Thy love is better than high birth to me, XCII. But do thy worst to steal thyfelf away, Than that which on thy humour doth depend: Happy to have thy love, happy to die! But what's fo bleffed-fair that fears no blot? XCIII. So fhall I live, fuppofing thou art true, May 3 Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' coff,] So, in Cymbeline: "Richer than doing nothing for a babe; "Prouder than ruftling in unpaid-for filk." STEEVENS. 4 So fhall I live, fuppofing thou art true, Like a deceived bufband;-] Mr. Oldys obferves in one of his manufcripts, that this and the preceding Sonnet "feem to bave been addreffed by Shakspeare to his beautiful wife on some suspicion of ber infidelity." He must have read our authour's poems with but little attention; otherwife he would have feen that thefe, as well as the preceding Sonnets, and many of thofe that follow, are not addreffed to a female. I do not know whether this antiquary had any other authority than his mifapprehenfion concerning thefe lines for the epithet by which he has described our great poet's wife. He had made very large 1 May ftill feem love to me, though alter large collections for a life of our authour, and pe his refearches had learned this particular. Ho been, the other part of his conjecture (that Shal her) may perhaps be thought to derive fome pro lowing circumftances; at leaft, when connected ftory of the Oxford vintner's wife, they give f that he was not very strongly attached to her. It his daughter, and not his wife, is his executor; a queaths the latter only an old piece of furniture; of her till the whole was finished, the clause relati terlineation. What provifion was made for her by appear. It may likewife be remarked, that jea hinge of four of his plays; and in his great perform of the paffages are written with fuch exquifite fee us to fufpect that the authour, at fome period of h been perplexed with doubts, though not perhaps in By the fame mode of reafoning, it may be faid, to have ftabbed his friend, or to have had a than he has fo admirably described the horrour confeque the effects of filial ingratitude, in Macbeth, and K indeed affume all shapes; and therefore it must be the prefent hypothefis is built on an uncertain found to fay is, that he appears to me to have written more the beart on the fubject of jealoufy, than on any othe fere not improbable he might have felt it. The wh jeure. MALONE. As all that is known with any degree of certainty fpeare, is that he was born at Stratford upon Avon, children there, went to London, where be commenced poems and plays, returned to Stratford, made his w buried,-I must confefs my readiness to combat ever pofition refpecting the particular occurrences of his li The mifapprehenfion of Oldys may be naturally a will appear venial to thofe who examine the two S From the complaints of inconftancy, and the praifes tained in them, they should feem at first fight to be ad morato to a miftrefs. Had our antiquarian informed tendency of fuch pieces as precede and follow, he could to difcover his mistake. Whether the wife of our author was beautiful, or circumftance beyond the investigation of Oldys, whofe his life I have perufed; yet furely it was natural to in one who could engage and fix the heart of a young m common elegance of fancy. For there can live no hatred in thine eye, In That our poet was jealous of this lady, is likewife an unwarantable conjecture. Having, in times of health and profperity, provided for her by fettlement, (or knowing that her father had already done fo) he bequeathed to her at his death, not merely an old piece of furniture, but perhaps, as a mark of peculiar tenderness, "The very bed that on his bridal night "Receiv'd him to the arms of Belvidera." His momentary forgetfulness as to this matter, must be imputed to difeafe. He has many times given fupport to the fentiments of others, let him fpeak for once in his own defence: "Infirmity doth ftill neglect all office "Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves "When nature, being opprefs'd, commands the mind Mr. Malone therefore ccafes to argue with his ufual candour, when he "takes the indifpos'd and fickly fit "For the found man." The perfet bealth mentioned in the will, (on which Mr. Malone relies in a fubfequent note) was introduced as a thing of courfe by the attorney who drew it up; and perhaps our author was not fufficiently recovered during the remaining two months of his life to attempt any alterations in this his laft work. It was alfo natural for Shakspeare to have chofen his daughter and not his wife for an executrix, becaufe the latter, for reafons already given, was the leaft interested of the two in the care of his effects. That Shakspeare has written with his utmost power on the subject of jealoufy, is no proof that he had ever felt it. Becaufe he has, with equal vigour, expreffed the varied averfions of Apemantus and Timon to the world, does it follow that he himself was a Cynic, or a