THE

XLV

HE other two, slight air and purging fire,
Are both with thee, wherever I abide;
The first my thought, the other my desire,
These present-absent with swift motion slide.
For when these quicker elements are gone
In tender embassy of love to thee,

My life, being made of four, with two alone
Sinks down to death, oppress'd with melancholy;
Until life's composition be recured

By those swift messengers return'd from thee,
Who even but now come back again, assured
Of thy fair health, recounting it to me:

This told, I joy; but then no longer glad,
I send them back again, and straight grow sad.

XLVI

INE eye and heart are at a mortal war,

MIN

How to divide the conquest of thy sight; Mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar, My heart mine eye the freedom of that right. My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie, A closet never pierced with crystal eyes, But the defendant doth that plea deny, And says in him thy fair appearance lies.

5

XLV. This Sonnet closes Knight's series of nine beginning with the L., and entitled "Absence."-H. N. H.

XLVI. Knight places this Sonnet and the next in continuation of the XXIV., in "The Picture.”—H. N. H.

To 'cide this title is impaneled

A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart;
And by their verdict is determined

10

The clear eye's moiety and the dear heart's part: As thus; mine eye's due is thine outward part, And my heart's right thine inward love of heart.

B

XLVII

ETWIXT mine eye and heart a league is took,

And each doth good turns now unto the other: When that mine eye is famish'd for a look,

Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother, With my love's picture then my eye doth feast 5 And to the painted banquet bids my

heart;

Another time mine eye is my heart's guest

And in his thoughts of love doth share a part:
So, either by thy picture or my love,

Thyself away art present still with me;

10

For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move,
And I am still with them and they with thee;
Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
Awakes my heart to heart's and eye's delight.

XLVII. This Sonnet closes Knight's series of three, beginning with the XXIV., and called "The Picture."-H. N. H.

11. "not," so ed. 1640; Q., “nor.”—I. G.

XLVIII

OW careful was I, when I took my way,
Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,

HOW

That to my use it might unused stay

From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust!
But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,
Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief,
Thou, best of dearest and mine only care,
Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.
Thee have I not lock'd up in any chest,

5

Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art, 10
Within the gentle closure of my breast,

From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part;
And even thence thou wilt be stol'n, I fear,
For truth

proves thievish for a prize so dear.

A

XLIX

GAINST that time, if ever that time come,
When I shall see thee frown on my defects,

When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,
Call'd to that audit by advised respects;
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass,
And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye,
When love, converted from the thing it was,
Shall reasons find of settled gravity;

5

XLVIII. Knight makes this Sonnet the first in a series of nine, entitled "Estrangement."-H. N. H.

XLIX. Knight makes this Sonnet continuate with the LXXV., in the series on "Estrangement," beginning with the XLVIII.-H. N. H. 4. "respects"; motives, considerations.-C. H. H.

10

Against that time do I ensconce me here
Within the knowledge of mine own desert,
And this my hand against myself uprear,
To guard the lawful reasons on thy part:
To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,
Since why to love I can allege no cause.

L

OW heavy do I journey on the way,

How

5

When what I seek, my weary travel's end, Doth teach that ease and that repose to say, "Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend!' The beast that bears me, tired with my woe, Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me, As if by some instinct the wretch did know His rider loved not speed, being made from thee: The bloody spur cannot provoke him on That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide; Which heavily he answers with a groan, More sharp to me than spurring to his side; For that same groan doth put this in my My grief lies onward, and my joy behind.

mind;

10

XLIX. 10. "desert"; Q., "desart" (rhyming with "part").-I. G. L. This Sonnet is placed by Knight as the first in the series of nine, entitled "Absence."-H. N. H.

LI

TH

HUS can my love excuse the slow offense Of my dull bearer when from thee I speed: From where thou art why should I haste me thence? Till I return, of posting is no need.

5

O, what excuse will my poor beast then find,
When swift extremity can seem but slow?
Then should I spur, though mounted on the wind,
In winged speed no motion shall I know:
Then can no horse with my desire keep pace;
Therefore desire, of perfect'st love being made, 10
Shall neigh-no dull flesh-in his fiery race;
But love, for love, thus shall excuse my jade;
Since from thee going he went willful-slow,
Towards thee I'll run and give him leave to go.

LII

O am I as the rich, whose blessed key

Can bring him to his sweet up-locked trea

sure,

The which he will not every hour survey,
For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure.
Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare,
Since, seldom coming, in the long year set,
Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,

5

LI. 11. “neigh—no dull flesh—” (Malone); Q., “naigh noe dull flesh": prob. the reading of the quarto is correct, “neigh"=“neigh after," "neigh to"; cp. "They were fed horses in the morning; everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife," Jeremiah v. 8.—I. G. LII. 4. "for blunting"; for fear of blunting.-C. H. H.