Then can I grieve at grievances fore-gone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before".

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor'd, and sorrows end.

employing sight, in the past tense of the verb to sigh, instead of sigh'd:

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his hart, for very fell despight,

"And his own flesh he ready was to teare;

"He chauf'd, he griev'd, he fretted, and he sight." Again, in his Colin Clout's Come Home Again:

"For one alone he car'd, for one he sight,

"His life's desire, and his dear love's delight."

The substantive sigh was in our author's time pronounced so hard, that in one of the old copies of King Henry IV. Part I. 4to. 1599, we have:

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and with

"A rising sight he wisheth you in heaven."

At present the vulgar pronunciation of the word is sighth.

The poet has just said that he "sigh'd the lack of many a thing he sought."-By the word expence Shakspeare alludes to an old notion that sighing was prejudicial to health. So, in one of the parts of King Henry VI. we have "blood consuming sighs." Again, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609:

"Do not consume your blood with sorrowing." MALONE. Such laboured perplexities of language, and such studied deformities of style, prevail throughout these Sonnets, that the reader (after our best endeavours at explanation) will frequently find reason to exclaim with Imogen:

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"I see before me neither here, nor here,

"Nor what ensues; but have a fog in them
"That I cannot look through."

I suppose, however, that by the "

expence of many a vanish'd sight," the poet means, the "loss of many an object," which, being gone hence, is no more seen."

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STEEVENS.

5 Which I NEW PAY as if not paid BEFORE.] So, in Cymbeline:

which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay still."

STEEVENS.

Again, in All's Well That Ends Well:

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"When I have found it.' MALONE.

which I will ever pay, and pay again,

XXXI.

Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts,
Which I by lacking have supposed dead;
And there reigns love, and all love's loving parts,
And all those friends which I thought buried.
How many a holy and obsequious tear
Hath dear religious love stol'n from mine eye,
As interest of the dead, which now appear
But things remov'd, that hidden in thee lie"!
Thou art the grave where buried love doth live,
Hung with the trophies of my lovers gone,
Who all their parts of me to thee did give;
That due of many now is thine alone:
Their images I lov'd I view in thee,
And thou (all they) hast all the all of me.

XXXII.

If thou survive my well-contented day,
When that churl Death my bones with dust shall

cover;

And shalt by fortune once more re-survey

These poor rude lines of thy deceased lover,

How many a holy and OBSEQUIOUS tear-] Obsequious is funereal. So, in Hamlet:

"To do obsequious sorrow." MALONE.

that hidden in THEE lie!] The old copy has-in there. The next line shows clearly that it is corrupt. MALONE.

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of thy deceased LOVER,] The numerous expressions of this kind in these Sonnets, as well as the general tenour of the greater part of them, cannot but appear strange to a modern reader. In justice therefore to our author it is proper to observe, that such addresses to men were common in Shakspeare's time, and were not thought indecorous. That age seems to have been very indelicate and gross in many other particulars beside this, but they certainly did not think themselves so. Nothing can prove more strongly the different notions which they entertained on subjects of decorum from those which prevail at present, than

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Compare them with the bettering of the time,
And though they be out-stripp'd by every pen,
Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme,
Exceeded by the height of happier men.

O, then vouchsafe me but this loving thought!
Had my friend's muse grown with this growing age',
A dearer birth than this his love had brought,
To march in ranks of better equipage:

But since he died, and poets better prove,
Theirs for their style I'll read, his for his love.

the eulogies which were pronounced on Fletcher's plays for the chastity of their language; those very plays, which are now banished from the stage for their licentiousness and obscenity.

We have many examples in our author's plays of the expression used in the Sonnet before us, and afterwards frequently repeated. Thus, also, in Coriolanus:

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I tell thee, fellow,

"Thy general is my lover."

Again, in Troilus and Cressida, Ulysses says:

"Farewell, my lord; I as your lover speak."

So also the Soothsayer in Julius Cæsar concludes his friendly admonition to the dictator with the words:" Thy lover, Artemedorus."

So, in one of the Psalms: "My lovers and friends hast thou put away from me, and hid mine acquaintance out of my sight." In like manner Ben Jonson concludes one of his letters to Dr. Donne by telling him that he is his "ever true lover; Drayton in a letter to Mr. Drummond of Hawthornden, informs him that Mr. Joseph Davies is in love with him.

and

Mr. Warton, in confirmation of what has been now advanced, observes in his History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 105, that "in the reign of Queen Elizabeth whole sets of Sonnets were written with this sort of attachment." He particularly mentions The Affectionate Shepherd of Richard Barnefielde, printed in 1595. MALONE.

9 RESERVE them for my love, not for their rhyme,] Reserve is the same as preserve. So, in Pericles:

"Reserve that excellent complexion-." MALONE.

Had my friend's muse grown with this growing age,] We may hence, as well as from other circumstances, infer, that these were among our author's earliest compositions. MALONE.

XXXIII.

Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye
Kissing with golden face the meadows green 3,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchymy *;
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride

With ugly rack on his celestial face 3,

2 Full many a glorious MORNING have I seen, Flatter the MOUNTAIN TOPS with sovereign eye, Kissing with GOLDEN FACE-] So, in Romeo and Juliet: "Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day "Stands tiptoe on the misty mountains' tops."

Again, in Venus and Adonis :

“And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast
"The sun ariseth in his majesty ;

"Who doth the world so gloriously behold,

"The cedar tops and hills seem burnish'd gold."

MALONE.

3 KISSING with golden face, &c.] So, in King Henry IV. Part I.:

4

"Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter?"

STEEVENS.

with heavenly ALCHYMY ;] So, in King John:

the glorious sun

"Stays in his course, and plays the alchymist."

STEEVENS.

5 With ugly RACK on his celestial face,] Rack is the fleeting motion of the clouds. The word is again used by Shakspeare in Antony and Cleopatra :

"That which is now a horse, even with a thought

"The rack dislimns."

Again, in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess :

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shall I stray

"In the middle air, and stay

"The sailing rack-." MALONE.

Rack here is probably reek or smoke. See Mr. H. Tooke's EПEA ПITEPOENTA, vol. iii. p. 238. See the next sonnet, 1. 4.

"Anon permit the basest clouds to ride

BOSWELL.

"With ugly rack on his celestial face." So, in King Henry IV. Part I.:

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herein will I imitate the sun;

"Who doth permit the base contagious clouds

And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace":
Even so my sun one early morn did shine,
With all triumphant splendour on my brow;
But out, alack! he was but one hour mine,
The region cloud' hath mask'd him from me now.
Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth ;
Suns of the world may stain, when heaven's sun
staineth.

XXXIV.

Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
And make me travel forth without my cloak,
To let base clouds o'er-take me in my way,
Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke??
'Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break,
To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
For no man well of such a salve can speak,
That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace:
Nor can thy shame give physick to my grief;
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss:
The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offence's cross

"To smother up his beauty from the world,

"That when he please again to be himself,

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Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,

"By breaking through the foul and ugly mists

"Of vapours, that did seem to strangle him." C.

6 Stealing unseen to WEST with this disgrace:] The article the may have been omitted through necessity; yet I believe our author wrote, to rest. STEEVENS.

7 The REGION cloud-] i. e. the clouds of this region or country. So, in Hamlet:

"I should have fatted all the region kites
"With this slave's offal." STEEVENS.

may STAIN,] Stain is here used as a verb neuter.

- their ROTTEN smoke ?] So, in Coriolanus:

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MALONE.

the reek o' the rotten fens." STEEVENS.

To him that bears the strong offence's CROSS.] The old copy,

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