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that she may gain that which she seeks if she turns her eyes to him, as he is her own loving Will.

Group 13-Sonnet 144.

The poet fears woman will allure his friend from him, and dissolve the friendship, and sever him from the poet's Muse, to whom he is virtuously allied.

AN INTERIM.

Upon the poet's return, the division made one.

Group 14-Sonnet 145.

A playful conceit; her love is hate, and her hate love.

Group 15-Sonnet 146.

The mistress apostrophises her soul; she derides herself for having sought to revive her fading beauty by painting and cost, and finally bids her soul "buy terms divine," and defeat death ere death defeats it. Group 16-Sonnets 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152. Continuing the satire upon sinful loving, and a palliation and condemnation of their mutual loving faults. Though, upon his own part, he may and does boldly affirm that his conscience cannot accuse him of unlawfully loving the love of another, as he assumes himself to be that other.

CONCLUSION.

Group 17-Sonnets 153. 154.

A variation of a fanciful conceit, alluding to his absence and love sickness. He pays the mistress a compliment, and finally assumes her to be his own.

THE EXPLANATION

OF THE

SONNETS.

"The love of man to woman is a thing common and of course, but the friendship of man to man infinite and immortal."— Allot.

66

Friendship ought to resemble the love between man and wife, that is, two bodies to be made one will and affection."-Meres.

"To see two hearts that have been twined together,
Married in friendship, to the world two wonders."

Fletcher.

Sonnet 1.-The object of the verse is at once addressed as the personification of beauty-its rose, its quintessence. His friend is beheld by the exalted mental eye of the poet as creation's masterpiece, Heaven's image. The youth is told that it is the desire of all that the most beautiful of either sex should become self-renewed, and that he, a new ornament of the world, the object of general attraction, should not live and die in single blessedness,* robbing the world of his image, and sacri

Herbert appears, like Benedick, to have foolishly vowed that he would die a bachelor. See Preliminary Remarks and Additional Notes to Sonnet 10.

In this first Sonnet, to

ficing himself and his posterity. the whole which follow, Herbert's eyes are particularly alluded to, and the allusions are repeated throughout the series. We shall show that Shakespeare was not alone in praising them.

Sonnet 2.-In an indirect manner the poet contrasts himself with his friend, and depicts himself as deeply marked by time," as a foil to set off the beauty of his friend. In this Sonnet there is evident allusion made to the poet's son Hamnet, who died in 1596 at the age of twelve. Master Herbert appears to have filled his place in the poet's heart.

Sonnet 3.-The youth, who appears mostly to have resembled his mother, is bid to see himself, when in years, in his children's eyes, as his mother sees herself in his, in the April of her years, young and beautiful.†

Sonnet 4.-As Nature so freely gave to him, he should be as bounteous to others; if not, her gifts will be buried with him.

Sonnet 5.-Time, that has made him the gaze of all eyes, will destroy all his beauties. He is therefore desired to preserve the pride of his summer, even as in winter are kept the sweets of summer flowers.

Sonnet 6.-He is bid, ere his beauties are marred by

* In those days this would not appear strange, men frequently being called old, and even aged, when they had but passed the freshness of their first youth.

+ There are several points of resemblance in these persuasions, and in 'Much Ado about Nothing," to a little work on letter-writing by N. Breton, of which editions appeared between 1595 and 1609, more especially to a letter persuading to marry, and the answer.

the winter of age, to find a preservative, to seek some phial worthy to contain such a treasure, that it may not become self-destroyed. If he fails to do so, the result of his self-will is pictured in

Sonnet 7, in a majestic comparison between the rising and setting of the sun, and the course youth runs towards declining and decrepid age.

Sonnet 8.-The youth, whose voice is as music, loves to receive the poet's verses, but is averse to the theme they contain. The Sonnet, the bard's harp, is said to have strings, referring to the rhyming verses in married unison. It is thus intimated that the Sonnet is a piece of music as well as poetry.

Sonnet 9.-The delicate youth is demanded his reason for desiring to live a single life. Is it for fear" of wetting a widow's eye?" If he dies without issue, not one person only but the whole world will lament his loss. This, coupled with the fact of Herbert being of a delicate nature, proves it not of ironical tendency. Beatrice says to Benedick, "I heard you were in a consumption."

Sonnet 10.-It is to his shame, being beloved by all, to love none. The poet adds:-"But marry," if only for

"the love of me."

Sonnet 11.-Others, without his graces, may barrenly perish; but he, being Nature's richest stamp, was not made for himself alone, but to print more. Him she has richest endowed, by forming him of a bi-sexual nature. (See Sonnets 20, 53, and 59, in which this idea is expressed.)

Sonnet 12.-As time destroys all things, there is no means of withstanding his ravages but by offspring. It is the friend who is the emblem of the

"Violet in the youth of primy nature,

Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting."

Sonnet 13.-Not being made for himself alone, he should prepare to give himself up, and as he had a father, let his son say so, implying that he had a beginning and will have an ending; he was begotten, and should beget.

Sonnet 14.-There is no need for consulting the stars, as it is self-evident that if he neglects the poet's advice there will be an end both to him and of him.

Sonnet 15.-The poet meditates upon the mutability of all things that men, like plants, increase, like them flourish and die; and that his friend's fair flower and the blossoms which may spring from it are alike doomed to bloom and wither. Hence he wishes to graft his beauty to undying flowers of Parnassus, and set them afresh in the garden of his Muse. As time will darken the brightness of his friend, the poet will make war with him, and will at once begin, ere the heyday of his beauty shall have passed away, and this task he will accomplish out of pure love.

Sonnet 16.-The friend is again demanded his reason for not using surer and more fruitful means of guarding against decay than by verse. Why desire to become wedded to his barren rhyme? He has now attained to the summit of life's golden age, and many virgins virtuously desire to bear him living flowers, much nearer his resemblance than the verse can portray; for by chil

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