Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me,
Because thou lov'ft the one, and I the other.
Dowland to thee is dear, whofe heavenly touch
Upon the lute doth ravish human sense;
Spenfer to me, whofe deep conceit is fuch,
As paffing all conceit, needs no defence.
Thou lov❜ft to hear the sweet melodious found,
That Phoebus' lute, the queen of mufick, makes;
And I in deep delight am chiefly drown'd,
Whenas himself to finging he betakes.

One god is god of both, as poets feign;
One knight loves both, and both in thee remain.
VII.

Fair was the morn, when the fair queen of love,

Paler for forrow than her milk-white dove",
For Adon's fake, a youngfter proud and wild;

3 Dowland to thee is dear,- —] Dowland was a celebrated Lutanift. The king of Denmark was fo much pleafed with him, that he requested king James to permit him to leave England. He accordingly went to Denmark, and died there. MALONE.

On the books of the Stationers' Company, on the 31st of October 1597, is entered "a booke called The first booke of Songs or Aires, made of Foure Parts, with Tribletures for the Lute, by John Dowland, Batcheler of Muficke." Again, July 16. 1600,"A booke called The Second Book of Songes or Ayres, of twoo, foure, and five Partes, with Tribletures for the Lute or Orpherion, with the Viol-de-gambo. Compofed by John Dowland, Bachelor of Mufick, and Lutanift unto the most famous Chriftian the 4th, by the grace of God, king of Denmark, Norway, &c." Again, in April 1604: "A book called Seven Teares of John Dowland, feigned in Seven Paffionate Pavans &c. and fet forth for the Lute &c. in five parts." There are other entries of the works of Dowland in fubfequent years, viz. 1608, &c. STEEVENS.

Spenfer to me, whofe deep conceit is fuch,] This feems to al lude to the Faery Queen. If fo, thefe Sonnets were not written till after 1590, when the first three books of that poem were pu blished. MALone.

Paler for forrow than her milk-white dove,] The line preced. ing this is loft. MALONE,

Her

Her ftand she takes upon a steep-up hill:..
Anon Adonis comes with horn and hounds;
She filly queen, with more than love's good will,
Forbade the boy he should not pafs thofe grounds;
Once, quoth fhe, did I fee a fair sweet youth.
Here in these brakes deep-wounded with a boar,
Deep in the thigh, a fpectacle of ruth!
See in my thigh, quoth fhe, here was the fore":
She fhowed hers; he faw more wounds than one,
And blufhing fled, and left her all alone.

VIII.

Sweet rofe, fair flower, untimely pluck'd, foon faded',

Pluck'd in the bud, and faded in the fpring!

See in my thigh, quoth he, here was the fore &c.] Rabelais hath fported with the fame thought in a chapter where he relateth the ftory of the Old Woman and the Lion. La Fontaine alfo indulgeth himself in Le Diable Papefiguiere, after a manner no whit more chastised:

"Bref auffi tôt qu'il apperçut l'enorme
"Solution de continuité,

"Il demeura fi fort épouvanté,

"Qu'il prit la fuite et laiffa-la Perrette."

The varlet Shakspeare, however, on this occafion might have remembered the ancient ballad of the Gelding of the Devil, which beginneth thus:

"A pretty jeft I will you tell &c."

And now I bethink me, fomewhat like the fame fancy occurreth in the Speculum Majus of Vincentius Bellovacenfis, otherwife Vincent de Beauvais. AMNER.

Sweet rofe &c.] This feems to have been intended for a dirge to be fung by Venus on the death of Adonis. MALONE.

-vaded in the Spring.] The verb fade throughout these little fragments &c. is always thus fpelt, either in compliance with ancient pronunciation, or in confequence of a primitive which perhaps modern lexicographers may feel fome reluctance to acknowledge. They tell us that we owe this word to the French fade; but I fee no reafon why we may not as well impute its origin to the Latin vado, which equally ferves to indicate departure, motion, and evanefcence. STEEVENS.

Bright orient pearl, alack! too timely fhaded! Fair creature, kill'd too foon by death's fharp fting! Like a green plumb that hangs upon a tree,

I

And falls, through wind, before the fall fhould be.

weep for thee, and yet no cause I have;
For why? thou left'ft me nothing in thy Will.
And yet thou left'ft me more than I did crave;
For why? I craved nothing of thee still:

O yes, dear friend, I pardon crave of thee;
Thy discontent thou didst bequeath to me.

