Between the jaws of hellish jealousy!
A monster, others harm, self-misery,

Beauty's plague, virtue's scourge, seeker of lies;
Who his own joy to his own hurt applies,
And only cherish doth with injury.

But since he hath by nature's special grace,
So piercing paws, as spoil when they embrace;
So nimble feet as stir not, but on thorns;
So many eyes, aye seeking their own woe;
So ample ears, as never good news know;

Is it not evil that such a devil wants horns?

There is no doubt but that the allusion in this Sonnet is to Lord Rich, the husband of Stella, who had probably contracted some feelings of jealousy from the intercourse between Sidney and his wife.

The lady resents the liberty taken with her person, when sleeping, but as the offence was venial, so her anger was apparently slight, and of short duration.Sidney alludes to it as follows:

And yet my star, because a sugar'd kiss

In sport I suck'd, while she asleep did lie, Doth low'r, nay chide, nay threat, for only this; Sweet, it was saucy love, not humble I.

[Sonnet 73.]

The Poet's passion was however too real to be confined within the bounds prescribed to it; success and pardon make him bold. Two Songs follow, which we forbear to quote: these produce

Sonnet 86.

Alas! whence came this change of looks?—if I Have chang'd desert, let mine own conscience be A still-felt plague, to self-condemning me:

L

Let woe gripe on my heart, shame load mine eye!
But if all faith, like spotless ermine lie

Safe in my soul, which only doth to thee,-
As his sole object of felicity,—

With wings of love, in air of wonder fly!
O ease your hand, treat not so hard your slave;
In justice pains come not, till faults do call,
Or if I needs, sweet judge, must torments have,
Use something else to chasten me withall,
Than those blest eyes, where all my hopes do dwel!
No doom should make one's heaven become his hell

The Poet now complains of absence, and we have the following:

Sonnet 87.

When I was forced from Stella ever dear,

Stella! food of my thoughts, heart of my heart; Stella! whose eyes make all my tempests clear, By iron laws of duty to depart;

Alas! I found that she with me did smart;
I saw that tears did in her eyes appear;

I saw that sighs her sweetest lips did part,
And her sad words, my saddest sense did hear:
For me, I wept to see pearls scattered so,
I sighed her sighs, and wailed for her woe,

Yet swam in joy, such love in her was seen.
Thus while the effect most bitter was to me,
And nothing than the cause more sweet could be,
I had been vexed, if vexed I had not been.

Several good Sonnets follow, chiefly lamenting this temporary absence; when in tracing the history of the Poet's passion, the following dialogue arrests our attention, and probably explains the cause of the absence bewailed.

Song.

"Who is it that this dark night,
"Uuderneath my window plaineth?"
It is one, who from thy sight,
Being, ah! exiled, disdaineth
Every other vulgar light.

Why, alas! and are you he?

"Be not yet those fancies changed?"
Dear, when you find change in me,
Tho' from me you be estranged,
Let my change to ruin be.

66

"Well, in absence this will die,

"Leave to see, and leave to wonder.'

Absence sure will help, if I

Can learn how myself to sunder,

From what in my heart doth lie.

"But time will these thoughts remove;

"Time doth work what no man knoweth."

Time doth as the subject prove,

With time still affection groweth

In the faithful turtle-dove.

"What if you new beauties see,

"Will they not stir new affection?" I will think they pictures be

Image-like of saint perfection,

Poorly counterfeiting thee.

"But your reason's purest light,

"Bids you leave such minds to nourish."

Dear, do reason no such spite;

Never doth thy beauties flourish

More, than in my reason's sight.

"But the wrongs love bears, will make
"Love at length leave undertaking."
No, the more fools it doth shake,

In a ground of so firm making
Deeper still they drive the stake.

"Peace! I think that some give ear!
"Come no more, lest I get anger."
Bliss, I will my bliss forbear;
Fearing, sweet, you to endanger;
my love shall harbour there.

But

"Well, begone! begone I say!

"Lest that Argus' eyes perceive you." O unjust is fortune's sway!

Which can make me thus to leave you;

And from louts to run away.

This Poem would admit of an ample commentary; which, with the clue that has been given him, shall be left to the reader's own judgment to supply himself. Three more Sonuets only occupy the volume, which concludes with the following melancholy, but very characteristic essay.

Sonnet 108.

When sorrow, using mine own fire's might,
Melts down his lead into my boiling breast,
Through that dark furnace to my heart opprest,
There shines a joy from thee my only light!
But soon as thought of thee breeds my delight,
And my young soul flutters to thee his nest;
Most rude despair my daily unbidden guest,
Clips straight my wings, straight wraps me in his night,
And makes me then bow down my head, and say,

Ah! what doth Phoebus's gold that wretch avail, Whom iron doors doth keep from use of day?

So strangely alas! thy works in me prevail, That in my woes for thee, thou art my joy, And in my joys for thee, my only annoy.

The following miscellaneous selection from this volume, exhibits the most favourable remaining specimens we can find of Sir Philip Sidney's talents as a Poet.

Sonnet 6.

Some lovers speak, when they their muses entertain,
Of hopes begot by fear, of wot not what desites,
Of force of heavenly beams, infusing hellish pain,
Of living deaths, dear wounds, fair storms, and
freezing fires:

Some one his songs in Jove, and Jove's strange tale

attires,

Bordered with bulls and swans, powdered with golden

rain:

Another, humbler wit, to shepherd's pipe retires, Yet, hiding royal blood, full oft in rural vein : To some, a sweetest plaint, a sweetest stile affords, While tears pour out his ink, and sighs breathe out his words;

His paper pale despair, and pain his pen doth move: I can speak what I feel, and feel as much as they, But think that all the map of my state I display

When trembling voice brings forth, that I do Stella love!