When fometime lofty towers I fee down-ras'd,
And brafs eternal flave to mortal rage:
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the fhore",
And the firm foil win of the watery main,
Increafing ftore with lofs, and lofs with store;
When I have seen fuch interchange of state3,
Or ftate itself confounded to decay;
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate-
That Time will come, and take my love away.
This thought is as a death, which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.

LXV.

Since brafs, nor flone, nor earth, nor boundless fea,
But fad mortality o'er-fways their power,

How with this rage fhall beauty hold a plea,

Whose action is no ftronger than a flower?

2 -the bungry ocean gain

Advantage on the kingdom of the fore,] So, Mortimer, in King Henry IV. P. I. fpeaking of the Trent:

"he bears his courte, and runs me up

"With like advantage on the other fide,

"Gelding the oppofed continent as much." STEEVENS

3 When I bave feen the hungry ocean gain

Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,

And the firm foil win of the watery main,

Increasing fore with lofs, and lofs with ftore;

When I bave seen such interchange of state, &c.] So, in K. Henry IV. P. II:

"O heaven! that one might read the book of fate;

"And fee the revolution of the times

"Make mountains level, and the continent,

"Weary of folid firmness, melt itself

"Into the fea! and, other times, to fee

"The beachy girdle of the ocean

"Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock,

"And changes fill the cup of alteration

"With diverfe liquors !" C.

4 How with this rage shall beauty bold a plea,] Shakspeare, I be

lieve, wrote with bis rage, i, e. with the rage of Mortality.

R 3

MALONE.

O, how

O, how fhall fummer's honey breath hold out
Against the wreckful fiege of battering days 5,
When rocks impregnable are not so ftout,
Nor gates of steel fo ftrong, but time decays?
O fearful meditation! where, alack,

Shall time's beft jewel from time's cheft lie hid❝?

5-the hege of battering days,] So, in Romeo and Juliet: "the fiege of loving terms.' STEEVENS.

60 fearful meditation! where, alack,

Or

Sball time's beft jewel from time's chest lie bid?] I once thought Shakspeare might have written-from time's queft, but am now convinced that the old reading is right. "Time's beft jewel "is the perfon addreffed, who, the authour feared, would not be able to escape the devaftation of time, but would fall a prey, however beautiful, to his allfubduing power. So, in his 48th Sonnet:

"tbou, to whom my jewels trifles are,
"Thee have I not lock'd up in any cheft,

"Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art."

This allufion is a favourite one of Shakspeare, for he has introduced it in feveral places. Thus again, in K. Richard II.

"A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up cheft

"Is a bold fpirit in a loyal breast."

Again, in his Rape of Lucrece:

"She wakes her heart by beating on her breast,
"And bids it leap from thence, where it may find
"Some purer cheft, to close so pure a mind."

Again, in King John:

"They found him dead, and thrown into the street,
"An empty casket, where the jewel of life

"By fome damn'd villain was robb'd and ta'en away!"

A fimilar conceit is found in an Epitaph on Prince Henry, eldest fon of King James I, written in 1613:

"Within this marble casket lies

"A matchlefs jewel of rich price;

"Whom nature, in the world's difdain,
"But shew'd, and then put up again."

The cheft of Time is the repofitory where he lays up the most rare and curious productions of nature; one of which the poet esteemed his friend.

-vobis male fit, malæ tenebræ

Orci, quae omnia bella devoratis. Catal. MALONE. Time's cheft is the repofitory into which he is poetically fuppofed to throw those things which he defigns to be forgotten. Thus, in Troilus and Creffida:

"Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,
"Wherein he puts alms for oblivion."

Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his fpoil of beauty can forbid??

O none, unless this miracle have might,

That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
LXVI.

Tir'd with all thefe, for reftful death I cry3,-
As, to behold defert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And pureft faith unhappily forfworn,
And gilded honour fhamefully misplac'd,
And maiden virtue rudely ftrumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully difgrac'd,
And ftrength by limping fway disabled,
And art made tongue-ty'd by authority,
And folly (doctor-like) controling skill,
And fimple truth mifcall'd fimplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill':

Tir'd with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

LXVII.

Ah! wherefore with infection fhould he live,
And with his prefence grace impiety,
That fin by him advantage fhould achieve,
And lace itself with his fociety??

Again, in Sonnet LII:

So is the time that keeps you, as my cheft." The thief who evades purfuit, may be faid with propriety to lie bid from justice, or from confinement. STEEVENS.

