ties of her curled _wire_;' Barnes's _Parthenophil_,
sonnet xlviii., 'Her hairs no grace of golden _wires_ want.' The
comparison of lips with coral is not uncommon outside the Elizabethan
sonnet, but it was universal there. Cf. 'Coral-coloured lips'
(_Zepheria_, 1594, No. xxiii.); 'No coral is her lip' (Lodge's _Phillis_,
1595, No. viii.) 'Ce beau coral' are the opening words of Ronsard's
_Amours_, livre i. No. xxiii., where a list is given of stones and metals
comparable with women's features.

{119a} Shakespeare adopted this phraseology of Sidney literally in both
the play and the sonnet; while Sidney's further conceit that the lady's
eyes are in 'this mourning weed' in order 'to honour all their deaths who
for her bleed' is reproduced in Shakespeare's Sonnet cxxxii.--one of the
two under consideration--where he tells his mistress that her eyes 'have
put on black' to become 'loving mourners' of him who is denied her love.

{119b}

O paradox! Black is the badge of hell,
The hue of dungeons and the scowl of night.
(_Love's Labour's Lost_, IV. iii. 254-5).
To look like her are chimney-sweepers black,
And since her time are colliers counted bright,
And Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack.
Dark needs no candle now, for dark is light (_ib._ 266-9).

{121} The parody, which is not in sonnet form, is printed in Harvey's
_Letter-book_ (Camden Soc. pp. 101-43).

{122} No. vii. of Jodelle's _Contr' Amours_ runs thus:

Combien de fois mes vers ont-ils dore
Ces cheueux noirs dignes d'vne Meduse?
Combien de fois ce teint noir qui m'amuse,
Ay-ie de lis et roses colore?
Combien ce front de rides laboure
Ay-ie applani? et quel a fait ma Muse
Le gros sourcil, ou folle elle s'abuse,
Ayant sur luy l'arc d'Amour figure?
Quel ay-ie fait son oeil se renfoncant?
Quel ay-ie fait son grand nez rougissant?
Quelle sa bouche et ses noires dents quelles
Quel ay-ie fait le reste de ce corps?
Qui, me sentant endurer mille morts,
Viuoit heureux de mes peines mortelles.

(Jodelle's _OEuvres_, 1597, pp. 91-94.)

With this should be compared Shakespeare's sonnets cxxxvii., cxlviii.,
and cl. Jodelle's feigned remorse for having lauded the _black_ hair and
complexion of his mistress is one of the most singular of several strange
coincidences. In No. vi. of his _Contr' Amours_ Jodell