EXPLANATORY NOTES. To avoid little disfiguring notes, the following words should be remembered; they occur several times :-Fair: beauty. To unfair to deprive of beauty. To owe: to own. Amiss: fault. Counterfeit portrait. :: 6 Sonnet 23.-' By' verse' is evidently a misprint for my'; the poet means 'my immortal verse,' and not anybody's verse. Sonnet 42.-" My rose" was formerly applicable to young gentlemen as well as to young ladies; Ophelia says of Hamlet, that he was "the expectancy and rose of the fair state." Sonnet 45. None else to me, nor I to none alive, That my steel'd sense or changes, right or wrong.1 It must be granted, "this passage is obscure, and that there is probably a misprint;" if we read, "or changes right or wrong," it might be explained, "whatever I do, I am always in the wrong, therefore my steel'd sense (in reality, his indignant feelings) will make no change, no difference between right or wrong towards others;" he will judge them as they judge him. Sonnets 48 and 67.-Notwithstanding "his singularly majestic personal presence," it has been supposed, that he was lame, from certain expressions in these two sonnets; but in each instance it means lame in character and not in body. Thus in the 67th, "Speak of my lameness and I straight will halt," in other words say, I am lame, and straight I will be lame, has no meaning, or at least he was not bodily lame be 1 Ed. 1609. fore. The author means, Speak of my occupation as a player, and straight I will acknowledge it, as just cause for your forsaking me. In the 48th the meaning is less obscure, and is clearly pointed out in the 44th. ;. Not only was the position of a 'poor player' in the social scale essentially low caste,' but in those times there was a general belief, a deep-rooted prejudice, that a player must necessarily be a bad man, of irreligious and licentious habits; and Shakspere, being of a kind and genial disposition, was just the very subject, a rich prey for misrepresentations; how deeply he suffered at this period from these malignant scandalmongers may be seen in various sonnets. It has been well observed by Mr. C. Knight, that "the friendship of Southampton in all likelihood raised the humble actor to that just appreciation of himself, which could alone prevent his nature from being subdued to what it worked in." So disreputable was it to have any connection with the stage, that he says in the 94th, "I am shamed by that which I bring forth;" even the productions of him and his compeers, being addressed to the million, were looked down upon by the classicists and scholars of the day, as not belonging to the legitimate drama, but as something gross and barbarous—a Ragged School of poetry. Sonnet 96.-It has been observed, that in one passage, Shakspere appears to speak of committing suicide; this suspicion has arisen from a misconception of this line, "the coward conquest of a wretch's knife;" but the whole context of the two sonnets, 95 and 96, forbids the application of the term wretch to the writer himself; the meaning of the passage is, "this body, the coward conquest of death's knife;" and in the first line, "that fell arrest without all bail," surely means the hand of death. Sonnet 105.-Seconds.-There has been much discussion about the meaning of this word, &c. Seconds is an inferior kind of flour, second-best; the poet means, my oblation, my love is pure, and not mixed up with any inferior matter or base motive; it is not given to the Earl, high in favour at EXPLANATORY NOTES. 35 Court, nor to the rich and bounteous patron, but to Henry Wriothesley, "mutual render, only me for thee"; and it was on these terms, that years afterwards, the Earl spoke of him as "his especial friend"; the preceding stanza shows the meaning distinctly. [יי Sonnet 125.-"My most true mind thus maketh mine untrue.' Untrue is said to be here used as a substantive; but "my most true mind thus maketh my untruth," has no sense, or very little; there is evidently an error in the text; that "My most true mind thus maketh m' eye (or m' eyne) untrue," is the correct reading, is clearly shown by the first six lines of the sonnet, and by two lines in the next, "Or whether shall I say mine eye saith true, And that your love taught it this alchymy." Sonnet 134.-By regarding the sonnets as isolated, the 74th has been erroneously considered as addressed to a female; and that exquisite sonnet, the 134th, has been quite misunderstood, since the expression, "save in thy deeds," refers to "tyrannous," and "slander" has reference to the sixth line. Sonnet 155.— "Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, Fool'd by those rebel powers that thee array," in the Pictorial Shakspere, is the following note :—" In the original copy we have the following reading : 'Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, My sinful earth these rebel powers that thee array.' The received reading is a conjectural emendation by Malone. When the change in the text must rest wholly on conjecture, and some change is absolutely necessary, it appears to us that the change which has been established is in most cases better than any improvement." It appears, however, to me, that Malone's emendation is contrary to the spirit and pathos of the whole sonnet; the 1 Edition 1609. ་ soul is not made a fool of, but makes itself a slave to the body, as we say, such a man is the slave of his passions; I have, therefore, ventured to make another emendation, and respectfully lay it before the critical public : Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, |