'He is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient ftillness, etc.'

XLV. Sonnet XLIV. tells of the duller elements of earth and water; this fonnet, of the elements of air and fire.

9. Recured, reftored to wholenefs and foundness. Venus & Adonis, 1. 465.

thy.

12. Thy fair health.

The Quarto has their for

XLVI. AS XLIV. and XLV. are a pair of companion fonnets, so are XLVI. and XLVII. The theme of the first pair is the oppofition of the four elements in the person of the poet; the theme of the fecond is the oppofition of the heart and the eye, i.e. of love and the senses.

3. Thy picture's fight. The Quarto has their, fo also in lines 8, 13, 14.

10.

10. A queft of thoughts, an inquest or jury. 12. Moiety, portion.

XLVII. Companion fonnet to the last.

3. Famished for a look. Compare Sonnet LXXV. So Comedy of Errors, A& 11. sc. I, 1. 88: Whilft I at home farve for a merry look.

10. Art present. The Quarto has are.

II, 12. Not. Quarto nor. The fame thought which appears in XLV.

Compare Sonnets XIX., XX. of Watson's Tears of Fancie, 1593 (Watfon's Poems, ed. Arber, p. 188):

My hart impof'd this penance on mine eies, (Eies the firft caufers of my harts lamenting): That they should weepe till loue and fancie dies, Fond love the laft caufe of my harts repenting. Mine eies upon my hart inflid this paine (Bold hart that dard to harbour thoughts of loue) That it should loue and purchase fell disdaine, A grieuous penance which my heart doth proue, Mine eies did weep as hart had them impofed, My hart did pine as eies had it conflrained, etc. Sonnet xx. continues the fame:

My hart accuf'd mine eies and was offended,

Hart faid that loue did enter at the eies,
And from the eies defcended to the hart ;

Eies faid that in the hart did Sparkes arife, etc. Compare also Diana (ed. 1584), Sixth Decade, Sonnet VII. (Arber's English Garner, vol. ii. p. 254); and Drayton, Idea, 33.

XLVIII. Line 6 of XLVI., in which Shakspere speaks of keeping his friend in the closet of his breaft :A closet never pierced with cryflal eyes, fuggefts XLVIII.; fee lines 9-12. I have faid he is fafe in my breaft; yet ah! I feel he is not.

11. Gentle closure of my breast. So Venus & Adonis, 1. 782, 'the quiet closure of my breaft'.

14. Does not this refer to the woman, who has fworn love (CLII. 1. 2), and whose truth to Shakfpere (fpoken of in XLI. 13) now proves thievish? Compare Venus & Adonis, 1. 724, 'Rich preys make true men thieves'.

XLIX. Continues the fad ftrain with which XLVIII. closes.

3. Caft his utmost fum, closed his account and cast up the sum total.

4. Advised refpects, deliberate, well-confidered reafons. So King John, A& iv. fc. 2, 1. 214.

8. Reasons, i.e. for its converfion from the thing

it was.

9. Enfconce, 'protect or cover as with a conce or fort'.-DYCE.

10. Defert. Quarto defart, rhyming with part.

L. This fonnet and the next are a pair, as XLIV. XLV. are, and XLVI. XLVII. The journey 1. I is that spoken of in XLVIII. 1. 1.

6. Dully. The Quarto has duly, but compare LI. 2, 'my dull bearer', and l. 11, no dull flesh'.

LI. Companion to L.

་

6. Swift extremity, the extreme of fwiftnefs. So Macbeth, A& 1. fc. 4, l. 17:

Swifteft wing of recompence is flow.

7. Mounted on the wind. So 2 King Henry IV. Induction, 1. 4, 'Making the wind my pofl-horse'. Compare Cymbeline, A& III. fc. 4, 1. 38; Macbeth, A& 1. fc. 7, 11. 21-23.

10. Perfect. The Quarto has perfecs. II. Malone and other editors print :

Shall neigh (no dull flesh) in, etc.

i.e. Defire shall neigh, being no dull flesh, etc. But does it not mean, Defire, which is all love, shall neigh,

there being no dull flesh to cumber him as he rushes forward in his fiery race? Compare the neighing ftallion of Adonis, Venus & Adonis, ll. 300-312.

14. Go, move ftep by step, walk, as in The Tempest, А& III. fc. 2, 1. 22.

STEPHANO. We'll not run, Monfieur Monfler.
TRINCULO.-Nor go neither.

I have placed the last two lines, spoken as I take it, by Love, within inverted commas.

LII. The joy of hope, the hope of meeting his friend spoken of in the last sonnet (LI.).

So The

4. For blunting, because it would blunt. Two Gentlemen of Verona, A& 1. fc. 2, 1. 136, 'Yet here they shall not lie, for catching cold'. 7-12. So I King Henry Iv., A& ш. sc. 2, 11. 55-59

Thus did I keep my person fresh and new;
My prefence, like a robe pontifical,
Ne'r feen but wonder'd at: and fo my flate,
Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast
And won by rareness fuch folemnity.

8. Captain, chief. So Timon of Athens, A& ш11. fc. 5, 1. 49 (Dyce; but qu.? captain substantive) :— The afs more captain than the lion'.

Carcanet, necklace, or collar of jewels. Comedy of Errors, А& II. fc. 1, 1. 4.

LIII. Not being able, in abfence, to poffefs his friend, he finds his friend's fhadow in all beautiful things.

4. You, although but one person, can give off all manner of shadowy images. Shakspere then, to illuftrate this, chooses the most beautiful of men, Adonis, and the most beautiful of women, Helen; both are but shadows or counterfeits (i.e. pictures, as in Sonnet XVI.) of the 'master-mistress' of his paffion.

8. Tires, head-dreffes, or, generally, attire. 9. Foifon, abundance. As in The Tempest, A& IV. fc. 1, 1. 110. Compare Antony & Cleopatra,

A& v. fc. 2, 1. 86:--

For his bounty

There was no winter in 't; an autumn 'twas
That grew the more by reaping.

12. Blessed. The fancy Shakspere has taken for this word in LII. I, II, 13, runs on into this fonnet.

LIV. Continues the thought of LIII. There Shakfpere declared that over and above external beauty, more real than that of Helen and Adonis, his friend was pre-eminent for his conftancy, his truth. Now he proceeds to celebrate the worth of this truth.

5. Canker-blooms, bloffoms of the dog-rose. Much Ado about Nothing, A& 1. fc. 3, 1. 28, ‘I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace'.

8. Difclofes, opens, as in Hamlet, A& 1. fc. 3, 1. 40:

The canker galls the infants of the Spring
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed.