Or like the deadly bullet of a gun,

His meaning struck her, ere his words begun 7.

And at his look she flatly falleth down,
For looks kill love, and love by looks reviveth:
A smile recures the wounding of a frown;
But blessed bankrupt, that by love so thriveth!
The silly boy believing she is dead,

Claps her pale cheek, till clapping makes it red;

And all-amaz'd brake off his late intent,
For sharply he did think to reprehend her,
Which cunning love did wittily prevent:
Fair fall the wit, that can so well defend her!
For on the grass she lies, as she were slain,
Till his breath breatheth life in her again.

He wrings her nose, he strikes her on the cheeks,
He bends her fingers, holds her pulses hard;
He chafes her lips; a thousand ways he seeks
To mend the hurt that his unkindness marr'd;
He kisses her; and she, by her good will,
Will never rise, so he will kiss her still.

Or like the deadly bullet of a gun,] So, in Romeo and

Juliet:

"Shot from the deadly level of a gun-." STEEVens.

7 His meaning struck her, ere his words begun.] So, in King Henry IV. Part II. :

"But Priam found the fire, ere he his tongue."
He should have written began.
MALONE.

Our author is inaccurate.

8 And ALL-AMAZ'D-] Thus the quarto 1593. The copy of 1600 corruptly reads, "And in a maze;" for which the moderns have given, "And in amaze." MALOne.

9 Fair fall the wit, &c.] So, in King John:

"Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me."

STEEVENS.

The night of sorrow now is turn'd to day:
Her two blue windows' faintly she up-heaveth,
Like the fair sun, when in his fresh array
He cheers the morn, and all the world relieveth:
And as the bright sun glorifies the sky 2,
So is her face illumin'd with her eye;

Whose beams upon his hairless face3 are fix'd,
As if from thence they borrow'd all their shine*.
Were never four such lamps together mix'd,
Had not his clouded with his brows' repine;

But hers, which through the crystal tears gave light,

Shone like the moon, in water seen by night'.

'Her two BLUE windows -] So, in Antony and Cleopatra: Downy windows, close;

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"And golden Phoebus never be beheld

"Of eyes again so royal !"

Again, in Romeo and Juliet :

thy eyes' windows fall

"Like death, when he shuts up the day of life."

This thought is more dilated in Cymbeline:

2

3

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the enclosed lights now canopied

MALONE.

"Under these windows :-white and azure! laced
"With blue of heaven's own tinct."

STEEVENS.

GLORIFIES the sky,] So, in King John:

"Do glorify the banks that bound them in." STEEVENS. his HAIRLESS face-] So, in King John:

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This unhair'd sauciness, and boyish troops." STEEVENS. 4 — all their shine.] Shine was formerly used as a substantive. So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609:

"Thou shew'dst a subject's shine."

Again, in the 97th Psalm, v. 4: " His lightnings gave shine unto the world." MALONE.

5 But hers, which through the crystal tears gave light,

Shone like the moon, in water seen by night.] So, in Love's Labour's Lost:

"Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright,
"Through the transparent bosom of the deep,

"As doth thy face through tears of mine give light;
"Thou shin'st in everv tear that I do weep." MALONE.

O, where am I, quoth she? in earth or heaven,
Or in the ocean drench'd, or in the fire?
What hour is this? or morn or weary even?
Do I delight to die, or life desire?

But now I liv'd, and life was death's annoy;
But now I died, and death was lively joy.

O, thou didst kill me ;-kill me once again:
Thy eyes' shrewd tutor, that hard heart of thine,
Hath taught them scornful tricks, and such disdain,
That they have murder'd this poor heart of mine;
And these mine eyes, true leaders to their queen,
But for thy piteous lips no more had seen.

Long may they kiss each other, for this cure!
O, never let their crimson liveries wear!
And as they last, their verdure still endure,
To drive infection from the dangerous year?!
That the star-gazers, having writ on death,
May say, the plague is banish'd by thy breath.

Pure lips, sweet seals in my soft lips imprinted",
What bargains may I make, still to be sealing?

