And homeward through the dark lawnd runs apace; Leaves Love upon her back deeply distress'd.

Look, how a bright star shooteth from the sky", So glides he in the night from Venus' eye;

Which after him she darts, as one on shore
Gazing upon a late-embarked friend,

5

Till the wild waves will have him seen no more, Whose ridges with the meeting clouds contend: So did the merciless and pitchy night

2

Fold in the object that did feed her sight.

-the dark lawnd-] So the original copy of 1593, and the edition of 1596. Lawnd and lawn were in old language synonymous. The 16mo. of 1600 has-lawnes, which in the modern editions became lanes. MALONE.

3 Look, how a bright STAR SHOOTETH from the sky,] So, in King Richard II. :

"I see thy glory like a shooting star—.”

Again, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,

"To hear the sea-maid's musick."

Again, in Troilus and Cressida :

66

and fly like chidden Mercury,

MALone.

"Or like a star dis-orb'd." STEEVENS.

4 as one on shore

Gazing upon a late-embarked friend,] Perhaps Otway had this passage in his thoughts when he wrote the following lines: "Methinks I stand upon a naked beach,

66

Sighing to winds, and to the seas complaining; "While afar off the vessel sails away,

"Where all the treasure of my soul's embark'd."

MALONE.

See the scene in Cymbeline where Imogen tells Pisanio how he ought to have gazed after the vessel in which Posthumus was embarked. STEEvens.

5 Till the wild WAVES

Whose RIDGES -] So, in King Lear:

"Horns welk'd and wav'd like the enridged sea."

STEEVENS.

"Whose ridges with the meeting clouds contend." So, in

Othello:

Whereat amaz'd, as one that unaware
Hath dropp'd a precious jewel in the flood,
Or 'stonish'd as night-wanderers often are
Their light blown out in some mistrustful wood;
Even so confounded in the dark she lay,
Having lost the fair discovery of her way".

And now she beats her heart, whereat it groans, That all the neighbour-caves, as seeming troubled, Make verbal repetition of her moans;

Passion on passion deeply is redoubled:

Ah me! she cries, and twenty times, woe, woe! And twenty echoes twenty times cry so.

She marking them, begins a wailing note,
And sings extemp'rally a woeful ditty;

How love makes young men thrall, and old men dote;
How love is wise in folly, foolish-witty:

Her heavy anthem still concludes in woe,
And still the choir of echoes answer so 8.

"The chiding billow seems to pelt the clouds;

"The wind-shak'd surge with high and monstrous main "Seems to cast water on the burning bear,

"And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole."

Again, ibidem:

"And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas,
Olympus high." MALONE.

"Or 'STONISH'D as NIGHT-WANDERERS often are,] So, in King

"Gallow the very wanderers of the dark." STEEVens. the fair discovery of her way.] I would read-discoverer, i. e. Adonis. STEEVENS.

7

-

The old reading appears to me to afford the same meaning, and is surely more poetical. Our author uses a similar phraseology in Coriolanus:

66 Lest you should chance to whip your information,

[i. e. your informer.]

"And beat the messenger who bids beware

"Of what is to be dreaded." MALONE.

And still the choir of echoes ANSWER SO.] Our author ought

Her song was tedious, and outwore the night,
For lovers' hours are long, though seeming short":
If pleas'd themselves, others, they think, delight
In such like circumstance, with such like sport :
Their copious stories, oftentimes begun,

End without audience, and are never done.

For who hath she to spend the night withal,
But idle sounds resembling parasites;
Like shrill-tongu'd tapsters answering every call,
Soothing the humour of fantastick wits 1?
She says, 'tis so: they answer all, 'tis so;
And would say after her, if she said no.

to have written-answers; but the error into which he has fallen is often committed by hasty writers, who are deceived by the noun' immediately preceding the verb being in the plural number.

MALONE.

