Note 118b — VIII—THE BORROWED CONCEITS OF THE SONNETS

Wires in the sense of hair was peculiarly distinctive of the sonnetteers’ affected vocabulary. Cf. Daniel’s Delia, 1591, No. xxvi., ‘And golden hair may change to silver wire;’ Lodge’s Phillis, 1595, ‘Made blush the beauties of her curlèd 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.