3 altered new newly altered, different
8 wrinkles grimaces
13 Eve’s apple the apple that Eve picked in the Garden of Eden, beautiful in appearance, but doomed to bring evil to humankind when eaten (biblical)
14 answer … show does not correspond to your appearance
2 the … show the action (sex) that, based on their (attractive) appearances, they seem most likely to do
3 moving provoking sexual desire in
4 cold lacking passion, chaste
6 husband … expense preserve their natural endowments from being wasted (expense suggests the emission of semen)
7 lords … faces the rightful owners of their beauty
8 stewards domestic managers, administrators
10 to itself alone
11 base degrading (perhaps also suggesting “in the lower regions”)
infection suggestive of venereal disease, as well as moral corruption
12 basest most common
outbraves surpasses, outdoes in appearance
13 things may play on the sense of “genitals”
deeds actions/sexual exploits
14 Lilies … weeds this line also appears in Edward III (1596), thought by many scholars to contain some material by Shakespeare
2 canker cankerworm, a parasitic grub that destroys plants
3 spot stain
name reputation
4 sweets sweet things (perhaps suggestive of furled petals)
6 sport pleasures/ sexual activity
9 mansion i.e. the young man’s body
13 large privilege extensive freedom
14 knife phallic connotations
ill-used misused sexually
edge effectiveness/sexual appetite
1 wantonness wildness/willfulness/lechery
2 gentle suitable to a gentleman
3 of … less by high and low classes alike
4 Thou … resort you turn the faults that attend you into virtues
6 basest cheapest, humblest
7 errors sins/inaccuracies
8 truths virtues/valid things
translated transformed
10 like … translate he could change his appearance to that of a lamb
11 gazers admirers
away i.e. astray
12 strength … state power that your qualities and birth give you
13 But … report repeats the closing couplet of Sonnet 36
5 time removed period of separation
6 teeming fertile
big pregnant
increase offspring
7 Bearing carrying/giving birth to
wanton … prime offspring of lustful spring (an image suggestive of ripened fruit dropping from trees and crops being harvested)
8 their lords’ i.e. spring’s
9 issue offspring
10 But … fruit i.e. not much hope at all
unfathered fatherless
11 wait attend
2 proud-pied splendidly multicolored
trim adornment, finery
4 That so that
heavy Saturn the planet and god were associated with melancholy (“heaviness”)
5 nor … nor neither … nor
lays songs
6 different flowers flowers differing
7 summer’s i.e. cheerful, bright
8 proud showy
lap i.e. the earth
11 but only, merely
figures sketches
12 after in imitation of
pattern model, exemplar
14 As as if
shadow image
1 forward early/presumptuous
chide rebuke, upbraid
2 thy … smells i.e. your sweet perfume
3 purple pride the purple color you are so proud of/purple splendor
4 for complexion as (artificial) coloring
5 grossly obviously/crudely
6 condemnèd … hand blamed for stealing the whiteness of your hand
7 buds of marjoram these are tightly curled and sweet-smelling
8 on … stand grew on thorny stems, but the phrase can also mean “in a state of high anxiety” (the roses are fearful because they have committed theft)
9 white i.e. fearful
11 annexed thy breath added the crime of stealing your breath for his perfume
12 for in punishment for
pride … growth the glory of its prime
13 canker cankerworm, a parasitic grub that destroys plants
eat ate
15 But … thee that had not stolen its scent or color from you
1 Muse inspiring goddess of poetry, or creative inspiration generally
3 fury creative energy, poetic frenzy
4 Dark’ning … light hiding your real power to give prominence to unworthy subjects
5 straight straightaway
6 gentle numbers noble verses
idly worthlessly/foolishly
7 lays songs
8 argument subject matter
9 resty sluggish, lazy
10 graven engraved
11 satire to satirist toward (i.e. ridicule, vilify)
12 spoils destruction, plundering
14 So thus
prevent’st forestall, confound
scythe … knife a tautology— a scythe is a crooked (curved) knife
1 Muse the address to the Muse continues from Sonnet 100
what … amends how can you make amends
2 truth … dyed truth imbued with beauty
3 depends are subordinate, dependent for their existence
4 dignified you acquire dignity
5 haply perhaps
6 colour cosmetics, rouge (plays on the sense of “excuse”)
his colour fixed its complexion ingrained
