CIX. O, never say that I was false of heart CX. Alas, 'tis true, I have gone here and As from my foul, which in thy breaft doth lie: bour's Loft: Hence ever then my heart is in thy breaf See alfo Venus and Adonis, p. 40, n. 4. MALO 2 That is my home of love: if I have rang'd, Like bim that travels, I return again;] Thu Night's Dream: "My heart with her but as gueft-wife fojou "And now to Helen it is bome return'd." So alfo, Prior: "No matter what beauties I faw in my wa "They were but my vifits, but thou art my 3 All frailties that befiege all kinds of blood,] So, Nature, "To whom all fores lay fiege." STEEVEN And made myself a motley to the view,] Appear whom the drefs was formerly a motley coat.) MAL 5. Gor'd mine own thoughts,-] I know not wheth nefs, or a corruption. STEEVENS, Moft true it is, that I have look'd on truth A God in love, to whom I am confin'd. Then give me welcome, next my heaven the best, CXI. O, for my fake do you with fortune chide, Than publick means, which publick manners breeds. To what it works in, like the dyer's hand: Pity me then, and wish I were renew'd; The text is probably not corrupt, for our authour has employed the fame word in Troilus and Creffida: "My fame is fhrewdly gor'd." The meaning feems to be, I have wounded my own thoughts; I have acted contrary to what I knew to be right. MALONE. 6 Thefe blenches gave my heart another youth,] These starts or aberrations from rectitude. So, in Hamlet: "I'll obferve his looks; "I'll tent him to the quick; if he but blench, "I know my courfe." MALONE. 7 Now all is done, fave what shall have no end :] The old copy reads -have what shall have, &c. This appearing to me unintelligible, I have adopted a conjectural reading fuggefted by Mr. Tyrrwhitt. MALONE. 80, for my fake do you with fortune chide,] The quarto is here evidently corrupt. It reads-wifh fortune chide. MAIONE. To chide with fortune is to quarrel with it. So, in Othello: "The bufinefs of the ftate does him offence, "And he does chide with you." STEEVENS. 9 Than publick means, which publick manners breeds.] The authour feems here to lament his being reduced to the neceffity of appearing on the ftage, or writing for the theatre. MALONE, Whilft, like a willing patient, I will drink CXII. Your love and pity doth the impression fill That my fteel'd fenfe or changes, right or wrong. Potions of eyfell, 'gainst my strong infection;] Eyfell is vinegar. Se, in A mery Gefte of the Frere and the Boye: "God that dyed for us all, "And dranke both eyfell and gall." STEEVENS. Vinegar is esteemed very efficacious in preventing the communica tion of the plague and other contagious diftempers. MALONE. 2 For what care I who calls me well or ill, So you o'er-green my bad, my good allow?] I am indifferent to the opinion of the world, if you do but throw a friendly veil over my faults, and approve of my virtues. The allufion feems to be either to the practice of covering a bare coarfe piece of ground with fresh greenfward, or to that of planting ivy or jeflamine to conceal an unfightly building. To allow, in ancient language, is to approve. MALONE. I would read:-o'er grieve my bad,-i. e. I care not what is faid of me, fo that you com affionate my failings, and approve my virtues. STEEVENS. 3 That my feel'd fenfe or changes, right or wrong.] It appears from the next line but one that ferfe is here ufed for fenfes. We might better read:-eer changes, right or wrong. MALONE. N ne le to me, nor I to none alive, That my feel'd fine or changes, right or wrong.] The meaning of this purblind and obfcure ftuff feems to be-You are the only perfon who has power to change my ftubborn resolution, either to what is right, or to what is wrong STEEVENS. In fo profound abyfm I throw all care + That all the world befides methinks they are dead". Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind 7; 4 In fo profound abysm I throw all care] Our author uses this word likewife in the Tempeft, and Antony and Cleopatra: "—the abysm of time," and "the abysm of hell." STEEVENS. Sthat my adder's fenfe To critick and to flatterer ftopped are:] That my ears are equallydeaf to the fnarling cenfurer, and the flattering encomiaft. Critisk for cynick. So, in Love's Labour's Loft: "And critick Timon laugh at idle toys." Our authour again alludes to the deafness of the adder in Troilus and Crefida: "-ears more deaf than adders to the voice "Of any true decifion. MALONE. 6 That all the world befides methinks they are dead.] The quarto has-That all the world befides methinks y'are dead. rare was, I fuppofe, an abbreviation for they are or th'are. Such unpleafing contractions are often found in our old poets. MALONE. The fenfe is this.-I pay no regard to the fentiments of mankind; and obferve how I account for this my indifference. I think fo much of you, that I have no leifure to be anxious about the opinions of others. I proceed as if the world, yourself excepted, were no more. STEEVENS. 7-mine eye is in my mind ;] We meet with the fame phrafe in Hamlet: eye, << In my mind's Horatio." Again, in The Rape of Lucrece : "Was left unfeen, fave to the eye of mind." MALONE. 9 Seems feeing, but effectually is out :] So, in Machetb: "Gent, Ay, but their fenfe is shut," STEEVENS MALONE. For A For it no form delivers to the heart CXIV. Or whether doth my mind, being crown ▾ which it dotb latch ;] The old copy readscorrefponding rhyme fhews that what I have now authour's word. To latch formerly fignified to / Macbeth: "6 -But I have words That should be howl'd out in the defert a "Where hearing should not latch them." See Vol. IV. p. 411, n. 1. MALONE. 2 The most fweet favour,] Favour is countenan P. 449, n. 6. MALONE. 3 My moft true mind thus makech mine untrue.] I Shakspeare wrote Or, My most true mind thus makes mine eye untru Thy most true mind thus maketh mine untrue. but the text is undoubtedly right. The word un fubftantive. The fincerity of my affection is the cause of of my not feeing objects truly, fuch as they appear to t kind. So, in Measure for Measure: "Say what you can, my falfe outweighs your Again, in King John: This little abstract doth contain that large, "That dy'd in Geffrey." Again, in Twelfth Night: How eafy is it for the proper falfe "In women's waxen hearts to let their forms!' Milton has taken the fame liberty: "grace defcending had remov'd "The frony from their hearts." MALONE. being crown'd with you,] So, in Timon of Athens |