Thus I foreftall thee, if thou mean to chide:
Thy beauty hath enfnar'd thee to this night,
Where thou with patience muft my will abide ;
My will that marks thee for my earth's delight",
Which I to conquer fought with all my might;
But as reproof and reafon beat it dead,
By thy bright beauty was it newly bred.

I fee what croffes my attempt will bring;
I know what thorns the growing rofe defends;
I think the honey guarded with a sting3;
All this, beforehand, counfel comprehends:
But will is deaf, and hears no heedful friends;
Only he hath an eye to gaze on beauty,

And dotes on what he looks*, 'gainst law or duty.

I have debated 4, even in my foul,

What wrong, what shame, what forrow I fhall breed;
But nothing can affection's course control,
Or ftop the headlong fury of his speed.
I know repentant tears enfue the deed;

Reproach, difdain, and deadly enmity;
Yet ftrive I to embrace mine infamy.

This faid, he shakes aloft his Roman blade,
Which, like a faulcon towering in the skies,
Coucheth the fowl below with his wings' shade3,

2my earth's delight,] So, in The Comedy of Errors:

"My fole eartb's heaven." STEEVENS.

Whofe

3 I think the boney guarded with a fting ;] I am aware that the honey is guarded with a fting. MALONE.

* -on what be looks,] i. e. on what he looks on.-Many inftances of this inaccuracy are found in our authour's plays. See Vol. VIII. p. 104, n. 7. MALONE.

4 I fee what croffes

I bave debated, &c.] On these stanzas Dr. Young might have founded the lines with which he difmiffes the prince of Egypt, who is preparing to commit a fimilar act of violence, at the end of the third act of Bufiris : "Destruction full of tranfport! Lo I come "Swift on the wing to meet my certain doom: "I know the danger, and I know the shame; "But, like our phenix, in fo rich a flame

1 2

"I plunge

Whose crooked beak threats, if he mount he
So under his infulting falchion lies

Harmless Lucretia, marking what he tell
With trembling fear, as fowl hear faulcon

Lucrece, quoth he, this night I must enjoy
If thou deny, then force must work my way
For in thy bed I purpose to destroy thee;
That done, fome worthlefs flave of thine I'll
To kill thine honour with thy life's decay;
And in thy dead arms do I mean to place
Swearing I flew him, seeing thee embrac

So thy furviving husband shall remain
The fcornful mark of every open eye7;
Thy kinsmen hang their heads at this difdai
Thy iffue blurr'd with nameless bastardy:
And thou, the authour of their obloquy,
Shalt have thy trefpafs cited up in rhimes
And fung by children in fucceeding times

"I plunge triumphant my devoted head,

"And dote on death in that luxurious bed." S 3-like a faulcon towering in the skies,

Coucheth the fowl below] So, in Meafure for Me "Nips youth i' th' head, and follies doth enme "As faulcon doth the fowl."

I am not certain but that we should read-Cov'reth. fowl may, however, mean, to make it couch; as to brave author's language, fignifies either to infult him, or to m i. e. fine. So, in The Taming of the Sbrew: "thou ha men; brave not me," Petruchio is fpeaking to the tay as fowl bear faulcons' bells.] So, in King Henry "not he that loves him beft

"Dares ftir a wing, if Warwick shake bis bells.' 7 The fcornful mark of every open eve;] So, in Othello

"A fixed figure for the time of fcorn." STEEVE 8 Thy iffue blurr'd with nameless baftardy:] So, in th men of Verona: "That's as much as to fay baftard virtu know not their father's names, and therefore have no poet calls baftardy nameless, because an illegitimate child by inheritance, being confidered by the law as nullius filiu 9 Shalt bave thy trefpafs cited up in rbimes,] So, in K.. "He made a blufhing cital of his faults." Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

" for we fire our faults." STERVENS.

But if thou yield, I reft thy fecret friend:
The fault unknown is as a thought unacted;
A little harm, done to a great good end,
For lawful policy remains enacted.

The poisonous fimple fometimes is compacted
In a pure compound; being fo applied,
His venom in effect is purified.

Then for thy hufband and thy children's fake,
Tender my fuit 3: bequeath not to their lot
The shame that from them no device can take,
The blemish that will never be forgot;

Worse than a flavish wipe, or birth-hour's blot":

■ Shalt bave thy trefpafs cited up in rhimes,

For

And fung by children in fucceeding times.] So, in King Richard III: "Thence we looked towards England,

"And cited up a thousand heavy times.”

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

-Saucy lictors

"Will catch at us like ftrumpets, and scald rbimer's
"Ballad us out o'tune."

Qui me commôrit, (melius non tangere, clamo,)
Flebit, et infignis tota cantabitur urbe." Hor.

