[613]Sonnet 99.
[614]Sonnet 151.
[615]Sonnet 151.
[616]Sonnet 144; also the "Passionate Pilgrim," 2.
[617]This new interpretation of the Sonnets is due to the ingenious and learned conjectures of M. Ph. Chasles.—For a short history of these Sonnets, see Dyce's "Shakspeare," I. pp. 96-102. This learned editor says: "I contend that allusions scattered through the whole series are not to be hastily referred to the personal circumstances of Shakspeare."—Tr.
[618]Miranda, Desdemona, Viola. The following are the first words of the Duke in "Twelfth Night":
"If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet
south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odor! Enough;
no more:
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh
art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters
there.
Of what validity and pitch soever,
But falls into abatement and low price.
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is
fancy
That it alone is high-fantastical."
[619]H. Chettle, in repudiating Greene's sarcasm, attributed it to him.
[620]Dyce, "Shakespeare," I. 27: "Of French and Italian, I apprehend, he knew but little."—Tr.
[621]Sonnet 29.
[622]Sonnet 73.