IX.

Fair Venus with Adonis fitting by her,
Under a myrtle fhade, began to woo him:
She told the youngling how god Mars did try her',
And as he fell to her, the fell to him.

Even thus, quoth fhe, the warlike god embrac'd me;
And then the clip'd Adonis in her arms :
Even thus, quoth fhe, the warlike god unlac'd me,
As if the boy fhould use like loving charins.
Even thus, quoth fhe, he feized on my lips,
And with her lips on his did act the seizure;
And as the fetched breath, away he skips,
And would not take her meaning nor her pleasure.
Ah! that I had my lady at this bay,
To kifs and clip me till I run away!

Fair Venus with Adonis fitting by her,] The old copy reads:
Venus with Adonis fitting by her.

The defect of the metre fhows that a word was omitted at the prefs. This remark I owe to Dr. Farmer. MALONE.

She told the youngling how god Mars did try her,] See Feas and Adonis, ante, p. 409:

"I have been woo'd, as I entreat thee now,
"Even by the ftern and direful god of war, &c."

MALONE.

-how god Mars did try her,] So, Prior:

"By Mars himself that armour has been try’d.”

STEEVENS.

X.

2

Crabbed age and youth
Cannot live together;
Youth is full of pleafance,
Age is full of care:
Youth like fummer morn,
Age like winter weather;
Youth like fummer brave,
Age like winter bare.
Youth is full of fport,
Age's breath is fhort,

Youth is nimble, age is lame:

Youth is hot and bold,

Age is weak and cold;

Youth is wild, and age is tame.

Age, I do abhor thee,

Youth, I do adore thee;

O, my love, my love is young:

Age, I do defy thee* ;

O fweet fhepherd, hie thee,

For methinks thou ftay'ft too long.

2 Crabbed age and youth &c.] This little poem is likewife found in the Garland of Good-will, Part III. Dr. Percy thinks that it was" intended for the mouth of Venus, weighing the comparative merits of youthful Adonis and aged Vulcan." See the Reliques of Anc. Poet. vol. I. p. 337. 2d edit. MALONE.

As we know not that Vulcan was much more aged than his brethren, Mars, Mercury, or Phoebus, and especially as the fabled deities were fuppofed to enjoy a perpetuity of health, life, and pleasure, I am unwilling to admit that the laughter-loving dame difliked her husband on any other account than his ungraceful form and his lameness. He who could forge the thunderbolts of Jove, was furely in full ftrength, and equal to the task of discharging the highest claims and moft terrifying exactions even of Venus herself. I do not, in fhort, perceive how this little poem could have been put, with any fingular propriety, into the mouth of the queen of Love, if due regard were paid to the claffical fituation of her and her husband. STEEVENS.

* Age, I do defy thee;] I defpife or reject thee. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

I do defy thy conjuration." MAĻone,

XI.

Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good,
A fhining glofs, that fadeth fuddenly;
A flower that dies, when firft it 'gins to bud;
A brittle glafs, that's broken presently:

A doubtful good, a glofs, a glass, a flower,
Loft, faded, broken, dead within an hour.

And as goods loft are feld or never found,
As faded glofs no rubbing will refresh3,
As flowers dead, lie wither'd on the ground,
As broken glaís no cement can redress,

So beauty blemish'd once, for ever's loft,
In fpite of phyfick, painting, pain, and coft.

XII.

Good night, good reft. Ah! neither be my share:
She bade good night, that kept my rest away;
And daft me to a cabbin hang'd with care,

5

To defcant on the doubts of my decay.

3 As faded glofs no rubbing will refresh;] A copy of this poem faid to be printed from an ancient Mf. and published in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. XXIX. p. 39. reads:

As faded glofs no rubbing will excite ;

and in the correfponding line:

As broken glais no cement can unite. MALONE.

Read the first of thefe lines how we will, it is founded on a falfe pofition, Every one knows that the glofs or polifh on all works of art may be reflored, and that rubbing is the means of reftoring it. STEEVENS,

Shakspeare, I believe, alludes to faded filk, of which the colour, when once changed, cannot be restored but by a fecond dying. MALONE.

And daft me &c.] So, in Much Ado about Nothing:

canit thou fo daffe me?"

To daf, or deff, is to put off. STEEVENS.

To defcant on the doubts &c.] Defcant is mufical paraphrafe. See note on K. Richard III, laft edit. Vol. VII. p. 6.

STEEVENS.

Farewel,