13, 14. Compare with the rhyming of these lines, Love's Labour's Lost, Act II. sc. 1, 11. 226, 227 :

This civil war of wits were much better used

On Navarre and his book-men; for here 'tis abused.

LXXXIII. Takes up the last lines of LXXXII., and continues the same theme.

2. Fair, beauty.

5. Slept in your report, neglected to sound your praises. 7. Modern, trite, ordinary, common.

So Antony and

Immoment toys, things of such dignity

As we greet modern friends withal.

8. What worth. Malone suggested "that worth." For "being dumb" Staunton proposes "thinking dumb" or "praising dumb."

12. Bring a tomb. Compare Sonnet XVII. 3.

It [my verse] is but as a tomb

Which hides your life and shows not half your parts.

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

1-4. Staunton proposes 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; so also Staunton-perhaps rightly.

9. Let him but copy, etc. Compare Sidney, Astrophel

and Stella, 3:

In Stella's face I read

What Love and Beauty be, then all my deed

But copying is what in her nature writes.

10. Worse. Staunton proposes gross.

14. Being fond on praise, doting on praise. A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II. sc. 1, 1. 266 :—

That he may prove

More fond on her than she upon her love.

Palgrave has" of praise."

LXXXV. Continues the subject of LXXXIV.

Shak

spere's friend is fond on praise; Shakspere's Muse is silent while others compile comments of his praise.

1. My tongue-tied Muse. Compare Sonnet LXXX. 4. 2. Compiled. See note on Sonnet LXXVIII. 9. 3. Reserve their character. Reserve has here, says Malone, the sense of preserve; see Sonnet XXXII. 7. But what does "preserve their character" mean? An anonymous emender suggests "Rehearse thy" or "Rehearse your." Possibly " Deserve their character" may be right, i.e., "deserve to be written."

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4. Fil'd, polished, refined (as if rubbed with a file). Love's Labour's Lost, Act v. sc. 1, 1. 11, "His humour is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed." See note on Sonnet LXXXVI. 13.

11. But that, i.e., that which I add.

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

1. Proud full sail. The same metaphor which appears in Sonnet LXXX.

4. Making their tomb the womb, etc. So Romeo and Juliet, Act II. sc. 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, pp. 19, 20.

8. Astonished, stunned as by a thunder-stroke, as in Lucrece, 1. 1730.

Stone-still, astonish'd with this deadly deed,

Stood Collatine.

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

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

4. Determinate, limited; or out of date, expired. “The term is used in legal conveyances.”—MALONE.

6. That riches. Rightly a substantive singular; Fr. richesse.

8. Patent, privilege. As in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I. sc. 1, 1. 80 :—

So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up
Unto his lordship.

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11. Upon misprision growing, a mistake having arisen. 1 King Henry IV., Act 1. sc. 3, 1. 27, ❝ misprision is guilty of this fault."

Either envy, therefore, or misprision

Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.

13. As some dream doth flatter. So Romeo and Juliet, Act v. sc. 1, ll. 1, 2:—

If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,

My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.

LXXXVIII. In continuation. Shakspere still asserts his own devotion, though his unfaithful friend not only should forsake him, but even hold him in scorn.

1. Set me light, esteem me little. So King Richard II., Act I. sc. 3, 1. 293 :—

For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite

The man that mocks at it and sets it light.

7. So Hamlet, Act III. sc. 1, 11. 23-26, "I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me." 8. Shalt. Quarto, shall.

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

3. My lameness. See note on Sonnet XXXVII. 3.

6. To set a form, etc., to give a becoming appearance to the change which you desire. So A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I. sc. 1, 1. 233:

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

8. I will acquaintance strangle, put an end to our familiarity. So Twelfth Night, Act v. sc. 1, 1. 150 :–

Alas, it is the baseness of thy fear

That makes thee strangle thy propriety.

1. e., disown your personality. Antony and Cleopatra, Act II. sc. 6, 1. 130, "You shall find, the band that seems to tie their friendship together will be the very strangler of their amity."

13. Debate, contest, quarrel. 2 King Henry IV., IV. sc. 4, 1. 2, "this debate that bleedeth at our door."

Act

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, Act IV. sc. 1, l. 128:—

Thought I thy spirit were stronger than thy shames,
Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches,

Strike at thy life.