uncommon in Old English, meaning to solve,' as for example, 'This question could not one of them all soile' (Udal's Erasmus, Luke, fol. 154 b), so the substantive 'soil' may be used in the sense of 'solution.' The play upon words thus suggested is in the author's manner." LXX. Continues the subject of the last sonnet, and defends his friend from the suspicion and slander of the time. 3. Suspect, suspicion, as in 1. 13, and Venus and Adonis, 1. 1010. "Her rash suspect she doth extenuate." 6. Thy worth. The Quarto has their. Being woo'd of time. "Time is used by our early writers as equivalent to the modern expression, the times.” -HUNTER, New Illustrations of Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 240. Hunter quotes King Richard III., Act iv. sc. 4, 1. 106 : Thus hath the course of justice wheel'd about, 66 : where, however, the proposed meaning seems doubtful. Steevens quotes from Ben Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, Prologue, "Oh, how I hate the monstrousness of time," i.e., the times. Being woo'd of time" seems, then, to mean being solicited or tempted by the present times. Malone conjectured and withdrew "being void of crime.” C. [probably Capell] suggested "being wood of time," i.e., slander being wood or frantic (1790), and previously "being wood oftime," i.e. oft-time (1780). Delius proposes 'weigh'd of time;" Staunton, "being woo'd of crime." 66 7. For canker vice, etc. So The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I. sc. 1, 1. 43 :— As in the sweetest bud The eating canker dwells, so eating love Prof. Hales 12. To tie up envy evermore enlarged. writes to me: "Surely Surely a reference here to the Faerie Queene, end of Book VI. Calidore ties up the Blatent Beast; after a time he breaks his iron chain, and got into the world at liberty again,' i.e., is 'evermore enlarged.'" 14. Owe, own, possess. 6 LXXI. Shakspere goes back to the thought of his own death, from which he was led away by LXVI. 14, “to die, I leave my love alone." The world in this sonnet is the "vile world" described in LXVI. 2. The surly sullen bell. Compare 2 King Henry IV., Act I. sc. 1, 1. 102: His tongue Sounds ever after as a sullen bell, Remember'd knolling a departed friend. 10. Compounded am with clay. 2 King Henry IV., Act IV. sc. 5, 1. 116:— Only compound me with forgotten dust. LXXII. In close continuation of LXXI. "When I die let my memory die with me." LXXIII. Still, as in LXXI., LXXII., thoughts of approaching death. 2. Compare Macbeth, Act v. sc. 3, 1. 23: My way of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf. 3. Bare ruin'd choirs. The Quarto has "rn'wd quiers.' The edition of 1640 made the correction. Capell proposed "Barren'd of quires." Malone compares with this passage Cymbeline, Act III. sc. 3, 11. 60–64 : : Then was I as a tree Whose boughs did bend with fruit, but in one night, and Timon of Athens, Act IV. sc. 3, 11. 263–266 :- Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush 7. So in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I. sc. 3, 1. 87: And by and by a cloud takes all away. 12. Consumed, etc. Wasting away on the dead ashes which once nourished it with living flame. LXXIV. In immediate continuation of LXXIII. 1, 2. The Quarto has no stop after contented. That fell arrest. So Hamlet, Act v. sc. 2, 11. 347, 348 :Had I but time-as this fell sergeant, death, Is strict in his arrest. 11. The coward conquest, etc. Does Shakspere merely speak of the liability of the body to untimely or violent mischance? Or does he meditate suicide? Or think of Marlowe's death, and anticipate such a fate as possibly his own? Or has he, like Marlowe, been wounded? Or does he refer to the dissection of dead bodies? Or is it " confounding age's cruel knife" of LXIII. 1. 10? 13, 14. The worth, etc. The worth of that (my body) is that which it contains (my spirit), and that (my spirit) is this (my poems). LXXV. The last sonnet, LXXIV., seems to me like an Envoy, and perhaps a new manuscript book of sonnets begins with LXXV.-LXXVII. 3. And for the peace of you, the peace, content, to be found in you; antithesis to strife. Malone, while receiving the present text, thought the context required "for the price of you," or "for the sake of you." 6. Doubting the filching age, etc. Perhaps this is the first allusion to the poet, Shakspere's rival in his friend's favour. 10. Clean starved for a look. See Sonnet XLVII. 3, and note. 11, 12. Possessing no delight save what is had from you, pursuing none save what must be took from you. 14. "That is, either feeding on various dishes, or having nothing on my board—all being away.”—MALONE. LXXVI. Is this an apology for Shakspere's own Sonnets-of which his friend begins to weary-in contrast with the verses of the rival poet, spoken of in LXXVIII.LXXX. ? 4. Compare Sidney, Astrophel and Stella, 3 :- Let dainty wits crie on the Sisters nine. Ennobling new-found tropes with problemes old, 6. Keep invention in a noted weed, keep imagination, or poetic creation, in a dress which is observed and known. 7. Tell. The Quarto has fel. 8. Where. Capell proposed whence. LXXVII. "Probably," says Steevens, "this sonnet was designed to accompany the present of a book consisting of blank paper." "This conjecture," says Malone, “appears to me extremely probable." If I might hazard a conjecture, it would be that Shakspere, who had perhaps begun a new manuscript-book with Sonnet LXXV., and who, as I suppose, apologised for the monotony of his verses in LXXVI., here ceased to write, knowing that his friend was favouring a rival, and invited his friend to fill up the blank pages himself (see note below, 1. 12). Beauty, Time, and Verse formed the theme of many of Shakspere's sonnets ; now that he will write no more, he commends his friend to his glass, where he may discover the truth about his beauty; to the dial, where he may learn the progress of time; and to this book, which he himself—not Shakspere -must fill. C. A. Brown and Henry Brown treat this sonnet as an Envoy. 4. This book. Malone proposed "thy book." 6. Mouthed graves. So Venus and Adonis, 1. 757, swallowing grave." "A |