 speare's love had cast its utmost sum. 
 
 This is as much as we can gather from the Sonnets. From 
 December 1588 to some time not very long before 1609 
 Mr W. H.'s history is a blank, but — say at the end of 1608 
 for want of a more exact date — he allowed the Sonnets — and 
 we may assume also that wonderful poem, "A lover's com- 
 plaint" — to pass into Thorpe's hands — the Sonnets being, 
 probably, for reasons given in Chapter XI, in the order in 
 which Shakespeare wrote them. The question arises why he 
 should have done this. 
 
 He must have known that the publication would be ex- 
 quisitely painful to Shakespeare. Ruined love when it is 
 built anew may sometimes, though not often, grow fairer than 
 at first, but the ruins of a ruined love that after having been 
 loved so well but so unwisely had fallen over its rotten 
 
SIR W. H. 117 
 
 foundations many a long year since, and whose object was like 
 enongh now as bald and fleshy as he was disreputable — of a 
 love, too, that had been fraught with snch a hideous episode — 
 can any sight be conceived more ghastly for one whose nerves 
 were not of brass or hammered steel ? One shudders to think 
 how Shakespeare's gorge must have risen at seeing the skull 
 of his dead folly dug up and tossed about in public. To 
 suppose that he sanctioned the unburying is to deny the 
 commonest instincts of humanity to the most human of all 
 poets, and to suppose that Thorpe and Mr W. H. did not 
 know the pain their action would cause, is to place their 
 intelligence on a par with their brutality. 
 
 The wonder, however, is, that well as Mr W. H. must have 
 known how heartless his action was, he must also have known 
 that the eternity conferred upon him by our ever-living poet 
 was of a very unenviable kind. Badly as we must think of 
 him, we must credit him with knowing this much, and it is 
 probably because he knew it, that he had kept the Sonnets for 
 twenty years without parting with them. "Why, then, after 
 having held them back so long should he have let a low 
 pubKsher like Thorpe give to the world so much that reiiected 
 so severely upon himself ? The only explanation I can think 
 of is that he was in great straits for money, and was glad of 
 the few shillings which were all that Thorpe would be likely 
 to give him for the copy. 
 
 If he had been well to do, and anxious on mere literary 
 grounds that the Sonnets should not be lost, a very small sum 
 would have enabled him to print them, and keep the edition 
 under his own control. It is not a large assumption to suppose 
 that he would have omitted the few sonnets from which we 
 have alone collected the infamous trap already too often 
 referred to, and a few others from which it appears that he 
 was generally disesteemed. That he did not withhold these 
 points strongly to the opinion that he could not do so — the 
 bargain being that Thorpe was to have the whole series, and 
 to do what he liked with it. I hardly think, however, that 
 Mr TV. H. parted with Shakespeare's original MS. ; for while 
 most of the errata in Q suggest errors of a printer's eye, many 
 
118 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. xii. 
 
 strongly suggest the careless listening of one who was writing 
 from dictation. In Chapter IX I have given my reasons for 
 thinking that the misplacement of sundry sonnets in Q is due, 
 not to Mr W. H. but to Thorpe. 
 
 There is no reason to suppose that either Mr W. H. or 
 Thorpe bore any ill-will to Shakespeare ; money difficulties on 
 the part of the first, and the hope of making a few pounds on 
 that of the other, will explain their action, though nothing can 
 excuse it. Neither of the two men seem to have prospered. 
 Thorpe ("State Papers," domestic series, 1635) probably ended 
 his days in an almshouse at Ewelme — and let ns hope that 
 Mr W. H. died peacefully as cook on board the Vanguard. 
 
 The worst of it is that all we who read the Sonnets are 
 accessories after the offence. We are receivers of stolen goods ; 
 we are as one who opens and pores over a series of letters 
 addressed to another person, and many of them of a most 
 private nature. Shakespeare's letters — for this is what the 
 Sonnets are — have fallen by stealth into our hands ; they are 
 the unguarded expression of the inmost feelings of one whose 
 privacy should have been more especially and particularly 
 sacred. Thorpe's iniquity causes us to set aside every known 
 canon of honourable conduct —and yet is there one of ns who 
 could find it in his heart to make an honest man of himself 
 by cancelling that iniquity, and wiping the Sonnets out of 
 existence were it in his power to do so ? 
 
 The doing of such a right would be a wrong greater than 
 that which it was intended to remove. For after all, the 
 greatness of Mr W. H.'s and of Thorpe's guilt is swallowed 
 up in that of the service they have rendered. Their sin must 
 go scot free by reason of its very enormity — as also must ours 
 in partaking with them. One does not know whether to be 
 more thankful for the righteous deed of Heming and Condell, 
 than for the unrighteous one of Thorpe and Mr W. H. If 
 Heming and Condell had not published the First Folio, we 
 should still have had some twenty of Shakespeare's plays, and 
 among these Hamlet — but if Thorpe and Mr W. H. had not 
 been scoundrels, we should have had nothing of the Sonnets, 
 except the two that were published in The Passionate Pilgrim 
 
HALLAM ON THE SONNETS. 119 
 
 — and who could have gnessed that these were fragments of 
 such a series as that froru which we now know that they were 
 derived ? 
 
 I cannot see that the Sonnets are in any respect less price- 
 less than the Plays, except in so far as they are less in volume. 
 True, they have something more than their intrinsic worth by 
 reason of our knowledge that they heralded Hamlet and The 
 Tempest, but do not these plays gain in equal measure by our 
 knowledge that they were heralded by the Sonnets ? Does 
 not each explain how the other should have been possible ? 
 Do we not feel on reading Hamlet that even though the 
 Sonnets had been lost we should have had (as we best could) 
 to presuppose them ? and do we not, on reading the Sonnets, 
 cease to wonder that the man who could write them should 
 presently have conceived Hamlet ? It is little more than a 
 truism to say, that as it is only the writer of the Plays who 
 could have written the Sonnets, so it is only the writer of the 
 Sonnets who could have written the Plays, and that if there 
 had been no Sonnets going before, so neither would there have 
 been a Hamlet or a Tempest following after. 
 
 Moreover in the Plays there is a veil at all times over the 
 face of their author. He looms large behind it as the Armada 
 behind sonnet 107 Q ; we feel the mightiness of his presence, 
 but we never see him. In the Sonnets we look upon him face 
 to face; there is no let or hindrance to our gazing on the 
 millions of strange shadows that play round him, nor on the 
 millions of shadows that he can lend. We see the man whom 
 of all others we would most wish to see, in all his beauty, in 
 all his sweetness, in all his strength, and, happily, in all his 
 weakness^for in the very refuse of his deeds there is a strength 
 and warrantise of skill which it were ill to lose. 
 
 Of course there is another side to all this ; let us take it 
 from Hallam : — 
 
 Notwithstanding the frequent beauties of those sonnets ... it 
 is impossible not to wish that Shakespeare had never written them. 
 There is a weakness and folly in all excessive and misplaced 
 affection, which is not redeemed by the touches of nobler senti- 
 ments that abound in this long series of sonnets. But there are 
 
120 Shakespeare's sonnets. [chap. xii. 
 
 also faults of a merely critical nature. The obscurity is often such 
 as only conjecture can penetrate ; the strain of tenderness and 
 adoration would be too monotonous, were it less unpleasing ; and 
 so many frigid conceits are scattered around, that we might almost 
 fancy the poet to have written without genuine emotion, did not a 
 host of other passages attest the contrary.* 
 
 There are few at the present day who will not read the 
 above with something like amazement that it could have been 
 written in this century. Tennyson said well, 
 
 The slow sad hours that bring us all things ill, 
 
 And all good things from evil,f 
 and it not rarely happens that the lot falls upon the very 
 greatest men to be cursed with that inability to think as every 
 man thinks, which shall balance for ill, at any rate for a time, 
 the greatness of their good endowments. The greater the gifts 
 of the good fairies at a man's birth, the more certainly will a 
 bad fairy step in to mar them ; the only comfort is, that with- 
 out its due proportion of knaves and fools the world would be 
 even more knavish and foolish than it is. It would go mad of 
 its own sanity. And after all, when a man is naturally good, 
 there is no such eyKpcireia as that which has been begotten in 
 him by a modicum of fj.avia. 
 
 To regret, moreover, that Shakespeare should have written 
 the Sonnets is to regret that he was Shakespeare ; we must 
 not wish to tinker such a man as he was ; he must be taken 
 as time and circumstance for better or worse determined him, 
 or let alone : his is indeed a case in which it were sinful, 
 
 . i . . striving to mend 
 To mar the subject that before was well ? 
 
 Happily neither God nor man can do it, for God cannot 
 alter the past. 
 
 A man's style is the essence of the man himself. Never 
 truer saying passed the portals of a man's lips than this of 
 Buffon's — for whatever the exact words he spoke may have 
 been, this is what he meant. It is one of the common-places 
 
 * "Introduction to the literature of Europe" — MuiTay 1854, Yol. Ill, p. 40. 
 j- "Love and Duty." 
 
STYLE AND MAN. 121 
 
 of modern schoolmen to say that the man and his art — whether 
 Hterature, painting, mnsic, or what not — are not to he taken 
 as one, bnt that the corrupt tree may bring forth good fruit, 
 and vice versd. There is no truth in this. The corrupt tree 
 may yield specious fruit which shall be sweet, sweet, poison 
 to the tooth of the corrupt taster, but a healthy appetite will 
 have none of it. If the work is wholesome, genial, and robust, 
 whatever faults the worker may have had were superficial, 
 not structural. K"o man is without sin ; 
 
 .... where's the palace whereinto foul things 
 
 Sometimes intrude not ? Who has a breast so pure, 
 
 But some uncleanly apprehensions 
 
 Keep leets and law days, and in session sit 
 
 With meditations lawful ? 
 
 I hare repeatedly seen it said in these last few years that 
 Love's Labour's Lost — which, as we have seen, was perhaps 
 the earliest of Shakespeare's Plays — contains more personal 
 notes than any of the others. I think this is true, and believe 
 that I detect one of these notes in the words put into the 
 mouth of Biron, 
 
 For every man with his aflPects is bom, 
 
 Not by might mastered, but by special grace. 
 
 It is the old saying — The Lord hath mercy on whom he will 
 have mercy and whom he willeth he hardeneth ; but if ever a 
 style carried conviction that the grace which should enable its 
 owner to master his affections had not been withheld from 
 him, that style is Shakespeare's. One of the Bishops said of 
 Handel — quoting from Much Ado about Nothing, 
 
 The man doth fear God, howsoever it seems not in him by some 
 large jests he will make. 
 
 Much Ado about Nothing is not generally reputed an early 
 play, and the context raises no supposition that a personal 
 note was being consciously or even sub-consciously struck ; 
 but no words can be more unconsciously personal as applied 
 to Shakespeare himself, than these which Don Pedro half 
 mockingly applies to Benedick, Let us, then, face the truth. 
 
122 Shakespeare's sonnets. [ohap. xn. 
 
 the whole truth, bat let not either speech or silence suggest, 
 as is now commonly done, a great deal more than the truth 
 concerning him. 
 
 One word more. Fresh from the study of the other great 
 work in which the love that passeth the love of women is 
 portrayed as nowhere else save in the Sonnets, I cannot but 
 be struck with the fact that it is in the two greatest of all 
 poets that we find this subject treated with the greatest 
 intensity of feeling. The marvel, however, is this, that 
 whereas the love of Achilles for Patroclus depicted by the 
 Greek poet is purely English, absolutely without taint or 
 alloy of any kind, the love of the English poet for Mr W. H. 
 was, though only for a short time, more Greek than English. 
 I cannot explain this. 
 
 And now, at last, let the Sonnets speak for themselves. 
 
( 123 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS. 
 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging him to marry. 
 
 Fhom fairest creatures we desire increase 
 That thereby beauty's Rose might never die, 
 But as the riper should by time decease 
 His tender heir might bear his memory: 
 But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, 5 
 
 Feed'st thy life's flame with self-substantial fuel. 
 Making a famine where abundance lies. 
 Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. 
 Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament 
 And only herald to the gaudy spring, 10 
 
 Within thine own bud buriest thy content 
 And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding. 
 Pity the world, or else this glutton be, 
 To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee. 
 
 line 6. Q, reads, " Feed'st thy lights flame." BelieTing that Q was 
 printed from a copy that had been taken down unintelligently by dictation, 
 I have little hesitation in reading as in my text. 
 
 line 12. Boswell cites Venus and Adonis, canto 29; — 
 
 " Upon the earth's increase why should'st thou feed. 
 Unless the earth with thy increase be fed, 
 By law of nature thou art bound to breed, 
 That thine may live when thou thyself art dead : 
 And so, in spite of death, thou dost survive, 
 In that thy likeness still is left alive." 
 These lines form an epitome, as it were, of the first 1 7 sonnets. 
 cf. also Romeo and Juliet, I, i, 223, 4 : — 
 
 Ben. — " Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste ? " 
 Rom. — " She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste." 
 
 (Malone, communicated by C[apell].) 
 
124 shakbspbaeb's sonnets. 
 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging Mm to marri/.' 
 
 When forty Winters shall besiege thy bro-W 
 
 And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, 
 
 Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now, 
 
 Will be a tatter'd weed of small worth held : 
 
 Then, being ask'd where all thy beauty lies, & 
 
 Where all the treasure of thy lusty days. 
 
 To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes, 
 
 Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise; 
 
 How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use. 
 
 If thou couldst answer ''this fair child of mine 1* 
 
 Shall sum my count and make my whole excuse,' 
 
 Proving his beauty by succession thine ! 
 
 This were to be new made when thou art old, 
 And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.- 
 
 line 4. " a tatte/d weed " means " a tatter'd garment."^ (Malone. J 
 
 line 11. Q reads, "and make my old excuse." I adopt Hazlitt's 
 emendation, given in Camb. 
 
 For the reasons which convince me that this sonnet can only have been 
 ■written when Shakespeare was very young, see Chapter X. 
 
shakkspeaee's sonnets. 125 
 
 3. 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging him to marry. 
 
 Look in thy glass, and tell the face tliou viewest, 
 Now ia the time that face should form another, 
 Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest 
 Thon dost begnile the world, unbless some mother. 
 For where is she so fair, whose un-ear'd womb 5 
 
 Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry? 
 Or who is he so fond, will be the tomb 
 Of his self-love, to stop posterity? 
 Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee 
 Calls back the lovely April of her prime: 10 
 
 So thou through windows of thine age shalt see, 
 Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time. 
 But if thou list remember'd not to be. 
 Die single, and thine Image dies with thee. 
 
 line 5, To "ear" land is to till it. See dedication of Venus and 
 Adonis: — "I shall never after eare so barren a land." (Malone.) 
 
 line 8. Malone cites, 
 
 " beauty starved Tvith her severity, 
 
 Cuts beauty off from all posterity." 
 
 fiomeo and Juliet, I, i, 225, 6. 
 and " What is thy body but a swallowing grave, 
 
 Seeming to bury that posterity 
 Which by the rights of time thou needs must have. 
 If thou destroy them not in their obscurity." 
 
 Venus and Adonis, canto 127. 
 line 10. "Prime" means "Spring." See sonnets 90 and 117. 
 line 13. Q reads, "But if thou line remember'd not to be,"; cf, "Be 
 where you list," Sonnet 78 (58, Q) line 9. 
 
 In Chapter X, I have given my reasons for thinking that this sonnet can 
 only have been written by a very young man. 
 
126 shakespeaee's sonnets. 
 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging him to marry. 
 
 Unthrifty loveliness, wliy dost thou spend 
 
 Upon tEyself thy beauty's legacy? 
 
 Nature's bequest gives nothing, but doth lend. 
 
 And being frank she lends to those are free. 
 
 Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse 5 
 
 The bounteous largess given thee to give? 
 
 Profitless usurer, why dost thou use 
 
 So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live? 
 
 For having traffic with thyself alone, 
 
 Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive. 10 
 
 Then how, when nature calls thee to be gone, 
 
 What acceptable Audit canst thou leave? 
 
 Thy unus'd beauty must be tomb'd with thee. 
 Which, us'd, lives thy executor to be. 
 
 line 3. Steevens cites Milton's Masque at Ludlo w Castle : 
 " Why should you be so cruel to yourself, 
 
 And to those dainty limbs which nature lent 
 
 For gentle usage and soft delicacy ? 
 
 But you invert the covenants of her trust, 
 
 And harshly deal, like an ill borrower. 
 
 With that which you received on other terms." 
 It appears certain from this that Milton knew the Sonnets. 
 
 line 14. Q reads "Which vsed Hues th' executor to be." I follow 
 Malone. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 127 
 
 5. 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging him to marry. 
 
 Those hours that with gentle work did frame 
 
 The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell, 
 
 "Will play the tyrants to the very same 
 
 And that un-fair which fairly doth excel : 
 
 For never -resting time leads Summer on 5 
 
 To hideons winter and confounds him there ; 
 
 Sap check'd with frost and lusty leaves quite gone, 
 
 Beauty o'ersnow'd and bareness every where : 
 
 Then, were not summer's distillation left, 
 
 A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass, 10 
 
 Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft. 
 
 Nor it, or no remembrance what it was : 
 
 But flowers distill'd, though they with winter meet, 
 Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet. 
 
 line 4. " To unfair is, I believe, a word of our author's coinage." 
 
 (Malone.) 
 
 line 13. "This is a thought with which Shakespeare seems to have 
 been much pleased. We find it again in the 54th sonnet [74 of this edition] 
 and in A Midsummer Night's Dream, I, i, 76." (Malone.) 
 
 The passage referred to by Malone runs "But earthlier happy is the 
 rose distill'd, &c." 
 
 line 14. " Leese = lose, a form constantly used by Chaucer." 
 
 (Wtndham.) 
 
128 shakbspeaek's sonnets. 
 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging him to marry. 
 
 Then let not winter's ragged hand deface 
 
 In thee thy summer, ere thou be distill'd : 
 
 Make sweet some vial ; treasure thou some place 
 
 With beauty's treasure ere it be self-kill'd. 
 
 That use is not forbidden usury 6 
 
 Which happies those that pay the willing loan ; 
 
 That's for thyself to breed another thee, 
 
 Or ten times happier, be it ten for one; 
 
 Ten times thyself were happier than thou art ; 
 
 If ten of thine ten times refigur'd thee, 10 
 
 Then what could death do, if thou shouldst depart, 
 
 Leaving thee living in posterity? 
 
 Be not self-kill'd,^ for__tho_u art much^-tao^fair 
 
 To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir. 
 
 line 13. Q reads, "be not self-will'd." I adopt Delius's conjecture 
 given in the Cambridge edition. See line 4, " ere it be self-kill'd." 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 129 
 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging' him to marry'. 
 
 Lo, iu the Orient when the gracious light 
 Lifts np his burning head, each under eye 
 Doth homage to his new-appearing sight, 
 Serving with looks his sacred majesty ; 
 And having climb'd the steep up-heavenly hill, 5 
 
 Resembling strong youth in his middle age. 
 Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still 
 Attending on his golden pilgrimage ; 
 But when from highmost pitch, with weary car, 
 Like feeble age he reeleth from the day, 10 
 
 The eyes, 'fore duteous, now converted are 
 From his low tract, and look another way : 
 So thou, thyself out-going in thy noon, 
 Unlook'd on diest unless thou get a son.- 
 
 Unes 3, 4. Malone cites from Romeo and Juliet I, i, 125, 6; 
 " Madam, an hour before the worshipped sun 
 Peered forth the golden window of the east." 
 
 line 5. Modern editions generally follow Malone in reading " steep-up 
 heavenly hill," Q has no hyphen either after "steep" or "up." I follow 
 Nicholson and Craig, whose conjecture is given in Camb. 
 
130 shakespbaeb's sonnets. 
 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging him to marry. 
 
 Music to tear? wby hear'st thou music sadly? 
 Sweets with sweets war not, joy deliglits in joy ; 
 Why lor'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly, 
 Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy? 
 If the true concord of Well tuned sounds 5 
 
 By unions married do offend thine ear. 
 They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds 
 In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear. 
 Mark how one string, sweet husband to another, 
 Strikes each in each by mutual ordering; 10 
 
 Resembling sire and child and happy mother. 
 Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing : 
 
 Whose speechless song, being many, seeming one, 
 Sings this to thee ; ' thou single wilt prore none,' 
 
 line 1. Q reads, 
 
 " Mvsick to heare, why hear'st thou musiek sadly, 
 Sweets Tviih sweets, &c." 
 
 I have sometimes thought that Shakespeare neither knew nor eared 
 anything about music. He could say pretty things about it, but I have 
 known many very unmusical people able to do that. I am told that I ought 
 not to lay much stress on his explaining that when Helena and Hermia 
 sang the same tune, they did so in the same key, though what he can have 
 meant by this the learned must determine, for in Shakespeare's time there 
 were no "keys" in the sense in which we now use the word; when, how- 
 ever, he talks of music having a " dying fall," do what I may, the Lost Chord 
 comes into my head at once. As for painting, I believe the only artist — if 
 he can be called an artist — whom Shakespeare ever mentioned was Giulio 
 Romano, cf. Note on sonnet 24. 
 
SHAKESPEAEE S SONNETS. 131 
 
 9. 
 
 i585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mt W. H., urging him to marry. 
 
 Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye 
 That thou consum'st thyself in single life? 
 Ah I if thon issueless shalt hap to die, 
 The world will wail thee, like a makelesa wife ! 
 The world will be thy widow, and still weep 5 
 
 That thou no form of thee hast left behind. 
 When every private widow well may keep 
 By children's eyes her husband's shape in mind. 
 Look, what an unthrift in the world doth spend 
 Shifts but its place, for still the world enjoys it; 10 
 But beauty's waste hath in the world an end. 
 And kept unus'd, the user so destroys it- 
 No love toward others in that bosom sits 
 That on himself such murd'rous shame commits. 
 
 line 4. " a makeless wife." " Make " and " Mate " were formerly 
 Synonymous. (Malone.) 
 
 line 10. Q, reads "shifts but his place," and it is quite possible that 
 Shakespeare wrote " his," for he is not fastidious about inter-changing 
 "his" and "it"— cf. sonnet 111 (91, Q), 
 
 "And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure, 
 Wherein it finds a joy above the rest." 
 I do not think, however, that there can be much doubt that Shakespeare 
 here means "its," not "his." 
 
 k2 
 
132 Shakespeare's sonsets. 
 
 10. 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H.^ urging him to marry. 
 
 For shame deny that thou bear'st love to any 
 Who for thyself art so unprovident. 
 Grant, if thou wilt, thou art belov'd of many, 
 But that thou none lov'st is most evident ; 
 For thou art so possess'd with mard'rous hate 5 
 
 That 'gainst thyself thou stick'st not to conspire, 
 Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate 
 Which to repair should be thy chief desire. 
 0, change thy thought, that I may change my mind ! 
 Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love? 10 
 
 Be, as thy presence is, gracious and kind, 
 Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove : 
 Make thee another self for love of mcy 
 That beauty still may live in thine or thee.. 
 
 line 7. Steevens cites, 
 
 " Oh, thou that dost inhabit in my breast^ 
 Leave not the mansion so long tenantless 
 Lest, growing ruinous, the building fall, 
 
 * * # 
 
 Repair me with thy presence Silvia." 
 
 Two Gentlemen of Verona, V, iv, 7-11. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 133 
 
 11. 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging him to marry. 
 
 As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st 
 lu one of thine from that which thou departest ; 
 And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestow'st 
 Thou mayst call thine when thou from youth convertest. 
 Herein lives wisdom, beauty and increase ; 5 
 
 "Without this, folly, age, and cold decay : 
 If all were minded so, the times should cease. 
 And threescore years would make the world away. 
 Let those whom nature hath not made for store, 
 Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish : 10 
 
 Look whom she best endow'd, she gave thee more : 
 "Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish : 
 She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby 
 Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die. 
 
 line 2. I follow Mr Wyndham in taking the meaning to be " So fast 
 ■will you grow in the person of a son, offspring of that youth which you will 
 yourself be leaving." 
 
 line 8. " Years," Q, reads " yeare." 
 
 line 11. Q reads, "Looke whom she best indow'd, she gave the more." 
 I adopt Malone's emendation. " Look," here, as in sonnet 37, line 13, 
 means "look at," or " consider.'' 
 
134 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 12, 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging him to marry. 
 
 When I do count the clock that tells the time, 
 And see the brave day sunk in hideous night ; 
 When I behold the violet past prime, 
 And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white ; 
 
 /"hen lofty trees I see barren of leaves, 6 
 
 \Which erst from heat did canopy the herd, 
 Lnd Summer's green all girded up in sheaves, 
 ?orne on the bier with white and bristly beard, 
 (Then of thy beauty do I question make 
 JThat thou among the wastes of time must go, 10 
 
 5ince sweets and beauties do themselves forsake 
 And die as fast as they see others grow ; __— 
 
 And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence fl 
 Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence, / 
 
 lin» 4. Q reads, " curls or silver'd ore," Malone's emendation, giyei^ 
 in my text, is generally adopted. 
 
 Steevens cites Hamlet I, ii, 241, 2, 
 
 " His beard was as I've seen it in his life, 
 A sable silver'd," 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 135 
 
 13. 
 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging him to marry. 
 
 0, THAT you were yourself ! but love, you are 
 
 No longer yours than you yourself here live: 
 
 Against this coming end you should prepare, 
 
 And your sweet semblance to some other give. 
 
 So should that beauty which you hold in lease 5 
 
 Find no determination ; then you were 
 
 Yourself again after yourself 's decease 
 
 When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear. 
 
 Who lets so fair a house fall to decay, 
 
 "Which husbandry in honour might uphold 10 
 
 Against the stormy gusts of winter's day 
 
 And barren rage of death's eternal cold? 
 
 0, none but unthrifts ; dear my love you know 
 You had a Father ; let your Son say so. 
 
 lines 4 to 8. Malone quotes the lines from Venus and Adonis, already 
 given in a note to sonnet 1. 
 
 lines 5, 6. So Daniel in one of his Sonnets, 1592 : — 
 
 " in beauty's lease expir'd appears 
 
 The date of age, the calends of our death." (Malone.) 
 
 lines 9, 10. of. note on line 7 of sonnet 10. 
 
136 shakespeake's sonnets, 
 
 14. 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging him to marry. 
 
 Not from the stcirs do I my judgement pluck ; 
 And yet methinks I liave Astronomy, 
 But not to tell of good or evil luck, 
 Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality ; 
 Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell, 5 
 
 Pointing to each his thunder, rain, and wind. 
 Or say with Princes if it shall go well. 
 By oft predict that I in heaven find: 
 But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive, 
 And, constant stars, in them I read such art, 10 
 
 As truth and beauty shall together thrive 
 If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert ; 
 Or else of thee this I prognosticate : 
 Thy end is Truth's and Beauty's doom and date. 
 
 line 8. " Dr. Sewell reads, perhaps rightly, ' By aught predict.' " 
 
 (Malone.) 
 "Predict " of course means "prediction." cf. Love's Labour's Lost, I, i, 153, 
 "For every man with his affects is born 
 Not by might mastered, but by special grace." 
 Here " affects" of course means "affections." 
 
 line 9. Steevens cites, 
 
 " from women's eyes this doctrine I derive.'' 
 
 Love's Labour's Lost, IV, iii, 302. 
 
shakespeaee's sonnbts, 137 
 
 15. 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. U., urging him to marry. 
 
 When I consider every thing that grows 
 Holds in perfection but a little moment, 
 That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows 
 Whereon the Stars in secret influence comment ; 
 When I perceive that men as plants increase, 5 
 
 Cheered and check'd even by the self-same sky. 
 Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease. 
 And wear their brave state out of memory ; 
 Then the conceit of this inconstant stay 
 Sets you most rich in youth before my sight, 10 
 
 Where wasteful time debateth with decay. 
 To change your day of youth to sullied night ; 
 And all in war with Time for love of you. 
 As he takes from you I engraft you new. 
 
 line 12. Steevens cites K. Richard III, IV, iv, 16, 
 
 " Hath dimm'd your infant morn to aged night." 
 
138 shaeespeake's sonnets. 
 
 16. 
 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging him to marry. 
 
 But wherefore do not you a mightier way- 
 Make war upon this bloody tyrant, time ? 
 And fortify yourself in your decay 
 With means more blessed than my barren rhyme? 
 Now stand you on the top of happy hours, 5 
 
 And many maiden gardens yet unset 
 With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers 
 Much liker than your painted counterfeit: 
 So should the lines of life that life repair, 
 Which this time's pencil, nor my pupil pen, 10 
 
 Neither in inward worth nor outward fair. 
 Can make you live yourself in eyes of men. 
 To give away yourself keeps yourself still, 
 And you must live, drawn by your own sweet skill. 
 
 line 7. Q reads, " beare your liuing flowers." I adopt Malone'a 
 emendation. 
 
 line 9. " The lines of life " perhaps are " living pictures," viz. " children." 
 Anon. Quoted with approval by Malone. 
 
 line 10. Q reads, "which this (time's pensel or my pupill pen)." I have 
 adopted Hudson's emendation (Camb.), with the addition that 1 read " nor " 
 instead of " or.'' The meaning is, " which neither any painter now living, 
 nor my as yet unpractised pen can &c." 
 
 In Chapter X, I have urged that we have evidence here that the Sonnets 
 were written very early in Shakespeare's career. 
 
SHAKBSPEARil'e SONNETS. 139 
 
 17. 
 1585. Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., urging him to marry. 
 
 Who -will believe my verse in time to come 
 
 If it were fiU'd with your most high deserts ? 
 
 Though yet, heaven knows, it 'is but as a tomb 
 
 Which hides your life and shows not half your parts. 
 
 If I could write the beauty of your eyes 5 
 
 And in fresh numbers number all your graces. 
 
 The age to come would say 'this Poet lies, 
 
 Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.' 
 
 So should my papers, yellow'd with their age. 
 
 Be scorn'd, like old men of less truth than tongue, 10 
 
 And your true rights be term'd a Poet's rage 
 
 And stretched metre of an Antique song : 
 
 But were some child of yours alive that time. 
 You should live twice ;— in it and in my rhyme. 
 
 Here Shakespeare once for all desists from urging his friend to marry. 
 
140 shakespeaee's sonnets. 
 
 18. 
 1585. Say, Early Summer.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., promising him an eternity of fame. 
 
 Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day? 
 
 T]iou art more lovely and more temperate : 
 
 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May 
 
 And Summer's lease hath all too short a date : 
 
 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines 5 
 
 And often is -his gold complexion dimm'd ; ' 
 
 And every fair from fair sometime declines, 
 
 By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd ; ' 
 
 But thy eternal Summer shall not fade 
 
 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st j 10 
 
 Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade 
 
 When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st : 
 
 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, 
 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 
 
 line 8. untrimmed, " i.e. divested of ornament; so in King John 
 III, i, 209, ' a new untrimmed bride.' " (Malone.) 
 
shakespeake's sonnets, 141 
 
 la. 
 
 1585. Summer.] 
 
 Ta Mr W. H., forbidding Time to age him. 
 
 Devouring time, blunt thou the Lion's paws 
 And make the earth devour her own sweet brood : 
 Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce Tiger's jaws 
 And burn the long-lived Phoenix in her blood ; 
 Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st, 5 
 
 And do whate'er thou wilt, swift -footed time. 
 To the wide world and all her fading sweets, 
 /But I forbid thee one most heinous crime: 
 O, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow 
 ISTor draw no lines there with thine antique pen ; 10 
 Him in thy course untainted do allow 
 For beauty's pattern to succeeding men. 
 
 Yet do thy worst, old Time : despite thy wrong,, 
 My love shall in my verse ever live young.. 
 
143 shakespkaeb's sonnets. 
 
 20. 
 1585. Summer.] 
 
 To Mr Wi H. An extravagant eulogy of his as yet almost 
 feminine beauty. 
 
 A woman's face with nature's own hand painted 
 
 Hast thou, the Master-Mistress of my passion ; 
 
 A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted 
 
 With shifting change, as is false women's fashion ; 
 
 An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling, 5 
 
 Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth ;. 
 
 A man in hue, all Hiies in his controlling. 
 
 Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth. 
 
 And for a woman wert thou iirst created. 
 
 Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting, 10 
 
 And by addition me of thee defeated 
 
 By adding one thing to my purpose nothing : 
 
 But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure. 
 Mine be thy love, and thy love's use their treasnre.- 
 
 Une 1. It is plain Mr W. H. has as yet no hair on his face. See also' 
 sonnet I'i line 8. 
 
 line 7. Q. reads " A man in hew all Hews in his controlling." Hue is 
 here pnt for " beauty " as " color " is in " formose pu«r nimium ne erede 
 colori." cf. 102 line 5, and 124 line 11. I have said in Chapter III that 
 this line inclined both Tyrwhitt and Malone tO' think that Mr W. H.'s 
 surname was Hughes, or Hewes, or Hews, as the name was then 
 indiiferently spelt. 
 
shakespeabe's sonnets. 143 
 
 21. 
 1585. Summer.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., extolling his heaiity. 
 
 So is it not with me as with that Mnse 
 
 Stirr'd by a painted beauty to his verse, 
 
 Who heaven itself for ornament doth use 
 
 And every fair with his fair doth rehearse, 
 
 Making a couplement of proud compare 5' 
 
 With Siin and Moon, with earth and sea's rich gems,. 
 
 With April's first-born flowers, and all things rare 
 
 That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems. 
 
 0, let me, true in love, but truly write. 
 
 And then believe me, my love is as fair I ft 
 
 As any mother's child, though not so bright 
 
 As those gold candles fix'd i' the heavens are. 
 
 Let them say more that like of hearsay well ; 
 
 1 will not praise that purpose not to sell. 
 
 line 12. Staunton {Athenceum Jan. 3, 1874) pointed out that Shake- 
 speare is not likely to have written "heaven's air" here, and thus repeat a 
 combination of words which he had used but four lines earlier. I have, 
 therefore, emended as in my text. " Are" in Shakespeare's time I am told 
 would be a legitimate rhyme for " fair." 
 
 line 14. cf. Love's Labour's Lost IV, iii, 240, " To things of sale a 
 seller's praise belongs."" (Steeveiss.) 
 
 Mr Wyndham thinks that Shakespeare had some particular poet in view 
 when he wrote this sonnet. I do not think he meaat more than "I am not 
 one of those poets who &c.'' 
 
144 shakespeabb's sonnets. 
 
 22. 
 1585. Summer.] 
 
 To Mr W. H.y urging that he and Shakespeare have 
 exchanged hearts. 
 
 My glass shall not persaade me I am old. 
 
 So long as youth and thou are of one date ; 
 
 But when in thee time's furrows I behold, 
 
 Then look I death my days should expiate. 
 
 For all that beauty that doth cover thee 5 
 
 Is but the seemly raiment of my heart, 
 
 Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me : 
 
 How can I then be elder than thou art? 
 
 0, therefore, love, be of thyself so wary 
 
 As I, not for myself, but for thee will, 10- 
 
 Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary 
 
 As tender nurse her babe from faring ill. 
 
 Presume not on thy heart wheli mine is slain ; 
 
 Thou gav'st me thine, not to give back again. 
 
 Vine 4 "'Then do I expect,'' says Shakespeare, 'that death should fill 
 up the measure of my days.' The word expiate is used nearly in the same- 
 sense in the tragedy of Locrine 1595 ; — 
 
 ' Lives Sabren yet to expiate my wrath,' 
 i.e. fully to satisfy my -wrath." (Malone.) ,a<- 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 145 
 
 23. 
 1585. Summer .j 
 
 To Mr W. H. Shakespeare' s looks must say what 
 he cannot bring his tongue to speak. 
 
 As an unperfect actor on the stage 
 
 Who with his fear is pnt beside his part, 
 
 Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage 
 
 Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart ; 
 
 So I, for fear of trust, forget to say 5 
 
 The perfect ceremony of love's rite. 
 
 And in mine own love's strength seem to decay, 
 
 O'ercharg'd with burthen of mine own love's might. 
 
 0, let my looks be then the eloquence 
 
 And dumb presagers of my speaking breast; 10 
 
 Who plead for love and look for recompense. 
 
 More than that tongue that less hath more express'd, 
 
 0, learn to read what silent love hath writ : . 
 
 To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit. ' 
 
 line 9. Q reads "Oh let my books be then &c." Malone mentions the 
 reading " looks " as suggested to him by C[apell] but rejects it. Boswell 
 complains of him justly for having done so. I note that Camb. passes over 
 Boswell's and C[apell']s opinion without reference. All that Camb. says 
 is " 9 hooks] Looks Sewell." 
 
 line 12. Q reads, "More than that tonge that moTe hath more 
 exprest." S'lunton, finding this unintelligible would read "More than that 
 tongue that love hath more expressed." Bearing in mind Shakespeare's love 
 of antithesis I venture to read as in my text. "Less" I take to mean "less 
 i-ecompense than my eyes are now pleading for." 
 
