Beauty itself doth of itself perfuade
The eyes of men without an orator';
What needeth then apology be made
To fet forth that which is fo fingular?
Or why is Collatine the publisher

Of that rich jewel he thould keep unknown
From thievifh ears, because it is his own 2?

Perchance his boaft of Lucrece' fovereignty
Suggested this proud iffue of a king';
For by our ears our hearts oft tainted be:
Perchance that envy of fo rich a thing,
Braving compare, difdainfully did fting

His high-pitch'd thoughts, that meaner men fhould vaunt

The golden hap which their fuperiors want.

But fome untimely thought did instigate
His all-too-time lefs fpeed, if none of those :

1

Beauty itfelf doth of itfelf perfuade

The eyes of men without an orator;] So Daniel, in his Ro famond, 1599:

whose power doth move the blood
"More than the words or wisdom of the wife."

Again, in The Martial Maid, by B. and Fletcher :
66 filent orators, to move beyond

2

"The honey-tongued rhetorician." STEEVENS.

why is Collatine the publisher

Of that rich jewel he should keep unknown

From thievib ears, because it is his own?] Thus the old copies. The modern editions read: From thievish cares- MALONE.

The conduct of Lucretia's husband is here made to resemble that of Pofthumus in Cymbeline. The present sentiment occurs likewife in Muchado about Nothing: "The flat tranfgreffion of a school-boy; who being over-joyed with finding a bird's neft, fhows it his companion, and he steals it." STEEVENS.

3 Suggested this proud issue of a king ;] Suggested, I think, here means tempted, prompted, inftigated. So, in K. Richard II: "What Eve, what ferpent hath fuggefted thee "To make a fecond fall of curfed man?"

Again, in Love's Labour's Loft:

"Thefe heavenly eyes that look into these faults,
"Suggefted us to make." MALONE.

His honour, his affairs, his friends, his state,
Neglected all, with fwift intent he goes
To quench the coal which in his liver glows.
O`rafh-false heat, wrapt in repentant cold

Thy hafty fpring ftill blafts, and ne'er grows old!

When at Collatium this falfe lord arrived,
Well was he welcom'd by the Roman dame,
Within whose face beauty and virtue strived

which in his liver glows.] Thus the quarto, 1594. Some of the modern editions have grows.-The liver was formerly fuppofed to be the feat of love. MALONE.

5-wrapt in repentant cold,] The duodecimo, 1600, reads: -wrapt in repentance cold,

but it was evidently an error of the prefs. The firft copy has repentant. MALONE.

6

To quench the coal which in his liver glows.

aurapt in repentant cold,] So, in King John:
"There is no malice in this burning coal;
"The breath of heaven hath blown his fpirit out,
"And ftrew'd repentant ashes on his head."

STEEVENS.

Thy hafty Spring fill blafts, and ne'er grows old!] Like a tou early fpring, which is frequently checked by blights, and never produces any ripened or wholfome fruit, the irregular forward. nefs of an unlawful paffion never gives any folid or permanent sa→ tisfaction. So, in a fubfequent ftanza:

"Unruly blafts wait on the tender spring."

Again, in Hamlet:

"For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,
"Hold it a fashion and a toy of blood;

A violet in the youth of primy nature,
"Forward, not permanent; fweet, not lafting;
"The perfume and fuppliance of a minute:
"No more."

Again, in King Richard III:

Short fummers lightly have a forward spring."

Blafts is here a neutral verb.

In Venus and Adonis we meet nearly the fame fentiment:
"Love's gentle fpring doth alway fresh remain;
"Luft's winter comes ere summer half be done."

MALONE.

Which of them both should underprop her fame: When virtue bragg'd, beauty would blufh for fhame;

When beauty boafted blufhes, in defpite

Virtue would ftain that or with filver white?:

But beauty, in that white intituled,

From Venus' doves doth challenge that fair field;
Then virtue claims from beauty beauty's red,
Which virtue gave the golden age, to gild
Their filver cheeks, and call'd it then their fhield;

Virtue would fain that or with filver white.] The original edition exhibits this line thus:

Virtue would ftain that ore with filver white. Ore might certainly have been intended for o'er, (as it is given in the modern copies,) the word over, when contracted, having been formerly written ore. But in this way the paffage is not reducible to grammar. Virtue would stain that, i. e. blushes, o'er with filver white.-The word intended was, I believe, or, i. e. gold, to which the poet compares the deep colour of a blush.

