Even thus, quoth fhe, the warlike god embrac'd me ;
And then the clipp'd Adonis in her arms:
Even thus, quoth fhe, the warlike god unlac'd me,
As if the boy fhould use like loving charms:
Even thus, quoth fhe, he feized on my lips,
And with her lips on his did act the seizure;
And as the fetched breath, away he skips,
And would not take her meaning nor her pleasure.
Ah! that I had my lady at this bay,
To kifs and clip me till I run away!

V.

Crabbed age and youth9
Cannot live together;
Youth is full of pleafance,
Age is full of care:
Youth like fummer morn,
Age like winter weather;
Youth like fummer brave,
Age like winter bare.
Youth is full of sport,
Age's breath is fhort,

Youth is nimble, age is lame;

Youth is hot and bold,

Age is weak and cold;

Youth is wild, and age is tame.

I have been woo'd, as I entreat thee now,

And

"Even by the ftern and direful god of war," &c. MALONE. -bow god Mars did try her,] So, Prior:

"By Mars himself that armour has been try'd."

STEEVENS.

9 Crabbed age and youth, &c.] This little poem is likewife found in the Garland of Good Will, Part III. Dr. Percy thinks that it was intended for the mouth of Venus, weighing the comparative merits of youthful Adonis and aged Vulcan." See the Reliques of Anc. Poet. vol. I. P. 337. 2d edit.

This fong is alluded to in The Woman's Prize, or the Tamer tam'd, by B. and Fletcher:

Thou fond man,

"Haft thou forgot the ballad, Crabbed age?

"Can May and January match together,
"And never a storm between them?

MALONE.

As

Age, I do abhor thee,

Youth, I do adore thee;

O, my love, my love is young;

Age, I do defy thee';

O fweet fhepherd, hie thee,

For methinks thou ftay'ft too long.

VI.

Sweet rofe, fair flower, untimely pluck'd, foon faded,
Pluck'd in the bud, and faded in the spring!
Bright orient pearl, alack! too timely shaded!
Fair creature, kill'd too foon by death's sharp fting!
Like a green plumb that hangs upon a tree,
And falls, through wind, before the fall fhould be.

I weep for thee, and yet no cause I have;
For why thou left'ft me nothing in thy will.
And yet thou left'ft me more than I did crave;
For why? I craved nothing of thee ftill:

O yes, dear friend, I pardon crave of thee:
Thy difcontent thou didst bequeath to me.

As we know not that Vulcan was much more aged than his bre thren, Mars, Mercury, or Phœbus, and especially as the fabled deities were fuppofed to enjoy a perpetuity of health, life, and pleasure, I am unwilling to admit that the laughter-loving dame disliked her husband on any other account than his ungraceful form and his lameness. He who could forge the thunderbolts of Jove, was furely in full ftrength, and equal to the task of discharging the highest claims and most terrifying exactions even of Venus herself. I do not, in short, perceive how this little poem could have been put, with any fingular propriety, into the mouth of the queen of Love, if due regard were paid to the claffical fituation of her and her husband. STEEVENS.

Age, I do defy thee;] I defpife or reject thee. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"I do defy thy conjuration." MALONE.

2 Sweet rofe, &c.] This feems to have been intended for a dirge to be fung by Venus on the death of Adonis. MALONE.

3-faded in the Spring.] The verb fade throughout these little fragments, &c. is always fpelt vaded, either in compliance with ancient pronunciation, or in confequence of a primitive which perhaps modern lexicographers may feel fome reluctance to acknowledge. They tell us that we owe this word to the French fade; but I fee no reason why we may not as well impute its origin to the Latin vado, which equally ferves to indicate departure, motion, and evanefcence. STEEVENS.

VII. Fair

VII.

Fair is my love, but not fo fair as fickle,
Mild as a dove, but neither true nor trufty;
Brighter than glass, and yet, as glass is, brittle+,
Softer than wax, and yet, as iron, rusty:

A lily pale, with damask die to grace her,
None fairer, nor none falfer to deface her.

Her lips to mine how often hath she join'd,
Between each kifs her oaths of true love fwearing!
How many tales to please me hath fhe coin'd,
Dreading my love, the lofs thereof ftill fearing!
Yet in the midst of all her pure protestings,

Her faith, her oaths, her tears, and all were jeftings.

She burn'd with love, as ftraw with fire flameth;
She burn'd out love, as foon as straw out-burneth $ ;
She fram'd the love, and yet the foil'd the framing;
She bade love laft, and yet fhe fell a turning.