wretch deferted by his friends? Becaufe he has, with proportionable ftrength of pencil, reprefented the vindictive cruelty of Shylock, are we to fuppofe he copied from a fiend-like original in his own bofom? Let me add (refpecting the four plays alluded to by Mr. Malone,) that in Cymbeline jealoufy is merely incidental. In the Winter's Tale, and the Merry Wives of Windfor, the folly of it is ftudiously expofed. Orbello alone is wholly built on the fatal confequences of that deftructive paffion. Surely we cannot wonder that our author fhould have lavished his warmest colouring on a commotion of mind the most vehement of all others; or that he should have written with fenfibility on a fubject with which every man who loves is in fome degree acquainted. Befides, of different pieces by the fame hand, one will prove the most highly wrought, though fufficient reafons cannot be affigned to account for its fuperiority. No argument, however, in my opinion, is more fallacicus than that In many's looks the falfe heart's history Is writ, in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange; That in thy face fweet love should ever dwell; which imputes the fuccefs of a poet to his intereft in his fubject. Accuracy of defcription can be expected only from a mind at reft. It is the unruffled lake that is a faithful mirror. STEEVENS. Every authour who writes on a variety of topicks, will have fometimes occafion to defcribe what he has himself felt. To attribute to our great poet (to whofe amiable manners all his contemporaries bear teftimony,) the morofenefs of a cynick, or the depravity of a murderer, would be to form an idea of him contradicted by the whole tencur of his character, and unfupported by any kind of evidence: but to fuppofe him to have felt a paflion which it is faid "moft men who ever loved have in fome degree experienced," does not appear to me a very wild or extravagant conjecture. Let it also be remembered, that he has not exhibited four Shylocks, nor four Timons, but one only of each of those characters. Our authour's forgetfulnefs of his wife, from whatever cause it arofe, cannot well be imputed to the indifpofed and fickly fit; for, from an imperfect erafure in his will (which I have feen) it appears to have been written (though not executed) two months before his death; and in the first paragraph he has himself told us that he was, at the time of making it, in perfect health: words, which no honeft attorney, I believe, ever inferted in a will, when the teftator was notoriously in a contrary state. Any fpeculation on this fubject is indeed unneceifary; for the various regulations and provifions of our authour's will fhow that at the time of making it (whatever his bealth might have been,) he had the entire ufe of his faculties. Nor, fuppofing the contrary to have been the cafe, do I fee what in the two fucceeding months he was to recollect or to alter. His wife had not wholly efcaped his memory; he had forgot her, he had recollected her, -but fo recollected her, as more frongly to mark how little he esteemed her; he had already (as it is vulgarly exprefled) cut her off, not indeed with a fhilling, but with an old bed. However, I acknowledge, it does not follow, that because he was inattentive to her in his will, he was therefore jealous of her. He might not have loved her; and perhaps the might not have deferved his affection. This note having already been extended to too great a length, I shall only add, that I must still think that a poet's intimate knowledge of the pallions and manners which he defcribes, will generally be of use to How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow, XCIV. They that have power to hurt and will do none, For sweetest things turn foureft by their deeds; XCV. How fweet and lovely doft thou make the shame, him; and that in fome few cafes experience will give a warmth to his colouring, that mere obfervation may not fupply. No man, I believe, who had not felt the magick power of beauty, ever compofed loveveries that were worth reading, Who (to ufe nearly our authour's words,) "In leaden contemplation e'er found out "Such firy numbers as the prompting eyes "Of beauteous tutors have enrich'd men with?" That in order to produce any fuccefsful compofition, the mind mut be at eafe, is, I conceive, an incontrovertible truth. It has not been fuggefted that Shakspeare wrote on the fubject of jealousy during the paroxyfm of the fit. MALONE. 5 In many's looks the falfe beart's biftory Is writ,] In Macbeth a contrary fentiment is afferted: "There is no art "To find the mind's conftruction in the face." MALONE. In many's looks, &c.] Thus, in Gray's Church-yard Elegy: "And read their biftory in a nation's eyes." STEEVENS. MALONE. 6 They are the lords and owners of their faces,] So, in K. John: "Lord of thy prefence, and no land befide." 7 Lilies that fefter, fmell far worse than weeds.] This line is likewife found in the anonymous play of K. Edward III, 1596. STEEV. Doth |