My thoughts and my discourse as maamen s are, At random from the truth vainly express'd;

For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,

Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

CXLVIII.

O me! what eyes hath love put in my head,
Which have no correspondence with true sight!
Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,
That censures falsely what they see aright?
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love's eye is not so true as all men's: no,
How can it? O, how can Love's eye be true,
That is so vex'd with watching and with tears?
No marvel then though I mistake my view;
The sun itself sees not, till heaven clears.

O cunning Love! with tears thou keep'st me blind,

Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.

CXLIX.

Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not,
When I, against myself, with thee partake?

"Great reason; for past cure is still past care."

It was a proverbial saying. See Holland's Leaguer, a pamphlet published in 1632: "She has got this adage in her mouth; Things past cure, past care." MALONE,

6

Lost:

as black as hell, as dark as night.] So, in Love's Labour's

66

Black is the badge of hell,

"The hue of dungeons, and the scowl of night."

STEEVENS.

7 That CENSURES falsely-] That estimates falsely. MALONE. 8 When I, against myself, with thee PARTAKE?] i. e. take part with thee against myself. STEEVens.

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 low'rst 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 lov'st, and I am blind.

CL.

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 2?

A partaker was in Shakspeare's time the term for an associate or confederate in any business. MALONE.

9- all tyrant, for thy sake?] That is, for the sake of thee, thou tyrant. Perhaps however the author wrote:

66.

when I forgot

"Am of myself, all truant for thy sake?" So, in the 101st Sonnet :

"O truant Muse, what shall be my amends
"For thy neglect of truth." MALONE.

1 Commanded by the motion of thine eyes ?] So, in Coriolanus:

"He wag'd me with his countenance." STEEVENS.

Again, more appositely, in Antony and Cleopatra :
"Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,

"So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes,
"And made their bends adornings?" MALONE.

And swear that brightness doth not grace the day?] So, in Romeo and Juliet :

Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill3,
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 should'st not abhor my state;
If thy unworthiness rais'd love in me,
More worthy I to be belov'd of thee.

CLI.

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,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove.
For, thou betraying me, I do betray
My nobler part to my great body's treason;
My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love; flesh stays no farther reason;

"I am content, if thou wilt have it so:

I'll say, yon grey is not the morning's eye," &c.

STEEVENS.

3 Whence hast thou this BECOMING OF THINGS ILL,] So, in Antony and Cleopatra :

vilest things

"Become themselves in her."

Again, ibidem:

66

Fie, wrangling queen!

"Whom every thing becomes; to chide, to laugh,
"To weep." MALONE.

4 Who taught thee how to make me love thee more,

The more I hear and see just cause of hate?] So Catullus:
Odi et amo; quare id faciam, fortasse requiris :

Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.

The following lines in one of Terence's Comedies contain the same sentiment as the Sonnet before us:

O indignum facinus ! nunc ego

Et illam scelestam esse et me miserum sentio;

Et tædet, et amore ardeo, et prudens, sciens,

Vivus, vidensque pereo, nec quid agam scio. MALONE.

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.

CLII.

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 perjur'd 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;
And, to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindness,
Or made them swear against the thing they see ';
For I have sworn thee fair: more perjur'd I,
To swear, against the truth, so foul a lie 7!

CLIII.

Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep;
A maid of Dian's this advantage found,

7

6 swear against the thing they see ;] So, in Timon: "Swear against objects." STEEVENS.

more perjur'd I,

To swear, against the truth, so foul a lie!] The quarto is here certainly corrupt. It reads-more perjur'd eye, &c.

MALONE.

8 Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep;] This and the following Sonnet are composed of the very same thoughts differently versified. They seem to have been early essays of the poet, who perhaps had not determined which he should prefer. He hardly could have intended to send them both into the world. MALONE. That the poet intended them alike for publication, may be inferred from the following lines in the 105th Sonnet :

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-fir'd,
The boy for trial needs would touch my breast;
I sick withal, the help of bath desir'd,
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.

CLIV.

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;

"Since all alike my songs and praises be,
"To one, of one, still such and ever so-."

Again:

"Therefore my verse

"One thing expressing, leaves out difference."

Again:

Fair, kind, and true, is all my argument,
Fair, kind, and true, varying to other words."

the help of BATH desir'd,

STEEVENS.

And THITHER hied,] Query, whether we should read Bath (i. e. the city of that name). The following words seem to authorise it. STEEVENS.

The old copy is certainly right. See the subsequent Sonnet, which contains the same thoughts differently versified :

"Growing a bath,

but I, my mistress' thrall,

"Came there for cure."

So, before, in the present Sonnet :

"And grew a seething bath." MALONE.