delightful and absorbing that, like Plotinus of old, he could not bear the thought of the interposed body, or flesh, which, in the 36th Sonnet, is referred to as the separable (or separating) spite, by which he was compelled to feel as if "removed" from the spirit—in which state his only consolation was, as just stated, from the 39th Sonnet, to entertain sweet thoughts of love, that is, of the spirit, the spirit of beauty.

We

may find some confirmation of this view in the beautiful scene between Lorenzo and Jessica :

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Here we will sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness, and the night,
Become the touches of sweet harmony.

Sit, Jessica look, how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patterns of bright gold;

There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st,

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins :

Such harmony is in immortal souls;

But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

Mer. of Ven.

This "muddy vesture of decay," this "dull sub

stance of the flesh," is referred to in the 20th Sonnet as the "addition" to the otherwise feminine nature, which in that Sonnet is seen as double, and is called the master-mistress of the poet's passion-this being a mystical expression for the object addressed in the 1st Sonnet as Beauty's Rose. The poet desires (in the 20th Sonnet) to come into immediate relations with the Spirit of Nature; but Nature, as visible, is, in this Sonnet, called an "addition," meaning an addition to the Spirit of Beauty (or of Nature—for they are one), and becomes obstructive. It is a hindrance to the poet's "purpose;" and the poet says, substantially, addressing the Spirit,-Since Nature has "prick'd" or decked thee out for the affections to be exercised upon, called "woman's pleasure," give me, says he, thy pure or intellectual love, and the "use" I will make of it shall also be for the pleasure of the affections:—and we see he has done this in both his Sonnets and his dramas, which may be said to be addressed to that portion of man which is often called the woman or feminine side of man, meaning the affections; the Spirit indeed being in them, but unseen except to the Spirit, or to those who have what the poet calls "lover's eyes" (Sonnets 23, 55).

CHAPTER III.

WE might stop here, satisfied that enough has been disclosed to convince any candid student, and enable him to proceed by himself in searching out the arcane beauties of these wonderful Sonnets; but as we have undertaken to put a face upon them which, it is believed, is quite if not altogether unknown in this age, we will proceed to point out the meaning of some of the Sonnets, which are liable to be misunderstood by those who are unacquainted with hermetic writings.

Beauty's Rose, recognized as life, is seen by the poet as the spirit of humanity; and because this is viewed as having no direct relation to time, the poet sees it both in the past and in the future. Thus, in Sonnet 59, the poet casts his eye backward, so to speak, desiring to see the image of his idea in some "antique book," five hundred years old, in order that he might

see what the "old world" had said of the greatest wonder of the world, MAN; that he might judge whether we, of modern times, are mended, or whether man in former times was the better.

In the 106th Sonnet we may see that the poet's wish was at least partially accomplished; for he saw the purpose of the class of books known as tales or romances of chivalry, containing the "praise of ladies dead, and lovely knights." He saw that their purpose was a mystical one, and that it was, in fact, to express "such a beauty" as was then before the poet's eyes. Referring to the romancers, he says:

106. I see their antique pen would have expressed

Even such a Beauty as you [addressing Beauty's Rose] mas

ter now.

So all their praises are but prophecies

Of this our time, all you prefiguring;

And, for they looked but with divining eyes,

They had not skill enough your praise to sing :
For we, which now behold these present days,
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.

But whilst we see the poet, in the 59th and 106th Sonnets, casting his longing eyes backward in time, to discover what the old world had said of the miracle then under his own eye, we may see him, iù

the 32d Sonnet, looking forward inquiringly, anxious in regard to the point, as to how his own work in art-writing was likely to be viewed.

32. It thou

[says he, addressing the spirit of humanity, his own "better part," seen as the spirit of life]:

If thou survive my well-contented day,

When that churl death with dust my bones shall cover,

And shalt by fortune once more re-survey

These poor rude lines of thy deceased lover,

Compare them with the bettering of the time; etc.

These lines are addressed to any modern reader who recognizes the spirit of the poet, by sharing it; and the poet asks, of such a reader, that he will judge of the poet's verses with a due consideration of the improvements of knowledge, &c., which he calls the "bettering of the time "—evidently anticipating a progress in knowledge; and then he proceeds, referring to his own verses:

And though they be outstripp'd by every pen,
Preserve them for my love, not for their rhyme,
Exceeded by the height of happier men.

O then