The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare

But when he saw his love, his youth's fair fee,
He held such petty bondage in disdain ;

Throwing the base thong from his bending crest,
Enfranchising his mouth, his back, his breast.

Who sees his true love in her naked bed,
Teaching the sheets a whiter hue than white",
But, when his glutton eye so full hath fed,
His other agents aim at like delight??

Who is so faint, that dare not be so bold,
To touch the fire, the weather being cold?

Let me excuse thy courser, gentle boy;
And learn of him, I heartily beseech thee,

6 Who SEES his true love in her NAKED Bed,

Teaching the SHEETS A WHITER HUE THAN WHITE,] So, in Cymbeline:

- Cytherea,

"How bravely thou becom'st thy bed! fresh lily!

66 And whiter than the sheets."

Who sees, &c. is the reading of the quarto 1593. In the 16mo. of 1596, for sees, we have-seeks. The true reading was restored in the edition of 1600; but it is manifest, from various other instances, that the correction was made by guess, and not from a comparison of copies.

The following passage in a poem by George Peele, preserved in an old miscellany, entitled the Phoenix Nest, 4to. 1593, in which a similar sentiment is found, (and which, perhaps, Shakspeare had in his thoughts,) fully supports the reading of the original copy: "Who hath beheld faire Venus in her pride

"Of nakednes all alablaster white,

"In ivorie bed strait laid by Mars his side
"And hath not bin enchanted with the sight.

"To wish, to dallie and to offer game

"To coy, to court, et cætera to doe;

'(Forgive me chastnes if in termes of shame

"To thy renowne, I paint what longs thereto.)"

MALONE.

7 His other AGENTS aim at like delight?] So also Macbeth expresseth himself to his wife :

I am settled, and bend
"Each corporal agent to this terrible feat." AMNER.

To take advantage on presented joy;

Though I were dumb, yet his proceedings teach

thee:

O learn to love; the lesson is but plain,
And, once made perfect, never lost again.

I know not love, (quoth he,) nor will not know it,
Unless it be a boar, and then I chase it;
'Tis much to borrow, and I will not owe it;
My love to love is love but to disgrace it ;
For I have heard it is a life in death,

That laughs, and weeps, and all but with a breath".

Who wears a garment shapeless and unfinish'd?
Who plucks the bud before one leaf put forth 1?
If springing things be any jot diminish'd,
They wither in their prime, prove nothing worth:
The colt that's back'd and burthen'd being young,
Loseth his pride, and never waxeth strong.

8 My love to love is love but to disgrace it;] My inclination towards love is only a desire to render it contemptible.-The sense is almost lost in the jingle of words. MALONE.

9 For I have heard it is a LIFe in death,

THAT LAUGHS, AND WEEPS, &c.] So, in King Richard III. : "For now they kill me with a living death."

Again, in Troilus and Cressida :

"These lovers cry,-Oh! ob! they die!
"Yet that which seems the wound to kill,
"Doth turn oh! oh! to ha! ha! he!

"So dying love lives still :

"Oh! oh! a while; but ha! ha! ha!

"Oh! oh! groans out for ha! ha! ha!'

MALONE.

Who plucks the BUD before one leaf put forth ?] So, in The Shepheard's Song of Venus and Adonis, by H. C. 1600:

"I am now too young
"To be wonne by beauty;
"Tender are my years,

I am yet a bud." MALONE.

You hurt my hand with wringing; let us part 2
And leave this idle theme, this bootless chat:
Remove your siege from my unyielding heart;
To love's alarm it will not ope the gate":
Dismiss your vows, your feigned tears, your flat-

tery;

For where a heart is hard, they make no battery.

What! canst thou talk, (quoth she,) hast thou a tongue ?

O, would thou had'st not, or I had no hearing!
Thy mermaid's voice hath done me double wrong;
I had my load before, now press'd with bearing:
Melodious discord, heavenly tune harsh-sound-
ing,

Ear's deep-sweet musick, and heart's deep-sore wounding.

