For all that beauty that doth cover thee,
Is but the feemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breaft doth live, as thine in me;
How can I then be elder than thou art?
O therefore, love, be of thyfelf fo wary,
As I not for myself but for thee will;
Bearing thy heart, which I will keep fo chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.

Prefume not on thy heart, when mine is flain;
Thou gav'ft me thine, not to give back again.

XXIII.

As an unperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his fear is put befides his part,

Or fome fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart;

Sa

Thus we

ever, delights to introduce words with this termination.
meet with feftinate and confpirate, in K. Lear; combinate in Measure
for Measure; and ruinate, in K. Henry VI. STEEVENS.

The old reading is certainly right. Then do I expect, fays Shak-
fpeare, that death should fill up the measure of my days. The word
expiate is ufed nearly in the fame fenfe in the tragedy of Locrine, 1595:
"Lives Sabren yet to expiate my wrath ?"

i. e. fully to fatisfy my wrath.

So alfo in Byron's Confpiracie, a tragedy by Chapman, 1608, an old courtier fays, he is

"A poor and expiate humour of the court." Again, in our authour's King Richard III:

"Make hafte; the hour of death is expiate." MALONE.

2 As an unperfect actor on the stage,

Who with his fear is put befides his part,] So, in Coriolanus:
"Like a dull actor now,

"I have forgot my part, and I am out,

"Even to a full difgrace."

From the introductory lines of this Sonnet, it may be conjectured that thefe poems were not compofed till our authour had arrived in London, and became converfant with the ftage. He had perhaps him. felf experienced what he here defcribes. MALONE.

It is highly probable that our author had feen plays reprefented, before he left his own country, by the fervants of Lord Warwick. Moft of our ancient noblemen had fome company of comedians who enrolled themselves among their vaffals, and fheltered themselves under their protection. See Vol. III. p. 248, n. 7. STEEVENS.

The

So I, for fear of truft, forget to say
The perfect ceremony of love's rite;

And in mine own love's ftrength feem to decay,
O'er-charg'd with burthen of mine own love's might.
O, let my books be then the eloquence 3

And dumb prefagers 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 filent love hath writ:
To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.

XXIV.

Mine eye hath play'd the painter, and hath steel'd
Thy beauty's form in table of my hearts;

My

The feeing a few plays exhibited by a company of ftrollers in a barn at Stratford, or in Warwick caftle, would not however have made Shakspeare acquainted with the feelings of a timid actor on the stage. It has never been fuppofed that our authour was himself a player before he came to London. Whether the lines before us were founded on experience, or obfervation, cannot now be afcertained. What I have advanced is merely conjectural. MALONE.

30, let my books be then the eloquence-] A gentleman to whom I am indebted for the obfervations which are marked with the letter C, would read:

O, let my looks, &c.

But the context, I think, shows that the old copy is right. The poet finding that he could not fufficiently collect his thoughts to exprefs his efteem by speech, requests that his writings may speak for him. So af

terwards:

"O, learn to read what filent love hath writ."

Had looks been the authour's word, he hardly would have used it again in the next line but one. MALONE.

4 And dumb prefagers of my speaking breaft ;] So, in King John: "And fullen prefage of your own decay." MALONE.

5 Mine eye batb play'd the painter, and bath fteel'd

Thy beauty's form in table of my heart;] So in All's well that

ends well:

My body is the frame wherein 'tis held,
And perspective it is beft painter's art.
For through the painter muft you fee his skill,
To find where your true image pictur'd lies;
Which in my bofom's fhop is hanging ftill,
That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes.
Now fee what good turns eyes for eyes have done;
Mine eyes have drawn thy fhape, and thine for me
Are windows to my breast, where-through the fun
Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee;

Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art,
They draw but what they fee, know not the heart.

XXV.

Let those who are in favour with their stars,
Of publick honour and proud titles boaft,
Whilft I, whom fortune of fuch triumph bars,
Unlook'd for joy in that I honour most.

Great princes' favourites their fair leaves fpread,
But as the marigold at the fun's eye;
And in themselves their pride lies buried,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The painful warrior famoused for fight,
After a thousand victories once foil'd,
Is from the book of honour razed quite 7,
And all the reft forgot for which he toil'd:

Again, in King John:

till beheld myself

"Drawn in the flattering table of her eye.""

