Will you be ruled by me?—Ay, my lord."
It is manifest that but or not had been omitted. For 'Ay' we should read I will. See Introd. p. [68].
"But that I know love is begun by time."
I cannot make any good sense of this, and I suspect that 'time' may be owing to the same word lower down. The love spoken of seems to be that of children for parents, and possibly the word was childhood, birth.
"And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh
That hurts by easing."
All the original 4tos read 'spendthrifts' (the passage is not in the folio); but this reading must be wrong, for the allusion is evidently to the popular belief, not yet extinct, that every sigh consumes a drop of the blood, and so is injurious to life; 'spendthrift' is therefore to be taken in the sense of wasting. "With sighs of love that cost the fresh blood dear" (M. N. D. iii. 2), "Look pale as primrose, with blood-drinking sighs" (2 Hen. VI. iii. 2), "And stop the rising of blood-sucking sighs" (3 Hen. VI. iv. 4).