Their view right on; anon their gazes lend To every place at once, and no where fix'd, The mind and sight distractedly commix'd.
Her hair, nor loose, nor tied in formal plat, Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride; For some, untuck'd, descended her sheav'd hat, Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside; Some in her threaden fillet still did bide, And, true to bondage, would not break from thence, Though slackly braided in loose negligence.
A thousand favours from a maund she drew1 Of amber, crystal, and of bedded jet2, Which one by one she in a river threw, Upon whose weeping margent she was set; Like usury, applying wet to wet,
Or monarchs' hands, that let not bounty fall
Where want cries "some," but where excess begs all.
Of folded schedules had she many a one,
Which she perus'd, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood; Crack'd many a ring of posied gold and bone, Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud; Found yet more letters sadly pen'd in blood, With sleided silk feat and affectedly Enswath'd, and seal'd to curious secrecy.
These often bath'd she in her fluxive eyes, And often kiss'd, and often 'gan to tear1; Cry'd, O false blood! thou register of lies, What unapproved witness dost thou bear!
Ink would have seem'd more black and damned here.
from a MAUND she drew] The word "maund" for a basket is still in use in several parts of the country, particularly in the north. See Holloway's Gen. Prov. Dict. 8vo. 1838.
2 and of BEDDED jet,] Possibly a misprint for "beaded jet,” and so, Malone remarks, it was formerly printed; but as the original may mean jet set in metal, we do not alter it.
3 With SLEIDED silk FEAT and affectedly] i. e. "Sleided silk" is stated by Percy to be untwisted silk. See this Vol. p. 323. "Feat" is of course neat, nice, and sometimes clever. See this Vol. p. 428.
This said, in top of rage the lines she rents, Big discontent so breaking their contents.
A reverend man that graz'd his cattle nigh, Sometime a blusterer, that the ruffle knew Of court, of city, and had let go by The swiftest hours, observed as they flew, Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew; And, privileged by age, desires to know, In brief, the grounds and motives of her woe.
So slides he down upon his grained bat, And comely-distant sits he by her side; When he again desires her, being sat, Her grievance with his hearing to divide : If that from him there may be aught applied, Which may her suffering ecstasy assuage, 'Tis promis'd in the charity of age.
Father, she says, though in me you behold The injury of many a blasting hour, Let it not tell your judgment I am old; Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power: I might as yet have been a spreading flower, Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied Love to myself, and to no love beside.
But woe is me! too early I attended A youthful suit, it was to gain my grace; O! one by nature's outwards so commended, That maidens' eyes stuck over all his face : Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place; And when in his fair parts she did abide,
She was new lodg'd, and newly deified.
His browny locks did hang in crooked curls, And every light occasion of the wind. Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls : What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find;
Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind,
5 Toward this afflicted FANCY-] Fancy," in Shakespeare, is often used for lore, and here it is applied to the subject of the passion. The adverb
For on his visage was in little drawn, What largeness thinks in paradise was sawn.
Small show of man was yet upon his chin : His phœnix down began but to appear, Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin, Whose bare out-brag'd the web it seem'd to wear ; Yet show'd his visage by that cost most dear, And nice affections wavering stood in doubt If best were as it was, or best without.
His qualities were beauteous as his form, For maiden-tongu'd he was, and thereof free; Yet, if men mov'd him, was he such a storm As oft 'twixt May and April is to see, When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be. His rudeness so, with his authoriz'd youth, Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.
Well could he ride, and often men would say, "That horse his mettle from his rider takes :
Proud of subjection, noble by the sway,
What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop he
And controversy hence a question takes, Whether the horse by him became his deed, Or he his manage by the well-doing steed.
But quickly on this side the verdict went. His real habitude gave life and grace To appertainings and to ornament, Accomplish'd in himself, not in his case : All aids, themselves made fairer by their place, Came for additions', yet their purpos'd trim Piec'd not his grace, but were all grac'd by him.
in paradise was SAWN.] Boswell thought that Shakespeare here meant to use the northern provincialism "sawn" for sown, while Malone contended that "sawn" was put for seen, in the distress of the rhyme. Surely the latter could hardly be Shakespeare's reason for using so irregular and unprecedented a participle, especially when it would have been easy for him to have constructed the passage differently.
So on the tip of his subduing tongue, All kind of arguments and question deep, All replication prompt, and reason strong, For his advantage still did wake and sleep: To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep, He had the dialect and different skill, Catching all passions in his craft of will :
That he did in the general bosom reign Of young, of old; and sexes both enchanted, To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain In personal duty, following where he haunted : Consents, bewitch'd, ere he desire have granted; And dialogued for him what he would say, Ask'd their own wills, and made their wills obey.
Many there were that did his picture get, To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind; Like fools that in th' imagination set The goodly objects which abroad they find Of lands and mansions, their's in thought assign'd; And labouring in more pleasures to bestow them, Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them.
So many have, that never touch'd his hand, Sweetly suppos'd them mistress of his heart. My woeful self, that did in freedom stand, And was my own fee-simple, (not in part) What with his art in youth, and youth in art, Threw my affections in his charmed power, Reserv'd the stalk, and gave him all my flower.
Yet did I not, as some my equals did, Demand of him, nor, being desired, yielded; Finding myself in honour so forbid, With safest distance I mine honour shielded. Experience for me many bulwarks builded Of proofs new-bleeding, which remain'd the foil Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil.
But ah! who ever shunn'd by precedent The destin'd ill she must herself assay?
Or forc'd examples, 'gainst her own content, To put the by-pass'd perils in her way? Counsel may stop a while what will not stay; For when we rage, advice is often seen By blunting us to make our wits more keen.
Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood, That we must curb it upon others' proof, To be forbid the sweets that seem so good, For fear of harms that preach in our behoof. O appetite, from judgment stand aloof! The one a palate hath that needs will taste, Though reason weep, and cry, "it is thy last."
For farther I could say, "this man's untrue," And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling; Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew, Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling; Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling; Thought characters, and words, merely but art, And bastards of his foul adulterate heart.
And long upon these terms I held my city, Till thus he 'gan besiege me: "Gentle maid, Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity, And be not of my holy vows afraid : That's to you sworn, to none was ever said; For feasts of love I have been call'd unto, Till now did ne'er invite, nor never vow.
All my offences that abroad you see,
Are errors of the blood, none of the mind; Love made them not: with acture they may be, Where neither party is nor true nor kind :
They sought their shame that so their shame did find,
nor never vow.] So the quarto, 1609, although we may suspect that woo might be the poet's word, misread by the compositor. If, however, woo best suits the rhyme, "vow" seems preferable for the sense.
with ACTURE they may be,] This is the word in the old copy, and "acture" is supposed to be synonymous with action, for which word it may easily have been misprinted. Nevertheless, in "Hamlet," Vol. vii. p. 273, we have enactures in a similar sense.
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