Paft cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantick-mad with ever-more unreft;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,
At random from the truth vainly exprefs'd;

For I have fworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

CXLVIII.

O me! what eyes hath love put in my head,
Which have no correfpondence with true fight!
Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,
That cenfures falfely what they fee aright?
If that be fair whereon my falfe eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not fo?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love's eye is not fo true as all men's: no,
How can it? O, how can Love's eye be true,
That is fo vex'd with watching and with tears?
No marvel then though I mistake my view;
The fun itself fees not, till heaven clears.

O cunning Love! with tears thou keep'ft me blind,
Left eyes well-feeing thy foul faults should find.

CXLIX.

Canft thou, O cruel! fay I love thee not,
When I, against myfelf, with thee partake"?

5 Paft cure I am, now reason is past care,] So, in Love's Labour's Loft:

"Great reafon; for paft cure is ftill past care."

It was a proverbial faying. See Holland's Leaguer, a pamphlet publifhed in 1632: She has got this adage in her mouth; Things paft cure, paft care." MALONE.

6

-as black as bell, as dark as night.] So, in Love's Labour's Loft: "Black is the badge of bell,

"The hue of dungeons, and the fcowl of night." STEEVENS. 7 That cenfures falfely-] That estimates falfely. See Vol. IV. p. 149, n. 8. MALONE.

• When I, against myself, with thee partake?] i. e, take part with thee against myself. STEEVENS.

A partaker was in Shakspeare's time the term for an affociate or confederate in any bufinefs. MALONE.

Do

Do I not think on thee, when I forgot
Am of myself, all tyrant, for thy fake?
Who hateth thee, that I do call my friend"?
On whom frown'st thou that I do fawn upon?
Nay, if thou low'rft on me, do I not fpend
Revenge upon myself with prefent moan?
What merit do I in myself respect,
That is fo proud thy fervice to defpife,
When all my best doth worship thy defect,
Commanded by the motion of thine eyes?

But, love, hate on, for now I know thy mind;
Those that can fee thou lov't, and I am blind.

CL.

O, from what power haft thou this powerful might,
With infufficiency my heart to fway?

To make me give the lie to my true fight,

And swear that brightnefs doth not grace the day3?
Whence haft thou this becoming of things ill,
That in the very refuse of thy deeds

There

-all tyrant, for thy fake?] That is, for the fake of thee, thou tyrant. Perhaps however the authour wrote:

when I forgot

Am of myself, all truant for thy fake?

So, in the 10ft Sonnet:

"O truant Mufe, what shall be thy amends

"For thy neglect of truth." MALONE.

Who bateth thee, that I do call my friend] This is from one of the Pfalms: "Do I not hate thofe that hate thee?" &c. STEEVENS. 2 Commanded by the motion of thine eyes?] So, in Coriolanus: "He wag'd me with his countenance." STEEVENS.

Again, more appofitely, in Antony and Cleopatra :

"Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,

"So many mermaids, tended.ber i' the eyes,
"And made their bends adornings?"

MALONE.

3 And fwear that brightness doth not grace the day ?] So, in Romeo

and Juliet:

"I am content, if thou wilt have it fo:
“I'll say, yon grey is not the morning's eye,” &c.)

STEEVENS.

4 Whence haft thou this becoming of things ill,] So, in Antony and› Cleopatra:

a viles

There is fuch ftrength and warrantife of skill,
That in my mind thy worst all beft exceeds ?
Who taught thee how to make me love thee more,
The more I hear and fee just cause of hate'?
O, though I love what others do abhor,
With others thou should'st not abhor my state;
If thy unworthinefs rais'd love in me,
More worthy I to be belov'd of thee.

CLI.

Love is too young to know what confcience is;
Yet who knows not, confcience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amifs,
Left guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove.
For, thou betraying me, I do betray
My nobler part to my grofs body's treason;
My foul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love; flesh stays no farther reafon;
But rifing at thy name, doth point out thee
As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride,
He is contented thy poor drudge to be,
To ftand in thy affairs, fall by thy fide.
No want of confcience hold it that I call
Her-love, for whofe dear love I rise and falls

vileft things

"Become themselves in her."

