sides overfilling the verse, it makes the line little better than unmeaning. Various corrections have been proposed: the one more commonly adopted is Fool'd by, which is Malone's. That in the text was proposed by Mr. A. E. Brae to Dr. C. M. Ingleby, who thoroughly approves, and, I think, justifies it, in his Shakespeare, the Book. — The old text has array also instead of aray. The word array was, and is, used in two senses, to clothe or adorn, and to arrange or set in order; neither of which appears to fit the context. Probably in this case array was meant only as another spelling of aray: at all events, the latter is Ingleby's reading; and it seems to me to give just the right sense. See foot-note 7.

P. 168. At random from the truth vainly express'd. — The original has randon. Hardly worth noting.

P. 168. What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then that doth well denote

Love's eye is not so true as all men's no. So Lettsom. The original reads "then love doth well denote," and sets a colon between men's and no. See foot-note 9.

P. 171. For I have sworn thee fair,

-

more perjured I, &c. - The

original has "more perjur'd eye." Corrected by Sewell.

P. 171.

The bath for my help lies

Where Cupid got new fire,—my mistress' eyes. — The original has eye instead of eyes.

A LOVER'S COMPLAINT.*

FROM off a hill whose concave womb re-worded
A plaintful story from a sistering vale,1
My spirits t' attend this double voice accorded,
And down I laid to list the sad-tuned tale;
Ere long espied a fickle maid2 full pale,
Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain,
Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.3

Upon her head a platted hive of straw,
Which fortified her visage from the Sun,
Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw
The carcass of a beauty spent and done : 4
Time had not scythèd all that youth begun,
Nor youth all quit; but, spite of heaven's fell rage,
Some beauty peep'd through lattice of sere 5 age.

*"A LOVER'S COMPLAINT, by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE," was first printed in 1609, and at the end of the volume containing the Sonnets. There is no doubt of its being the Poet's work; but on what occasion or for what purpose it was written, is not known. Some parts of it are very fine, and all of it is well worth having.

1 "A sistering vale" is an adjoining or neighbouring vale.

2 Meaning, probably, that the maid was in a fitful or uneasy state.

3 So in King Lear, iii. 1: "Strives in his little world of man to outscorn the to-and-fro conflicting wind and rain."

4 Done, here, is destroyed or consumed; as we say done for. So in Venus and Adonis:

Are on the sudden wasted, thaw'd, and done,
As mountain snow melts with the midday Sun.

5 Sere is withered, dry. See vol. xvii. page IIO, note 8.

Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,
Which on it had conceited characters,6
Laundering the silken figures in the brine
That season'd woe had pelleted in tears,
And often reading what contents it bears;
As often shrieking undistinguish'd woe,
In clamours of all size, both high and low.

Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride,9
As they did battery to the spheres intend;
Sometimes diverted their poor balls are tied
To th' orbed earth; sometimes they do extend
Their view right on; anon their gazes lend
To every place at once, and, nowhere fix'd,
The mind and sight distractedly commix'd.

Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat,
Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride; 10
For some, untuck'd, descended her sheaved hat,11
Hanging her pale and pinèd cheek beside;
Some in her threaden fillet still did bide,

And, true to bondage, would not break from thence,
Though slackly braided in loose negligence.

A thousand favours from a maund 12 she drew

Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,

Which one by one she in a river threw,

Upon whose weeping margent she was set;

6 Napkin was often used for handkerchief.— Conceited characters is ingenious or fanciful figures.

7 Laundering is washing or laving.

8 Pelleted is formed in little balls. See vol. xvi. page 104, note 19.

9 Alluding to a piece of ordnance. Levell'd is aimed. Often so.

10 The construction is, "a hand of careless pride."

11 Called sheaved because made from sheaves of straw.

12 Maund is still used for a basket in the North of England.

Like usury applying wet to wet,13

Or monarch's hands that let not bounty fall

Where want cries some,14 but where excess begs all.

Of folded schedules had she many a one,

Which she perused, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood;
Crack'd many a ring of posied gold and bone,
Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud;
Found yet more letters sadly penn'd in blood,
With sleided silk feat 15 and affectedly
Enswath'd, and seal'd to curious secrecy.

These often bathed she in her fluxive eyes,16
And often kiss'd, and often 'gan to tear;
Cried, "O false blood, thou register of lies,

What unapprovèd witness 17 dost thou bear!

Ink would have seem'd more black and damnèd here!"
This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,
Big discontent so breaking their contents.

A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh-
Sometime a blusterer, that the ruffle knew
Of Court, of city, and had let go by
The swiftest hours, observèd as they flew -
Towards this afflicted fancy 18 fastly drew,

18 Like usury, because adding more to what is already too much. 14 "Where want cries for some" is the meaning.

15 Feat is here used adverbially, and means nicely or dexterously.— "Sleided silk" is untwisted silk. The allusion is to the practice of putting raw silk round letters, and sealing on the ends of the silk. See vol. xix. page 64, note 3.

16 "Fluxive eyes" is eyes flowing with tears.

17 "Unapproved witness" is witness not proved true, or not made good. So approve was commonly used.

18 Fancy was often used for love; here put for the lover, as one that is fancy-smitten, or one so enthralled to love, that she may fitly be identified with it.