Love keeps his revels where there be but twain;
Be bold to play, our fport is not in fight:

These blue-vein'd violets whereon we lean,
Never can blab, nor know not what we mean.

The tender spring upon thy tempting lip
Shews thee unripe; yet may'st thou well be tafted;
Make ufe of time, let not advantage slip;
Beauty within itself should not be wafted:

Fair flowers that are not gather'd in their prime,
Rot and confume themselves in little time.

Were I hard-favour'd, foul, or wrinkled-old,
Ill-nurtur'd, crooked, churlish, harsh in voice,
O'er-worn, defpifed, rheumatick and cold,
Thick-fighted, barren, lean, and lacking juice',

Then might'st thou paufe, for then I were not for thee;
But having no defects, why doft abhor me?

Thou canst not fee one wrinkle in my brow;

Mine eyes are grey 2, and bright, and quick in turning ;
My beauty as the fpring doth yearly grow,

My flesh is foft and plump, my marrow burning;
My fmooth moift hand, were it with thy hand felt,
Would in thy palm diffolve, or feem to melt.

Bid me difcourfe, I will enchant thine ear3,
Or, like a fairy, trip upon the green,
Or, like a nymph, with long dishevell❜d hair,
Dance on the fands, and yet no footing feen*:

Love

■ — and lacking juice,] Thus the octavo 1596. The edition of 1600 has-joice. The word juice, as Dr. Farmer informs me, is fo pronounced in the midland counties. MALONE.

2 Mine eyes are grey,] What we now call blue eyes, were in ShakSpeare's time called grey eyes, and were confidered as eminently beautiful. See a note on Romeo and Juliet, A&t III. fc. i. MALONE.

3-I will enchant thine ear,] It appears from the corresponding rhime, that this word was formerly pronounced as if it were written air. In our authour's native county it is ftill fo pronounced by the vulgar. MALONE.

4 Or, like a nymph, with long dishevell'd hair,

Dance on the fands, and yet no footing feen :] So, in The Tempest:

"And

Love is a fpirit all compact of fire,

Not grofs to fink, but light, and will aspire".

Witness this primrose bank whereon I lie ;
These forceless flowers like fturdy trees fupport me;
Two strengthlefs doves will draw me through the sky,
From morn till night, even where I lift to sport me:
Is love fo light, fweet boy, and may it be
That thou should't think it heavy unto thee?

Is thine own heart to thine own face affected?
Can thy right hand feize love upon thy left?
Then woo thyself, be of thyself rejected,
Steal thine own freedom, and complain of theft.
Narciffus fo, himself himself forfook,

And dy'd to kifs his fhadow in the brook.

Torches are made to light, jewels to wear,
Dainties to taste, fresh beauty for the use;
Herbs for their fmell, and fappy plants to bear;
Things growing to themselves are growth's abufe":

" And ye, that on the fands with printless feet
"Do chafe the ebbing Neptune,-," MALONE.

5 Love is a fpirit all compact of fire,

Not grofs to fink, but light, and will afpire.] So, in The Comedy of Errors: Let love, being light, be drowned, if the fink."

Compact is, made up, compofed. See Vol. II. p. 521, n. 6. MALONE. Things growing to themfelves are growib's abufe:] Alluding to twinn'd cherries, apples, peaches, &c. which accidentally grow into each other. Thus our author fays, King Henry VIII. and Francis I. embraced "as they grew together. STEEVENS.

Shakspeare, I think, meant to fay no more than this; that thofe things which grow only to [or for] themselves, without producing any fruit, or benefiting mankind, do not answer the purpofe for which they were intended. Thus, in a fubfequent paffage :

"So in thyself thyself art made away."

Again, in our authour's 95th Sonnet:

"The fummer's flower is to the fummer fweet,
"Though to itself it only live and die.”

Again, more appofitely in the prefent poem:

"Poor flower! quoth the, this was thy father's guife,

"For every little grief to wet his eyes;

"To grow unto bimfelf was his defire,
"And fo 'tis thine," MALONE.

C 3

Seeds

Seeds fpring from feeds, and beauty breedeth beauty;
Thou wert begot,-to get it is thy duty.

Upon the earth's increafe3 why fhould'ft thou feed,
Unless the earth with thy increase be fed?
By law of nature thou art bound to breed,
That thine may live, when thou thyfelf art dead;
And fo, in fpite of death, thou dost survive,
In that thy likeness still is left alive.

By this, the love-fick queen began to fweat,
For, where they lay, the fhadow had forfook them,
And Titan, tired in the mid-day heat,
With burning eye did hotly overlook them;
Wishing Adonis had his team to guide,
So he were like him, and by Venus' fide.

