But why thy odour matcheth not thy show,

The folve is this ',-that thou dost common grow.

LXX.

That thou art blam'd shall not be thy defect,
For flander's mark was ever yet the fair;
The ornament of beauty is fufpect 2,
A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.
So thou be good, flander doth but approve

Thy worth the greater, being woo'd of time 3;

The folve is this,—] This is the solution. The quarto reads:
The folve is this,-.

I have not found the word now placed in the text, in any authour; but have inferted it rather than print what appears to me unintelligible. We meet with a fimilar fentiment in the 102d Sonnet:

"-sweets grown common lofe their dear delight."

The modern editions read: The toil is this. MALONE.

I believe we should read: The fole is this,-i. e. here the only ex planation lies; this is all. STEEVENS.

2 The ornament of beauty is fufpect,] Sufpicion or flander is a conftant attendant on beauty, and adds new luftre to it. Sufpe& is used as a fubftantive in K. Henry VI. P. II. See Vol. VI. p. 168, n. 9. Again, by Middleton in A Mad World my Mafters, a comedy, 1608:

"And poize her words i' the ballance of fufpect." MALONE. 3 Thy worth the greater, being woo'd of time; The old copy as in many other places, reads corruptly-Their worth, &c.

here,

I ftrongly fufpect the latter words of this line alfo to be corrupt. What idea does worth woo'd of [that is, by] time, prefent?-Perhaps the poet means, that however flandered his friend may be at prefent, his worth fhall be celebrated in all future time. MALONE.

Perhaps we are to disentangle the tranfpofition of the paffage, thus: So thou be good, flander, being woo'd of time, doth but approve thy worth the greater. i. e. if you are virtuous, flander, being the favorite of the age, only ftamps the stronger mark of approbation on your merit.

I have already fhewn, on the authority of Ben Jonfon, that "of time" means, of the then prefent one. See note on Hamlet, A&t II. fc. i. STEEVENS.

Might we not read-being wood of time? taking wood for an epithet applied to flander, fignifying frantic, doing mifchief at random. Shakfpeare often ufes this old word. So, in Venus and Adonis:

"Life-poifoning peftilence, and frenzies wood."

I am far from being satisfied with this conjecture, but can make no fenfe of the words as they are printed. C.

For

For canker vice the fweeteft buds doth love +,
And thou prefent'ft a pure unstained prime.
Thou haft pafs'd by the ambush of young days,
Either not affail'd, or victor being charg'd;
Yet this thy praife cannot be fo thy praise,
To tie up envy, evermore enlarg'd:

If fome fufpects of ill mafk'd not thy fhow,
Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts should'st owe".

LXXI.

No longer mourn for me when I am dead,
Than you shall hear the furly fullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled7
From this vile world, with vileft worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so,
That I in your fweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O if (I fay) you look upon this verfe,
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,

4 For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,] So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"As in the fweetest buds

"The eating canker dwells, fo eating love
"Inhabits in the finest wits of all." C,

Again, ibidem:

-as the moft forward bud

"Is eaten by the canker, ere it blow,

"Even fo by love the young and tender wit

Is turn'd to folly; blafting in the bud,

"Lofing his verdure even in the prime," &c. MALONE.

5 If fome fufpect-] See p. 250, n. 2.

MALONE.

6-hould ft owe.] That is, hould poffefs. See Vol. IV. p. 473, n. 7.

7 Than you shall bear the furly fullen bell

P. II:

MALONE.

Give warning to the world that I am fled-] So, in K. Henry IV.

"Sounds ever after as a fullen bell,
"Remember'd knolling a departed friend."

8 When I perhaps compounded am with clay,] blended. So, in King Henry IV. P. II.

MALONE. Compounded is mixed,

"Only compound me with forgotten duft." MALONE.

Do

1

Do not fo much as my poor name reh
But let your love even with my life de
Left the wife world fhould look into
And mock you with me after I am g

LXXII.