146 shakespeake'8 sonnets. 
 
 24. 
 1585, Summer.] 
 
 To Mr W. II. A Sonnet full of conceits after the 
 manner of the time. 
 
 ^IlNE eye hath play'd the painter and hath steel'd 
 Thy beauty's form in table of my heart ; 
 My body is the frame whereii} 'tis held, 
 And perspective it is best Painter's art. 
 For through the Paiuter must you see his skill, 5 
 
 To find where your true Image pictur'd lies ; 
 Which in my bosom's shop is hanging still. 
 That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes. 
 Jsfow see what good tupns eyes for eyes have done : 
 Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me 10 
 Are windows to my breast where-through the Sun 
 Delights to peep, to ga^e therein on thee ; 
 
 Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art, * 
 They draw but what they see, know not the heart.'' 
 
 line 1. Q, reads, "and hath steeld," which IJsuppose means "traced 
 with a stpel point." Camb. reads, " and hath stell'd," with Dyee and Capell 
 MS. I know of no verb "to stall," and such rhj'nies as "steel'd" and 
 "held" are not uncommon in the Sonnets. cf. "Noon" and "son,"' 
 sonnet 7; "convertest" and " departest," sonnet 11 j "unset" and 
 "counterfeit," sonnet 16; "come" and " tomb," sonngt 17; "wrong" and 
 " young," sonnet 19. 
 
 line 4. cf. Richard II, II, ii, 18. 
 
 " Like ])erspectives which rightly gazed upon. 
 Show nothing but confusion, eyed awry 
 Pistinguish form." 
 
 In Holbein's " Ambassadors " in the National Gallery there is a familiar 
 example of one of these " perspectives " in the distorted skull which disfigures 
 the foreground of the picture. In the time of the Commonwealth, there 
 were many such " perspectives " painted on tables. When a silver tankard 
 was put upon a table so painted the reflection on its round surface showed 
 a portrait of King Charles, That Shakespeare should call such a trick as 
 this " best painter's art" shows that in matters of painting he was profoundly 
 ignorant. How could he possibly be anything else ? 
 
 line 14. I am much tempted to read " show not the heart," 
 
SHAKEijPEAKB's SONNETS. 147 
 
 1585. Summer.] 
 
 To Mr. W. H., rejoicing that Shakespeare, and apparently 
 Mr. W. II. as ivell, do not move in an exalted sphere. 
 
 Let those who are in favour with their stars 
 Of public honour and proud titles boast, 
 Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars, 
 Unhonour'd joy in that I honour most. 
 Great Princes' favourites their fair leaves spread 5 
 But as the Marigold at the sun's eye, 
 And in themselves their pride lies buried 
 For at a frown they in their glory die. 
 The painful warrior famoused for fight, 
 After a thousand victories once foil'd 10 
 
 Is from the book of honour razed quite. 
 And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd: 
 Then happy I, that love and am beloved 
 Where I may not remove nor be removed. 
 
 line 4. Q reads " Vnlookt for ioy.'' Bearing in mind the carelessness 
 ■with which this sonnet was printed in line 9, and Shakespeare's great love of 
 antithesis, I have ventured to adopt Staunton's bold conjecture, Athenaum, 
 Jan. 3, 1874. 
 
 lined. Q reads " famosed for worth." Considerations of rhyme making 
 this impossible Malone followed Theobald in emending as in my text. 
 
 l2 
 
148 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 26. 
 1585. Summer,] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Possibly accompanying a letter cordaining the 
 six next following sonnets. 
 
 Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage 
 
 Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit, 
 
 To thee I send this written ambassage 
 
 To witness duty, not to show my wit; 
 
 Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine 5 
 
 May make seem bare, in wanting words to show it. 
 
 But that I hope some good conceit of thine 
 
 In thy soul's thought, all naked, will bestow it; 
 
 Till whatsoever star that guides my moving 
 
 Points on me graciously with fair aspect, 10 
 
 And puts apparel on my tatter'd loving 
 
 To show me worthy of thy sweet respect ; 
 
 Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee ; 
 
 Till then not show my head where thou mayst prove 
 me, 
 
 line 12. Q reads " of their sweet respect." Malone, who suggested the 
 present reading, explains that the abbreviations formerly in use for "their" 
 and " thy " closely resembled one another. He makes the same correction 
 repeatedly in other sonnets. 
 
bhakespeaee's sonnets. 149 
 
 27. 
 1585. Summer.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Written during travel. 
 
 Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, 
 The dear repose for limbs with travail tir'd ; 
 But then begins a journey in my head. 
 To work my mind when body's work's expir'd : 
 For then my thoughts, from far where I abide, 5 
 
 Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee, 
 And keep my drooping eyelids open wide 
 Looking on darkness which the blind do see; 
 Save that my soul's imaginary sight 
 Presents thy shadow to my sightless view, 10 
 
 "Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night. 
 Makes black night beauteous and her old face new. 
 Lo, thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind. 
 For thee and for myself no quiet find. 
 
 line 2. Modern editions generally read " with travel tired," but I have 
 kept Q's " trauaill." 
 
 line 10. Q reads "presents their shaddoe." Malone again emends- 
 See note on preceding sonnet. 
 
 line 11. Malone cites from Romeo and Juliet, I., v., 48, 
 " Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night, 
 Like a rich jewel in an ^thiop's ear.'' 
 
150 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 28, 
 1585. Summer.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding. 
 
 How can I then return in liappy plight, 
 That am debarr'd the benefit of rest ? 
 When day's oppression is not eas'd by night, 
 But day by night, and night by day, oppress'd ? 
 And each, though enemies to either^s reign, 5 
 
 Do in cons&nt shake hands to torture me ; 
 The one by toil, the other to complain 
 How far I toil, still farther off from thee. 
 I tell the Day, to please him., thou art bright 
 And dost him grace when clouds do. blot the heaven. ; 
 So flatter I the swart-complexion'd nigb-t, 10 
 
 When sparkling stars twire not, thou gild'st the even. 
 But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer. 
 And night doth nightly make grief's strength seem 
 stronger. 
 
 line 9. The sense is " I flatter day by telling him that even when there 
 is no sun, you are still there to grace him, and so with night nhen there are 
 no stars." 
 
 line 14. Q reads " greefe's length seeme stronger." I follow the 
 Cambridge edition, which adopts Dyce's emendation. 
 
SHAKESrHARK'.S SOXXETS. lol 
 
 29. 
 
 1585. Summer.] 
 
 To Mr TF. H. His friend's love is the only solace of his 
 otherwise almost hopeless state. 
 
 "\\'HEN, in disgrace with Fortime and men's e^-es 
 
 1 all alone beweej) my outcast state, 
 
 And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries 
 
 And look upon myself and curse my fate, 
 
 "Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, 5 
 
 Featured like him', like him with friends possess'd, 
 
 Desiring this man's art and that man's sccype. 
 
 With what I most enjoy contented least ; 
 
 Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising-, 
 
 Haply I think on thee, and then my state 10 
 
 Like to the Lark at break of day arising 
 
 From sullen earth, sings hymns at Heaven's gate ; 
 
 For thy sweet love remember'd_, such wealth brings 
 That then I scorn to change my state with Kings. 
 
152 Shakespeare's sonnetSv 
 
 30. 
 
 1585. Summer.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Written in the same key as the preceding. 
 
 When to the Sessions of sweet silent thought 
 
 1 summon up remembrance of things past, 
 
 I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought 
 
 And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste : 
 
 Then can I drown an eye, unus'd to flow, 5 
 
 For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, 
 
 And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe. 
 
 And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight : 
 
 Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, 
 
 And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er 10 
 
 The sad accoant of fore-bemoaned moan, 
 
 Which I new pay as if not paid before. 
 
 But if the while I think on thee, dear friend. 
 All losses are restored and sorrows end. 
 
 line 8. Malone contends that "sight" h&re means "sigh," which he 
 believes to have been sounded hard in Shakespeare's time. He adds that by 
 the word " expense," Shakespeare alludes to an old notion that sighing was 
 prejudicial to health. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 153 
 
 31. 
 
 1585. Summer.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet. 
 
 Thy bosom is endeared with all Iiearts 
 "Whicli I by lacking have sujDposed dead ; 
 And there reigns Lore, and all Love's loving parts, 
 And all those friends which I- thought buried. 
 How many a holy and obsequious tear 5 
 
 Hath dear religious love stol'n from mine eye, 
 As interest of the dead, which now appear 
 But things remov'd that hidden in thee lie ! 
 Thou art the grave where buried love doth live 
 Hung with the trophies of my lovers gone, 10 
 
 Who all their parts of me to thee did give ; 
 That due of many now is thine alone : 
 Their images I lov'd I view in thee. 
 And thou, all they, hast all the all of me. 
 
 line 8. Q reads, " hidden in there lie." The emendation " thee " is by 
 Gildon. (Cajib.) 
 
I'A Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 32. 
 
 1585. Summer.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. FrohMy a ■peroration to the preceding flee 
 
 sonnets. 
 
 If thou survive my well-contented day, 
 
 When that churl death my bones with dust shall cover, 
 
 And shalt by fortune once more re-survey 
 
 These poor rude lines of thy deceased Lover, 
 
 Compare them with the bett'ring of the time, 5 
 
 And though they be outstripp'd by every pen 
 
 Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme 
 
 Exceeded by the height of happier men. 
 
 0, then vouchsafe roe but this loving tbouglit r 
 
 "Had my friend's Muse grown with his growing ag'e, 
 
 A dearer birth than this his love had brought, 11 
 
 To march in ranks of better equipage : 
 
 But since be died, and Poets better prove, 
 
 Theire for their style I'll read, his for his love." ^ 
 
 line 7. " Seserve is the same a.% preserve; so in Pericles, 'Reserve that 
 excellent complexion'" (Malone). See also sonnet 105 (85, Q) line 2. 
 
 Sue 10. Q reads, " Had my friend's Muse growne with this growing 
 age," I see from the Cambridge edition that the emendation " his," adojited^ 
 by Hudson, was proposed in MS. by Capell,but erased. Maloiie evidently 
 intended to read "his," though he has not done so. 
 
 Between the writing of this sonnet and the next (121, Q), there has beer» 
 a catastrophe. For the nature of this, and for the reasons which have led 
 me to place 121 Q here, see chapter ix. 
 
Shakespeare's soxxkts. 155 
 
 33 [121, Q]. 
 1585. Probably Augnst.j 
 
 To Mr W. H. Written hy Shakespeare before he had calmed 
 down after the catastrophe referred to in preceding note. 
 
 'Tis better to be vile than vile es-teem'd, 
 When not to be receives reproach of being ; 
 And the just pleasure lost, which is so deem'd 
 Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing: 
 For why sliould others' false adulterate eyes 5 
 
 Give salutation to my sportive blood ? 
 Or on my frailties why are frailer spies, 
 "Which in their wills count bad what I think good? 
 No, I am that I am, and they that level 
 At my abuses reckon up their own; 10 
 
 I may be straight though they themselves be bevel ; 
 By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown, 
 Unless this general evil they maintain — 
 All men are bad and in their badness feign. 
 
 lines 1 to 4. ^ These lines make it clear that Shakespeare's offence never 
 went beyond intention. 
 
 line 14. Q reads, "and in their badness reign." But I can make no 
 sense of this. The sense I take to be, " I am not to be judged by the rank 
 thoughts of these men, unless, indeed, they are prepared to admit that all 
 men are bad, but pretend to be better than they ai-e. For if they admit this, 
 it does not matter mucb what they say.'' I am, however, by no means 
 confident that I understand the passage. 
 
J 
 
 156 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 34 [33, Q].. 
 1585. Probably August.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Shakespeare forgives his friend. 
 
 Full many a glorious morning have I seen 
 
 Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye, 
 
 Kissing with golden face the meadows green, 
 
 Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy ; 
 
 Anon permit the basest clouds to ride 5 
 
 With ugly rack on his celestial face. 
 
 And from the forlorn world his visage hide, 
 
 Stealing unseen tO' west with his disgrace : 
 
 Even so my Sun one early morn did shine 
 
 "With all-triumphant splendour on my brow, 10- 
 
 But, out, alack ! he was but one hour mine. 
 
 The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now. 
 
 Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth ; 
 
 Suns of the world may stain when heaven's sun 
 staineth. 
 
 line 6. "Rack is the fleeting motion of clouds.'' (Malone.) 
 
 line 8. Q, reads " with this disgrace," I follow Hudson and accept 
 S. Walker's conjecture (Camb.) 
 
 line 12. Mr Wyndham quotes several passages from Shakespeare in 
 •which the word " region " is used as denoting the air generally. 
 
Shakespeare's soxxets. 157 
 
 35 [34, Q]. 
 1585. Probably August.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet. 
 
 Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day 
 
 And make me travel forth without my cloak, 
 
 To let base clouds o'ertake me ia my way. 
 
 Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke? 
 
 'Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break 5 
 
 To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face. 
 
 For no man well of such a salve can speak 
 
 That heals the wound and cures not the disgrace : 
 
 ISTor can thy shame give physic to my grief; 
 
 Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss : 10 
 
 The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief 
 
 To him that bears the strong offence's cross. 
 
 Ah, but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds, / 
 And they are rich and ransom all ill deeds. 
 
 line 12. Q, reads " the strong offenses losse.'' This would make " loss " 
 rhyme to "loss"; the emendation " cross" is Malone's. 
 
158 SHAKESPEillE's SONNETS. 
 
 S6. 
 1585. Probably Angust.J 
 
 To Mr W, H. A sequel to the preceding sonnets. 
 
 Let me confess that we two must be twaia 
 Although our uadividecl loves are one : 
 So shall those blots that do with me remain, 
 Without thy help, by me be borne alone. 
 In our two loves there is but one respect, 5 
 
 Though in our lives a separable spite, 
 Which, though it alter not love's sole effect, 
 Yet doth it steal sweet hours from love's delight. 
 I may not evermore acknowledge thee 
 Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame, 10 
 
 Nor thou with public kindness honour me 
 Unless thou take that honour from thy name: 
 But do not so ; I love thee in such sort. 
 As thou being mine, mine is thy good report. 
 
 line 6. " Separable '' = " separating." (Malone.) 
 
 lines 13, 14. These two lines occur also as the concluding lines of 
 sonnet 116 (96, Q). 
 
shakespeake's ISONNETS. Io'J 
 
 1585. Probably Angost,J 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the three jt;;'6cef//«y sonnets; 
 Shakespeare appears to be tioio lame. 
 
 As a decrepit father takes delight 
 
 To see his active child do deeds of youth, 
 
 So I, made lame by Fortune's dearest spite, 
 
 Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth ; 
 
 For "whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit, 5 
 
 Or any of these all, or all, or more, 
 
 Entitl'd in thy parts do crowned sit, 
 
 I make my love engrafted to this store : 
 
 So then I am not lame, poor, nor despis'd, 
 
 Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give 10 
 
 That I in thy abundance am snfEc'd 
 
 And by a part of all thy glory live. 
 
 Look what is best, that best I wish in thee : 
 This wish I have ; then ten times happy me ! 
 
 line 3. Malone argues that the lameness spoken of here, and again in 
 line 9, is metaphorical, as also the poverty and despised state alluded to in 
 line 9. I accept the lameness, poverty, and contempt as literally true for 
 this period of Shakespeai'e's life. It does not foUov that be had been lame 
 long, nor yet that he remained so. He may have been "made lame" by 
 some accident— possibly in a recent scuffle. Line 3 of sonnet 109 (Q, 89), 
 ("Speak of my lameness, and 1 straight will halt") indicates that though 
 Shakespeare did not consider himself lame a year or so later, when we may 
 suppose sonnet 109 (Q, 89) to have been written, his friends could slill see 
 that he limped occasionally. As for his being poor and despised, I do not 
 think he would say that he was either of these things, unless they were true. 
 
 line 7. Q reads, "their." See note on sonnet 26. '"Entitled means, I 
 think, ennubkd." (Malo.NE.) 
 
160 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 38. 
 1585. Probably second half of August.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Apparently closely connected with the 
 following sonnet. 
 
 How can my Muse want subject to invent, 
 
 While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my verse 
 
 Thine own sweet argument, too excellent 
 
 For every vulgar paper to rehearse ? 
 
 0, give thyself the thanks if aught in me 5 
 
 Worthy perusal stand against thy sight ; 
 
 For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee. 
 
 When thou thyself dost give invention light ? 
 
 Be thou the tenth Mnse, ten times more in worth 
 
 Than those old nine which rhymers invocate ; 10 
 
 And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth 
 
 Eternal numbers to outlive long date. 
 
 If my slight Muse do please these curious days. 
 The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise. 
 
 line 13. It is plain that some, at any rate, even of these early sonnets 
 were recited among Shakespeare's friends, and much admired; but I can 
 find no evidence to suggest that copies were going about in MS. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 161 
 
 39, 
 1586. Probably second half of August.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Apparently a sequel to the preceding sonnet ; 
 the separation referred to in sonnet 36 is still continued, 
 
 0, HOW thy worth with manners may I sing, 
 When thou art all the better part of me ? 
 What can mine own praise to mine own self bring ? 
 And what is't but mine own when I praise thee ? 
 Even for this let us divided live, 5 
 
 And our dear love lose name of single one, 
 That by this separation I may give 
 That due to thee which thou deservest alone. 
 absence, what a torment wouldst thou prove, 
 Were it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave 10 
 
 To entertain the time with thoughts of love. 
 Which time and thought so sweetly doth deceive. 
 And that thou teachest how to make one twain, 
 By praising him here who doth hence remain I 
 
 lint 12. Q reads " which time and thoughts so s\¥eetly dost deceive." 
 Malone's emendation "doth" has been generally adopted. Malone adds 
 " Thought in ancient language meant melancholy." 
 
 line 13. of. The Phoenix and Turtle, 
 
 So they loved as love in twain 
 Had the essence but in one ; 
 Two distincts, division none, 
 Number there in love was slain. 
 
 M 
 
162 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 40 [127, Q], 
 J 585. Probably September.] 
 
 Concerning Shakespeare's Mistress, 
 
 In the old age black was not connted fair, 
 
 Or if it were, it bore not beanty's name ; 
 
 But now is plack . beauty's successive heir, 
 
 And Beauty slander'd with a bastard shame: 
 
 For since each hand hath put on Nature's power, 5 
 
 Fairing the foul with Art's false borrow'd face, 
 
 Sweet beauty hath no home, no holy bower. 
 
 But is profan'd, if not lives in disgrace. 
 
 Therefore my Mistress' brows are Raven black, 
 
 Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem 10 
 
 At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack, 
 
 Slandering Creation with a false esteem : 
 
 Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe, 
 That every tongue says beauty should look so, 
 
 line 7. Q reads " Sweet beauty hath no name." 
 
 lines 9, 10. Q, reads, 
 
 " Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black, 
 
 Her eyes so suited " 
 
 Staunton conjectured that " brows " should be read in line 10, but J 
 prefer to read it in line 9 with Sidney Walker and Delius, whose reading I 
 learn from Camb. 
 
 Steevens writes : — " The reader will find almost all that is said here on 
 the subject of complexion repeated in Love's Labour's Lost, IV, iii, 258-61, 
 ' O, if in black my lady's brow be deck'd, 
 It mourns that painting and usurping hair 
 Should ravish doters with a false aspect ; 
 And therefore is she born to make black fair.' " 
 It is the brow that is black here. Steevens evidently felt that the play 
 was repeating the sonnet, not the sonnet the play. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 163 
 
 41 [128, Q]. 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 To Shakespeare's Mistress. 
 
 How oft when thou, my mnsic, music play'st 
 Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds 
 With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway'st 
 The wiry concord that mine ear confounds. 
 Do I envy those Jacks that nimble leap 5 
 
 To kiss the tender inward of thy hand. 
 Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap, 
 At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand ! 
 To be so tickled they would change their state 
 And situation with those dancing chips 10 
 
 O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait. 
 Making dead wood more blest than living lips. 
 Since saucy Jacks so happy are in this. 
 Give theni thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss. 
 
 lines 11 and 14. Malone again corrects Q, which reads "O'er whome 
 their fingers walke," and " me their lips.'' 
 
 It has been argued from this sonnet that Shakespeare's mistress was 
 highly accomplished. One would like to have heard whether she could do 
 more than strum. And one would also like to know how far Shakespeare 
 was qualified to judge. The sonnet is conventional, and does not suggest 
 a writer whose ear was likely to be much confounded by either concord or 
 discord, however wiry. 
 
 M2 
 
164 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 42 [130, Q]. 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 Concerning Shakespeare^ s Mistress — A satire on the amatory 
 sonnets of the time. 
 
 My Mistress' eyes are nothing like the Sun ; 
 Coral is far more red than her lips' red : 
 If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun ; 
 If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. 
 I have seen Roses damask'd, red and white, 5 
 
 But no such Roses see I in her cheeks ; 
 And in some perfumes is there more delight 
 Than in the breath that from my Mistress reeks. 
 I love to hear her speak, yet well I know 
 That Music hath a far more pleasing sound: 10 
 
 I grant I never saw a goddess go, 
 My Mistress when she walks treads on the ground : 
 And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare 
 As any she belied with false compare. 
 
 line 10. Here again we become suspicious about Shakespeare's love of 
 music. He is not discriminating. How often when we ask people whether 
 they like music are we not assured that they adore it, and on enquiring what 
 kind of music they like best, receive the answer " any music.'' 
 
 It was not so with the perfumes in line 7. It was not " any perfumes," 
 but " some perfumes." 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 165 
 
 43 [131, Q], 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 Addressed to Shakespeare' s Mistress, hut not, one would 
 imagine, shown to her. 
 
 Thou art as tyrannous, so as tbou art, 
 
 As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel } 
 
 For well thou know'st to my dear doting heart 
 
 Thou art the fairest and most precious Jewel. 
 
 Yet, in good faith, some say that thee behold, 5 
 
 Thy face hath not the power to make love groan ; 
 
 To say they err I dare not be so bold 
 
 Althoug'h I swear it to myself alone. 
 
 And to be sure that is not false I swear, 
 
 A thousand groans, but thinking on thy face, 10 
 
 One on another's neck do witness bear 
 
 Thy black is fairest in my judgement's place. 
 
 In nothing art thou black save in thy deeds, X 
 And thence this slander, as I think, proceeds. 
 
 lines 13, 14. The obviously genuine almost fierceness of these two lines 
 at the conclusion of a conventional sonnet recall the concluding lines 
 of 45 (137, Q), and also the abrupt changes of tone in the ending of the 
 highly unconventional sonnets 139, 140, and 148 (147, 118, and 125, Q). 
 
166 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 44 [132, Qj. 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 To Shakespeare" s Mistress — probably shown to her instead of 
 the "preceding sonnet, which is much the same in substance. 
 
 Thine eyes I love, and they as pitying me. 
 
 Knowing tby heart torments me with disdain, 
 
 Have put on black and loving mourners be, 
 
 Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain. 
 
 And truly not the morning Sun of Heaven 5 
 
 Better becomes the grey cheeks of the East,. 
 
 Nor that fall Star that ushers in the Even 
 
 Doth half that glory to the sober West, 
 
 As those two mourning eyes become thy face : 
 
 0, let it then as well beseem thy heart 10 
 
 To mourn for me, since mourning doth thee grace. 
 
 And suit thy pity 'like in every part. 
 
 Then will I swear beauty herself is black, 
 And all they foul that thy complexion lack. 
 
 line 2. Q reads " Knowing thy heart torment me with disdaine." 
 Camb. follows Benson's edition of 1640, which reads as in my text, 
 Malone reads " knowing thy heart, torment me," &c. 
 
 line 12. Q reads "And sute thy pity like in euery part." I adopt 
 Allen's conjecture given in Camb. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 167 
 
 45 [137, Q]. 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 An occasional sonnet concerniiig Shakespeare' s Mistress, who 
 has displeased him. 
 
 Thou blind fool, love, what dost ttou to mine eyes 
 That they behold and see not what they see ? 
 They know what beanty is, see where it lies, 
 Yet what the best is, take the worst to be. 
 If eyes corrnpt by over-partial looks 5 
 
 Be anchor'd in the bay where all men ride. 
 Why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forged hooks 
 Whereto the judgement of my heart is tied ? 
 Why should my heart think that a several plot 
 Which my heart knows the wide world's common place ? 
 Or mine eyes seeing this, say this is not, 11 
 
 To put fair truth upon so foul a face ? )( 
 
 In things right true my heart and eyes have erred, 
 And to this false plague are they now transferred. 
 
 line 9. " a several plot." cf. Love's Labour's Lost, IL ii 223. 
 
 " My lips are no common, though several they be.'' 
 See Malone's notes on the meaning of a " several " or " severell " plot 
 as contrasted with a common plot. 
 
168 shakespeaee's sonnets. 
 
 46 [138, Q]. 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 An occasional sonnet on the subject of Shakespeare^ s Mistress. 
 
 When my love swears that she is made of truth, 
 I do believe her though I know she lies, V 
 That she might think me some untutor'd youth 
 Unlearned in the world's false subtleties. 
 Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young 5 
 
 Although she knows my days are past the best, 
 Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue ; 
 On both sides thus is simple truth suppress'd.. 
 But wherefore says she not she is unjust ? 
 And wherefore say not 1 that I am old ? 10 
 
 0, love's best habit is in seeming trust, 
 And age in love loves not to have years told: 
 Therefore I lie with her and she with me, 
 And in our faults by lies we fiatter'd be. 
 
 " This sonnet is also found (with some variations) in The Passionate^ 
 Pilgrim, a collection of verses printed as Shakespeare's in 1599." 
 
 (MALON-E.) 
 
 The version given in The Passionate Pilgrim is as follows : 
 
 When my love swears that she is made of truth,, 
 
 I do believe her, though I know she lies, 
 
 That she might think me some untutor'd youth, 
 
 Unskilful in the world's false forgeries 
 
 Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me yoimg. 
 
 Although / know my ymrs be past the hest, 
 
 J smilivg credit her false-speaking tongue, 
 
 Outfacing faults in love with lovers ill rest, 
 
 But wherefore says my love that she is young T 
 
 And wherefore say not I that I am old ? 
 
 0, love's best habit is a soothing tongue, 
 
 And age in love loves not to have years told. 
 Therefore I'll lie with love and love with me, 
 Siiice that our faults in love thus smothered be. 
 
 I have italicised the variations as Malone has done. 
 
SnAKESPEABli'S SONNETS. 169 
 
 47 [139, Q]. 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 To Shakespeare's Mistress, who is now enamoured of some one 
 else — presumably of Mr W. H. 
 
 CALL not me to justify the wrong- 
 That thy unkindness lays upon my heart ; 
 Wound me not with thine eye, but with thy tongue ; 
 Use power with power, and slay me not by Art. 
 Tell me thou lov'st elsewhereV but in my sight, 5 
 
 Dear heart, forbear to glance thine eye aside ; 
 What need'st thou wound with cunning, when thy might 
 Is more than my o'er-press'd defence can bide ? 
 Let me excuse thee ; ah, my love well knows 
 y Her pretty looks have been mine enemies; 10 
 
 And therefore from my face she turns my foes 
 That they elsewhere might dart their injuries : 
 Yet do not so, but since I am near slain, 
 Kill me outright with looks and rid my pain. 
 
 lin-e 3. Malone cites Romeo and Juliet II, iv, 13, 14, 
 " Alas poor Borneo, he is already dead ! Stabbed with a -white weach's 
 black eye." 
 
 Steevens cites King Henry VI, Ft. Ill, V, vi, 26, 
 
 " Ah kill me with thy weapon not with words." 
 
170 SHAKESPEARIS'S SONNETS. 
 
 48 [140, Q]. 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 To Shakespeare' s Mistress, who is now enamoured of some one 
 else — presumably of Mr W. H. 
 
 Be wise as thou art cruel, do not press 
 My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain ; 
 Lest sorrow lend me words, and words express 
 The manner of my pity-wanting pain. 
 If I might teach thee wit, better it were S 
 
 Though not to love, yet, love, to tell me so ; 
 As testy sick men, when their deaths be near, 
 No news but health from their Physicians know; 
 For if I should despair I should grow mad, 
 And in my madness might speak ill of thee ; 10 
 
 Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad. 
 Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be. 
 That I may not be so, nor thou belied, 
 Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go 
 wide. 
 
shakesphaee's sonnets. 171 
 
 49 [141, Q]. 
 1685. Probably September.] 
 
 To Shakespeare's mistress, but kardhj, one would think, shown 
 
 to her. 
 
 In faith, I do not love tbee with mine eyes, 
 For they in thee a thousand errors note ; 
 But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise, 
 Who, in despite of view, is pleased to dote ; 
 Nor are mine ears with thy tongue's tune delighted, 5 
 Nor tender feeling to base touch is prone. 
 Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited 
 To any sensual feast with thee alone : 
 But my five wits nor my five senses can 
 Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee, 10 
 
 Who leaves unsway'd the likeness of a man 
 Thy proud heart's slave and vassal wretch to be: 
 Only my plague thus far I count my gain, 
 That she that makes me sin awards me pain. 
 
 line 6. Q reads " Nor tender feeling to base touches prone."' 
 line 11. The meaning is — "No argument from wits or senses can 
 dissuade my heart from serving you ; unswayed by anything that either wits 
 or senses can urge my heart as it were unmans itself, and is contented 
 to be your drudge." 
 
 line 14. The meaning I take to be — " I shall suffer less for my sin 
 hereafter, for I get some of the punishment coinoidently with the offence." 
 
178 Shakespeare's sonnets, 
 
 50 [142, QJ. 
 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 To Shakespeare's jnistress, loho is now enamoured of some else: 
 
 — presumably of Mr W. H. — ivho does not respond to 
 
 her desires. 
 
 Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate, 
 Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving : 
 0, but with mine compare thou thine own state, 
 And thou shalt find it merits not reproving ; 
 Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine, & 
 
 X; That have profan'd their scarlet ornaments 
 And seal'd false bonds of love as oft as mine, 
 Eobb'd others' beds' revenues of their rents. 
 Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lov'st those 
 Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee : 10' 
 
 Root pity in thy heart, that, when it grows, 
 Thy pity may deserve to pitied be. 
 
 If thou dost seek to have what thou dost chide, 
 By self-example mayst thou be denied ! 
 
 lines 1, 2. The sense is, " My sin is love, and your virtue is hatred- 
 hatred of my sin which is based upon my love for you." 
 
 line 13. Q, reads " If thou doost seeks to haue what thou doost hide.'' 
 The emendation " chide " is by Staunton, and appeared in the Alhencsum, 
 Mar. 14, 1874. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 173 
 
 51 [143, Q]. 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 To Shakespeare^ s Mistress, who is now enamoured of a young 
 
 man named Will — prcsianabhj Mr W. H. — ivho will 
 
 have nothing to say to her. 
 
 Lo, as a careful housewife rnus to catch 
 
 One of her feather'd creatures broke away, 
 
 Sets down her babe, and makes all swift dispatch 
 
 In pursuit of the thing she would have stay ; 
 
 Whilst her neglected child holds her in chase, 5 
 
 Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent 
 
 To follow that wliich flies before her face, 
 
 Not prizing her poor infant's discontent ; 
 
 So runn'st thou after that which flies from thee 
 
 Whilst I thy babe chase thee afar behind ; 10 
 
 But if thou catch thy hope, turn back to me 
 
 And play the mother's part, kiss me, be kind : 
 
 So will I pray that thou mayst have thy Will, 
 If thou turn back and my loud crying still. 
 
 line 13. I agree witli the many commentators who have held that none 
 other than Mr AV. H. is here intended. 
 
174 shakespeaeb's sonnets. 
 
 52 [144, Q]. 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 A71 occasional softnef concerning Mr W. H. and Shakespeare' s 
 Mistress, but not addressed to either of them. 
 
 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 5 
 
 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 tarn'd fiend 
 
 Suspect I may, yet not directly tell; 10 
 
 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. 
 
 "This sonnet was printed in The Passionate Pilgrim, 1599, with some 
 Blight variations." (Malone.) 
 
 line 6. The Passionate Pilgrim reads " side " as in my text. Q has 
 " sight." 
 
 line 9. The Passionate Pilgrim reads " feend." Q has " finde.'' 
 
 line 11. The Passionate Pilgrim reads "both to me.'' Q has "both 
 from me," as in my text. 
 
 line 13. The Passionate Pilgrim reads " The truth I shall not know." 
 I have retained the text of Q, as most editors have done. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 175 
 
 53 [135, Q]. 
 1585, Probably September.] 
 
 Written hy Shakespeare for Mr W. H. (who has now changed 
 
 his mind) to give to Shakespeare's Mistress {who is now in 
 
 her turn coy] as though written by himself. 
 
 Whoever hath her wish, thon hast thy Will 
 
 And Will to boot, and Will in overplus ; 
 
 More than enongh am I that vex thee still, 
 
 To thy sweet will making addition thus. 
 
 Wilt thon, whose will is large and spacions 5 
 
 Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine ? 
 
 Shall will in others seem right gracious, 
 
 And on my will no fair acceptance shine ? 
 
 The sea, all water, yet receives rain still 
 
 And in abundance addeth to his store ; 10 
 
 So thou, being rich in Will, add to thy TT7/^ 
 
 One will of mine, to make thy large Will more. 
 
 Let no unkindness fair beseechers kill ; 
 
 Think all but one, and me in that one Will. 
 
 line 1. The Will here I imagine to be Shakespeare. 
 line 2. Both the Wills I take to be Mr AV. H. 
 line 8. Q reads " in my will." 
 
 lines 11 and 12. Each of the three Wills in these lines I take to be 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 I suspect the " will" in line 4 to be a printer's error for Tfill i.e. Shake- 
 speare, but cannot build on a suspicion of a printer's error. " Will," without 
 jcapital or italics means " desire" all through this sonnet, 
 
 line 13. Q, reads " Let no vnkinde, no faire beseechers liill." I am told 
 that the abbreviation " ne," with an elongated e, was in common use for 
 '' nesse " at the close of the 16th century. If this " ne " in the MS. was ever 
 so little detached from the foregoing part of the word, it would corrupt 
 j'eadily into the text of Q,. 
 
176 shakespeakb's sonnets. 
 
 54 [136, Q]. 
 
 i585. Probably September.] 
 
 Written by Shakespeare for Mr W. H. to give to his [Shake- 
 peare's) Mistress, as though written hy himself. 
 
 If tby soul check tbee tliat I come so near, 
 
 Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy Will, 
 
 And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there ; 
 
 Thus far for love, my love-suit, sweet fulfil. 
 
 Will will fulfil the treasure of thy love, 6 
 
 Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one. 
 
 In things of great receipt with ease we prove 
 
 Among a number one is reckon'd none ; 
 
 Then in the number let me pass untold, 
 
 Though in thy store's account I one must be ; 10 
 
 For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold 
 
 That nothing me a some-thing, sweet, to thee : 
 
 Make but my name thy love, and love that still, 
 And then thon lov'st me, for my name is Will, 
 
 line 2. The Will J take to he intended for Shakespeare. As also the 
 Will in line 5. 
 
 line 6. Q reads, " I fill it full with wils." The emendation is Malone's. 
 
 line 8. Steevens cites Romeo and Juliet I, ii, 32, 
 
 " of many mine being one, 
 
 May stand in numbers, though in reckoning none.'' 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 177 
 
 55 [151, Q]. 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 Presumably written by Shakespeare for Mr W. H. to give to 
 his [Shakespeare'' s) Mistress, as though ivritten by himself. 
 
 Love is too yoang to know what conscience is ; 
 
 Yet who knows not conscience is born of love ? 
 
 Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss, 
 
 Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove : 
 
 For, thou betraying me, I do betray 5 
 
 My nobler part to my gross body's treason ; 
 
 My soul doth tell my body that he may 
 
 Triumph in love ; flesh stays no farther reason. 
 
 But rising at thy name doth point out thee 
 
 As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride, 10 
 
 He is contented thy poor drudge to be. 
 
 To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side. 
 
 No want of conscience hold it that I call 
 Her 'love' for whose dear love I rise and fiill. 
 
178 SHAKESPEARE S SONNETS. 
 
 56 [35, Q], 
 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 To Ml- W. H. Shakespeare affects to consider himself hurt in 
 that Mr W. H. has been {so he believes) enjoying his 
 Mistress. He admits, however, that he has him- 
 self been accessory to this. 
 