The terms of heraldry in the next ftanza feem to favour this fuppofition; and the oppofition between or and the filver white of virtue is entirely in Shakspeare's manner. So, afterwards: Which virtue gave the golden age to gild

MALONE.

"Their filver cheeks. Shakspeare delights in oppofing the colours of gold and filver to cach other. So, in Macbeth:

"His filver fkin lac'd with his golden blood.”

We meet with a description, allied to the prefent one, in Much ado about Nothing:

66

-I have mark'd

"A thousand blushing apparitions

"To start into her face; a thousand innocent shames "In angel whiteness bear away those blushes."

STEEVENS.

in that white intituled,] I fuppofe he means, that con

fifts in that whiteness, or takes its title from it. STEEVENS.
Our author has the fame phrafe in his 37th Sonnet :
"For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
"Or any of these all, or all, or more,
"Intitled in their parts, do crowned fit-

MALONE.

Teaching

Teaching them thus to use it in the fight,-
When fhame affail'd, the red fhould fence the

white.

This heraldry in Lucrece' face was seen,
Argued by beauty's red, and virtue's white.
Of either's colour was the other queen,
Proving from world's minority their right:
Yet their ambition makes them ftill to fight;
The fovereignty of either being fo great,
That oft they interchange each other's feat.

This filent war of lilies and of rofes
Which Tarquin view'd in her fair face's field',
In their pure ranks his traitor eye encloses 1;

Where

2 in her fair face's field,] Field is here equivocally used. The war of lilies and rofes requires a field of battle; the heraldry in the preceding stanza demands another field, i. e. the ground or furface of a fhield or escutcheon armorial.

This filent war of lilies and of rofes

STEEVENS.

Which Tarquin view'd in her fair face's field,

In their pure ranks his traitor eye enclofes ;] There is here much confufion of metaphor. War is, in the first line, used merely to fignify the conteft of lilies and rofes for fuperiority; and in the third, as an army which takes Tarquin prisoner, and enclofes his eye in the pure ranks of white and red. Our authorhas the fame expreffion in Coriolanus: "Our veil'd dames

"Commit the war of white and damask in

"Their nicely-gawded cheeks, to the wanton fpoil
"Of Phoebus burning kiffes."

Were not the present phraseology so much in Shakspeare's man-
ner, we might read:

The filent band of lilies &c.

So, a little lower ;

"The coward captive vanquished doth yield

"To thofe two armies

Again, in a fubfequent stanza :

"Fearing fome bad news from the warlike band
"Where her beloved Collatinus lies."

The

477

Where, left between them both it should be kill'd,
The coward captive vanquished doth yield
To those two armies, that would let him
Rather than triumph in so false a foe,

go,

Now thinks he that her husband's fhallow tongue
(The niggard prodigal that prais'd her fo)
In that high task hath done her beauty wrong,
Which far exceeds his barren fkill to fhow:
Therefore that praise which Collatine doth owe",
Enchanted Tarquin anfwers with furmife,
In filent wonder of ftill-gazing eyes.

This earthly faint, adored by this devil,
Little fufpecteth the falfe worshipper;
For thoughts unftain'd do feldom dream on evil;
Birds never lim'd no fecret bufhes fear 3:
So guiltless fhe fecurely gives good cheer

And reverend welcome to her princely gueft,
Whofe inward ill no outward harm exprefs'd:

The copies however all agree in reading war, and I believe they are not corrupt. MALONE.

If the copies agree in reading war, for once they agree in a true reading. So, in The Taming of a Shrew:

"Haft thou beheld a fresher gentlewoman?

"Such war of white and red within her cheeks!" Again, in Venus and Adonis:

66 Oh, what a war of looks was then between them!”

STEEVENS, 2 Therefore that praife which Collatine doth owe,] Praife here fignifies the object of praife, i. e. Lucretia. To owe in old lan, guage means to poffefs. So, in Othello:

"Not poppy, nor mandragora.

"Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet fleep
"Which thou ow'dft yesterday." MALONE.

3 Birds never lim'd no fecret bushes fear:] So, in K. Heary Vḥ,

P. III:

"The bird that hath been limed in a bush,

With trembling wings mifdoubteth every bush."

STEEVENS.

For