O, where am I, quoth she? in earth or heaven,
Or in the ocean drench'd, or in the fire?
What hour is this? or morn or weary even?
Do I delight to die, or life desire ?

But now I liv'd, and life was death's annoy;
But now I died, and death was lively joy.

O, thou didst kill me ;-kill me once again:
Thy eyes' shrewd tutor, that hard heart of thine,
Hath taught them scornful tricks, and such disdain,
That they have murder'd this poor heart of mine 6

And these mine eyes, true leaders to their queen,
But for thy piteous lips no more had seen.

Long may they kiss each other, for this cure!
O, never let their crimson liveries wear!
And as they last, their verdure still endure,
To drive infection from the dangerous year?!
That the star-gazers, having writ on death,
May say, the plague is banish'd by thy breath.

Pure lips, sweet seals in my soft lips imprinted,
What bargains may I make, still to be sealing?

6

murder'd this poor heart-] So, in King Henry V.:
"The king hath kill'd his heart." STEEVENS.

Again, in King Richard II. :

66

'twere no good part

"To take on me to keep, and kill thy heart." MAlone. 7 — their VERDURE still endure,

To drive INFECTION from the dangerous year!] I have somewhere read, that in rooms where plants are kept in a growing state, the air is never unwholesome. STEEVENS.

The poet evidently alludes to a practice of his own age, when it was customary, in time of the plague, to strew the rooms of every house with rue and other strong smelling herbs, to prevent infection. MALONE.

8 Pure lips, SWEET SEALS in my soft lips imprinted,] We meet with the same image in Measure for Measure :

To sell myself I can be well contented,

So thou wilt buy, and pay, and use good dealing; Which purchase if thou make, for fear of slips Set thy seal-manual on my wax-red lips.

A thousand kisses buys my heart from me1;
And pay them at thy leisure, one by one.
What is ten hundred touches 2 unto thee?
Are they not quickly told, and quickly gone
Say, for non-payment that the debt should
double

Is twenty hundred kisses such a trouble?

?

Fair queen, quoth he, if any love you owe me,
Measure my strangeness with my unripe years*;
Before I know myself, seek not to know me;
No fisher but the ungrown fry forbears:

"But my kisses bring again,

"Seals of love, but seal'd in vain.” Again, in Troilus and Cressida :

"With distinct breath, and consign'd kisses to them." The epithet soft has a peculiar propriety. See p. 44, n. 2.

MALONE.

9 for fear of SLIPS,] i. e. of counterfeit money. See note on Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Sc. IV.:

"what counterfeit did I give you ?

"Mer. The slip, sir, the slip," &c. STEEVENS.

A thousand kisses BUYS my heart from me ;] So, in Troilus and Cressida :

66

'We two, that with so many thousand sighs

"Did buy each other," &c. MALONE.

2 What is ten hundred touches -] So the original copy 1593, and that of 1596. In the copy of 1600, and the modern editions, kisses is substituted for touches. MALONE.

3 Say, for non-payment that the debt should double,] The poet was thinking of a conditional bond's becoming forfeited for non-payment; in which case, the entire penalty (usually the double of the principal sum lent by the obligee) was formerly recoverable at law. MALone.

4 Measure my STRANGENESS] i. e. my bashfulness, my coyness. See p. 28, n. 4. Malone.

The mellow plumb doth fall, the green sticks fast, Or being early pluck'd, is sour to taste.

Look, the world's comforter, with weary gait,
His day's hot task hath ended in the west:
The owl, night's herald, shrieks", 'tis very late;
The sheep are gone to fold, birds to their nest;
And coal-black clouds that shadow heaven's

light,

Do summon us to part, and bid good night.

Now let me say good night, and so say you ;
If you will say so, you shall have a kiss.
Good night, quoth she; and, ere he says adieu,
The honey fee of parting tender'd is :

Her arms do lend his neck a sweet embrace ;
Incorporate then they seem; face grows to face".

5 Look, the world's COMFORTER,] i. e. the sun. So in Timon of Athens:

"Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn!"