 No more be griev'd at that which thou hast done, 
 Roses have thorns and silver fountains mud ; 
 Clouds and eclipses stain both Moon and Sun, 
 And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud. 
 All men make faults, and even I in this ; — 5 
 
 Authorizing thy trespass with compare. 
 Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss, 
 Excusing thy sins — ^more than thy sins are ; 
 For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense — - 
 Thy adverse party is thy Advocate — 10 
 
 And 'gainst myself a lawfid plea commence: 
 Such civil war is in my love and hate. 
 That I an accessory needs must be 
 To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me. 
 
 line 4. cf. Two Gentlemen of Verona I, i, 41, 2, 
 
 " as in the sweetest bud 
 
 The eating canker dwells," 
 and, again, sonnet 90 (70, Q) line 7. 
 
 line 8. Q reads " their " for both the " thy's " in this line. See note on 
 sonnet 26. I understand the meaning to be " All men do wrong sometimes, 
 as, indeed, I myself am now doing — inasmuch as finding examples that will 
 justify your act, becoming an accessory to it, glozing it over, and making 
 excuses for it, are worse sins than any of which you are guilty." 
 
 line 9. "The passage divested of its jingle seems designed to express 
 
 this meaning ' Towards thy exculpation I bring in the aid of my 
 
 sense.'" (Steevens.) 
 
 line 13. I imagine Shakespeare to be referring to the fact that he had 
 written sonnets for W. H. to give the lady as though they were his own. 
 
Shakespeare's sonxkts. 179 
 
 57 [40, Q]. 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 To Mr W. II., condoning everything, but giving him a hint that 
 he mag very possibly find the lady not all that he could luish. 
 
 Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all ; 
 Wliat hast thou then more than thou hadst before ? 
 No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call ; 
 All mine was thine before thou hadst this more. 
 Then, if for my love thou my love receivest, 5 
 
 I cannot blame thee for my love thou usedst ; 
 But yet be blamed, if thou thyself deceivest 
 By wilful taste of what thyself refusedst. 
 I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief, 
 Although thou steal thee all my poverty; 10 
 
 And yet, love knows, it is a greater grief 
 To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury. 
 Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows. 
 Kill me with spites, yet we must not be foes. 
 
 lines 6 and 8. Q reads "usest" and "refasest." A man cannot 
 "wilfully" taste what at the same time he is " re.''using." If my text is 
 admitted the sense will be, " do not blame me if you find this lady trouble- 
 some, you refused her for some time, and it is nobody's doing but your own 
 that you now take up with her." The emendation also gets rid of the 
 having four consecutive lines ending in " est." 
 
 line 7. Q reads " this selfe." The emendation is given in Camb. as by 
 Gildon. 
 
 X2 
 
180 Shakespeare's sonnets, 
 
 58 [41, Q], 
 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., excusing him, and at the same time mildly 
 upbraiding him. 
 
 Those petty wrongs tbat liberty commits, 
 Whea I am sometime absent from thy heart, 
 Thy beauty and thy years full well befits. 
 For still temptation follows where thou art. 
 Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won, 5 
 
 Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assailed ; 
 And when a woman woos, what woman's son 
 Will sourly leave her till she have prevailed ? 
 Ay me ! but yet thou mightst, my sweet, forbear, 
 And chide thy beauty and thy straying youth, 10 
 
 Who lead thee in their riot even there 
 Where thou art forc'd to break a twofold truth. 
 Hers, by thy beauty tempting her to thee, 
 Thine, by thy beauty being false to me. 
 
 line 1. Q reads "pretty wrongs." I take Bell's emendation from Camb. 
 
 line 5. Malone cites from I Hen. VI, V, iii, 77, 
 
 " She's beautiful, and therefore to be woo'd ; 
 She is a woman, therefore to be won." 
 ef. also, Titus Andronicus II, i, 82, 83, 
 
 " She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd; 
 She is a woman, therefore may be won." 
 
 line 8. Q reads " he." Malone accepts Tyrwhitt's emendation " she," 
 •which is generally adopted. 
 
 line 9. Q, reads "my seate forbeare." I follow Malone in reading as in 
 my text. 
 
shakespeabe's sonnets. 181 
 
 59 [42, Q]. 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., affecting to be more hurt than he really is. 
 
 That thou hast her, it is not all my grief, 
 
 And yet it may be said I loved her dearly ; 
 
 That she hath thee is of my wailing chief, 
 
 A loss in love that touches me more nearly- 
 
 Loving oifeuders, thus I will excuse ye : 5 
 
 Thou dost love her because thou know'st I love her ; - 
 
 And for my sake even so doth she abuse me, 
 
 Suifering my friend for my sake to approve her. 
 
 If I lose thee, my loss is my love's gain, \ 
 
 And losing her, my friend hath found that loss ; 10 
 
 Both find each other, and I lose both twain. 
 
 And both for my sake lay on me this cross : 
 
 But here's the joy : my friend and I are one ; ^ 
 
 Sweet flattery ! then she loves but me alone. 
 
 As regards this and the two preceding sonnets see quotation from 
 St Bvremond Chap, ix, p 73. 
 
 line 2. One cannot help surmising that with equal truth " it might be 
 said *' that Shakespeare did not love her very dearly. 
 
 lines 9, 10. cf. Two Gentlemen of Verona II, vi, 20, 21, 
 " If I keep them, I needs must lose myself; 
 If I lose them, thus find I by my loss." 
 
182 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 60 [134, Q]. 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 To Shakespeare' s Mistress, tvhose conquest of Mr W. H. is 
 now supposed to have been completed. 
 
 So, now I have confess'd that he is thine 
 And I mj'self aixi mortgag'd to thy will ; 
 ]\Iyself I'll forfeit, so that other mine 
 Thou wilt restore, to be my comfort still: 
 Bnt thou wilt not, nor he will not be free, 6 
 
 For thou art covetous and he is kind ; 
 He learu'd but surety-like to write for me 
 Under that bond that him as fast doth bind. 
 '•' The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take, 
 
 Thou usurer, that put'st forth all to use, 10 
 
 And sue a friend came debtor for my sake ; 
 So him I lose through my unkind abuse. 
 
 Him have I lost ; thou hast both him and me : 
 He pays the whole, and yet am I not free. 
 
 line 9. " ' Statute' has here its legal signification — that of a security or 
 obligation for money." (Maloke.) 
 
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS. 183 
 
 61 [133, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 To Shakespeare' s Mistress, who has been found troublesome 
 both by Mr W. H. and Shakespeare. 
 
 Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan 
 
 For that deep ■wound it gives my friend and me ! 
 
 Is't not enough to torture me alone, 
 
 But slave to slavery my sweet'st friend must be ? 
 
 Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken, 5 
 
 And my next self thou harder hast engross'd : 
 
 Of him, myself, and thee, I am forsaken — 
 
 A torment thrice threefold thus to be cross'd. 
 
 Prison my heart in thy steel bosom's ward. 
 
 But then my friend's heart let my poor heart bail ; 10 
 
 Whoe'er keeps me, let my heart be his guard, 
 
 Thou canst not then use rigour in my Jail ; 
 
 And yet thou wilt ; for I, being pent in thee. 
 Perforce am thine, and all that is in me. 
 
 line 4. " Slave to slavery " I suppose means nothing more than " so 
 utterly enslaved that he could not be more so though he were slave to 
 slavery itself." 
 
1^4 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 62 [162, Q], 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 Written by Shakespeare for Mr W. H. to give to Shakespeare^ s 
 
 Mistress {who has dismissed him after a brief experience) 
 
 as though written by himself. 
 
 In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn, 
 Bat thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing; 
 In act thy bed-vow broke, and new faith torn, 
 In vowing new hate after new love bearing. 
 But why of two oaths' breach do I accuse thee 5 
 
 When I break twenty I I am perjur'd most. 
 For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee 
 And all my honest faith in thee is lost : 
 For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness, 
 Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy ; 10 
 
 And, to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindness 
 Or made them swear against the thing they see ; 
 For I have sworn thee fair ; more perjur'd I, 
 To swear a2:ainst the truth so foul a lie ! 
 
 I agree with Mr AVyndham in thinking that the connection hetween 
 Mr W. H. and Shakespeare's mistress was of short duration. Her love for 
 him had been but recent, and already she was hating him. Whether the 
 disappointment was on her side or on Mr W. H.'s does not appear, but I 
 suspect it to have been on the lady's, for from sonnet 90 (Q, 70j it appears 
 that Mr W. H.'s youth has not been stained, and from 114 (Q, 94) we 
 learn that he does "not do the thing" he "most doth show," and that 
 though he moves others he is " himself as stone, unmoved, cold, and to 
 temptation slow." 
 
 line 13. Q, reads "more perjurde eye." The emendation "I" is 
 Malone's. 
 
SHAKESrEAKE's SONNETS. 185 
 
 63 [43, Q], 
 
 1585. Probably September.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Written during travel. 
 
 When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see, 
 For all the day they view things unrespected ; 
 But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee, 
 And, darkly bright, are bright in dark directed. 
 Then thon, i^hose shadow shadows doth make bright, 5 
 How would thy shadow's form form happy show 
 To the clear day with thy much clearer light. 
 When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so ! 
 How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made 
 By looking on thee in the living day, 10 
 
 "Wlaen in dead night thy fair imperfect shade 
 Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay ! 
 All days are nights to me, till I see thee. 
 And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me. 
 
 line 11. Q reads, "When in dead night their faire imperfect shade." 
 The emendation " thy " is Malone's — see note on sonnet 26. 
 
 line 13. Q reads "All daies are nights to see." I have adopted 
 Malone's suggested emendation " me.'' 
 
186 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 G4 [44, Q], 
 1585. Probably October.] 
 
 To ifr W. H. Wfitten during travel. 
 
 If the dull substance of my flesh were thought 
 Injurious distance should not stop my way ; 
 For then, despite of space, I would be brought 
 From limits far remote, where thou dost stay. 
 No matter then although my foot did stand 5 
 
 Upon the farthest earth remov'd from thee ; 
 For nimble thought can jump both sea and land 
 As soon as think the place where he would be. 
 But, ah, thought kills me, that I am not thought, 
 To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone, 10 
 But that, so much of earth and water wrought, 
 I must attend time's leisure with my moan, 
 Receiving nought by elements so slow 
 But heavy tears, badges of either's woe. 
 
 line 11. i.e. "being so thoroughly compounded of these two ponderous 
 elements." (Malone.) Malone also cites Hen. V, III, vii, 23, " He is pure 
 air and fire, and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him." 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 18'; 
 
 <3o [45, QJ. 
 
 1585. Probably October.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A continuation of the preceding sonnet. 
 
 The other two, slight air and purging fire, 
 
 Are both with thee, wherever I abide ; 
 
 The first my thonght, the other my desire. 
 
 These present-absent with swift motion slide. 
 
 For when these quicker Elements are gone 5 
 
 In tender Embassy of love to thee, 
 
 My life, being made of four, with two alone 
 
 Sinks down to death, oppress'd with melancholy ; 
 
 Until life's composition be recur'd 
 
 By those swift messengers retnrn'd from thee, 10 
 
 Who even but now come back again, assur'd 
 
 Of thy fair health, recounting it to me : 
 
 This told, I joy ; but then no longer glad^ 
 
 I send them back again and straight grow sad. 
 
 line 7. Steevens cites Much Ado About Nothing, 
 
 " Does not our life consist of the four elements ? " 
 
 line 12. Q reads " of their faire health." Malone again corrects. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 66 [46, Q], 
 
 1585. Probably October.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Apparently still written during a time of 
 
 absence. 
 
 Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war 
 
 How to divide tbe conquest of thy sight ; 
 
 Mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar,- 
 
 My heart mine eye the freedom of that right. 
 
 My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie, & 
 
 A closet never pierc'd with crystal eyes ; 
 
 But the defendant doth that plea deny 
 
 And says in him thy fair appearance lies* 
 
 To 'cide this title is impanneled 
 
 A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart, 10 
 
 And by their verdict is determined 
 
 The clear eye's moiety and the dear heart's parti 
 As thus ; mine eye's due is thine outward part 
 And my heart's right thine inward love of heart. 
 
 In lines 3, 8, Q reads " their " instead of " thy.'' See Maloae's 
 explanation as given in note to sonnet 26. 
 
 line 9. Q reads " to side this title." The emendation " 'cide " is 
 Sewell's. (Camb.) 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets, 189 
 
 67 [47, Q]. 
 1585. Probably October.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet. 
 
 Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took, 
 And each doth good turns now unto the other : 
 When that mine eye is famish'd for a look, 
 Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother, 
 With my love's picture then my eye doth feast 5 
 
 And to the painted banquet bids my heart ; 
 Another time mine eye is my heart's guest 
 And in his thoughts of love doth share a part: 
 So, either by thy picture or my love. 
 Thyself away are present still with me ; 10 
 
 For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move. 
 And I am still with them and they with thee ; 
 Or if they sleep, thy picture in my sight 
 Awakes my heart to heart's and eye's delight. 
 
190 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 68 [48, Q]. 
 1585. Probably October.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Still written during absence. 
 
 How careful was I when I took my way, 
 
 Each trifle under truest bars to thrast 
 
 That to my use it might unused stay 
 
 From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust ! 
 
 But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are, 5 
 
 Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief, 
 
 Thou, best of dearest and mine only care. 
 
 Art left the prey of every vulgar thief. 
 
 Thee have I not lock'd up in any chest. 
 
 Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art, 10 
 
 Within the gentle closure of my breast, 
 
 From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part ; 
 
 And even thence thou wilt be stol'n, I fear, .. 
 
 For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear. \ 
 
 line 11. Boswell quotes from Venus and Adonis, canto 131, 
 " Lest the deceiving harmony should run 
 Into the quiet closure of my breast." 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 191 
 
 69 [49, Q]. 
 1585. Probably October.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Groioing out of the last three lines of the 
 preceding sonnet. 
 
 Against that time, if ever that time come. 
 
 When I shall see thee frown on my defects, 
 
 When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum, 
 
 Call'd to that audit by advis'd respects ; 
 
 Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass 5 
 
 And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye, 
 
 When love, converted from the thing it was, 
 
 Shall reasons find of settled gravity ; 
 
 Against that time do I ensconce me here 
 
 Within the knowledge of mine own desert, 10 
 
 And this my hand against myself uprear. 
 
 To guard the lawful reasons on thy part : 
 
 To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws, 
 Since why to love I can allege no cause. 
 
192 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 70 [50, Q]. 
 
 1685. Probably October.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Apparently written while Shakespeare was on 
 
 a journey. 
 
 Ho"W heavy do I journey on the way, 
 
 When what I seek, my weary travel's end. 
 
 Doth teach that ease and that repose to say, 
 
 ' Thus far the miles are measur'd from thy friend ! ' 
 
 The beast that bears me, tired with my woe, 5 
 
 Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me 
 
 As if by some instinct the wretch did know 
 
 His rider loved not speed, being made from thee : 
 
 The bloody spur cannot provoke him on 
 
 That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide ; 10 
 
 Which heavily he answers with a groan. 
 
 More sharp to me than spurring to his side ; 
 
 For that same groan doth put this in my mind ; 
 
 My grief lies onward, and my joy behind. 
 
 line, 6. Q reads " Plods duly on," The emendation is Malone's. 
 
 line 14. " My grief lies onward." Is it possible that he was on his way 
 to Stratford ? 
 
Shakespeare's soxnkts. 193 
 
 71 [51, Q]. 
 1585. Probably October.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A continuation of the preceding sonnet. 
 
 Thus can my love excuse the slow offence 
 Of my dull bearer when from thee I speed : 
 From where thou art why should I haste me thence? 
 Till 1 return, of posting is no need. 
 0, what excuse will my poor beast then find, 5 
 
 When swift extremity can seem bnt slow ? 
 Then should I spur though mounted on the wind, 
 In winged speed no motion shall I know : 
 Then can no horse with my desire keeja pace, 
 Therefore desire, of perfect'st love being made, 10 
 
 Shall need no dull flesh in his fiery race. 
 But love, for love, thus shall excuse my jade ; 
 Since from thee going he went wilful-slow. 
 Towards thee I'll run, and give him leave to go. 
 
 line 11. Q reads, " Shall naigh noe dull flesh in his fiery race." Malone 
 ha?, " Shall neigh (no dull flesh) in his fiery race," but strongly suspects 
 corruption. Camb. reads " Shall neigh — no dull flesh— &c," but gives the 
 emendation by Kinnear which I have adopted in my text. I take the 
 meaning to be : — " My desire to be with you will be so great, that I shall 
 need no such dull flesh as that of my ' dull bearer ' to convey me to you, but 
 love will find an excuse for my poor beast which he would never have been 
 able to discover for himself. Knowing, then, how slow he went when he 
 was taking me from you, 1 will excuse him altogether; I will turn him adrift 
 and will run all the way to you on foot." 
 
194 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 72 [f2, Q]. 
 1585. Probably late Autumn.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Written after Shakespeare' s return, and 
 
 excusing himself for not coming to see his friend so 
 
 frequently as heretofore. 
 
 .-' ^ 
 
 So am I as the rich, whose blessed key 
 
 Can bring him to his sweet uj)-locked treas-ure, 
 
 The which he will not every hour survey, 
 
 For blunting the fine point of seldom pleastire. 
 
 Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare, 5 
 
 Since, seldom coming, in the long year set. 
 
 Like stones of worth they thinly placed are. 
 
 Or captain Jewels in the carcanet. 
 
 So is the time that keeps you as my chest. 
 
 Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide, 10 
 
 To make some sjjecial instant special blest 
 
 By new unfolding his imprison'd pride. 
 
 Blessed are you, whose worthiness gives scope. 
 Being had, to triumph, being lack'd, to hope. 
 
 line 8. " The carcanet was an ornament worn round the neck.'' 
 
 (Malone.) 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 195 
 
 73 [53, Q], 
 1585. Probably late Autamn.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A peace-offering of abundant flattery . 
 
 What is your substance, whereof are you made, 
 
 That millions of strange shadows on you tend ? 
 
 Since every one, bath every one, one shade. 
 
 And yon, but one, can every shadow lend. 
 
 Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit 5 
 
 Is poorly imitated after you ; 
 
 On Helenas cheek all art or beauty set, 
 
 And you in Grecian tires are painted new: 
 
 Speak of the spring and foison of the year. 
 
 The one doth shadow of your beauty show, 10 
 
 The other as your bounty doth appear ; 
 
 And you in every blessed shape we know. 
 
 In all external grace you have some part, 
 
 But you like none, none you, for constant heart. 
 
 line 3. I keep the punctuation of Q. 
 
 line 7. Q reads " all art of beautie.'' 
 
 line 8. From this as also from line 1 of sonnet 20 it is plain that 
 Mr W, H. had still no hair on his face. 
 
 3 
 
196 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 74 [54, Q]. 
 1685. Probably late Aatnmn.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. Apparently suggested hy the last line of the 
 preceding sonnet. 
 
 0, HOW much more doth beauty beauteous seem 
 By that sweet ornament which truth doth give ! 
 The Rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem 
 For that sweet odour which doth in it live. 
 The Canker-blooms have full as deep a dye 5 
 
 As the perfumed tincture of the Roses, 
 Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly 
 When summer's breath their masked buds discloses : 
 But, for their virtue only is their show. 
 They live xmwoo'd and unrespected fade, 10 
 
 Die to themselves. Sweet Roses do not so ; 
 Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made : 
 And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth. 
 When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth. 
 
 litie 14. Q reads " When that shall vade, by verse distils your truth.'' 
 I follow Malone's reading, and if he had read "When thou shalt fade," I 
 should have followed him too, despite the "your" later on in the line, 
 cf. Sonnet 24 for indiscriminate use of " you" and '' thou," and the last tvio 
 lines of 124 (Q, 104). At any rate " fade " is indicated by the " fade " at the 
 end of line 10, 
 
SHAKESPEARE S SONNETS. 
 
 75 [55, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably late Autumn.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Apparently suggested by the last line of the 
 preceding sonnet. 
 
 Not marble, nor the gilded monuments 
 Of Princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme ; 
 But you shall shine more bright in these contents 
 Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time. 
 When wasteful war shall Statues overturn 5 
 
 And broils root out the work of masonry, 
 Nor 2Iars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn 
 The living record of your memory. 
 'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity 
 Shall you pace forth ; your praise shall still find room 
 Even in the eyes of all posterity 11 
 
 That wear this world out to the ending doom. 
 So, till the judgement that yourself arise, 
 Ton live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes. 
 
 line 1. Q reads " monument." The emendation is Malane's. 
 
198 shakespisabb's sonnets. 
 
 76 [56, Q]. 
 1585. Probably late Autumn. J 
 
 To Mr W. H., who, satisfied that he has regained his old 
 ascendency over Shakespeare, is now neglecting him. 
 
 Sweet love, renew thy force ; be it not said 
 Thy edge should blunter be than appetite, 
 Which but to-day by feeding is allay'd, 
 To-morrow sharpen'd in his former might : 
 So, love, be thou ; although to-day thou fill 5 
 
 Thy hungry eyes even till they wink with fulness, 
 To-morrow see again, and do not kill 
 The spirit of Love with a perpetual dulness. 
 Let this sad Interim like the Ocean be 
 Which parts the shore where two contracted new 10 
 Come daily to the banks, that when they see 
 Beturn of love, more blest may be the view ; 
 Or call it Winter, which, being full of care. 
 Makes Summer's welcome thrice more wish'd, more 
 rare. 
 
 line 13, Ci reads " As cal it Winter." I follow Malone in reading " or" 
 for " as,'' on Tyrwhitt's suggestion. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 199 
 
 77 [57, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably late Autumn.J 
 
 To Mr W. H., who has again been trifling with the ivriter. 
 
 Being your slave, what should I do but tend 
 Upon the hours and times of your desire ? 
 I have no precious time at all to spend, 
 Nor services to do, till you require. 
 Nor dare I chide the world-withoxit-end hour 5 
 
 Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you, 
 Nor think the bitterness of absence sour 
 When you have bid your servant once adieu ; 
 Nor dare I question with my jealous thought 
 Where you may be, or your affairs suppose, 10 
 
 But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought 
 Save, where you are, how happy you make those. 
 So true a fool is love, that in your Will, 
 (Though you do any thing) he thinks no ill. 
 
 line 5. Malone cites from Lore's Labour's Lost, V, ii, 799, 
 
 " a time methinks too short 
 
 To make a ■world-without-end bargain in." 
 
 line 13. I keep the punctuation of Q. The capital W is perhaps a 
 printer's error. If not, this passage again suggests a play on Shakespeare's 
 Christian name. I read as in Q, but suspect that " Will " should have 
 been in italics, as I see from Camb. that Mr Massey has conjectured. 
 
 line 14. I keep the brackets of Q. 
 
200 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 78 [58, Q]. 
 1585. Probably late Autumn.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet. 
 
 That God forbid that made me first your slave, 
 
 I sliould in thought control your times of pleasure, 
 
 Or at your hand the account of hours to crave, 
 
 Being your vassal, bound to stay your leisure I 
 
 0, let me sulFer, being at your beck, 5 
 
 The imprison'd absence of your liberty ; 
 
 And patience, tame to sufferance, bide each check, 
 
 Without accusing you of injury. 
 
 Be where you list, your charter is so strong 
 
 That you yourself may privilege your time ; 1 
 
 Do what you will, to you it doth belong 
 
 Yourself to pardon of self-doing crime. 
 
 I am to wait, though waiting so be hell. 
 Not blame your pleasure, be it ill or well. 
 
 line 6. The meaning is " Let me suffer the imprisonment of being kept 
 at home waiting for you while you take your liberty and absent yourself 
 [after having promised to come to see me]." 
 
 lines 10, 11. Q reads 
 
 " That you your selfe may priuiledge your time 
 To what you will." 
 I have adopted Malone's emendation. 
 
shakespeark's soxxets. 201 
 
 79 [59, Qj. 
 
 1585. Probably late Autumn.j 
 
 To Mr W. H. A peace-offering of abundant Jlatterij. 
 
 If there be nothing new, but that which is 
 
 Hath been before, how are our brains beguil'd. 
 
 Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss 
 
 The second burthen of a former child ! 
 
 0, that record could with a backward look 5 
 
 Even of five hundred courses of the Sun, 
 
 Show me your image in some antique book, 
 
 Since mind at first in character was done ; 
 
 That I might see what the old world could say 
 
 To this composed wonder of your frame, 10 
 
 Whether we are mended, or whether better they, 
 
 Or whether revolution be the same. 
 
 0, sure I am, the wits of former days 
 
 To subjects worse have given admiring praise. 
 
 line 8. " Would that I could read a description of you in the earliest 
 manuscript that appeared after the first use of letters." (Malone.) 
 
 " This may allude to the ancient custom of inserting real portraits among 
 the ornaments of illuminated manuscripts, with inscriptions under them.'' 
 
 (Steevens.) 
 
202 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 80 [60, Q]. 
 1585. Probably late Autumn.] 
 
 To Mr W. B. Another peace-ofering. 
 
 Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore, 
 
 So do our minutes hasten to their end ; 
 
 Each changing place with that which goes before, 
 
 In sequent toil all forwards do contend. 
 
 Nativity, once in the main of light, 5 
 
 Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd, 
 
 Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight, 
 
 And Time that gave, doth now his gift confound. 
 
 Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth 
 
 And delves the parallels in beauty's brow, 10 
 
 Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth, 
 
 And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow : 
 
 And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand, 
 Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand. 
 
 line 5. Malone points out that the " main of light " means " the great 
 body of light," as we call the sea " the main " of waters. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets, 803 
 
 81 [61, Q]. 
 1585. Probably late Autumn.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Again affectionately reproachful. 
 
 Is it thy will thy Image should keep open 
 
 My heavy eyelids to the weary night ? 
 
 Dost thou desire my slumber should be broken, 
 
 While shadows like to thee do mock my sight ? 
 
 Is it thy spirit that thou send'st from thee 5 
 
 So far from home into my deeds to pry. 
 
 To find out shames and idle hours in me, 
 
 The scope and tenour of thy Jealousy ? 
 
 0, no I thy love, though much, is not so great ; 
 
 It is my love that keeps mine eye awake ; 10 
 
 Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat. 
 
 To play the watchman ever for thy sake : 
 
 For thee watch I whilst thou doth wake elsewhere, 
 From me far off, with others all too near. 
 
204 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 82 [62, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably kte Autumn.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sonnet of peace-offering and self-abasement. 
 
 ISiN of self-love possesseth all mine eye 
 
 And all my soul and all my every part ; 
 
 And for this sin tbere is no remedy, 
 
 It is so grounded inward in my heart. 
 
 Methinks no face so gracious is as mine, 5 
 
 No shape so true, no truth of such account ; 
 
 And for myself mine own worth do define, 
 
 As I all other in all worth surmount. 
 
 But when my glass shows me myself indeed, 
 
 Beated and chopp'd with tann'd antiquity, 10 
 
 Mine own self-love quite contrary 1 read ; 
 
 Self so self-loving were iniquity. 
 
 'Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise, 
 Painting my age with beauty of thy days. 
 
 line 8. Q reads " in all worths." 
 
 line 10. " Beated was perhaps a misprint for 'hated. 'Bated is properly, 
 overthrown, laid low, abated ; from abbattre." (Malone.) 
 
 For the reasons why I hold that Shakespeare was still very young 
 see Chap. X. 
 
shakespeake'b soxxet.^. 205 
 
 83 [G3, Q]. 
 1585. Probably late Antninn.J 
 
 To Mr W. H, Growing out of the last six lines of the 
 preceding sonnet. 
 
 Against my love shall be as I am now 
 With Time's injurious hand crush'd and o'erworn, 
 When hours have drain'd his blood and fiU'd his brow 
 With lines and wrinkles, when his youthful morn 
 Hath travell'd on to Age's steepy night, 5 
 
 And all those beauties whereof now he's King 
 Are vanishing or vanish'd out of sight. 
 Stealing away the treasure of his Spring ; 
 For such a time do I now fortify 
 
 Against confounding Age's cruel knife, 10 
 
 That he shall never cut from memory 
 My sweet love's beauty, though my lover's life : 
 His beauty shall in these black lines be seen. 
 And -they shall live, and he in them still green. 
 
 lines 1, 2. Again I must refer the reader to Chap. X for the reasons 
 why I hold that Shakespeare was still very young. 
 
 line 5. Malone was at one time inclined to read " age's sleepy night," 
 but on consideration rejected this emendation. 
 
20G SHAKESPEiKE's SONNETS. 
 
 84 [64, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably late Autumn.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. Continuing the train of thought that pervades 
 the preceding sonnet. 
 
 When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd 
 
 The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age ; 
 
 When sometime lofty towers I see down-raz'd, 
 
 And brass eternal slave to mortal rage ; 
 
 When I have seen the hungry Ocean gain 5 
 
 Advantage on the Kingdom of the shore, 
 
 And the firm soil win of the watery main, 
 
 Increasing store with loss and loss with store ; 
 
 When I have seen such interchange of state. 
 
 Or state itself confounded to decay; lO 
 
 Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate, 
 
 That Time will come and take my love away. 
 
 This thought is as a death, which cannot choose 
 But weep to have that which it fears to lose. 
 
 lines 6 — 10. Malone acknowledges the citation of C[apell] from 
 Henry IV, Pt. II, III, i, 45—53, 
 
 " O heaven ! that one might read the book of fate, 
 And see the revohition of the times, 
 Make mountains level, and the continent 
 Weary of solid firmness, melt itself 
 Into the sea, and, other times, to see 
 The beachy girdle of the ocean 
 Too wide for Neptune's hips ; how chances mock. 
 And changes fill the cup of alteration 
 With diverse liquors." 
 
shakespeahe's sonnets. 207 
 
 85 [65, Q]. 
 1585. Probably late Autumn.] 
 
 To Mr W. H, Still continuing the same train of melancholy 
 
 rfjlection. 
 
 Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, 
 
 But sad mortality o'er-sways their power, 
 
 How with his rage shall beauty hold a plea 
 
 Whose action is no stronger than a flower ? 
 
 0, how shall summer's honey breath hold out 5 
 
 Against the wreckfal siege of battering days, 
 
 When rocks impregnable are not so stout, 
 
 Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays ? 
 
 fearful meditation ! where, alack. 
 
 Shall Time's best Jewel from Time's quest lie hid ? 10 
 
 what strong hand can hold his swift foot back. 
 
 Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid ? 
 
 0, none, unless this miracle have might. 
 
 That in black ink my love may still shine bright. 
 
 line 3. Q reads " How with this rage." Malone says, " Shakespeare, I 
 believe, wrote 'How with his rage,' i.e. with the rage of Moitality." He 
 reads " this," howeyer, in his text. 
 
 line 10. Q, reads "from Time's chest lie hid.'" Malone was at one 
 time inclined to read " quest," as Theobald had also conjectured. He points 
 out that a jewel does not lie hid " from " the chest in which it is kept. 
 Alarmed probably by Stee-vens's rejection of the emendation, he withdrew 
 his approval. But Theobald is surely right, for the following line shows 
 that Time is supposed to be going about in quest of this or that. 
 
 line 11. Q reads " Or what strong hand." 
 
 line 12. Q reads " Or who his spoile or beautie." The emendation is 
 Malone's. 
 
208 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 86 [66, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably late Autumn.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A cry of patn, 
 
 Tib'd with all these, for restful death I cry, 
 
 As, to behold desert a beggar born, 
 
 And needy Nothing trimm'd in jollity. 
 
 And purest faith unhappily forsworn. 
 
 And gilded honour shamefully misplac'd, 5 
 
 And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted, 
 
 And right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd, 
 
 And strength by limping sway disabled. 
 
 And art made tongue-tied by authority, 
 
 And Folly, Doctor-like, controlling skill, 10 
 
 And simple Truth miscall'd Simplicity, 
 
 And captive good attending Captain ill : 
 
 Tir'd with all these, from these would I be gone. 
 Save that, to die, I leave my love alone. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 209 
 
 87 [67, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably late Autumn.] 
 
 To Mr W. TL, who has been keeping company of which 
 Shakespeare did not approve. 
 
 Ah, wberefore with infection should he live 
 
 And with his presence grace impiety, 
 
 That sin by him advantage should achieve 
 
 And lace itself with his society ? 
 
 Why should false painting imitate his cheek, 5 
 
 And steal dead seeming of his living hue ? 
 
 Why should poor beauty indirectly seek 
 
 Eoses of shadow, since his Rose is true ? 
 
 Why should he live, now Nature bankrupt is, 
 
 Beggar'd of blood to blush through lively veins? 10 
 
 For she hath no exchequer now but his. 
 
 And, prov'd of many, lives upon his gains. 
 
 0, him she stores, to show what wealth she had 
 In days long since, before these last so bad. 
 
 line 4. " ' Lace itself ■with his society.' i.e. embellished itself. So 
 Eomeo and Juliet III, v, 7, 8, 
 
 ' what envious streaks 
 
 Do lace the severing clouds.' " (Steevens.) 
 
 line 6. Q reads " Steale dead seeing of his lining hew?" I see from 
 Camb. that the emendation " seeming '' was conjectured by Dr Farmer and 
 Capell. Malone mentions it but does not adopt it. 
 
 line 12. Q reads "proud of many.'' cf. Appendix B (129, Q), line 11 . 
 The reading " prov'd " is due to Capell (Camb.). I cannot say that I under- 
 stand exactly what Shakespeare meant. 
 
210 iSHAlJBSPEAIlK's SONNETS, 
 
 88 [68, Q], 
 
 1585. Probably late Autnmn.j 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet. 
 
 Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn, 
 
 Wheu beauty liv'd and died as flowers do now, 
 
 Before these bastard signs of fair were born. 
 
 Or durst inhabit on a living brow; 
 
 Before the golden tresses of the dead, 5 
 
 The right of sepulchres, were shorn away 
 
 To live a second life on second head ; 
 
 Ere beauty's dead fleece made another gay : 
 
 In him those holy antique hours are seen. 
 
 Without all ornament himself and true, 10 
 
 Making no summer of another's green. 
 
 Robbing no old to dress his beauty new ; 
 
 And him as for a map doth Nature store, 
 To show false Art what beauty was of yore. 
 
 line 10. Q, reads " Without all ornament itselfe and true." Malone 
 conjectured " himself and true " as the correct reading, but did not venture 
 to adopt it in his text. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 211 
 
 89 [G9, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably late Antnmn.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. Warning him that he is being much 
 ill-spoken of. 
 
 Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view- 
 Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mead ; 
 All tongues, the voice of souls, give thee that due. 
 Uttering bare truth, even so as foes Commend. 
 Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown'd ; 5 
 But those same tongues, that give thee so thine own, 
 lu other accents do this praise confound 
 By seeing farther than the eye hath shown. 
 They look into the beauty of thy mind. 
 And that, in guess, they measure by thy deeds ; 10 
 
 Then, churls, their thoughts, although their eyes were 
 
 kind. 
 To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds : 
 But why thy odour matcheth not thy show, 
 The soil is this — that thou dost common grow. 
 
 line 3. Q reads "give thee that end." Tyrwhitt suggested the 
 emendation " due," and Malone adopted it. Malone adds "The letters that 
 compose the word ' due ' were probably transposed in the press, and the u 
 inverted." 
 
 line 5. Q reads " their outward thus, &o." Malone has again emended. 
 
 line 14. Q reads "The solye is this." The edition of 1640 reads 
 " soyle " for " solye." (Camb.) Malone declaring himself at fault reads 
 " solve." 
 
 p2 
 
212 Shakespeare's sonnets. - 
 
 90 [70, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably late Antumn.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet, softening 
 
 its effect. 
 
 That thou art blam'd shall not be thy defect, 
 
 For slander's mark was ever yet the fair ; 
 
 The ornament of beauty is suspect, 
 
 A Grow that flies in heaven's sweetest air. 
 
 So thou be good, slander doth but approve 5 
 
 Thy worth the greater, being woo'd oftime ; 
 
 For Canker vice the sweetest buds doth love 
 
 And thou present'st a pure unstained prime. 
 
 Thou hast pass'd by the ambush of young days, 
 
 Either not assail'd, or victor being charg'd ; 10 
 
 Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise. 
 
 To tie up envy evermore enlarg'd : 
 
 If some suspect of ill mask'd not thy show, 
 Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe. 
 
 line 3. " Suspect " means " suspicion," as it also does in line 13. 
 
 line 6. Q reads, " Their -worth the greater beeing woo'd of time." 
 Malone corrects the " their " as usual, 
 
 I see from the Cambridge edition that the emendation "oftime" for 
 " of time " has been suggested, but no one seems to have adopted it and at 
 the same time kept " woo'd." The sense is : — " If you are good now, slander 
 only shows how confirmed your goodness is ; for you have been often 
 woo'd; vice, moreover, generally confines its attacks to the immature, and 
 you have now passed victoriously through your most trying time." 
 
 line 7. Malone refers to C[apellJ as citing Two Gentlemen of 
 Verona, III, i, 41,2, 
 
 " as in the sweetest bud 
 
 The loathsome canker dwells." 
 
 line 8. " Prime " means " spring." cf. Sonnets 3 and 117. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 213 
 
 91 [71, Q]. 
 1585. Probably early Winter.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Written in great dejection. 
 
