Yet then my judgment knew no reason why
My moft full flame fhould afterwards burn clearer.
But reckoning time, whofe million'd accidents
Creep in 'twixt vows, and change decrees of kings,
Tan facred beauty, blunt the fharp'ft intents,
Divert ftrong minds to the courfe of altering things;
Alas! why, fearing of time's tyranny,

Might I not then fay, now I love you beft,
When I was certain o'er incertainty,
Crowning the prefent, doubting of the reft?
Love is a babe; then might I not fay fo,
To give full growth to that which still doth grow
CXVI.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds +
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove :
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempefts, and is never fhaken;
It is the ftar to every wandering bark,

Whofe worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds] To the fympathetick union of fouls. So, in Romeo and Juliet [4to, 1599]:

"Examine

every married lineament

Love is not love

-Love's not love,

MALONE.

Which alters when it alteration finds, &c.] So, in K. Lear:

66

"When it is mingled with regards, that stand

"Aloof from th' entire point.'

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

STEEVENS.

That looks on tempefts and is never shaken ;] So, in K.

Henry VIII:

though perils did

Abound, as thick as thought could make them, and "Appear in forms more horrid, yet my duty,

"As doth the rock against the chiding flood,

"Should the approach of this wild river break,
"And fand unfbaken yours."

Again, in Coriolanus:

"Like a great fea-mark, fanding every flaw,
"And faving those that eye thee." MALONE.

Love's not Time's fool 7, though rofy lips and cheeks
Within his bending fickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

CXVII.

Accufe me thus; that I have fcanted all
Wherein I fhould your great deferts repay;
Forgot upon your dearest love to call,
Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day';
That I have frequent been with unknown minds,
And given to time your own dear-purchas'd right;
That I have hoifted fail to all the winds

Which fhould tranfport me farthest from your fight.
Book both my wilfulness and errors down,
And on juft proof, furmife accumulate,
Bring me within the level of your frown
But shoot not at me in your waken'd hate*:
Since my appeal fays, I did ftrive to prove
The conftancy and virtue of
your love.

1 Love's not Time's fool,] So, in K. Henry IV. P. I: "But thought's the flave of life, and life Time's fool."

MALONE.

• But bears it out even to the edge of doom.] So, in All's Well that ends Well:

"We'll strive to bear it for your worthy fake,

"To the extreme edge of hazard." MALONE. Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day;] So, in K. Rich. II: "There is my bond of faith,

"To tie thee to my trong correction." MALONE. Bring me within the level of your frown,] So, in King Henry VIII:

I ftood the level

"Of a full-charg'd confpiracy." STEEVENS.
your waken'd hate:] So, in Othello:

Than anfwer my wak'd wrath." STEEVENS.

CXVIII.

Like as, to make our appetites more keen,
With eager compounds we our palate urge;
As, to prevent our maladies unfeen,

We ficken to fhun fickness, when we purge;
Even fo, being full of your ne'er-cloying fweetnefs,
To bitter fawces did I frame my feeding,

And, fick of welfare, found a kind of meetness
To be difeas'd, ere that there was true needing.
Thus policy in love, to anticipate

The ills that were not, grew to faults affured,
And brought to medicine a healthful state,
Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cured.
But thence I learn, and find the leffon true,

Drugs poifon him that fo fell fick of you.

CXIX.

What potions have I drunk of Syren tears,
Diftil'd from limbecks foul as hell within,
Applying fears to hopes, and hopes to fears,
Still lofing when I'faw myfelf to win!

What wretched errors hath my heart committed,
Whilft it hath thought itself fo blessed never!
How have mine eyes out of their fpheres been fitted,
In the distraction of this madding fever!

3 rank of goodness,] So, in Antony and Cleopatra : "Rank of grofs diet." STEEVENS.

How have mine eyes out of their fpheres been fitted

In the diffraction of this madding fever !] How have mine eyes been convulfed during the frantick fits of my feverous love! So, in Macbeth:

"Then comes my fit again; I had elfse been perfect, "Whole as the marble &c."

The participle fitted, is not, I believe, used by any other author, in the fente in which it is here employed. MALONE.

We meet in Hamlet the fame image as here:

“Make thy two eyes, like ftars, Hart from their spheres."

STEEVENS.

O be

O benefit of il!! now I find true

That better is by evil ftill made better

And ruin'd love, when it is built anew *,

Grows fairer than at firft, more ftrong, far greater.
So I return rebuk'd to my content,

And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent.
CXX.

That you were once unkind, befriends me now,
And for that forrow, which I then did feel,
Needs must I under my tranfgreffion bow,
Unless my nerves were brafs or hammer'd fteel.
For if you were by my unkindness shaken,
As I by your's, you have pafs'd a hell of time";
And I, a tyrant, have no leifure taken
To weigh how once I fuffer'd in your crime.
O that our night of woe might have remember'd?
My deepest sense, how hard true forrow hits,
And foon to you, as you to me, then tender'd
The humble falve which wounded bofom fits!
But that your trefpafs now becomes a fee;
Mine ranfoms your's, and your's must ransom me.

5 O benefit of ill! now I find true

That better is by evil ftill made better;] So, in As you like it? "Sweet are the ufes of adverfity.' "" STEEVENS. * And ruin'd love, when it is built anerv,] So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"Shall love in building grow fo ruinate?" MALONE
-you have pa'da hell of time;] So, in Othello:
"But oh, what damned minutes tells he o'er,

"Who doats, yet doubts, fufpects, yet strongly loves."

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"And that deep torture may be call'd a hell,

"Where more is felt than one hath power to tell."

Again, in K. Richard III:

for a feafon after,

MALONE.

"Could not believe but that I was in hell." STEEVENS. might have remember'd] That is, might have reminded. So, in K. Richard II:

7

"It doth remember me the more of forrow." MALONE.

CXXI.

'Tis better to be vile, than vile esteem'd,
When not to be receives reproach of being,
And the just pleasure loft, which is fo deem'd
Not by our feeling, but by others' feeing.
For why fhould others' falfe adulterate eyes
Give falutation to my sportive blood?
Or on my frailties why are frailer fpies,

Which in their wills count bad what I think good?
No, I am that I am; and they that level

At my abuses, reckon up their own:

I may be ftraight, though they themselves be bevel; By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown; Unless this general evil they maintain,

All men are bad and in their badness reign.

CXXII.

Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
Full character'd with lafting memory',
Which fhall above that idle rank remain,
Beyond all date, even to eternity:
Or at the leaft fo long as brain and heart
Have faculty by nature to fubfift';

66

-I am that I am, -] So, in K. Richard III:
I am myself alone." STEEVENS.

bevel;] i. e. crooked; a term used only, I believe, by mafons and joiners. STEEVENS.

within my brain

Full character'd with lafting memory,] So, in Hamlet: 66 from the table of my memory

"I'll wipe away all trivial fond records

"And thy commandment all alone shall live

"Within the book and volume of my brain." MALONE. Or at the leaft fo long as brain and heart

Have faculty by nature to fubfift;] So, in Hamlet:

Remember thee?

Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a feat

In this distracted globe." STEEVENS.