Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name? XCVI. Some fay, thy fault is youth, fome wantonnefs; The bafeft jewel will be well efteem'd; So are thofe errors that in thee are seen, If thou would'ft ufe the strength of all thy state! 8. Naming thy name blesses an ill report.] The fame ideas offer in the fpeech of nobarbus to Agrippa in Antony and Cleopatra: 66 - -For vileft things "Become themfelves in her; that the holy priests "Blefs her when the is riggifh." STEEVENS. 9 Both grace and faults are lov'd of more and lefs:] By great and fmall. So, in K. Henry IV. P. I: "The more and lefs came in," &c. MALONE. ▾ If like a lamb be could bis looks tranflate!] If he could change his natural look, and affume the innocent vifage of the lamb. So, in Timon of Athens: "to prefent flaves and fervants But But do not fo; I love thee in fuch fort 2, XCVII. How like a winter hath my abfence been 3 XCVIII. From you have I been abfent in the spring, 2 But do not fo: I love thee in fuck fort, &c. This is likewife the concluding couplet of the 36th Sonnet. MALONE. 3 How like a winter bath my abfence been, &c.] In this and the two following Sonnets the pencil of Shakspeare is very difcernible. MALONE. 4 And yet this time remov'd!] This time in which I was remote or abfent from thee. So, in Meafure for Measure: "He ever lov'd the life remov'd." Again, in K. Henry IV. P. I: nor did he think it meet "To lay fo dangerous and dear a trust "On any foul remov'd." MALONE. 5 The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,] So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: 66 The Spring, the summer, "The childing autumn, angry winter, change "Their wonted livries; and the 'mazed world "By their increafe now knows not which is which." The prime is the spring. Vol. II. p. 467, n. 8. Increase is the produce of the earth. See MALONE. Hath L Hath put a fpirit of youth in every thi -in the spring, When proud-pied April, drefs'd in all his trin Hath put a fpirit of youth in every thing;] Juliet: "Such comfort as do lufty young men feel "When well-apparel'd April on the heel "Of limping winter treads." MALONE 7 Yet not the lays of birds, &c.] So Milton, Par "Sweet is the breath of morn, her rifing f "With charm of earliest birds, "But neither breath of morn, when the afce 8 Could make me any fummer's story tell,] By a fpeare feems to have meant fome gay fiction. Thus ed on the adventures of the king and queen of the Midfummer Night's Dream. On the other hand Tale he tells us, “a fad tale's best for winter." So "if it be fummer news, "Smile to it before: if winterly, thou need "But keep that countenance ftill." MAL 9 Or from their proudlap pluck them where they gr Richard II: 1 They were but faveet, but figures of delight,] Wi expected from flowers than that they fhould be free fmell is their highest praife. I fufpect the compofitor but from a fubfequent part of the line, and would read They were, my sweet, but figures of delight.,So, in the 109th Sonnet: "Save thou, my rofe; in it thou art my all." The old reading is furely the true one. The poet on the beauty of the flowers, declaring that they are delightful, fo far as they refemble his friend. STEE Yet feem'd it winter ftill, and, you away, XCIX. The forward violet thus did I chide ; Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy fweet that smells, More flowers I noted, yet I none could fee, Nearly this meaning the lines, after the emendation proposed, will fill fupply. In the preceding couplet the colour, not the fweetness, of the flowers is mentioned.; and in the fubfequent line the words drawn and pattern relate only to their external appearance. MALONE. 2 The lily I condemned for thy hand,] condemned the lily for pre fuming to emulate the whiteness of thy hand. MALONE. 3 One blushing shame, another white defpair ;] The old copy reads: Our blushing shame, another white despair. Our was evidently a mifprint. MALONE. All this conceit about the colour of the rofes is repeated again in K. Henry VI. P.1: -Your cheeks do counterfeit our roles, "For pale they look with fear. "thy cheeks "Blush for pure shame, to counterfeit our rofes." STEEVENS. 4 A vengeful canker eat bim up to death.] So, in Romeo and Juliet: "Full foon the canker death eats up that plant." Again, in Venus and Adonis: “This canker, that eats up love's tender fpring." MALONE. VOL. X. T C. Where C. Where art thou, Mufe, that thou forget'ft fo long And make Time's fpoils defpifed every where. Give my love fame fafter than Time waftes life; CI. O truant Mufe, what shall be thy amends, Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb? Then do thy office, Mufe; I teach thee how CII. My love is ftrengthen'd, though more weak in feeming; I love not lefs, though less the show appear: 5 So thou prevent'ft bis feythe, &c.] i. e. fo by anticipation thou hindereft the destructive effects of his weapons. STEEVENS. That |