Then childish fear avaunt! debating die!
Refpect and reason, wait on wrinkled age!
My heart shall never countermand mine eye:
Sad paufe, and deep regard befeem the fage';
My part is youth, and beats thefe from the ftage
Defire my pilot is, beauty my prize;

Then who fears finking where fuch treasure lies?"

As corn o'er-grown by weeds, fo heedful fear.
Is almost chok'd by unrefifted luft 2.
Away he steals with open liftening ear,
Full of foul hope, and full of fond mistrust;
Both which, as fervitors to the unjust,

So cross him with their oppofite.perfuafion,
That now he vows a league, and now invafion."

Within his thought her heavenly image fits,
And in the self fame feat fits Collatine:

That eye which looks on her, confounds his wits;
That eye which him beholds, as more divine,
Unto a view fo falfe will not incline;

Sad pause and deep regard befeems the fage ;] Sad, in ancient language, is grave. So, in Much ado about Nothing:

The conference was fadly borne❞ MALONE.

My part is youth, and beats thefe from the stage:] The poet feems to have had the conflicts between the Devil and the Vice of the old moralities, in his thoughts. In thefe, the Vice was always victorious, and drove the Devil roaring off the stage.

MALONE.

My part is youth,] Probably the poet was thinking on that particular interlude intitled Lufty Juventus. STEEVENS.

-

➡heedful fear

Is almoft chok'd by unrefifted luft.] Thus the old copy. So, in K. Henry IV:

"And yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd
"Chok'd the refpect of likely peril fear'd."

So alfo, Dryden:

"No fruitful crop the fickly fields return, "But docks and darnel choke the rifing corn." The modern editions erroneoufly read

-cloak'd by unrefifted luft. STEEVENS.

But

But with a pure appeal feeks to the heart,
Which once corrupted, takes the worfer part;
And therein heartens up his fervile powers,
Who, flatter'd by their leader's jocund fhow,
Stuff up his luft, as minutes fill up hours 3;
And as their captain, fo their pride doth grow,
Paying more flavish tribute than they owe.

By reprobate defire thus madly led,

The Roman lord marcheth to Lucrece' bed.

The locks between her chamber and his will,
Each one by him enforc'd, retires his ward ';
But as they open, they all rate his ill,
Which drives the creeping thief to fome regard":
The threshold grates the door to have him heard 7;
Night-wandring weefels fhriek to fee him

there;

They fright him, yet he ftill pursues his fear.

As

3 Stuff up bis luft, as minutes fill up hours;] So, in King Henry VI. P. III:

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- to fee the minutes how they run, "How many make the bour full-complete."

MALONE.

4 The Roman lord marcheth to Lucrece bed:] The edition of 1616 reads doth march. MALONE.

S retires his ward;] Thus the quarto, and the editions 1598 and 1600. That of 1616, and the modern copies, read, unintelligibly

Each one by one enforc'd, recites his ward.

Retires is draws back. Retirer, Fr. MALONE.

Which drives the creeping thief to fome regard :] Which makes him paufe and confider what he is about to do. So before: "deep regard befeems the fage." MALONE.

7

-to have him heard;] That is, to difcover him; to proclaim his approach." MALONE.

8

Night-andring weefels fbrick &c.] The property of the weefel is to fuck eggs. To this circumstance our author alludes in As you like it: "I fuck melancholy out of a fong, as a sweefel fucks eggs." Again, in K. Henry V :

"Fer

As each unwilling portal yields him way, Through little vents and crannies of the place The wind wars with his torch, to make him ftay, And blows the smoke of it into his face, Extinguishing his conduct in this cafe ;

But his hot heart, which fond défire doth scorch, Puffs forth another wind that fires the torch:

And being lighted, by the light he spies
Lucretia's glove, wherein her needle sticks;
He takes it from the rushes where it lies ';
And griping it, the neeld his finger pricks :
As who fhould fay, this glove to wanton tricks
Is not inur'd; return again in hafte ;

Thou feeft our mistress' ornaments are chaste.

