You hurt my hand with wringing; let us part 2,
And leave this idle theme, this bootless chat:
Remove your siege from my unyielding heart;
To love's alarm it will not ope the gate":

Dismiss your vows, your feigned tears, your flattery;

For where a heart is hard, they make no battery.

What! canst thou talk, (quoth she,) hast thou a tongue ?

O, would thou had'st not, or I had no hearing!
Thy mermaid's voice hath done me double wrong;
I had my load before, now press'd with bearing:
Melodious discord, heavenly tune harsh-sound-
ing,

Ear's deep-sweet musick, and heart's deep-sore wounding.

2 You hurt my hand with WRINGING; let us part,] So, in the song above quoted :

Wind thee from mee, Venus,

"I am not disposed;

"Thou wringest me too hard,

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Pr'ythee let me goe:

Fie, what a pain it is,

"Thus to be enclosed!"

MALONE.

3 REMOVE YOUR SIEGE from my unyielding heart;

TO LOVE's alarm it will not ope the gate :] So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"You-to remove that siege of grief from her."

Again, ibid. :

4

"She will not stay the siege of loving terms." MALONE. Thy MERMAID's voice-] Our ancient writers commonly use mermaid for syren. STEEVENS.

See vol. iv. p. 205, n. 2. MALONE.

5 EAR'S deep-sweet musick,] Thus the original copy 1593. In the edition of 1600, we find-" Earth's deep-sweet musick;" which has been followed in all the subsequent copies.-This and various other instances prove, that all the changes made in that copy were made without any authority, sometimes from carelessness, and sometimes from ignorance. MALONE.

Had I no eyes, but ears, my ears would love
That inward beauty and invisible;

Or, were I deaf, thy outward parts would move
Each part in me that were but sensible:

Though neither eyes nor ears, to hear nor see,
Yet should I be in love, by touching thee.

7

Say, that the sense of feeling were bereft me,
And that I could not see, nor hear, nor touch,
And nothing but the very smell were left me,
Yet would my love to thee be still as much;
For from the still'tory of thy face excelling
Comes breath perfum'd, that breedeth love by
smelling.

6 and INVISIBLE;] I suspect that both for the sake of better rhyme, and better sense, we should read invincible. These words are misprinted, alternately one for the other, in King Henry IV. Part II. and King John. STEEVENS.

In the present edition, however, the reader will find the word invisible, in the passage referred to in King John, and invincible, in the second part of King Henry IV. as those words stand in the old copy. See vol. xv. p. 365, n. 6, and vol. xvii. p. 137, n. 9.

An opposition was, I think, clearly intended between external beauty, of which the eye is the judge, and a melody of voice, (which the poet calls inward beauty,) striking not the sight but the ear. I therefore have no doubt that invisible, which is found in the original copy 1593, as well as in the subsequent editions, is the true reading.

As to the weakness of the rhymes, the objection has little weight in any instance, for we know our ancient poets were satisfied often with feeble rhymes: and still less in the present case, the very same rhymes being again found in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. Sc. II. :

"The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen

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"As is the razor's edge invisible,

Cutting a smaller hair than may be seen; "Above the sense of sense: so sensible "Seemeth their conference." MALONE. Say, that the sense of FEELING All the modern editions read-reason. 8 Comes BREATH PERFUM'D, &c.]

] Thus the ancient copies.
MALONE.
So, in Constable's

poem:

But O, what banquet wert thou to the taste,
Being nurse and feeder of the other four!
Would they not wish the feast might ever last,
And bid Suspicion double lock the door 1?

Lest jealousy, that sour unwelcome guest",
Should, by his stealing in, disturb the feast.

Once more the ruby-colour'd portal open'd
Which to his speech did honey passage yield;
Like a red morn, that ever yet betoken'd
Wreck to the sea-man, tempest to the field,
Sorrow to shepherds, woe unto the birds,

4

Gusts and fowl flaws to herdmen and to herds.

This ill presage advisedly she marketh :-
Even as the wind is hush'd before it raineth 3,
Or as the wolf doth grin before he barketh,
Or as the berry breaks before it staineth,

"Breathe once more thy balmie wind:
"It smelleth of the mirrh tree,
"That to the world did bring thee,

"Never was perfume so sweet." MALONE.

