CIX.

O, never say that I was false of heart
Though abfence feem'd my flame to
As ealy might I from myfelf depart,
As from my foul, which in thy breast
That is my home of love: if I have r
Like him that travels, I return again
Juft to the time, not with the time ex
So that myself bring water for my ftai
Never believe, though in my nature
All frailties that befiege all kinds of b
That it could fo prepofterously be ftain
To leave for nothing all thy fum of go
For nothing this wide univerfe I cal
Save thou, my rofe; in it thou art m

CX.

Alas, 'tis true, I have gone here and
And made myself a motley to the view
Gor'd mine own thoughts 5, fold cheap
Made old offences of affections new ;

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
Afkance and strangely; but, by all above,
These blenches gave my heart another youth,
And worse effays prov'd thee my best of love.
Now all is done, fave what shall have no end";
Mine appetite I never more will grind
On newer proof, to try an older friend,

A God in love, to whom I am confin'd.

Then give me welcome, next my heaven the best,
Even to thy pure and moft moft loving breast.

CXI.

O, for my fake do you with fortune chide,
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,
That did not better for my life provide

Than publick means, which publick manners breeds.
Thence comes it that my name receives a brand;
And almost thence my nature is fubdu'd

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
Potions of eyfell, 'gainft my ftrong infection;
No bitterness that I will bitter think,
Nor double pennance, to correct correction.
Pity me then, dear friend, and I affure ye,
Even that your pity is enough to cure me.

CXII.

Your love and pity doth the impression fill
Which vulgar fcandal ftamp'd upon my brow;
For what care I who calls me well or ill,
So you o'er-green my bad, my good allow2?
You are my all-the-world, and I must strive
To know my shames and praises from your tongue;
None else to me, nor I to none alive,

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 +
Of others' voices, that my adder's sense
To critick and to flatterer ftopped are '.
Mark how with my neglect I do difpenfe :-
You are fo ftrongly in my purpose bred,

That all the world befides methinks they are dead".
CXIII.

Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind 7;
And that which governs me to go about,
Doth part his function, and is partly blind,
Seems feeing, but effectually is out?:

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.
8 Doth part bis function,-] That is, partly performs his office.

9 Seems feeing, but effectually is out :] So, in Machetb:
Dot. You see her eyes are open.

"Gent, Ay, but their fenfe is shut," STEEVENS

MALONE.

For

A

For it no form delivers to the heart
Of bird, of flower, or shape, which it c
Of his quick objects hath the mind no
Nor his own vifion holds what it doth o
For if it fee the rud'ft or gentleft fight,
The moft fweet favour2, or deformed'it
The mountain or the fea, the day or nig
The crow or dove, it shapes them to yo
Incapable of more, replete with you,
My most true mind thus maketh mine

CXIV.

Or whether doth my mind, being crown
Drink up the monarch's plague, this fla

▾ 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