From you have I been absent in the spring, 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 seem'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 check for complexion dwells, In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dyed. And buds of marjoram had stolen thy hair: 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 ." The chief characteristic accomplishment."* 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 numbered from 109 to 125, with the exception of 118, 119, 120, 121, three of which we have 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, --111. Your love and pity doth the impression fill None else to me, nor I to none alive, wrong. 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, As fast as objects to his beams assemble? And to his palate doth prepare the cup: That mine eye loves it, and doth first begin.-114. 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; If this be error, and upon me proved, Accuse me thus; that I have scanted all Wherein I should your great deserts repay; Forget upon your dearest love to call, Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day; That I have frequent been with unknown minds, And given to time your own dear-purchased 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, Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain 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; 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 't aught to me I bore the canopy, With my extern the outward honouring. as 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, 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; So I, for fear of trust, forget to say O'ercharged with burthen of mine own love's might. O let my books be then the eloquence And dumb presagers of my speaking breast; Who plead for love, and look for recompence, More than that tongue that more hath more express'd. O learn to read what silent love hath writ : To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.-23. Between the 23rd and 25th Sonnets, which we have just given-remarkable as they are for the most exquisite simplicity of thought and diction-occurs the following conceit : Mine eye hath play'd the painter, and hath stell'd Thy beauty's form in table of my heart; To find where your true image pictured lies, Now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done; Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me Are windows to my breast, where-through the sun Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee; Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art, They draw but what they see, know not the heart.-24. But, separated by a long interval, we find two variations of the air, entirely out of place where they occur. Can we doubt that these three form one little poem of themselves?— Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war, My heart mine eye the freedom of that right. My heart doth plead, that thou in him dost lie, (A closet never pierced with crystal eyes,) A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart; The clear eye's moiety, and the dear heart's part: As thus: mine eye's due is thine outward part, And my heart's right thine inward love of heart.-46. 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, And to the painted banquet bids my heart: So, either by thy picture or my love, 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.-47. The 77th Sonnet interrupts the continuity of a poem which we shall presently give, in which the writer refers, with some appearance of jealousy, to an "alien pen." There can be no doubt that this Sonnet is completely isolated. It is clearly intended to accompany the present of a note-book :— Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear, Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste; The 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, Of mouthed graves will give thee memory; |