9 For lovers' hours are long, though seeming short:] So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"I must hear from thee every day 'i the hour,

"For in a minute there are many days." MALONE. Like shrill-tongu'd tapsters answering every call,

Soothing the humour of fantastick WITS?] But the exercise

To

of this fantastick humour is not so properly the character of wits, as of persons of a wild and jocular extravagance of temper. suit this idea, as well as to close the rhyme more fully, I am persuaded the poet wrote:

"Soothing the humour of fantastick wights." THEobald. "Like shrill-tongu'd tapsters answering every call,

Soothing the humour of fantastick wits?" See the scene of "Anon, anon, Sir," in King Henry IV. Part I.-Had Mr. Theobald been as familiar with ancient pamphlets as he pretended to have been, he would have known that the epithet fantastick is applied with singular propriety to the wits of Shakspeare's age. The rhyme, like many others in the same piece, may be weak, but the old reading is certainly the true one. STEEVENS.

The weakness of our poet's rhymes is a favourite topick with Mr. Steevens in these poems. But the charge is here wholly unfounded; for in the original copy 1593, as well as in that of 1596, the word corresponding with wits is written parasits; which shews that he intended the in the third syllable to be pronounced short; and thus pronounced, the word affords a full and perfect rhyme to wits. MALONE.

Lo! here the gentle lark, weary of rest,
From his moist cabinet mounts up on high,

And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast
The Sun ariseth in his majesty;

Who doth the world so gloriously behold,

That cedar-tops and hills seem burnish'd gold 2.

Venus salutes him with this fair good-morrow :
O thou clear god, and patron of all light,
From whom each lamp and shining star doth
borrow

The beauteous influence that makes him bright,
There lives a son, that suck'd an earthly mother,
May lend thee light 3, as thou dost lend to other.

5

This said, she hasteth to a myrtle grove,

5

Musing the morning is so much o'er-worn;

2 That cedar-tops and hills seem burnish'd gold.] So, in his 33d Sonnet:

"Full many a glorious morning have I seen

"Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye;

"Kissing with golden face the meadows green;

Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchymy." MALONE. 3 O thou clear god, &c.] Perhaps Mr. Rowe had read the lines compose this stanza, before he wrote the following, with which the first act of his Ambitious Stepmother concludes:

that

"Our glorious sun, the source of light and heat,
"Whose influence chears the world he did create,
"Shall smile on thee from his meridian skies,
"And own the kindred beauties of thine eyes;
"Thine eyes, which, could his own fair beams decay,
Might shine for him, and bless the world with day."
STEEVENS.

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4 There lives a son, that suck'd an earthly mother, May lend thee light,] So, in Romeo and Juliet:

66

Her eye in heaven,

"Would through the airy region stream so bright,
"That birds would sing, and think it were not night."

MALONE.

5 MUSING] In ancient language, is wondering. See vol. xi. p. 170, n. 4. MALONE.

And yet she hears no tidings of her love :
She hearkens for his hounds, and for his horn:
Anon she hears them chaunt it lustily,
And all in haste she coasteth to the cry *.

And as she runs, the bushes in the way
Some catch her by the neck, some kiss her face,
Some twin'd about her thigh to make her stay;
She wildly breaketh from their strict embrace,
Like a milch doe, whose swelling dugs do ake,
Hasting to feed her fawn' hid in some brake.

By this she hears the hounds are at a bay,
Whereat she starts like one that spies an adder
Wreath'd up in fatal folds, just in his way,

The fear whereof doth make him shake and shudder;
Even so the timorous yelping of the hounds
Appals her senses, and her spright confounds.

For now she knows it is no gentle chase,
But the blunt boar, rough bear, or lion proud,
Because the cry remaineth in one place,
Where fearfully the dogs exclaim aloud:
Finding their enemy to be so curst,

They all strain court'sy who shall cope him first.

This dismal cry rings sadly in her ear,
Through which it enters to surprise her heart;

6

she COASTETH to the cry.] i. e. she advanceth. So, in Troilus and Cressida :

"O these encounterers, so glib of tongue,
"That give a coasting welcome, ere it come!"

7 Like a milch DOE, whose swelling dugs do ake,

MALONE.

Hasting to FEED HER FAWN-] So, in As You Like It:
"While, like a doe, I go to find my fawn,

And give it food." STEEVENS.