Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine,
That have profan'd their scarlet ornaments",
And seal'd false bonds of love as oft as mine*;
Robb'd others' beds revenues of their rents 5.
Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lov'st those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee:
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 hide,
By self-example may'st thou be deny'd!

CXLIII.

Lo, as a careful house-wife runs 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 chace,
Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent

3 That have profan'd THEIR SCARLET ORNAMENTS,] The same expression is found in King Edward III. a tragedy, 1596: when she grew pale,

66

"His cheeks put on their scarlet ornaments."

MALONE.

4 And SEAL'D false BONDS OF LOVE as oft as mine;] So, in our author's Venus and Adonis:

"Pure lips, sweet seals in my soft lips imprinted,
"What bargains may I make, still to be sealing."

Again, in Measure for Measure :

"Take, O take those lips away,

"That so sweetly were forsworn,—

"But my kisses bring again,

"Seals of love, but seal'd in vain."

Again, more appositely, in The Merchant of Venice:

"O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly,

"To seal love's bonds new made, than they are wont
"To keep obliged faith unforfeited."

In Hamlet we again meet with the bonds of love:
"Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,
"The better to beguile." MALONE.

5 Robb'd others' beds REVENUES of their rents.] So, in Othello :

"And pour our treasures into foreign laps." STEEVENS.

To follow that which flies before her face,
Not prizing her poor infant's discontent;
So run'st thou after that which flies from thee,
Whilst I thy babe chace thee afar behind;
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 may'st have thy Will,
If thou turn back, and my loud crying still ".

8

CXLIV.

Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still";
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman, colour'd ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side 1,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride 2.
And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;

But being both from me3, both to each friend,
guess one angel in another's hell:

I

6 Not PRIZING her poor infant's discontent ;] Not regarding, nor making any account of, her child's uneasiness. MALONE.

7

- that thou may'st have thy WILL,

If thou turn back, and MY LOUD CRYING STILL.] The mage with which this Sonnet begins, is at once pleasing and natural; but the conclusion of it is lame and impotent indeed. We attend to the cries of the infant, but laugh at the loud blubberings of the great boy Will. STEEVENS.

8 Two loves I have, &c.] This Sonnet was printed in The Passionate Pilgrim, 1599, with some slight variations. MALONE. -do SUGGEST me still;] i. e. do tempt me still. See p. 103, n. 2. MALONE.

9

I Tempteth my better angel from my SIDE,] So, in Othello: "Yea, curse his better angel from his side." STEEVEns. The quarto has-from my sight. The true reading is found in The Passionate Pilgrim. MALONE.

2

with her FOUL pride.] The copy in The Passionate Pilgrim has with her fair pride. MALONE.

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

CXLV.

Those lips that Love's own hand did make o,
Breath'd forth the sound that said, I hate,
To me that languish'd for her sake:
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue, that ever sweet
Was us'd in giving gentle doom;
And taught it thus a-new to greet;
I hate she alter'd with an end,
That follow'd it as gentle day
Doth follow night', who, like a fiend,
From heaven to hell is flown away;
I hate from hate away she threw,
And sav'd my life, saying-not you 9.

3 But being both FROM me,] The Passionate Pilgrim reads― MALONE.

to me.

4 YET THIS SHALL I NE'ER know,] The Passionate Pilgrim reads

"The truth I shall not know." MALONE.

5 Till my bad angel FIRE my good one out.] So, in King Lear:

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- and fire us hence, like foxes." STEEVENS.

6 Those lips that Love's own hand did make,]

oscula, quæ Venus

Quinta parte sui nectaris imbuit. Hor. MALONE.

7 That follow'd it as gentle day

Doth follow night,] So, in Hamlet:

"And it must follow as the night the day,

"Thou canst not then be false to any man." MALONE. 8-night, who, like a fiend,] So, in King Henry V.:

night,

"Who like a foul and ugly witch," &c. STEEVens.

9 I HATE from HATE away she THREW,

And sav'd my life, saying-NOT YOU.] Such sense as these Sonnets abound with, may perhaps be discovered as the words at present stand; but I had rather read:

"I hate-away from hate she flew," &c.

CXLVI.

Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth',
Fool'd by those rebel powers that thee array 2,

Having pronounced the words I hate, she left me with a declaration in my favour. STEEVENS.

The meaning is-she removed the words I hate to a distance from hatred; she changed their natural import, and rendered them inefficacious, and undescriptive of dislike, by subjoining not you. The old copy is certainly right. The poet relates what the lady said; she is not herself the speaker. We have the same kind of expression in The Rape of Lucrece :

"It cannot be, quoth she, that so much guile

(She would have said) can lurk in such a look; "But Tarquin's shape came in her mind the while, "And from her tongue can lurk from cannot took." MALONE. I Poor soul, the center of my sinful EARTH,] So, in Love's Labour's Lost:

"Than thou, fair sun, which on my earth doth shine." Again, in Romeo and Juliet :

"Can I

go forward, while my heart is here? "Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out." Again, in Hamlet:

"O, that the earth which kept the world in awe,

"Should patch a wall, to expell the winter's flaw."

We meet with a similar allusion in The Merchant of Venice: Such harmony is in immortal souls;

"But while this muddy vesture of decay

"Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." MALONE. 2 FOOL'D BY those rebel powers that thee array,] The old copy reads:

"Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth,

66

My sinful earth these rebel pow'rs that thee array." It is manifest that the compositor inadvertently repeated the last three words of the first verse in the beginning of the second, omitting two syllables, which are sufficient to complete the metre. What the omitted word or words were, it is impossible now to determine. Rather than leave an hiatus, I have hazarded a conjecture, and filled up the line.

The same error is found in The Tragedy of Nero, by Nat. Lee, 1675:

"Thou savage mother, seed of rock more wild,

"More wild than the fierce tygress of her young beguil❜d."

MALONE.

Why dost thou pine within, and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend ?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end?
Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross
Within be fed, without be rich no more:
So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on men,
And, death once dead, there's no more dying
then.

CXLVII.

My love is as a fever, longing still

3

;

For that which longer nurseth the disease;
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
The uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love*,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve,
Desire is death, which physick did except.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care3,
And frantick-mad with ever-more unrest;

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I would read: Staro'd by the rebel powers," &c. The dearth complained of in the succeeding line appears to authorise the conjecture. The poet seems to allude to the short commons and gaudy habit of soldiers. STEEVens.

3 -to aggravate THY store ;] The error that has been so often already noticed, has happened here; the original copy, and all the subsequent impressions, reading my instead of thy.

MALONE.

4 My reason, the physician to my love,] So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "Ask me no reason why I love you; for though love use reason for his precisian, he admits him not for his counsellor." Dr. Farmer, with some probability, would here read-for his physician. MALONE.

S PAST CURE I am, now reason is PAST CARE,] So, in Love's Labour's Lost: