Which by the rights of time thou needs muft ha
If thou deftroy them not in dark obfcurity?
If so, the world will hold thee in disdain,
Sith in thy pride fo fair a hope is flain.

So in thyself thyfelf art made away;
A mischief worfe than civil home-bred strife,
Or theirs, whofe defperate hands themfelves do
Or butcher-fire, that reaves his fon of life.

Foul cankering ruft the hidden treasure frets,
But gold that's put to ufe, more gold begets".

Nay then, quoth Adon, you will fall again
Into
your idle over-handled theme;
The kifs I gave you is bestow'd in vain,
And all in vain you ftrive against the stream;

For by this black-fac'd night, defire's foul nu
Your treatise makes me like you worse and wo

If love have lent
you twenty thousand tongues,
And every tongue more moving than your own,
Bewitching like the wanton mermaid's fongs,
Yet from mine ear the tempting tune is blown;

For know, my heart ftands armed in mine ear,
And will not let a falfe found enter there;

Left the deceiving harmony fhould run
Into the quiet closure of my breast;

who is he fo fond, will be the tomb

"Of his felf-love, to flop pofterity?" MALONE. But gold that's put to use, more gold begets.] So, in The of Venices

"Or is your gold and filver ewes and rams?

Shy. "I cannot tell; I make it breed as faft." STEEVEN In Marlowe's poem, Leander ufes the fame argument to H Venus here urges to Adonis:

"What difference between the richest mine
"And baseft mould, but ufe? for both, not us'd,
"Are of like worth. Then treasure is abus'd,
"When mifers keep it; being put to lone,

"In time it will returne us two for one." MALONE.

And then my little heart were quite undone,
In his bedchamber to be barr'd of rest.

No, lady, no; my heart longs not to groan,
But foundly fleeps, while now it fleeps alone,

What have you urg'd, that I cannot reprove?
The path is fmooth that leadeth on to danger;
I hate not love, but your device in love,
That lends embracements unto every stranger.
You do it for increase: O ftrange excufe
When reason is the bawd to lust's abuse 7.

Call it not love, for love to heaven is fled,
Since sweating luft on earth ufurp'd his name ;
Under whofe fimple femblance he hath fed
Upon fresh beauty, blotting it with blame;

Which the hot tyrant ftains, and foon bereaves,
As caterpillars do the tender leaves.

Love comforteth, like fun-fhine after rain,
But luft's effect is tempeft after fun;
Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain,
Luft's winter comes ere fummer half be done 9.
Love furfeits not; luft like a glutton dies:
Love is all truth; luft full of forged lies.

More I could tell, but more I dare not fay;
The text is old, the orator too green.

7 When reafon is the bawd to luft's abufe.] So, in Hamlet :
"And reafon panders will." STEEVENS.

8-love to heaven is fled,

Since faveating luft on earth ufurp'd bis name.] This information is of as much confequence as that given us by Homer about one of his celebrated rivers, which, he says, was

"Xanthus by name to thofe of beavenly birth,

"But call'd Scamander by the fons of earth." STEEVENS.

9 Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain,

Luft's winter comes ere fummer half be done ;] So again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"Orash false heat, wrapt in repentant cold!

"Thy bafty Spring still blafts, and ne'er grows old," MALONE.

Therefore, in fadness, now I will away;
My face is full of shame, my heart of teen ':
Mine ears, that to your wanton talk attended,
Do burn themselves for having so offended.

2

With this, he breaketh from the sweet embrace
Of those fair arms which bound him to her breast,
And homeward through the dark lawnd 3 runs apace;
Leaves Love upon her back deeply distress'd.

Look, how a bright ftar fhooteth from the sky*,
So glides he in the night from Venus' eye;

Which after him the darts, as one on shore
Gazing upon a late-embarked friends,

Till the wild waves will have him feen no more,
Whofe ridges with the meeting clouds contend:

6

My face is full of fame, my beart of teen:] Teen is forrow. See Vol. VI. p. 559, n. 6. The word is often ufed by Spenfer. MALONE. 2 Mine ears, that to your wanton talk attended,

Do burn, &c.] So, in Cymbeline :

"I do condemn mine ears, that have

"So long attended thee." STEEVENS.

3-the dark lawnd-] So the octavo, 1596. Lawnd and lawn were in old language fynonymous. The modern editors read-lanes. MALONE. 4 Look, bow a bright star hooteth from the sky,] So, in K. Richard II : "I fee thy glory like a shooting far.

Again, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"And certain ftars hot madly from their Spheres,
"To hear the fea-maid's mufick."

Again, in Troilus and Creffida:

"and fly like chidden Mercury,

MALONE.

"Or like a ftar dif-orb'd." STEEVENS.

5-as one on fore

Gazing upon a late-embarked friend,] Perhaps Otway had this paffage in his thoughts when he wrote the following lines:

"Methinks I ftand upon a naked beach,

"Sighing to winds, and to the feas complaining;

"While afar off the veffel fails away,

"Where all the treasure of my foul's embark'd. MALONE. See the fcene in Cymbeline where Imogen tells Pifanio how he ought to have gazed after the veffel in which Pofthumus was embark'd. STEEV. Till the wild waves

Whofe ridges-] So, in King Lear:

“Horns welk'd and wav'd like the enridged fea." STEEVENS.

So

So did the merciless and pitchy night
Fold in the object that did feed her fight.

Whereat amaz'd, as one that unaware
Hath dropp'd a precious jewel in the flood,
Or 'ftonish'd as night-wanderers often are",
Their light blown out in fome mistrustful wood,
Even fo confounded in the dark she lay,
Having loft the fair discovery of her way 3.

And now the beats her heart, whereat it groans,
That all the neighbour-caves, as feeming troubled,
Make verbal repetition of her moans;
Paffion on paffion deeply is redoubled:

Ab me! the cries, and twenty times, woe, woe!
And twenty echoes twenty times cry so.

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

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

Her heavy anthem ftill concludes in woe,
And still the choir of echoes answers fo.

Her fong was tedious, and outwore the night,
For lovers' hours are long, though seeming short:
If pleas'd themselves, others, they think, delight
In fuch like circumstance, with fuch like fport:
Their copious ftories, oftentimes begun,
End without audience, and are never done.

7 Or 'stonish'd as night-wanderers often are,] So, in K. Lear:
"the wrathful skies

"Gallow the very wanderers of the dark." STEEVENS. 8 -the fair difcovery of ber way.] I would read-discoverer, i. e. Adonis. STEEVENS.

The old reading appears to me to afford the fame meaning, and is furely more poetical. Our authour uses a fimilar phraseology in CorioLanusi

"Left you should chance to whip your information,

"And beat the messenger who bids beware
"Of what is to be dreaded." MALONE.

E 3

[i. e. your informer.]

For

For who hath the to spend the night withal,
But idle founds, refembling parafites;
Like fhrill-tongu'd tapfters anfwering every ca
Soothing the humour of fantaftick wits ? ?
She faid, 'tis fo: they answer all, 'tis fo;
And would say after her, if she said no.

Lo! here the gentle lark, weary of reft,
From his moist cabinet mounts up on high,
And wakes the morning, from whose filver brea
The fun arifeth in his majesty;

Who doth the world fo gloriously behold,
That cedar-tops and hills feem burnish'd gol

Venus falutes him with this fair good-morrow:
O thou clear god, and patron of all light,
From whom each lamp and fhining ftar doth bor
The beauteous influence that makes him bright

9 Like fbrill-tongu'd tapfers answering every call,

Soothing the humour of fantaflick wits?] But the exe fantaftick humour is not fo properly the character of wits fons of a wild and jocular extravagance of temper. To fui as well as to close the rhime more fully, I am perfuaded the Soothing the humour of fantastick wights. THEO Like thrill-tongu'd tapfters answering every call, Soothing the bumour of fantastick wits?] See the fcene anon, Sir," in K. Henry IV. P. I.-Had Mr. Theobald beer with ancient pamphlets as he pretended to have been, he known that the epithet fantaftick is applied with fingular the wits of Shakspeare's age. The rhime, like many others piece, may be weak, but the old reading is certainly the true

S

That cedar-tops and bills feem burnish'd gold.] So, in his 31 "Full many a glorious morning have I feen "Flatter the mountain-tops with fovereign eye; "Kiffing with golden face the meadows green; "Gilding pale ftreams with heavenly alchymy," 20 thou clear god, &c.] Perhaps Mr. Rowe had read the compofe this ftanza, before he wrote the following, with whi act of his Ambitious Stepmother concludes:

"Our glorious fun, the fource of light and heat,
"Whofe influence chears the world he did create,
"Shall fmile on thee from his meridian fkies,
"And own the kindred beauties of thine eyes;

M