An oven that is stopp'd, or river stay'd,
Burneth more hotly, swelleth with more rage:
So of concealed sorrow may be said;

Free vent of words love's fire doth assuage9;
But when the heart's attorney once is mute,
The client breaks', as desperate in his suit.

He sees her coming, and begins to glow,
(Even as a dying coal revives with wind,)
And with his bonnet hides his angry brow;
Looks on the dull earth with disturbed mind 2;
Taking no notice that she is so nigh,
For all askaunce he holds her in his eye.

O, what a sight it was, wistly to view
How she came stealing to the wayward boy!
To note the fighting conflict of her hue!
How white and red each other did destroy!

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the grief that does not speak,

Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break."
STEEVENS.

9 Free vent of words love's FIRE doth assuage.] Fire is here, as in many other places, used by our poet as a dissyllable.

MALONE.

I But when the heart's ATTORNEY once is mute,
The CLIENT breaks, &c.] So, in King Richard III. :

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Why should calamity be full of words?

Windy attorneys to their client woes." STEEVens. The heart's attorney is the tongue, which undertakes and pleads for it. MALONE.

2 Looks on the DULL EARTH, &c.] So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

Upon the dull earth dwelling."

the fighting conflict of her hue!

STEEVENS.

How white and red, &c.] So, in the Taming of the Shrew :

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Such war of white and red within her cheeks."

Again, in Hamlet:

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Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting." W.

But now, her cheek was pale, and by and by
It flash'd forth fire, as lightning from the sky.

Now was she just before him as he sat,
And like a lowly lover down she kneels;
With one fair hand she heaveth up his hat,
Her other tender hand his fair cheek feels:

His tend'rer cheek receives her soft hand's print, As apt as new-fall'n snow takes any dint.

O, what a war of looks was then between them!
Her eyes, petitioners, to his eyes suing ;
His eyes saw her eyes as they had not seen them;
Her eyes woo'd still, his eyes disdain'd the wooing:
And all this dumb play had his acts made plain
With tears, which, chorus-like, her eyes did rain 3.

Full gently now she takes him by the hand,
A lily prison'd in a gaol of snow,

Or ivory in an alabaster band;

So white a friend engirts so white a foe:

This beauteous combat, wilful and unwilling,
Show'd like two silver doves that sit a billing.

Once more the engine of her thoughts began:
O fairest mover on this mortal round,
Would thou wert as I am, and I a man,

My heart all whole as thine, thy heart my wound';

11

had His acts] His for its. So, in Hamlet:

5 And all this DUMB PLAY had his ACTS made plain

With tears, which, CHORUS-LIKE, her eyes did rain.] From the present passage, I think it probable, that this first production of our author's muse was not composed till after he had left Stratford, and became acquainted with the theatre. MALONE.

6

thy heart my wound ;] i. e. thy heart wounded as mine is. MALONE.

For one sweet look thy help I would assure thee, Though nothing but my body's bane would cure thee.

Give me my hand, saith he, why dost thou feel it?
Give me my heart, saith she, and thou shalt have it;
O give it me, lest thy hard heart do steel it",
And being steel'd, soft sighs can never grave it:
Then love's deep groans I never shall regard,
Because Adonis' heart hath made mine hard.

For shame, he cries, let go, and let me go;
My day's delight is past, my horse is gone,
And 'tis your fault I am bereft him so;
I pray you hence, and leave me here alone;
For all my mind, my thought, my busy care,
Is how to get my palfrey from the mare.

Thus she replies: Thy palfrey, as he should,
Welcomes the warm approach of sweet desire.
Affection is a coal that must be cool'd;

Else, suffer'd, it will set the heart on fire:

The sea hath bounds, but deep desire hath none'; Therefore no marvel though thy horse be gone.

How like a jade he stood, tied to the tree',
Servilely master'd with a leathern rein!

thou dost stone my heart."

soft sighs can never GRAVE IT;]

an impression on it. STEEVENS.

So, in Othello:
STEEVENS.
Engrave it, i. e. make

9 The sea hath bounds, but deep desire hath none;] So, in Macbeth:

1

but there's no bottom, none,

"To my voluptuousness." W.

tied to THE tree,] Thus the quarto 1593, and the 16mo. 1596; for which the edition of 1600 and all subsequent have substituted-a tree. MALONE.

But when he saw his love, his youth's fair fee,
He held such petty bondage in disdain ;

Throwing the base thong from his bending crest,
Enfranchising his mouth, his back, his breast.

Who sees his true love in her naked bed,
Teaching the sheets a whiter hue than white,
But, when his glutton eye so full hath fed,
His other agents aim at like delight??

Who is so faint, that dare not be so bold,
To touch the fire, the weather being cold?

Let me excuse thy courser, gentle boy;
And learn of him, I heartily beseech thee,

6 Who SEES his true love in her NAKED bed,

Teaching the SHEETS A WHITER HUE THAN WHITE,] So, in Cymbeline:

Cytherea,

"How bravely thou becom'st thy bed! fresh lily!

"And whiter than the sheets."

Who sees, &c. is the reading of the quarto 1593. In the 16mo. of 1596, for sees, we have-seeks. The true reading was restored in the edition of 1600; but it is manifest, from various other instances, that the correction was made by guess, and not from a comparison of copies.

The following passage in a poem by George Peele, preserved in an old miscellany, entitled the Phoenix Nest, 4to. 1593, in which a similar sentiment is found, (and which, perhaps, Shakspeare had in his thoughts,) fully supports the reading of the original copy: "Who hath beheld faire Venus in her pride

"Of nakednes all alablaster white,

"In ivorie bed strait laid by Mars his side
"And hath not bin enchanted with the sight.

"To wish, to dallie and to offer game

"To coy, to court, et cætera to doe;

(Forgive me chastnes if in termes of shame

"To thy renowne, I paint what longs thereto.)"

MALONE.

7 His other AGENTS aim at like delight?] So also Macbeth expresseth himself to his wife :

up

I am settled, and bend
"Each corporal agent to this terrible feat." AMNER.

VOL. XX.

D

To take advantage on presented joy;

Though I were dumb, yet his proceedings teach thee:

O learn to love; the lesson is but plain,
And, once made perfect, never lost again.

I know not love, (quoth he,) nor will not know it, Unless it be a boar, and then I chase it;

'Tis much to borrow, and I will not owe it; My love to love is love but to disgrace it"; For I have heard it is a life in death,

That laughs, and weeps, and all but with a breath".

Who wears a garment shapeless and unfinish'd?
Who plucks the bud before one leaf put forth 1?
If springing things be any jot diminish'd,
They wither in their prime, prove nothing worth:
The colt that's back'd and burthen'd being young,
Loseth his pride, and never waxeth strong.

8 My love to love is love but to disgrace it ;] My inclination towards love is only a desire to render it contemptible.-The sense is almost lost in the jingle of words. MALONE.

9 For I have heard it is a LIFE IN DEATH,

THAT LAUGHS, AND WEEPS, &c.] So, in King Richard III. : "For now they kill me with a living death.

Again, in Troilus and Cressida :

"These lovers cry,-Oh! oh! they die!

"Yet that which seems the wound to kill,

"Doth turn oh! oh! to ha! ha! he!

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So dying love lives still:

"Oh! oh! a while; but ha! ha! ha!

"Oh! oh! groans out for ha! ha! ha!" MALONE.

1 Who plucks the BUD before one leaf put forth ?] So, in The Shepheard's Song of Venus and Adonis, by H. C. 1600:

"I am now too young
"To be wonne by beauty;
"Tender are my years,
"I am yet a bud."

MALONE.