Then

A table was the ancient term for a picture. See Vol. III. p. 358,

.7.

MALONE.

Great princes' favourites their fair leaves fpread, &c.] Compare Wolfey's fpeech in King Henry VIII. Vol. VII. p. 90.

This is the state of man: To-day he puts forth

"The tender leaves of hope, tomorrow bloffoms,
"And bears his blushing honours thick upon him,
"The third day comes a froft, a killing froft;" &c.

7 The painful warrior famoufed for fight
After a thousand victories cnce foil'd,

MALONE.

I from the book of bonour razed quite,] The old copy reads

famoufed

Then happy I, that love and am belov'd,
Where I may not remove, nor be remov'd.

XXVI.

Lord of my love, to whom in vaffalage
Thy merit hath my duty ftrongly knit,

famoused for worth, which not rhyming with the concluding word of the correfponding line, (quite) either one or the other must be corrupt. The emendation was fuggefted by Mr. Theobald, who likewife propofed, if worth was retained, to read-razed forth.

"Is from the book of honour rafed quite," reminds us of Bolingbroke's enumeration of the wrongs done to him by King Richard II.

"From my own windows torn my houfhold coat.

"Raz'd out my imprefs, leaving me no fign➡

"To fhew the world I am a gentleman."

Again, in King Richard II.

66 -'tis not my meaning,

"To raze one title of your bonour out."

MALONE.

This ftanza is not worth the labour that has been bestowed on it. By tranfpofition, however, the rhime may be recovered, without further change:

The painful warrior for worth famoused,
After a thousand victories once foil'd,
Is from the book of honour quite rafed-
"My name be blotted from the book of life,"

is a line in King Richard II. STEEVENS.

Why it should not be worth while to correct this as well as any other manifeft corruption in our authour's works, I confefs, I do not comprehend. Neither much labour, nor many words, have been employed upon it. MALONE.

Lord of my love, to whom in vaffalage,

Thy merit bath my duty ftrongly knit;] So, in Macbeth:
-Lay your highness'

"Command upon me; to the which my duties

"Are with a most indiffoluble tye

"For ever knit."

Again, in the fame play:

STEEVENS,

-Your highness' part

Is to receive our duty, and our duties

"Are to your throne and state children and servants,

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts

"With an unflipping knot.

Again, in Othello: "I have profefs'd myself thy friend, and I con

fefs me knit to thy deferving with cables of perdurable toughness."

MALONE.
Το

To thee I fend this written embassage, To witness duty, not to show my wit9 Duty fo great, which wit so poor as mi May make feem bare, in wanting word But that I hope fome good conceit of thi In thy foul's thought, all naked, will be Till whatsoever ftar that guides my mov Points on me graciously with fair afpéct And puts apparel on my tattered loving. To fhow me worthy of thy fweet refpect Then may I dare to boast how I do lov Till then, not show my head where thou

XXVII.

Weary with toil, I hafte me to my bed, The dear repofe for limbs with travel tir But then begins a journey in my head, To work my mind, when body's work's e

9 Lord of my love, to whom in vaffalage Thy merit bath my duty ftrongly knit, To thee I fend this written emballage,

ance.

To witness duty, not to fhow my wit:] So, in The Rape of Lucrece: "The warrant I bave of you fition, not the worth of my untutor'd lines, makes it What I have done is yours; what I have to part in all I have devoted yours. Were my worth fhould fhow greater; meantime, as it is, it is bound to Till whatsoever ftar that guides my moving, Points on me graciously with fair afpéct,] So, in "As if that whatsoever God who leads bim, "Were flily crept into his human powers, "And gave bim graceful posture." C. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

he hath fought to-day,

"As if a god in hate of mankind had "Deftroy'd in fuch a fhape." MALONE. 2 To show me worthy of thy fweet refpect:] The old

of their fweet refpect.

It is evidently a mifprint. For the correction I am an fame mistake has feveral times happened in thefe Son bably to abbreviations having been formerly used for and tby, fo nearly refembling each other as not to be ea I have obferved the fame error in fome of the old Engli