Thus elegantly imitated by Pope :

"Whoe'er offends, at fome unlucky time
"Slides into verfe, and hitches in a rhime;

"Sacred to ridicule his whole life long,

"And the fad burthen of fome merry fong." MALONE.

z In a pure compound-] Thus the quarto. The edition of 1616 reads: In pureft compounds MALONE.

A thought fomewhat fimilar occurs in Romeo and Juliet:

"Within the infant rind of this fmall flower

"Poifon hath refidence, and medicine power." STEEVENS,

3 Tender my fuit :-] Cherifh, regard my fuit. So, in Hamlet:
"Tender yourfelf more dearly." MALONE.

4 Worfe than a lavish wipe,] More difgraceful than the brand with which flaves were marked. MALONE.

5 or birth-bour's blot:] So, in King John:

"If thou that bid'ft me be content, wert grim,
"Ugly and flanderous to thy mother's womb,
"Full of unpleafing blots, and fightlefs ftains,--
"Patch'd with foul moles and eye-offending marks,
"I would not care."

For marks defcried in men's nativity
Are nature's faults, not their own infamy

Here with a cockatrice' dead-killing eye",
He roufeth up himself, and makes a pause;
While fhe, the picture of pure piety,"
Like a white hind under the grype's sharp cla
Pleads in a wilderness, where are no laws,

To the rough beaft that knows no gentle ri
Nor aught obeys but his foul appetite.

It appears that in Shakspeare's time the arms of baftar guished by fome kind of blot. Thus, in the play above q "To look into the blots and ftains of right." But in the paffage now before us, thofe corporal blemish children are fometimes born, feem alone to have been in contemplation. MALONE.

For marks defcried in men's nativity

Are nature's faults, not their own infamy.] So, in "That for fome vicious mole of nature in them, "As, in their birth (wherein they are not guilty)7-with a cockatrice' dead-killing eye,] So, in Romeo a "From the death-darting eye of cockatrice." ST 8 Like a white bind under the grype's sharp claws,] Richard III:

"Ah me! I fee the ruin of my house;

"The tyger now bath feiz'd the gentle kind."

All the modern editions read:

-beneath the gripe's sharp claws.

The quarto, 1594, has:

Like a white hinde under the grype's sharp clawsThe gryphon was meant, which in our authour's tim written grype, or gripe. MALONE.

The gripe is properly the griffin. See Cotgrave's Dictiona Reed's improved edition of Dodfley's old Plays, Vol. I. p. gripe feems to be used for vultur:

"Ixion's wheele,

"Or cruell gripe to gnaw my growing harte."

Ferrex

It was also a term in the hermetick art. Thus, in B. Jonfon "let the water in glafs E be filter'd,

"And put into the gripe's egg."

As griffe is the French word for a claw, perhaps anciently which are remarkable for griping their prey in their talons, fionally called gripes. STEEVENS.

Look, when a black-fac'd cloud the world doth threat,
In his dim mift the afpiring mountains hiding,
From earth's dark womb fome gentle guft doth get,
Which blows thefe pitchy vapours from their biding,
Hindering their prefent fall by this dividing;
So his unhallow'd hafte her words delays,
And moody Pluto winks while Orpheus plays.

Yet, foul night-waking cat, he doth but dally,
While in his hold-fast foot the weak moufe panteth:
Her fad behaviour feeds his vultur folly,

A fwallowing gulf that even in plenty wanteth :
His ear her prayers admits, but his heart granteth
No penetrable entrance to her plaining:

Tears harden luft, though marble wear with raining.

Her pity-pleading eyes are fadly fix'd
In the remorfeless wrinkles of his face2;
Her modeft eloquence with fighs is mix'd,
Which to her oratory adds more grace.
She puts the period often from his place;

And 'midst the fentence fo her accent breaks,
That twice the doth begin, ere once she speaks3.

9 Look, when a black-fac'd cloud the world doth threat,] The quarto, For the emendation I am refponfible. 1594, reads: But when, &c. But was evidently a mifprint; there being no oppofition whatsoever between this and the preceding paffage. We had before:

"Look, as the fair and firy-pointed fun,

"Even fo"

Again, in a subsequent stanza, we have:

"Look, as the full-fed hound, &c.

"So furfeit-taking Tarquin➡"

Again, in Venus and Adonis:

"Look, how the world's poor people are amaz'd,

.." MALONE.

"So the with fearful eyes.-.'

1-bis vultur folly,] Folly is ufed here, as it is in the facred wri.

tings, for depravity of mind. So alfo, in Othello:

"She turn'd to folly, and he was a whore." MALONE. 2 In the remorfeless wrinkles of bis face ;] Remorseless is pitilefs. See Vol. II. p. 37, n. 5; and Vol. IV. p. 295, n. 2.

MALONE,

She