"But quickly on this side the verdict went;
His real habitude gave light and grace
To appertainings and to ornament,
Accomplish'd in himself, not in his casea:

All aids, themselves made fairer by their place,
Can for additions; yet their purpos'd trim
Piec'd not his grace, but were all grac'd by him.
"So on the tip of his subduing tongue

All kind of arguments and questions deep,
All replication prompt, and reason strong,
For his advantage still did wake and sleep:
To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,
He had the dialect and different skill,
Catching all passions in his craft of will;
"That he did in the general bosom reign

Of young, of old; and sexes both enchanted,
To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain
In personal duty, following where he haunted:
Consents bewitch'd, ere he desire, have granted;
And dialogued for him what he would say,

Ask'd their own wills, and made their wills obey.

Many there were that did his picture get,

To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind;
Like fools that in the imagination set

The goodly objects which abroad they find

Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assign'd;

And labouring in mo pleasures to bestow them,
Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them;

"So many have, that never touch'd his hand,
Sweetly suppos'd them mistress of his heart.
My woeful self, that did in freedom stand,
And was my own fee-simple, (not in part,)
What with his art in youth, and youth in art,
Threw my affections in his charmed power
Reserv'd the stalk, and gave him all my flower.

a Case-outward show.

Can is the original reading; but Malone changed it to came, and he justifies the change by a passage in 'Macbeth,' Act I., Sc. 3, where he supposes the same mistake occurred. In that passage we did not receive the proposed correction; nor do we think it necessary to receive it here. Can is constantly used by the old writers, especially by Spenser, in the sense of began; and that sense, began for additions, is as intelligible as came for additions. For is used in the sense of as. There is a similar sarcastic thought in 'Timon,' where the misanthrope, addressing himself to the gold he had found, says

e

"Thou 'It go, strong thief,

When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand."

"Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
Demand of him, nor being desired yielded;
Finding myself in honour so forbid,

With safest distance I mine honour shielded:
Experience for me many bulwarks builded
Of proofs new-bleeding, which remain'd the foil.
Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil.
"But ah! who ever shunn'd by precedent
The destin'd ill she must herself assay?
Or forc'd examples, 'gainst her own content,
To put the by-pass'd perils in her way?
Counsel may stop a while what will not stay;
For when we rage, advice is often seen
By blunting us to make our wits more keen.

"Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,

That we must curb it upon others' proof,
To be forbid the sweets that seem so good,
For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.
O appetite, from judgment stand aloof!
The one a palate hath that needs will taste,
Though reason weep, and cry It is thy last.

"For further I could say, This man 's untrue,
And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling;
Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew,
Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling;
Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling;
Thought characters and words, merely but art,
And bastards of his foul adulterate heart.

"And long upon these terms I held my city,
Till thus he 'gan besiege me: Gentle maid,
Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity,
And be not of my holy vows afraid :
That's to you sworn, to none was ever said;
For feasts of love I have been call'd unto,

Till now did ne'er invite, nor never vow.

b

Love made them not; with acture they may be,

a Malone-and he is followed in all modern editions-puts a comma after thought, and says, “it is here, I believe, a substantive." Surely thought is a verb. We have a regular sequence of verbs -heard-saw-knew-thought. How can thought be art? the art is in the expression of the thoughts by "characters and words." He who said "words were given us to conceal our thoughts" is a better commentator upon the passage than Malone.

Acture is explained as synonymous with action.

66

Where neither party is nor true nor kind:

They sought their shame that so their shame did find;
And so much less of shame in me remains,

By how much of me their reproach contains.

'Among the many that mine eyes have seen,

Not one whose flame my heart so much as warm'd,

Or my affection put to the smallest teena,

Or any of my leisures ever charm'd:

Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harm'd;
Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free,
And reign'd, commanding in his monarchy.

"Look here what tributes wounded fancies sent me,
Of paled pearls, and rubies red as blood;
Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me
Of grief and blushes, aptly understood

In bloodless white and the encrimson'd mood;
Effects of terror and dear modesty,

Encamp'd in hearts, but fighting outwardly.

"And lo! behold these talents of their hair,
With twisted metal amorously impleach'd,
I have receiv'd from many a several fair,
(Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd,)
With the annexions of fair gems enrich'd,
And deep-brain'd sonnets that did amplify
Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality.

"The diamond, why 't was beautiful and hard,
Whereto his invis'dd properties did tend;
The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard
Weak sights their sickly radiance' do amend;
The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend
With objects manifold; each several stone,

With wit well blazon'd, smil'd or made some moan.

"But O, my sweet, what labour is 't to leave

The thing we have not, mastering what not strives?
Paling the place which did no form receive,
Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves:
She that her fame so to herself contrives,
The scars of battle 'scapeth by the flight,
And makes her absence valiant, not her might.

"O pardon me, in that my boast is true;
The accident which brought me to her eye,
Upon the moment did her force subdue,
And now she would the caged cloister fly:
Religious love put out religion's eye:
Not to be tempted, would she be immur'd,
And now, to tempt all, liberty procur'd.

"How mighty then you are, O hear me tell!
The broken bosoms that to me belong
Have emptied all their fountains in my well,
And mine I pour your ocean all among :

I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong,
Must for your victory us all congest,

As compound love to physic your cold breast.

a Suit. "The noble suit in court" is, we think, the suit made to her in court. Mr. Dyce says suitors.

Havings. Malone receives this as accomplishments—Mr. Dyce as fortune.

Blossoms-young men; the flower of the nobility.

Of richest coat-of highest descent.

Paling. In the old copy playing. Malone's emendation of paling is sensible as well as ingenious.

"My parts had power to charm a sacred sun,
Who, disciplin'd and dieted in grace,
Believ'd her eyes when they to assail begun,
All vows and consecrations giving place.
O most potential love! vow, bond, nor space,
In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine,
For thou art all, and all things else are thine.

"When thou impressest, what are precepts worth
Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame,
How coldly those impediments stand forth
Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame!

Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense, 'gainst shame,
And sweetens, in the suffering pangs it bears,

The aloes of all forces, shocks, and fears.

"Now all these hearts that do on mine depend,
Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine,
And supplicant their sighs to you extend,

To leave the battery that you make 'gainst mine,
Lending soft audience to my sweet design,
And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath
That shall prefer and undertake my troth.

face;

"This said, his watery eyes he did dismount,
Whose sights till then were levell'd on my
Each cheek a river running from a fount
With brinish current downward flow'd apace:
O how the channel to the stream gave grace!
Who, glaz'd with crystal, gate the glowing roses
That flame through water which their hue encloses.

"O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies

In the small orb of one particular tear!
But with the inundation of the eyes
What rocky heart to water will not wear?
What breast so cold that is not warmed here?
O cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath,
Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath!

"For lo! his passion, but an art of craft,
Even there resolv'd my reason into tears;

There my white stole of chastity I daff'd,

a And dieted. The old copy reads I died. A correspondent suggested the change to Malone. Gate-got, procured.

b

O cleft effect. The reading of the original is Or, cleft effect. Malone substituted “O cleft effect."

POEMS.

n