And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace:
Even so my sun one early morn did shine,
With all triumphant splendour on my brow;
But out, alack! he was but one hour mine,
The region cloud' hath mask'd him from me now.
Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth;
Suns of the world may stain, when heaven's sun

staineth.

XXXIV.

Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
And make me travel forth without my cloak,
To let base clouds o'er-take me in my way,
Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke?
'Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break,
To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
For no man well of such a salve can speak,
That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace:
Nor can thy shame give physick to my grief;
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss :
The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offence's cross1.

"To smother up his beauty from the world,
"That when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
"By breaking through the foul and ugly mists

"Of vapours, that did seem to strangle him." C.

6 Stealing unseen to WEST with this disgrace:] The article the may have been omitted through necessity; yet I believe our author wrote, to rest. STEEVENS.

7 The REGION cloud-] i. e. the clouds of this region or country. So, in Hamlet:

"I should have fatted all the region kites

"With this slave's offal." STEEVENS.

8 may STAIN,] Stain is here used as a verb neuter.

their ROTTEN smoke?] So, in Coriolanus:

MALONE.

- the reek o' the rotten fens." STEEVENS.

To him that bears the strong offence's CROSS.] The old copy,

7

Ah! but those tears are pearl, which thy love

sheds,

And they are rich, and ransom all ill deeds.

XXXV.

No more be griev'd at that which thou hast done :
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorizing thy trespass with compare;
Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss 2,
Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are3:
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense,
(Thy adverse party is thy advocate,)

by a manifest error of the press, reads loss here, as well as in the corresponding line. The word now substituted is used by our author (in the sense required here) in the 42d Sonnet:

"And both for my sake lay on me this cross."

Again, in As You Like It; " If I should bear you, I should bear no cross." MALONE.

2

- salving thy AMISS,] That is, thy misbehaviour. So, in Hamlet:

"Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss."

MALONE.

3 Excusing THY Sins more than THY sins are :) The old copy here also has their twice, instead of thy. The latter words of this line, whichever reading we adopt, are not very intelligible.

MALONE.

"Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are," I believe, means only this: Making the excuse more than proportioned to the offence.' STEEVENS.

4 For to thy sensual fault I bring IN SENSE,] Thus the quarto. The line appears to me unintelligible. Might we read:

"For to thy sensual fault I bring incense-."

A jingle was evidently intended; but if this word was occasionally accented on the last syllable, (as perhaps it might formerly have been,) it would afford it as well as the reading of the old copy. Many words that are now accented on an early syllable, had formerly their accent on one more remote. Thus, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream :

"It stands as an edíct in destiny."

And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence:
Such civil war is in my love and hate,

:

That I an accessary needs must be

To that sweet thief, which sourly robs from me.

XXXVI.

Let me confess that we two must be twain3,

Although our undivided loves are one :
So shall those blots that do with me remain,
Without thy help, by me be born alone.

Again, in Hamlet:

"Did slay this Fortinbras, who by a seal'd compact-." Again, in Measure for Measure:

"This is the hand, which with a vow'd contract-."

Again, in King Henry V.:

"Tis no siníster, nor no aukward claim-."

Agian, in Locrine, a tragedy, 1595:

"Nor my exíle can move you to revenge."

Again, in our author's 50th Sonnet:

"As if by some instinct the wretch did find-."

Again, in the 128th Sonnet:

"Do I envý those jacks that nimble leap-."

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"With pure aspects did him peculiar duties."

Again, ibid.:

" If in thy hope thou dar'st do such outrage."

Again, ibid.:

"But her fore-sight could not forestall their will."

Again, in Troilus and Cressida:

"Peaceful commerce from dividable shores."

Dryden has concluded a line with the same word, which to our ears sounds as oddly as incense would :

"Instructed ships shall sail to quick commerce."

MALONE.

I believe the old reading to be the true one. The passage, divested of its jingle, seems designed to express this meaning.Towards thy exculpation, I bring in the aid of my soundest faculties, my keenest perception, my utmost strength of reason, my sense.'

I think I can venture to affirm that no English writer, either ancient or modern, serious or burlesque, ever accented the substantive incense on the last syllable. STEEVENS.

3

sida:

- that we Two must be TWAIN,] So, in Troilus and Cresshe'll none of him; they two are twain." MALONE.

66

In our two loves there is but one respect,
Though in our lives a separable spite 1,
Which though it alter not love's sole effect,
Yet doth it steal sweet hours from love's delight.
I may not evermore acknowledge thee,
Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame;
Nor thou with publick kindness honour me,
Unless thou take that honour from thy name:
But do not so; I love thee in such sort,
As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.

XXXVII.

As a decrepit father takes delight
To see his active child do deeds of youth,
So I, made lame by fortune's dearest spite 5,
Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth;

4 Though in our lives a SEPARABLE SPITE, A cruel fate, that spitefully separates us from each other. Separable for separating. MALONE.

5 So I, made lame by fortune's DEAREST spite,] Dearest is most operative. So, in Hamlet:

"'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven."

A late editor, Mr. Capell, grounding himself on this line, and another in the 89th Sonnet,

"Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt, -" conjectured that Shakspeare was literally lame: but the expression appears to have been only figurative. So again, in Coriolanus:

I cannot help it now,

"Unless by using means I lame the foot

"Of our design."

Again, in As You Like It :

"Which I did store to be my foster-nurse,

"When service should in my old limbs lie lame."

In the 89th Sonnet the poet speaks of his friends imputing a fault to him of which he was not guilty, and yet, he says, he would acknowledge it: so, (he adds,) were he to be described as lame, however untruly, yet rather than his friend should appear in the wrong, he would immediately halt.

If Shakspeare was in truth lame, he had it not in his power to halt occasionally for this or any other purpose. The defect must have been fixed and permanent.

For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
Or any of these all, or all, or more,
Entitled in thy parts do crowned sit,
I make my love engrafted to this store :
So then I am not lame, poor, nor despis'd

Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give,
That I in thy abundance am suffic'd,
And by a part of all thy glory live.

Look what is best, that best I wish in thee;
This wish I have; then ten times happy me!

XXXVIII.

How can my muse want subject to invent,
While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my verse
Thine own sweet argument, too excellent
For every vulgar paper to rehearse ?

The context in the verses before us in like manner refutes this notion. If the words are to be understood literally, we must then suppose that our admired poet was also poor and despised, for neither of which suppositions there is the smallest ground.

MALONE.

" - made lame by fortune's dearest spite." So, in King Lear: "A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows."

STEEVENS.

6 Entitled in thy parts do CROWNED sit,] This is a favourite expression of Shakspeare. So, in King Henry IV. Part I. : "And on thy eyelids crown the god of sleep."

Again, in Twelfth Night:

" It yields a very echo to the seat
"Where love is throned."

Again, in Timon of Athens:

"And in some sort these wants of mine are crown'd,
"That I account them blessings."

Entitled means, I think, ennobled. The old copy reads in their parts. The same error, as has been already observed, has happened in many other places. MALONE.

"Entitled in thy parts-." So, with equal obscurity, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"But beauty, in that white intituled,

"From Venus' doves doth challenge that fair field."

I suppose he means, 'that beauty takes its title from that fairness or white." STEEVENS.