Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe 4, That every tongue says, beauty should look so.

CXXVIII.

How oft, when thou, my musick3, musick 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
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest
At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand!

reap,

4 becoming of their woe,] So, in Antony and Cleopatra: - Fye, wrangling queen!

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"Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
"To weep." MALONE.

when thou, MY MUSICK,] So, in Pericles :

"You are a viol, and your sense the strings,

"Which, finger'd to make man his lawful musick," &c.

STEEVENS.

6 The WIRY CONCORD that mine ear confounds,] We had the same expression before in the eighth Sonnet :

"If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,

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By unions married, do offend thine ear." MALONE. 7 Do I ENVY' those jacks,] This word is accented by other ancient writers in the same manner. So, in Marlowe's Edward II. 1598:

"If for these dignities thou be envy'd."

Again, in Sir John Davies's Epigrams, printed at Middlebourg,

no date:

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Why doth not Ponticus their fame envý?" MALONE. 8 - those jacks, that nimble leap

To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,] So, in Chrononhotonthologus:

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the tea-cups skip

"With eager haste to kiss your royal lip." STEEVENS. There is scarcely a writer of love-verses, among our elder poets, who has not introduced hyperboles as extravagant as that in the text, which the foregoing quotation was produced to ridicule. Thus Waller, in his Address to a Lady Playing on a Lute : "The trembling strings about her fingers crowd,

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And tell their joy for ev'ry kiss aloud." MALOne.

To be so tickled, they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips,
O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more bless'd than living lips.
Since saucy jacks so happy are in this1,
Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.

CXXIX.

The expence of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjur'd, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoy'd no sooner, but despised straight;
Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad:
Mad in pursuit 2, and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof,-and prov'd, a very woe3;
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.

9 O'er whom THY fingers walk with gentle gait,] Here again their is printed in the old copy instead of thy. line of this Sonnet. MALONE.

Since saucy JACKS So happy are in this,]

So also in the last

He is here speak

ing of a small kind of spinnet, anciently called a virginal. So, in Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611:

"Where be these rascals that skip up and down,
"Like virginal jacks?"
STEEVENS.

A virginal was shaped like a piano forte. See vol. xiv.

n. 6.

MALOne.

p. 248,

2 MAD in pursuit,] The old copy corruptly reads-Made in pursuit. MALONE.

3

and prov'd, a very woe ;] The quarto is here evidently corrupt. It reads:

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and prov'd and very woe." MAlone.

CXXX.

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,
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 musick hath a far more pleasing sound;
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, bely'd with false compare.

CXXXI.

Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou 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,
Thy face hath not the power to make love groan :
To say they err, I dare not be so bold,
Although I swear it to myself alone.

And, to be sure that is not false I swear,
A thousand groans, but thinking on thy face,
One on another's neck, do witness bear,
Thy black is fairest in my judgment's place.

In nothing art thou black, save in thy deeds,
And thence this slander, as I think, proceeds.

4 A thousand GROANS, but thinking on thy face, ONE ON ANOTHER'S NECK,] So, in Hamlet : "One woe doth tread upon another's heels, "So fast they follow." MALONE.

CXXXII.

Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,
Knowing thy heart, torment 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
Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east",
Nor that full star that ushers in the even
Doth half that glory to the sober west,
As those two mourning eyes become thy face":
O, let it then as well beseem thy heart

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.
CXXXIII.

Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
For that deep wound it gives my friend and me!

5 And truly not the morning sUN of heaven

Better becomes the GREY cheeks of the east,] So, in King Henry IV. Part II. :

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it struck upon him as the sun

"In the grey vault of heaven." MALONE.

6 Nor that full star that ushers in the EVEN

Doth half that glory to the SOBER west,] Milton had perhaps these lines in his thoughts, when he wrote the description of the evening in his fourth book of Paradise Lost:

"Now came still evening on, and twilight grey

"Had in her sober livery all things clad-." Malone. 7 As those two MOURNING eyes become thy face:] The old copy has-morning. The context, I think, clearly shows, that the poet wrote-mourning. So before:

"Thine eyes

"Have put on black, and living mourners be.”

The two words were, I imagine, in his time pronounced alike. In a Sonnet of our author's, printed by W. Jaggard, 1599, we find:

"In black morne I—.”

The same Sonnet is printed in England's Helicon, 1600, and there the line stands ;

"In black mourn I." MALdne.

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,
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;
Who e'er keeps me, let my heart be his guard;
Thou canst not then use rigour in my gaol:

And
yet thou wilt; for I, being pent in thee,
Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.

CXXXIV.

So now I have confess'd that he is thine,
And I myself am mortgag'd to thy will;
Myself I'll forfeit, so that other mine
Thou wilt restore, to be my comfort still:
But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free,
For thou art covetous, and he is kind;
He learn❜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,
And sue a friend, came debtor for my sake;
So him I lose through my unkind abuse.

8

Him have I lost; thou hast both him and me; He pays the whole, and yet am I not free.

- for I, being pent in thee,

Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.] So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"You take from me a great part of myself :

"Use me well in't."

Again, in Troilus and Cressida :

"I have a kind of self resides with you." MALOne. 9 The STATUTE of thy beauty-] Statute has here its legal signification, that of a security or obligation for money. MALONE.