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of the transformation of 1. 7 is given in the two following lines, each of which is introduced by 'Then.' The original reading merely repeats 1. 7.

10. if that archaic forif'; it has not been used except in poetry since the time of Shakespeare. 'When that' was also often used for 'when'; also 'while that,'' how that,' etc.

12. were subjunctive, ' would be.'

Sonnet No. CXVI.

1, 2. Let me not

there are.'

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Admit: May I never own that

4. bends with the remover, etc.: 'is disposed to draw back from one who is himself drawing back.'

8. although his height be taken: the position of the star in the sky when accurately taken may serve as a guide to the mariner, who however knows nothing of the astrological significance of the star.

6

9. Time's fool: the dupe of Time.' We still use the phrase to make a fool of' in this sense.

6

10. bending sickle: Time is generally represented as a mower with a curved scythe.

12. bears it out: endures without giving way.' 14. nor no man in 16th and 17th century English the double negative did not produce an affirmative.

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SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554–1586) was equally famous in his day as courtier, soldier, and poet. He seems to have lost the favour of Elizabeth in the first capacity, but he has always been considered the model of knightly courtesy, learning, and virtue. He was mortally wounded at the battle of Zutphen, where his refusal to take a drink of water, because a wounded soldier was lying near whose need was greater than his, has probably made his name familiar to every schoolboy.

This song as here given is from Puttenham's Art of English Poetry (1589), where it is cited as an instance of the repetition of a line by way of refrain. It is expanded into a sonnet (No. XLIX.) in The Countess of

Pembroke's Arcadia (1590), a pastoral romance with incidental poems, written by Sidney for his sister, Lady Pembroke.

2. one for another: so in Puttenham; in the Arcadia one for the other.' Palgrave in his first edition has one to the other'; in the second, he reads as here.

25

JOSHUA SYLVESTER (1563–1618) is chiefly known for his translation of Du Bartas's French poem on the Creation. This sonnet, which appears to be the only extant original production of its author, is from the Poetical Rapsodie (see note to No. 9). It is not given in Grosart's edition of Sylvester's Works (1876).

26

The

Sung by the Clown in Twelfth Night (11. iii). heading, which means Make the most of to-day,' is of course Palgrave's, being taken from Horace, Odes 1. xi. 8.

4. sweeting properly a sweet apple, and hence a term of affection.

11. Sweet-and-twenty: this seems most naturally to be explained as giving the qualities and age of his mistress in one. It is true that seventeen is the age to which sweetness is proverbially ascribed, but the Clown had the wisdom to see that the extra three years would add materially to the young lady's intelligence without in any way detracting from her looks. The commentators are all at war about the phrase:— sweet and twenty times sweet,'' sweet and [give me] twenty kisses,' a vocative term of endearment " without further explanation! The reader must take his choice.

6

27

Sung by Winter at the end of Love's Labour's Lost (v. ii).

2. blows his nail: breathes on his finger-tips to warm them.

7. Tuwhoo: this word was inserted by Capell (1760) to make the song correspond exactly to the one sung by Spring just before it.

9. keel the pot : 'cool the contents of the pot by stirring.'

6

6

10. all aloud: possibly not recognizing that all was a mere intensive adjunct, Palgrave reads ' around' in his first edition, and about' in his second. 11. saw trite maxim.'

12. brooding: the first meaning is to sit on eggs, and so to sit still as if one were trying to hatch out a scheme.

14. crabs heated ale with spice or sugar and a roast crab-apple or a slice of toast added was a favourite drink for winter evenings.

Sonnet No. LXXIII.

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9, 10. such fire That, etc.: in strict grammar that ’ should be as.' his=its, referring to "fire."

12. Consumed with: i.e. together with'; fire and fuel disappear together.

14. leave: Samuel Butler suggests 'leese,' a variant of lose,' which Shakespeare uses elsewhere (Son. v. 14). It certainly appears as if the poet were going to leave his lover, not vice versa.

29

Sonnet No. xxx.

1, 2, sessions. summon he calls memory to bear witness as in a court of law.

6

4. with old woes, etc.: and utter afresh my old lamentations for the waste of my past life.'

6. dateless : 6

8. expense:

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marked by no fixed limits.'
loss.'

6

9. foregone : gone-before,' 'past. The verb to forgo (=go without) is often spelt forego,' and its past participle then is identical in form with this word. 13. the while: at such a time.'

Sonnet No. LX.

30

4. sequent: ' following one another.'

5. Nativity, once in the main, etc. : when we are born and launched into the sea of light, we slowly attain to the fullness of our powers; but when we have reached this point we are assailed by calamities that make everything go awry.' There is certainly a general though not a consistent reference to astrology, which was accepted as a true science in Shakespeare's time, though it is commonly discredited to-day. Eclipses were considered evil omens among the Greeks and the Romans.

9. transfix the flourish pierce through the gloss.'

11. Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth: Tyler explains, rightly as I think, there are few who have the true beauty which comes from nature-a good deal that passes for beauty being artificial and false-and on these few Time preys.

13. times in hope: "ages yet to come.'

Sonnet No. LXXXVII.

3. charter

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properly a written grant of rights by the Sovereign; here his lady's worth had given her such rights.

8. patent: a right similarly granted to the exclusive enjoyment of some privilege.

11. upon misprision growing: being based upon a misconception of your own value.' The word is derived from the verb to misprize, and must not be confounded with the legal term misprision (akin to the French méprendre), meaning a wrongful act or omission.

Sonnet No. XCIV.

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This difficult sonnet is a warning to the poet's beautiful friend not to expend his beauty and strength on unworthy objects. Beauty, like strength, confers power to hurt; but those who' rightly inherit heaven's

graces' make no use of their beauty to injure others, regarding it as their own property, to be husbanded with care. Others hold their beauty at the bidding of Passion, and use it as Passion dictates, being themselves but Passion's servants.

2. do the thing they most do show: i.e. devote themselves to the service of love, for which their appearance has so amply qualified them.

5. rightly do inherit, etc.: it is right that they should be endowed with supreme beauty.'

6. from expense: from being expended.'

10. Though to itself, etc.: i.e. that which is selfcontained and self-centred will yet give pleasure if it be beautiful. The only is misplaced, as so often in English; it goes with 'to itself."

6

11. with base infection meet: become tainted with decay.'

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See above, note to No. 21.

3. To save thee, etc.: i.e. promise not to leave me, and so save thyself from the charge of causing me pain. 4. grame: sorrow.' The word is still used in Scot

land.

6

8. That hath should be 'have,' the antecedent being me.' So in 1. 14 below.

6

6

9. In wealth and woe among : 'wealth' is used in its original sense of prosperity.' Among' is rarely found with a singular noun which is not a noun of multitude.

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RICHARD BARNFIELD (1574-1627). A scholar of Brasenose College, Oxford, who afterwards lived as a country gentleman in Staffordshire. His first book of poems appeared in 1594; his fifth, in which this song occurs, was called Poems in Divers Humours, and appeared in 1598. The song was reprinted without ascription in the Passionate Pilgrim see above, No. 5— and in both versions there were thirty more lines than Palgrave has printed. This shortened form is found in England's Helicon, and marked' Ignoto.'

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