See also Sonnet cxxxiii. addressed to his lady, in which Shakspere speaks of himself as 'croffed' by her robbery of his friend's heart; and Sonnet cxxXIV. 1. 13, 'Him have I loft'. XXXV. The tears' of XXXIV. fuggest the opening. Moved to pity, Shakspere will find guilt in himself rather than in his friend. 5, 6. And even I, etc., and even I am faulty in this, that I find precedents for your misdeed by comparisons with roses, fountains, fun, and moon. 7. Salving thy amifs, Shakfpere's friend offers a falve, XXXIV.; fee also cxx. 12; here Shakspere in his turn tries to 'falve' his friend's wrong-doing. Capell propofes' corrupt in falving'. : 8. The word thy in this line is twice printed their in the Quarto. Steevens explains the line thus :'Making the excufe more than proportioned to the offence'. Stanton propofes 'more than thy fins bear', i.e. I bear more fins than thine. 9. In fenfe, Malone propofed incenfe. Senfe here means reason, judgment, discretion. If we receive the present text, 'thy adverse party' (l. 10) must mean Shakspere. But may we read: For to thy fenfual fault I bring in fenfe, [i.e. judgment, reafon] Thy adverfe party, as thy advocate. Sense against which he has offended-brought in as his advocate? 14. Sweet thief, etc., compare Sonnet XL. : I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief. XXXVI. According to the announcement made in xxxv., Shakspere proceeds to make himself out the guilty party. 1. We two must be twain. So Troilus & Creffida, A& ш. fc. 1, 1. 110, 'She'll none of him; they two are twain'. 5. Refped, regard, as in Coriolanus, A& m. fc. 3, 1. 112. 6. Separable fpite. A cruel fate, that spitefully Separates us from each other. Separable for Separating'.-MALONE. 9. Evermore, 'Perhaps ever more'.-W. S. WALKER. 10. My bewailed guilt. Explained by Spalding and others as the blots that remain with Shakspere on account of his profession' as an actor. But perhaps the paffage means: 'I may not claim you as a friend, left my relation to the dark woman-now a matter of grief-should convict you of faithlessness in friendship'. me. 12. That honour, i.e. the honour which you give 13, 14. These lines are repeated in Sonnet XCVI. XXXVII. Continues the thought of XXXVI. 13, 14. 3. I, made lame. Compare Sonnet LXXXIX. :— Speak of my lameness and I ftraight will halt. Shakspere uses to lame' in the sense of 'disable'; here the worth and truth of his friend are set over against the lameness of Shakspere; the lameness then is metaphorical; a disability to join in the joyous movement of life, as his friend does. In King Lear, A& rv. fc. 6, 1. 225, the Quartos read 'A most poor man made lame by fortune's 'blows'. Capell and others conjectured that Shakspere was literally lame. Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven. 7. Entitled in thy parts do crowned fit. The Quarto reads 'their parts'; but the misprint their for thy happens feveral times. Schmidt accepts the Quarto text and explains, 'i.e. or more excellencies, having a just claim to the first place as their due. Blundering M. Edd. e. in thy parts'. 'Entitled means, I think, ennobled'.-MALONE. 'Perhaps '.-DYCE. Perhaps it means 'having a title in, having a claim upon', as in Lucrece, 57: But beauty in that white [the paleness of Lucrece] intituled, From Venus' doves doth challenge that fair field. XXXVIII. The fame thought as that of the two preceding fonnets: Shakspere will look on, delight in his friend, and fing his praise. In XXXVII. 14, Shakspere is 'ten times happy' in his friend's happinefs and glory; thus he receives ten times the inspiration of other poets from his friend who is 'the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth' than the old nine Muses. XXXIX. In xxxvIII. Shakspere declares that he will fing his friend's praises, but in xxxvii. he had spoken of his friend as the better part of himself. He now asks how he can with modefty fing the worth of his own better part. Thereupon he returns to the thought of xxxvI. 'we two must be twain'; and now, not only are the two lives to be divided, but 'our dear love'—undivided in xxxvI. -must lose name of single one'. 12. Doth. The Quarto has 'dost'. 13, 14. Abfence teaches how to make of the absent beloved two perfons, one, abfent in reality, the other, prefent to imagination. XL. In XXXIX. Shakspere defires that his love and his friend's may be feparated, in order that he may give his friend what otherwise he must give also to himself. Now, feparated, he gives his beloved all his loves, yet knows that, before the gift, all his was his friend's by right. 'Our love losing name of fingle one' (xxxix. 6) fuggefts the manifold loves, mine and thine. 5. Then if for love of me thou receivest her whom I love. 6. For, because: I cannot blame thee for ufing my love, i.e. her whom I love. 7, 8. The Quarto has 'this felfe' for thyself. Yet you are to blame if you deceive yourself by an unlawful union while you refuse loyal wedlock. 11. And yet love knows it. Printed by many editors, And yet, love knows, it'. 13, 'Lafcivious grace, XLI. The thought of XL. in whom all ill well fhows' is carried out in this fonnet. 1. Pretty wrongs. Bell and Palgrave read petty. She's beautiful and therefore to be woo'd; 8. Till she have prevail'd. he', which may be right. The Quarto has 'till 9. Thou mightft my feat forbear. Malone reads 'Thou might'ft, my fweet, forbear'; but 'feat' is right, and the meaning is explained by Othello, Act II. fc. 1, 1. 304, (Iago jealous of Othello):I do fufpect the lufty Moor Hath leap'd into my seat. Dr. Ingleby adds, as a parallel, Lucrece, 412, 413. XLII. In XLI. 13, 14, Shakspere declares that he lofes both friend and mistress; he now goes on to say that the lofs of his friend is the greater of the two. 10, 12. The 'lofs' and 'crofs' of these lines are spoken of in XXXIV. II. Both twain. This is found alfo in Love's Labour's Loft, A& v. sc. 2, l. 459. XLIII. Does this begin a new group of Sonnets? 1. Wink, to close the eyes, not neceffarily for a moment, but as in fleep. Compare Cymbeline, A& 11. fc. 3, 11. 25, 26: : And winking Mary-buds begin 2. Unrefpeded, unregarded. 4. And darkly, etc. And illumined, although closed, are clearly directed in the darkness. |