falfified, doubts are over, peace has come in place of ftrife; the love in my heart is fresh and young (fee cvш. 1. 9), and I have conquered Death, for in this verse we both shall find life in the memories

of men.

4. Suppofed, etc., fuppofed to be a lease expiring within a limited term.

10. My love looks fresh. I am not sure whether this means the love in my heart', or 'my love' =my friend. Compare civ. 1. 8, and cvIII. 1. 9. Subscribes, fubmits. As in The Taming of the Shrew, A&t 1. fc. 1, l. 81.

12. Infults o'er, triumphs over. As in 3 King Henry VI., A& 1. sc. 3, l. 14.

CVIII. How can this poor rhyme' which is to give us both unending life (cvII. 10-14) be carried on? Only by saying over again the fame old things. But eternal love, in 'love's fresh cafe' (an echo of 'my love looks fresh', cvII. 10), knows no age, and finds what is old still fresh and young.

The

3. What new to regifter. So Malone. Quarto has 'What now'. Sidney Walker conjectures 'what's now to speak, what now, etc.'. 5. Nothing fweet boy. Altered in ed. 1640 to

'Nothing sweet love'.

9. Love's fresh cafe, love's new condition and circumstances, the new youth of love spoken of CVII. 10. But Schmidt explains 'cafe' here as 'question of law, cause, question in general'; and Malone fays By the cafe of love the poet means his own compofitions'.

·

13, 14. Finding the first conception of love, i.e. love as paffionate as at first, felt by one whose years and outward form show the effects of age.

CIX. The firft ardour of love is now renewed as in the days of early friendship (CVIII. 13, 14). But what of the interval of abfence and estrangement? Shakspere confeffes his wanderings, yet declares that he was never wholly false.

2. Qualify, temper, moderate, as in Troilus & Creffida, А& 11. fc. 2, 1. 118.

4. My foul which in thy breaft doth lie. Richard III., A& 1. fc. 1, 1. 204 :

So King

Even fo thy breast encloseth my poor heart.

7. Juft to the time, not with the time exchanged, punctual to the time, not altered with the time. So Jeffica in her boy's disguise, Merchant of Venice, Act II. fc. 6, 1. 35 :

:

I am glad 'tis night, you do not look on me,
For I am much ashamed of my exchange.

II. Stain'd. Staunton proposes ‘firain'd'. 14. My roje. Shakspere returns to the loving name which he has given his friend in Sonnet I.

CX. In crx. Shakspere has spoken of having wandered from his home of love'; here he continues the subject, Alas, 'tis true I have gone here and there'. This fonnet and the next are

commonly taken to express distaste for his life as a

player.

2. A motley, a wearer of motley, a fool or jester.

3. Gored mine own thoughts, deeply wounded my own thoughts. Troilus&Cresfida, А& ш. fc. 3,

1. 228: My fame is fhrewdly gored'. King Lear, A& v. fc. 3, 1. 320.

4. Made old offences, etc., entered into new friendships and loves which were tranfgreffions against my old love.

6. Strangely, in a distant, mistrustful way. 7. Blenches, ftarts afide.

A& iv. fc. 5, 1. 5 :

Measure for Measure,

Sometimes you do blench from this to that.

9. Now all is done, have what shall have no end. Malone accepted Tyrwhitt's conjecture, 'Now all is done fave, etc.'; but the meaning is, 'Now that all my wanderings and errors are over, take love which has no end'.

10. Grind, i.e. whet.

11. Newer proof, newer trial or experiment.

12. This line feems to be a reminifcence of the thoughts expreffed in Sonnet CV., and to refer to the First Commandment.

CXI. Continues the apology for his wanderings of heart, afcribing them to his ill fortune-that, as commonly understood, which compels him to a player's way of life.

1. With Fortune. The Quarto has wish fortune'

10. Eifel, 'gainst my frong infedion.

Eifel or

eyfell is vinegar. O. Fr. aissel, Gr. ógaλís. Skelton (quoted in Nares's Gloffary) fays of Jesus—

He drank eifel and gall.

Vinegar is esteemed very efficacious in preventing the communication of the plague and other contagious diftempers'.-MALONE.

CXII. Takes up the word 'pity' from cxI. 14, and declares that his friend's love and pity compenfate the dishonours of his life, spoken of in the last fonnet.

4. Allow, approve, as in King Lear, A& 11. fc. 4, 1. 194.

7, 8. No one living for me except you, nor I alive to any, who can change my feelings fixed as fteel either for good or ill (either to pleasure or pain). Malone propofed 'e'er changes'. Knight, 'fo changes.' 'Senfe' may be the plural.

11. Critic, cenfurer, as in Troilus & Creffida, A v. fc. 2, l. 131.

12. Difpenfe with, excufe, pardon. So Lucrece, 1. 1070, and 1. 1279:

Yet with the fault I thus far can dispense.

13. So frongly in my purpose bred. Schmidt gives as an explanation: 'So kept and harboured in my thoughts'.

14. They're dead. The Quarto has 'y'are'. Malone (1780) reads 'are', (1790) 'they are'; Dyce they're'. The Quarto y' th' they.

=

CXIII. In connexion with CXII.; the writer's mind and senses are filled with his friend; in CXII. he tells how his ear is ftopped to all other voices but one beloved voice; here he tells how his eye fees things only as related to his friend.

1. Mine eye is in my mind. Hamlet, A& 1. fc. 2, 1. 185: 'In my mind's eye, Horatio'. So too Lucrece, 1. 1426.

3.

Part his function, divide its function.

6. Latch, catch, feize. Macbeth, A& iv. sc. 3,

1. 195:

I have words

That would be howl'd out in the defert air
Where hearing should not latch them.

The Quarto has 'lack'.

10. Favour, aspect, appearance, countenance, as in Measure for Measure, Act IV. fc. 2, 1. 185.

6

14. Mine untrue. If we accept this, the text of the Quarto, we must hold' untrue' to be a substantive; explaining, with Malone, The fincerity of my affection is the cause of my untruth, i.e. my not seeing objects truly, fuch as they appear to the rest of mankind'. So in Meafure for Measure, A&t 11. fc. 4, 1. 170:

As for you,

Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true.

Malone proposed and withdrew 'makes mine eye untrue'. Collier, maketh my eyne untrue'; Lettfom, 'mak'th mine eye untrue'.

CXIV. Continues the subject treated in CXIII., and