 No Longer moarn for me when I am dead, 
 
 Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell 
 
 Give warning to the world that I am fled 
 
 From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell: 
 
 Nay, if you read this line remember not, 5 
 
 The hand that writ it : for I love you so 
 
 That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot 
 
 If thinking on me then should make you woe. 
 
 0, if, I say, you look upon this verse 
 
 When I perhaps compounded am with clay, 10 
 
 Do not so much as my poor name rehearse, 
 
 But let your love even with my life decay ; 
 
 Lest the wise world should look into your moan 
 And mock you with me after I am gone. 
 
 Uht 2. Malone cites Henrj' IV, Pt. II, I, i, 101-103, 
 
 " and his tongue 
 
 Sounds ever after as a sullen bell, 
 Remember'd knoUing a departed friend." 
 
214 SHAKEsr ease's sonnets. 
 
 92 [72, Q]. 
 1585. Probably early Winter.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet. 
 
 0, LEST the world sbould task you to recite 
 
 "What merit lived in me, that you should love. 
 
 After my death, dear love, forget me quite, 
 
 For you in me can nothing worthy prove ; 
 
 Unless you would devise some virtuous lie, 6 
 
 To do more for me than mine own desert, 
 
 And hang more praise upon deceased I 
 
 Than niggard truth would willingly impart : 
 
 0, lest your true love may seem false in this. 
 
 That you for love speak well of me untrue, 10 
 
 My name be buried where my body is 
 
 And live no more to shame nor me nor you. 
 
 For I am sham'd by that which I bring forth. 
 And so should you, to love things nothing worth. 
 
 line 7. This line (as well as line 14, and many another in the Sonnets) 
 makes it idle to maintain that Shakespeare was a purist in the matter of 
 grammar. 
 
 line 10. " Untrue " here = " untruly." 
 
SHAKESPEAKE S SONNETS. 
 
 215 
 
 93 [73, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably early Winter.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the two preceding sonnets. 
 
 That time of year tbon mayst in me behold 
 When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang 
 Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, 
 Bare ruin'd choirs where late the sweet birds sang. 
 In me thou see'st the twilight of such day 5 
 
 As after Sunset fadeth in the West ; 
 Which by and by black night doth take away 
 Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. 
 In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire, 
 That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, 10 
 
 As the death-bed whereon it must expire, 
 Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by, 
 
 This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more 
 strong. 
 
 To love that well which thou must leave ere long. 
 
 line 4. "The quarto has 'rn'wd quiers,' from which the reader must 
 extract what meaning he can — the edition of 1640 has ' ruined.' " 
 
 (Malone.) 
 line 7. Steevens quotes from Two- Gentlemen of Verona, I, iii, 87, 
 " And by and by a cloud takes all away." 
 
 line 14. Q reads as in my text, but I think it probable that Shake- 
 speare wrote " which thou musfleese ere long." See line 14 of sonnet 5. 
 
216 SHAKBSPEAEES' SONNETS. 
 
 94 [74, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably early Winter.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the three preceding sonnets. 
 
 But be contented: when that fell arrest 
 
 Without all bail shall carry me away, 
 
 My life hath in this line some interest. 
 
 Which for memorial still with thee shall stay. 
 
 When thou reviewest this thou dost review 5 
 
 The very part was consecrate to thee ; 
 
 The earth can have but earth, which is his due ; 
 
 My spirit is thine, the better part of me : 
 
 So then thou hast but lost the dregs of life, 
 
 The prey of worms, my body being dead, 10 
 
 The coward conquest of a wretch's knife, 
 
 Too base of thee to be remembered. 
 
 The worth of that is that which it contains, 
 And that is this, and this with thee remains. 
 
 line 1. Malone refers to C [apell] as citing Hamlet V, ii, 347, 
 " Had I but time (as this fell Serjeant, death, 
 Is strict in his arrest,) O I could tell you — 
 But let it be." 
 
 line 12. I presume it is the " body," not the " wretch," that is " too 
 base" &c. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 217 
 
 95 [75, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably early Winter.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., whose intercourse loith Shakespeare is now 
 evidently intermittent. 
 
 So are you to my thoaghts as food to life, 
 
 Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground ; 
 
 And for the prize of you I hold such strife 
 
 As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found ; 
 
 Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon 5 
 
 Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure; 
 
 Now counting best to be with you alone, 
 
 Then better'd that the world may see my pleasure : 
 
 Sometime all full with feasting on your sight, 
 
 And by and by clean starved for a look ; 10 
 
 Possessing or pursuing no delight. 
 
 Save what is had or must from you be took. 
 
 Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day, 
 
 Or gluttoning on all, or all away. 
 
 line 3. Q reads, " And for the peace of you." Staunton (Athenaum, 
 Dec. 6, 1873) conjectured "prize." Malone says that the context seems to 
 require " price " or " sake " ; he adheres, however, to the reading of Q, 
 believing that an antithesis was intended between " peace " and " strife.'' I 
 have preferred to follow Staunton. 
 
218 shakespeaeb's sonnets. 
 
 96 [76, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably December.] 
 
 To Mr Wi H. Declaring [so it would seem) that these sonnets 
 are the only things the writer has yet written. 
 
 Why is my verse so barren of new pride, 
 So far from variation; or quick change? 
 Wby with the time do I not glance aside 
 To new-found methods and to compounds strange? 
 Why write I still all one, ever the same, 5 
 
 And keep invention in a noted weed, 
 That every word doth almost tell my name, 
 Showing their birth and whence they did proceed? 
 O, know, sweet love, I always write of you. 
 And you and love are still my argument ; 10 
 
 So all my best is dressing old words new. 
 Spending again what is already spent: 
 For as the Sun is daily new and old, 
 So is my lave still telling what is told. 
 
 line 6. The meaning is that the invention is clothed in a weed, or 
 garment, by which it is easily recognised. 
 
 line 7. Q reads, " doth almost fel my name." The emendation is 
 Malone's. 
 
 line 8. Q reads, " and where they did proceed," I have adopted Capell's 
 suggested emendation. (Camb.) 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 219 
 
 97 [77, Q]. 
 
 1585-6. Probably Jan. 1.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Apparently accompanying a new year's 
 present of a book of tablets. 
 
 Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear, 
 Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste ; 
 These vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear, 
 And of this book this learning mayst thou taste. 
 The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show 5 
 
 Of mouthed graves will give thee memory ; 
 Thou by thy dial's shady stealth mayst know 
 Time's thievish progress to eternity. 
 Look, what thy memory cannot contain 
 Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt iind 10 
 Those children nursed, dehver'd from thy brain 
 To take a new acquaintance of thy mind. 
 These ofEces, so oft as thou wilt look, 
 Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book. 
 
 line 3. Q reads " The vacant leaues." Malone suggested the emendation 
 "these," but did not adopt it; he refers, however, to line 10, where we read, 
 " commit to these waste blanks." 
 
 line 10. Q reads " commit to these waste blacks." The emendation is 
 Theobald's. 
 
 For the reasons which lead me to date this sonnet as I have done see 
 pp. 96, 97. 
 
220 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 98 [78, Q]. 
 1586. Probably Spring of 1585-6.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. Shakespeare having set the fashion of writing 
 
 sonnets to Mr W. H. is now jealous of other poets, 
 
 and more particularly of one. 
 
 So oft have I invok'd thee for my Muse 
 
 And found such fair assistance in my verse 
 
 As every Alien pen hath got my use 
 
 And under thee their poesy disperse. 
 
 Thine eyes, that taught the dumb on high to sing 5 
 
 And heavy ignorance aloft to fly, 
 
 Have added feathers to the learned's vfing 
 
 And given grace a double Majesty. 
 
 Yet be most proud of that which I compile. 
 
 Whose inflnence is thine and born of thee : 10 
 
 In others' works thou dost but mend the style, 
 
 And Arts with thy sweet graces graced be ; 
 
 But thou art all my art, and dost advance 
 As high as learning my rude ignorance. 
 
 line 5. Surely these lines afford considerable ground for thinking that 
 Shakespeare had not written at all before falling in with Mr W. H. cf. " By 
 heaven I do love ; and it hath taught me to rhyme." Love's Labour's 
 Lost, IV, iii— the opening speech. 
 
SHAKESPEARE S SONNETS. 
 
 221 
 
 99 [79, Q], 
 1586. Probably Spring of 1585-6.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. On the same subject as the preceding sonnet. 
 
 Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid 
 
 My verse alone had all thy gentle grace ; 
 
 Bat now my gracious numbers are decay'd 
 
 And my sick Muse doth give another place. 
 
 I grant, sweet love, thy lovely argument 5 
 
 Deserves the travail of a worthier pen. 
 
 Yet what of thee thy Poet doth invent 
 
 He robs thee of, and pays it thee again. 
 
 He lends thee virtue, and he stole that word 
 
 From thy behaviour ; beaaty doth he give, 10 
 
 And found it iu thy cheek: he can afford 
 
 No praise to thee but what in thee doth live ; 
 
 Then thank him not for that which he doth say, 
 Since what he owes thee thou thyself dost pay. 
 
 line 7. I shall not attempt to discover who the poet here referred to is; 
 it is quite likely that he was some one whose very name has been lost to us. 
 Of known poets Thomas Watson was the best then writing, except of course 
 Spenser, who was in Ireland during the whole time covered by the sonnets, 
 and need not, therefore, be considered. As for Sir Philip Sidney, he too 
 was out of England, having left for Flushing in November 1385. 
 
222 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 100 [80, Q]. 
 1586. Probably Spring of 1585-6.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. On the same subject as the two preceding 
 sonnets. 
 
 0, HOW I faint when I of you do write, 
 Knowing a better spirit doth use your name. 
 And in the praise thereof spends all his might 
 To make me tongue-tied, speaking of your fame I 
 But since your worth, wide as the Ocean is, 
 The humble as the proudest sail doth bear. 
 My saucy bark, inferior far to his, 
 On your broad main doth wilfully appear. 
 Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat. 
 Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride ; 10 
 Or, being wreck'd, I am a worthless boat, 
 He of tall building and of goodly pride : 
 Then if he thrive and I be cast away, 
 The worst was this ; — my love was my decay. 
 
 lines 5 — 8. Steevens cites Troilus and Cressida, I, iii, 34 &c, 
 
 " The sea being smooth 
 
 How many shallow bauble boats dare sail 
 Upon her patient breast, making their way 
 
 With those of nobler bulk ? 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Where's then the saucy boat ? " 
 
shakespeake's sonnets. 223 
 
 101 [81, g]. 
 1586. Probably Spring of 1585-6.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Shakespeare consoles himself with the reflection 
 that, come what may, his verse has immortalised Mr W. II. 
 
 Ok I shall live your Epitaph to make, 
 
 Or you survive when I in earth am rotten ; 
 
 From hence your memory death cannot take, 
 
 Although in me each part will be forgotten. 
 
 Your name from hence immortal life shall have, 5 
 
 Though I, once gone, to all the world must die: 
 
 The earth can yield me but a common grave. 
 
 When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie. 
 
 Your monument shall be my gentle verse. 
 
 Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read, 10 
 
 And tongues to be your being shall rehearse, 
 
 When all the breathers of this world are dead, 
 
 You still shall live — such virtue hath my Pen — 
 Where breath most breathes — even in the mouths of 
 men. 
 
 line 1. " Or" has here the sense of " whether." 
 
 lines 10, 11, 12. I have kept the punctuation of Q, leaving the reader 
 to decide whether to put (as Malone and the Cambridge edition do) a 
 semicolon at the end of line 12, or to have the semicolon at the end of 
 line 11, and no stop after " dead" in line 12. 
 
224 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 102 [82, Q]. 
 1586. Probably Spring of 1685-6.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. Contending that his praises were better worth 
 having than those of the other poets whom his example 
 had fired. 
 
 I GRANT thou wert not married to my Muse, 
 And therefore mayst without attaint o'erlook 
 The dedicated words which writers use 
 Of their fair subject, blessing every book. 
 Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue, 6 
 
 Finding thy worth a limit past my praise, 
 And therefore art enforc'd to seek anew. 
 Some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days. 
 And do so, love; yet when they have devis'd 
 What strained touches Rhetoric can lend, 10 
 
 Thou truly fair wert truly sympathiz'd 
 In true plain words by thy true-telling friend ; 
 And their gross painting might be better us'd 
 Where cheeks need blood ; in thee it is abus'd. 
 
 In lines 5, 6, 7, 8, I have kept the punctuation of Q. The intention of 
 the passage would be more evident if line 6 were treated as a parenthesis. 
 
SHAKESPEAEE S SONXETS. 
 
 103 [83, Q], 
 
 1586. Perhaps April.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Skahespeare' s jealousy has led him to leave off' 
 
 writing. Mr W. H., hoioever, being "fo7id on praise,'' 
 
 has again cajoled him. 
 
 I NEVER saw that you did painting need 
 And therefore to your fair no painting set: 
 I found, or thought I found, you did exceed 
 The barren tender of a Poet's debt : 
 And therefore have I slept in your report, 5 
 
 That you yourself, being extant, well might show 
 How far a modern quill doth come too short, 
 Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow* 
 This silence for my sin you did imputej 
 "Which shall be most my glory, being dumb ; 10 
 
 For I impair not beauty being mute. 
 When others would give life and bring a tomb : 
 There lives more life in one of your fair eyes 
 Than both your Poets can in praise devise. 
 
 Without any confidence that it is safe to date sonnets 98-116 (78-96, Q) 
 more closely than as between Jan. 1, I080-6, and the beginning of the 
 following summer, I take advantage of the interval of silence implied in 
 line 5, to suggest April 15S6 as a possible date. 
 
226 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 104 [84, Q]. 
 1586, Perhaps April.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Shakespeare is mollified, but reproaches 
 Mr W. H. with being '■'■fond on praised 
 
 Who is it that says most? which can say more 
 
 Than this rich praise, that you alone are you ? 
 
 In whose confine immured is the store 
 
 Which should example where your equal grew ? 
 
 Lean penury within that Pen doth dwell 5 
 
 That to his subject lends not some small glory ; 
 
 But he that writes of you, if he can tell 
 
 That you are you, so dignifies his story. 
 
 Let him but copy what in you is writ. 
 
 Not making gross what nature made so clear, 10 
 
 And such a counterpart shall fame his wit. 
 
 Making his style admired every where. 
 
 You to your beauteous blessings add a curse. 
 Being fond on praise, which makes your praises 
 worse, 
 
 lines 1^4, Q, has no note of interrogation in any of the first four lines 
 of this sonnet. Malone introduced them in the first two lines, and Staunton 
 {Athenamn, Jan. 31, 1874), whom I have followed, suggested that there 
 should be one at the end of line 4. 
 
 line 10. Q, reads " Not making worse " &o. I adopt Staunton's 
 conjecture from The Athericsum Jan. 31. 1874. 
 
SHAKESPEARE S SONXETS. 
 
 H)5 [85, Q]. 
 
 1586. Perhaps betweea April and June. J 
 
 To Mr W. H. Shakespeare declares that as long as the oth 
 poet keeps on ivriting, his own tongue is tied. 
 
 \er 
 
 My tongue-ti'd Mnse in manners holds her still, 
 While comments of your praise, richly compil'd, 
 Reserve thy Character with golden quill, 
 And precious phrase by all the Muses fil'd. 
 I think good thoughts, whilst other write good words, 
 And, like unletter'd clerk, still cry 'Amen' 6 
 
 To every Hymn that able spirit affords. 
 In polish'd form of well refined pen. 
 Hearing yon prais'd, I say "tis so, 'tis true,' 
 And to the most of praise add something more ; 10 
 
 But that is in my thought, whose love to you. 
 Though words come hindmost, holds his rank before. 
 Then others for the breath of words respect. 
 Me for my dumb thoughts, speaking in effect. 
 
 line 3. Q reads "Reserne their Character." Malone here again emends 
 by reading " thy,'' regardless of the " your " in the preceding line. 
 " Eeserne " is an obvious misprint for " Eeserue," i.e. reserve. Malone says 
 " ' Reserve,' here, as in line 7 of sonnet 32, is equivalent to ' preserve.' " I 
 see from Camb. that "rehearse " has been proposed as an emendation. 
 
 Q2 
 
228 shakespbabb's sonnbts. 
 
 106 [86, Q]. 
 
 1586. Perhaps between April and June.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. Shakespeare declares that his silence is only 
 due to the comitenance given hy Mr W. H. to the rival poet. 
 
 Was it the proud full sail of his great verse, 
 
 Bound for the prize of all too precious you, 
 
 That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse. 
 
 Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew ? 
 
 Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write 6 
 
 Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead? 
 
 No, neither he, nor his compeers by night 
 
 Giving him aid, my verse astonished. 
 
 He, nor that affable familiar ghost 
 
 Which nightly gulls him with intelligence, 10 
 
 As victors, of my silence cannot boast ; 
 
 I was not sick of any fear from thence : 
 
 But when your countenance fil'd up his line, 
 Then lack'd I matter ; that enfeebl'd mine. 
 
 line 4. Malone cites Romeo and Juliet II, iii, 9, 10, 
 
 " The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb ; 
 What is her burying grave, that is her womb." 
 
 line 13. Q reads " fild vp his line " ; Malone reads " fil'd " ; the Cam- 
 bridge edition has " fiU'd." In favour of " fil'd," we find this word in line 4 
 of the preceding sonnet. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 229 
 
 107 [87, Q]. 
 
 1586. Perhaps between April and June,] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Shakespeare convinced, or affecting to he con- 
 vinced, that all is over between him and his friend, bids 
 himfareivell. 
 
 Farewell I thou art too dear for my possessing, 
 And like enough thou know'st thy estimate: 
 The Charter of thy worth gives thee releasing ; 
 My bonds in thee are all determinate. 
 For how do I hold thee hut by thy granting? 5 
 
 And for that riches where is my deserving? 
 The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting. 
 And so my patent back again is swerving. 
 Thyself thou gav'st, thy own worth then not knowing. 
 Or me, to whom thou gav'st it, else mistaking ; 10 
 
 So thy great gift, upon misprision growing. 
 Comes home again on better judgement making. 
 Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter, 
 In sleep a King, but waking no such matter. 
 
230 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 108 [88, Q]. 
 1586. Perhaps between April and June. J 
 
 To Mr W. H. If Mr W. H. is determined so to have it, 
 
 Shakespeare will attack himself, in order to justify: 
 
 his friend's estrangement. 
 
 "When tHou shalt be dispos'd to set me ligbt, 
 And place my merit in the eye of scorn, 
 Upon thy side against myself I'll fight 
 And prove thee virtuous though thou art forsworn. 
 With mine own weakness being best acquainted, 5 
 
 Upon thy part I can set down a story 
 Of faults conceal'd wherein I am attainted, 
 That thou in losing me shalt win much glory : 
 And I by this will be a gainer too ; 
 For bending all my loving thoughts on thee, 10 
 
 The injuries that to myself I do, 
 Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me. 
 Such is my love, to thee I so belong, 
 That far thy right myself will bear all wrong. 
 
shakbspeakb's sonkbts. 231 
 
 109 [89, Q]. 
 
 1586. Perhaps between April and June.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet. 
 
 Sat that thou didst forsake me for some fault 
 
 And I will comment upon that offence: 
 
 Speak of my lameness and I straight will halt, 
 
 Against thy reasons making no defence. 
 
 Thou canst not, love, disgrace me half so ill, 5 
 
 To set a form upon desired change, 
 
 As I'll myself disgrace ; knowing thy will 
 
 I will acquaintance strangle and look strange ; 
 
 Be absent from thy walks ; and in my tongue 
 
 Thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell, 10 
 
 Lest I, too much profane, should do it wrong 
 
 And haply of our old acquaintance tell. 
 
 For thee against myself I'll vow debate. 
 
 For I must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate. 
 
 line 3. This line seems to imply that the lameness of which Shakespeare 
 Bpoke in sonnet 37 had not entirely left him. It suggests, " I am no longer 
 lame, but if you choose to say that I still go more or less halt, I will halt, at 
 once." Probably he still halted a little sometimes. 
 
232 bhaebspeake's sonnets. 
 
 no [90, Q]. 
 158:6.. Perhaps between April and June.} 
 
 To Mr W. H. If his friend is determined to break with him, 
 Shakespeare implores him to let him know the worst at once^ 
 
 Then hate me when thon wilt ; if ever, now ; 
 
 Now, while the world is hent my deeds to cross. 
 
 Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow, 
 
 And do not drop in for an after-loss : 
 
 Ah, do not, when my heart hath 'scap'd this sorrow 5. 
 
 Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe ; 
 
 Give not a windy night a rainy morrow 
 
 To linger out a purpos'd overthrow. 
 
 If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last. 
 
 When other petty griefs have done their spite, 10 
 
 But in the onset come: so shall I taste 
 
 At first the very worst of fortune's might ; 
 
 And other strains of woe, which now seem woe, 
 Compared with loss of thee will not seem so. 
 
 linei 5 — 8. I incline to think that these lines refer to the subject of 
 sonnets 33-35, and not to the " spite of fortune " mentioned in line 3. It is 
 impossible, however, to be confident, for the words " this sorrow " seem to 
 apply to a slill recent " spite of fortune.'' 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 233 
 
 111 [91, Q]. 
 1586. Perhaps between April and Jaae.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. Shakespeare declares that the fear lest his 
 friend should break with him mars his enjoyment of all else. 
 
 Some glory in their birth, some in their skill, 
 Some in their wealth, some in their body's force ; 
 Some in their garments, thougli new-fangled ill ; 
 Some in their Hawks and Honnds, some in their Horse ; 
 And every humonr hath his adjunct pleasure 5 
 
 Wherein it finds a joy above the rest : 
 But these particulars are not my measure. 
 All these I better in one general best. 
 Thy love is better than high birth to me. 
 Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' cost, 10 
 Of more delight than Hawks or Horses be; 
 And having thee, of all men's pride I boast: 
 
 Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take 
 All this away and me most wretched make.. 
 
234 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 112 [92, Q]. 
 
 1586. Perhaps bet^veen April and Jnne.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet. 
 
 But do thy worst to steal thyself away, 
 
 For term of life thou art assured mine ; 
 
 And life no longer than thy love will stay, 
 
 For it depends upon that love, of thine. 
 
 Then need I not to fear the worst of wrongs, 5 
 
 When in the last of them my life hath end. 
 
 I see a better state to me belongs 
 
 Than that which on thy humour doth depend: 
 
 Thou canst not vex me with inconstant mind, 
 
 Since that my life on thy revolt doth lie, 10 
 
 0, what a happy title do I find, 
 
 Happy to have thy love, happy to die ! 
 
 But what's so blessed-fair that fears no blot? 
 
 Thou mayst be false and yet I know it not. 
 
 line 6. Q reads " when in the least of them." But surely Shakespeare 
 cannot consider Mr W. H.'s leaving him as "the least" of wrongs. It 
 ■would be the culminating, and hence the last misfortune ; it would 
 immediately kill Shakespeare, and, therefore, this wrong, at any rate, has no 
 terrors for him. 
 
SHAKESPEAKE S SONNETS. 
 
 235 
 
 113 [93, Q]. 
 1586. Perhaps between April and June.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the two preceding sonnets. 
 
 So shall I lire supposing thou art trne, 
 Like a deceived husband ; so love's face 
 May still seem love to me, though alter'd new — 
 Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place. 
 For there can live no hatred in thine eye, 5 
 
 Therefore in that I cannot know thy change ; 
 In many's looks the false heart's history 
 Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange, 
 But heaven in thy creation did decree 
 That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell ; 10 
 
 Whate'er thy thoughts or thy heart's workings be 
 Thy looks should nothing thence but sweetness tell. 
 How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow, 
 If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show. 
 
 lines 13, 14. Here, again, as in some few other Bonnets, the two 
 concluding lines are somewhat sterner than the tone of the preceding onea 
 would lead us to expect. 
 
236 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 114 [94, Q]. 
 
 1686. Perhaps early Summer.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A word of warning very affectionately- couched. 
 
 Thet that have power to hurt and will do none, 
 
 That do not do the thing they most do show. 
 
 Who, moving others, are themselves as stone. 
 
 Unmoved, cold and to temptation slow — 
 
 They rightly do inherit heaven's graces 6 
 
 And husband nature's riches from expense ; 
 
 They are the Lords and owners of their faces. 
 
 Others but steward's of their excellence. 
 
 The summer's flower is to the summer sweet 
 
 Though to itself it only live and die ; 10 
 
 But if that flower with base infection meet 
 
 The basest weed outbraves his dignity: 
 
 For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds ; 
 
 Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds. 
 
 line 14. Steevens pointed oiit that this line is likewise found in the 
 anonymous play of King Edward III. I see from the Temple edition of the 
 Sonnets that this play was entered on the books of the &tationers' Register 
 D»c. 1, 1695. 
 
SHAKESPEAEli'S SONNETS. 237 
 
 115 [95, Q]. 
 1586. Perhaps early Summer.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Again very affectionately chiding ivitk him fot 
 the ill report in which he is obviously living. 
 
 How sweet and lovely dost thon make the shame 
 
 Which, like a canker in the fragrant Rose, 
 
 Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name ! 
 
 0, in what sweets dost thou thy sins inclose ! 
 
 That tongue that tells the story of thy days, 5 
 
 Making lascivious comments on thy sport, 
 
 Cannot dispraise but in a kind of praise ; 
 
 Naming thy name blesses an ill report. 
 
 0, what a mansion have those vices got 
 
 Which for their habitation chose out thee, 10 
 
 Where beauty's veil doth cover every blot 
 
 And all things turn to fair that eyes can see I 
 
 Take heed, dear heart, of this large privilege ; 
 
 The hardest knife ill us'd doth lose his edge. 
 
 line 6. It is probable, though by no means certain, that the "sport" 
 here alluded to is to be connected with the subject of sonnets 33-35. 
 
238 SHAKESPBAEIi's SONKETS. 
 
 116 [96, Q]. 
 
 1586, Perhaps early Sammer.j 
 
 To Mr W. H. A continuation of the same affectionate chiding. 
 
 Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness ; 
 Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport ; 
 Both grace and faults are loved of more and less ; 
 Thou mak'st faults graces that to thee resort. 
 As on the finger of a throned Queen 5 
 
 The basest Jewel will be well esteem'd, 
 So are those errors that in thee are seen 
 To truths translated and for true things deem'd. 
 How many Lambs might the stern Wolf betray 
 If like a Lamb he could his looks translate ! 10 
 
 How many gazers mightst thou lead away 
 If thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state } 
 But do not so ; I love thee in such sort, 
 As thou being mine, mine is thy good report. 
 
 lines 13, 14. These lines are also found as the last two lines of 
 sonnet 36. 
 
shakespeake's sonnets. 239 
 
 117 [97, Q]. 
 1586. Autumn.] 
 
 To Mr ^Y. H. Perhaps accompanying a letter in prose. 
 
 How like a Winter hath my absence been 
 
 From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year ! 
 
 What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen 1 
 
 What old December's bareness every where ! 
 
 And yet this time remov'd was summer's time ; 5 
 
 The teeming Autumn, big with rich increase, 
 
 Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime. 
 
 Like widow'd wombs after their Lords' decease : 
 
 Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me 
 
 But crop of Orphans and unfather'd fruit; 10 
 
 For Summer and his pleasures wait on thee, 
 
 And, thou away, the very birds are mute ; 
 
 Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer 
 
 That leaves look pale, dreading the Winter's near. 
 
 line 5. Malone explains that " this time remov'd " means " this time 
 when I was remote, or ahsent, from you." 
 
 line 7. " The prime is the spring.'' (Malone.) cf. sonnets 3 and 90. 
 
 line 10. Q reads " But hope of orphans." The emendation " crop" is 
 by Staunton. {Athenceum, Jan. 31, 1874.) 
 
240 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 118 [98, Q]. 
 1587v Summer.] 
 
 To Mr W, IT. Again perhaps accompanying a letter in prose. 
 
 From you have 1 been absent in tbe spring, 
 
 When proud-pied April, dress'd in all his trim, 
 
 Had put a spirit of youth in every thing, 
 
 That heavy Saturn laugh'd and leap'd with him. 
 
 "Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell 5 
 
 Of different flowers in odour and in hue, 
 
 Could make me any summer's story tell 
 
 Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew: 
 
 Nor did I wonder at the Lily's white, 
 
 Nor praise the deep vermilion in the Rose ; 10 
 
 They were but, sweet, but figures of delight 
 
 Drawn after you, you pattern of all those. 
 
 Yet seem'd it Winter still, and, you away. 
 As with your shadow 1 with these did play. 
 
 line 2. Malone cites ftoraeo and Juliet 1, ii, It, 
 
 " Where -well-appareU'd April on the heel 
 Of limping winter treads." 
 
 line 3. Q reads " Hath put a spirit," but seeing that all the rest of the 
 sonnet is in past time it seems more likely that Shakespeare wrote " had." 
 
 line 11. Q reads "They were but sweet," Malone suggested the 
 reading "They were, my sweet," finding an anticlimax in the assertion that 
 flowers were nothing more than sweet, and suspecting that the compositor 
 caught the word " but " from a later part of the line. He did not, however, 
 introduce the emendation into his text. A comma after the first "but" 
 would get rid of the anticlimax. 
 
shakespeaee's sonneth, 241 
 
 119 [99, Q]. 
 
 1587. Summer.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet. 
 
 The forward violet thns did I chide : 
 
 Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells, 
 
 If not from my love's breath? The purple pride 
 
 Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells 
 
 In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dy'd. 5 
 
 The Lily I condemned for thy hand, 
 
 And buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair ; 
 
 The Roses fearfully on thorns did stand. 
 
 One blushing shame, another white despair ; 
 
 A third, nor red nor white, had stol'n of both, 10 
 
 And to his robbery had annex'd thy breath ; 
 
 But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth 
 
 A vengeful canker ate him up to death. 
 
 More flowers I noted, yet I none could see 
 
 But sweet or colour it had stol'n from thee, 15 
 
 lines 1 — 5. This quatrain has a coda by way of a fifth line. 
 
 Q reads line 4 thus: — 
 
 " Which on thy soft cheeke for complexion dwells ? " 
 
 This is what Shakespeare doubtless wrote in the first instance — intending 
 the quatrain to end with a question. He probably cancelled the query — or 
 forgot to cancel it — and added the fifth line, because until he did so the 
 query remained unanswered, unless by bringing the answer to the preceding 
 query over, and so making the violet steal its complexion from Mr W. H.'s 
 breath ; it may have further occurred to him that be had not chidden the 
 violet directly. The slovenliness of Q which has retained the original query 
 after " dwells" has here stood us in good stead. 
 
 line 9. Q reads " Our blushing shame." Malone corrected, as I see 
 from Camb. that Sewell had also done. 
 
242 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 120 [100, Q]. 
 1588. Probably Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. After a considerable interval during which 
 
 Shakespeare has found other things to write about, but has 
 
 not yet [so it would seem) become a playwright. 
 
 Where art thou, Muse, that thou forg-et'st so long 
 
 To speak of that which gives thee all thy might? 
 
 Spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song, 
 
 Darkening thy power to lend base subjects light I 
 
 Return, forgetful Muse, and straight redeem 5 
 
 In gentle numbers time so idly spent ; 
 
 Sing to the ear that doth thy lays esteem 
 
 And gives thy pen both skill and argument. 
 
 Rise, resty Muse, my love's sweet face survey, 
 
 If time have any wrinkle graven there ; 10 
 
 If any, be a Satire to decay, 
 
 And make time's spoils despised every where. 
 
 Give my love fame faster than Time wastes life ; 
 
 So thou prevent'st his scythe and crooked knife. 
 
 line 9. Malone reads, " Rise restive Muse.'' Q has "resty." Perhaps 
 Shakespeare meant, or even wrote, " rested." 
 
 lines 10, 11. These lines suggest that Mr W. H.'s good looks were 
 beginning to go off, though not so strongly as the opening lines of 
 sonnet 121, nor the concluding ones of 128. 
 
shakespeake's sonnets. 243 
 
 121 [101, Q]. 
 1588. Probably Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sojinet. 
 
 TRUANT Muse, what shall be thy amends 
 
 For thy neglect of truth in beauty dy'd? 
 
 Both truth and beauty on my love depends ; 
 
 So dost thou too, and therein dignified. 
 
 Make answer. Muse : wilt thou not haply say, 5 
 
 Truth needs no colour with his colour mix'd. 
 
 Beauty no pencil beauty's truth to lay. 
 
 But best is best if never intermix'd? 
 
 Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb? 
 
 Excuse not silence so, for 't lies in thee 10 
 
 To make him much outlive a gilded tomb 
 
 And to be praised of ages yet to be. 
 
 Then do thy office. Muse ; I teach thee how 
 
 To make him seem long hence as he shows now. 
 
 line 6. Q reads " with his collour fixt." 
 
 Shakespeare makes "use" rhyme to "abuse" (sonnet 4 lines 5, 7)' 
 "abus'd" rhyme to " us'd " (sonnet 102 [82,0,] lines 13, 14); "express" 
 rhyme to "press" (sonnet 48 [140, Q] lines 1, 3); and "decrease" rhyme 
 to "increase'' (sonnet 15, lines 5, 7); and "commend" rhyme to "mend" 
 (sonnet 89 [69, Q] lines 2, 4). 1 think it most likely that he made " mixt" 
 and "intermixt" rhyme, and that "fixt" is the correction of some clever 
 printer. 
 
 e2 
 
244 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 122 [102, Q]. 
 
 1588. Probably Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., who has been upbraiding Shakespeare for 
 having lost his old affection for him. 
 
 My love is strengthen'd, thougb more weak in seeming, 
 I love not less, though less the show appear : 
 That love is merchandiz'd whose rich esteeming 
 The owner's tongae doth publish every where. 
 Our love was new and then but in the spring 5 
 
 When I was wont to greet it with my lays ; 
 As Philomel in summer's front doth sing. 
 And stops his pipe in growth of riper days : 
 Not that the summer is less pleasant now 
 Than when her mournful hymns did husb the nigbt, 10 
 But that wild music burthens every bough, 
 And sweets grown common lose their dear delight. 
 Therefore, like her, I sometime hold my tongue. 
 Because I would not dull you with my song. 
 
 line 7. Malone cites A Winter's Tale IV, iv, 2, 3, 
 
 " no shepherdess but Flora 
 
 Peering in April's front." 
 Again, Coriolanus II, i, 57, " . . . . one that converses more with the 
 buttock of the night than the forehead of the morning.'' 
 Again, King Henry IV, pt. 2, IV, iv, 91-93, 
 
 " thou art a summer bird, 
 
 Which ever in the haunch of winter sings 
 The lifting up of day.'' 
 
 line 8. Q reads as in my text. The Cambridge edition adopting 
 Mr Housman's emendation reads " her," which seems preferable, but 
 Shakespeare is quite capable of writing "his" in one line and "her" two 
 lines later, about the same object. Seeing that Malone keeps to the text 
 of Q, I do also. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 245 
 
 123 [103, Q]. 
 
 1588. Probably Spring.] 
 
 To Jlr W. H. Excusing himself, and plying his friend with 
 the flattery which he knows to he so dear to him. 
 
 Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth, 
 
 That having such a scope to show her pride, 
 
 The argument, all bare, is of more worth 
 
 Than when it hath my added praise beside I 
 
 0, blame me not if I no more can write I 5 
 
 Look in your glass, and there appears a face 
 
 That over-goes my blunt invention quite. 
 
 Dulling my lines and doing me disgrace. 
 
 Were it not sinful then, striving to mend, 
 
 To mar the subject that before was well? 10 
 
 Eor to no other pass my verses tend 
 
 Than of your graces and yonr gifts to tell ; 
 
 And more, much more, than in my verse can sit, 
 Your own glass shows you when you look in it, 
 
 Unti 9, 10. Malone cites King Lear I, iv, 369, 
 
 " Striving to better oft we mar what's well." 
 
246 iSHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS. 
 
 124 [104, Q^ 
 
 1588. Probably Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H., asseverating that his good looks are not 
 leaving him. 
 
 To me, fair friend, yon never can be old. 
 For as you were when first your eye I eyed, 
 Snch seems your beauty still. Three Winters cold 
 Have from the forests shook three summers' pride, 
 Three beauteous springs to yellow Autumn turn'd 6 
 In process of the seasons have I seen, 
 Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd. 
 Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green. 
 Ah, yet doth beauty, lite a Dial-hand, 
 Steal from his figure and no pace perceiv'd ; 10 
 
 So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand. 
 Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceiv'd : 
 
 For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred ; 
 
 Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead. 
 
 line 1. It would seem as though Mr W. H. had been saying something 
 to Shakespeare about his looking old. Shakespeare asseverates that to him 
 he can never seem old, however much he may do so to other people. 
 " Such seems your beauty still," gives an uncertain sound ; so also do the 
 last six lines. See notes on sonnets 120 lines 10, 11, and 128 lines 9-14. 
 
 lines 3-7. We have three of each of the four seasons, and should be 
 now at the same part of the year as that in which the series began, but 
 three years later. For the reasons which convince me that this should be 
 spring, see Chapter X. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 2il 
 
 125 [105, Q]. 
 1588. Probably Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. Plying him ivith affectionate Jlattery. 
 
