Round-hoof'd, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostril wide, High crest, short ears, straight legs, and passing

strong,

Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide: Look what a horse should have, he did not lack, Save a proud rider on so proud a back.

Sometime he scuds far off, and there he stares;
Anon he starts at stirring of a feather';

To bid the wind a base he now prepares

And whe'r he run, or fly, they know not whether For through his mane and tail the high wind sings,

Fanning the hairs, who wave like feather'd wings.

He looks upon his love, and neighs unto her;
She answers him, as if she knew his mind:
Being proud, as females are, to see him woo her,
She puts on outward strangeness, seems unkind;

9- full EYE,] So the original copy 1593, and the 16mo. 1596. Later editions-full eyes. MALONE.

Anon he starts at stirring of a feather;] So, in King Richard III.:

"Tremble and start at wagging of a straw." MALONE. 2 TO BID the wind A BASE he now prepares,] To "bid the wind a base," is to challenge the wind to a contest for superiority.' Base is a rustick game, sometimes termed prison-base; properly prison bars. It is mentioned by our author in Cymbeline:"lads more like to run the country base," &c. Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

"Indeed I bid the base for Protheus."

MALONE.

3 And WHE'R he run, or fly, they know not whether;] Whe'r, for whether. So, in King John:

"Now shame upon thee, wher he does or no." Again, in a poem in praise of Ladie P-, Epitathes, Epigrammes, &c. by G. Turberville, 1567:

"I doubt where Paris would have chose

"Dame Venus for the best." MALONE.

outward STRANGENESS,] i. e. seeming coyness, shy

Spurns at his love, and scorns the heat he feels, Beating his kind embracements with her heels.

Then, like a melancholy malecontent,
He vails his tail", that, like a falling plume
Cool shadow to his melting buttock lent";
He stamps, and bites the poor flies in his fume:
His love perceiving how he is enrag'd,
Grew kinder, and his fury was assuag'd.

His testy master goeth about to take him;
When lo, the unback'd breeder, full of fear,
Jealous of catching, swiftly doth forsake him,
With her the horse, and left Adonis there :

As they were mad, unto the wood they hie them,
Out-stripping crows that strive to over-fly them.

All swoln with chasing, down Adonis sits,
Banning' his boist'rous and unruly beast;
And now the happy season once more fits,
That love-sick Love by pleading may be blest;
For lovers say, the heart hath treble wrong,
When it is barr'd the aidance of the tongue

8

ness, backwardness. Thus Iachimo, speaking of his servant to
Imogen: "He's strange and peevish." STEEVENS.
Again, more appositely, in Romeo and Juliet:

"But trust me, gentlemen, I'll prove more true,
"Than those who have more cunning to be strange."
MALONE.

5 He VAILS his tail,] To vail, in old language, is to lower. MALONE.

6 to his melting BUTTOCK lent ;] So the quarto 1593, and the 16mo. of 1596. That of 1600 and the modern editions have -buttocks. MALONE.

7 BANNING] i. e. cursing. So, in King Richard III. : "Fell banning hag," &c. STEEVENS.

8 the heart hath treble wrong,

When it is barr'd the aidance of the tongue.] So, in Macbeth:

An oven that is stopp'd, or river stay'd,
Burneth more hotly, swelleth with more rage:
So of concealed sorrow may be said;

Free vent of words love's fire doth assuage';
But when the heart's attorney once is mute,
The client breaks', as desperate in his suit.

He sees her coming, and begins to glow,
(Even as a dying coal revives with wind,)
And with his bonnet hides his angry brow;
Looks on the dull earth with disturbed mind 2;
Taking no notice that she is so nigh,
For all askaunce he holds her in his eye.

O, what a sight it was, wistly to view
How she came stealing to the wayward boy!
To note the fighting conflict of her hue!
How white and red each other did destroy3!

66

the grief that does not speak, "Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break." STEEVENS.

9 Free vent of words love's FIRE doth assuage.] Fire is here, as in many other places, used by our poet as a dissyllable.

MALONE.

But when the heart's ATTORNEY once is mute,
The CLIENT breaks, &c.] So, in King Richard III. :
"Why should calamity be full of words?

Windy attorneys to their client woes." STEEVENS. The heart's attorney is the tongue, which undertakes and pleads for it. MALONE.

2 Looks on the DULL EARTH, &c.] So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

3

"She excells each mortal thing
"Upon the dull earth dwelling."
the fighting conflict of her hue!

STEEVENS.

How white and red, &c.] So, in the Taming of the Shrew: "Such war of white and red within her cheeks."

Again, in Hamlet:

"Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting." W.

But now, her cheek was pale, and by and by
It flash'd forth fire, as lightning from the sky.

Now was she just before him as he sat,
And like a lowly lover down she kneels;
With one fair hand she heaveth up his hat,
Her other tender hand his fair cheek feels:
His tend'rer cheek receives her soft hand's print,
As apt as new-fall'n snow takes any dint.

O, what a war of looks was then between them!
Her eyes, petitioners, to his eyes suing ;
His eyes saw her eyes as they had not seen them;
Her eyes woo'd still, his eyes disdain'd the wooing:
And all this dumb play had his acts made plain
With tears, which, chorus-like, her eyes did rain ".

Full gently now she takes him by the hand,
A lily prison'd in a gaol of snow,

Or ivory in an alabaster band;

So white a friend engirts so white a foe:

This beauteous combat, wilful and unwilling,
Show'd like two silver doves that sit a billing.

Once more the engine of her thoughts began:
O fairest mover on this mortal round,

Would thou wert as I am, and I a man,

My heart all whole as thine, thy heart my wound';

4

had HIS acts] His for its. So, in Hamlet:

66 -the dram of base

"Doth all the noble substance of worth dout

5 And all this DUMB PLAY had his ACTS made plain

With tears, which, CHORUS-LIKE, her eyes did rain.] From the present passage, I think it probable, that this first production of our author's muse was not composed till after he had left Stratford, and became acquainted with the theatre. MALONE.

6

thy heart my wound ;] i. e. thy heart wounded as mine is.

MALONE.

For one sweet look thy help I would assure thee, Though nothing but my body's bane would cure thee.

Give me my hand, saith he, why dost thou feel it?
Give me my heart, saith she, and thou shalt have it;
O give it me, lest thy hard heart do steel it,
And being steel'd, soft sighs can never grave it :
Then love's deep groans I never shall regard,
Because Adonis' heart hath made mine hard.

For shame, he cries, let go, and let me go;
My day's delight is past, my horse is gone,
And 'tis your fault I am bereft him so;
I pray you hence, and leave me here alone;
For all my mind, my thought, my busy care,
Is how to get my palfrey from the mare.

Thus she replies: Thy palfrey, as he should,
Welcomes the warm approach of sweet desire.
Affection is a coal that must be cool'd;

Else, suffer'd, it will set the heart on fire:

8

The sea hath bounds, but deep desire hath none'; Therefore no marvel though thy horse be gone.

How like a jade he stood, tied to the tree',
Servilely master'd with a leathern rein!

9 The sea hath bounds, but deep desire hath none;] So, in Macbeth:

1

but there's no bottom, none,

"To my voluptuousness." W.

tied to THE tree,] Thus the quarto 1593, and the 16mo. 1596; for which the edition of 1600 and all subsequent have substituted-a tree. MALONE.