3. Three winters cold. Dyce reads perhaps rightly 'winters' cold'. The Quarto in 3, 4, has Winters cold. . . fummers pride'.

4. Three fummers' pride. So Romeo & Juliet, A& 1. fc. 2, l. 10:—

Let two more fummers wither in their pride.

10. Steal from his figure, creep from the figure on the dial. So in Sonnet LXXVII., ' thy dial's fhady

Stealth'.

6

13. For fear of which, because I fear which.

CV. To the beauty praised in c., and the truth and beauty in CI., Shakspere now adds a third perfection, kindness; and these three fum up the perfections of his friend.

1, 4. Let not my love, etc. repetition of the fame praises worship'.-W. S. WALKER.

'Because the continual seemed like a form of Cf. CVIII. 1-8.

CVI. The laft line of Sonnet cv. declares that his friend's perfections were never before poffeffed by one perfon. This leads the poet to gaze backward on the famous perfons of former ages, men and women, his friend being poffeffor of the united perfections of both man and woman (as in Sonnets XX. and LIII).

8. Mafter, poffefs, own as a mafter. So King Henry v., A& II. fc. 4, 1. 137:

You'll find a difference

Between the promise of his greener days
And thefe he masters now.

9. Compare Conftable's Diana :

Miracle of the world,I never will deny

That former poets praife the beauty of their days; But all thofe beauties were but figures of thy praise, And all thofe poets did of thee but prophecy.

12. They had not skill enough. The Quarto has 'ftill enough'.

CVII. Continues the celebration of his friend, and rejoices in their restored affection. Mr. Massey explains this fonnet as a fong of triumph for the death of Elizabeth, and the deliverance of Southampton from the Tower. Elizabeth (Cynthia) is the eclipfed mortal moon of 1. 5; compare Antony & Cleopatra, A& ш. sc. 13, l. 153:—

Alack, our terrene moon (i.e. Cleopatra)

Is now eclipsed.

But an earlier reference to a moon-eclipse (xxxv. 1. 3) has to do with his friend, not with Elizabeth, and in the present sonnet the moon is imagined as having endured her eclipse, and come out none the less bright. I interpret (as Mr. Simpfon does, Philofophy of Shakspere's Sonnets, p. 79): 'Not my own fears (that my friend's beauty may be on the wane, Sonnet civ. 9-14) nor the prophetic foul of the world, prophefying in the perfons of dead knights and ladies your perfections (Sonnet CVI.), and fo prefiguring your death, can confine my lease of love to a brief term of years. Darkness and fears are past, the augurs of ill find their predictions

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

of men.

4. Suppofed, etc., fuppofed to be a leafe 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. Subfcribes, fubmits. As in The Taming of the Shrew, A& 1. fc. 1, 1. 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 same old things. But eternal love, in 'love's fresh case' (an echo of 'my love looks fresh', cvII. 10), knows no age, and finds what is old ftill 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 Sweet boy. Altered in ed. 1640 to Nothing fweet 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, caufe, question in general'; and Malone fays 'By the case 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 whofe years and outward form show the effects of age.

CIX. The first 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, A& n. fc. 2, 1. 118.

4. My foul which in thy breaft doth lie. So King Richard I., A& 1. fc. 1, 204

Even fo thy breaft 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 . fc. 6, 1. 35 :—

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

11. Stain'd. Staunton proposes 'ftrain'd'. 14. My rofe. Shakspere returns to the loving name which he has given his friend in Sonnet I.

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

here and there'.

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&Creffida, 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 friendfhips 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 :—

Meafure 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 reminiscence 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.

I. With Fortune. The Quarto has wish fortune'

10. Eifel, 'gainst my frong infection. Eifel or

P