 Let not my love be call'd Idolatry, 
 Nor my beloved as an Idol show, 
 Since all alike my songs and praises be 
 To one, of one, still such, and ever so. 
 Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind, 5 
 
 Still constant in a wondrous excellence ; 
 Therefore my verse to constancy confin'd, 
 One thing expressing, leaves out difference. 
 Fair, kind, and true, is all my argument, 
 Fair, kind, and true, varying to other words; 10 
 
 And in this change is my invention spent, 
 Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords. 
 Fair, kind, aud true, have often liv'd alone. 
 Which three till now never kept seat in one. 
 
248 Shakespeare's sonjtets, 
 
 126 [106, Q]. 
 
 1588, Probably Spring. 
 
 To Mr W, H, Again plying him with affectionate Jlattery . 
 
 When in the Chronicle of wasted time 
 I see descriptions of the fairest wights, 
 And beauty making beautiful old rhyme 
 In praise of Ladies dead and lovely Knights, 
 Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty's best, 5 
 
 Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow, 
 I see their antique Pen would have express'd 
 Even such a beauty as you master now. 
 So all their praises are but prophecies 
 Of this our time, all you prefiguring ; 10 
 
 And, for they look'd bat with divining eyes, 
 They had not skill enough your worth to sing: 
 For we, which now behold these present days. 
 Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise. 
 
 line 12. Q reads "They had not still enough." Malone adopts the 
 emendation suggested to him by Tyrwhitt. The sense is "The ancients 
 were labouring to express such beauty as your's, but could not praise you 
 inasmuch as they could not see you well enough. We on the other hand 
 can see you but cannot praise you, for our tongues fail us, as their eyes failed 
 the ancients." 
 
 Mr Wyndham adheres to the reading of Q. I agree with his interpre- 
 tation of the passage, but cannot see how it can be got quite equitably out 
 pf either the Quarto or the amended version. 
 
shakesfeaee's sonnets. 249 
 
 127 [107, Q]. 
 
 1588, About Aug. 8.] 
 
 To Mr TT". H. Rejecting! the relief of the nation on having 
 
 passed safely through a time of great peril. Probably 
 
 an advance on Shakespeare' s part, after an interval 
 
 of coldness. 
 
 Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul 
 Of the wide world dreaming on things to come, 
 Can yet the lease of my true love control, 
 Suppos'd as forfeit to a confin'd doom. 
 The mortal Moon hath her eclipse endur'd, 5 
 
 And the sad Augurs mock their own presage ; 
 Incertainties now crown themselves assur'd, 
 And peace proclaims Olives of endless age. 
 Now with the drops of this most balmy time 
 My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes, 10 
 Since, spite of him, I'll live in this poor rhyme, 
 While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes: 
 And thou in this shalt find thy monument. 
 When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent. 
 
 In Chapter XI I have given my reasons for holding that this sonnet 
 refers to the defeat of the Spanish Armada. 
 
250 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 128 [108, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between Aug. 8 and Dec. l.J 
 
 To Mr W. H., who has not accepted Shakespeare' s adva?ice and 
 has been upbraiding him/or want of constancy. 
 
 What' 8 in the brain, that Ink may character, 
 Which hath not figur'd to thee my true spirit? 
 What's new to speak, what new to register, 
 That may express my love, or thy dear merit? 
 Nothing, sweet boy; but yet, like prayers divine, 5 
 I must each day say o'er the very same ; 
 Counting no old thing old, thou mine, I thine, 
 Even as when first I hallow'd thy fair name. 
 So that eternal love in love's fresh case 
 Weighs not the dust and injury of age, 10 
 
 Nor gives to necessary wrinkles place. 
 But makes antiquity for aye his page ; 
 
 Finding the first conceit of love there bred 
 Where time and outward form would show it dead. 
 
 line 3. Q reads, " What now to register." The emendation " new " is 
 Malone's. 
 
 The last six lines of this sonnet, as also the passages already noted in 
 120 and 124, suggest with some force that Mr W. H. was losing his good 
 looks. Mr Wyndham says, " I am convinced that the Poet does not refer 
 to any change in the outward beauty of the Friend." I think that if 
 Mr Wyndham was as fully convinced of this as he believes himself to be, he 
 would not have put his " not " in italics. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets, 251 
 
 129 [109, Q]. 
 1588. Between Aug. 8 and Dec. l.j 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet, 
 
 0, NEVKR say that I was false of heart, 
 Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify. 
 As easy might I from myself depart 
 As from my soul, which in thy breast doth lie : 
 That is my home of love ; if I have rang'd 5 
 
 Like him that travels I return again 
 Just to the time, not with the time exchang'd. 
 So that myself bring water for my stain. 
 Never believe, though in my nature reign'd 
 All frailties that besiege all Muds of blood, 10 
 
 That it could so preposterously be strain'd. 
 To leave for nothing all thy sum of good ; 
 For nothing this wide Universe I call, 
 Save thou, my Rose ; in it thou art my all. 
 
 line 4. Malone cites Love's Labour's Lost, V, ii, 826, 
 
 " Hence ever, then, my heart is in thy breast." 
 And Venus and Adonis canto 97, 
 
 " Bids him farewell and look -well to her heart, 
 
 The which 
 
 He carries thence incaged in his breast." 
 
 line 11. Q reads "so preposterouslie be stain'd." I have adopted 
 Staunton's {Athenceum, Jan. 31, 1874) emendation; the meaning is "Never 
 believe that the strain of my blood is ao abnormal," &c. 
 
252 shakespbaeb's sonnets. 
 
 130 [no, Q]. 
 
 1588, Between Aug. 8 and Dec. l.j 
 
 To Mr W. H. Continuing to express penitence for the 
 
 inconstancy with which Mr W. H. has been 
 
 reproaching him. 
 
 Alas, 'tis true I have gone here and there 
 
 And made myself a motley to the view, 
 
 Gor'd mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear. 
 
 Made old offences of affections new; 
 
 Moat true it is that I have look'd on truth 5 
 
 Askance and strangely: But, by all above. 
 
 These blenches gave my heart another youth. 
 
 And worse essays prov'd thee my best of love. 
 
 Now all is done save what shall have no end : 
 
 Mine appetite I never more will grind 10 
 
 On newer proof, to try an older friend, 
 
 A God in love, to whom I am confin'd. 
 
 Then give me welcome, next my heaven the best, 
 Even to thy pure and most, most loving breast. 
 
 line 9. Q reads, " Now all is done, haue what shall haue no end." 
 Malone adopted Tyrwhitt's conjectural emendation "save what shall 
 have," &c. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 253 
 
 131 [111, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between Ang. 8 and Dec. l.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. Still continuing the same vein of penitence. 
 
 0, FOR my sake do yon with fortnne chide, 
 
 The gnilty goddess of my harmful deeds. 
 
 That did not better for my life provide 
 
 Than public means which public manners breeds. 
 
 Thence comes it that my name receives a brand, 6 
 
 And almost thence my nature is subdu'd 
 
 To what it works in, like the Dyer's hand ; 
 
 Pity me then and wish I were renew'd. 
 
 Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink 
 
 Potions of Eisel 'gainst my strong infection ; 10 
 
 Nor bitterness that I will bitter think, 
 
 Nor double penance, to correct correction. 
 
 Pity me then, dear friend, and I assure ye 
 Even that your pity is enough to cure me. 
 
 line 1. Q reads " doe you wish fortune chide." The Cambridge edition 
 quotes Gildon as the eraendator. Malone also made the same emendation. 
 
 line 10. Eisel is vinegar. " Vinegar is esteemed very efficacious in 
 preventing the communication of plague and other contagious distempers." 
 
 (Malone.) 
 
254 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 132 [112, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between Ang. 8 and Dec. l.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet. 
 
 Your love and pity doth the impression fill 
 Which vulgar scandal stamp'd upon my brow ; 
 For what care I who calls me well or ill, 
 So you o'er-green my had, my good allow? 
 You are my All the world, and I must strive 5 
 
 To know my shames and praises from your tongue ; 
 JSTone else to me, nor I to none alive. 
 That my steel'd sense or changes right or wrong. 
 In so profound Abism I throw all care 
 Of others' voices, that my Adder's sense 10 
 
 To critic and to flatterer stopped are. 
 Mark how with my neglect I do dispense : 
 You are so strongly in my purpose bred 
 That all the world beside methinks are dead. 
 
 line 14. Q, reads "That all the world besides me thinkes y'are dead." 
 Malone in his edition of 1780 rsads as in my text, which is the one 
 generally adopted. This reading was also conjectured by Capell and 
 Steevens. In his latest edition Malone reads " methinks they are dead," 
 adding " Y'are was, I suppose, an abbreviation for ' they are ' or ' th' are-' 
 Such unpleasing contractions are often found in our old poets." 
 
shakespbare's sonnets. 255 
 
 133 [113, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between, say, Sep. 1 and Dec. l.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. Written during travel. 
 
 Since I left yon mine eye is in my mind. 
 And that which governs me to go about 
 Doth part his function and is j)artly blind, 
 Seems seeing, but eifectually is out ; 
 For it no form delivers to the heart 5 
 
 Of bird, of flower, or shape which it doth latch r 
 Of his quick objects hath the mind no jDart, 
 Nor his own vision holds what it doth catch ; 
 For if it see the rud'st or gentlest sight, 
 The most sweet favour or deformed'st creature, 10 
 
 The mountain or the sea, the day or night, 
 The Crow or Dove, it shapes them to your feature : 
 Incapable of more, replete with you, 
 IJy most true mind thus maketli mine untrue. 
 
 line 3. i.e. "partly performs his office." (Malone). 
 
 line 6. Q reads " which it doth lack.'' The emendation is Malone's. 
 He explains that " to latch " formerly meant " to lay hold of." Mr Wyndham 
 says "'Latch' in old English meant a 'crossbow,' also a 'snare,' akin 
 perhaps to ' leash,' French laisse." 
 
 line 11. One -wonders whether Shakespeare had as yet ever seen 3 
 mountain, and if so what mountain ? Hampstead Heath might do. 
 
 line 14. " Untrue " is here, as Malone pointed out, a substantive, 
 i.e. " untruth." The sense is " The untruthfulness of my perceptions is 
 caused by the truthfulness of my affection for you." 
 
256 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 134 [114, Q], 
 1588. Between, say, Sep. 1 and Dec. l.j 
 
 To Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet. 
 
 Or whether doth my mind being crown'd with yon 
 Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery? 
 Or whether shall I say, mine eye seeth true. 
 And that your love taught it this Alchemy, 
 To make of monsters and things indigest 5 
 
 Such cheruhins as your sweet self resemble, 
 Creating every bad a perfect best 
 As fast as objects to his beams assemble? 
 0, 'tis the first ; 'tis flattery in my seeing. 
 And my great mind most kingly drinks it up ; 10 
 
 Mine eye well knows what with his gust is 'greeing 
 And to his palate doth prepare the cup ; 
 If it be poison'd, 'tis the lesser sin 
 That mine eye loves it and doth first begin. 
 
 line 3. Q reads "saith." The emendation (which I learn from Camb.) 
 is anonymous. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 257 
 
 -135 [115, Q]. 
 
 1588. BeWeen, say, Sep. l and Dec. l.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. Protesting that the writer's affection for him is 
 not decreasing, but on the contrary/ still groiving. 
 
 Those lines that I before have writ do lie. 
 Even those that said I could not love you dearer: 
 Yet then my judgement knew no reason why 
 My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer. 
 But reckoning time, whose millon'd accidents 5 
 
 Creep in 'twixt vows and change decrees of Kings, 
 Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp'st intents. 
 Divert strong minds to the course of altering things, 
 Alas, why, fearing of Time's tyranny. 
 Might I not then say 'Now I love you best,' 10 
 
 When I was certain o'er incertainty, 
 Crowning the present, doubting of the rest? 
 Love is a Babe, then might I not say so, 
 To give full growth to that which still doth grow. 
 
 lines 13, 14. I have followed Mr Wyndham in keeping to the punctuation 
 of Q. The sense is "I ought not to have said I loved you best, then; for I 
 should have remembered that Love is a babe, and I should have allowed for 
 his growing.'' 
 
258 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 136 [116, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between, say, Sep. 1 and Dec. l.J 
 
 Ta Mr. W. H., who has been again upbraiding the writer and 
 making a continuation of the old friendship difficult. 
 
 Let me not to the marriage of true minds 
 Admit impediments ; love is not love 
 Which alters when it alteration finds. 
 Or bends with the remover to remove : 
 0, no ! it is an ever-fixed mark, 5 
 
 That looks on tempests and is never shaken ; 
 It is the star to every wandering bark, 
 "Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. 
 Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks 
 Within his bending sickle's compass come ; 10 
 
 Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, 
 But bears it out even to the edge of doom. 
 If this be error and upon me prov'd, 
 I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd. 
 
 line 5. Malone cites Coriolanua V, iii, 74, 5, 
 
 " Like a great sea-mark, standing every flow 
 And saving those that eye thee." 
 
 line 8. Kinnear (Camb.) suggests " whose orb's unknown although," &c. 
 It is difficult not to suspect corruption in the text, but, I fear, impossible to 
 emend satisfactorily. 
 
 line 9. Malone cites King Henry IV, Pt. I, V, iv, 81, 
 
 " But thought's the slave of life, and life Time's fool." 
 
shakespuarb's sonnets. 259 
 
 137 [117, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between, say, Sep. 1 and Dec. i.] 
 
 To Mr W. H. A continuation of the same vein of apology and 
 self-abasement. 
 
 Accuse me thns : that I have scanted all 
 Wherein I should your great deserts repay. 
 Forgot upon your dearest love to call, 
 Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day ; 
 That I have frequent been with unknown minds 5 
 
 And given to them your own dear-purchas'd right; 
 That I have hoisted sail to all the winds 
 Which should transport me farthest from your sight. 
 Book both my wilfulness and errors down. 
 And on just proof surmise accumulate ; 10 
 
 Bring me within the level of your frown. 
 But shoot not at me in your waken'd hate ; 
 Since my appeal says I did strive to prove 
 The constancy and virtue of your love. 
 
 line 6. Q reads " and given to time." I have no hesitation in adopting 
 Staunton's emendation from the JLthenceum , Jan. 31, 1874. 
 
 S2 
 
260 SHAKESPEARE S SONNETS. 
 
 138 [118, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between,, say, Sep. 1 and Dec. l.] 
 
 To- Mr W. H. A sequel to the preceding sonnet. 
 
 Like as, to make our appetites more keen 
 
 With eager compounds we our palate urge ; 
 
 As, to prevent our maladies unseen. 
 
 We sicken to shnn sickness when we purge ; 
 
 Even so, being full of your ne'er-cloying sweetness, 5 
 
 To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding j 
 
 And sick of welfare found a kind of meetness 
 
 To be diseas'd ere that there was true needing.. 
 
 Thus policy in love, to anticipate 
 
 The ills that were not, grew to faults assur'd, I'Oi 
 
 And brought to medicine a healthful state, 
 
 Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be car'd : 
 
 But thence I learn, and find the lesson true,. 
 
 Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you. 
 
shakespeaee's sonnets. 261 
 
 139 [147, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between, say, Sep. 1 and Dec. 1.] 
 
 Probably to Mr W. H., after an open rupture between him and 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 My love is as a fever, longing still 
 
 For that which longer nnrseth the disease ; 
 
 Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill. 
 
 The uncertain sickly appetite to please. 
 
 My reason, the Physician to my love, 5 
 
 Angry that his prescriptions are not kejjt 
 
 Hath left me, and I desperate now approve 
 
 Desire is deatli, which Pliysic did except. 
 
 Past cure 1 am, now Reason is past care. 
 
 And frantic-mad with evermore unrest 10 
 
 My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are. 
 
 At random from the truth vainly express'd ; 
 
 For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, 
 "Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. 
 
 line 8. "The sense is, 'I being in despair, now recognise that desire to 
 be fatal which took exception to the teaching of physic.'" (Wtndham.) 
 
 line 9. Malone quotes Love's Labour's Lost, V, ii, 38, 
 
 " Great reason, for past cure is still past care.'' 
 
 lines 13, 14. I have already called attention to the fierceness of these 
 two lines as compared with the rest of the sonnet. 
 
 On pp. 18, 82, 83, I have given my reasons for intercalating here this 
 and the three following sonnets. 
 
262 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 140 [148, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between, say, Sep. l and Dec. 1.] 
 
 Probably sent to Mr W. H. along with the preceding sonnet. !] 
 
 ME, what eyes hath love put in my head, 
 
 Which have no correspondence with true sight I 
 
 Dr if they have, where is my judgement fled. 
 
 That censures falsely what they see aright? 
 
 If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote, 5 
 
 What means the world to say it is not so? 
 
 If it be not, then love doth well denote 
 
 Love's eye is not so true as all men's : no. 
 
 How can it? 0, how can love's eye be true. 
 
 That is so vex'd with watching and with tears? 10 
 
 No marvel then, though I mistake my view ; 
 
 The sun itself sees not till heaven clears. 
 
 cunning love ! with tears thou keep'st me blind, 
 Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find. 
 
 line 4. " That censures falsely." Malone points out that "censures" 
 here means " estimates." 
 
 linn 13, 14. See note on the two last lines of the preceding sonnet. 
 
shaeespeake's sonnets. 263 
 
 141 [149, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between, say, Sep. 1 and Dec. l.J 
 
 Probably sent to Mr W. H. along with the two preceding 
 
 sonnets. 
 
 Canst thou, cruel I say I love thee not, 
 
 When I against myself with thee partake? 
 
 Do I not think on thee, when I forgot 
 
 Am of myself all tyrant for thy sake? 
 
 Who hateth thee that I do call my friend? 5 
 
 On whom frown'st thou that I do fawn upon? 
 
 Nay, if thou lour'st on me do I not spend 
 
 Revenge upon myself with present moan? 
 
 What merit do I in myself respect 
 
 That is so proud thy service to despise, 10 
 
 When all my best doth worship thy defect. 
 
 Commanded by the motion of thine eyes ? 
 
 But, love, hate on, for now ■ I know thy mind ; 
 
 Those that can see thou lov'st, and I am blind. 
 
 line 2. "A 'partaker' was in Shakespeare's time the term for an 
 associate or confederate in any business.'' (Malone.) 
 
 lines 3, 4. i.e. " When I, quite forgetful of self, tyrannise over myself 
 for your sake." 
 
 line 10. i.e. " That is too proud to stoop in order to do you seryice." 
 
264 SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS. 
 
 142 [150, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between, say, Sep. 1 and Dec. l.J 
 
 Probably sent to Mr W. H. along with the three preceding 
 
 sonnets. 
 
 O, FROM what power hast thou this powerful might 
 With insufficiency my heart to sway ? 
 To make me give the lie to my true sight 
 And swear that brightness doth not grace the day? 
 Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill, 5 
 
 That in the very refuse of thy deeds 
 There is such strength and warrantise of still. 
 That in my mind thy worst all best exceeds? 
 Who taught thee how to make me love thee more 
 The more I hear and see just cause of hate? 10 
 
 0, though I love what others do abhor, 
 With others thou shouldst not abhor my state : 
 If thy nnworthiness rais'd love in me 
 More worthy I to be belov'd of thee. 
 
 line 4. Steevena cites Romeo and Juliet, III, t, 17, 18, 
 " I am content, so thou wilt have it so. 
 I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye." 
 
shakespeaee's sonnets, 265 
 
 143 [119, Q]. 
 1588. Between, say, Sep. 1 and Dec. l.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. On reconciliation. 
 
 What potions have I drank of Siren tears, 
 DistiU'd from Limbecks fonl as hell within, 
 Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears, 
 Still losing when I saw myself to win I 
 What wretched errors hath my heart committed 5 
 
 Whilst it hath thought itself so blessed never 1 
 How have mine eyes out of their Spheres been fitted 
 In the distraction of this madding fever I 
 benefit of ill ! now I find true 
 
 That better is by evil still made better ; 10 
 
 And ruin'd love when it is bailt anew 
 Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater. 
 So I return rebuk'd to my content. 
 And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent. 
 
 line 2. " Limbecks," i.e. alembics; an alembic is the cap of a still; this 
 is here used for the still as a whole. 
 
 line 7. i.e. " How have my eyes been convulsed during the frantic fits 
 of my feverous love.'' (Malone.) 
 
;66 SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS. 
 
 144 [120, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between, say, Sep. 1 and Dec. l.J 
 
 To Mr W. H. On reconciliation; a sequel to the preceding 
 
 sonnet. 
 
 That you were once unkind befriends me now 
 
 And for that sorrow which I then did feel 
 
 Needs must I under my transgression bow. 
 
 Unless my Nerves were brass or hammer'd steel. 
 
 For if you were by my unkindness shaken 5 
 
 As I by yours, you've pass'd a hell of Time, 
 
 And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken 
 
 To weigh how once I suffer'd in your crime. 
 
 0, that our night of woe might have remember'd 
 
 My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits, 10 
 
 And soon to you, as yon to me then, tender'd 
 
 The humble salve which wounded bosoms fits I 
 
 But that your trespass now becomes a fee ; 
 
 Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me. 
 
 line 5. The unkindness on Shakespeare's part I take to be the bitter- 
 ness of sonnets 140-143 (Q, 147-150) which I suppose Shakespeare to have 
 sent to Mr W. H, With the unkindness " once " received by Shakespeare 
 at the hands of Mr W. H. I have dealt fully in Chapter IX. 
 
 line 11. I have adopted the punctuation of Dyce, conjectured also by 
 Staunton and S. Walker. (Camb.) 
 
shakespeake's sonnets. 267 
 
 145 [122, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between, say, Sep. 1 and Dec. l.J 
 
 To Mr W. H., who has upbraided the writer for having given 
 away a present which Mr W. H. had made him* 
 
 Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain 
 Fall character'd with lasting memory, 
 Which shall above that idle rank remain. 
 Beyond all date even to eternity. 
 Or, at the least, so long as brain and heart 5 
 
 Have faculty by nature to subsist ; 
 Till each to raz'd oblivion yield his part 
 Of thee, thy record never can be miss'd. 
 That poor retention could not so much hold, 
 Nor need I talHes thy dear love to score, 10 
 
 Therefore to give them from me was I bold. 
 To trust those tables that receive thee more: 
 To keep an adjunct to remember thee 
 Were to import forgetfulness in me. 
 
 • See pp. 96, 97. 
 
 line 11. It is not possible to say that the tables had not been given 
 away recently, but the impression is left that it was some little time since 
 Shakespeare had parted with them. 
 
268 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 146 [123, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between, eay, Sep. 1 and Dec. l.j 
 
 To Mr W. H. Asseverating that his affection will never alter. 
 
 No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change: 
 Thy pyramids built up with newer might 
 To me are nothing novel, nothing strange. 
 They are but dressings of a former sight : 
 Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire 5 
 
 What thou dost foist upon us that is old. 
 And rather make them born to our desire 
 Than think that we before have heard them told. 
 Thy registers and thee I both defy. 
 Not wondering at the present nor the past, 10 
 
 For thy records and what we see doth lie, 
 Made more or less by thy continual haste. 
 This I do vow, and this shall ever be, 
 I will be true despite thy scythe and thee. 
 
 line 7. Q reads " borne to our desire," wliieh I see Mr Wyndham 
 interprets as " bourne " or " limit." I follow the Cambridge edition and 
 Malone in reading "born." The meaning is, "We prefer to think of them 
 as something quite new that has been made expressly for ourselves, than to 
 see them as a mere revival of an old performance." 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 269 
 
 147 [124, Q]. 
 
 1588. Between, say, Sep. 1 and Dec. l.J 
 
 A sequel to the preceding sonnet, and to the same effect. 
 
 If my dear love were but the child of state, 
 It might for fortune's bastard be unfather'd, 
 As subject to time's love or to time's hate, 
 Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather'd. 
 No, it was builded far from accident ; 5 
 
 It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls 
 Under the blow of thralled discontent, 
 Whereto the inviting time or fashion calls : 
 It fears not policy, that Heretic, 
 
 Which works on leases of short-number'd hours, 10 
 
 But all alone stands hugely politic, 
 That it nor grows with heat nor drowns with showers 
 To this I witness call the souls oftime 
 Which die for goodness, who have liv'd for crime. 
 
 lines 1 — 4. i.e. " If my affection for you were but a creature of circum- 
 stance, or the environment of the moment, it might proye no lawful issue, 
 but a base child of Fortune — weed or flower as it might happen." 
 
 line 8. Q, reads " our fashion calls." I adopt Capell's conjecture given 
 in Camb. 
 
 lines 13, 14. Q reads ".... the foles of time," modern editions read 
 " fools." But Shakespeare would never call a man a fool for dying well 
 after living ill, and there is no relevancy in calling such persons to bear 
 witness to the fact that Shakespeare's love for Mr \V. H. was not subject to 
 vicissitudes. I suppose " foles " to be a misprint for " foles," and take the 
 emended passage to mean, " If I have been inconstant, nothing can shake 
 me further, in witness whereof I call the souls of them whose repentance 
 even after a life of crime has been often genuine." 
 
270 shakbspbarb's sonnets. 
 
 148 [125, Q]. 
 1588. Probably about Nov. 24.] 
 To Mr W. H. After another and probably final rupture. 
 
 Were 't anght to me I bore the canopy, 
 
 "With my extern the outward honomin^. 
 
 Or laid great bases for eternity, 
 
 Which proves more short than waste or ruining'? 
 
 Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour 5 
 
 Lose all, and more, by paying too much rent ? 
 
 For compound sweet Forgoing simple savour, 
 
 Pitiful thrivers, in their gaining spent ? 
 
 No, let me be obsequious in thy heart. 
 
 And take thou my oblation, poor but free, 10 
 
 Which is not mix'd with seconds, knows no art 
 
 But mutual renders, only me for thee. 
 
 Hence, thou suborn'd Informer \ a true soul 
 When most impeach'd stands least in thy control. 
 
 line 1. Canopy,] see end of Chapter XI. 
 
 line 6. Q reads 
 
 " Lose all, and more by paying too much rent 
 For compound sweet; Forgoing simple sauor." 
 The present pointing is Malone's. 
 
 line 8. Q reads " in their gazing spent." The emendation is Staunton's, 
 given in the Athenceum, Dec. 6, 1873. 
 
 line 12. Q reads " but mutuall render.'' 
 
 lines 13, 14. I can see no way of reconciling the fierceness of these two 
 ■with the desire for reconciliation expressed in the preceding lines. The 
 transition, however, is almost as abrupt in the closing lines of sonnets 
 139, 140. 
 
shakespeake's sonnets. 271 
 
 Appendix A [126, Q]. 
 
 1585. Probably Spring.] 
 
 To Mr W. II. Written under some special circumstances, the 
 
 clue to which is lost. Perhaps to be spoken to Mr W. II. 
 
 when acting the part of Cupid in some Masque. 
 
 THOU, my lovely Boy, who in thy power 
 
 Dost hold time's sickle, glass, his fickle hour ; 
 
 Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st 
 
 Thy hours withering as thy sweet self grow'st ; 
 
 If Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack, 5 
 
 As thou goest onwards still will pluck thee back. 
 
 She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill 
 
 May time disgrace, and wretched minutes kill. 
 
 Yet fear her, thou minion of her pleasure ! 
 
 She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure: 10 
 
 Her Audit, though delay'd, auswer'd must be, 
 
 And her Quietus is to render thee. 
 
 ( ) 
 
 ( ) 
 
 line 2. Q reads, 
 
 " Doest hould times fickle glasse, his sickle, hower." 
 I see from the Cambridge edition that many emendations to this obviously 
 corrupt line have been proposed, but cannot find that the line has ever beet» 
 read exactly as in my text. 
 
 line 4. Q reads " Thy louers withering." 
 
 The brackets. These appear in Q as in my text, but it is not likely that 
 any lines are missing. Lines 11 and 12 have every appearance of being a 
 full close. 
 
272 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 
 
 v^ 
 
 Appendix B [129, Q]. 
 
 An occasional sonnet, probably given, but not addressed to 
 Mr W. H., nor in any way referring to him. 
 
 The expense of Spirit in a waste of shame 
 
 Is lust in action ; and till action, lust 
 
 Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, 
 ( Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust; 
 \ Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight ; 5 
 
 Past reason hunted ; and no sooner had, 
 , Past reason hated, as a swaUow'd bait, 
 
 Oh purpose laid to make the taker mad: 
 
 Mad In pursuit, and in possession so ; 
 
 Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme ; 10 
 
 A bliss in proof, and prov'd, a very woe ; 
 
 Before, a joy propos'd ; behind, a dream. 
 
 All this the world well knows, yet none knows well 
 To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. 
 
 line 11. Q, reads, " and proud and verj- woe." (cf. 87 [Q, 67] line 12.) 
 The emendation " prov'd " was first made by Sewell (Camb.) The rest of 
 the emendation is Malone's. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 273 
 
 Appendix C [145, Q]. 
 
 Possibly a translation, made by request, for some occasion; 
 but without any connection with the sonnets. 
 
 Those lips that Love's own hand did make 
 
 Breath'd forth the sound that said 'I hate,' 
 
 To me that langiiish'd for her sate : 
 
 But when she saw my woeful state, 
 
 Straight in her heart did mercy come, 5 
 
 Chiding that tongue that ever sweet 
 
 Was used in giving gentle doom ; 
 
 And taught it thus anew to greet ; 
 
 'I hate' she alter'd with an end, 
 
 That foUow'd it as gentle day 10 
 
 Doth follow night, who, like a fiend. 
 
 From heaven to hell is flown away ; 
 
 'I hate' from hate away she threw, 
 And saved my life, saying 'not you,' 
 
274 
 
 Appendix D [146, Q]. 
 
 An occasional sonnet, probably shown and given to Mr W. H., 
 but not having any reference to him. 
 
 PooK soul, the centre of my sinful earth, 
 Starv'd by these rebel powers that thee array, 
 Why dost thou pine within and suifer dearth. 
 Painting thy outward walls so costly gay ? 
 Why so large cost, having so short a lease, 5 
 
 D^jst thou upon thy fading mansion spend ? 
 f/Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, 
 I Eat up thy charge? is this thy body's end? 
 V^en, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss. 
 And let that pine to aggravate thy store; 10 
 
 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. 
 
 lines 1, 2. Q reads, 
 
 " Poore soule the center of my sinfull earth, 
 My sinfull earth these rebbel powers that thee array.'' 
 I adopt Steeyens' conjectural emendation. 
 
 line 10. cf. Loye's Labour's Lost, I, i. 25. 
 
 " The mind shall banquet, though the body pine." 
 
shakespe-vre's ponxets. 275 
 
 Appendix E [153, Q]. 
 
 A so?inet probably based on a Latin version of a Greek 
 Epigram by Byzantine Marianus* 
 
 \. 
 
 Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep : 
 
 A maid of Dianas this advantage found, 
 
 And hia love-kindling fire did quickly steep 
 
 in a cold valley-fountain of that ground ; 
 
 "Which borrow'd from this holy fire of Love 5 
 
 A dateless lively heat, still to endure, 
 
 And grew a seething bath, which yet men prove 
 
 Against strange maladies a sovereign cure. 
 
 But at my mistress' eye love's brand new-iired. 
 
 The boy for trial needs would touch my breast ; 10 
 
 I, sick withal, the help of bath desired. 
 
 And thither hied, a sad distemper'd guest, 
 
 But found no cure : the bath for my help lies 
 Where Cupid got new fire, my mistress' eyes, 
 
 * See Preface to Mr GoUancz's Temple edition. 
 
 t2 
 
276 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 Appendix F [154, Q]. 
 
 Alternative arid improved version of the preceding. 
 
 The little Love-God lying once asleep 
 
 Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand, 
 
 Whilst many Nymphs that vow'd chaste life to keep 
 
 Ciime tripping by ; but in her maiden hand 
 
 The fairest votary took up that fire ■ 5 
 
 Which many Legions of true hearts had warm'd ; 
 
 And so the General of hot desire 
 
 Was sleeping by a Virgin hand disarm'd. 
 
 This brand she quenched in a cool Well by. 
 
 Which from Love's fire took heat perpetual, 10 
 
 Growing a bath and healthful remedy 
 
 For men diseased ; but I, my Mistress' thrall. 
 
 Came there for cure, and this by that I prove. 
 Love's; fire heats water, water cools not love. 
 
7 ) 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS, 
 
 Reprinted hy kind permission of T. Tyler, Esq., from his facsimile 
 of the text of the original edition. 
 
 [The numbers within the brackets refer to the numbering of the Sonnets 
 
 in my own text. For the title-page and prefatory inscription, 
 
 see page i of this volume.] 
 
 IT'Rom faireft creatures we defire increafe, 
 ■*■ That thereby beauties Rofe might neuer die, 
 But as the riper fhould by time deceafe, 
 His tender heire might beare his memory : 
 But thou contra&ed to thine owne bright eyes, 
 Feed'ft Ihy light's flame with felfe fubftantiall fewell, 
 Making a famine where aboundance lies, 
 Thy felfe thy foe, to thy fweet felfe too cruell : 
 Thou that art now the worlds frefh ornament, 
 And only herauld to the gaudy fpring, 
 Within thine owne bud burieft thy content, 
 And tender chorle makft waft in niggarding : 
 Pitty the world, or elfe this glutton be. 
 To eate the worlds due, by the graue and thee. 
 
 '\T\TYie.n fortie Winters fliall befeige thy brow, 
 
 * And digge deep trenches in thy beauties field, 
 
 Thy youthes proud liuery fo gaz'd on now, 
 Wil be a totter'd weed of fmal worth held : 
 Then being askt, where all thy beautie lies. 
 Where all the treafure of thy lufty dales ; 
 To fay within thine owne deepe funken eyes. 
 Were an all-eating fhame, and thriftleffe praife. 
 How much more praife deferu'd thy beauties vfe. 
 If thou couldft anfwere this faire child of mine 
 Shall fura my count, and make my old excufe 
 Proouing his beautie by fucceffion thine. 
 This were to be new made when thou art ould. 
 And fee thy blood warme when thou feel'ft it could. 
 
278 SHAKESPEARES' SONNETS. 
 
 T Ooke in thy glaffe and tell the face thou veweft, 
 -*-^Now is the time that face fhould forme an other, 
 Whofe frefh repaire if now thou not reneweft, 
 Thou doo'ft beguile the world, vnbleffe feme mother. 
 For where is fhe fo faire whofe vn-eard wombe 
 Difdaines the tillage of thy husbandry ? 
 Or who is he fo fond will be the tombe, 
 Of his felfe loue to ftop pofterity ? 
 Thou art thy mothers glaffe and fl^e in thee 
 Calls backe the louely Aprill of her prime, 
 So thou through windowes of thine age fhalt fee, 
 Difpight of wrinkles this thy goulden time. 
 But if thou Hue remembred not to be, 
 Die fmgle and thine Image dies with thee. 
 
 "l/'Nthrifty louelineffe why doft thou fpend, 
 
 * Vpon thy felfe thy beauties legacy ? 
 Natures bequeft giues nothing but doth lend. 
 And being franck fhe lends to thofe are free : 
 Then beautious nigard why dooft thou abufe. 
 The bountious largeffe giuen thee to giue .■' 
 Profitles vferer why dooft thou vfe 
 So great a fumme of fummes yet can'ft not Hue ? 
 For hauing trafiike with thy felfe alone, 
 Thou of thy felfe thy fweet felfe doft deceaue, 
 Then how when nature calls thee to be gone. 
 What acceptable Audit can'ft thou leaue ? 
 Thy vnuf'd beauty muft be tomb'd with thee, 
 Which vfed Hues th' executor to be. 
 
 'T'Hofe howers that with gentle worke did frame, 
 ■*■ The louely gaze where euery eye doth dwell 
 Will play the tirants to the very fame, 
 And that vnfaire which fairely doth excell : 
 For neuer refting time leads Summer on, 
 To hidious winter and confounds him there, 
 Sap checkt with froft and luftie lean's quite gon. 
 Beauty ore-fnow'd and barenes euery where, 
 Then were not fummers diftillation left 
 A liquid prifoner pent in walls of glaffe, 
 Beauties efFeft with beauty were bereft. 
 Nor it nor noe remembrance what it was. 
 
 But flowers diftil'd though they with winter meete, 
 Leefe but their fhow, their fubftance ftill Hues fweet. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 279 
 
 'X'Hen let not winters wragged hand deface, 
 In thee thy funimer ere thou be diftil'd : 
 
 Make fweet fome viall ; treafure thou fome place, 
 
 With beautits treafure ere it be felfe kil'd : 
 
 That vfe is not forbidden vfery, 
 
 Which happies thofe that pay the willing lone ; 
 
 That's for thy felfe to breed an other thee. 
 
