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144 To set a form, &c.: by defining the change you desire. time removed: time when I was absent.

152

153 heavy Saturn: the gloomy side of Nature; or, the saturnine spirit in life.

162

154 The lily, &c. I charged it with stealing the whiteness of thy hand. This Sonnet contains fifteen lines; a variation which suggests how the sonnet form might be judiciously expanded. a confined doom: a defined doom. And Peace proclaims, &c. The peace completed early in 1609, which ended the war between Spain and the United Provinces, might answer to the tone of this Sonnet. Mr. Massey dates it at the accession of James I and argues that the eclipse of the mortal moon refers to the death of Elizabeth. Subscribes: submits.

165 a motley: a fool. Blenches: deviations.

166 eisel: vinegar.

167 charges has been here conjectured for changes. 168 latch: catch. Favour : face.

171 It is the star, &c.: apparently, whose stellar influence is unknown, although his angular altitude has been determined.

173 eager: sour.

174 limbecks: alembics used in distillation. Applying fears, &c. : setting fears against hopes.

176 bevel: aslant; biassed like a bowl.

177 retention: the album, meant to retain memoranda.

179 state: seems to mean, circumstance. The fools of time, &c.: apparently, the plotters and political martyrs of the age.

180 mutual render: give-and-take. This sonnet appears directed against some one who had charged him with superficial love.

181 quietus: acquittance.

182 false esteem: false pretensions.

183 jacks: keys.

185 compare : comparison.

189 statute: security. A friend came, &c.: who became.

190 Let no unkind, &c. : let no unkindness, no fairspoken rivals destroy me.

192

a several plot: a plot severed for a time from a common. 193 This sonnet was published in the Passionate Pilgrim of 1599. Shakespeare was then in his thirty-fifth year.

201

202

203

[Foild by] another conjecture is Fool'd by. The original
text carelessly repeats My sinful earth from the line above.
I desperate now approve, &c.: I now discover that desire
which reason rejected, is death.

censures: judges.

208 None fairer, &c.: She is surpassed by no woman in fairness and in falseness.

214 shrieking harbinger: possibly, the screech-owl.

215 defunctive music: funeral music. That thy sable, &c.: appears an allusion to some legendary fancy.

216 But in them: except in them. Property was, &c.: natural law was astonished to see a thing not identical with itself :

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227

one of the many ingenious plays of fancy,-a fancy almost arithmetical at times, in which Shakespeare's subtlety of mind has indulged itself in this poem. Property seems here used in the logical sense.

Threnos: dirge.

A LOVER'S COMPLAINT

The form of this poem has some resemblance to the shorter pieces by or ascribed to Chaucer, such as the Complaint of the Black Knight: but in its power and concentration it is probably alone in our language as a Lyrical Elegy. Under those limitations in regard to style which have been already noticed, it is such a song as might have come from the old Aeolian or Ionic poets, Simonides, or Sappho, or Erinna. Passion as a law to itself, all for love, and this world well lost, if not the next also, were never painted with a more sad and musical intensity.

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220 Storming her world: filling herself and what was around her with storm. Napkin: handkerchief. Conceited characters: fanciful embroideries. Pelleted: formed into drops.

222

their carriage ride: move themselves. A careless hand, &c.: a hand careless of appearance. Maund: market-basket with two lids.

schedules: billets-doux. Posied: bearing mottoes. With sleided silk feat enswathed: neatly tied round with floss silk. Fancy: lady-love. Fastly: near.

223 grained bat: rough (?) stick. Let it not tell, &c.: observe this touch of nature!

224 Sawn: doubtful whether sown or seen. seems to mean either immortally young, or tiful. Bare: bareness.

225 became: graced. Manage: skill in riding. artificial accomplishments added

trim, &c.

grace.

Phoenix down: celestially beau

Their purposed nothing to his

229 teen: sorrowful longing; desiderium; sehnsucht. Talents: precious gifts. Impleach'd: intertwisted.

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230 invised: a word said to occur only here; either visible in it. or invisible. Phraseless: indescribable. What me, &c.: all of mine is your servant, and unites in offering itself to you. 231 Whose rarest havings, &c. whose scantiest favours made youth dote on her. Playing the place, &c.: this passage, and Love's arms are peace, &c., p. 232, appear hopelessly corrupt. 233 congest; combine.

234 In him a plenitude, &c.: his abundant subtlety, used for cunning designs.

235 seeming owed: apparently his own.

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
Against my Love shall be, as I am now
Against that time, if ever that time come
Ah! wherefore with infection should he live
Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth
Alas, 'tis true I have gone here and there
Art thou, god, to shepherd turn'd
As a decrepit father takes delight
As an unperfect actor on the stage

As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growest

Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good.
Being your slave, what should I do but tend.
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took.
Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
Blow, blow, thou winter wind

But be contented: when that fell arrest
But do thy worst to steal thyself away.
But wherefore do not you a mightier way.

Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not
Come away, come away, Death

Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me.
Come, thou Monarch of the vine.
Come unto these yellow sands.

Crabbed Age and Youth cannot live together.

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws
Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye
Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer.

Fair is my Love, but not so fair as fickle
Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing

Fathers that wear rags

Fear no more the heat o' the sun.

Fie on sinful fantasy

For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any
From fairest creatures we desire increase
Full many a glorious morning have I seen
From off a hill whose concave womb re-worded.
From you have I been absent in the Spring

Full fathom five thy father lies

.

Get you hence, for I must go

Good night, good rest. Ah, neither be my share

Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love.
Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings.
Honour, riches, marriage-blessing
How can I then return in happy plight.
How can my muse want subject to invent.
How careful was I, when I took my way.
How heavy do I journey on the way

How like a winter hath my absence been

How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st
How should I your true-Love know.

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6

211

8

I
18

83

93

103

105

152

How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame

I grant thou wert not married to my Muse

I never saw that you did painting need

If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love

If my dear love were but the child of state

If She be made of white and red.

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought

If there be nothing new, but that which is

If thou survive my well-contented day.
If thy soul check thee that I come so near
Immortal gods, I crave no pelf

In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes
In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn
In the old age black was not counted fair
Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye

Is it thy will thy image should keep open
It was a Lover and his Lass

Lawn as white as driven snow.

Let me confess that we two must be twain
Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Let not my love be call'd idolatry

160

Let the bird of loudest lay

214

Let those who are in favour with their stars
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
Like as, to make our appetites more keen
Lo! as a careful housewife runs to catch
Lo! in the orient when the gracious light
Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
Lord, how mine eyes throw gazes to the east.

80

63

59

81

197

45

Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war

Mine eye hath play'd the painter, and hath stell'd.

ΙΟΥ

79