Не так ли и со мной, как с тою Музой,
которая с портрета вышла в стих,
И сами Небеса - с нее рисуют,
и все красотки с нею спорят лишь.
И с двойниками гордое сравненье:
С луной и солнцем, морем и землей,
Апрельских первоцветов драгоценность,
Как неба куполов воздушный свод.
Позволь писать правдиво о любви,
и мне поверь, что искренне люблю.
Как мать дитя за красоту хвалило б -
Лишь с золотом небес тебя сравню.
Продолжат пусть, кто любят празднословить -
Я больше не хвалю, я не торговец.
SONNET 21
So is it not with me as with that Muse,
Stirr'd by a painted beauty to his verse;
Who heaven itself for ornament doth use,
And every fair with his fair doth rehearse;
Making a couplement of proud compare,
With sun and moon, with earth and sea's rich gems,
With April's first-born flowers, and all things rare
That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems.
O' let me, true in love, but truly write,
And then believe me, my love is as fair
As any mother's child, though not so bright
As those gold candles fix'd in heaven's air:
Let them say more than like of hearsay well;
I will not praise, that purpose not to sell.
NOTES
XXI. It is not necessary for the poet to flatter his friend, or to follow the example of other poets, who, inspired by meretricious charms, indulge in extravagant comparisons. There is none born of woman more beautiful than Mr. W. H., though, in its brightness, his beauty is not comparable to that of the stars, whose brightness is of a different nature.
1, 2. The muse is identified with the poet in question. As to the words "painted beauty," cf. XX. i. Possibly some particular poet may be intended.
4. Every fair with his fair, &c. Compares everything beautiful with the beauty which he celebrates. Cf. XVIII. 7.
5. Couplement. Represented in Q. by "cooplement." Of proud compare. Coupling, in his exalted and inflated comparisons, the beauty which he celebrates with objects specified in the three following lines.
8. This huge rondure. Possibly the vast circumference of the limiting horizon, or possibly the vault of heaven. On the whole, the former sense seems the more probable.
12. Gold candles. Cf. Merchant of Venice, Act v. sc. i, lines 58, 59:
"Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold."
13. That like of hearsay well. Who are pleased with idle and extravagant talk. The "of," in our present idiom, would be redundant. 14. I will not praise, &c. I will not indulge in extravagant laudation, as sellers do, wishing to part with what they praise. Cf. Passionate Pilgrim, 19:
"But plainly say thou lov'st her well,
And set her person forth to sell."
Also Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. sc. i, line 78, "We'll not commend what we intend to sell." Paris here speaks; but it would not seem that he really wanted to part with Helen. If he did, he would do as vendors do. He intends to sell only at a costly price, by the fortune of war.