occasion what is your property, and therefore an heirloom for eternity. Staunton proposes "given to them." 11. Level, the direction in which a missive weapon is aimed, as in The Winter's Tale, Act II. sc. 3, 1. 6 :— The harlot king Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank : CXVIII. Continues the subject; adding that he had sought strange loves, only to quicken his appetite for the love that is true. Herr Krauss compares Sidney, Arcadia, lib. III. (p. 338, ed. 1613): Like those sicke folkes, in whom strange humours flowe, So to my mind while passions daily growe, Joyes strangers seem, I cannot bide their show, 2. Eager, sour, tart, poignant. Aigre, Fr., as in Hamlet, Act 1. sc. 5, 1. 69 : Did curd, like eager droppings into milk. 9. Policy, prudent management of affairs. 12. Rank, "sick (of hypertrophy)."- SCHMIDT. 2 King Henry IV., Act IV. sc. 1, 1. 64 :— So To diet rank minds sick of happiness, CXIX. In close connection with the preceding sonnet; showing the gains of ill, that strange loves have made the true love more strong and dear. 2. Limbecks, alembics, stills. Macbeth, Act 1. sc. 7, 1. 67. 4. Either, losing in the very moment of victory, or gaining victories (of other loves than those of his friend) which were indeed but losses. 7. How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted, etc., how have mine eyes started from their hollows in the fever-fits of my disease. Compare Hamlet, Act 1. sc. 5, 1. 17: Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres. Lettsom would read "been flitted.” 11. Ruin'd love . . . built anew. Note the introduction of the metaphor of rebuilt love, reappearing in later sonnets. Compare The Comedy of Errors, Act III. sc. 2, 1. 4: Shall love, in building, grow so ruinate. And Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. sc. 2, 11. 29, 30. 14. Ills. So the Quarto; altered by Malone and other editors, perhaps rightly (see 1. 9), to ill. CXX. Continues the apology for wanderings in love; not Shakspere alone has so erred, but also his friend. 3. I must needs be overwhelmed by the wrong I have done to you, knowing how I myself suffered when you were the offender. 6. A hell of time. So in Othello, Act III. sc. 3, ll. 169, 170: But 0, what damned minutes tells he o'er Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves. And Lucrece, 11. 1286, 1287: And that deep torture may be call'd a hell, 9. Our night. Staunton proposes "sour night." Remember'd, reminded, an active verb governing sense in 1. 10. So The Tempest, Act I. sc. 2, 1. 243. 11. And soon to you, as you to me, then tender'd. "Surely the sense requires that we should point And soon to you, as you to me then, tender'd." Staunton proposes― W. S. WALKER. And shame to you as you to me then-tender'd. - 12. Salve. Compare Sonnet xxxiv. 1. 7. CXXI. Though admitting his wanderings from his friend's love (CXVIII.-cxx.), Shakspere refuses to admit the scandalous charges of unfriendly censors. Dr. Burgersdijk regards this sonnet as a defence of the stage against Puritans. 2. Not to be, i.e., not to be vile. 3, 4. And the legitimate pleasure lost, which is deemed vile, not by us who experience it, but by others who look on and condemn. 6. Give salutation to my sportive blood. Compare King Henry VIII., Act II. sc. 3, l. 103:– Would I had no being, If this salute my blood a jot. 8. In their wills, according to their pleasure. 9. No, I am that I am. Compare Othello, Act I. sc. 1, 1. 65, "I am not what I am.” Level. See note on Sonnet CXVII. 11. 11. Bevel, "i.e., crooked; a term used only, I believe, by masons and joiners."-STEEVENS. CXXII. An apology for having parted with the tables (memorandum-book) given to Shakspere by his friend. 1, 2. So in Hamlet, Act I. sc. 5, ll. 98–103: Yea, from the table of my memory And thy commandment all alone shall live and in the same play, Act I. sc. 3, 1. 58: : And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou character. So also Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. sc. 7, ll. 3, 4. 3. That idle rank, that poor dignity (of tables written upon with pen or pencil). 9. That poor retention, that poor means of retaining impressions, i.e., the tables given by his friend. 10. Tallies, sticks on which notches and scores are cut to keep accounts by. So 2 King Henry VI., Act IV. sc. 7, 1. 39. CXXIII. In the last sonnet Shakspere boasts of his "lasting memory" as the recorder of love; he now declares that the registers and records of Time are false, but Time shall impose no cheat upon his memory or heart. 66 2. Thy pyramids. I think this is metaphorical; all that Time piles up from day to day, all his new stupendous erections, are really but "dressings of a former sight." Is there a reference to the new love, the "ruined love built anew" (Sonnet CXIX.), between two friends? The same metaphor appears in the next Sonnet (CXXIV.), “ No, it [his love] was builded far from accident;" and again in CXXV., "Laid great bases for eternity," etc. Does Shakspere mean here that this new love is really the same with the old love; he will recognize the identity of new and old, and not wonder at either the past or present? 5. Admire, wonder at, as in Twelfth Night, Act III. sc. 4, 1. 165, "Wonder not nor admire not in thy mind why I do call thee so." 7. And rather make them. "Them" refers to "what thou dost foist," etc.; we choose rather to think such things new, and specially created for our satisfaction, than, as they really are, old things of which we have already heard. |