is metaphorical; a disability to join in the joyous movement of life, as his friend does. In King Lear, A& iv. fc. 6, 1. 225, the Quartos read ‘A most poor man made lame by fortune's blows'. Capell and others conjectured that Shakspere was literally lame. Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven. 7. Entitled in thy parts do crowned fit. The Quarto reads their parts'; but the misprint their for thy happens feveral times. Schmidt accepts the Quarto text and explains, 'i.e. or more excellencies, having a just claim to the first place as their due. Blundering M. Edd. e. in thy parts'. 'Entitled means, I think, ennobled'.-MALONE. 'Perhaps'.-DYCE. Perhaps it means 'having a title in, having a claim upon', as in Lucrece, 57:: But beauty in that white [the paleness of Lucrece] intituled, From Venus' doves doth challenge that fair field. XXXVIII. The fame thought as that of the two preceding fonnets: Shakspere will look on, delight in his friend, and fing his praise. In XXXVII. 14, Shakspere is 'ten times happy' in his friend's happinefs and glory; thus he receives ten times the inspiration of other poets from his friend who is the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth' than the old nine Muses. XXXIX. In xxxvii. Shakspere declares that he will fing his friend's praises, but in xxxvII. he had spoken of his friend as the better part of himself. He now asks how he can with modefty fing the worth of his own better part. Thereupon he returns to the thought of xxXVI. 'we two must be twain'; and now, not only are the two lives to be divided, but 'our dear love'—undivided in XXXVI. -muft 'lofe name of fingle one'. 12. Doth. The Quarto has 'dost'. 13, 14. Abfence teaches how to make of the absent beloved two perfons, one, absent in reality, the other, prefent to imagination. XL. In XXXIX. Shakspere defires that his love and his friend's may be separated, in order that he may give his friend what otherwise he must give also to himself. Now, feparated, he gives his beloved all his loves, yet knows that, before the gift, all his was his friend's by right. Our love losing name of fingle one' (XXXIX. 6) suggests the manifold loves, mine and thine. 5. Then if for love of me thou receiveft her whom I love. 6. For, because: I cannot blame thee for using my love, i.e. her whom I love. 7, 8. The Quarto has 'this felfe' for thyfelf. Yet you are to blame if you deceive yourself by an unlawful union while you refuse loyal wedlock. 11. And yet love knows it. Printed by many editors, And yet, love knows, it'. 6 XLI. The thought of XL. 13, 'Lafcivious grace, in whom all ill well fhows' is carried out in this fonnet. 1. Pretty wrongs. Bell and Palgrave read petty. 5, 6. Compare 1 King Henry vi., A& v. sc. 3, 11. 77, 78: She's beautiful and therefore to be woo'd; 8. Till fhe have prevail'd. he', which may be right. The Quarto has 'till 9. Thou mightft my feat forbear. Malone reads 'Thou might'ft, my sweet, forbear'; but 'feat' is right, and the meaning is explained by Othello, Act II. fc. 1, 1. 304, (Iago jealous of Othello):I do fufped the lufty Moor Hath leap'd into my seat. Dr. Ingleby adds, as a parallel, Lucrece, 412, 413. XLII. In XLI. 13, 14, Shakspere declares that he lofes both friend and mistress; he now goes on to say that the loss of his friend is the greater of the two. 10, 12. The 'loss' and 'cross' of these lines are spoken of in XXXIV. II. Both twain. This is found alfo in Love's Labour's Loft, A& v. sc. 2, l. 459. XLIII. Does this begin a new group of Sonnets? 1. Wink, to close the eyes, not necessarily for a moment, but as in fleep. Compare Cymbeline, A& 11. fc. 3, 11. 25, 26: And winking Mary-buds begin 2. Unrefpeâed, unregarded. 4. And darkly, etc. And illumined, although closed, are clearly directed in the darkness. 5. Whofe fhadow shadows, etc. makes bright the fhades of night. Whose image 6. Shadow's form, the form which cafts thy fhadow. II. Thy. The Quarto has their. 13, 14. All days are nights to fee, etc. Malone propofed 'nights to me'. Steevens defending the Quarto text explains it 'All days are gloomy to behold, i.e. look like nights'. Mr. Lettfom proposed: [thee. All days are nights to me till thee I see, To fee till I see thee', is probably right in this fonnet, which has a more than common fancy for doubling a word in the same line, as in lines 4, 5, 6. XLIV. In XLIII. he obtains fight of his friend in dreams; XLIV. expreffes the longing of the waking hours to come into his friend's prefence by fome preternatural means. 4. Where thou doft ftay. I would be brought where (i.e. to where) thou dost stay. 9. Thought kills me. Perhaps thought' here means melancholy contemplation, as in Julius Cæfar A& п. fc. 1, l. 187, 'Take thought and die for Cæfar'. 10. So much of earth and water wrought. So large a proportion of earth and water having entered into my compofition. Twelfth Night, A& II. fc. 3, 1. 10, 'Does not our life confift of the four elements?' Antony & Cleopatra, A& v. fc. 2, 1. 292; King Henry v., Act III. fc. 7, 1. 22; 'He is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient ftillness, etc.' XLV. Sonnet XLIV. tells of the duller elements of earth and water; this fonnet, of the elements of air and fire. 9. Recured, reftored to wholeness and foundness. Venus & Adonis, 1. 465. 12. Thy fair health. The Quarto has their for thy. XLVI. AS XLIV. and XLV. are a pair of companion fonnets, so are XLVI. and XLVII. The theme of the first pair is the opposition of the four elements in the person of the poet; the theme of the second is the opposition of the heart and the eye, i.e. of love and the senses. 3. Thy pidure's fight. The Quarto has their, fo alfo in lines 8, 13, 14. 10. 10. A queft of thoughts, an inqueft or jury. XLVII. Companion fonnet to the last. :- 3. Famished for a look. Compare Sonnet LXXV. So Comedy of Errors, A& 11. fc. 1, l. 88 :Whilft I at home farve for a merry look. 10. Art present. The Quarto has are. II, 12. Not. Quarto nor. The fame thought which appears in XLV. Compare Sonnets xIx., xx. of Watson's Tears of Fancie, 1593 (Watson's Poems, ed. Arber, p. 188): |