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.-89. Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now; Now, while the world is bent 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 scaped this sorrow, Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe; Compared with loss of thee will not seem so.-90. Some glory in their birth, some in their skill, Some in their wealth, some in their body's force; Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill; Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse; And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure, Of more delight than hawks or horses be; All this away, and me most wretched make.-91. But do thy worst to steal thyself away, Than that which on thy humour doth depend. Thou canst not vex me with inconstant mind, O what a happy title do I find, But what's so blessed-fair that fears no blot? Thou mayst be false, and yet I know it not:-92. So shall I live, supposing thou art true, But Heaven in thy creation did decree What old December's bareness everywhere! And yet this time removed was summer's time; The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me Or, if they sing, 't is with so dull a cheer, That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.-97, From you have I been absent in the spring, When proud-pied April, dress'd in all his trim, Hath put a spirit of youth in everything, That heavy Saturn laugh'd and leap'd with him. Yet not the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell Of different flowers in odour and in hue, Could make me any summer's story tell, held all to refer, except when they specially address a dark-haired lady of questionable character, would not have been greatly pleased to have been complimented on the sweetness of his breath, or the whiteness of his hand. The Sonnets which are unquestionably addressed to a male, although Or from their proud lap pluck them where they employ the term "beauty" in a way they grew: Nor did I wonder at the lilies white, Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose; They were but sweet, but figures of delight, Drawn after you, you pattern of all those. Yet scem'd it winter still, and, you away, As with your shadow I with these did play.-98. The forward violet thus did I chide : Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells, which we cannot easily comprehend in our own days, have always reference to manly beauty. The comparisons in the above Sonnets as clearly relate to female beauty. They are precisely the same as Spenser uses in one of his Amoretti,—the 64th; which thus concludes: "Such fragrant flowers do give most odorous smell, But her sweet odour did them all excel." It appears to us that in both the poems on If not from my love's breath? The purple Absence, in the stanzas which anticipate pride Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells, In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dyed. More flowers I noted, yet I none could see, But this poem is quite unconnected with what precedes it. It is placed where it is, upon no principle of continuity. Are we, then, to infer that the friend whose "shame" is "like a canker in the budding rose" is the person who is immediately afterwards addressed as one from whom every flower hath stolen "sweet or colour?" If we read these three stanzas without any impression of their connexion with something that has gone before, we shall irresistibly feel that they are addressed to a female. They point at repeated absences; and why may they not then be addressed to the poet's first love? The Earl of Southampton, or the Earl of Pembroke, to whom the series of Sonnets are neglect and coldness, and in others which we have given and are about to give, we must not be too ready to connect their images with the person who is addressed in the first seventeen Sonnets; or be always prepared to "seize a clue which innumerable passages give us," according to Mr. Hallam, "and suppose that they allude to a youth of high rank as well as personal beauty and accomplishment."* The chief characteristic of those passages which clearly apply to that "unknown youth" is, as it appears to us, extravagance of admiration conveyed in very hyperbolical language. Much that we have quoted offers no example of the justness of ductions:-"There is a weakness and folly Mr. Hallam's complaint against these proin all excessive and misplaced affection, which is not redeemed by the touches of nobler sentiments that abound in this long series of Sonnets." It would be difficult, we think, to find more forcible thoughts expressed in more simple, and therefore touching language, than in the following continuous verses. They comprise all the Sonnets of 118, 119, 120, 121, three of which we have numbered from 109 to 125, with the exception already printed as belonging to another subject than the poet's constancy of affection ; *Literature of Europe,' vol. iii. p. 503. and one of which we shall give as an isolated fragment: O, never say that I was false of heart, As from my soul which in thy breast doth lie: So that myself bring water for my stain. Alas, 't is true, I have gone here and there, Made old offences of affections new. Even to thy pure and most most loving breast.-110. O, for my sake do you with fortune chide, Thence comes it that my name receives a brand, And almost thence my nature is subdued Pity me then, dear friend, and I assure ye, Even that your pity is enough to cure me. -111. Your love and pity doth the impression fill None else to me, nor I to none alive, In so profound abysm I throw all care Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind; Of bird, of flower, or shape, which it doth latch; Of his quick objects hath the mind no part, 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, My most true mind thus maketh mine untrue.-113. Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you, Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery, And to his palate doth prepare the cup: That mine eye loves it, and doth first begin.-114. TY Those lines that I before have writ, do lie, Even those that said I could not love you dearer; Yet then my judgment knew no reason why My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer. But reckoning time, whose million'd accidents 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, Love is a babe; then might I not say so, To give full growth to that which still doth grow?-115. Let me not to the marriage of true minds That looks on tempests, and is never shaken; Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain Or at the least so long as brain and heart No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change: Thy pyramids built up with newer might told. Thy registers and thee I both defy, Not wondering at the present nor the past; For thy records and what we see do 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:-123. If my dear love were but the child of state, No, it was builded far from accident; Which works on leases of short-number'd hours, But all alone stands hugely politic, That it nor grows with heat, nor drowns with showers. To this I witness call the fools of time, Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.-124. Were 'taught to me I bore the canopy, With my extern the outward honouring. Or laid great bases for eternity, But mutual render, only me for thee. Hence, thou suborn'd informer ! a true soul, When most impeach'd, stands least in thy control.-125. Dr. Drake, in maintaining that the Sonnets, from the 1st to the 126th, were addressed to Lord Southampton, has alleged, as "one of the most striking proofs of this position," the fact "that the language of the Dedication to the Rape of Lucrece,' and that of the 26th Sonnet, are almost precisely the same." If the reader will turn to this Dedication, he will at once see the resemblance. "The love I dedicate to your lordship is without end," shows that, in the Sonnets as in the works of contemporary writers, the perpetually recurring terms of love and lover were meant to convey the most profound respect as well as the strongest affection. In that age friendship was not considered as a mere conventional intercourse for social gratification. There was depth and strength in it. It partook of the spiritual energy which belonged to a higher philosophy of the affections than now presides over clubs and dinner-parties. "My friend," or "my lover," meant something more than one who is ordinarily civil, returns our calls, and shakes hands upon great occasions. Lord Southampton, in a letter of introduction to a grave Lord Chancellor, calls Shakspere "my especial friend." To Lord Southampton Shakspere dedicates "love without end." This 26th Sonnet, we have little doubt, is also a dedication, accompanying some new production of the mighty dramatist, in accordance with his declaration, "What I have done is yours, what I have to do is yours, being part in all I have devoted yours:" Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage But that I hope some good conceit of thine Till whatsoever star that guides by moving, Till then, not show my head where thou mayst prove me.-26. The Sonnet which precedes this has also the marked character of the same respectful affection; and, like the 26th, in all probability accompanied some offering of friendship: Let those who are in favour with their stars But as the marigold at the sun's eye; -25. Again, the 23rd Sonnet is precisely of the same character. All these appear to us wholly unconnected with the poems which surround them-little gems, perfect in themselves, and wanting no setting to add to their beauty: As an unperfect actor on the stage, Who with his fear is put besides his part, Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage, Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart; |