I might as yet have been a spreading flower,
Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied
Love to myself, and to no love beside.

80

"But, woe is me! too early I attended
À youthful suit—it was to gain my grace-
Of one by nature's outwards so commended,
That maidens' eyes stuck over all his face:
Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place;
And when in his fair parts she did abide,
She was new lodg'd, and newly deified.

"His browny locks did hang in crooked curls;
And every light occasion of the wind
Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls.
What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find:
Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind;
For on his visage was in little drawn

90

1

What largeness thinks in Paradise was sawn.
"Small show of man was yet upon his chin;
His phoenix2 down began but to appear,
Like unshorn velvet, on that termless3 skin,
Whose bare out-bragg'd the web it seem'd to wear:
Yet show'd his visage by that cost more dear;
And nice affections wavering stood in doubt
If best were as it was, or best without.

"His qualities were beauteous as his form,
For maiden-tongu'd he was, and thereof free; 100
Yet, if men mov'd him, was he such a storm
As oft 'twixt May and April is to see,
When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be.
His rudeness so with his authoriz'd youth
Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.

"Well could he ride, and often men would say,
That horse his mettle from his rider takes:
Proud of subjection, noble by the sway,
What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop
he makes!'

And controversy hence a question takes,
Whether the horse by him became his deed,
Or he his manage by the well-doing steed.
"But quickly on this side the verdict went:
His real habitude gave life and grace
To appertainings and to ornament,
Accomplish'd in himself, not in his case:4

1 Sawn, sown; or perhaps, seen.

2 Phonix, i.e. matchless.

3 Termless, indescribable; cf. phraseless in line 225. + Case, ornaments, dress.

110

120

All aids, themselves made fairer by their place,
Came for additions; yet their purpos'd trim
Piec'd not his grace, but were all grac'd by him.
"So on the tip of his subduing tongue
All kind of arguments and question deep,
All replication prompt, and reason strong,
For his advantage still did wake and sleep:
To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,
He had the dialect and different skill,
Catching all passions in his craft of will:

"That he did in the general bosom reign
Of young, of old; and sexes both enchanted,
To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain 129
In personal duty, following where he haunted:
Consents bewitch'd, ere he desire, have granted;
And dialogu'd for him what he would say,
Ask'd their own wills, and made their wills obey.

"Many there were that did his picture get,
To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind;
Like fools that in th' imagination set
The goodly objects which abroad they find
Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assign'd;
And labouring in more pleasures to bestow them
Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them:
"So many have, that never touch'd his hand,
Sweetly suppos'd them mistress' of his heart. 142
My woful self, that did in freedom stand,
And was my own fee-simple, not in part,
What with his art in youth, and youth in art,
Threw my affections in his charmed power,
Reserv'd the stalk, and gave him all my flower.
"Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
Demand of him, nor being desir'd yielded;
Finding myself in honour so forbid,
With safest distance I mine honour shielded:
Experience for me many bulwarks builded

Of proofs new-bleeding, which remain'd the foil
Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil.

"But, ah, who ever shunn'd by precedent
The destin'd ill she must herself assay?
Or forc'd examples, 'gainst her own content,
To put the by-pass'd perils in her way?
Counsel may stop awhile what will not stay;
For when we rage, advice is often seen
By blunting us to make our wits more keen.

150

160

"Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,
That we must curb it upon others' proof;1
To be forbod the sweets that seem so good,
For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.
O appetite, from judgment stand aloof!
The one a palate hath that needs will taste,
Though Reason weep, and cry, 'It is thy last.'
"For further I could say, 'This man 's untrue,'
And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling; 170
Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew,
Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling;
Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling;
Thought characters and words merely but art,
And bastards of his foul-adulterate heart.
"And long upon these terms I held my city,
Till thus he gan besiege me: 'Gentle maid,
Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity,
And be not of my holy vows afraid:

"And, lo, behold these talents of their hair,
With twisted metal amorously impleach'd,
I have receiv'd from many a several fair,-
Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd,—
With the annexions of fair gems enrich'd,
And deep-brain'd sonnets that did amplify
Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality. 210
"The diamond,-why, 't was beautiful and hard,
Whereto his invis'd' properties did tend;
The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard
Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend;
The heaven-hu'd sapphire, and the opal blend
With objects manifold: each several stone,
With wit well blazon'd, smil'd or made some moan.
"Lo, all these trophies of affections hot,
Of pensiv'd and subdu'd desires the tender,
Nature hath charg'd me that I hoard them not,
But yield them up where I myself must render,
That is, to you, my origin and ender;
For these, of force, must your oblations be,
Since I their altar, you enpatron me.

66

230

"'O, then, advance of yours that phraseless hand,
Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise;
Take all these similes to your own command,
Hallow'd with sighs that burning lungs did raise;
What me your minister, for you obeys,
Works under you; and to your audit comes
Their distract parcels in combined sums.
"Lo, this device was sent me from a nun,
A sister sanctified, of holiest note;
Which late her noble suit in court did shun,
Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote;
For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,
But kept cold distance, and did thence remove,
To spend her living in eternal love.