6 murder'd this poor heart-] So, in King Henry V.:
"The king hath kill'd his heart." STEEVENS.
Again, in King Richard II. :

'twere no good part

"To take on me to keep, and kill thy heart." MALONE. 7 - their VERDURE still endure,

To drive INFECTION from the dangerous year!] I have somewhere read, that in rooms where plants are kept in a growing state, the air is never unwholesome. STEEVENS.

The poet evidently alludes to a practice of his own age, when it was customary, in time of the plague, to strew the rooms of every house with rue and other strong smelling herbs, to prevent infection. MALONE.

8 Pure lips, SWEET SEALS in my soft lips imprinted,] We meet with the same image in Measure for Measure:

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Take, O take those lips away,

"That so sweetly were forsworn ;

To sell myself I can be well contented,

So thou wilt buy, and pay, and use good dealing; Which purchase if thou make, for fear of slips Set thy seal-manual on my wax-red lips.

A thousand kisses buys my heart from me1;
And pay them at thy leisure, one by one.
What is ten hundred touches 2 unto thee?
Are they not quickly told, and quickly gone?
Say, for non-payment that the debt should
double",

Is twenty hundred kisses such a trouble?

Fair queen, quoth he, if any love you owe me,
Measure my strangeness with my unripe years*;
Before I know myself, seek not to know me;
No fisher but the ungrown fry forbears:

"But my kisses bring again,

"Seals of love, but seal'd in vain." Again, in Troilus and Cressida :

"With distinct breath, and consign'd kisses to them." The epithet soft has a peculiar propriety. See p. 44, n. 2.

MALONE.

i. e. of counterfeit money. See note

on Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Sc. IV. :

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- what counterfeit did I give you ?

"Mer. The slip, sir, the slip," &c. STEEVENS.

A thousand kisses BUYS my heart from me ;] So, in Troilus and Cressida :

"We two, that with so many thousand sighs

"Did buy each other," &c. MALONE.

2 What is ten hundred touches-] So the original copy 1593, and that of 1596. In the copy of 1600, and the modern editions, kisses is substituted for touches. MALONE.

3 Say, for non-payment that the debt should double,] The poet was thinking of a conditional bond's becoming forfeited for non-payment; in which case, the entire penalty (usually the double of the principal sum lent by the obligee) was formerly recoverable at law. MALOne.

4 Measure my STRANGENESS] i. e. my bashfulness, my coyness. See p. 28, n. 4.

MALONE.

The mellow plumb doth fall, the green sticks fast, Or being early pluck'd, is sour to taste.

Look, the world's comforter, with weary gait,
His day's hot task hath ended in the west:
The owl, night's herald, shrieks", 'tis very late;
The sheep are gone to fold, birds to their nest;
And coal-black clouds that shadow heaven's

If

light,

Do summon us to part, and bid good night.

Now let me say good night, and so say you ;
you will say so, you shall have a kiss.
Good night, quoth she; and, ere he says adieu,
The honey fee of parting tender'd is:

Her arms do lend his neck a sweet embrace ;
Incorporate then they seem; face grows to face".

5 Look, the world's COMFORTER,] i. e. the sun. So in Timon

of Athens:

"Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn!"

Again, in a subsequent stanza:

"Love comforteth, like sunshine." MALONE.

6 The owl, NIGHT'S HERALD, SHRIEKS, &c.] So, in Macbeth : "It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, "Which gives the stern'st good-night."

In Romeo and Juliet, the lark is called the herald of the morn. STEEVENS.

7 -a sweet EMBRACE ; Incorporate then they seem; face GROWS to face.] So, in King Henry VIII. :

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how they clung

"In their embracements, as they grew together."

STEEVENS.

Again, in All's Well that Ends Well: "I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body."-In the same manner as here, in Constable's Poem, Venus promises to let Adonis go, if he will give her a kiss. She complains of its shortness, and takes another:

"When she had thus spoken,

"She gave him a token,

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And their naked bosoms met." MALONE.