CXV.

Those lines that I before have writ, do lie,
Even those that said I could not love you dearer:
Yet then my judgment knew no reason why
My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer.
But reckoning time, whose million'd accidents
Creep in 'twixt vows, and change decrees of kings,
Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp'st intents,
Divert strong minds to the course of altering things;
Alas! why, fearing of time's tyranny,

Might I not then say, now I love you best,
When I was certain o'er incertainty,
Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?
Love is a babe; then might I not say so,

To give full growth to that which still doth grow?

CXVI.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love,
Which alters when it alteration finds 9
Or bends, with the remover to remove :
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

8

That looks on tempests, and is never shaken';

8

to the MARRIAGE of true minds-] To the sympathetick union of souls. So, in Romeo and Juliet, 4to. 1599:

"Examine every married lineament-." MALONE. 9 - Love is not love,

Which alters when it alteration finds; &c.] So, in King Lear:

66

· Love's not love,

"When it is mingled with regards, that stand

"Aloof from th' entire point."

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

STEEVENS.

That looks on tempests, and is never shaken ;] So, in King Henry VIII.:

66

though perils did

"Abound, as thick as thought could make them, and
"Appear in forms more horrid, yet my duty,

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be

taken.

Love's not Time's fool 2, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom 3.
If this be error, and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

CXVII.

Accuse me thus; that I have scanted all
Wherein I should your great deserts repay *;
Forgot upon your dearest love to call,
Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day";

"As doth the rock against the chiding flood,
"Should the approach of this wild river break,
"And stand unshaken yours."

Again, in Coriolanus:

Like a great sea-mark, standing every flaw, "And saving those that eye thee." MALONE. 'Love's not TIME'S FOOL,] So, in King Henry IV. Part I.: "But thought's the slave of life, and life Time's fool."

MALONE.

3 But BEARS IT out even TO THE EDGE of doom.] So, in All's Well That Ends Well:

"We'll strive to bear it for your worthy sake,

"To the extreme edge of hazard." MALONE. - that I have SCANTED all

Wherein I should your great deserts repay;] So, in King

Lear:

*Than she to scant her duty." STEEVENS.

5 Whereto all BONDS DO TIE me day by day;] So, in King Richard II.:

66

There is my bond of faith,

"To tie thee to my strong correction." Again, in Macbeth:

-to the which my duties

"Are with a most indissoluble tie
"For ever knit."

That I have frequent been with unknown minds,
And given to time your own dear-purchas'd right;
That I have hoisted sail to all the winds

Which should transport me farthest from your sight:
Book both my wilfulness and errors down,
And on just proof, surmise accumulate,
Bring me within the level of your frown",
But shoot not at me in your waken'd hate':
Since my appeal says, I did strive to prove
The constancy and virtue of your love.

CXVIII.

8

Like as, to make our appetites more keen,
With eager compounds we our palate urge;
As, to prevent our maladies unseen,

We sicken to shun sickness, when we purge;
Even so, being full of your ne'er-cloying sweetness,
To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding;

And, sick of welfare, found a kind of meetness
To be diseas'd, ere that there was true needing.
Thus policy in love, to anticipate

The ills that were not, grew to faults assur'd, And brought to medicine a healthful state, Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cur'd;

6 Bring me WITHIN THE LEVEL of your frown,] So, in King Henry VIII.:

"Of a full-charg'd confederacy." STEEVENS. Again, in The Winter's Tale :

66 the harlot king

"Is quite beyond mine arm; out of the blank
"And level of my brain." MAlone.

7 your WAKEN'D hate:] So, in Othello:
"Than answer my wak'd wrath."

STEEVENS.

8 With eager compounds-] Eager is sour, tart, poignant. Aigre, Fr. So, in Hamlet:

"Did curd like eager droppings into milk." STEEvens. 9-RANK of goodness-] So, in Antony and Cleopatra :

66

Rank of gross diet." STEEVENS.

But thence I learn, and find the lesson trué,
Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you.

CXIX.

What potions have I drunk of syren tears,
Distill'd from limbecks foul as hell within,
Applying fears to hopes, and hopes to fears,
Still losing when I saw myself to win!

What wretched errors hath my heart committed,
Whilst it hath thought itself so blessed never!
How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted,
In the distraction of this madding fever 1!

O benefit of ill! now I find true,

That better is by evil still made better2;

3

And ruin'd love, when it is built anew
Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.

1 How have mine EYES out of their SPHERES been FITTED, In the distraction of this madding fever!] How have mine eyes been convulsed during the frantick fits of my feverous love! So, in Macbeth :

"Then comes my fit again; I had else been perfect,

"Whole as the marble," &c.

The participle fitted, is not, I believe, used by any other author, in the sense in which it is here employed. In A Midsummer-Night's Dream, the same image is presented:

"Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne." MALONE. We meet in Hamlet the same image as here:

"Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres." STEEVENS.

2 O benefit of ill! now I find true,

That better is by evil still made better;] So, in As You Like It:

"Sweet are the uses of adversity." STEEVENS.

3 And RUIN'D LOVE, when it is BUILT anew,] So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

"Shall love in building grow so ruinate?"

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

most noble Antony,

"Let not the piece of virtue which is set
"Betwixt us, as the cement of our love,

"To keep it builded, be the ram, to batter
"The fortress of it."

So I return rebuk'd to my content,

And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent.

CXX.

That you were once unkind, befriends me now,
And for that sorrow, which I then did feel,
Needs must I under my transgression bow,
Unless my nerves were brass or hammer'd steel.
For if you were by my unkindness shaken,
As I by yours, you have pass'd a hell of time;
And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken
To weigh how once I suffer'd in your crime.
O that our night of woe might have remember'd
My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits;
And soon to you, as you to me, then tender'd
The humble salve which wounded bosoms fits!
But that your trespass now becomes a fee;
Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me.

CXXI.

"Tis better to be vile, than vile esteem'd, When not to be receives reproach of being;

Again, in Troilus and Cressida :

4

"But the strong base and building of my love
"Is as the very center to the earth,

66

Drawing all things to it." MALONE.

you have pass'd a HELL OF TIME ;] So, in Othello:
"But oh, what damned minutes tells he o'er,

"Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece :

"And that deep torture may be call'd a hell,

"Where more is felt than one hath power to tell."

Again, in King Richard III.:

S

MALONE.

"Could not believe but that I was in hell." STEEVENS. - might have REMEMBER'D] That is, might have reminded. So, in King Richard II.:

"It doth remember me the more of sorrow." MALONE.