What were thy lips the worse for one poor kiss?
Speak, fair; but speak fair words, or else be mute :
Give me one kiss, I'll give it thee again,
And one for interest, if thou wilt have twain.

Fie, lifeless picture, cold and senseless stone,
Well-painted idol, image, dull and dead,
Statue, contenting but the eye alone,
Thing like a man, but of no woman bred;

Thou are no man, though of a man's complexion, For men will kiss even by their own direction.

This said, impatience chokes her pleading tongue,
And swelling passion doth provoke a pause;
Red cheeks and firy eyes blaze forth her wrong;
Being judge in love, she cannot right her cause:
And now she weeps, and now she fain would
speak,

And now her sobs do her intendments1 break.

Sometimes she shakes her head, and then his hand,
Now gazeth she on him, now on the ground;
Sometimes her arms infold him like a band;
She would, he will not in her arms be bound:
And when from thence he struggles to be gone,
She locks her lily fingers, one in one 2.

should read—thus. Thus and kiss correspond in sound as well as unlikely and quickly, adder and shudder, which we meet with afterwards. STEEVENS.

1 - her INTENDMENTS -] i. e. intentions. Thus, in Every Man in his Humour: "but I, spying his intendment, discharg'd my petronel into his bosom." STEEVENS.

2 She locks HER lily fingers, one in one.] Should we not read

"She locks their lily fingers, one in one." FARMER.

I do not see any need of change.-The arms of Venus at present infold Adonis. To prevent him from escaping, she renders her hold more secure, by locking her hands together.

So above:

Fondling, she saith, since I have hemm'd thee here,
Within the circuit of this ivory pale,
I'll be a park, and thou shalt be my deer3;
Feed where thou wilt, on mountain or in dale:
Graze on my lips*; and, if those hills be dry,
Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie'.

Within this limit is relief enough,

Sweet bottom-grass, and high delightful plain,
Round rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough,
To shelter thee from tempest and from rain;

Then be my deer, since I am such a park;
No dog shall rouze thee, though a thousand bark.

At this Adonis smiles, as in disdain,
That in each cheek appears a pretty dimple :
Love made those hollows, if himself were slain,
He might be buried in a tomb so simple;

Fore-knowing well, if there he came to lie,
Why there Love liv'd, and there he could not die.

"Sometimes her arms infold him like a band.” And afterwards:

"The time is spent, her object will away,

"And from her twining arms doth urge relieving." MALONE. 3 I'll be a park, and thou shalt be my deer;] So the original copy, 1593. The edition of 1596 has the park, which has been followed in the modern editions. The image presented here occurs again in The Comedy of Errors:

66

my decayed fair,

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A sunny look of his would soon repair;
"But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale,
"And feeds from home." MALONE.

Again, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "I will never take you for my love again, but I will always count you my dear."

STEEVENS.

4 FEED where thou wilt, on mountain or in dale; Graze on my lips ;] So, in Love's Labour's Lost: unless we feed on your lips." MALONE.

66

5

where the PLEASANT FOUNTAINS lie.] So Strumbo, in the tragedy of Locrine :

66

the pleasant water of your secret fountain." AMNER.

-

These lovely caves, these round enchanting pits, Open'd their mouths to swallow Venus' liking: Being mad before, how doth she now for wits? Struck dead at first, what needs a second striking?

Poor queen of love, in thine own law forlorn,
To love a cheek that smiles at thee in scorn!

Now which way shall she turn? what shall she say?
Her words are done, her woes the more increasing;
The time is spent, her object will away,
And from her twining arms doth urge releasing :
Pity, (she crys) some favour,

some re

morse 7 ;Away he springs, and hasteth to his horse.

But lo, from forth a copse that neighbours by,
A breeding jennet, lusty, young, and proud,
Adonis' trampling courser doth espy,

-

And forth she rushes, snorts, and neighs aloud: The strong-neck'd steed, being tied unto a tree, Breaketh his rein, and to her straight goes he.