238

"But, O my sweet, what labour is 't to leave
The thing we have not, mastering what not strives,-
Playing the place which did no form receive,
Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves?
She that her fame so to herself contrives,
The scars of battle scapeth by the flight,
And makes her absence valiant, not her might.
"O, pardon me, in that my boast is true:
The accident which brought me to her eye

4 Impleach'd, entwined.

5 Invis'd invisible.

6 Pensiv'd, pensive.

7 Phraseless, that baffles description.

261

As compound love to physic your cold breast.
"My parts had power to charm a sacred nun,
Who, disciplin'd, ay, dieted in grace,
Believ'd her eyes when they t'assail begun,
All vows and consecrations giving place:
O most potential love! vow, bond, nor space,
In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine,
For thou art all, and all things else are thine.
"When thou impressest, what are precepts worth
Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame,
How coldly those impediments stand forth
Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame!
Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense,
'gainst shame;

And sweetens, in the suffering pangs it bears,
The aloes1 of all forces, shocks, and fears.

270

"Now all these hearts that do on mine depend, Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine; And supplicant their sighs to you extend,

280

To leave the battery that you make 'gainst mine,
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,2
Whose sights till then were levell'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 encloses.

"O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies
In the small orb of one particular tear!

"In him a plenitude of subtle matter,
Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives,
Of burning blushes, or of weeping water,
Or swounding 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 tragic shows:
"That not a heart which in his level came
Could scape the hail of his all-hurting aim, 310
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;
When he most burn'd in heart-wish'd luxury, 6
He preach'd pure maid, and prais'd cold chastity.
"Thus merely with the garment of a Grace
The naked and concealed fiend he cover'd;
That th' unexperient gave the tempter place,
Which, like a cherubin, above them hover'd.
Who, young and simple, would not be so lover'd?
Ay 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 fore'd thunder from his heart did fly,
O, that sad breath his spongy lungs bestow'd,
O, all that borrow'd motion seeming ow'd,8
Would yet again betray the fore-betray'd,
And new pervert a reconciled maid!"

321

329

1. Line 7: sorrow's WIND AND RAIN.-Compare Antony and Cleopatra, i. 2. 153, 154: "we cannot call her winds and waters sighs and tears; they are greater storms.'

2. Line 12: Time hath not SCYTHED.-Q. has sithed. 3. Line 14: Some beauty peep'd through LATTICE of sear'd AGE.-Compare Sonnet iii. 11, 12:

So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time;

and Cymbeline, ii. 4. 33, 34:

let her beauty

Look through a casement.

4. Line 18: had PELLETED in tears. So Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 13. 165:

By the discandying of this pelleted storm.

5. Line 31: SHEAV'D hat.-Q. has sheu'd; the ed. of 1640 shev'd. Sewell in his first edition printed sheav'd; in the second, shav'd.

6. Line 37: BEADED jet. So Sewell; the Quarto has bedded.

7. Lines 38-40: Which one by one, &c.-Compare III. Henry VI. v. 4. 8, 9; As You Like It, ii. 1. 42-49; and Romeo and Juliet, i. 1. 138, 139.

8. Line 45: many a RING of POSIED gold.-See As You Like It, note 95.

9. Line 48: With SLEIDED silk.—That is, raw, untwisted silk. Compare Pericles, iv. Prologue, 21:

Be 't when she weav'd the sleided silk.

In Troilus, v. 1. 35, the Folio has sleyd, but I adopted the sleive (= sleave) of the Quarto. See note 287 to that play.

10. Line 49: Enswath'd, and SEAL'D.-Steevens reminds us that "anciently the ends of a piece of narrow ribbon were placed under the seals of letters, to connect them more closely."

11. Line 51: often GAN to tear.-So Malone. Q. has gaue to teare.

12. Line 58: that the RUFFLE knew.-For the verb ruffle see Titus Andronicus, i. 313, with note 21.

13. Line 72: The INJURY of many a blasting HOUR.Compare "injurious-shifting Time" in Lucrece, 930; and "Time's injurious hand” in Sonnet lxiii. 2.

14. Line 74: Not age, but SORROW, &c.-Compare (with Malone) Romeo and Juliet, iii. 2. 89:

These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old. 15. Line 112: his MANAGE.-Q. has his mannad'ge. 16. Line 118: CAME for additions.-So Sewell; Q. has can, and Sewell (2nd ed.) read:

Can for additions get their purpose trim.

19. Line 182: nor never W00.-Q. has Vow; the change is adopted by the Cambridge editors.

20. Line 215: and the OPAL blend.-This stone is referred to in one other passage in Shakespeare-Twelfth Night, ii. 4. 77: "thy mind is a very opal;" see note 128 to that play.

21. Line 218: Lo, all these TROPHIES of affections hot — Compare Sonnet xxxi. 9, 10:

Thou art the grave where buried love doth live,
Hung with the trophies of my lovers gone.

22. Line 225: that PHRASELESS hand.-Compare "his speechless hand" in Coriolanus, v. 1. 67.

23. Line 228: HALLOW'D with sighs.-Sewell's alteration of the Quarto, which has hollowed.

24. Line 236 by spirits of richest COAT.-That is, by nobles, coat introducing the idea of heraldry; cf. Lucrece, 205:

And be an eye-sore in my golden coat.

