Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name?
O, in what fweets doft thou thy fins enclofe!
That tongue that tells the ftory of thy days,
Making lafcivious comments on thy sport,
Cannot difpraife but in a kind of praife;
Naming thy name bleffes an ill report.
O, what a manfion have thofe vices got,
Which for their habitation chofe out thee?
Where beauty's veil doth cover every blot,
And all things turn to fair, that eyes can fee!
Take heed, dear heart, of this large privilege;
The hardest knife ill-us'd doth lofe his edge.

XCVI.

Some fay, thy fault is youth, fome wantonnefs;
Some fay, thy grace is youth, and gentle sport;
Both grace and faults are lov'd of more and lefs":
Thou mak'ft faults graces that to thee refort.
As on the finger of a throned queen

The bafeft jewel will be well efteem'd;

So are thofe errors that in thee are seen,
To truths tranflated, and for true things deem'd.
How many lambs might the ftern wolf betray,
If like a lamb he could his looks tranflate!
How many gazers might'ft thou lead away,

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
"Tranflates his rivals," MALONE.

But

But do not fo; I love thee in fuch fort 2,
As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.

XCVII.

How like a winter hath my abfence been 3
From thee, the pleafure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days feen?
What old December's barenefs every where !
And yet this time remov'd+! was fummer's time;
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime 5,
Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:
Yet this abundant iffue feem'd to me
But hope of orphans, and unfather'd fruit;
For fuminer and his pleafures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or, if they fin, 'tis with fo dull a cheer,
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.

XCVIII.

From you have I been abfent in the spring,
When proud-pied April, drefs'd in all his trim,

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
That heavy Saturn laugh'd and leap'd
Yet nor the lays of birds', nor the fwe
Of different flowers in odour and in hu
Could make me any fummer's ftory tel
Or from their proud lap pluck them whe
Nor did I wonder at the lilies white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the ro
They were but fweet, but figures of del
Drawn after you; you pattern of all tho

-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,
As with your fhadow I with these did play :

XCIX.

The forward violet thus did I chide ;

Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy fweet that smells,
If not from my love's breath? The purple pride
Which on thy foft cheek for complexion dwells,
In my love's veins thou haft too grofsly dy'd.
The lily I condemned for thy hand2,
And buds of marjoram had ftolen thy hair:
The roses fearfully on thorns did ftand,
One blushing shame, another white despair 3;
A third, nor red nor white, had ftolen of both,
And to his robbery had annex'd thy breath;
But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth
A vengeful canker eat him up to death*.

More flowers I noted, yet I none could fee,
But fweet or colour it had ftolen from thee.

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
To speak of that which gives thee all thy might?
Spend'st thou thy fury on fome worthless fong,
Darkening thy power, to lend bafe fubjects light?
Return, forgetful Mufe, and ftraight redeem
In gentle numbers time fo idly spent ;
Sing to the ear that doth thy lays efteem,
And gives thy pen both skill and argument.
Rife, reftive Mufe, my love's fweet face furvey,
If Time have any wrinkle graven there;
If any, be a fatire to decay,

And make Time's fpoils defpifed every where.

Give my love fame fafter than Time waftes life;
So thou prevent'ft his scythe 5, and crooked knife.

CI.

O truant Mufe, what shall be thy amends,
For thy neglect of truth in beauty dy'd?
Both truth and beauty on my love depends;
So doft thou too, and therein dignify'd.
Make answer, Mufe: wilt thou not haply fay,
Truth needs no colour, with his colour fix'd;
Beauty no pencil, beauty's truth to lay;
But beft is beft, if never intermix'd?

Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb?
Excufe not filence fo; for it lies in thee
To make him much out-live a gilded tomb,
And to be prais'd of ages yet to be.

Then do thy office, Mufe; I teach thee how
To make him feem long hence as he fhows now.

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