O, left the world should task you to re
What merit liv'd in me, that you fhou
After my death,-dear love, forget me
For you in me can nothing worthy pro
Unless you would devise fome virtuous
To do more for me than mine own def
And hang more praife upon deceased I,
Than niggard truth would willingly im
O, left your true love may feem falie in
That you for love speak well of me unt
My name be buried where my body is,
And live no more to shame nor me nor
For I am fham'd by that which I brin
And fo fhould you, to love things not

LXXIII.

That time of year thou may'ft in me bel
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do
Upon those boughs which shake against t
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet

9 When yellow leaves, &c.] So, in Macbeth: "my way of life

"Is fallen into the fear, the yellow leaf." 1 Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the fweet birds, has-Bare rn'w'd quiers, from which the reader meaning he can. The edition of our authour's poe ruin'd. Quires or choirs here means that part of divine fervice is performed, to which, when uncover "A naked fubject to the weeping clouds," the poet compares the trees at the end of autumn, foliage which at once invited and sheltered the fea fummer; whom Ford, a contemporary and friend of o an allufion to the fame kind of imagery, calls in his A * the quirifters of the woods." So, in Cymbeline:

ww

In me thou feeft the twilight of fuch day
As after fun-fet fadeth in the weft;

Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's fecond felf, that feals up all in reft.
In me thou feeft the glowing of such fire,
That on the afhes of his youth doth lie3;
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Confum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.

This thou perceiv'ft, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long :

LXXIV.

But be contented: when that fell arrest
Without all bail fhall carry me away,
My life hath in this line fome intereft,
Which for memorial ftill with thee shall stay.

"Then was I as a tree,

"Whose boughs did bend with fruit; but in one night,
"A ftorm, or robbery, call it what you will,
"Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves,
"And left me bare to weather."

Again, in Timon of Athens:

"That numberlefs upon me ftuck, as leaves

"Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush,

Fallen from their boughs, and left me open, bare, «For ev'ry form that blows." MALONE.

This image was probably fuggefted to Shakspeare by our defolated monafteries. The refemblance between the vaulting of a Gothick ifle, and an avenue of trees whofe upper branches meet and form an arch over-head, is too ftriking not to be acknowledged. When the roof of the one is fhattered, and the boughs of the other leaflefs, the comparifon becomes yet more folemn and picturesque. STEEVENS. 2 Which by and by black night doth take away,] So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"And by and by a cloud takes all away." STEEVENS. 3 the glowing of fuch fire,

That on the ashes of bis youth doth lie ;] Mr. Gray perhaps remem

bered thefe lines:

"Even in our afbes glow their wonted fires." MALONE. 4 when that fell arrest

Without all bail fhall carry me away,] So, in Hamlet :
"Had I but time, (as this fell ferjeant, death,
"Is ftrict in his arreft,) OI could tell you,-
"But let it be." C.

When

When thou reviewest this, thou doft re
The very part was confecrate to thee.
The earth can have but earth, which
My fpirit is thine, the better part of m
So then thou haft but lost the dregs of 1
The prey of worms, my body being de
The coward conqueft of a wretch's kni
Too bafe of thee to be remembered.

The worth of that, is that which it c
And that is this, and this with thee

LXXV.

So are you to my thoughts, as food to li
Or as fweet-feafon'd fhowers are to the g
And for the peace of you I hold fuch ftri
As 'twixt a mifer and his wealth is foun
Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon
Doubting the filching age will fteal his t
Now counting beft to be with you alone,
Then better'd that the world may fee my
Sometime, all full with feafting on your
And by and by clean ftarved for a look;
Poffeffing or pursuing no delight,
Save what is had or muft from you be too

5 The earth can have but earth,-] Shakspeare fe had the burial fervice in his thoughts. MALONE.

and this with thee remains.] So, in Antony and "And I hence fleeting, here remain with thee 7 And for the peace of you I bo'd fuck ftrife—] T require that we fhould rather read:

Th

-for the price of you-or-for the fake of yo The conflicting paffions defcribed by the poet were a regard to the ease or quiet of his friend, but by the on his esteem: yet as there feems to have been an opp between peace and ftrife, I do not fufpect any corrupti

8-clean ftarved for a look ;] That is, wholly ftarve Cæfar:

"Clean from the purpofe of the things themselve So, in The Comedy of Errors:

"While I at home farve for a merry look."