PAGE 144 152 To set a form, &c.: by defining the change you desire. 153 heavy Saturn: the gloomy side of Nature; or, the saturnine spirit in life. 162 154 The lily, &c. I charged it with stealing the whiteness of thy hand. This Sonnet contains fifteen lines; a variation which suggests how the sonnet form might be judiciously expanded. a confined doom: a defined doom. And Peace proclaims, &c. The peace completed early in 1609, which ended the war between Spain and the United Provinces, might answer to the tone of this Sonnet. Mr. Massey dates it at the accession of James I and argues that the eclipse of the mortal moon refers to the death of Elizabeth Subscribes: submits. 165 a motley: a fool. Blenches: deviations. 166 eisel: vinegar. 167 charges has been here conjectured for changes. 168 latch: catch. Favour: face. 171 It is the star, &c.: apparently, whose stellar influence is unknown, although his angular altitude has been determined. 173 eager sour. 174 limbecks: alembics used in distillation. Applying fears, &c. : setting fears against hopes. 176 bevel: aslant; biassed like a bowl. 177 retention: the album, meant to retain memoranda. 179 state: seems to mean, circumstance. The fools of time, &c.: apparently, the plotters and political martyrs of the age. 180 mutual render: give-and-take. This sonnet appears directed against some one who had charged him with superficial love. 181 quietus: acquittance. 182 false esteem: false pretensions. 183 jacks: keys. 185 compare: comparison. 189 statute: security. A friend came, &c.: who became. 190 Let no unkind, &c. : let no unkindness, no fairspoken rivals destroy me. 192 a several plot: a plot severed for a time from a common. 193 This sonnet was published in the Passionate Pilgrim of 1599. Shakespeare was then in his thirty-fifth year. 201 202 203 [Foil d by]: another conjecture is Fool'd by. The original censures: judges. 208 None fairer, &c.: She is surpassed by no woman in fairness and in falseness. 214 shrieking harbinger: possibly, the screech-owl. 215 defunctive music: funeral music. That thy sable, &c.: appears an allusion to some legendary fancy 216 But in them: except in them. Property was, &c.: natural law was astonished to see a thing not identical with itself : PAGK 227 one of the many ingenious plays of fancy,-a fancy almost Threnos: dirge. Property seems here A LOVER'S COMPLAINT The form of this poem has some resemblance to the shorter pieces by or ascribed to Chaucer, such as the Complaint of the Black Knight: but in its power and concentration it is probably alone in our language as a Lyrical Elegy. Under those limitations in regard to style which have been already noticed, it is such a song as might have come from the old Aeolian or Ionic poet, Simonides, or Sappho, or Erinna. Passion as a law to itself, all for love, and this world well lost, if not the next also, were never painted with a more sad and musical intensity PAGE 220 Storming her world: filling herself and what was around her with storm. Napkin: handkerchief. Conceited characters: fanciful embroideries. Pelleted: formed into drops. 221 222 their carriage ride: move themselves. A careless hand, &c.: 223 grainéd bat: rough (?) stick. Let it not tell, &c.: observe this touch of nature! 224 Sawn: doubtful whether sown or seen. seems to mean either immortally young, or tiful. Bare: bareness. 225 became: graced. Manage: skill in riding. trim, &c. artificial accomplishments added grace. Phoenix down: celestially beau Their purposed nothing to his 229 teen sorrowful longing; desiderium; sehnsucht. Talents: precious gifts. Impleach'd intertwisted. PAGE 230 invised: a word said to occur only here; either visible in it, or invisible. Phraseless indescribable. What me, &c.: all of mine is your servant, and unites in offering itself to you. Whose rarest havings, &c. whose scantiest favours made youth dote on her. Playing the place, &c. this passage, and Love's arms are peace, &c., p. 232, appear hopelessly corrupt. 233 congest; combine. 231 234 In him a plenitude, &c.: his abundant subtlety, used for cunning designs. 235 seeming owed: apparently his own. INDEX OF FIRST LINES Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou growest Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good. But be contented: when that fell arrest Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me Come, thou Monarch of the vine. Crabbéd Age and Youth cannot live together. Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws 75 15 37 208 142 32 22 31 For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any 66 57 88 220 From you have I been absent in the Spring 153 46 Fair is my Love, but not so fair as fickle Fear no more the heat o' the sun. Get you hence, for I must go 8 Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love. How like a winter hath my absence been How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame I grant thou wert not married to my Muse. If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love I never saw that you did painting need If my dear love were but the child of state If She be made of white and red. If the dull substance of my flesh were thought If there be nothing new, but that which is If thou survive my well-contented day. In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes Is it thy will thy image should keep open Lawn as white as driven snow. Let me confess that we two must be twain I 83 93 103 105 152 183 47 150 137 138 12 179 99 114 87 191 50 196 65 116 5 35 91 171 160 Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest 59 Lord, how mine eyes throw gazes to the east. Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war Mine eye hath play'd the painter, and hath stell'd. ΙΟΥ 79 |