To every hymn that able spirit affords,
In polish'd form of well-refined pen.
Hearing you prais'd, I fay, 'tis fo, 'tis true,
And to the moft of praise add fomething more;
But that is in my thought, whofe love to you,
Though words come hind-moft, holds his rank before.
Then others for the breath of words refpect,
Me for my dumb thoughts, fpeaking in effect.
LXXXVI.

Was it the proud full fail of his great verse,
Bound for the prize of all-too-precious you,
That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearfe,
Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew??
Was it his fpirit, by fpirits taught to write
Above a mortal pitch, that ftruck me dead?
No, neither he, nor his compeers by night
Giving him aid, my verfe aftonished.
He, nor that affable familiar ghoft
Which nightly gulls him with intelligence',
As victors, of my filence cannot boaft;

I was not fick of any fear from thence.

But when your countenance fil'd up his line,
Then lack'd I matter; that enfeebled mine.

• Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew?] So, in Romeo and Juliet :

"The earth that's nature's mother, is her tomb "What is her burying grave that is her womb.” Again, in Pericles:

"For he's their parent and he is their grave."

So alfo, Milton:

"The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave."

-that affable familiar ghoft

MALONE.

Which nightly gulls him with intelligence,] Alluding perhaps to the celebrated Dr. Dee's pretended intercourse with an angel, and other familiar fpirits. STEEVENS.

2

-fil'd up his line,] i. e. polish'd it. So, in Ben Jonfon's Verses on Shakspeare:

"In his well-torned and true-filed lines." STEEVENS.

LXXXVII.

LXXXVII.

Farewel! thou art too dear for my poffeffing,
And like enough thou know'ft thy estimate:
The charter of thy worth gives thee releafing;
My bonds in thee are all determinate.

For how do I hold thee but by thy granting?
And for that riches where is my deferving?
The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,
And fo my patent back again is fwerving.
Thyfelf thou gav'ft, thy own worth then not knowing,
Or me, to whom thou gav'ft it, else mistaking;
So thy great gift, upon mifprifion growing,
Comes home again, on better judgment making.
Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter,
In fleep a king, but waking, no fuch matter.

LXXXVIII.

When thou shalt be difpos'd to fet me light,
And place my merit in the eye of Scorn3,
Upon thy fide against myself I'll fight,

And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forfworn.
With mine own weakness being beft acquainted,
Upon thy part I can fet down a story

Of faults conceal'd, wherein I am attainted+;
That thou, in lofing me, fhall win much glory:
And I by this will be a gainer too;

For bending all my loving thoughts on thee,
The injuries that to myfelf I do,

Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me.

*In fleep a king,-] Thus, in Romeo and Juliet :

66

-I dreamt &c.

"That I reviv'd and was an emperor." STEEVENS. 3 And place my merit in the eye of Scorn,] Our author has again perfonified Scorn in Othello:

"A fixed figure, for the time of Scorn

"To point his flow unmoving finger at." MALONE. -1 can fet down a fiory

Of faults conceal'd, wherein I am attainted;] So, in Hamlet: but yet I could accufe me of fuch things, that it were better my mother had not borne me." STEEVENS.

Such

Such is my love, to thee I fo belong,

That for thy right myfelf will bear all wrong.

LXXXIX.

Say that thou didst forfake me for fome fault,
And I will comment upon that offence :
Speak of my lameness, and I ftraight will halt;
Against thy reafons making no defence.
Thou canst not, love, difgrace me half fo ill,
To fet a form upon defired change,

As I'll myself difgrace: knowing thy will,
I will acquaintance ftrangle, and look ftrange;
Be abfent from thy walks; and in my tongue
Thy sweet-beloved name no more fhall dwell;
Left I (too much profane) fhould do it wrong,
And haply of our old acquaintance tell.

For thee, against myself I'll vow debate,

For I must ne'er love him whom thou doft hate.
XC.

Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;
Now while the world is bent my deeds to cross,
Join with the fpite of fortune, make me bow,
And do not drop in for an after-lofs:

Ah! do not, when my heart hath fcap'd this forrow,
Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe*;

5 I will acquaintance ftrangle,

fa

-] I will put an end to our miliarity. This fingular expreffion is likewife ufed by Daniel in

his Cleopatra, 1594:

Rocks frangle up thy waves,

"Stop cataracts thy fall!" MALONE.

This uncouth phrase seems to have been a favourite with Shakfpeare, who ufes it again in Macbeth:

6

"night ftrangles the travelling lamp." STEEVENS.

• Be abfent from thy walks ;] So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;

Hop in his walks." MALONE.

Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe ;] So, in Romeo and

Juliet:

"But with a rearward following Tybalt's death &c." STEEV.

Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purpos'd overthrow.

If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
When other petty griefs have done their fpite,
But in the onfet come; fo fhall I tafte

At first the very worst of Fortune's might;
And other ftrains of woe, which now feem woe,
Compar'd with lofs of thee, will not feem fo.

XCI.

Some glory in their birth, fome in their skill,
Some in their wealth, fome in their body's force;
Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill,
Some in their hawks and hounds, fome in their horfe;
And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure,
Wherein it finds a joy above the rest;
But these particulars are not my measure,
All these I better in one general beft.
Thy love is better than high birth to me,
Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' coft',
Of more delight than hawks or horfes be;
And having thee, of all men's pride I boaft.
Wretched in this alone, that thou may'st take
All this away, and me moft wretched make.

XCII.

But do thy worst to steal thyself away,
For term of life thou art affured mine;
And life no longer than thy love will stay,
For it depends upon that love of thine.
Then need I not to fear the worst of wrongs,
When in the leaft of them my life hath end.

Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' coft,] So, in

Cymbeline:

Richer than doing nothing for a bauble;
Prouder than ruffling in unpaid-for filk." STEEVENS.

I fee a better ftate to me belongs

Than that which on thy humour doth depend.
Thou canst not vex me with inconftant mind,
Since that my life on thy revolt doth lie.
O what a happy title do I find,

Happy to have thy love, happy to die!

But what's fo bleffed-fair that fears no blot ?-
Thou may'ft be false, and yet I know it not:

XCIII.

So fhall I live, fuppofing thou art true,
Like a deceived husband; fo love's face

May

8 So fhall I live, fuppofing thou art true, Like a deceived husband; ] Mr. Oldys obferves in one of his manufcripts, that this and the preceding Sonnet" feem to have been addreffed by Shakspeare to his beautiful wife on fome fufpicion of her infidelity." He must have read our author's poems with but little attention; otherwise he would have seen that these, as well as all the preceding Sonnets, and many of those that follow, are not addreffed to a female. I do not know whether this antiquarian had any other authority than his mifapprehenfion concerning these lines, for the epithet by which he has described our great poet's wife. He had made very large collections for a life of our author, and perhaps in the courfe of his researches had learned this particular. However this may have been, the other part of his conjecture (that Shakspeare was jealous of her) may perhaps be thought to derive fome probability from the following circumstances. It is obfervable, that his daughter, and not his wife, is his executor; and in his Will, he bequeaths the latter only an old piece of furniture; nor did he even think of her till the whole was finished, the claufe relating to her being an interlineation. What provifion was made for her by fettlement, does not appear. It may likewife be remarked, that jealoufy is the principal hinge of four of his plays; and in his great performance (Othello) fome of the paffages are written with fuch exquifite feeling, as might lead us to fufpect that the author had himself been perplexed with doubts, though not perhaps in the extreme.-By the fame mode of reafoning, it may be faid, he might be proved to have ftabbed his friend, or to have had a thankless child; because he has fo admirably. described the horror confequent on murder, and the effects of filial ingratitude, in K. Lear, and Macbeth He could indeed affume all fhapes; and therefore it must be acknowledged that the pre

fent