Again, in a subsequent stanza:

"Love comforteth, like sunshine." MALONE.

6 The owl, NIGHT'S HERALD, SHRIEKS, &c.]

So, in Macbeth :

"It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
"Which gives the stern'st good-night."

In Romeo and Juliet, the lark is called the herald of the morn.

7

a sweet EMBRACE;

STEEVENS.

Incorporate then they seem; face GROWS to face.] So, in King Henry VIII.:

66

how they clung

"In their embracements, as they grew together."

STEEVENS.

Again, in All's Well that Ends Well: "I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body."-In the same manner as here, in Constable's Poem, Venus promises to let Adonis go, if he will give her a kiss. She complains of its shortness, and takes another:

"When she had thus spoken,

"She gave him a token,

"And their naked bosoms met." MALONE.

Till, breathless, he disjoin'd, and backward drew The heavenly moisture, that sweet coral mouth, Whose precious taste her thirsty lips well knew, Whereon they surfeit, yet complain on drought:

He with her plenty press'd, she faint with dearth, (Their lips together glew'd,) fall to the earth.

Now quick Desire hath caught the yielding prey, And glutton-like she feeds, yet never filleth 3 ; Her lips are conquerors, his lips obey,

Paying what ransom the insulter willeth;

Whose vulture thought doth pitch the price so high,

That she will draw his lips' rich treasure dry.

And having felt the sweetness of the spoil,
With blind-fold fury she begins to forage;
Her face doth reek and smoke, her blood doth boil,
And careless lust stirs up a desperate courage;
Planting oblivion, beating reason back,

Forgetting shame's pure blush, and honour's

wreck.

Hot, faint, and weary, with her hard embracing,
Like a wild bird being tam'd with too much handling,
Or as the fleet-foot roe, that's tir'd with chasing,
Or like the froward infant, still'd with dandling,

8 Now quick Desire hath caught THE yielding prey, And glutton-like she feeds, yet never filleth ;] So, in Antony and Cleopatra :

"Other women cloy the appetite," &c.

6.6

The 16mo. 1600, arbitrarily reads her yielding prey."

MALONE.

9 Forgetting shame's pure blush,] Here the poet charges his heroine with having forgotten what she can never be supposed to have known. Shakspeare's Venus may surely say with Quartilla in Petronius : 66 Junonem meam iratam habeam, si unquam me meminerim virginem fuisse." STEEVENS.

He now obeys, and now no more resisteth, While she takes all she can, not all she listeth1.

What wax so frozen but dissolves with temp'ring, And yields at last to every light impression 2? Things out of hope are compass'd oft with vent'ring, Chiefly in love, whose leave exceeds commission : Affection faints not like a pale-fac'd coward,

But then woos best, when most his choice is froward.

When he did frown, O, had she then gave over 4,
Such nectar from his lips she had not suck'd.
Foul words and frowns must not repel a lover;
What though the rose have prickles, yet 'tis pluck'd5:
Were beauty under twenty locks kept fast,

Yet love breaks through, and picks them all at last.

1 While she takes all she can, not all she listeth:] Thus Pope's Eloisa:

2

“Give all thou canst, and let me dream the rest."

dissolves with TEMP'RING,

AMNER.

And yields at last to every light IMPRESSION?] So, in King Henry IV. Part II.: "I have him already tempering between my finger and my thumb, and shortly will I seal with him." STEEVENS. It should be remembered that it was the custom formerly to seal with soft wax, which was tempered between the fingers, before the impression was made. See the note on the passage just cited, vol. xvii. p. 174, n. 1. MALONE. ·whose LEAVE —] i.

3

4

e. whose licentiousness. STEEVENS.

- had she then GAVE over,] Our poet ought to have written-" had she then giv'n over; but in this instance he is countenanced by many other writers, even in later times.

MALONE.

5 What though the rose have prickles, yet 'tis pluck'd:] Thus the original copy 1593, and that of 1596. The sexto-decimo of 1600, arbitrarily reads:

"What though the rose have pricks, yet is it pluck'd." which has been followed in the modern editions. MALOne.