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; She is a woman, therefore to be won. 8. Till she have prevail'd. The Quarto has 'till he', which may be right. 9. Thou mightst my seat forbear. Malone reads Thou might'ft, my fweet, forbear'; but 'feat' is right, and the meaning is explained by Othello, Act II. fc. 1, 1. 304, (Iago jealous of Othello):— I do fufpect 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 fay that the lofs of his friend is the greater of the two. 10, 12. The 'lofs' and 'crofs' of these lines are spoken of in xxxiv. 11. Both twain. This is found also 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 neceffarily for a moment, but as in fleep. Compare Cymbeline, A& 11. fc. 3, II. 25, 26:: And winking Mary-buds begin 2. Unrespected, unregarded. 4. And darkly, etc. And illumined, although closed, are clearly directed in the darkness. 5. Whofe shadow shadows, etc. makes bright the shades of night. Whose image 6. Shadow's form, the form which cafts thy fhadow. 11. Thy. The Quarto has their. 13, 14. All days are nights to fee, etc. Malone proposed '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 See 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 dost stay. 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& 11. 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 fecond is the oppofition of the heart and the eye, i.e. of love and the fenfes. 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 sonnet 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 prefent. 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): My hart impofd this penance on mine eies, (Eies the firft caufers of my harts lamenting): That they should weepe till loue and fancie dies, Fond love the last cause of my harts repenting. Mine eies upon my hart infli& this paine (Bold hart that dard to harbour thoughts of loue) That it should loue and purchase fell difdaine, A grieuous penance which my heart doth proue, Mine eies did weep as hart had them impofed, My hart did pine as eies had it conftrained, etc. Sonnet xx. continues the fame: Hart faid that loue did enter at the eies, Eies faid that in the hart did sparkes arise, etc. Compare alfo Diana (ed. 1584), Sixth Decade, Sonnet VII. (Arber's English Garner, vol. ii. p. 254); and Drayton, Idea, 33. XLVIII. Line 6 of XLVI., in which Shakspere speaks of keeping his friend in the closet of his breaft:A clofet never pierced with cryflal eyes, fuggests XLVIII.; fee lines 9-12. I have faid he is safe in my breast; yet ah! I feel he is not. 11. Gentle clofure of my breast. So Venus & Adonis, 1. 782, 'the quiet closure of my breaft'. 14. Does not this refer to the woman, who has fworn love (CLII. 1. 2), and whose truth to Shakfpere (fpoken of in XLI. 13) now proves thievish? Compare Venus & Adonis, 1. 724, 'Rich preys make true men thieves'. XLIX. Continues the sad strain with which XLVII. clofes. 3. Caft his utmost fum, closed his account and caft up the sum total. 4. Advifed refpeas, deliberate, well-confidered reafons. So King John, A& iv. sc. 2, l. 214. 8. Reasons, i.e. for its conversion from the thing it was. 9. Enfconce, protect or cover as with a sconce or fort'.-DYCE. 10. Defert. Quarto defart, rhyming with part. L. This fonnet and the next are a pair, as XLIV. XLV. are, and XLVI. XLVII. The journey 1. 1 is that spoken of in XLVIII. 1. 1. 6. Dully. The Quarto has duly, but compare LI. 2, 'my dull bearer', and l. 11, no dull flesh'. LI. Companion to L. 6. Swift extremity, the extreme of fwiftness. So Macbeth, A& 1. fc. 4, l. 17:— Swifteft wing of recompence is flow. 7. Mounted on the wind. So 2 King Henry v. Induction, 1. 4, 'Making the wind my post-horse'. Compare Cymbeline, А& III. fc. 4, 1. 38; Macbeth, A& 1. fc. 7, 11. 21-23. 10. Perfed'. The Quarto has perfeds. II. Malone and other editors print: Shall neigh (no dull flefb) in, etc. i.e. Defire shall neigh, being no dull flesh, etc. But does it not mean, Desire, which is all love, shall neigh, |