 Or ten times happier be it ten for one, 
 
 Ten times thy felfe were happier then thou art, 
 
 If ten of thine ten times refigur'd thee, 
 
 Then what could death doe if thou fhould'ft depart, 
 
 Leauing thee liuing in pofterity ? 
 
 Be not felfe-wild for thou art much too faire, 
 
 To be deaths conqueft and make wormes thine heire. 
 
 T Oe in the Orient when the gracious light, 
 ■'-^Lifts vp his burning head, each vnder eye 
 Doth homage to his new appearing fight, 
 Seruing with lookes his facred maiefty, 
 And hauing climb'd the fteepe vp heauenly hill, 
 Refembling ftrong youth in his middle age. 
 Yet mortall lookes adore his beauty ftill. 
 Attending on his goulden pilgrimage : 
 But when from high-moft pich with wery car, 
 Like feeble age he reeleth from the day. 
 The eyes (fore dutious) now conuerted are 
 From his low tradl and looke an other way : 
 So thou, thy felfe out-going in thy noon : 
 Vnlok'd on dieft vnleffe thou get a fonne. 
 
 8 
 
 A/rVfick to heare, why hear'ft thou mufick fadly, 
 ■^ -^Sweets with fweets warre not, ioy delights in ioy : 
 Why lou'ft thou that which thou receauft not gladly. 
 Or elfe receau'ft with pleafure thine annoy ? 
 If the true concord of well tuned founds. 
 By vnions married do offend thine eare, 
 They do but fweetly chide thee, who confounds 
 In fingleneffe the parts that thou fhould'ft beare : 
 Marke how one ftring fweet husband to an other, 
 Strike each in each by mutuall ordering; 
 Refembling fier, and child, and happy mother, 
 Who all in one, one pleafmg note do fing: 
 
 Whofe fpeechleffe fong being many, feeming one, 
 Sings this to thee thou fingle wilt proue none. 
 
280 shakespeaeb's sonnets. 
 
 TS it for feare to wet a widdowes eye, 
 ■"•That thou confum'ft thy felfe in fingle life ? 
 Ah ; if thou iffuleffe fhalt hap to die, 
 The world will waile Ihee like a makeleffe wife, 
 The world wilbe thy widdow and ftill weepe, 
 That thou no forme of thee haft left behind. 
 When euery priuat widdow well may keepe, 
 By childrens eyes, her husbands fhape in minde ; 
 Looke what an vnthrift in the world doth fpend 
 Shifts but his place, for ftill the world inioyes it 
 But beauties wafte, hath in the world an end, 
 And kept vnvfde the vfer fo deftroyes it : 
 No loue toward others in that bofome fits 
 That on himfelfe fuch murdrous fhame commits. 
 
 lO 
 
 XpOr fhame deny that thou bear'ft loue to any 
 •*■ Who for thy felfe art fo vnprouident 
 Graunt if thou wilt, thou art belou'd of many, 
 Bat that thou none lou'ft is moft euident : 
 For thou art fo poffeft with murdrous hale. 
 That gainft thy felfe thou ftickft not to confpire. 
 Seeking that beautious roofe to ruinate 
 Which to repaire fhould be thy chiefe defire : 
 O change thy thought, that I may change my minde, 
 Shall hate be fairer log'd then gentle loue P 
 Be as thy prefence is gracious and kind, 
 Or to thy felfe at leaft kind harted proue, 
 Make thee an other felfe for loue of me. 
 That beauty ftill may Hue in thine or thee. 
 
 II 
 
 AS faft as thou fhalt wane fo faft thou grow'ft 
 In one of thine, from that which thou departeft. 
 And that frefh bloud which yongly thou beftow'ft, 
 Thou maift call thine, when thou from youth conuerteft. 
 Herein Hues wifdome, beauty, and increafe, 
 Without this folHe, age, and could decay, 
 If all were minded fo, the times fhould ceafe, 
 And threefcoore yeare would make the world away : 
 Let thofe whom nature hath not made for ftore, 
 Hatfh, featureleffe, and rude, barrenly perrifh, 
 Looke whom fhe beft indow'd, fhe gaue the more ; 
 Which bountious guift thou fhouldft in bounty cherrifli, 
 She caru'd thee for her feale, and ment therby. 
 Thou fhouldft print more, not let that coppy die. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 281 
 
 12 
 
 "\7"\7'Hen I doe count the clock that tels the time, 
 
 » » And fee the braue day funck in hidious night, 
 When I behold the violet paft prime, 
 And fable curls or filuer'd ore with white : 
 When lofty trees I fee barren of leaues, 
 Which erft from heat did canopie the herd 
 And Sommers greene all girded vp in fheaues 
 Borne on the beare with white and briftly beard : 
 Then of thy beauty do I queftion make 
 That thou among the waftes of time muft goe, 
 Since fweets and beauties do them-felues forfake, 
 And die as faft as they fee others grow, 
 
 And nothing gainft Times fieth can make defence 
 Saue breed to braue him, when he takes thee hence. 
 
 '3 
 
 /"JThat you were your felfe, but loue you are 
 ^-^No longer yours, then you your felfe here Hue, 
 Againft this cumming end you fhould prepare, 
 And your fweet femblance to fome other giue. 
 So fliould that beauty which you hold in leafe 
 Find no determination, then you were 
 You felfe again after your felfes deceafe, 
 When your fweet iffue your fweet forme ftiould beare. 
 Who lets fo faire a houfe fall to decay, 
 AMiich husbandry in honour might vphold, 
 Againft the ftorray gufts of winters day 
 And barren rage of deaths eternall cold ? 
 
 O none but vnthrifts, deare my loue you know. 
 You had a Father, let your Son fay fo. 
 
 14 
 
 "VTOt from the ftars do I my iudgement plucke, 
 
 ■^ And yet me thinkes I haue Aftronomy, 
 
 But not to tell of good, or euil lucke. 
 
 Of plagues, of dearths, or feafons quallity. 
 
 Nor can I fortune to breefe mynuits tell ; 
 
 Pointing to each his thunder, raine and winde, 
 
 Or fay with Princes if it thai go wel 
 
 By oft predi6l that I in heauen finde. 
 
 But from thine eies my knowledge I deriue. 
 
 And conftant ftars in them I read fuch art 
 
 As truth and beautie Ihal together thriue 
 
 If from thy felfe, to ftore thou wouldft conuert : 
 
 Or elfe of thee this I prognofticate, 
 
 Thy end is Truthes and Beauties dodme and date. 
 
282 SHAKESPEAETO'S SONNETS. 
 
 T^^Hen I confider euery thing that growes 
 ' ^ Holds in perfeftion but a little moment. 
 That this huge ftage prefenteth nought but fhowes 
 Whereon the Stars in fecret influence comment, 
 When I perceiue that men as plants increafe, 
 Cheared and checkt euen by the felfe-fame skie : 
 Vaunt in their youthfull fap, at height decreafe, 
 And were their braue ftate out of memory. 
 Then the conceit of this inconftant ftay, 
 Sets you moft rich in youth before my fight, 
 Where waftfuU time debateth with decay 
 To change your day of youth to fullied night, 
 And all in war with Time for loue of you 
 As he takes from you, I ingraft you new. 
 
 16 
 
 "DVt wherefore do not you a mightier waie 
 ''^Make warre vppon this bloudie tirant time ? 
 And fortifie your felfe in your decay 
 With meanes more bleffed then my barren rime ? 
 Now ftand you on the top of happie houres, 
 And many maiden gardens yet vnfet, 
 With vertuous wifh would beare your liuing flowers, 
 Much liker then your painted counterfeit : 
 So fhould the lines of life that life repaire 
 Which this (Times penfel or my pupill pen) 
 Neither in inward worth nor outward faire 
 Can make you Hue your felfe in eies of men, 
 To giue away your felfe, keeps your felfe ftill. 
 And you muft Hue drawne by your owne fweet skill, 
 
 17 
 
 '\7""\7'Ho will beleeue my verfe in time to come 
 ^ ' If it were fild with your moft high deferts ? 
 Though yet heauen knowes it is but as a tombe 
 Which hides your life, and fhewes not halfe your parts : 
 If I could write the beauty of your eyes. 
 And in frefh numbers number all your graces. 
 The age to come would fay this Poet lies. 
 Such heauenly touches nere toucht earthly faces. 
 So fhould my papers (yellowed with their age) 
 Be fcorn'd, like old men of leffe truth then tongue, 
 And your true rights be termd a Poets rage. 
 And ftretched miter of an Antique fong. 
 
 But were fome childe of yours aliue that time. 
 You fhould Hue twife in it, and in my rime. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 883 
 
 i8 
 
 C Hall I compare thee to a Summers day ? 
 
 Thou art more louely and more temperate : 
 Rough windes do fhake the darling buds of Male, 
 And Sommers leafe hath all too fhort a date : 
 Sometime too hot the eye of heauen fhines, 
 And often is his gold complexion dimn'd, 
 And euery faire from faire fome-time declines, 
 By chance, or natures changing courfe vntrim'd : 
 But thy eternall Sommer fhall not fade, 
 Nor loofe poffeffion of that faire thou ow'ft, 
 Nor fhall death brag thou wandr'ft in his fhade, 
 When in eternall lines to time thou grow'ft, 
 So long as men can breath or eyes can fee, 
 So long liues this, and this giues life to thee, 
 
 "P\Euouring time blunt thou the Lyons pawes, 
 ■^^^And make the earth deuoure her owne fweet brood, 
 Plucke the keene teeth from the fierce Tygers yawes. 
 And burne the long liu'd Phsenix in her blood, 
 Make glad and forry feafons as thou fleet'ft, 
 And do what ere thou wilt fwift-footed time 
 To the wide world and all her fading fvveets : 
 But I forbid thee one moft hainous crime, 
 O carue not with thy howers my loues faire brow, 
 Nor draw noe lines there with thine antique pen, 
 Him in thy courfe vntainted doe allow. 
 For beauties patterne to fucceding men. 
 
 Yet doe thy worft ould Time difpight thy wrong, 
 My loue fhall in my verfe euer Hue young. 
 
 20 
 
 A Womans face with natures owne hand painted, 
 ■^^Hafte thou the Mafter Miftris of my paffion, 
 A womans gentle hart but not acquainted 
 With fhifting change as is falfe womens fafliion. 
 An eye more bright then theirs, leffe falfe in rowling : 
 Gilding the obie6t where-vpon it gazeth, 
 A man in hew all Hews in his controwling, 
 Which fteales mens eyes and womens foules amafeth. 
 And for a woman wert thou firft created, 
 Till nature as fhe wrought thee fell a dotinge, 
 And by addition me of thee defeated. 
 By adding one thing to my purpofe nothing. 
 
 But fince flie prickt thee out for womens pleafure, 
 Mine be thy loue and thy loues vfe their treafure. 
 
284 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 21 
 
 CO is it not with me as with that Mufe, 
 *^Stird by a painted beauty to his verfe, 
 Who heauen it felle for ornament doth vfe, 
 And euery faire with his faire doth reherfe, 
 Making a coopelment of proud compare 
 With Sunne and Moone, with earth and feas rich gems : 
 With Aprills firft borne flowers and all things rare. 
 That heauens ayre in this huge rondure hems, 
 O let me true in loue but truly write, 
 And then beleeue me, my loue is as faire, 
 As any mothers childe, though not fo bright 
 As thofe gould candells fixt in heauens ayer : 
 Let them fay more that like of heare-fay well,| 
 1 will not prayfe that purpofe not to fell. 
 
 22 
 
 TV/TY glaffe fhall not perfwade me I am ould, 
 ■^ So long as youth and thou are of one date, 
 But when in thee times forrwes I behould, 
 Then look I death my dales fliould expiate. 
 For all that beauty that doth couer thee, 
 Is but the feemely rayment of my heart, 
 Which in thy breft doth Hue, as thine in me, 
 How can I then be elder then thou art ? 
 O therefore loue be of thy felfe fo wary, 
 As I not for my felfe, but for thee will, 
 Bearing thy heart which I will keepe fo chary 
 As tender nurfe her babe from faring ill, 
 
 Prefume not on thy heart when mine is flaine. 
 Thou gau'ft me thine not to giue backe againe. 
 
 23 
 
 A S an vnperfeft a6tor on the ftage, 
 ■^*-Who with his feare is put befides his part. 
 Or fome fierce thing repleat with too much rage, 
 Whofe ftrengths abondance weakens his owne heart ; 
 So I for feare of truft, forget to fay, 
 The perfect; ceremony of loues right. 
 And in mine owne loues ftrength feeme to decay, 
 Ore-charg'd with burthen of mine owne loues might : 
 O let my books be then the eloquence, 
 And domb prefagers of my fpeaking breft, 
 Who pleade for loue, and look for recompence, 
 More then that tonge that more hath more expreft. 
 O learne to read what filent loue hath writ, 
 To heare wit eies belongs to loues fine wiht. 
 
shakespeake's sonnets. 285 
 
 24 
 IV/TIne eye hath play'd the painter and hath fteeld, 
 -'--'• 1 hy beauties forme in table of my heart, 
 My body is tlie frame wherein ti's held, 
 And perfpeftiue it is beft Painters art. 
 For through the Painter muft you fee his skill. 
 To finde where your true Image pi6lur'd lies, 
 Which in my bofomes fhop is hanging ftil. 
 That hath his windowes glazed with thine eyes : 
 Now fee what good-turnes eyes for eies haue done, 
 Mine eyes haue drawne thy fhape, and thine for me 
 Are windowes to my breft, where-through the Sun 
 Delights to peepe, to gaze therein on thee 
 Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art 
 They draw but what they fee, know not the hart. 
 
 25 
 
 T Et thofe who are in fauor with their ftars, 
 -•-'Of publike honour and proud titles boft, 
 Whilft I whome fortune of fuch tryumph bars 
 Vnlookt for ioy in that I honour moft ; 
 Great Princes fauorites their faire leaues fpread. 
 But as the INIarygold at the funs eye. 
 And in them-felues their pride lies buried. 
 For at a frowne they in their glory die. 
 The painefull warrier famofed for worth, 
 After a thoufand vidlories once foild, 
 Is from the booke of honour rafed quite, 
 And all the reft forgot for which he toild : 
 Then happy I that loue and am beloued 
 Where I may not remoue, nor be remoued. 
 
 26 
 
 T Ord of my loue, to whome in vaffalage 
 
 -*— 'Thy merrit hath my dutie ftrongly knit ; 
 
 To thee I fend this written ambaffage 
 
 To witneffe duty, not to fhew my wit. 
 
 Duty fo great, which wit fo poore as mine 
 
 May make feeme bare, in wanting words to fhew it ;, 
 
 But that I hope feme good conceipt of thine 
 
 In thy foules thought (all naked) will beftow it: 
 
 Til whatfoeuer ftar that guides my mouing, 
 
 Points on me gratioufly with faire afpecS:, 
 
 And puts apparrell on my tottered louing, 
 
 To fhow me worthy of their fweet refpedl, 
 
 Then may I dare to boaft how I doe loue thee, 
 
 Til then, not fhow my head where thou maift proue me. 
 
286 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 27 
 
 "\X7'Eaty with toyle, 1 haft me to my bed, 
 
 The deare repofe for lims with trauaill tired, 
 But then begins a iourny in my head 
 To worke my mind, when boddies work's expired. 
 For then my thoughts (from far where I abide) 
 Intend a zelous pilgrimage to thee ; 
 And keepe my drooping eye-lids open wide^ 
 Looking on darknes which the blind doe fee. 
 Saue that my foules imaginary fight 
 Prefents their Ihaddoe to my fightles view. 
 Which like a iewell (hunge in gaftly night) 
 Makes blacke night beautious, and her old face neWj 
 Loe thus by day my lims, by night by mind, 
 For thee, and for my felfe, noe quiet finde. 
 
 "LTOw can I then returne in happy plight 
 
 -^■^That am debard the benifit of reft ? 
 
 When dales oppreffion is not eazd by night. 
 
 But day by night and night by day opreft. 
 
 And each (though enimes to ethers raigne) 
 
 Doe in confent fhake hands to torture me, 
 
 The one by toyle, the other to complaine 
 
 How far I toyle, ftill farther off from thee. 
 
 I tell the Day to pleafe him thou art bright, 
 
 And do'ft him grace when clouds doe blot the heauen ; 
 
 So flatter I the fwart complexiond night, 
 
 When fparkling ftars twire not thou guil'ft th' eauen, 
 But day doth daily draw my forrowes longer, (ftronger 
 And night doth nightly make greefes length feeme 
 
 29 
 
 "\ /"V /"Hen in difgrace with Fortune and mens eyes, 
 
 ' I all alone beweepe my out-caft ftate, 
 And trouble deafe heauen with my bootleffe cries, 
 And looke vpon my felfe and curfe my fate, 
 Wifhing me like to one more rich in hope, 
 Featur'd like him, like him with friends poffeft, 
 Defiring this mans art, and that mans skope, 
 With what I moft inioy contented leaft. 
 Yet in thefe thoughts my felfe almoft defpifing, 
 Haplye I thinke on thee, and then my ftate, 
 (Like to the Larke at breake of daye arifing) 
 From fuilen earth fings himns at Heauens gate, 
 For thy fweet loue remembred fuch welth brings. 
 That then I skorne to change my ftate with Kings. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 287 
 
 30 
 "\7'"\7"Hen to the Seffions of fweet filent thought, 
 
 » » I fommon vp remembrance of things paft, 
 I figh the lacke of many a thing I fought, 
 And with old woes new waile my deare times wafte : 
 Then can I drowne an eye (vn-vfd to flow) 
 For precious friends hid in deaths dateles night, 
 And weepe a frefh loues long fmce canceld woe. 
 And mone th'expence of many a vannifht fight. 
 Then can I greeue at greeuances fore-gon. 
 And heauily from woe to woe tell ore 
 The fad account of fore-bemoned mone, 
 Which I new pay, as if not payd before. 
 
 But if the while I thinke on thee (deare friend) 
 All loffes are reftord, and forrowes end. 
 
 31 
 
 'X'hy bofome is indeared with all hearts, 
 -*■ Which I by lacking haue fuppofed dead, 
 And there raignes Loue and all Loues louing parts. 
 And all thofe friends which I thought buried. 
 How many a holy and obfequious teare 
 Hath deare religious loue ftolne from mine eye, 
 As intereft of the dead, which now appeare, 
 But things remou'd that hidden in there lie. 
 Thou art the graue where buried loue doth Hue, 
 Hung with the tropheis of my louers gon. 
 Who all their parts of me to thee did giue. 
 That due of many, now is thine alone. 
 Their images 1 lou'd, I view in thee, 
 And thou (all they) haft all the all of me. 
 
 32 
 
 TF thou furuiue my well contented daie, 
 -*-When that churle death my bones with duft fhall couer 
 And {halt by fortune once more re-furuay : 
 Thefe poore rude lines of thy deceafed Louer: 
 Compare them with the bett'ring of the time. 
 And though they be out-ftript by euery pen, 
 Referue them for my loue, not for their rime. 
 Exceeded by the hight of happier men. 
 Oh then voutfafe me but this louing thought. 
 Had my friends Mufe growne with this growing age, 
 A dearer birth then this bis loue had brought 
 To march in ranckes of better equipage : 
 But fmce he died and Poets better proue. 
 Theirs for their ftile ile read, his for his loue. 
 
288 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 33 [34] 
 
 T7VII many a glorious morning haue I feene, 
 ■*■ Flatter the mountaine tops with foueraine eie, 
 Kiffmg with golden face the meddowes greene ; 
 Guilding pale ftreames with heauenly alcumy : 
 Anon permit the bafeft cloudes to ride, 
 With ougly rack on his celeftiall face, 
 And from the for-lorne world his vifage hide 
 Stealing vnfeene to weft with this difgrace : 
 Euen fo my Sunne one early morne did fhiney 
 With all triumphant fplendor on my brow, 
 But out alack, he was but one houre mine. 
 The region cloude hath mask'd him from me now. 
 Yet him for this, my loue no whit difdaineth, 
 Suns of the world may ftaine, whe heauens fun ftainteh.. 
 
 34 [35] 
 
 '\7"\7'Hy didft thou promife fuch a beautious day, 
 
 * » And make me trauaile forth without my cIoake,> 
 To let bace cloudes ore-take me in my way, 
 Hiding thy brau'ry in their rotten fmoke. 
 Tis not enough that through the cloude thou breake, 
 To dry the raine on my ftorme-beaten face. 
 For no man well of fuch a falue can fpeake, 
 That heales the wound, and cures not the difgrace ;■ 
 Nor can thy fliame giue phificke to my griefe. 
 Though thou repent, yet I haue ftill the loffe, 
 Th' offenders forrow lends but weake reliefe 
 To him that beares the ftrong offenfes loffe. 
 
 Ah but thofe teares are pearle which thy loue Iheeds, 
 And they are ritch, and ranfome all ill deeds. 
 
 35 [56] 
 
 "P^O more bee greeu'd at that which thou haft done, 
 -^^ Rofes haue thornes, and filuer fountaines mud, 
 Cloudes and eclipfes ftaine both Moone and Sunne, 
 And loathfome canker Hues in fweeteft bud. 
 All men make faults, and euen I in this. 
 Authorizing thy trefpas with compare, 
 My felfe corrupting faluing thy amiffe, 
 Excufmg their fins more then their fins are ; 
 For to thy fenfuall fault I bring in fence. 
 Thy aduerfe party is thy Aduocate, 
 And gainft my felfe a lawfull plea commence, 
 Such ciuill war is in my loue and hate. 
 That I an acceffary needs muft be. 
 To that fweet theefe which fourely robs from me. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 289 
 
 36 
 
 T Et me confeffe that we two muft be twaine, 
 -^-'Although our vndeuided loues are one : 
 So fhall thofe blots that do with me remaine, 
 Without thy heipe, by me be borne alone. 
 In our two loues there is but one refpeft, 
 Though in our liues a feperable fpight, 
 Which though it alter not loues fole effeft, 
 Yet doth it fteale fweet houres from loues delight, 
 I may not euer-more acknowledge thee, 
 Leaft my bewailed guilt Ihould do thee shame, 
 Nor thou with publike kindneffe honour me, 
 Vnleffe thou take that honour from thy name : 
 
 But doe not fo, I loue thee in fuch fort. 
 
 As thou being mine, mine is thy good report. 
 
 37 
 
 A S a decrepit father takes delight, 
 
 To fee his adliue childe do deeds of youth, 
 
 So I, made lame by Fortunes deareft fpight 
 
 Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth. 
 
 For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit, 
 
 Or any of thefe all, or all, or more 
 
 Intitled in their parts, do crowned fit, 
 
 I make my loue ingrafted to this ftore : 
 
 So then I am not lame, poore, nor difpif'd, 
 
 Whiift that this fhadow doth fuch fubftance giue, 
 
 That I in thy abundance am fuSic'd, 
 
 And by a part of all thy glory liue : 
 
 Looke what is beft, that beft I wifh in thee, 
 This wifh I haue, then ten times happy me. 
 
 38 
 
 TLJOw can my Mufe want fubieft to inuent 
 
 -*- -'•While thou doft breath that poor' ft into my verfe. 
 
 Thine owne fweet argument, to excellent. 
 
 For euery vulgar paper to rehearfe : 
 
 Oh giue thy felfe the thankes if ought in me, 
 
 Worthy perufal ftand againft thy fight. 
 
 For who's fo dumbe that cannot write to thee, 
 
 When thou thy felfe doft giue inuention light ? 
 
 Be thou the tenth Mufe, ten times more in worth 
 
 Then thofe old nine which rimers inuocate. 
 
 And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth 
 
 Eternal numbers to out-liue long date. 
 
 If my flight Mufe doe pleafe thefe curious dales, 
 The paine be mine, but thine llial be the praife. 
 
 u 
 
2&0 shakespeaee's sonnets. 
 
 39 
 /~\H how thy worth with manners may I finge, 
 ^^When thou art all the better part of me ? 
 What can mine owne praife to mine owne felfe bring ; 
 And what is't but mine owne when I praife thee, 
 Euen for this, let vs deuided Hue, 
 And our deare loue loofe name of fingle one 
 That by this feperation I may giue : 
 That due to thee which thou deferu'ft alone : 
 Oh abfence what a torment wouldft thou proue, 
 Were it not thy foure leifure gaue fweet leaue, 
 To entertaine the time with thoughts of loue, 
 Which time and thoughts fo fweetly doft deceiue. 
 And that thou teacheft how to make one twaine, 
 By praifing him here who doth hence remaine. 
 
 40 [57J 
 
 'X'Ake all my loues, my loue, yea take them all, 
 -*■ What haft thou then more then thou hadft before ? 
 No loue, my loue, that thou maift true loue call, 
 All mine was thine, before thou hadft this more: 
 Then if for my loue, thou my loue receiueft, 
 I cannot blame thee, for my loue thou vfeft, 
 But yet be blam'd, if thou this felfe deceaueft 
 By wilful! tafte of what thy felfe refufeft. 
 I doe forgiue thy robb'rie gentle theefe 
 Although thou fteale thee all my pouerty: 
 And yet loue knowes it is a greater griefe 
 To beare loues wrong, then hates knowne iniury. 
 Lafciuious grace in whom all il wel fhowes, 
 Kill me with fpights yet we muft not be foes. 
 
 41 [58] 
 
 'T'Hofe pretty wrongs that liberty commits, 
 -*■ When I am fome-time abfent from thy heart, 
 Thy beautie, and thy yeares full well befits, 
 For ftill temptation followes where thou art. 
 Gentle thou art, and therefore to be wonne, 
 Beautious thou art, therefore to be affailed. 
 And when a woman woes, what womans fonne. 
 Will fourely leaue her till he haue preuailed. 
 Aye me, but yet thou mighft my feate forbeare, 
 And chide thy beauty, and thy ftraying youth. 
 Who lead thee in their ryot euen there 
 Where thou art forft to breake a two fold truth : 
 Hers by thy beauty tempting her- to thee, 
 Thine by thy beautie beeing falfe to me. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 291 
 
 42 [59] 
 
 'T'Hat thou haft her it is not all my griefe, 
 -*- And yet it may be faid I lou'd her deerely, 
 That ftie hath thee is of my wayling cheefe, 
 A loffe in loue that touches me more neerely. 
 Louing offendors thus I will excufe yee, 
 Thou dooft loue her, becaufe thou knowft I loue her, 
 And for my fake euen fo doth fhe abufe me, 
 Suffring my friend for my fake to approoue her, 
 If I loofe thee, my loffe is my loues gaine, 
 And loofing her, my friend hath found that loffe. 
 Both finde each other, and I loofe both twaine, 
 And both for my fake lay on me this croffe, 
 But here's the ioy, my friend and I are one, 
 Sweete flattery, then fhe loues but me alone. 
 
 43 [63] 
 
 'Y^T'Hen moft I winke then doe mine eyes beft fee, 
 
 For all the day they view things vnrefpefted, 
 But when I fleepe, in dreames they looke on thee. 
 And darkely bright, are bright in darke diredled. 
 Then thou whofe fhaddow fhaddowes doth make bright, 
 How would thy fhadowes forme, forme happy {how. 
 To the cleere day with thy much cleerer light, 
 When to vn-feeing eyes thy fhade fhines fo ? 
 How would (I fay) mine eyes be bltffed made. 
 By looking on thee in the lining day ? 
 When in dead night their faire imperfeft fhade, 
 Through heauy fleepe on fightleffe eyes doth ftay ? 
 All dayes are nights to fee till I fee thee. 
 And nights bright dales when dreams do fhew thee me. 
 
 44 [64] 
 
 TF the dull fubftance of my flelh were thought, 
 ■^-Iniurious diftance fhould not ftop my way. 
 For then difpight of fpace I would be brought, 
 From limits farre remote, where thou dooft ftay, 
 No matter then although my foote did ftand 
 Vpon the fartheft earth remoou'd from thee. 
 For nimble thought can iumpe both fea and land. 
 As foone as thinke the place where he would be. 
 But ah, thought kills me that I am not thought 
 To leape large lengths of miles when thou art gone, 
 But that fo much of earth and water wrought, 
 I muft attend, times leafure with my mone. 
 
 Receiuing naughts by elements fo floe, 
 
 But heauie teares, badges of cithers woe. 
 
 1:2 
 
292 SHAKESPEARE S SONNETS. 
 
 45 [65] 
 
 THe other two, flight ayre, and purging fire. 
 Are both with thee, where euer I abide, 
 The firft my thought, the other my defire, 
 Thefe prefent abfent with fwift motion flide, 
 For when thefe quicker Elements are gone 
 In tender Embaffie of loue to thee, 
 My life being made of foure, with two alone, 
 Sinkes downe to death, oppreft with melancholie, 
 Vntill Hues compofition be recured, 
 By thofe fwift meffengers return'd from thee. 
 Who euen but now come back againe affured. 
 Of their faire health, recounting it to me. 
 This told, I ioy, but then no longer glad, 
 1 fend them back againe and ftraight grow f.id. 
 
 46 [65] 
 
 A/rine eye and heart are at a mortall warre, 
 -'-■*■ How to deuide the conqueft of thy fight, 
 Mine eye, my heart their piftures fight would barre. 
 My heart, mine eye the freeedome of that right. 
 My heart doth plead that thou in him dooft lye, 
 (A clofet neuer peaift with chriftall eyes) 
 IBut the defendant doth that plea deny. 
 And fayes in him their faire appearance lyes, 
 To fide this title is impannelled 
 A queft of thoughts, all tennants to the heart,. 
 And by their verdidt is determined 
 The cleere eyes moyitie, and he deare hearts part. 
 As thus, mine eyes due is their outward part. 
 And my hearts right, their inward loue of heart. 
 
 47 [67] 
 
 "DEtwixt mine eye and heart a league is tooke, 
 -'-'And each doth good turnes now vnto the other. 
 When that mine eye is famifht for a looke, 
 Or heart in loue with figlies himfelfe doth fmother; 
 With my loues pidlure then my eye doth feaft. 
 And to the painted banquet bids my heart: 
 An other time mine eye is my hearts gueft. 
 And in his thoughts of loue doth fhare a part. 
 So either by thy pidlure or my loue. 
 Thy feife away, are prefent ftill with me. 
 For thou nor farther then my thoughts canft moue. 
 And I am ftill with them, and they with thee. 
 Or if they fleepe, thy piefture in my fight 
 Awakes my heart, to hearts and eyes delight. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 293 
 
 48 [68] 
 
 llJOw carefull was I when I tooke my way, 
 ■^■^Each trifle vnder trueft barres to thruft, 
 That to my vfe it might vn-vfed ftay 
 From hands of falfehood, in fure wards of trufi ? 
 But thou, to whom my iewels trifles are, 
 Moft worthy comfort, now my greateft griefe, 
 Thou beft of deereft, and mine onely care, 
 Art left the prey of euery vulgar theefe. 
 'J'hee haue 1 not lockt vp in any cheft, 
 Saue where thou art not, though I feele thou art. 
 Within the gentle clofure of my breft. 
 From whence at pleafure thou maift come and part, 
 And euen thence thou wilt be ftolne I feare. 
 For truth prooues theeuifh for a prize fo deare. 
 
 49 [69] 
 
 A Gainft that time (if euer that time come) 
 ^^When I fhall fee thee frowne on my defefts, 
 When as thy loue hath caft his vtmoft fumme, 
 Cauld to that audite by aduif'd refpefts, 
 Againft that time when thou flialt ftrangely paffe. 
 And fcarcely greete me with that funne thine eye. 
 When loue conuertcd from the thing it was 
 Shall reafons finde of fetled grauitie, 
 Againft that time do I infconce me here 
 Within the knowledge of mine owne defart. 
 And this my hand, againft my felfe vpreare, 
 To guard the lawfuU reafons on thy part, 
 
 To leaue poore me, thou haft the ftrength of lawes, 
 
 Since why to loue, I can alledge no caufe. 
 
 50 [70] 
 
 TlTOw heauie doe I iourney on the way, 
 ■^-•■When what I feeke (my wearie trauels end) 
 Doth teach that eafe and that repofe to fay 
 Thus farre the miles are meafurde from thy friend. 
 The beaft that beares me, tired with my woe, 
 Plods duly on, to beare that waight in me. 
 As if by fome inftind the wretch did know 
 His rider lou'd not fpeed being made from thee : 
 The bloody fpurre cannot prouoke him on, 
 That fome-times anger thrufts into his hide, 
 Which heauily he anfwers with a grone. 
 More ftiarpe to me then fpurring to his fide, 
 
 For that fame grone doth put this in my mind. 
 
 My greefe lies onward and my ioy behind. 
 
294: shakespbaee's sonnets. 
 
 51 [71] 
 
 'T'Hus can my loue excufe the flow offence, 
 -*- Of my dull bearer, when from thee I fpeed, 
 From where thou art, why fhoulld I haft me thence. 
 Till I returne of pofting is noe need. 
 O what excufe will my poore beaft then find, 
 When fwift extremity can feeme but flow, 
 Then fhould I fpurre though mounted on the wind. 
 In winged fpeed no motion fhall I know. 
 Then can no horfe with my defire keepe pace. 
 Therefore defire (of perfedls loue being made) 
 Shall naigh noe dull fiefh in his fiery race, 
 But loue, for loue, thus fhall excufe my iade. 
 Since from thee going, he went wilfull flow. 
 Towards thee ije run, and giue hini leaije to goe, 
 
 52 [72] 
 
 CO am I as the rich whofe bleffed key, 
 *^Can bring him to his fweet vp-locked treafure. 
 The which he will not eu'ry hower furuay, 
 For blunting the fine point of feldome pleafure. 
 Therefore are feafts fo follemne and fo rare, 
 Since fildom comming in the long yeare fet, 
 Like ftones of worth they thinly placed are. 
 Or captaine lewells in the carconet. 
 So is the time that keepes you as my cheft, 
 Or as the ward-robe which the robe doth hide. 
 To make fome fpeciall inftant fpeciall bleft. 
 By new vnfoulding his imprifon'd pride, 
 
 Bleffed are you whofe worthineffe giues skope. 
 Being had to tryumph, being lackt to hope. 
 
 53 [73J 
 
 'W'VT'Hat is your fubftance, whereof are you made, 
 * ' That millions of ftrange fhaddowes on you tend ? 
 Since euery one, hath euery one, one fliade. 
 And you but one, can euery fhaddow lend ; 
 Defcribe Adonis and the counterfet. 
 Is poorely immitated after you. 
 On Hellens cheeke all art of beautie fet. 
 And you in Grecian tires are painted new : 
 Speake of the fpring, and foyzon of the yeare. 
 The one doth fhaddow of your beautie fhow, 
 The other as your bountie doth appeare. 
 And you in euery bleffed fhape we know. 
 In all externall grace you haue fome part, 
 But you like none, none you for conftant heart. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnet. 295 
 
 54 [74] 
 
 /^H how much more doth beautie beantious feeme, 
 ^^By that fweet ornament which truth doth giue, 
 The Rofe lookes faire, but fairer we it deeme 
 For that fweet odor, which doth in it Hue : 
 The Canker bloomes haue full as deepe a die, 
 As the perfumed tindlure of the Rofes, 
 Hang on fuch thornes, and play as wantonly, 
 When fommers breath their masked buds difclofcs : 
 But for their virtue only is their fhow, 
 They Hue vnwoo'd, and vnrc-fpefted fade, 
 Die to themfelues. Sweet Rofes doe not fo, 
 Of their fweet deathes, are fweeteft odors made: 
 And fo of you, beautious and louely youth, 
 When that fhall vade, by verfe diftils your truth. 
 
 55 [75] 
 
 "^Ot marble, nor the guilded monument, 
 
 -*- Of Princes fhall out-Iiue this powrefull rime, 
 
 But you fhall fhine more bright in thefe contents 
 
 Then vnfwept ftone, befmeer'd with fluttifh time. 
 
 When waftefuU warre fhall Statues ouer-turne. 
 
 And broiles roote out the worke of mafonry, 
 
 Nor Mars his fword, nor warres quick fire Ihall burne : 
 
 The lining record of your memory. 
 
 Gainft death, and all obliuious emnity 
 
 Shall you pace forth, your praife fhall ftil finde roome, 
 
 Euen in the eyes of all pofterity 
 
 That weare this world out to the ending doome. 
 
 So til the iudgement that your felfe arife. 
 
 You Hue in this, and dwell in louers eies. 
 
