Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee9 IV. Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend 3 9 Thou art thy mother's GLASS, &c.] So, in The Rape of Lucrece: "Poor broken glass, I often did behold "In thy sweet semblance my old age new-born." MALONE. 1 Calls back the lovely APRIL of her prime:] So, in Timon of Athens: "She whom the spital house and ulcerous sores 2 So thou through WINDOWS of thine AGE shalt see, Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.] Thus, in our author's Lover's Complaint: "Time had not scythed all that youth begun, "Nor youth all quit; but, spite of heaven's fell rage, MALONE. 3 NATURE'S bequest gives nothing, but doth lend; And being frank, she lends to those are free, &c.] So, Milton, in his Masque at Ludlow Castle : 66 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 receiv'd on other terms." STEEVENS. Profitless usurer, why dost thou use So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live? Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive. Thy unus'd beauty must be tomb'd with thee, V. Those hours, that with gentle work did frame 4 What acceptable AUDIT canst thou leave ?] So, in Macbeth : "To make their audit at your highness' pleasure." STEEVENS. 5 Those HOURS, &c.] Hours is almost always used by Shakspeare as a dissyllable. MALONE. 6 And that UNFAIR, which fairly doth excell;] And render that which was once beautiful, no longer fair. To unfair, is, I believe, a verb of our author's coinage. MALOne. 7 For never-resting TIME LEADS SUMMER ON-] So, in All's Well That Ends Well: "For, with a word, the time will bring on summer." STEEVENS. 8 Beauty o'er-snow'd, and BARENESS every where :] Thus the quarto, 1609. The modern editions have 66 barrenness every where." In the 97th Sonnet we meet again with the same image: "What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! "What old December's bareness every where! " MALONE. But flowers distill'd, though they with winter meet, Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweets. VI. Then let not winter's ragged hand9 deface Which happies those that pay the willing loan; Then what could death do, if thou should'st depart, Be not self-will'd, for thou art much too fair heir. VII. Lo, in the orient when the gracious light 8 But flowers distill'd, though they with winter meet, Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet.] This is a thought with which Shakspeare seems to have been much pleased. We find it again in the 54th Sonnet, and in a Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I. Sc. I. MALONE. 9-let not winter's RAGGED hand-] Ragged was often used as an opprobrious term in the time of our author. See p. 156, n. 8. MALOne. I That USE-] Use here signifies usance. See vol. vii. p. 47, n. 4. MALOne. Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still, But when from high-most pitch, with weary car, VIII. Musick to hear*, why hear'st thou musick sadly? Perhaps our "in them 2 And having climb'd the steep-up heavenly hill, Resembling strong youth in his middle age,] author had the sacred writings in his thoughts: hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his course. It goeth forth from the uttermost part of the heaven, and runneth about unto the end of it again: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." MALONE. 3 Yet mortal looks ADORE his beauty still, Attending on his GOLDEN pilgrimage ;] So, in Romeo and Juliet: 66 66 Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun MALONE. + Musick to hear, &c.] O Thou, whom to hear, is musick, why, &c. I have sometimes thought Shakspeare might have writtenMusick to ear, &c. i. e. thou, whose every accent is musick to the So, in the Comedy of Errors: ear. "That never words were musick to thine ear." Hear has been printed instead of ear in the Taming of the Shrew; or at least the modern editors have supposed so. See vol. v. p. 407, n. 1. MAEONE. 5 If the true concord of well-tuned sounds, By unions MARRIED,] So, in Romeo and Juliet, quarto, 1599: They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds one, Sings this to thee, "thou single wilt prove none." IX. Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye, That thou consum'st thyself in single life? The world will wail thee, like a makeless wife; "Examine ev'ry married lineament, "And see how one another lends content." Again, in Troilus and Cressida : "The unity and married calm of states-." Milton had perhaps these lines in his thoughts when he wrote: 6 "And ever against eating cares Lap me in soft Lydian airs, "Married to immortal verse, "Such as the meeting soul may pierce, MALONE. like a MAKELESS wife ;] As a widow bewails her lost husband. Make and mate were formerly synonymous. So, in Kyng Appolyn of Thyre, 1510: "Certes, madam, I sholde have great joy yfe ye had such a prynce to your make." Again, in The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562: "Betwixt the armes of me, thy perfect-loving make." MALONE. |