9 — MIGHT ever last,] Thus the original copy.

For might

-should is substituted in the edition of 1596. MALONE.

And bid Suspicion double lock the door?] A bolder or happier personification than this, will not readily be pointed out in any of our author's plays. MALONE.

2 Lest jealousy, that sour unwelcome guest, &c.]

3

ne quis malus invidere possit,

Quum tantum sciat esse basiorum.

Catullus. MALONE.

the ruby-colour'd PORTAL Open'd,] So, in King Henry IV. Part II. :

4

"By his gates of breath

"There lies a downy-feather." MALONE.

foul flaws-] i. e. violent blasts of wind. See vol. xvii.

p. 176, n. 6. STEEVENS.

5 Even as the WIND IS HUSH'D BEFORE IT RAINETH,]

Hamlet:

"But, as we often see against some storm

"The bold winds speechless, and the orb below
"As hush as death," &c. STEEVENS.

So, in

Or like the deadly bullet of a gun,

His meaning struck her, ere his words begun 7.

And at his look she flatly falleth down,
For looks kill love, and love by looks reviveth :
A smile recures the wounding of a frown;
But blessed bankrupt, that by love so thriveth!
The silly boy believing she is dead,

Claps her pale cheek, till clapping makes it red;

And all-amaz'd brake off his late intent,
For sharply he did think to reprehend her,
Which cunning love did wittily prevent:
Fair fall the wit, that can so well defend her 9!
For on the grass she lies, as she were slain,
Till his breath breatheth life in her again.

He wrings her nose, he strikes her on the cheeks,
He bends her fingers, holds her pulses hard;
He chafes her lips; a thousand ways he seeks
To mend the hurt that his unkindness marr'd;
He kisses her; and she, by her good will,
Will never rise, so he will kiss her still.

6 Or like the deadly bullet of a gun,] So, in Romeo and Juliet:

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that name

Shot from the deadly level of a gun-." STEEVENS.

7 His meaning struck her, ere his words begun.] So, in King Henry IV. Part II. :

"But Priam found the fire, ere he his tongue." Our author is inaccurate. He should have written began.

MALONE.

-] Thus the quarto 1593. The copy for which the moderns

of 1600 corruptly reads, "And in a maze; have given, "And in amaze." MALONE.

9 Fair fall the wit, &c.] So, in King John:

66

Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me."

STEEVENS.

The night of sorrow now is turn'd to day :
Her two blue windows' faintly she up-heaveth,
Like the fair sun, when in his fresh array
He cheers the morn, and all the world relieveth:
And as the bright sun glorifies the sky 2,
So is her face illumin'd with her eye;

3

Whose beams upon his hairless face3 are fix'd, As if from thence they borrow'd all their shine *. Were never four such lamps together mix'd, Had not his clouded with his brows' repine ;

But hers, which through the crystal tears gave light,

Shone like the moon, in water seen by night 5.

1 Her two BLUE windows-] So, in Antony and Cleopatra : -Downy windows, close;

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"And golden Phoebus never be beheld

"Of eyes again so royal!"

Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

thy eyes' windows fall

"Like death, when he shuts up the day of life."

"Under these windows :-white and azure! laced
"With blue of heaven's own tinct."

2

66

3

STEEVENS.

GLORIFIES the sky,] So, in King John:

Do glorify the banks that bound them in." STEEVENS. his HAIRLESS face-] So, in King John:

"This unhair'd sauciness, and boyish troops." STEEVENS.

4 — all their shine.] Shine was formerly used as a substantive. So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609:

"Thou shew'dst a subject's shine."

Again, in the 97th Psalm, v. 4: “His lightnings gave shine unto the world." MALONE.

5 But hers, which through the crystal tears gave light,

Shone like the moon, in water seen by night.] So, in Love's Labour's Lost:

"Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright,

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Through the transparent bosom of the deep,

"As doth thy face through tears of mine give light;
"Thou shin'st in everv tear that I do weep." MALone.