149.

Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not,
When I, against myself, with thee partake ?11
Do I not think on thee, when I forgot
Am of myself, all tyrant, for thy sake?
Who hateth thee that I do call my friend?
On whom frown'st thou that I do fawn upon?
Nay, if thou lour'st on me, do I not spend
Revenge upon myself with present moan?
What merit do I in myself respect,

That is so proud thy service to despise,
When all my best doth worship thy defect,
Commanded by the motion of thine eyes?

But, love, hate on, for now I know thy mind;
Those that can see thou lovest, and I am blind.

150.

O, from what power hast thou this powerful might
With insufficiency my heart to sway?

To make me give the lie to my true sight,

And swear that brightness doth not grace the day?
Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill,12

That in the very refuse of thy deeds

There is such strength and warrantise of skill,
That, in my mind, thy worst all best exceeds?
Who taught thee how to make me love thee more,
The more I hear and see just cause of hate?

O, though I love what others do abhor,
With others thou shouldst not abhor my state :

11 Partake is here equivalent to take part.

12 That is, this power of adorning things ill, or making them appear beautiful.

If thy unworthiness raised love in me,
More worthy I to be beloved of thee.

151.

Love is too young to know what conscience is ;
Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,13
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove :
For, thou betraying me, I do betray
My nobler part to my gross body's treason;
My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love; flesh stays no further reason;
But, rising at thy name, doth point out thee
As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride,
He is contented thy poor drudge to be,
To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side.

No want of conscience hold it that I call
Her love for whose dear love I rise and fall.

152.

In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn,
But thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing;
In act thy bed-vow broke, and new faith torn,
In vowing new hate after new love bearing.
But why of two oaths' breach do I accuse thee,
When I break twenty? I am perjured most;
For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee,
And all my honest faith in thee is lost :

For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness,
Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy;

18 Amiss again as a substantive. See page 106, note 6.- Cheater here means escheator, an officer of the Exchequer. See vol. vi. page 22, note 12.

And, to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindness,
Or made them swear against the thing they see ;
For I have sworn thee fair, - more perjured I,
To swear, against the truth, so foul a lie!

153.

Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep :
A maid of Dian's this advantage found,
And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep
In a cold valley-fountain of that ground;
Which borrow'd from this holy fire of Love
A dateless-lively heat, still to endure,
And grew a seething bath, which yet men prove
Against strange maladies a sovereign cure.
But, at my mistress' eye Love's brand new-fired,
The boy for trial needs would touch my breast;
I, sick withal, the help of bath desired,
And thither hied, a sad distemper'd guest,

But found no cure: the bath for my help lies
Where Cupid got new fire,- my mistress' eyes.

154.

The little love-god lying once asleep

Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,

Whilst many nymphs that vow'd chaste life to keep Came tripping by ; but in her maiden hand

The fairest votary took up that fire

Which many legions of true hearts had warm'd;
And so the general of hot desire

Was sleeping by a virgin hand disarm'd.
This brand she quenchèd in a cool well by,
Which from Love's fire took heat perpetual,

Growing a bath and healthful remedy
For men diseased; but I, my mistress' thrall,

Came there for cure, and this by that I prove,
Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.14

14 On these last two Sonnets Malone notes as follows: "They seem to have been early essays of the Poet, who perhaps had not determined which of them he should prefer. He could hardly have intended to send them both into the world."

CRITICAL NOTES.

Page 93. Look, whom she best endow'd she gave thee more. — So Malone. The original has "she gave the more." See foot-note IO.

P. 93. When I behold the violet past prime,

And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white; &c.—The original has or instead of all. Malone's correction. Sewell substitutes are.

P. 95. And many maiden gardens, yet unset,
With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers.

nal has your instead of you. Lintot's correction.

The origi

P. 95. So should the line of life that life repair. The original has lines instead of line. See foot-note 6.

P. 97. Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,

And make the Earth devour her own sweet brood; &c. - This repetition is awkward, to say the least. Walker says, "Perhaps 'Destroying Time.'”

P. 99. Then look I death my days should expirate. — The original has expiate. Steevens proposed expirate, which is right, surely. See vol. ix. page 296, note on " Make haste; the hour of death is expirate."

P. 101. The painful warrior famousèd for fight,
After a thousand victories once foil'd,

Is from the book of honour razèd quite, &c.

The original has

worth instead of fight. The correction is Theobald's; who proposed, if worth were retained, to substitute forth for quite.

P. 101. To show me worthy of thy sweet respect. — The original has their instead of thy. The correction is Capell's.