William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. Beauty and Rhyme By William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
WHEN 1 in the chronicle of wasted time I see descriptions of the fairest wights, And beauty making beautiful old rime In praise of Ladies dead and lovely Knights; Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty’s best, 5 Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow, I see their antique pen would have exprest Even such a beauty as you master 2 now. So all their praises are 3 but prophecies Of this our time, all you prefiguring; 10 And for they looked but with divining eyes, They had not skill enough your worth to sing: For we, who now behold these present days, Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
Note 1. Shake-speare’s Sonnettes, 1609. The poet gazes backward on the famous persons of former ages, men and women, his friend being possessor of the united perfections of both man and woman. (Dowden.) [back ]Note 2. Master: possess, own as a master. So King Henry V., act ii. sc. 4, 137: You’ll find a difference * * * * *
Between the promise of his greener days And these he masters now. (Dowden.)
Note 3. So all their praises are: Compare Constable’s Sonnets from Todd’s MS., vii. (not Diana as Prof. Dowden has it).—Schelling. Miracle of the world I never will deny That former poets praise the beauty of their days; But all those beauties were but figures of thy praise, And all those poets did of thee but prophecy.