Imperiously he leaps, he neighs, he bounds,
And now his woven girths he breaks asunder;
The bearing earth with his hard hoof he wounds,
Whose hollow womb resounds like heaven's thunder;

Struck dead at first, what needs a second striking?] So, in Cymbeline:

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What shall I need to draw my sword? The paper
"Hath cut her throat already."
some REMORSE ;]

W.
tenderness.

Some

7

vol. ix. p. 391, n. 1:

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shall be in me remorse,

See Othello,

"What bloody business ever." MALONE.

The bearing earth with his hard hoof he wounds,] So Virgil, Eneid viii.:

Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum.

MALONE.

The iron bit he crusheth 'tween his teeth,
Controlling what he was controlled with ".

His ears up prick'd; his braided hanging mane
Upon his compass'd crest' now stand on end 2;
His nostrils drink the air", and forth again,
As from a furnace, vapours doth he send1:

His eye, which scornfully glisters like fire,
Shews his hot courage, and his high desire.

Sometime he trots, as if he told the steps,
With gentle majesty, and modest pride;
Anon he rears upright, curvets and leaps",
As who should say, lo! thus my strength is try'd ;

9 CONTROLLING what he was CONTROLLED with.] So, in King John: "Controulment for controulment. So answer France." STEEVENS. Compass'd is arch'd. “A use. MALONE.

1 Upon his COMPASS'D crest] compass'd ceiling" is a phrase yet in So, in Troilus and Cressida: " she came to him the other day into the compass'd window,"i. e. 'the bow window.' STEEVENS. his braided hanging MANE

21

Upon his compass'd crest now STAND on end;] Our author uses mane, as composed of many hairs, as plural. So army, fleet, &c. MALONE.

3 His nostrils DRINK THE AIR,] So, Ariel in The Tempest : "I drink the air before me." STEEVENS.

Again, in Timon of Athens :

and through him

"Drink the free air." MALONE.

4 His nostrils drink the air, and forth again,

As from a furnace, vapours doth he send ;] So, in As You Like It:

66 And then the lover,

"Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad."

In this description of a horse Shakspeare seems to have had the book of Job in his thoughts. MALONE.

"As from a furnace vapours doth he send;" So, in Cymbeline:

"He furnaceth the thick sighs from him." STEEVENS. 5- and LEAPS.] The corresponding rhyme shews that the pronunciation of Shakspeare's time was lep, in the midland coun

And this I do, to captivate the eye
Of the fair breeder that is standing by.

What recketh he his rider's angry stir,
His flattering holla 7, or his Stand, I say?
What cares he now for curb, or pricking spur?
For rich caparisons, or trapping gay?

He sees his love, and nothing else he sees,
For nothing else with his proud sight agrees.

Look, when a painter would surpass the life,
In limning out a well-proportion'd steed,
His art with nature's workmanship at strife
As if the dead the living should exceed;

8

So did this horse excell a common one,
In shape, in courage, colour, pace, and bone.

ties, not leap, as the word is now commonly pronounced in England. In Ireland, where much of the phraseology and pronunciation of the age of Elizabeth is still retained, the ancient mode of pronouncing this word is preserved. So also Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. c. 4, st. 39.

And THIS I do,] So the quarto 1593. In later editions we find-And thus I do. MALONE.

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7 His flatt'ring HOLLA,] This seems to have been formerly a term of the manege. So, in As You Like It: Cry holla to thy tongue, I pr'ythee: it curvets unseasonably."

Again, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine :

"Holla, ye pamper'd jades of Asia," &c.

See Cotgrave's French Dictionary: "Hola, interjection. Enough; soft, soft; no more of that, if you love me."

MALONE.

8 His ART with NATURE's workmanship at STRIFE,] So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1592:

"He greets me with a casket richly wrought;

"So rare, that art did seem to strive with nature,

"To express the cunning workman's curious thought."

See also Timon of Athens, vol. xiii. p. 253, n. 1 :

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It tutors nature: artificial strife,

66

Lives in these touches, livelier than life."

STEEVENS.