ADDITIONAL NOTES TO SONNETS 127 TO 154.

SONNET 127.

FROM the original edition of Lord Herbert's poems printed in 1660, we learn that this nobleman, later in life, also formed a poetical friendship with Sir Benjamin Ruddyard, Knt.,* in conjunction with whom the greater number of the poems were written, being answered by the latter by way of repartee. There are also several distinct poems, written by them apart. The poems by Herbert are signed P, as a safeguard to authenticity. That this lord was worthy the name of a poet, and that the best poem imputed to him was really by him, we have the authority of William Brown, author of "Britannia's Pastorals."

Jonson, also in 1621, attests his ability to use his pen, in these lines from a masque presented at court

"You know how to use your sword and your pen,

And you love not alone the arts, but the men ;

* Jonson addresses this knight in three of his Epigrams, and in these he extols his "holiest friendship," and also his "learned muse," and questions which is his chief merit

"Writing thyself, or judging others writ."

+ Jonson also denotes that the King loved him for the chaste example he set the court.

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Pembroke and Ruddyard have pleasant attacks upon 'painted women." Among them is one in which P is the man and R is the woman. P also writes an ironical praise of his mistress." One of the poems written by this lord is entitled "A Paradox: that beauty lies not in women's faces, but in lover's eyes," and bears a strong resemblance to a remarkable passage in "Troilus and Cressida," a late play, and one which Shakespeare appears to have written for his patron friend, as the preface to the edition of 1609 intimates that it was written for some noble personage for private use. Some of the headings of Pembroke's Sonnets are as follows:

"That lust is not his aim."
"On one heart made of two."
"That he would not be beloved."

"I left you and now the gain of you is a double gain." Pembroke and Ruddyard have also long serious dialogues upon "Love and Reason." Pembroke is "Sir Love," Ruddyard, "Reason." They thus conduct their argument: "R. And now to you, Sir Love, your love I crave, Of you no mastery I desire to have ;

But that we may like honest friends agree,

Let us to reason, fellow servants be.'

P. Love here the husband is, reason the wife,

Not grudging at her husband's active sway,
But thinks she rules so just laws to obey.
He is no mounteback, his wares do teach,
Beyond the setting forth of any speech:
Nor alchemist, but that elixir old,
Which turns lust mercury, to friendship gold.'
R. 'Whenever you can love to reason marry,
I will not from that happy wedding tarry."

Their long argument ends thus :---

"Yet for all this we will not disagree,

Each lover thinks none ever lov'd but he!"

Pembroke has a poem "To his mistress, of his friend's opinion of her, and his answer to his friend's objection, with his constancy towards her." This is the first stanza :

"One with admiration told me,

He did wonder much and marvel,
(As by chance he did behold thee)
How I could become so servile,
To thy beauty, which he swears,
Every ale house lattice wears."

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Among various ironical Sonnets "To his Mistress" painting, he has one to her in which he declares that the sole occasion of his love for her is on account of her false adornments.

Ruddyard and Pembroke were schoolfellows together at Oxford; he married a relative of the Earl of Pembroke. This would account for the nearness of their friendship. In the poems which they wrote in conjunction, the task is invariably assigned to Ruddyard of replying to his lordship's romantic ideas-they both alike favoured poets and learned men. There is no clue to the date of their writing together, but it was prior to 1615.

We must not omit to observe that Clarendon in his "History of the Rebellion" has drawn a noble portrait of Lord Pembroke, pourtraying him as a most liberal and accomplished courtier; yet while paying him the highest compliments, he admits his defects. He says he was a lover of women, but it was their wit rather than their beauty by which he was charmed; but for his defects Clarendon offers sufficient plea. The difference between the comments of Shakespeare and Clarendon upon this lord is, that one reveals allegorically the sunrise of his early virtuous manhood, the other, the sunset of his

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years, somewhat obscured by the cloud of blighted hope, yet of a dazzling radiance. Clarendon also bears testimony to his great zeal for friendship, which he marks as a distinguishing feature of his character.

It is worthy of observation that though Sidney wrote passages in the "Arcadia" upon the folly of poets sonnetting their angry loves, yet he himself fell into the same folly; but it was not so with Shakespeare, for he remained constant to his doctrine.

SONNET 134.

Lines 1 to 14.

"TO FANTASIE.

"I gave my faith to love, love his to me,

That he and I sworn brothers should remain ;
Thus faith received faith given back again :
Who could imagine bond more sure could be,
Love flies to her, yet holds he my faith taken;
And from my virtue raising my offence,
Making me guilty of my innocence;
And only bond for being so forsaken.

He makes her ask what I before had vowed,
Giving her that which he had given to me,
I bound by him, and he by her made free,
Whoever so hard breach of faith allowed.

Speak you which should of right and wrong discuss,
Was right ere wronged, or wrong ere righted thus.”—Drayton.

"Nay, but when the world but knows how false you are,

There's not a man will think you fair."-Cowley's Mistress "Not Fair."

SONNET 142.

Lines 1, 2.

"If that be sin, which in love's heart doth breed,

A loathing of all loose unchastitie,

Then love is sin, and let me sinful be."-Sidney to Stella.

SONNET 143..

Lines 1 to 9.

"Love, like a shadow flies when substance love pursues,
Pursuing that which flies, and flying what pursues."
Merry Wives of Windsor.

Lines 1 to 12.

"So holy and so perfect, is my love,

And I in such a poverty of grace,

That I shall think it a most plenteous crop,

To glean the broken ears after the man,

That the man's harvest reaps; loose now and then
A scattered smile, and that I'll live upon."

As You Like it.

SONNET 144.

Lines 1 to 8.

"An evil spirit, your beauty, haunts me still,
Wherewith, alas! I have been long possest,
Which ceases not to tempt me to each ill,
Nor gives me once but one poor minute's rest.
Thus am I still provoked to every evil
By this good wicked spirit, sweet angel-devil."

Line 3.

Drayton's 24th Idea.

"Brutus, as you know, was Cæsar's angel."-Julius Cæsar.

SONNET 145.

Lines 13, 14.

"Your love and hate is this, I now do prove you;

Your love is hate, by hate to make me love you."

Drayton's Sonnets.

SONNET 146.

Lines 4 to 7.

"I have heard of your paintings too, well enough: God hath given

you one face, and you make yourselves another."—Hamlet.