And now Adonis, with a lazy fpright,
And with a heavy, dark, difliking eye,

His low'ring brows o'er-whelming his fair fight,
Like mifty vapours, when they blot the fky,-
Souring his cheeks 5, cries, Fie, no more of love;
The fun doth burn my face; I must remove.

Ah me, (quoth Venus,) young, and fo unkind"?
What bare excufes mak'ft thou to be gone!
I'll figh celeftial breath, whofe gentle wind
Shall cool the heat of this defcending fun;

I'll

3 Upon the earth's increafe-] i. e. upon the produce of the earth, See Vol. II. p. 467, n. 8. MALONE.

4 And Titan-with burning eye, &c] So, in K. Henry V,

"like a lackey, from the rife to fet,

"Sweats in the eye of Phoebus." MALONE.

5 Souring bis cheeks,] So, in Coriolanus :

"Some news is come,

"That turns their countenances."

Again, in Timon of Athens:

"Has friendship fuch a faint and milky heart, "It turns in lefs than two nights?" MALONE. 6-young, and fo unkind?] So, in K. Lear, Act I. fc. i.: "So young, and fo untender ?" STEEVENS.

7. I'll figh celeftial breath,—] So, in Coriolanus :

66

-Never

I'll make a fhadow for thee of my hairs;

If they burn too, I'll quench them with my tears.

The fun that shines from heaven, fhines but warm 3,
And lo I lie between that fun and thee;

The heat I have from thence doth little harm,
Thine eye darts forth the fire that burneth me:
And were I not immortal, life were done,
Between this heavenly and earthly fun.

Art thou obdurate, flinty, hard as fteel,
Nay more than flint, for stone at rain relenteth?
Art thou a woman's fon, and canft not feel
What 'tis to love? how want of love tormenteth?
O, had thy mother borne fo bad a mind,

She had not brought forth thee, but died unkind'.

What am I, that thou fhould't contemn me this?
Or what great danger dwells upon my fuit?
kifs ?
What were thy lips the worfe for one poor
Speak, fair; but fpeak fair words, or elfe be mute:
Give me one kifs, I'll give it thee again,

And one for intereft, if thou wilt have twain.

"Sigh'd truer breath." MALONE!

The fun that fhines from beaven, fpines but warm,] The fun affords only a natural and genial heat: it warms, but it does not burn. "Thou fun," exclaims Timon, Act V. fc. ii. "that comfort'ft, burn!" MALONE. So, in K. Lear:

"her eyes are fierce, but thine

"Do comfort, and not burn." W.

90 bad thy mother, &c.] So, in All's well that ends well:
-but you are cold and itern;

MALONE.

"And now you fhould be as your mother was,
"When your fweet felf was got."
1-unkind.] That is, unnatural.
fynonymous. See Vol. III. p. 164, n.

Kind and nature were formerly
8, and p. 210, n. 6. MALONE.
2 What am I, that thou should't contemn me this? That thou should't
contemn me this, means, that thou should't contemptuously refuse this fa-
vour that I afk. MALONE.

I fuppofe, without regard to the exactnefs of the rhime, we fhould read -thus. Thus and kifs correfpend in found as well as unlikely and quickly, adder and shudder, which we meet with afterwards. STEEVENS.

C 4

Fie,

Fie, lifeless picture, cold and fenfelefs ftone,
Well-painted idol, image, dull and dead,
Statue, contenting but the eye alone,

Thing like a man, but of no woman bred;
Thou art no man, though of a man's complexion,
For men will kifs even by their own direction.

This faid, impatience chokes her pleading tongue,
And fwelling paffion doth provoke a pause;
Red cheeks and firy eyes blaze forth her wrong;
Being judge in love, the cannot right her caufe:
And now the weeps, and now the fain would speak,
And now her fobs do her intendments 3 break.

Sometimes fhe shakes her head, and then his hand,
Now gazeth fhe 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 ftruggles to be gone,
She locks her lilly fingers, one in one *.

Fondling, fhe faith, fince I have hemm'd thee here,
Within the circuit of this ivory pale,

I'll be thy park, and thou shalt be my deer";
Feed where thou wilt, on mountain or in dale:

3-ber intendments-] i. e. intentions. Thus, in Every Man in bis Humour: "but I, fpying his intendment, discharg'd my petronel into his bofom." STEEVENS.

She locks her lilly fingers, one in one.] Should we not read

She locks their lilly fingers, one in one.

FARMER.

I do not fee any need of change.-The arms of Venus at prefent infold Adonis. To prevent him from efcaping, the renders her hold more fecure, by locking her hands together. MALONE.

5 I'll be thy park, and thou shalt be my deer;] The old copy has-the park. For this flight emendation I am anfwerable. The fame errour has often happened in our authour's plays.-The image prefented here occurs again in The Comedy of Errors:

"my decayed fair

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

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

Graze