1. Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep,

2. A maid of Dian’s this advantage found,

3. And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep

4. In a cold valley-fountain of that ground:

5. Which borrow'd from this holy fire of love,

6. A dateless lively heat, still to endure,

7. And grew a seething bath which yet men prove

8. Against strange maladies a sovereign cure:

9. But at my mistress' eye love's brand new fired,

10. The boy for trial needs would touch my breast,

11. I sick withal, the help of bath desired,

12. And thither hide, a sad distemper'd guest,

13. But found no cure, the bath for my help lies,

14. Where Cupid got new fire; my mistress' eye.

Epigram 2

Dedication: To Elizabeth

Further elaboration on young Edward de Vere's seduction and his now smitten condition and infatuation with Elizabeth.

1^st Quatrain: (1-4)

Diane's maids (known for their chastidy) tried to extinguish Cupid's fire in a pool of water as he lay asleep.

2^nd Quatrain: (5-8)

The maid borrowed an endless, lusty fire, and provided [to her dismay] a bath of healing properties'; - (mine - fire borred from a fountain)

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

'(Cupid) would curiously touch my heart (leading me to stray towards lust), unless I am in the sight of my lover, because of the "Love's brand" being newly fired [started]. I, indulging in the result, desired the help of the bath and started out to it as an unhappy visitor

couplet (13-14),

"But no cure was found, and the only place I can get help is from my mistress' eyes, which are also the place where Cupid rekindled his fire.

Commentary:

This sonnet differs from the previous in one important way, as Helen Vendler points out, 154 envisions no cure at all for love but in this sonnet the cure is the mistress’ eyes. This correction as I see it in this ordering is likely important as the start of the poet’s appeal and origination of looking to the subject as the source of his satisfaction.

I think it is important to reiterate that the original classical Greek inspirational source of these sonnets would not have been accessible to someone incapable of reading Greek, Steven Booth observes that a version of the epigram was printed in Florence in 1594 but suggests “that it is most likely that Shakespeare knew the Greek text”. While Katherine Duncan Jones invents the notion of an early Ben Johnson translation, now lost of course, of the Scholasticus epigram.

I would have to concur with Mr. Booth and Ms. Jones’s instincts at least because I’m actually suggesting a very early origination for this sonnet sometime in the early 1570’s when the relationship between Elizabeth and Oxford occurred. And resulted in the pregnancy which in turn gave “birth” to the story told by these sonnets. However this sonnet like the previous may not have been written until after the pregnancy and the poet’s travels and he developed it as part of his own anthology. Which would have been created likely as a gift for his love, the mother of his child, and his queen. But of course I'm guilty here of speculation.

At any rate an early origination is a very important aspect to keep in mind because it relates to important aspects of this poem’s relationship to the others in the series. And in contrast to orthodox thoughts regarding the sonnets to come are limited to a very spurious and superficial understanding of them. As an example the preoccupation with discussing sexual perversion, venereal disease, and the infidelity of the author and/or his subject, And with no conception of how these initial sonnets relate to the larger whole.