LXXX. Same fubject continued.

2. A better spirit.

For the conjectures made

with respect to this 'better spirit', fee the Introduction, pages xxxvi.-xxxix.

6, 7. The humble, etc. Compare Troilus & Crefida, A& 1. fc. 3, ll. 34-42: where's then the faucy boat?

LXXXI. After depreciating his own verse in comparison with that of the rival poet, Shakspere here takes heart, and afferts that he will by verse confer immortality on his friend, though his own name may be forgotten.

1. Or I. Staunton proposes Wh'er I', i.e. Whether I.

12. Breathers of this world; this world, i.e. this age. Compare As You Like It, A& ш. sc. 2, 1. 297: 'I will chide no breather in the world but myfelf'. Sidney Walker propofes to point as follows:

Shall o'er-read,

And tongues to be your being shall rehearse;
When all the breathers of this world are dead,
You fill fhall live, etc.

It is rare, however, with Shakfpere to let the verse run on without a pause at the twelfth line of the fonnet.

LXXXII. His friend had perhaps alleged in playful self-justification that he had not married Shakspere's Mufe, vowing to forfake all other and keep him only unto her.

3. Dedicated words. This may only mean devoted words, but probably has reference, as the next line feems to show, to the words of fome dedication prefixed to a book.

5. Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue. Shakspere had celebrated his friend's beauty (hue); perhaps his learned rival had celebrated the patron's knowledge; fuch excellence reached 'a limit past the praise' of Shakspere, who knew small Latin and lefs Greek.

11. Sympathiz'd, answered to, tallied. So Lucrece, 1. 1113:

True forrow then is feelingly fufficed

When with like femblance it is fympathized.

LXXXIII. Takes up the laft lines of LXXXII. and continues the fame theme.

2. Fair, beauty.

5. Slept in your report, neglected to found your praises.

7. Modern, trite, ordinary, common. So Antony & Cleopatra, AЯ v. sc. 2, l. 167.

8. What worth. Malone fuggefted 'that worth'. 12. Bring a tomb. Compare Sonnet xvII. 3.

LXXXIV. Continues the fame theme. Which of us, the rival poet or I, can fay more than that you are you?

1, 4. Staunton propofes to omit the note of interrogation after most (1. 1) and to introduce one after grew (1. 4).

8. Story. W. S. Walker proposes to retain the period of the Quarto after story-perhaps rightly.

14. Being fond on praise, doting on praise. A Midfummer Night's Dream, A& II. fc. 1, 1. 266:That he may prove

More fond on her than fhe upon her love. Palgrave has of praise'.

LXXXV. Continues the subject of LXXXIV. Shakfpere's friend is fond on praife; Shakfpere's Mufe is filent while others compile comments of his praise. 1. My tongue-tied Mufe. Compare Sonnet LXXX. 4. 2. Compiled. See note on Sonnet LXXVIII. 9.

3. Referve their charader. Referve has here, says Malone, the sense of preserve; fee Sonnet XXXII. 7. But what does 'preferve their character' mean? An anonymous emender fuggefts 'Rehearse thy', or Rehearse your'. Poffibly 'Deferve their character may be right, i.e. ' deserve to be written'.

4. Filed, polished, refined (as if rubbed with a file). Love's Labour's Loft, A& v. fc. 1, l. 11, 'his tongue filed'. See note on Sonnet LXXXVI. 13. II. But that, i.e. that which I add.

LXXXVI. Continues the subject of LXXXV., and explains the cause of Shakspere's filence.

1. Proud full fail. The fame metaphor which appears in Sonnet LXXX.

4. Making their tomb the womb, etc. So Romeo & Juliet, A& 11. fc. 3, 1. 9:—

The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb;
What is her burying grave that is her womb.

5-10. See Introduction, pages xxxvii.-xxxix. 8. Astonish'd, stunned as by a thunder-stroke, as in Lucrece, 1. 1730.

13. Fill'd up his line. Malone, Steevens, Dyce, read fil'd, i.e. polished. Steevens quotes Ben

Jonion's Verses on Shakespeare:

In his well-torned and true-filed lines.

But 'fill'd up his line' is opposed to 'then lack'd I matter'. Filed in LXXXV. 4, is printed in the Quarto fil'd; filled is printed xvII. 2; LXIII. 3, as it is in this paffage fild.

LXXXVII. Increasing coldness on his friend's part brings Shakspere to the point of declaring that all is over between them. This fonnet in form is distinguished by double-rhymes throughout.

4. Determinate, limited; or out of date, expired. 'The term is used in legal conveyances'.-MALONE. 8. Patent, privilege. As in A Midsummer Night's Dream, A& 1. fc. 1, 1. 80, 'my virgin patent'.

11. Upon mifprifion growing, a mistake having arisen. 1 King Henry iv., A& 1. fc. 3, 1. 27, 'mifprision is guilty of this fault'.

13. As fome dream doth flatter. Juliet, A& v. fc. 1, ll. 1, 2:—

So Romeo &

If I may truft the flattering truth of sleep,
My dreams prefage fome joyful news at hand.

LXXXVIII. In continuation. Shakspere still afferts his own devotion, though his unfaithful

friend not only should forfake him, but even hold him in fcorn.

1. Set me light, efteem me little. So King Richard II., A& 1. fc. 3, l. 293.

8. Shalt. Quarto, shall.

LXXXIX. Continues the fubject of LXXXVIII., showing how Shakspere will take part with his friend against himself.

3. My lameness. See note on Sonnet xxxvii. 3. 6. To fet a form, etc., to give a becoming appearance to the change which you defire. So A MidSummer Night's Dream, A& 1. sc. 1, 1. 233 :—

Things bafe and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity.

8. I will acquaintance firangle, put an end to our familiarity. So Twelfth Night, A& v. fc. 1, l. 150; Antony & Cleopatra, A& 11. fc. 6, 1. 130: 'You shall find, the band that seems to tie their friendship together will be the very firangler of their amity'.

13. Debate, contest, quarrel. 2 King Henry IV., A& iv. sc. 4, l. 2: 'this debate that bleedeth at our door'.

XC. Takes up the last word of LXXXIX., and pleads pathetically for hatred; for the worst, speedily, if at all.

6. The rearward of a conquer'd woe. Much Ado About Nothing, A& iv. sc. 1, l. 128:—

Thought I thy Spirit were ftronger than thy fhames,
Myfelf would, on the rearward of reproaches,
Strike at thy life.