LXXVI. WHY is my verse so barren of new pride? To new-found methods and to compounds strange? And keep invention in a noted weed, That every word doth almost tell my name, Showing their birth, and where they did proceed? So all my best is dressing old words new, For as the sun is daily new and old, 4 8 12 14 LXXVI. May be regarded as an answer to objections which the poet imagined as made against his Sonnets, or which possibly had been really made by a rival, that they contained no brilliant novelties, and that their mode of expression displayed, not versa. tility, but a monotonous repetition which proclaimed the author in almost every word. The poet does not deny the charge, but replies that he is always descanting on the same old theme-his friend, and the constant affection he bears towards him. 1 So barren of new pride.—So destitute of novel imagery, diction, &c. 2-4 These lines may allude to Shakespeare's unwillingness to adopt the mode of expression and the poetical form employed by his rivals. 4 The new-found methods and the compounds strange may very well refer to the novel compound words employed by Chapman to express Homeric epithets. In the Address "To the Understander" prefixed to the Shield of Achilles (1598), Chapman defends himself against the charge of introducing new words without propriety, and cites the example of Chaucer. Chapman's critics are like a brood of frogs from a ditch, desiring "to have the ceaseless flowing river of our tongue turned into their frog-pool." 6 Keep invention in a noted weed.-Express and clothe my thoughts in the same familiar dress. 7 Tell.-Q. has "fel." 11 My best is dressing old words new.-Making but a slight difference in the expressions. The poet, no doubt, means thus to imply the constancy of his affection. LXXVII. THY glass will show thee how thy beauties wear, Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find These offices, so oft as thou wilt look, Shall profit thee, and much enrich thy book. 8 12 14 LXXVII. The view is probably correct which takes this and the two preceding Sonnets as forming a distinct group, and which infers that when they were sent to Mr. W. H. there was sent with them a present consisting of a mirror, a sundial, and a manuscript-book, each of these being in some sort symbolical, betokening the decay of beauty, the never-resting progress of time, and the antidote to both time and decay to be found in literary composition. 1 Wear.-Q. "were." 3 The vacant leaves.-That is, as I think, the whole of the leaves of the manuscript-book. I do not feel able to accept the view of Dowden that Shakespeare sent to Mr. W. H. a manuscript-book partially vacant, as an intimation of unwillingness to write any more Sonnets, on account of the favour shown to the rival-poet. 4 This learning may'st thou taste. This lesson may'st thou derive. 5_12 The lesson is, that while wrinkles seen in the mirror foretoken the approach of Death and the shadow stealing round the dial, the "thievish progress of Time," security against oblivion may be found by committing thought to writing. 6 Mouthed graves.-A stronger expression than the "lines," "parallels," and "trenches," which had been previously used of wrinkles; and this is in accordance with the deeper melancholy of these later Sonnets. 10 Blanks. I have adopted the emendation of Theobald. Q. has "blacks," which could only be defended on the supposition of a note-book whose leaves were prepared with some black substance. Waste will equal the "vacant of 1. 3. 11 Notice that literary children, "children of the brain," have taken the place of the natural children of the first Sonnets. This is in accord with the deepened melancholy. 12 To take a new acquaintance.-They will become "objective," and objects of great interest. 13 These offices.-"The delivery from the brain," and nursing" or moulding into due form of these literary children, will, as often as you look at them with parental care and affection, &c. LXXVIII. So oft have I invok'd thee for my Muse, And found such fair assistance in my verse, Thine eyes, that taught the dumb on high to sing, Have added feathers to the learned's wing, And given grace a double majesty. Yet be most proud of that which I compile, 8 In others' works thou dost but mend the style, 12 14 LXXVIII. There is now a more distinct mention of the rivalry previously alluded to. Shakespeare, however, claims special regard from his friend and patron, alleging that, destitute of learning, his friend alone had inspired his verses. 3 As.-That. It may be doubted whether the words "every alien pen' require us to suppose that Shakespeare had more than one rival in the favour of Mr. W. H. See lxxix. 4. Got my use." Acquired my habit [of writing verse to you]."-Dowden. 4 Under thee.-Under thy auspices. 7 The learned's wing.-To the wing of the poet's "learned" rival. The word "learned" suits very well the Greek scholar, Chapman. 8 A double majesty.—An expression quite suitable if Shakespeare has in view Chapman's Homeric translation. 9 Compile.-Compose. 10 Born of thee.-Q. has "borne," and it is just possible that this may mean "supported and borne aloft by thee." But cf. Introd., p. 14. 12, 13 Arts-art.-May be understood of "learning." Cf. lxvi. 9. But there is reference here to poetical style. LXXIX. WHILST I alone did call upon thy aid, He lends thee virtue, and he stole that word 8 12 14 LXXIX. Mentions more expressly a single rival, to whom, it is alleged, Mr. W. H. is under no obligation whatever, while Shakespeare's verse meanwhile suffers; his Muse is "sick." 2 Thy gentle grace.-Thy gentle and gracious influence. 5 Thy lovely argument.-The subject of thy beauty. 7 Thy poet. That is, the rival of Shakespeare. What of thee.-What concerning thee. 8_10 Notice the derogatory expressions robs and stole. Virtue—behaviour. Cf. lxx., especially lines 8-10, as to Mr. W. H.'s "virtue." LXXX. O, HOW I faint when I of you do write, On your broad main doth wilfully appear. The worst was this ;-my love was my decay. 8 12 14 LXXX. Speaks apparently of poems composed by the rival-poet in praise of Mr. W. H., which have not come down to us. Shakespeare and his rival are compared to two vessels floating on the broad ocean of Mr. W. H.'s patronage. Shakespeare's verse is but a slight and worthless boat "saucily" and "wilfully" presuming on Mr. W. H.'s favour. But his rival "rides on a soundless deep,' a ship "of tall building and of goodly pride; a description suitable to the position that Shakespeare's rival was George Chapman. Contemplating his rival's superior powers, which are all engaged in Mr. W. H.'s praise, Shakespeare professes to lose heart and "faint." 2-4 The "better spirit," the poet of supposed superior endowments, endeavours by the superiority of his verses, to stop Shakespeare's utterances. 7 My saucy bark.-Cf. Troilus and Cressida, Act i. sc. 3, lines 35-45, and Act ii. sc. 3, end: "The sea being smooth, How many shallow bauble boats dare sail Upon her patient breast, making their way With those of nobler bulk! But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage The gentle Thetis, and, anon, behold The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut, Bounding between the two moist elements, Like Perseus' horse: where's then the saucy boat, Co-rivall'd greatness? either to harbour fled, Or made a toast for Neptune." "Let Achilles sleep: Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep." Inferior far to his.-Self-depreciation of this kind is, of course, not to be taken too literally. 14 My love was my decay.-That is, the cause of my ruin, by impelling me to write poems in your praise, and bringing bitter disappointment. |