2 You hurt my hand with WRINGING; let us part,] So, in the song above quoted:

Wind thee from mee, Venus,

"I am not disposed;

3 REMOVE YOUR SIEGE from my unyielding heart;

TO LOVE's alarm it will not ope the gate :] So, in Romeo and Juliet:

“You—to remove that siege of grief from her

Again, ibid. :

"She will not stay the siege of loving terms." MAlone. 4 Thy MERMAID's voice-] Our ancient writers commonly use mermaid for syren. STEEVENS.

See vol. iv. p. 205, n. 2. MALONE.

5 EAR'S deep-sweet musick,] Thus the original copy 1593. In the edition of 1600, we find-" Earth's deep-sweet musick;" which has been followed in all the subsequent copies.-This and various other instances prove, that all the changes made in that copy were made without any authority, sometimes from carelessness, and sometimes from ignorance. MALONE.

Had I no eyes, but ears, my ears would love
That inward beauty and invisible;

Or, were I deaf, thy outward parts would move
Each part in me that were but sensible:

Though neither eyes nor ears, to hear nor see,
Yet should I be in love, by touching thee.

Say, that the sense of feeling were bereft me,
And that I could not see, nor hear, nor touch,
And nothing but the very smell were left me,
Yet would my love to thee be still as much;
For from the still'tory of thy face excelling
Comes breath perfum'd, that breedeth love by
smelling.

and INVISIBLE;] I suspect that both for the sake of better rhyme, and better sense, we should read invincible. These words are misprinted, alternately one for the other, in King Henry IV. Part II. and King John. STEEVENS.

In the present edition, however, the reader will find the word invisible, in the passage referred to in King John, and invincible, in the second part of King Henry IV. as those words stand in the old copy. See vol. xv. p. 365, n. 6, and vol. xvii. p. 137, n. 9. An opposition was, I think, clearly intended between external beauty, of which the eye is the judge, and a melody of voice, (which the poet calls inward beauty,) striking not the sight but the ear. I therefore have no doubt that invisible, which is found in the original copy 1593, as well as in the subsequent editions, is the true reading.

As to the weakness of the rhymes, the objection has little weight in any instance, for we know our ancient poets were satisfied often with feeble rhymes: and still less in the present case, the very same rhymes being again found in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. Sc. II. :

"The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen

"As is the razor's edge invisible,

Cutting a smaller hair than may be seen; "Above the sense of sense: so sensible "Seemeth their conference." MALONE. 7 Say, that the sense of FEELING -] All the modern editions read-reason. 8 Comes BREATH PERFUM'D, &c.]

Thus the ancient copies.
MALONE.
So, in Constable's poem:

But O, what banquet wert thou to the taste,
Being nurse and feeder of the other four!
Would they not wish the feast might ever last",
And bid Suspicion double lock the door 1?

Lest jealousy, that sour unwelcome guest",
Should, by his stealing in, disturb the feast.

Once more the ruby-colour'd portal open'd",
Which to his speech did honey passage yield;
Like a red morn, that ever yet betoken'd
Wreck to the sea-man, tempest to the field,
Sorrow to shepherds, woe unto the birds,

Gusts and fowl flaws to herdmen and to herds.

This ill presage advisedly she marketh :-
Even as the wind is hush'd before it raineth 3,
Or as the wolf doth grin before he barketh,
Or as the berry breaks before it staineth,

"Breathe once more thy balmie wind:
"It smelleth of the mirrh tree,

"That to the world did bring thee,

Never was perfume so sweet." MALONE.

For might

9 MIGHT ever last,] Thus the original copy. -should is substituted in the edition of 1596. MALONE.

' And bid Suspicion double lock the door?] A bolder or happier personification than this, will not readily be pointed out in any of our author's plays. MALONE.

2 Lest jealousy, that sour unwelcome guest, &c.]