he is composing, wherever he abides. In other words, whether at Gorhambury, Twickenham, York House, or Gray's Inn, he had "slight air" (a small room for his own use), and "purging fire" (the means for warming it). His thought he likened to the one and his desire to the other. The "earth and water," as he says in the previous stanza, are the slow elements, the obstructions, but the air and fire are swift; and while they engage him in reflecting upon how best to illustrate Truth and Beauty, the other two, "My life being made of four," Thou (Truth), Thy (Thought), You (Beauty), and I (Bacon as an individual), he is as one dead or "oppress'd with melancholy," but when the idea is formed and the illustration seems to be perfect, and "life's composition is recur'd" by these reflections, and written in the play, he becomes. elated; but immediately another process of the same kind is begun, and he is again cast down. The intention is to describe the difficulty, which not only he but every writer meets with while tasking his mind for the thoughts he wishes to use in composition.

SONNET 46.

Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
How to divide the conquest of their sight;

Mine eye, My heart their picture's sight would bar,

My heart Mine eye the freedom of that right.

My heart doth plead that Thou in him dost lie,

A closet never pierc'd with crystal eyes,

But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him their fair appearance lies.
To 'cide this title is impanelled

A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,
And by their verdict is determined

The clear eye's moiety and the dear heart's part;
As thus: Mine eye's due is their outward part,

And My heart's right their inward love of heart.

This stanza, in the form of a lawsuit between the "eye and heart" (seeing and feeling), describes how he was affected by the first representation of his play upon the stage. "Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war how to divide the conquest of their sight" (he was unable to determine which he most admired, the scenery, acting, and mechanical effects in the representation of the play, or the philosophy, truthfulness, and sentimentality of its composition). "Mine eye, my heart their picture's sight would bar" (when seeing it acted, he gave no thought to the sentiment uttered). "My heart Mine eye the freedom of that right" (when reflecting upon it for its great power of thought and expression, he regretted its appearance in the theatre). "My heart doth plead that Thou [Truth] in him doth lie" (Truth, being the basic element of the drama, had no part in the modes of its public portrayal). "But the defendant doth that plea deny, and says in him their fair appearance lies" (the beauty of the drama, as representative of character, can only be appreciated by seeing it in theatrical display). To determine this mortal

difference between seeing and feeling, a jury of thoughts is impanelled. They were "all tenants of the heart," as jurors were tenants of the vicinage or county. They were, the thoughts which formed. a correct judgment of the respective sensations the play as a composition and as a scenic representation was likely to excite. Their verdict was that the "eye's due is their outward part" (the exhibition on the stage), the "heart's right their inward love of heart" (the sentiment, truth, and philosphy of the composition).

None but a lawyer familiar with legal forms and the practice of courts would probably have described so accurately the process of a trial at law. Here is first the cause of difference, described as a "mortal quarrel." The claims of each party are then set forth in argument, the jury properly impanelled, and the verdict properly rendered. This and many passages in the dramas have forced upon biographers and critics a conjecture that Shakespeare at some period of his early life, before going to London, was an attorney's clerk, and while in that employ, was enabled by his remarkable powers to familiarize himself with the most abstruse learning and practice of the English common law. Admitting the possibility that he might have held such a position, any student knows how utterly impossible it would have been for him, without thorough training and practice, to become familiar with the modus operandi of

courts, and with tenures, reversions, remainders, and titles, which so frequently appear in his dramas, all of which Lord Chancellor Campbell, in his little work of "Shakespeare as a Lawyer," says are correctly used. The truth probably is, that he was never in a law office in his life, except to order a collection suit against some friend who had borrowed a few pounds from him, which he could not pay when due. There is plenty of evidence of that kind, but it was after the plays had been written.

SONNET 47.

Betwixt Mine eye and heart a league is took,
And each doth good turns now unto the other:
When that Mine eye is famish'd for a look,
Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother,
With My Love's picture then My eye doth feast,
And to the painted banquet bids My heart;
Another time Mine eye is My heart's guest,
And in his thoughts of love doth share a part.

So, either by Thy picture or My Love,

Thyself away art present still with Me;

For Thou not farther than My thoughts canst move,
And I am still with them and they with Thee;

Or, if they sleep, Thy picture in My sight
Awakes My heart to heart's and eye's delight.

The decision of the jury of thoughts in the previous stanza, we are told in this, has effected an arrangement between seeing and feeling, "the eye and the heart," by which they accommodate each other. When he desires to witness the performance of his play, and recalls the beauty of its sen

timents, he goes to the theatre, and his "eye doth feast" (and pleased with the performance), "to the painted banquet bids My heart" (his sensibilities are aroused). "Another time Mine eye is My heart's guest" (he is then engaged in composition, in which his reflections are aided by his strong powers of observation). "So either by Thy picture" (by the performance) or "My Love" (my drama), "Thyself" (Thought in delineation) "away art present still with me" (whether at the theatre, or writing at home, Thought, though absent from his sight, is present in his mind). "For Thou not farther than My thoughts can stray," Thou (Truth) never absent from his "thoughts" (his labors), it follows that they are together when he is engaged in writing, and also when the play is being performed. "Or if they sleep" (if he is not at work, and at the theatre), "Thy picture" (the performance) delights his eyes and heart.

SONNET 48.

How careful was I, when I took My way,
Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,

That to My use it might unused stay

From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust!
But Thou, to whom My jewels trifles are,
Most worthy comfort, now My greatest grief,
Thou, best of dearest and Mine only care,

Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.

Thee have I not lock'd up in any chest

Save where Thou art not, though I feel Thou art,