25. Lines 239-241: But, O my sweet, &c. - I have retained, with the Globe edition, what is substantially the reading of the Quarto; but I feel pretty sure that the text is in some way corrupt, and the sense unrecoverable. None of the emendations seem to me worth chronicling: each reader must read the riddle after his own fashion One thing seems to me clear, that the second playing is a repetition of the first (or vice versa), through the printer's mistake.

26. Line 250: RELIGIOUS LOVE.-Compare Sonnet xxxi. 6: "dear-religious love."

27. Line 254: The broken BOSOMS that to me belong.For bosom heart, the seat of the affections, cf. Midsum mer Night's Dream, i. 1. 27:

This man hath witch'd the bosom of my child. 23. Line 261: AY, DIETED in grace.-Q. has I dieted; the change is due to Capell.

29. Line 271: Love's arms are peace.-It is not easy to see what this means, and emendations have been numer ous. Capell proposed are proof; Steevens, Love aims at peace; Dyce, Love arms our peace; Lettsom, Love charms 30. Line 303: Applied to CAUTELS.-Cautels- deceits; cf Hamlet, i. 3. 15, 16:

no soil nor cautel doth besmirch The virtue of his will.

31. Line 305: Or SWOUNDING paleness.-So most editors; Q. has sounding.

32. Line 309: which in his LEVEL came.—Level = aim, reach; cf. Sonnet cxvii. 11:

Bring me within the level of your frown;

and Winter's Tale, ii. 3. 5, 6:

out of the blank And level of my brain.

33. Line 314: in heart-wish'd LUXURY.-For luxury=lust, see Troilus and Cressida, note 298.

34. Line 315: He PREACH'D PURE MAID.-The form of the expression reminds us of King John, ii. 462: "he speaks plain cannon,-fire;" and Othello, ii. 3. 281.

The Passionate Pilgrim was first printed in 1599, the title being as follows: "THE | PASSIONATE | PILGRIME. | By W. Shakespeare. | AT LONDON | Printed for W. Jaggard, and are to be sold by W. Leake, at the Greyhound in Paules Churchyard | 1599. | ."

In the middle of sheet C is a second title: "SONNETS | To sundry notes of Musicke." The volume was a collection of poems made by the unscrupulous piratical publisher William Jaggard; it contained some genuine sonnets and verses by Shakespeare, with others by Marlowe, Richard Barnfield, Griffin, and unknown writers. In 1612 the Pilgrim was republished, with a fuller title: THE | PASSIONATE | PILGRIME. | or Certaine Amorous Sonnets, | betweene Venus and Adonis, newly corrected and aug-mented. By W. Shakespere | The third Edition. Whereunto

is newly added two Loue - Epistles, the first from Paris to Hellen, and | Hellens answere backe | againe to Paris. | Printed by W. Jaggard. 1612.

This edition, it will be noticed, is described as the "third;" but no other between 1599 and 1612 is extant. The two additional poems of which the title-page speaks were by Heywood, and in the postscript to the Apology for Actors (1612) he comments on the piracy: "Here, likewise, I must necessarily insert a manifest injury done me in that worke [his Troia Britannica, published in 1609], by taking the two epistles of Paris to Helen, and Helen to Paris, and printing them in a lesse volume under the name of another, which may put the world in opinion I might steale them from him, and hee, to doe himself right, hath since published them in his owne name: but, as I must acknowledge my lines not worthy his patronage under whom he hath publisht them, so the author, I know, much offended with M Jag

gard [it should be W Jaggard], that (altogether unknowne to him) presumed to make so bold with his name" (Leopold Shakspere, Introduction, p. xxxv). Touched by this appeal, the publisher cancelled the first title-page and substituted a second one, leaving out Shakespeare's name; and, curiously enough, the Bodleian copy of The Passionate Pilgrim (which belonged to Malone) has the two title-pages, probably through some inadvertence on the part of the printer. See the Cambridge Shakespeare, vol. ix., Introduction, p. xvi.

We saw that the volume was a mere miscellany of verses; I venture to borrow Professor Dowden's classification of its contents:

"Poems I. and II. Shakspere's Sonnets, 138 and 144 (with various readings).

III. Longaville's sonnet to Maria in Love's La-
bour's Lost (act iv. sc. 3. 60-73).

IV. (?) Shakspere's (on the subject of Venus and
Adonis).

X. Probably not Shakspere's.
XI. Probably by Bartholomew Griffin, in whose
Fidessa more Chaste than Kinde, 1596,
it had appeared with various readings (on
the subject of Venus and Adonis).

XII. Probably not Shakspere's.
XIII. Probably by the same writer as x.
XIV.-XV. Probably not Shakspere's.
XVI. Certainly not Shakspere's.

XVII. Dumain's poem to Kate in Love's Labour's
Lost (act iv. 3. 101-120).

XVIII. From Weelkes's Madrigals, 1597.
XIX. (?) Possibly not Shakspere's.

XX. By Marlowe (given here imperfectly), Love's

1 Usually printed in error as two poems.