Again, ibidem:

Fie, wrangling queen!

"Whom every thing becomes; to chide, to laugh,
"To weep." MALONE.

5 Who taught thee bow to make me love thee more,

The more I bear and fee juft caufe of bate?] So Catullus:

Odi et amo; quare id faciam, fortaffe requiris :

Nefcio, fed fieri fentio et excrucior.

The following lines in one of Terences Comedies contain the fame fentiment as the fonnet before us :

"O indignum facinus! nunc ego

"Et illam fceleftam effe et me miferum fentio;
"Et tædet, et amore ardeo, et prudens, fciens,
"Vivus, vidensque pereo, nec quid agam fcio."

CLII.

In loving thee thou know'ft I am forfworn,
But thou art twice forfworn, to me love fwearing;
In act thy bed-vow broke, and new faith torn,
In vowing new hate after new love bearing..
But why of two oaths' breach do I accuse thee,
When I break twenty? I am perjur'd moft;
For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee,
And all my honest faith in thee is loft:
For I have fworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness,
Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy conftancy;
And, to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindness,
Or made them fwear against the thing they fee";
For I have fworn thee fair: more perjur'd I,
To swear, against the trath, fo foul a lie?!

CLIII.

Cupid lay'd by his brand, and fell asleep:
A maid of Dian's this advantage found,
And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep
In a cold valley-fountain of that ground;

6 -fwear against the thing they fee;] So, in Timon:
"Swear against objects.'
STEEVENS.
-more perjur'd Ĭ,

7

To fwear, against the truth, so foul a lie!] The quarto is here certainly corrupt. It reads-more perjur'd eye, &c. MALONE.

Cupid laid by bis brand, and fell asleep ;] This and the following Sonnet are compofed of the very fame thoughts differently verified. They seem to have been early effays of the poet, who perhaps had not determined which he should prefer. He hardly could have intended to fend them both into the world. MALONE.

That the poet intended them alike for publication, may be inferred from the following lines in the 105th Sonnet:

"Since all alike my fongs and praises be,
"To one, of one, ftit fuch and ever fo-."

Again:

"Therefore my verse

"One thing exprefling, leaves out difference."

Again:

Fair, kind, and true, is all my argument,

"Fair, kind, and true, varying to other words," STEEVENS.

2

Which borrow'd from this holy fire of love
A dateless lively heat, ftill to endure,

And grew a feething bath, which yet men prove,
Against ftrange maladies a fovereign cure.
But at my miftrefs' eye love's brand new-fir'd,
The boy for trial needs would touch my breast;
I fick withal, the help of bath defir'd,
And thither hied, a fad diftemper'd gueft,
But found no cure: the bath for my help lies
Where Cupid got new fire; my mistress' eyes.
CLIV.

The little love-god lying once afleep,
Laid by his fide his heart-inflaming brand,
Whilft many nymphs that vow'd chafte life to keep,
Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand
The fairest votary took up that fire

Which many legions of true hearts had warm'd;
And fo the general of hot defire

Was fleeping by a virgin hand difarm'd.
This brand the quenched in a cool well by,
Which from love's fire took heat perpetual,
Growing a bath and healthful remedy
For men difeas'd; but I, my mistress' thrall,
Came there for cure, and this by that I prove,
Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.

9

the help of bath defir'd,

And thither bied,-] Query, whether we should read Bath (i. c. the city of that name). The following words feem to authorife it.

STEEVENS.

The old copy is certainly right. See the fubfequent Sonnet, which contains the fame thoughts differently verfified:

"Growing a bath, &c.

"-but I, my miftrefs' thrall,
"Came there for cure."

So, before, in the prefent Sonnet:

"And grew a feething barb." MALONE.