7 Or aubo bis Spoil of beauty can forbid?] The reading of the quarto his fpoil or beauty, is manifeftly a misprint. MALONE.

8 Tir'd with all thefe, &c.] Compare Hamlet's celebrated foliloquy with this Sonnet.

C.

9 And fimple truth mifcall'd fimplicity,] Simplicity has here the fignification of folly. MALONE.

And captive good attending captain ill:] So, in Timon of Athens: "the afs more captain than the lion."

Again, in the 52d Sonnet:

"Like captain jewels in the carcanet." MALONE.

And lace itself with bis fociety?] i. e. embellish itself. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"what envious ftreaks

"Do lace the fevering clouds,-." STEEVENS,

R 4

Why

Why fhould falfe painting imitate his cheek,
And steal dead feeing of his living hue 3?
Why should poor beauty indirectly feek
Rofes of fhadow, fince his rofe is true?
Why should he live, now nature bankrupt is,
Beggar'd of blood to blush through lively veins ?
For the hath no exchequer now but his,
And, proud of many, lives upon his gains.

O, him the ftores, to fhow what wealth fhe had,
In days long fince, before these laft fo bad.

LXVIII.

Thus is his cheek the map of days out-worn*,
When beauty liv'd and died, as flowers do now,
Before these bastard figns of fair were borne,
Or durft inhabit on a living brow;
Before the golden treffes of the dead,
The right of fepulchres, were fhorn away,
To live a fecond life on fecond head";

Ere beauty's dead fleece made another gay:

In

3 And freal dead feeing of bis living bue?] Dr. Farmer would readfeeming. MALONE.

4 —the map of days out-worn,] So, in The Rape of Lucrece:
"Even fo this pattern of the
"Pawn'd honeft looks-.”

5 Before thefe baftard signs of fair

worn-out age
MALONS.
were borne,]

Fair was formerly

MALONE.

ufed as a fubftantive, for beauty. See Vol. II. p. 148, n. 6.

Before the golden treffes of the dead,

The right of fepulchres, were fhorn away,

To live a fecond life on fecond head;] Our authour has again inweighed against this practice in The Merchant of Venice:

"So are thofe crifped fnaky golden locks,

"Which make fuch wanton gambols with the wind,
"Upon fuppofed fairness, often known

"To be the dowry of a fecond bead,

"The skull that bred them in the fepulchre.”

Again, in 7 mon of Athens:

-thatch your poor thin roofs

With burdens of the dead."

In him thofe holy antique hours are feen,
Without all ornament, itself, and true 7,
Making no fummer of another's green,
Robbing no old to drefs his beauty new;
And him as for a map doth nature store,
To show falfe art what beauty was of yore.

LXIX.

Thofe parts of thee that the world's eye doth view,
Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend ;
All tongues (the voice of fouls) give thee that due ",
Uttering bare truth, even fo as foes commend.
Thine outward thus with outward praise is crown'd;
But thofe fame tongues that give thee fo thine own,
In other accents do this praife confound,

By feeing farther than the eye hath shown.
They look into the beauty of thy mind,

And that, in guess, they measure by thy deeds;
Then (churls) their thoughts, although their eyes were

kind,

To thy fair flower add the rank fmell of weeds:

So, in Swetnam arraigned by women, a comedy, 1620: "She'll inftruct them how

to ufe,

"The myfteries, painting, curling, powd'ring,
"And with strange periwigs, pin-knots, borderings,
"To deck them up, like to a vintner's bush,

"For man to gaze at on a midfummer-night."

See alfo Vol. I. p. 176, n. S.

In our authour's time, the falfe hair ufually worn, perhaps in compliment to the queen, was of a fandy colour. Hence the epithet golden. See Hentzner's Account of Queer. Elizabeth. MALONE.

7 Without all ornament, itself, and true,] Surely we ought to readbimfelf, and true. In him the primitive fimplicity of ancient times may be obferved; in him, who fcorns all adfcititious ornaments, who appears in his native genuine ftate, [bimfelf and true,] &c. MALONE. 8 All tongues (the voice of fouls) give thee that due,] The quarto has that end. For the prefent emendation (which the rhyme requires) the reader is indebted to Mr. Tyrwhitt. The letters that compofe the word dae were probably tranfpofed at the prefs, and the u inverted.

MALONE.

9 Thine outward-] The quarto reads-Their. MALONE.

But