 56 [76] 
 
 C weet loue renew thy force, be it not faid 
 ^Thy edge fhould blunter be then apetite, 
 Which but too daie by feeding is alaied. 
 To morrow fharpned in his former might. 
 So loue be thou, although too daie thou fill 
 Thy hungrie eies, euen till they winck with fulneffe. 
 Too morrow fee againe, and doe not kill 
 The fpirit of Loue, with a perpetual dulneffe : 
 Let this fad Intrim like the Ocean be 
 Which parts the fhore, where two contradled new. 
 Come daily to the banckes, that when they fee : 
 Returne of loue, more bleft may be the view. 
 As cal it Winter, which being ful of care, 
 Makes SJmers welcome, thrice more wifh'd, more rare. 
 
296 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 57 [77] 
 
 "DEing your flaue what fliould I doe but tend, 
 -'-'Vpon the houres, and times of your defire ? 
 I haue no precious time at al to fpend ; 
 Nor feruices to doe til you require. 
 Nor dare I chide the world without end houre, 
 Whilft I (my foueraine) watch the cloclc for you, 
 Nor thinke the bitterneffe of abfence fowre, 
 VVhen you haue bid your feruant once adieue. 
 Nor dare I queftion with my iealious thought, 
 Where you may be, or your affaires fuppofe, 
 But like a fad flaue ftay and thinke of nought 
 Saue where you are, how happy you make thofe. 
 So true a foole is loue, that in your Will, 
 (Though you doe any thing) he thiqkes r>o ill, 
 
 58 [78] 
 
 'T'Hat God forbid, that made me firft your flaue, 
 -*■ I fhould in thought controule your times of pleafure. 
 Or at your hand th' account of houres to craue, 
 Being your vaffail bound to ftaie your leifure. 
 Oh let me fuffer (being at your beck) 
 Th' imprifon'd abfence of your libertie, 
 And patience tame, to fufferance bide each check, 
 Without accufmg you of iniury. 
 Be where you lift, your charter is fo ftrong, 
 That you your felfe may priuiledge your time 
 To what you will, to you it doth belong, 
 Your felfe to pardon of felfe-doing crime. 
 I am to waite though waiting fo be hell. 
 Not blame your pleafure be it ill or well. 
 
 59 [79] 
 
 TF their bee nothing new, but that which is, 
 ■*-Hath beene before, how are our braines beguild. 
 Which laboring for inuention beare amiffe 
 The fecond burthen of a former child ? 
 Oh that record could with a back-ward lo'oke, 
 Euen of fine hundreth courfes of the Sunne, 
 Show me your image in fome antique booke. 
 Since minde at firft in carrefter was done. 
 That I might fee what the old world could fay. 
 To this compofed wonder of your frame, 
 Whether we are mended, or where better they. 
 Or whether reuolution be the fame. 
 Oh fure I am the wits of former dales. 
 To fubiefts worfe haue giuen admiring praife. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. S97 
 
 60 [80] 
 
 T Ike as the waues make towards the pibled fhore, 
 
 •*-^So do our minuites haften to their end. 
 
 Each changing place with that which goes before, 
 
 In fequent toile all forwards do contend. 
 
 Natiuity once in the maine of light. 
 
 Crawies to maturity, wherewith being crown'd, 
 
 Crooked eclipfes gainft his glory fight, 
 
 And time that gaue, doth now his gift confound. 
 
 Time doth tranffixe the florifh fet on youth. 
 
 And delues the paralels in beauties brow, 
 
 Feedes on the rarities of natures truth, 
 
 And nothing ftands but for his fieth to mow. 
 And yet to times in hope, my verfe fhall ftand 
 Praifing thy worth, difpight his cruell hand. 
 
 6i [81] 
 
 TS it thy wil ; thy Image fhould keepe open 
 -'■My heauy eielids to the weary night ? 
 Doft thou defire my flumbers ftiould be broken, 
 While ftiadowes like to thee do mocke my fight } 
 Is it thy fpirit that thou fend'ft from thee 
 So farre from home into my deeds to prye, 
 To find out fhames and idle houres in me. 
 The skope and tenure of thy leloufie ? 
 O no, thy loue though much, is not fo great, 
 It is my loue that keepes mine eie awake, 
 Mine owne true loue that doth my reft defeat. 
 To plaie the watch-man euer for thy fake. 
 
 For thee watch I, whilft thou doft wake elfewhere, 
 
 From me farre of, with others all to neere. 
 
 62 [82] 
 
 CInne of felfe-loue poffeffeth al mine eie, 
 *^And all my foule, and al my euery part ; 
 And for this finne there is no remedie. 
 It is fo grounded inward in my heart. 
 Me thinkes no face fo gratious is as mine, 
 No fhape fo true, no truth of fuch account. 
 And for my felfe mine owne worth do define. 
 As I ail other in all worths furmount. 
 But when my glaffe fhewes me my felfe indeed 
 Beated and chopt with tand antiquitie. 
 Mine owne felfe loue quite contrary I read 
 Selfe, fo felfe louing were iniquity, 
 
 T'is thee (my felfe) that for my felfe I praife, 
 
 Painting my age with beauty of thy dales. 
 
298 shakespbabe's sonnets. 
 
 63 [83] 
 
 AGainft my loue fhall be as I am now 
 With times iniurious hand chrufht and ore-worne, 
 When houres haue dreind his blood and fild his brow 
 With lines and wrincles, when his youthfull morne 
 Hath trauaild on to Ages fteepie night, 
 And all thofe beauties whereof now he's King 
 Are yanifhing, or vaniflit out of fight, 
 Stealing away the treafure of his Spring. 
 For fuch a time do I now fortifie 
 Againft confounding Ages cruell knife. 
 That he fhall neuer cut from memory 
 My fweet loues beauty, though my louers life. 
 His beautie fhall in thefe blacke lines be feene. 
 And they fhall Hue, and he in them ftill greene. 
 
 64 [84] 
 
 '\r\THen I haue feene by times fell hand defaced" 
 
 * ^ The rich proud coft of outworne buried age, 
 When fometime loftie towers I fee downe rafed. 
 And braffe eternall flaue to mortall rage. 
 When I haue feene the hungry Ocean gaine 
 Aduantage on the Kingdome of the fhoare, 
 And the firme foile win of the watry maine, 
 Increafing ftore with loffe, and loffe with ftore. 
 When I haue feene fuch interchange of ftate. 
 Or ftate it felfe confounded, to decay, 
 Ruine hath taught me thus to ruminate 
 That Time will come and take my loue away. 
 This thought is as a death which cannot choDfe 
 But weepe to haue, that which it feares to loofe. 
 
 65 [85] 
 
 CInce braffe, nor ftone, nor earth, nor boundleffe fea, 
 *^But fad mortallity ore-fwaies their power. 
 How with this rage fhall beautie hold a plea, 
 Whofe a6):ion is no ftronger then a flower ? 
 O how fhall fummers hunny breath hold out, 
 Againft the wrackfull fiedge of battring dayeS', 
 When rocks impregnable are not fo ftoute, 
 Nor gates of fteele fo ftrong but time decayes ? 
 O fearefuU meditation, where alack. 
 Shall times beft lewell from times cheft lie hid ? 
 Or what ftrong hand can hold his fwift foote back, 
 Or who his fpoile or beautie can forbid ? 
 O none, vnleffe this miracle haue might. 
 That in black inck my loue may ftill fhine bright. 
 
SHAKESPEARli's SONNETS. §99 
 
 66 [86] 
 
 T^Yi'd with all thefe for reftfull death I cry. 
 
 As to behold defert a bagger borne, 
 And needie Nothing trimd in iollitie, 
 And pureft faith vnhappily forfworne, 
 And gilded honor fhamefuUy mifplaft, 
 And maiden vertue rudely ftrumpeted, 
 And right perfedlion wrongfully difgrac'd, 
 And ftrength by limping fway difabled, 
 And arte made tung-tide by authoritie, 
 And Folly (Dodtor-like) controuling skill. 
 And fimple-Truth mifcalde Simplicitie, 
 And captiue-gox)d attending Captaine ill. 
 
 Tyr'd with all thefe, from thefe would I be gone, 
 
 Saue that to dye, I leaue my loue altine. 
 
 67 [87] 
 
 A H wherefore with infeftion ftiould he Hue, 
 
 •^^And with his prefence grace impietie, 
 
 That fmne by him aduantage fhould atehiue. 
 
 And lace it felfe with his focietie ? 
 
 Why fhould falfe painting immitate his cheeke, 
 
 And fteale dead feeing of his liuing hew ? 
 
 Why fhould poore beautie indiredlly feeke 
 
 Rofes of fliaddow, fince his Rofe is true ? 
 
 Why fhould he Hue, now nature banckrout is, 
 
 Eeggerd of blood to blufh through liuely vaines, 
 
 For fhe hath no exchecker now but his, 
 
 And proud of many, liues vpon his gaines ? 
 O him fhe ftores, to fhow what welth fhe had. 
 In daies long fince, before thefe laft fo bad. 
 
 68 [88] 
 
 'T'Hus is his cheeke the map of daies out-worne, 
 -*- When beauty liu'd and dy'ed as flowers do now, 
 Before thefe baftard fignes of faire were borne. 
 Or durft inhabit on a liuing brow : 
 Before the goulden treffes of the dead. 
 The right of fepulchers, were fhorne away, 
 To Hue a fcond life on fecond head, 
 Ere beauties dead fleece made another gay : 
 In him thofe holy antique howers are feene. 
 Without all ornament, it felfe and true, 
 Making no fummer of an others greene. 
 Robbing no ould to dreffe his beauty new, 
 And him as for a map doth Nature ftore, 
 To fhew faulfe Art what beauty was of yore, 
 
300 shakespeaee's sonnets. 
 
 69 [89] 
 
 nPHofe parts of thee that the worlds eye doth view, 
 -*- Want nothing- that the thought of hearts can mend : 
 All toungs (the voice of foules) glue thee that end, 
 Vttring bare truth, euen fo as foes Commend. 
 Their outward thus with outward praife is crovvnd, 
 But thofe fame tongues that giue thee fo thine owne, 
 In other accents doe this praife confound 
 By feeing farther then the eye hath fhowne. 
 They looke into the beauty of thy mind. 
 And that in gueffe theymeafure by thy deeds. 
 Then churls their thoughts (although their eies were kind) 
 To thy faire flower ad the rancke fmell of weeds, 
 But why thy odor matcheth not thy fhow. 
 The folye is this, that thou doeft common grow. 
 
 70 [90] 
 
 "y Hat thou art blam'd fliall not be thy defedl, 
 
 For flanders marke was euer yet the faire. 
 The ornament of beauty is fufpedt, 
 A Crow that flies in heauens fweeteft ayre. 
 So thou be good, flander doth but approue. 
 Their worth the greater being woo'd of time, 
 For Canker vice the fweeteft buds doth loue, 
 And thou prefent'ft a pure vnftayined prime. 
 Thou haft paft by the ambufh of young dales. 
 Either not affayld, or vidtor beeing charg'd, 
 Yet this thy praife cannot be foe thy praife. 
 To tye vp enuy, euermore inlarged, 
 
 If fome fufpedt of ill maskt not thy fhow, 
 
 Then thou alone kingdomes of hearts fhouldft owe. 
 
 71 [91J 
 
 "^Oe Longer mourne for me when I am dead, 
 
 ■'-^ Then you fhall heare the furly fullen bell 
 
 Giue warning to the world that I am fled 
 
 From this vile world with vildeft wormes to dwell : 
 
 Nay if you read this line, remember not, 
 
 The hand that writ it, for I loue you fo. 
 
 That I in your fweet thoughts would be forgot. 
 
 If thinking on me then fhould make you woe. 
 
 O if (I fay) you looke vpon this verfe. 
 
 When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay, 
 
 Do not fo much as my poore name reherfe ; 
 
 But let your loue euen with my life decay. 
 
 Leaft the wife world fhould looke into your mone. 
 And mocke you with me after I am gon. 
 
shakespeake's sonnets. 301 
 
 72 [92] 
 
 /^Leaft the world fliould taske you to recite, 
 
 ^^What merit liu'd in me that you fhould loue 
 
 After my death (deare loue) for get me quite, 
 
 For you in me can nothing worthy proue. 
 
 Vnleffe you would deuife fome vertuous lye, 
 
 To doe more for me then mine owne defert. 
 
 And hang more praife vpon deceafed I, 
 
 Then nigard truth would willingly impart : 
 
 O leaft your true loue may feeme falce in this. 
 
 That you for loue fpeake well of me vntrue, 
 
 My name be buried where my body is, 
 
 And Hue no more to fhame nor me, nor you. 
 For I am fliamd by that which I bring forth. 
 And fo fhould you, to loue things nothing worth. 
 
 73 [93] 
 
 nPHat time of yeeare thou maift in me behold, 
 ■*- When yellow leaues, or none, or few doe hange 
 Vpon thofe boughes which fhake againft the could. 
 Bare rn'wd quiers, where late the fweet birds fang. 
 In me thou feeft the twi-light of fuch day. 
 As after Sun-fet fadeth in the Weft, 
 Which by and by blacke night doth take away, 
 Deaths fecond felfe that feals vp all in reft. 
 In me thou feeft the glowing of fuch fire, 
 That on the afhes of his youth doth lye. 
 As the death bed, whereon it muft expire, 
 Confum'd with that which it was nurrifht by. 
 This thou perceu'ft, which makes thy loue more ftrong, 
 To loue that well, which thou muft leaue ere long. 
 
 74 [94] 
 
 "DVt be co-ntented when that fell areft, 
 -'-'with out all bayle Ihall carry me away. 
 My life hath in this line fome intereft, 
 Which for memoriall ftill with thee fhall ftay. 
 When thou reueweft this, thou doeft reuew. 
 The very part was confecrate to thee. 
 The earth can haue but earth, which is his due. 
 My fpirit is thine the better part of me. 
 So then thou haft but loft the dregs of life. 
 The pray of wormes, my body being dead, 
 The coward conqueft of a wretches knife. 
 To bafe of thee to be remembred. 
 
 The worth of that, is that which it containes. 
 And that is this, and this with thee remaines. 
 
302 SHAKESPJiAEB'S SONNKTS. 
 
 75 [95] 
 
 CO are you to my thoughts as food to life, 
 
 *^0r as fweet feafon'd Ihewers are to the ground ; 
 
 And for the peace of you I hold fuch ftrife, 
 
 As twixt a mifer and his wealth is found. 
 
 Now proud as an inioyer, and anon 
 
 Doubting the filching age will fteale his treafure, 
 
 Now counting baft to be with you alone, 
 
 Then betterd that the world may fee my pleafure, 
 
 Some-time all ful with feafting on your fight, 
 
 And by and by cleane ftarued for a looke, 
 
 Poffeffing or purfuing no delight 
 
 Saue what is had, or muft from yoU be tooke. 
 
 Thus do I pine and furfet day by day, 
 
 Or gluttoning on all, or all away, 
 
 76 [96] 
 
 '\7"\THy is my verfe fo barren of new pride ? 
 'So far from variation or quicke change ? 
 Why with the time do I not glance afide 
 To new found methods, and to compounds ftrange ? 
 Why write I ftill all one, euer the fame. 
 And keepe inuention in a noted weed, 
 That euery word doth almoft fel my name. 
 Shewing their birth, and where they did proceed ? 
 O know fweet loue I alwaies write of you. 
 And you and loue are ftill my argument : 
 So all my beft is dreffing old words new. 
 Spending againe what is already fpent : 
 For as the Sun is daily new and old. 
 So is my loue ftill telling what is told, 
 
 77 [97] 
 
 'T'Hy glaffe will fhew thee how thy beauties were. 
 
 Thy dyall how thy pretious mynuits wafte. 
 The vacant leaues thy mindes imprint will beare. 
 And of this booke, this learning maift thou tafte. 
 The wrinckles which thy glaffe will truly fhow. 
 Of mouthed graues will giue thee memorie, 
 Thou by thy dyals Ihady ftealth maift know. 
 Times theeuifh progreffe to eternitie. 
 Looke what thy memorie cannot containe, 
 Commit to thefe wafte blacks, and thou Ihalt finde 
 Thofe children nurft, deliuerd from thy braine, 
 To take a new acquaintance of thy minde. 
 Thefe ofi&ces, fo oft as thou wilt looke. 
 Shall profit thee, and much inrich thy booke. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 303 
 
 78 [98] 
 
 CO oft haue I inuok'd thee for my Mufe, 
 
 *^And found fuch faire affiftance in my verfe, 
 
 As euery Alien pen hath got my vfe, 
 
 And vnder thee their poefie difperfe. 
 
 Thine eyes, that taught the dumbe on high to fmg. 
 
 And heauie ignorance aloft to file, 
 
 Haue added fethers to the learneds wing, 
 
 And giuen grace a double Maieftie. 
 
 Yet be moft proud of that which I compile, 
 
 Whofe influence is thine, and borne of thee, 
 
 In others workes thou dooft but mend the ftile, 
 
 And Arts with thy fweete graces graced be. 
 
 But thou art all my art, and dooft aduance 
 
 As high as learning, my rude ignorance. 
 
 79 [99] 
 TIT'Hilft I alone did call vpon thy ayde, 
 
 My verfe alone had all thy gentle grace, 
 
 But now my gracious numbers are decayde, 
 
 And my fick Mufe doth giue an other place. 
 
 I grant (fweet loue) thy louely argument 
 
 Deferues the trauaiie of a worthier pen. 
 
 Yet what of thee thy Poet doth inuent, 
 
 He robs thee of, and payes it thee againe. 
 
 He lends thee vertue, and he ftole that word. 
 
 From thy behauiour, beautie doth he giue 
 
 And found it in thy cheeke : he can affoord 
 
 No praife to thee, but what in thee doth liue. 
 Then thanke him not for that which he doth fay, 
 Since what he owes thee, thou thy felfe dooft pay, 
 
 80 [100] 
 
 r\ How I faint when I of you do write, 
 ^^Knowing a better fpirit doth vfe your name, 
 And in the praife thereof fpends all his might. 
 To make me toung-tide fpeaking of your fame. 
 But fince your worth (wide as the Ocean is) 
 The humble as the proudeft faile doth beare, 
 My fawfie barke (inferior farre to his) 
 On your broad maine doth wilfully appeare. 
 Your fhalloweft helpe will hold me vp a floate, 
 Whilft he vpon your foundleffe deepe doth ride. 
 Or (being wrackt) I am a worthleffe bote. 
 He of tall building, and of goodly pride. 
 Then If he thriue and I be caft away. 
 The worft was this, my loue was my decay. 
 
304 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 8i [loij 
 
 /^R I fhall Hue your Epitaph to make, 
 ^-^Or you furuiue when I in earth am rotten, 
 From hence your memory death cannot take, 
 Although in me each part will be forgotten. 
 Your name from hence immortall life fhall haue^ 
 Though I (once gone) to all the world muft dye, 
 The earth can yeeld me but a common graue, 
 When you intombed in mens eyes fhall lye, 
 Your monument fhall be my gentle verfe. 
 Which eyes not yet created fhall ore-read, 
 And toungs to be, your beeing fhall rehearfe. 
 When all the breathers of this world are dead, 
 You ftill fhall Hue (fuch vertue hath my Pen) 
 Where breath moft breaths, euen in the mouths of men.- 
 
 8a [102] 
 
 TGrant thou wert not married to my Mufe, 
 
 And therefore maieft without attaint ore-looke 
 The dedicated words which writers vfe 
 Of their faire fubieft, bleffmg euery booke. 
 Thou art as faire in knowledge as in hew, 
 Finding thy worth a limmit paft my praife, 
 And therefore art inforc'd to feeke anew. 
 Some frefher ftampe of the time bettering dayes,^ 
 And do fo ioue, yet when they haue deuifde, 
 What ftrained touches Rhethorick can lend, 
 Thou truly faire, wert truly fimpathizde, 
 In true plaine words, by thy true telling friend. 
 And their groffe painting might be better vf'd. 
 Where cheekes need blood, in thee it is abuf d.- 
 
 83 [103] 
 TNeuer faw that you did painting need, 
 -'■And therefore to your faire no painting fet, 
 I found (or thought I found) you did exceed, 
 The barren tender of a Poets debt : 
 And therefore haue I flept in your report. 
 That you your felfe being extant well might fhow. 
 How farre a moderne quill doth come to ftiort. 
 Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow, 
 This filence for my fmne you did impute, 
 Which fhall be moft my glory being dombe, 
 For I impaire not beautie being mute. 
 When others would giue life, and bring a tombe. 
 There Hues more life in one of your faire eyes, 
 Then both your Poets can in praife deuife. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 305 
 
 84 [104] 
 
 "V^THO is it that fayes moft, which can fay more, 
 ^ ^ Then this rich praife, that you alone, are you, 
 
 In whofe confine immured is the ftore, 
 
 Which fhould example where your equall grew, 
 
 Leane penurie within that Pen doth dwell, 
 
 That to his fubieA lends not fome fmall glory, 
 
 But he that writes of you, if he can tell. 
 
 That you are you, fo dignifies his ftory. 
 
 Let him but coppy what in you is writ, 
 
 Not making worfe what nature made fo cleere. 
 
 And fuch a counter-part fhall fame his wit. 
 
 Making his ftile admired euery where. 
 
 You to your beautious bleffings adde a curfe, 
 
 Being fond on praife, which makes your praifes worfe< 
 
 85 [105] 
 
 A/TY toung-tide Mufe in manners holds her ftill, 
 •^-*- While comments of your praife richly compil'd, 
 Referne their Charafter with goulden quill, 
 And precious phrafe by all the Rlufes fil'd, 
 I thinke good thoughts, whilft other write good wordes, 
 And like vnlettered clarke ftill crie Amen, 
 To euery Himne that able fpirit affords. 
 In polifht for ne of well refined pen. 
 Hearing you praifd, I fay 'tis fo, 'tis true, 
 And to the moft of praife adde fome-thing more. 
 But that is in my thought, whofe loue to you 
 (Though words come hind-moft) holds his ranke before^ 
 Then others, for the breath of words refpedt, 
 Me for my dombe thoughts, fpeaking in effedb. 
 
 86 [106] 
 
 ■\ rXTAs it the proud full faile of his great verfe, 
 ^ ' Bound for the prize of (all to precious) you. 
 That did my ripe thoughts in my braine inhearce, 
 Making their tombe the wombe wherein they grew .'' 
 Was it his fpirit, by fpirits taught to write, 
 Aboue a mortall pitch, that ftruck me dead ? 
 No, neither he, nor his compiers by night 
 Giuing him ayde, my verfe aftonifhed. 
 He nor that affable familiar ghoft 
 Which nightly gulls him with intelligence, 
 As vidiors of my filence cannot boaft, 
 I was not fick of any feare from thence. 
 
 But when your countinance fild vp his line. 
 
 Then lackt I matter, that infeebled mine. 
 
306 shakespbiIrb's sonnets. 
 
 87 [107] 
 
 'C'Arewell thou art too deare for my poffeffing, 
 -*• And like enough thou knowft thy eftimate, 
 The Cha.ter of thy worth giues thee releafing : 
 My bonds in thee are all determinate. 
 For how do I hold thee but by thy granting, 
 And for that ritches where is my deferuing ? 
 The caufe of this faire guift in me is wanting. 
 And fo my patient back againe is fweruing. 
 Thy felfe thou gau'ft, thy owne worth then not knowing, 
 Or mee to whom thou gau'ft it, elfe miftaking, 
 So thy great guift vpon mifprifion growing. 
 Comes home againe, on better iudgement making. 
 Thus haue I had thee as a dreame doth flatter, 
 In fleepe a King, but waking no fuch matter. 
 
 88 [108] 
 
 \7"\7Hen thou fhalt be difpode to fet me light, 
 ^ ' And place my merrit in the eie of skorne, 
 Vpon thy fide, againft my felfe ile fight. 
 And proue thee virtuous, though thou art forfworne : 
 With mine owne weakeneffe being baft acquainted, 
 Vpon thy part I can fet downe a ftory 
 Of faults conceald, wherein I am attainted: 
 That thou in loofing me, fhall win much glory : 
 And I by this wil be a gainer too, 
 For bending all my louing thoughts on thee. 
 The injuries that to my felfe I doe, 
 Doing thee vantage, duble vantage me. 
 Such is my loue, to thee I fo belong, 
 That for thy right, my felfe will beare all wrong. 
 
 89 [109] 
 
 CAy that thou didft forfake mee for fome fait, 
 ^And I will comment upon that offence, 
 Speake of my lameneffe, and I ftraight will halt : 
 Againft thy reafons making no defence. 
 Thou canft not (loue) difgrace me halfe fo ill, 
 To fet a forme vpon defired change, 
 As ile my felfe difgrace, knowing thy wil, 
 I will acquaintance ftrangle and looke ftrange : 
 Be abfent from thy walkes and in my tongue. 
 Thy fweet beloued name no more fhall dwell, 
 Leaft I (too much prophane) fhould do it wronge: 
 And haplie of our old acquaintance tell. 
 For thee, againft my felfe ile vow debate, 
 For I muft nere loue him whom thou doft hate. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 307 
 
 90 [no] 
 
 ^T'lien hate me when thou wilt, if euer, nowt 
 -*■ Now while the world is bent my deeds to croffe, 
 loyne with the fpight of fortune, make me bow. 
 And doe not drop in for an after loffe : 
 Ah doe not, when my heart hath fcapte this forrow, 
 Come in the rereward of a conquerd woe. 
 Glue not a windy night a rainie morrow, 
 To linger out a purpofd ouer-lhrow. 
 If thou wilt leaue me, do not leaue me laft, 
 When other pettie griefes haue done their fpight, 
 But in the onfet come, fo ftall I tafte 
 At firft the very worft of fortunes might. 
 
 And other ftraines of woe, which now feeme woe, 
 Compar'd with loffe of thee, will not feeme fo. 
 
 91 [in] 
 
 OOme g:lory in their birth, fome in their skill, 
 ^Some in their wealth, fome in their bodies force, 
 Some in their garments though new-fangled ill : 
 Some in their Hawkes and Hounds, fome in their Horfe. 
 And euery humor hath his adiund; pleafure, 
 Wherein it iindes a ioy aboue the reft, 
 But thefe perticulers are not my meafure. 
 All thefe I better in one generall beft. 
 Thy loue is bitter then high birth to me. 
 Richer then wealth, prouder then garments coft, 
 Of more delight then Hawkes or Horfes bee: 
 And hauing thee, of all mens pride I boaft. 
 Wretched in this alone, that thou maift take, 
 All this away, and me moft wretched make. 
 
 92 [112] 
 
 "DVt doe thy worft to fteale thy felfe away, 
 
 -*-^For tearme of life thou art affured mine. 
 
 And life no longer then thy loue will ftay. 
 
 For it depends vpon that loue of thine. 
 
 Then need I not to feare the worft of wrongs. 
 
 When in the leaft of them my life hath end, 
 
 I fee, a better ftate to me belongs 
 
 Then that, which on thy humor doth depend. 
 
 Thou canft not vex me with inconftant minde. 
 
 Since that my life on thy reuolt doth lie. 
 
 Oh what a happy title do I finde, 
 
 Happy to haue thy loue, happy to die! 
 
 But whats fo bleffed faire that feares no blot, 
 Thou maift be falce, and yet I know it not. 
 
 x2 
 
308- Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 93 [113] 
 
 CO fhall I Hue, fuppofing thou art true, 
 *^Like a decerned husband, fo loues face. 
 May ftill feeme loue to me, though alter'd new : 
 Thy lookes with me, thy heart in other place. 
 For their can Hue no hatred in thine eye. 
 Therefore in that I cannot know thy change, 
 In manies lookes, the falce hearts hiftory 
 Is writ in moods and frounes and wrinckles ftrange, 
 But heauen in thy creation did decree, 
 That in thy face fweet loue fhould euer dwell. 
 What ere thy thoughts, or thy hearts workings be, 
 Thy lookes fhould nothing thence, but fweetneffe tell. 
 How like Eaues apple doth thy beauty grow, 
 If thy fweet vertue anfwere not thy fhow. 
 
 94 [114] 
 
 'X'Hey that haue powre to hurt, and will doe none, 
 -*■ That doe not do the thing, they moft do fhowe, 
 Who mouing others, are themfelues as ftone, 
 Vnmooued, could, and to temptation flow: 
 They rightly do inherrit heauens graces. 
 And husband natures ritches from expence, 
 They are the Lords and owners of their faces,. 
 Others, but ftewards of their excellence : 
 The fommers flowre is to the fommer fweet. 
 Though to it felfe, it onely Hue and die, 
 But if that flowre with bafe infeftion meete. 
 The bafeft weed out-braues his dignity: 
 
 For fweeteft things turne fowreft by their deedes, 
 Lillies that fefter, fmeU far worfe then weeds. 
 
 95 L"5] 
 
 TlJOw fweet and louely doft thou make the Ihame, 
 -'--'■Which like a canker in the fragrant Rofe, 
 Doth fpot the beautie of thy budding name ? 
 Oh in what fweets doeft thou thy fmnes inclofe I 
 That tongue that tells the ftory of thy dales, 
 (Making lafciuious comments on thy fport) 
 Cannot difpraife, but in a kinde of praife. 
 Naming thy name, bleffes an ill report. 
 Oh what a manfion haue thofe vices got, 
 Which for their habitation chofe out thee, 
 Where beauties vaile doth couer euery blot. 
 And all things turnes to faire, that eies can fee ! 
 Take heed (deare heart) of this large priuiledge. 
 The hardfcft knife ill vf'd doth loofe his edge. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 309 
 
 96 [116] 
 
 COme fay thy fault is youth, fome wantoneffe, 
 *^Some fay thy grace is youth and gentle fport, 
 Both grace and faults are lou'd of more and leffe : 
 Thou makft faults graces, that to thee refort : 
 As on the finger of a throned Queene, 
 The bafeft lewell will be well efteem'd: 
 So are thofe errors that in thee are feene, 
 To truths tranflated, and for true things deem'd. 
 How many Lambs might the fterne Wolfe betray, 
 If like a Lambe he could his lookes tranflate. 
 How many gazers mighft thou lead away. 
 If thou wouldft vfe the ftrength of all thy ftate ? 
 But doe not fo, I loue thee in fuch fort, 
 As thou being mine, mine is thy good report. 
 
 97 [117] 
 
 TlJOw like a Winter hath my abfence been© 
 
 •"■-"■From thee, the pleafure of the fleeting yeare ? 
 
 What freezings haue I felt, what darke daies feene ? 
 
 What old Decembers bareneffe euery where ? 
 
 And yet this time remou'd was fommers time. 
 
 The teeming Autumne big with ritcli increafe. 
 
 Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime, 
 
 Like widdowed wombes after their Lords deceafe ; 
 
 Yet this aboundant iffue feem'd to me. 
 
 But hope of Orphans, and vn-fathered fruite, 
 
 For Sommer and his pleafures waite on thee, 
 
 And thou away, the very birds are mute. 
 Or if they fing, tis with fo dull a cheere. 
 That leaues looke pale, dreading the Winters neere 
 
 98 [118] 
 
 'P'Rom you haue I beene abfent in the fpring, 
 
 -*■ When proud pide Aprill (dreft in all his trim) 
 
 Hath put a fpirit of youth in euery thing : 
 
 That heauie Saturnt laught and leapt with him. 
 
 Yet nor the laies of birds, nor the fweet fmell 
 
 Of different flowers in odor and in hew. 
 
 Could make me any fummers ftory tell : 
 
 Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew 
 
 Nor did I wonder at the Lillies white, 
 
 Nor praife the deepe vermillion in the Rofe, 
 
 They weare but fweet, but figures of delight : 
 
 Drawne after you, you patterne of all thofe. 
 
 Yet feem'd it Winter ftill, and you away, 
 
 As with your fhaddow I with thefe did play, ^ 
 
310 Shakespeare's sonnets, 
 
 99 [119] 
 'T'He forward violet thus did I chide, 
 ^ Sweet theefe whence didft thou fteale thy fweet that 
 If not from my loues breath, the purple pride, (fmels 
 
 Which on thy foft cheeke for complexion dwells ? 
 In my loues veines thou haft too grofely died ; 
 The Lillie I condemned for thy hand, 
 And buds of marierom had ftolne thy haire. 
 The Rofes fearefully on thornes did ftand. 
 Our blufhing Ihame, an other white difpaire : 
 A third nor red, nor white, had ftolne of both, 
 And to his robbry had annext thy breath, 
 But for his theft in pride of all his growth 
 A vengfull canker eate him vp to death. 
 More flowers I noted, yet I none could fee, 
 But fweet, or culler it had ftolne from thee. 
 
 100 [120] 
 
 '\7~\THere art thou Mufe that thou forgetft fo long, 
 ^ * To fpeake of that which giues thee all thy might ? 
 
 Spendft thou thy furie on fome worthleffe fonge, 
 
 Darkning thy powre to lend bafe fubiedls light. 
 
 Returne forgetfull Mufe, and ftraight redeeme. 
 
 In gentle numbers time fo idely fpent, 
 
 Sing to the eare that doth thy laies efteeme. 
 
 And giues thy pen both skill and argument. 
 
 Rife refty Mufe, my loues fweet face furuay, 
 
 If time haue any wrincle grauen there, " 
 
 If any, be a Satire to decay. 
 
 And make times fpoiles difpifed euery where. 
 Giue my loue fame fafter then time wafts life. 
 So thou preuenft his fieth, and crooked knife. 
 
 101 [121] 
 
 /^H truant Mufe what ftialbe thy amends, 
 ^^For thy negleft of truth in beauty di'd .? 
 Both truth and beauty on my loue depends : 
 So doft thou too, and therein dignifi'd : 
 Make anfwere Mufe, wilt thou not haply faie. 
 Truth needs no collour with his collour fixt, 
 Beautie no penfell, beauties truth to lay ; 
 But beft is beft, if neuer intermixt. 
 Becaufe he needs no praife, wilt thou be dumb } 
 Excufe not filence fo, for't lies in thee, 
 To make him much out-liue a gilded tombe : 
 And to be praifd of ages yet to be. 
 
 Then do thy office Mufe, I teach thee how. 
 
 To make him feeme long hence, as he fhowes now. 
 
M^ 
 
 Shakespeare's sonnets. 511 
 
 102 [122J 
 
 [Y loue is ftrengthned though more weake in fee- 
 ■I loue not leffe, thogh leffe the fliow appeare, (ming 
 
 That loue is marchandiz'd, whofe ritch efteeming, 
 
 The owners tongue doth publiili euery where. 
 
 Our loue was new, and then but in the fpring, 
 
 When I was wont to greet it with my laies, 
 
 As Philomell in fummers front doth finge, 
 
 And ftops his pipe in growth of riper daies : 
 
 Not that the fummer is leffe pleafant now 
 
 Then when her mournefull himns did hufh the night, 
 
 But that wild mufick burthens euery bow. 
 
 And fweets growne common loofe their deare delight. 
 Therefore like her, I fome-time hold my tongue : 
 Becaufe I would not dull you with my fonge. 
 
 103 [123] 
 
 A Lack what pouerty my Mufe brings forth, 
 ■^That hauing fuch a skope to fhow her pride, 
 The argument all bare is of more worth 
 Then when it hath my added praife befide. 
 Oh blame me not if 1 no more can write 1 
 Looke in your glaffe and there appeares a face, 
 That ouer-goes my blunt inuention quite, 
 Dulling my lines, and doing me difgrace. 
 Were it not fmfuU then ftriuing to mend, 
 To marre the fubiedt that before was well, 
 For to no other paffe my verfes tend, 
 Then of your.graces and your gifts to tell. 
 
 And more, much more then in my verfe can fit, 
 Your owne glaffe fhowes you, when you looke in it. 
 
 104 [124J 
 
 TO me faire friend you neuer can be old, 
 For as you were when firft your eye I eyde, 
 Such feemes your beautie ftill : Three Winters colde, 
 Haue from the forrefts fhooke three fummers pride. 
 Three beautious fprings to yellow Autumne turn'd. 
 In proceffe of the feafons haue I feene, 
 Three Aprill perfumes in three hot lunes burn'd. 
 Since firft 1 faw you frefh which yet are greene. 
 Ah yet doth beauty like a Dyall hand, 
 Steale from his figure, and no pace perceiu'd, 
 So your fweete hew, which methinkes ftill doth ftand 
 Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceaued. 
 For feare of which, heare this thou age vnbred. 
 Ere you were borne was beauties fummer dead. 
 
312 shakespbake's sonnets, 
 
 105 [125] 
 
 T Et not my loue be cal'd Idolatrie, 
 
 -'-'Nor my beloued as an Idoll fhow, 
 
 Since all alike my fongs and praifes be 
 
 To one, of one, ftill fuch, and euer fo. 
 
 Kinde is my loue to day, to morrow kinde, 
 
 Still conftant in a wondrous excellence, 
 
 Therefore my verfe to conftancie confin'de. 
 
 One thing expreffmg, leaues out difference. 
 
