Lending soft audience to my sweet design,
And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath
That shall prefer and undertake my troth."

This said, his watery eyes he did dismount,
Whose sights till then were level'd on my face';
Each cheek a river running from a fount

With brinish current downward flow'd apace:
O, how the channel to the stream gave grace!
Who, glaz'd with crystal, gate the glowing roses
That flame through water which their hue incloses.

2

O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies
In the small orb of one particular tear?
But with the inundation of the eyes
What rocky heart to water will not wear?
What breast so cold that is not warmed here?
O cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath,
Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath!

For lo! his passion, but an art of craft,
Even there resolv'd my reason into tears*;
There my white stole of chastity I daff'd,
Shook off my sober guards, and civil fears;
Appear to him, as he to me appears,

This said, his watery eyes he did dismount,

Whose SIGHTS till then were LEVEL'D on my face;] The allusion is to the old English fire-arms, which were supported on what was called a rest. MALONE.

GATE the glowing roses

That flame-] That is, procured for the glowing roses in his cheeks that flame, &c. Gate is the ancient perfect tense of the verb to get. MALONE.

3 O cleft effect!-] O divided and discordant effect!-0 cleft, &c. is the modern correction. The old copy has-Or cleft effect, from which it is difficult to draw any meaning. MALONE. RESOLV'D my reason INTO TEARS;] So, in Hamlet: "Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew." STEEVENS. my white stole of chastity I DAFF'D,] To daff or doff is to put off, do off. MALONE.

4

All melting; though our drops this difference bore, His poison'd me, and mine did him restore.

In him a plenitude of subtle matter,
Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives,
Of burning blushes, or of weeping water,
Or swooning paleness; and he takes and leaves,
In either's aptness, as it best deceives

To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes,
Or to turn white and swoon at tragick shows:

8

That not a heart which in his level came,
Could scape the hail of his all-hurting aim ",
Showing fair nature is both kind and tame ;
And veil'd in them, did win whom he would maim:
Against the thing he sought he would exclaim:

6 and CIVIL fears,] Civil formerly signified grave, decorous. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

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Come, civil night,

"Thou sober-suited matron all in black." MALONE.

7 Applied to CAUTELS,-] Applied to insidious purposes, with subtilty and cunning. So, in Hamlet:

"Perhaps he loves you now ;

"And now no soil of cautel doth besmirch
"The virtue of his will." MALONE.

8 not a heart which in his LEVEL came,

Could scape the HAIL of his all-burning aim,] So, in King Henry VIII. :

- I stood i' the level

"Of a full-charg'd confederacy." STEEVENS.

Again, in our author's 117th Sonnet :

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Bring me within the level of your frown,

"But shoot not at me in your waken'd hate."

Again, in All's Well That Ends Well:

"I am not an impostor, that proclaim

'Myself against the level of my aim.”

I suspect that for hail we ought to read ill. So, in The Rape

of Lucrece :

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End thy ill aim, before thy shoot be ended."

MALONE.

When he most burn'd in heart-wish'd luxury,
He preach'd pure maid 9, and prais'd cold chastity.

Thus merely with the garment of a Grace
The naked and concealed fiend he cover'd;
That the unexperienc'd gave the tempter place,
Which, like a cherubin, above them hover'd'.
Who, young and simple, would not be so lover'd?
Ah me! I fell; and yet do question make
What I should do again for such a sake.

O, that infected moisture of his eye,
O, that false fire which in his cheek so glow'd,
O, that forc'd thunder from his heart did fly2,
O, that sad breath his spongy lungs bestow'd,
O, all that borrow'd motion, seeming ow'd3,
Would yet again betray the fore-betray'd,
And new pervert a reconciled maid"!

8 in heart-wish'd LUXURY,] Luxury formerly was used for lasciviousness. MALONE.

He preach'd pure maid,-] We meet with a similar phraseology in King John:

"He speaks plain cannon fire, and bounce, and smoke." Again, in King Henry V.:

"I speak to thee plain soldier." MALONE.

like a CHERUBIN, above them hover'd.] So, in Macbeth : - or heaven's cherubin, hors'd

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"Upon the sightless couriers of the air." STEEVENS.

2 O, that forc'd THUNDER from. his heart did fly,] So, in Twelfth Night:

3

"With groans that thunder love, and sighs of fire." MALONE.

that borrow'd motion, seeming ow'D,] That passion which he copied from others so naturally that it seemed real and his own. Ow'd has here, as in many other places in our author's works, the signification of owned. MALONE.

4 In this beautiful poem, in every part of which the hand of Shakspeare is visible, he perhaps meant to break a lance with Spenser. It appears to me to have more of the simplicity and pathetick tenderness of the elder poet, in his smaller pieces, than

any other poem of that time; and strongly reminds us of our author's description of an ancient song, in Twelfth Night:

"It is silly sooth,

"And dallies with the innocence of youth,

"Like the old age." MALONE.