Was this a lover, or a lecher whether?
Bad in the beft, though excellent in neither.

VIII.

Did not the heavenly rhetorick of thine eye,
'Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument,

4 Brighter than glass, and yet, as glass is, brittle,] Quam digna infcribi vitro, cum lubrica, lævis, Pellucens, fragilis, vitrea tota nites!

Written under a lady's name on an inn window. STEEVENS. A lily pale, with damask die to grace ber,] So, in Venus and Adonis : a fudden pale,

"Like lawn being laid upon the blushing rofe."

Again, in the Rape of Lucrece:

"This filent war of lilies and of rojes-," MALONE.

5 Sbe burn'd out love, as foon as firaw out-burnetb;] So, in King Henry IV. P. I:

"rash bavin wits,

"Soon kindled and foon burnt." STEEVENS. 6-cannot bold argument,] This is the reading in Love's Labour's Loft, where this Sonnet is alfo found. The Paffionate Pilgrim has:could not hold argument. MALONE.

Y 4

Perfuade

Perfuade my heart to this falfe perjury?
Vows for thee broke deferve not punishment.
A woman I forfwore; but I will prove,
Thou being a goddefs, I forfwore not thee:
My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;
Thy grace being gain'd, cures all difgrace in me.
My vow was breath, and breath a vapour is ;
Then thou fair fun, which on my earth doft fhine",
Exhal'ft this vapour vow; in thee it is:
If broken, then it is no fault of mine.

If by me broke, what fool is not fo wife
To break an oath, to win a paradise 3 ?

IX.

If love make me forfworn, how fhall I fwear to love?
O, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd:
Though to myfelf forfworn, to thee I'll conftant prove;
Thofe thoughts, to me like oaks, to thee like offers bow'd.
Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine eyes,
Where all thofe pleafures live, that art can comprehend.
If knowledge be the mark, to know thee fhall fuffice;
Well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend;
All ignorant that foul that fees thee without wonder;
Which is to me fome praise, that I thy parts admire:

7-which on my earth doft shine,] Such is the reading in Love's Labour's Loft. The Paffionate Pilgrim reads:

-that on this earth dorb fhine,

Exbale this vapour, &c. MALONE.

Then thou, fair fun, which on my earth doft shine,
Exhal' this vapour-] So, in Romeo and Juliet:
"It is fome meteor that the fun exi ales."

STEEVENS.

8 To break an cath, to win a paradife?] So, in Love's Labour's Left: "It is religion, to be thus forfworn." STEEVENS.

9 —makes his book thine eyes,] So, in Love's Labour's Loft: "From women's eyes this do&rine I derive," &c.

Again, ibidem:

"-women's eyes

"They are the books, the arts, the academes." MALONE.

Thine eye Jove's lightning feems, thy voice his dreadful

thunder,

Which (not to anger bent) is mufick and fweet fire '.
Celestial as thou art, O do not love that wrong,

To fing the heavens' praife with fuch an earthly tongue *.

X.

Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good,
A fhining glofs, that fadeth fuddenly;
A flower that dies, when firft it 'gins to bud;
A brittle glass, that's broken presently;

A doubtful good, a glofs, a glafs, a flower,
Loft, faded, broken, dead within an hour.

And as goods loft are feld or never found,
As faded glofs no rubbing will refreth 3,
As flowers dead, lie wither'd on the ground,
As broken glafs no cement can redress,

1 by voice bis dreadful thunder,

Which (not to anger bent ) is mufick and sweet fire.] So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

his voice was property'd

"As all the tuned fpberes, and that to friends;

"But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,
"He was as rattling thunder." STEEVENS.

2 This Sonnet is likewife found in Love's Labour's Loft, with fome flight alterations. The last couplet there ftands thus:

"Celeftial as thou art, ob pardon, love, this wrong,

"That fings the heavens praife, &c. MALONE.

3 As faded glofs no rubbing will refresh;] A copy of this poem faid to be printed from an ancient Mf. and published in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. XXIX. p. 39. reads:

As faded glofs no rubbing will excite,

and in the correfponding line:

As broken glafs no cement can unite. MALONE.

Read the firft of thefe lines how we will, it is founded on a falfe pofition. Every one knows that the glofs or polish on all works of art may be restored, and that rubbing is the means of restoring it. STIEV. Shakspeare, I believe, alludes to faded filk, of which the colour, when once faded, cannot be restored but by a fecond dying.

MALONE.

So