But all these poor forbiddings could not stay him;
He in the worft fenfe conftrues their denial:
The doors, the wind, the glove that did delay him,

"For once the eagle England being in prey,
"To her unguarded neft the sweefel Scot

99

"Comes fneaking, and fo fucks her princely eggs." Perhaps the poet meant to intimate, that even animals intent on matrimonial plunder, gave the alarm at fight of a more powerful invader of the nuptial bed. But this is mere idle conjecture. STEEVENS.

9 Extinguishing his conduct in this cafe ;] Conduct for conductor. So, in Romeo and Juliet, act V. fc. i:

"Come bitter conduct, come unfavoury guide

See the note there. MALONE.

'He takes it from the rushes where it lies,] The apartments in England being strewed with rushes in our author's time, he has given Lucretia's chamber the fame covering. MALONE.

And griping it, the neeld his finger pricks:] Neeld for needle.

Our author has the fame abbreviation in his Pericles:

" Deep clerks the dumbs, and with her neeld compofes "Nature's own fhape"

Again, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

46 Have with our neelds created both one flower."

MALONE.

He

He takes for accidental things of trial;
Or as thofe bars which stop the hourly dial,
Who with a ling'ring ftay his courfe doth let,
Till every minute pays the hour his debt.

So, fo, quoth he, thefe lets attend the time,
Like little frofts that fometime threat the spring,
To add a more rejoicing to the prime*,

And give the Ineaped birds more caufe to fing.
Pain pays the income of each precious thing;
Huge rocks, high winds, ftrong pirates, thelves
: and fands,

The merchant fears, ere rich at home he lands.

Now is he come unto the chamber door

That shuts him from the heaven of his thought", Which with a yielding latch, and with no more, Hath barr'd him from the bleffed thing he fought. So from himself impiety hath wrought,

That for his prey to pray he doth begin 7,

As if the heavens fhould countenance his fin.

"

Who with a ling ring flay his courfe doth let,] To let, in ancient language, is to obftruct, to retard. So, in Hamlet:

66

I'll make a ghost of him that lets me.”

MALONE. 4 To add a more rejoicing] That is, a greater rejoicing. So, in K. Richard II:

"To make a more requital of your loves."

The prime is the spring. MALONE..

And give the fneaped birds] Sneaped is checkea. So, Falftaff, in K. Henry IV. P. II: "My lord, I will not undergo this neap without reply." MALONE.

• That shuts him from the heaven of his thought,] Thus, in The Comedy of Errors:.

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My food, my fortune, and my fweet hope's aim,
My fole earth's heaven- MALONE.

7 That for his prey to pray he doth begin,] A jingle not lefs difguting occurs in Ovid's narration of the fame event:

Hoftis ut hofpes init penetralia Collatina." STEEVENS.

But

1

But in the midft of his unfruitful prayer,
Having folicited the eternal power,

That his foul thoughts might compafs his fair fair,
And they would ftand aufpicious to the hour",
Even there he ftarts:-quoth he, I muft deflower;
The powers to whom I pray, abhor this fact,
How can they then affift me in the act?

Then Love and Fortune be my gods, my guide!
My will is back'd with refolution:

Thoughts are but dreams till their effects be tried,
The blackeft fin is clear'd with abfolution';
Against love's fire fear's froft hath diffolution.
The eye of heaven is out, and misty night
Covers the fhame that follows fweet delight.

This faid, his guilty hand pluck'd up the latch,
And with his knee the door he opens wide:
The dove fleeps faft that this night-owl will catch;
Thus treason works ere traitors be efpied.
Who fees the lurking ferpent, fteps afide;

8

might compafs his fair fair,] His fair beauty. Fair, it has been already obferved, was anciently used as a fubftantive. MALONE.

And they would ftand aufpicious to the hour,] This falle concord perhaps owes its introduction to the rhime. In the fecond line of the stanza one deity only is invoked; in the fourth line he talks of more. We must therefore either acknowledge the want of grammar, or read :

1

And he would stand aufpicious to the hour, &c.

The blackest fin is clear'd with abfolution;] The duodecimo, 1616, and the modern editions, read:

Black fin is clear'd with abfolution.

Our author has here rather prematurely made Tarquin a disciple of modern Rome. MALONE.

The eye of heaven-] So, in K. Richard II:

"All places that the eye of heaven vifits." STEEVENS.

Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

"

"Now ere the fun advance his burning eye

MALONE.

But