 Faire, kinde, and true, is all my argument, 
 
 Faire, kinde and true, varrying to other words, 
 
 And in this change is my inuention fpent, 
 
 Three theams in one, which wondrous fcope affords, 
 
 Faire, kinde, and true, haue often liu'd alone. 
 
 Which three till now, neuer kept feate in one. 
 
 106 [126] 
 
 "\^7Hen in the Chronicle of wafted time, 
 ' ' I fee difcriptions of the faireft wights, 
 And beautie making beautifull old rime. 
 In praife of Ladies dead, and louely Knights, 
 Then in the blazon of fweet beauties beft. 
 Of hand, of foote, of lip, of eye, of brow, 
 I fee their antique Pen would haue expreft 
 Euen fuch a beauty as you maifter now. 
 So all their praifes are but prophefies 
 Of this our time, all you prefiguring. 
 And for they look'd but with deuining eyes, 
 They had not ftill enough your worth to fmg : 
 For we which now behold thefe prefent dayes, 
 Haue eyes to wonder, but lack toungs to praife. 
 
 107 [127] 
 
 "^Ot mine owne feares, nor the prophetick foule, 
 ■*-^ Of the wide world, dreaming on things to come. 
 Can yet the leafe of my true loue controule, 
 Suppofde as forfeit to a confin'd doome. 
 The mortall Moone hath her eclipfe indur'de. 
 And the fad Augurs mock their owne prefage, 
 Incertenties now crowne them-felues affur'de. 
 And peace proclaimes Oliues of endleffe age. 
 Now with the drops of this moft balmie time. 
 My loue lookes frefti, and death to me fubfcribes. 
 Since fpight of him He liue in this poore rime. 
 While he infults ore dull and fpeachleife tribes. 
 And thou in this fhalt finde thy monument. 
 When tyrants crefts and tombs of braffe are fpent. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 313 
 
 io8 [128] 
 
 '\7"\7'Hat's in the braine that Inck may charafter, 
 » » Which hath not figur'd to thee my true fpirit, 
 
 What's new to fpeake, what now to regifter, 
 
 That may expreffe my loue, or thy deare merit ? 
 
 Nothing fweet boy, but yet like prayers diuine, 
 
 I muft each day fay ore the very fame, 
 
 Counting no old thing old, thou mine, I thine, 
 
 Euen as when firft I hallowed thy faire name. 
 
 So that eternall loue in loues frefh. cafe, 
 
 Waighes not the duft and iniury of age. 
 
 Nor giues to neceffary wrinckles place. 
 
 But makes antiquitie for aye his page. 
 
 Finding the firft conceit of loue there bred, 
 Where time and outward forme would fhew it dead. 
 
 109 [129] 
 
 /~\ Neuer fay that I was falfe of heart, 
 ^-^Though abfence feem'd my flame to quallifie, 
 As eafie might I from my felfe depart, 
 As from my foule which in thy breft doth lye : 
 That is my home of loue, if I haue rang'd, 
 Like him that trauels I returne againe, 
 luft to the time, not with the time exchang'd, 
 So that my felfe bring water for my ftaine, 
 Neuer beleeue though in my nature raign'd, 
 All frailties that befiege all kindes of blood, 
 That it could fo prepofterouflie be ftain'd, 
 To leaue for nothing all thy fumme of good ; 
 
 For nothing this wide Vniuerfe I call, 
 
 Saue thou my Rofe, in it thou art my all. 
 
 110 [130] 
 
 A Las 'tis true, I haue gone here and there, 
 ■^^And make my felfe a motley to the view, 
 Gor'd mine own thoughts, fold cheap what is moft deare, 
 Made old ofi'ences of aifedlions new. 
 Moft true it is, that I haue lookt on truth 
 Afconce and ftrangely : But by all aboue, 
 Thefe blenches gaue my heart an other youth, 
 And worfe effaies prou'd thee my beft of loue. 
 Now all is done, haue what fhall haue no end, 
 Mine appetite I neuermore will grin'de 
 On newer proofe, to trie an older friend, 
 A God in loue, to whom I am confin'd. 
 
 Then giue me welcome, next my heauen the beft, 
 Euen to thy pure and moft moft louing breft. 
 
314 shakespeaee's sonnets. 
 
 111 [131] 
 
 /~\ For my fake doe you wifh fortune chide, 
 ^'^The guiltie goddeffe of my harmful 1 deeds. 
 That did not better for my life prouide, 
 Then publick meanes which publick manners breeds. 
 Thence comes it that my name receiues a brand, 
 And almoft thence my nature is fubdu'd 
 To what it workes in, like the Dyers hand, 
 Pitty me then, and wilh I were renu'de, 
 Whilft like a willing pacient I will drinke. 
 Potions of Eyfell gainft my ftrong infe6lion. 
 No bitterneffe that I will bitter thinke, 
 Nor double pennance to correal corre&ion. 
 Pittie me then deare friend, and I affure yee, 
 Euen that your pittie is enough to cure mee. 
 
 112 [132J 
 
 "V/'Our loue and pittie doth th' impreffion fill, 
 -*- Which vulgar fcandall ftampt vpon my brow. 
 For what care I who calls me well or ill. 
 So you ore-greene my bad, my good alow ? 
 You are my All the world, and I muft ftriue. 
 To know my fhames and praifes from your tounge, 
 None elfe to me, nor I to none aliue, 
 That my fteel'd fence or changes right or wrong. 
 In fo profound Abifme I throw all care 
 Of others voyces, that my Adders fence. 
 To crytlick and to flatterer flopped are : 
 Marke how with my negled I doe difpence. 
 You are fo ftrongly in my purpofe bred, 
 That all the world befides me thinkes y'are dead. 
 
 "3 [133J 
 CInce I left you, mine eye is in my niinde, 
 
 And that which gouernes me to goe about, 
 Doth part his fundlion, and is partly blind, 
 Seemes feeing, but eifeftually is out : 
 For it no forme deliuers to the heart 
 Of bird, of flowre, or ftiape which it doth lack, 
 Of his quick obiedls hath the minde no part, 
 Nor his owne vifion houlds what it doth catch : 
 For if it fee the rud'ft or gentleft fight, 
 The moft fweet-fauor or deformedft creature. 
 The mountaine, or the fea, the day, or night : 
 The Croe, or Doue, it fhapes them to your feature. 
 Incapable of more repleat, with you. 
 My moft true minde thus maketh mine vntrue- 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 315 
 
 114 [134] 
 /^R whether doth my minde being crown'd with you 
 ^"^Drinke vp the monarks plague this flattery ? 
 Or whether fhall I fay mine eie faith true. 
 And that your loue taught it this Alcumie ? 
 To make of monfters, and things indigeft, 
 Such cherubines as your fweet felfe refemble, 
 Creating euery bad a perfedl beft 
 As faft as obiefts to his beames affemble : 
 Oh tis the firft, tis flatry in my feeing, 
 And my great minde moft kingly drinkes it vp, 
 Mine eie well knowes what with his guft is greeing, 
 And to his pallat doth prepare the cup. 
 If it be poifon'd, tis the leffer fmne, 
 That mine eye loues it and doth firft beginne. 
 
 "5 [135] 
 "T^Hofe lines that I before haue writ doe lie, 
 -*- Euen thofe that faid I could not loue you deerer, 
 Yet then my iudgement knew no reafon why, 
 INIy moft full flame fhould afterwards burne cleerer, 
 But reckening time, whofe milliond accidents 
 Creepe in twixt vowes, and change decrees of Kings, 
 Tan facred beautie, blunt the fharp'ft intents, 
 Diuert ftrong mindes to th' courfe of altring things : 
 Alas why fearing of times tiranie, 
 IMight I not then fay now I loue you beft, 
 When I was certaine ore in-certainty, 
 Crowning the prefent, doubting of the reft: 
 Loue is a Babe, then might I not fay fo 
 To giue full growth to that which ftill doth grow. 
 
 116 [136] 
 
 T Et me not to the marriage of true mindes 
 
 -^ Admit impediments, loue is not loue 
 
 Which alters when it alteration findes. 
 
 Or bends with the remouer to remoue. 
 
 O no, it is an euer fixed marke 
 
 That lookes on tempefts and is neuer fhaken ; 
 
 It is the ftar to euery wandring barke, 
 
 Whofe worths vnknowne, although his higth be taken. 
 
 Lou's not Times foole, though rofie lips and cheeks 
 
 Within his bending fickles compaffe come, 
 
 Loue alters not with his breefe houres and weekes. 
 
 But beares it out euen to the edge of doome : 
 
 If this be error and vpon me proued, 
 
 I neuer writ, nor no man euer loued. 
 
316 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 
 "7 [137] 
 Ccufe me thus, that I haue fcanted all, 
 '■Wherein I ftiould your great deferts repay, 
 Forgot vpon your deareft loue to call, 
 Whereto al bonds do tie me day by day, 
 That I haue frequent binne with vnknown mindes, 
 And giuen to time your owne dear purchaf d right. 
 That I haue hoyfted faile to al the windes 
 Which fliould tranfport me fartheft from your fight. 
 Booke both my wilfulneffe and errors downe, 
 And on iuft proofe furmife, accumilate. 
 Bring me within the leuel of your frowne. 
 But fhoote not at me in your wakened hate : 
 Since my appeale faies I did ftriue to prooue 
 The conftancy and virtue of your loue 
 
 118 [138] 
 
 T Ike as to make our appetites more keene 
 ■*-'With eager compounds we our pallat vrge, 
 As to preuent our malladies vnfeene, 
 We ficken to ftiun fickneffe when we purge. 
 Euen fo being full of your nere cloying fweetneffe, 
 To bitter fawces did I frame my feeding ; 
 And ficke of wel-fare found a kind of meetneffe, 
 To be difeaf d ere that there was true needing. 
 Thus pollicie in loue t'anticipate 
 The ills that were, not grew to faults affured, 
 And brought to medicine a healthfull ftate 
 Which rancke of goodneffe would by ill be cured. 
 But thence I learne and find the leffon true, 
 Drugs poyfon him that fo fell ficke of you. 
 
 "9 [143] 
 
 "VJI^Hat potions haue I drunke of Syren teares 
 * * Diftil'd from Lymbecks foule as hell within. 
 
 Applying feares to hopes, and hopes to feares. 
 
 Still loofing when I faw my felfe to win ? 
 
 What wretched errors hath my heart committed, 
 
 Whilft it hath thought it felfe fo bleffed neuer? 
 
 How haue mine eies out of their Spheares bene fitted 
 
 In the diftradlion of this madding feuer? 
 
 O benefit of ill, now I find true 
 
 That better is, by euil ftill made better. 
 
 And ruin'd loue when it is built anew 
 
 Growes fairer then at firft, more ftrong, far greater. 
 So I returne rebukt to my content. 
 And gaine by ills thrife more then I haue fpent. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 317 
 
 120 [144] 
 
 'T'Hat you were once vnkind be-friends mee now, 
 -*- And for that forrow , which I then didde feele, 
 Needes muft I vnder my tranfgreffion bow, 
 Vnleffe my Nerues were braffe or hammered fteele. 
 For if you were by my vnkindneffe Ihaken 
 As I by yours , y'haue paft a hell of Time, 
 And I a tyrant haue no leafure taken 
 To waigh how once 1 fuffered in your crime. 
 
 that our night of wo might haue remembred 
 My deepeft fence, how hard true forrow hits. 
 And foone to you, as you to me then tendred 
 The humble falue, which wounded bofomes fits ! 
 
 But that your trefpaffe now becomes a fee, 
 
 Mine ranfoms yours, and yours muft ranfome mee. 
 
 121 [33] 
 
 'X'lS better to be vile then vile efteemed, 
 -*- When not to be, receiues reproach of being. 
 And the iuft pleafure loft, which is fo deemed, 
 Not by our feeling, but by others feeing. 
 For why fhould others falfe adulterat eyes 
 Giue falutation to my fportiue blood } 
 Or on my frailties why are frailer fpies ; 
 Which in their wils count bad what I think good } 
 Noe, I am that I am, and they that leuell 
 At my abufes, reckon vp their owne, 
 
 1 may be ftraight though they them-felues be beuel 
 
 By their rancke thoughtes, my deedes muft not be fhown 
 Vnleffe this generall euill they maintaine, 
 All men are bad and in their badneffe raigne. 
 
 122 [145J 
 
 'T'Thy guift,, thy tables, are within my braine 
 -^ Full charafterd with lafting memory, 
 Which fhall aboue that idle rancke remaine 
 Beyond all date euen to eternity. 
 Or at the leaft, fo long as braine and heart 
 Haue facultie by nature to fubfift, 
 Til each to razd obliuion yeeld his part 
 Of thee, thy record neuer can be mift : 
 That poore retention could not fo much hold. 
 Nor need I tallies thy deare loue to skore, 
 Therefore to giue them from me was I bold. 
 To truft thofe tables that receaue thee more. 
 To keepe an adiunckt to remember thee. 
 Were to import forgetfulneffe in mee. 
 
318 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 123 [146] 
 
 "VrO ! Time, thou fbalt not boft that I doe change, 
 -'-^ Thy pyramyds buylt vp with newer might 
 To me are nothing nouell, nothing ftrange, 
 They are but dreffings of a former fight : 
 Our dates are breefe, and therefor we admire, 
 What thou doft foyft vpon vs that is ould, 
 And rather make them borne to our defire, 
 Then thinke that we before haue heard them tould i 
 Thy regifters and thee I both defie, 
 Not wondring at the prefent, nor the paft, 
 For thy records, and what we fee doth lye. 
 Made more or les by thy continuall haft : 
 This I doe vow and this fhall euer be, 
 I will be true difpight thy fyeth and thee< 
 
 124 [147J 
 
 Y] 
 
 'F my deare loue were but the chiide of ftate,- 
 It might for fortunes bafterd be vnfathered. 
 
 As fubisdi to times loue, or to times hate. 
 
 Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gatherd* 
 
 No it was buylded far from accident. 
 
 It fuffers not in fmilinge pomp, nor falls 
 
 Vnder the blow of thralled difcontent. 
 
 Whereto th'inuiting time our fafhion calls: 
 
 It feares not policy that Heriticke, 
 
 Which workes on leafes of fhort numbred howers, 
 
 But all alone ftands hugely pollitick. 
 
 That it nor growes with heat, nor drownes with fliowres. 
 To this I witnes call the foles of time. 
 Which die for goodnes, who haue liu'd for crime. 
 
 125 [148] 
 
 "\ /"A /"Er't ought to me I bore the canopy, 
 ^ ^ With my extern the outward honoring. 
 Or layd great bafes for eternity. 
 Which proues more fhort then waft or ruining ? 
 Haue 1 not feene dwellers on forme and fauor 
 Lofe all, and more by paying too much rent 
 For compound fweet ; Forgoing fimple fauor, 
 Pittifull thriuors in their gazing fpent. 
 Noe, let me be obfequious in thy heart. 
 And take thou my oblacion, poore but free, 
 Which is not mixt with feconds, knows no art, 
 But mutuall render onely me for thee. 
 
 Hence, thou fubbornd Informtr, a trew foule 
 When moft impeacht, ftands leaft in thy controule. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 319 
 
 126 [Appendix A] 
 
 /"\Thou my louely Boy who in thy power, 
 ^^Doeft hould times fickle glaffe, his fickle, hower : 
 Who haft by wayning growne, and therein fhou'ft, 
 Thy louers withering, as thy fweet felfe grow'ft. 
 If Nature (foueraine mifteres ouer wrack) 
 As thou goeft onwards ftill will plucke thee backe, 
 She keepes thee to this purpofe, that her skill. 
 May time difgrace, and wretched mynuit kill. 
 Yet feare her O thou minnion of her pleafure. 
 She may detaine, but not ftill keepe her trefure ! 
 Her Andite (though delayd) anfwer'd muft be, 
 And her Quietus is to render thee. 
 
 ( ) 
 
 ( ) 
 
 127 [40] 
 
 TN the ould age blacke was not counted faire, 
 
 ■^ Or if it weare it bore not beauties name : 
 
 But now is blacke beauties fucceffive heire. 
 
 And Beautie flanderd with a baftard fhame. 
 
 For fmce each hand hath put on Natures power, 
 
 Fairing the foule with Arts faulfe borrow'd face. 
 
 Sweet beauty hath no name no holy boure, 
 
 But is prophan'd, if not Hues in difgrace. 
 
 Therefore my Mifterffe eyes are Rauen blacke, 
 
 Her eyes fo futed, and they mourners feeme, 
 
 At fuch who not borne faire no beauty lack, 
 
 Slandring Creation with a falfe efteeme. 
 Yet fo they mourne becomming of their woe. 
 That euery toung faies beauty fhould looke fo. 
 
 128 [41] 
 
 HOw oft when thou my mufike mufike playft, 
 Vpon that bleffed wood whofe motion founds 
 With thy fweet fingers when thou gently fwayft, 
 The wiry concord that mine eare confounds, 
 Do I enuie thofe lackes that nimble leape, 
 To kiffe the tender inward of thy hand, 
 Whilft my poore lips which fhould that harueft reaps, 
 At the woods bouldnes by thee blufhing ftand. 
 To be fo tikled they would change their ftate, 
 And fiLuation with thofe dancing chips. 
 Ore whome their fingers walke with gentle gate, 
 Making dead wood more bleft then liuing lips. 
 Since faufie lackes fo happy are in this, 
 Giue them their fingers, me thy lips to kiffe. 
 
320 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 129 [Appendix B] 
 
 'T'H' expence of Spirit in a wafte of fhame 
 -*■ Is luft in aftion, and till aftion, luft 
 Is periurd, murdrous, blouddy full of blame, 
 Sauage, extreame, rude, cruell, not to truft, 
 Inioyd no fooner but difpifed ftraight, 
 Paft reafon hunted, and no fooner had 
 Paft reafon hated as a fwoUowed bayt, 
 On purpofe layd to make the taker mad. 
 Made In purfut and in poffeffion fo. 
 Had, hauing, and in queft, to haue extreame, 
 A bliffe in proofe and proud and very wo, 
 Before a ioy propofd behind a dreame. 
 
 All this the world well knowes yet none knowes well,, 
 To fhun the heauen that leads men to this hel!^ 
 
 130 [42] 
 
 "V/TY Miftres eyes are nothing like the Sunne', 
 ■^ -*-Currall is farre more red, then her lips red. 
 If fnow be white, why then her brefts are dun : 
 If haires be wiers, black wiers grow on her head i 
 I haue feene Rofes damaskt, red and white. 
 But no fuch Rofes fee I in her cheekes, 
 And in fome perfumes is there more delight. 
 Then in the breath that from my Miftres reekes. 
 I loue to hear her fpeake, yet well I know. 
 That Muficke hath a farre more pleafing found : 
 I graunt I neuer faw a goddeffe goe. 
 My Miftres when fhee walkes treads on the ground,. 
 
 And )'et by heauen I thinke my loue as rare. 
 
 As any flie beli'd with falfe compare. 
 
 131 [43] 
 'T'Hou art as tiranous, fo as thou art, 
 
 -*- As thofe whofe beauties proudly make them cruell : 
 For well thou know'ft to my deare doting hart 
 Thou art the faireft and moft precious lewell. 
 Yet in good faith fome fay that thee behold, 
 Thy face hath not the power to make loue grone ; 
 To fay they erre, I dare not be fo bold. 
 Although I fweare it to my felfe alone. 
 And to be fure that is not falfe I fweare 
 A thoufand grones but thinking on thy face. 
 One on anothers necke do witneffe beare 
 Thy blacke is faireft in my iudgements place. 
 
 In nothing art thou blacke faue in thy deeds, 
 And thence this fiaunder as I thinke proceeds. 
 
shakespeake's sonnets. 321 
 
 132 [44J 
 
 nPHine eies I loue, and they as pittying me, 
 -*■ Knowing thy heart torment me with difdaine, 
 
 Haue put on black, and louing mourners bee, 
 
 Looking with pretty ruth vpon my paine. 
 
 And truly not the morning Sun of Heauen 
 
 Better becomes the gray cheeks of th' Eaft, 
 
 Nor that full Starre that vfhers in the Eauen 
 
 Doth halfe that glory to the fober Weft 
 
 As thofe two morning eyes become thy face : 
 
 O let it then as well befeeme thy heart 
 
 To mourne for me fmce mourning doth thee grace, 
 
 And fute thy pitty like in euery part. 
 
 Then will I fweare beauty her felfe is blacke, 
 And all they foule that thy complexion lacke. 
 
 133 [61] 
 
 "DEfhrew that heart that makes my heart to groane 
 
 -'-'For that deepe wound it giues my friend and me ; 
 
 I'ft not ynough to torture me alone, 
 
 But flaue to flauery my fweet'ft friend muft be. 
 
 Me from my felfe thy cruell eye hath taken, 
 
 And my next felfe thou harder haft ingroffed, 
 
 Of him, my felfe, and thee I am forfaken, 
 
 A torment thrice three-fold thus to be croffed : 
 
 Prifon my heart in thy fteele bofomes warde, 
 
 But then my friends heart let my poore heart bale. 
 
 Who ere keepes me, let my heart be his garde, 
 
 Thou canft not then vfe rigor in my laile. 
 
 And yet thou wilt, for I being pent in thee, 
 
 Perforce am thine and all that is in me. 
 
 134 [60] 
 
 CO now I haue confeft that he is thine, 
 
 •^And I my felfe am morgag'd to thy will. 
 
 My felfe lie forfeit, fo that other mine. 
 
 Thou wilt reftore to be my comfort ftill : 
 
 But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free, 
 
 For thou art couetous, and he is kinde. 
 
 He learnd but furetie-like to write for me, 
 
 Vnder that bond that him as faft doth binds. 
 
 The ftatute of thy beauty thou wilt take. 
 
 Thou vfurer that put'ft forth all to vfe. 
 
 And fue a friend, came debter for my fake. 
 
 So him I loofe through my vnkinde abufe. 
 Him haue I loft, thou haft both him and me. 
 He paies the whole, and yet am I not free. 
 
322 
 
 135 [53] 
 
 "'T^T'Ho euer hath her wifh, thou haft thy Will, 
 * ' And Will too boote, and Will in ouer-plus. 
 
 More then enough am I that vexe thee ftill, 
 
 To thy fweet will making addition thus. 
 
 Wilt thou whofe will is large and fpatious, 
 
 Not once vouchfafe to hide my will in thine, 
 
 Shall will in others feeme right gracious, 
 
 And in my will no faire acceptance ftiine : 
 
 The fea all water, yet receiues raine ftill. 
 
 And in aboundance addeth to his ftore. 
 
 So thou beeing rich in Wi7I adde to thy Will, 
 
 One will of mine to make thy large Will more. 
 Let no vnkinde, no faire befeechers kill, 
 Thinke all^but one, and me in that one Will. 
 
 136 [54] 
 
 TF thy foule check thee that I come fo neere, 
 -•■Sweare to thy blind foule that I was thy Will, 
 And will thy foule knowes is admitted there, 
 Thus farre for loue, my loue-fute fweet fullfill. 
 Will, will fulfill the treafure of thy loue, 
 I fill it full with wils, and my will one. 
 In things of great receit with eafe we prooue, 
 Among a number one is reckon'd none. 
 Then in the number let me paffe vntold. 
 Though in thy ftores account I one muft be. 
 For nothing hold me fo it pleafe thee hold, 
 That nothing me, a fome-thing fweet to thee. 
 Make but my name thy loue, and loue that ftill. 
 And then thou loueft me for my name is Will. 
 
 137 [45] 
 
 'X'Hou blinde foole loue, what dooft thou to mine eyes, 
 -*- That they behold and fee not what they fee : 
 They know what beautie is, fee where it lyes, 
 Yet what the baft is, take the worft to be : 
 If eyes corrupt by ouer-partiall lookes. 
 Be anchord in the baye where all men ride, 
 Why of eyes falfehood haft thou forged hookes. 
 Whereto the iudgement of my heart is tide ? 
 Why fhould my heart thinke that a feuerall plot. 
 Which my heart knowes the wide worlds common place ? 
 Or mine eyes feeing this, fay this is not 
 To put faire truth vpon fo foule a face, 
 
 In things right true my heart and eyes haue erred, 
 And to this falfe plague are they now tranfferred. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 323 
 
 138 [46] 
 
 TI^Hen my loue fvveares that {he is made of truth, 
 
 I do beleeue her though I know fhe lyes, 
 That fhe might thinke me fome vntuterd youth, 
 Vnlearned in the worlds falfe fubtilties. 
 Thus vainely thinking that fhe thinkes me young. 
 Although fhe knowes my dayes are paft the beft, 
 Simply I credit her falfe fpeaking tongue. 
 On both fides thus is fimple truth fuppreft : 
 But wherefore faves fhe not fhe is vniuft ? 
 And wherefore fay not I that I am old ? 
 O loues beft habit is in feeming truft, 
 And age in loue, loues not t'haue yeares told. 
 
 Therefore I lye with her, and fhe with me, 
 
 And in our faults by lyes we flattered be. 
 
 !39 [47] 
 ^^ Call not me to iuftifie the wrong, 
 ^^That thy vnkindneffe layes vpon my heart, 
 Wound me not with thine eye but with thy toung, 
 Vfe power with power, and flay me not by Art, 
 Tell me thou lou'ft elfe-where ; but in my fight, 
 Deare heart forbeare to glance thine eye afide, 
 What needft thou wound with cunning when thy might 
 Is more then my ore-preft defence can bide ? 
 Let me excufe thee ah my loue well knowes, 
 Her prettie lookes haue beene mine enemies, 
 And therefore from my face fhe turnes my foes. 
 That they elfe-where might dart their iniuries : 
 Yet do not fo, but fince I am neere flaine, 
 Kill me out-right with lookes, and rid my paine. 
 
 140 [48] 
 
 "DE wife as thou art cruell, do not preffe 
 -*-'My toung tide patience with too much difdaine: 
 Leaft forrow lend me words and words expreffe, 
 The manner of my pittie wanting paine. 
 If I might teach thee witte better it weare. 
 Though not to loue, yet loue to tell me fo, 
 As teftie fick-raen when their deaths be neere. 
 No newes but health from their Phifitions know. 
 For if I fhould difpaire I fhould grow madde. 
 And in my madneffe might fpeake ill of thee, 
 Now this ill wrefting world is growne fo bad, 
 Madde flanderers by madde eares beleeued be. 
 
 That I may not be fo, nor thou be lyde, (wide. 
 
 Beare thine eyes ftraight, though thy proud heart goe 
 
324 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 141 [49] 
 
 TN faith I doe not loue thee with mine eyes, 
 -*-For they in thee a thoufand errors note, 
 But 'tis my heart that loues what they difpife. 
 Who in difpight of view is pleafd to dote. 
 Nor are mine eares with thy toungs tune delighted. 
 Nor tender feeling to bafe touches prone. 
 Nor tafte, nor fmell, defire to be inuited 
 To any fenfuall feaft with thee alone : 
 But my fiue wits, nor my fine fences can 
 Difwade one foolifli heart from feruing thee. 
 Who leaues vnfwai'd the likeneffe of a man, 
 Thy proud hearts flaue and vaffall wretch to be : 
 Onely my plague thus farre I count my gaine, 
 That fhe that makes me finne, awards me paine. 
 
 142 [50] 
 
 T Oue is my fmne, and thy deare vertue hate, 
 -*-^Hate of my finne, grounded on fmfull louing, 
 O but with mine, compare thou thine owne ftate, 
 And thou flialt finde it merrits not reproouing, 
 Or if it do, not from thofe lips of thine. 
 That haue prophan'd their fcarlet ornaments. 
 And feald falfe bonds of loue as oft as mine, 
 Robd others beds reuenues of their rents. 
 Be it lawfuU I loue thee as thou lou'ft thofe, 
 Whome thine eyes wooe as mine importune thee, 
 Roote pittie in thy heart that when it growes, 
 Thy pitty may deferue to pittied bee. 
 
 If thou dooft feeke to haue what thou dooft hide. 
 By felfe example mai'ft thou be denide. 
 
 143 [5«] 
 
 T Oe as a carefuU hufwife runnes to catch, 
 -'-'One of her fethered creatures broake away. 
 Sets downe her babe and makes all fwift difpatch 
 In purfuit of the thing fhe would haue ftay : 
 Whilft her neglefted child holds her in chace, 
 Cries to catch her whofe bufie care is bent, 
 To follow that which flies before her face ; 
 Not prizing her poore infants difcontent. 
 So runft thou after that which flies from thee, 
 Whilft I thy babe chace thee a farre behind, 
 But if thou catch thy hope turne back to me : 
 And play the mothers part kiffe me, be kind. 
 So will I pray that thou maift haue thy Will, 
 If thou turne back and my loude crying ftill. 
 
SHAKESPEARE S SONNETS. 
 
 144 [52] 
 
 'T'Wo loues I haue of comfort and difpaire, 
 ■*■ Which like two fpirits do fugieft me ftill, 
 The better angell is a man right faire : 
 The worfer fpirit a woman collour'd il. 
 To win me foone to hell my femall euill, 
 Tempteth my better angel from my fight, 
 And would corrupt my faint to be a diuel : 
 Wooing his purity with her fowle pride. 
 And whether that my angel be turn'd finde, 
 Sufpeft I may yet not direftly tell, 
 But being both from me both to each friend, 
 I geffe one angel in an others hel. 
 
 Yet this fhal I nere know but liue in doubt, 
 Till my bad angel fire my good one out. 
 
 145 [Appendix C] 
 
 'T'Hofe lips that Loues owne hand did make, 
 -*- Breath'd forth the found that faid I hate, 
 To me that languifht for her fake : 
 But when fhe faw my wofuU ftate, 
 Straight in her heart did mercie come, 
 Chiding that tongue that euer fweet, 
 Was vfde in gluing gentle dome ; 
 And tought it thus a new to greete : 
 I hate fhe alterd with an end, 
 That follow'd it as gentle day, 
 Doth follow night who like a fiend 
 From heauen to hell is flowne away. 
 
 I hate, from hate away flie threw. 
 
 And fau'd my life faying not you.' 
 
 146 [Appendix D] 
 
 POore foule the center of my fmfull earth. 
 My fmfull earth thefe rebbell powres that thee array, 
 Why doft thou pine within and fuffer dearth 
 Painting thy outward walls fo coftlie gay } 
 Why fo large coft hauing fo fhort a leafe, 
 Doft thou vpon thy fading manfion fpend ? 
 Shall wormes inheritors of this exceffe 
 Eate vp'thy charge ? is this thy bodies end } 
 Then foule liue thou vpon thy feruants loffe, 
 And let that pine to aggrauat thy ftore ; 
 Buy tearmes diuine in felling houres of droffe : 
 Within be fed, without be rich no more, 
 
 So {halt thou feed on death, that feeds on men. 
 And death once dead, ther's no more dying then. 
 
 325 
 
326 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 147 [139] 
 TV/TY loue is as a feauer longing ftill, 
 ■^'-'-For that which longer nurfeth the difeafe, 
 Feeding on that which doth preferue the ill, 
 Th'vncertaine ficklie appetite to pleafe : 
 
 My reafon the Phifition to my loue, 
 Angry that his prefcriptions are not kept 
 Hath left me, and I defperate now approoue, 
 Defire is death, which Phifick did except. 
 Paft cure I am, now Reafon is paft care, 
 And frantick madde with euer-more vnreft. 
 My thoughts and my difcourfe as mad mens are, 
 At randon from the truth vainely expreft. 
 
 For I haue fworne thee faire, and thought thee bright, 
 Who art as black as hell, as darke as night. 
 
 148 [140] 
 
 /^ Me ! what eyes hath loue put in my head, 
 ^^Which haue no correfpondence with true fight. 
 Or if they haue, where is my ludgment fled. 
 That cenfures falfely what they fee aright .'' 
 If that be faire whereon my falfe eyes dote, 
 What meanes the world to fay it is not fo .'' 
 If it be not, then loue doth well denote, 
 Loues eye is not fo true as all mens : no, 
 How can it .'' O how can loues eye be true. 
 That is fo vext with watching and with teares ? 
 No maruaile then though I miftake my view. 
 The funne it felfe fees not, till heauen cleeres. 
 
 O cunning loue, with teares thou keepft me blinde, 
 Leaft eyes well feeing thy foule faults fhould finde. 
 
 149 [141] 
 
 /^Anft thou O cruell, fay I loue thee not, 
 ^^When I againft my felfe with thee pertake : 
 Doe I not thinke on thee when I forgot 
 Am of my felfe, all tirant for thy fake ? 
 Who hateth thee that I doe call my friend. 
 On whom froun'ft thou that I doe faune vpon. 
 Nay if thou lowrft on me doe I not fpend 
 Reuenge vpon my felfe with prefent mone ? 
 What merrit do I in my felfe refpedt, 
 That is fo proude thy feruice to difpife, 
 When all my beft doth worfhip thy defeft. 
 Commanded by the motion of thine eyes. 
 But loue hate on for now I know thy minde, 
 Thofe that can fee thou lou'ft, and I am blind. 
 
Shakespeare's sonnets. 327 
 
 150 [142] 
 
 /^H from what powre haft thou this powrefull might, 
 
 ^^VVith infufficiency my heart to fway, 
 
 To make me giue the lie to my true fight, 
 
 And fwere that brightneffe doth not grace the day ? 
 
 Whence haft thou this becomming of things il. 
 
 That in the very refufe of thy deeds, 
 
 There is fuch ftrength and warrantife of skill, 
 
 That in my minde thy worft all beft exceeds ? 
 
 Who taught thee how to make me loue thee more. 
 
 The more I hears and fee iuft caufe of hate. 
 
 Oh though I loue what others doe abhor, 
 
 With others thou fhouldft not abhor my ftate. 
 
 If thy vnworthineffe raifd loue in me, 
 
 More worthy I to be belou'd of thee. 
 
 151 [55] 
 
 T Oue is too young to know what confcience is, 
 
 -*-'Yet who knowes not confcience is borne of loue. 
 
 Then gentle cheater vrge not my amiffe, 
 
 Leaft guilty of my faults thy fweet felfe proue. 
 
 For thou betraying me, I doe betray 
 
 My nobler part to my grofe bodies treafon, 
 
 My foule doth tell my body that he may. 
 
 Triumph in loue, fiefh ftaies no farther reafon. 
 
 But ryfmg at thy name doth point out thee, 
 
 As his triumphant prize, proud of this pride. 
 
 He is contented thy poore drudge to be 
 
 To ftand in thy affaires, fall by thy fide. 
 No want of confcience hold it that I call. 
 Her loue, for whofe deare loue I rife and fall. 
 
 152 [62J 
 
 TN louing thee thou know' ft I am forfworne, 
 
 ■^But thou art twice forfworne to me loue fwearing. 
 
 In ad; thy bed-vow broake and new faith torne, 
 
 In vowing new hate after new loue bearing: 
 
 But why of two othes breach doe I accufe thee, 
 
 When I breake twenty : I am periur'd moft, 
 
 For all my vowes are othes but to mifufe thee : 
 
 And all my honeft faith in thee is loft. 
 
 For I haue fworne deepe othes of thy deepe kindneffe : 
 
 Othes of thy loue, thy truth, thy conftancie, 
 
 And to inlighten thee gaue eyes to blindneffe. 
 
 Or made them fwere againft the thing they fee. 
 
 For I haue fworne thee faire : more periurde eye. 
 
 To fwere againft the truth fo foule a lie. 
 
328 Shakespeare's sonnets. 
 
 153 [Appendix E] 
 
 r^ Vpid laid by his brand and fell a fleepe, 
 ^^A maide of Dyans this aduantage found, 
 And his loue-kindling fire did quickly fteepe 
 In a could vallie-fountaine of that ground : 
 Which borrowd from this holie fire of loue, 
 A dateleffe liuely heat ftill to indure, 
 And grew a feething bath which yet men proue, 
 Againft ftrang malladies a foueraigne cure : 
 But at my miftres eie loues brand new fired, 
 The boy for triall needes would touch my breft, 
 I fick withall the helpe of bath defired. 
 And thether hied a fad diftemperd gueft. 
 
 But found no cure, the bath for my helpe lies, 
 Where Cupid got new fire ; my miftres eye. 
 
 154 [Appendix F] 
 
 TTHe little Loue-God lying once a fleepe, 
 ■*■ Laid by his fide his heart inflaming brand, 
 Whilft many Nymphes that vou'd chaft life to keep, 
 Came tripping by, but in her maiden hand, 
 The fayreft votary tooke vp that fire, 
 Which many Legions of true hearts had warm'd. 
 And fo the Generall of hot defire. 
 Was fleeping by a Virgin hand difarm'd. 
 This brand fhe quenched in a coole Well by, 
 Which from loues fire tooke heat perpetuall. 
 Growing a bath and healthfull remedy, 
 For men difeafd, but I my Miftriffe thrall. 
 Came there for cure and this by that I proue, 
 Loues fire heates water, water cooles not loue. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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