ADDITIONAL NOTES TO SONNETS 86 TO 126. SONNET 86. "They say thou hast a familiar spirit, Lines 5 to 10. SATIRE TO A BAD POET. "Great famous wit, whose rich and easy vein, Has all Apollo's treasury at command."-Butler. "Then will Ajax lack matter, if he have SONNET 87. Lines 13, 14. "Or to live But in a dream of friendship."-Timon of Athens. SONNET 88. Lines 6, 7. "I have exchanged a real innocence, To gain a mere fantastical report."-Fletcher. SONNET 89. "For you shall find she will outstrip all praise, And make it halt behind her."—Tempest. "But words came halting forth.”—Sidney's Arcadia. "And straight leaps forth a poet, but as lame As Vulcan or the founder of Cripplegate."-Jonson. Line 3. CEL. "Come, lame me with reasons." Ros. "Then there were two cousins* laid up; When the one should be lamed with reasons, And the other mad without any."—As you Like it. Line 14. "I will never love that which my friend hates." SONNET 90. Lines 1 to 4. ON ACTORS. Much Ado about Nothing. "They forget they are i̇' th' statutes, the rascals, They are blazoned there, there they are tricked : They and their pedigrees, they need no other herald, Sirs; Very reading of the public edicts, should Fright thee from commerce with them, and give thee SONNET 93. Lines 1 to 2. "Hearts that are tied together with these consecrated bonds, are like man and wife, joined together inseparable; no encomiums could be too lavish for them: certainly there is nothing more ravishing upon earth than a friendship thus entertained. It is indeed that which surmounts the possibility of an exact description, and reserves its full discovery to the prize of experience." The Gentleman's Calling, 1682, By the Author of the " Whole Duty of Man.” Lines 1 to 12. "The vow of marriage may be properly considered as a vow of perpetual indissoluble friendship. It is easy by pursuing the parallel between friendship and marriage to show how exact a conformity there is between them; to prove that all the precepts laid down with respect to the contraction, and the maxims advanced with regard to the effects of friendship are true of marriage, in a more literal sense and a stricter interpretation." 66 * Sermon by J. Taylor, LL.D., 1790. Lines 1 to 14. SONNET OF FRIENDSHIP. 'Friendship on earth, we may as easily find As he, the North East Passage, that is blind! This age affords, no friend abides the test : Two cousins, meaning also two cozens, i.e., cheats. They make a glorious show a little space, William Earl of Pembroke. Lines 12, 13. "Bear a fair presenee, although your heart be tainted." Lines 1 to 14. "Two pictures of a married life, Comedy of Errors. I look on thee, and thought of thee, In vastness and in mystery; And of thy spirit as of a wife."--In Memorian. SONNET 95. "Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds."-Edward III., 1597. SONNET 96. Shakespeare elsewhere repeats himself, using word for word. Thus in the "Taming of the Shrew," the line "Pisa renowned for grave citizens," is repeated in the 1st and 4th acts. SONNET 97. Lines 1 to 4. "If, as I say, I compare it all unto the four years, I so happily enjoyed the sweet company and dear, dear society of that worthy man, it is nought but a vapour; nought but a dark and irksome night, since the time I have lost him, which I shall ever hold a bitter day."-Montaigne's Essays, Edit. 1603. SONNET 98. "Then came fair May, the fairest maid on ground. Fairy Queen. Lines 5 to 14. "What art thou then? I cannot guess : But though I seem in star and flower I do not therefore love thee less."-In Memorian. SONNET 99. Lines 1 to 5. "The rose and expectancy of the fair state, "My ladie's presence makes the roses red, Dy'd with the blood she made my heart to shed : From her sweet breath their sweet smells do proceed." SONNET 100. Lines 1 to 4. Constable's Diana. In a conversation between Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, recorded in Lansdowne's "Essays on Poetry" (1721), Ben is said to have asked Shakespeare why he wrote historical plays. He replied, that finding the people generally very ignorant of history, he wrote them in order to instruct them in that particular, which this Sonnet seems to confirm. "I thought all words were lost that were not spent on thee." Line 7. "Our Shakespeare wrote, too, in an age as blest, The happiest poet of his time, and best ; A gracious prince's favour cheer'd his Muse, A constant favour he ne'er fear'd to lose."-Otway. Lines 1 to 8. "Elizabeth to his lays open'd her royal ear, SONNET 102. Lines 7 to 12. "The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark When every goose is cackling, would be thought No better a musician than the wren."-Merchant of Venice. SONNET 103. Lines 9, 10. Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.”—King Lear. SONNET 104. Lines 9 to 12. "The fixure of her eye hath motion in it."-Winter's Tale. SONNET 105. "Thy image should be sung, for thou that goddess art 66 Lines 1 to 4. "TO MY MUSE. Away and leave me, thou thing most abhorred, That hast betrayed me to a worthless lord, Made me commit most fierce idolatry To a great image through thy luxury. Extract from an Epigram by Jonson, evidently levelled at Line 4. "Only in you my song begins and endeth."-Sidney's Sonnets. "One will I serve."-Motto of the Pembroke Family. "Man praises man; and Garrick's memory next, |