7 pencil paintbrush
to lay apply in layers (as paint on canvas)
8 intermixed adulterated, added to and debased
10 lies in thee is in your power
13 office duty
14 long hence far into the future
shows appears
1 seeming appearance
3 merchandised treated as a saleable commodity
rich esteeming high value
4 publish announce publicly
6 wont accustomed
lays songs (poems)
7 Philomel the nightingale (in classical mythology, Philomel was raped and had her tongue cut out by her brother-in-law; she was later turned into a nightingale by the gods)
summer’s front the beginning of summer
8 pipe music
in … days i.e. as summer moves toward autumn
11 wild belonging to wild birds/unrestrained
burdens weighs down/fills with song (a “burden” can mean “a chorus”)
12 sweets sweet things, pleasures
14 dull bore, blunt your appetite
1 poverty poor poetic efforts
2 pride splendid abilities/pride in the beautiful youth
3 argument all bare unadorned subject matter (i.e. the young man)
6 glass mirror
7 overgoes outdoes, surpasses
invention creative skill
8 Dulling making tedious/rendering blunt
9 mend improve
10 mar spoil
11 pass end
12 graces beauties/attributes
2 eye I eyed an aural pun
4 pride splendor
8 which … green you who are still young and fresh
9 dial hand the hand of a clock (as in Shakespeare’s poem “To the Queen”)
10 Steal creep away/rob
figure (clock’s) numeral/appearance/face
pace movement/ footstep
11 hue complexion
still doth stand remains motionless/remains yet
12 Hath motion does move, change
13 age unbred unborn future age
14 Ere before
1 idolatry excessive devotion/worship of many gods
2 show appear/display
3 Since since in fact, in my defense (or possibly “simply because”)
4 To … one addressed to and about only one person
still always
5 Kind loving/generous
9 Fair beautiful/just
true genuine/faithful
argument theme
10 varying to expressed in various
11 invention spent creativity exhausted
12 Three … one the religious theme continues with the suggestion of the Christian Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost)
14 kept seat resided/were enthroned
1 chronicle historical record
wasted past, consumed (with suggestion of “squandered”)
2 wights people (deliberately archaic word)
4 lovely handsome/amorous
5 blazon description (literally, of a coat of arms)
8 Even just, exactly
master are owner of
11 for because
divining predicting (rather than definitively knowing)
14 wonder admire
3 the … control regulate the duration of my love/restrict my right to possession of love (the person or the emotion)
4 as … doom subject to a fixed term
5 The … endured probably a reference to the death (eclipse) of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603; as the Virgin Queen, she was associated with the moon, symbol of chastity
endured undergone
6 augurs prophets
presage prediction
7 Incertainties … assured uncertainties are brought securely to an end (crown suggests the coronation of the childless Elizabeth’s successor, James I, putting to an end the uncertainties about England’s future)
8 olives … age the olive tree (symbol of peace) will last forever (King James regarded himself as an international peacemaker)
9 balmy soothing (again suggestive of coronation, at which the monarch was anointed with “balm,” i.e. holy oil)
10 subscribes surrenders
12 insults triumphs, exults
13 monument tomb or other memorial structure
14 crests heraldic devices on coats of arms
spent gone, wasted away
1 character write
2 figured represented
3 register record
8 hallowed treated as holy (with suggestion of “halloo,” i.e. call out)
9 case clothing/condition
10 Weighs not does not care about
11 gives … place yields to the inevitable lines of old age
12 antiquity age
aye ever
page boy attendant (plays on the sense of “page of poetry”)
13 conceit notion, conception/poetic device, metaphor
there i.e. in the sweet boy/in the poetry
14 show it make it seem
1 false of heart disloyal, unfaithful
2 my … qualify to moderate my passion
5 ranged wandered, strayed
7 Just … exchanged punctual and not changed by time
8 water … stain tears to wash away my fault
10 frailties moral weaknesses
blood temperament/sexual desire
11 preposterously unnaturally (literally, “inversely, back to front”)
stained polluted, morally tarnished
12 for nothing as something of no value/for no reason
1 gone may play on the sense of “had sex”
2 motley fool (after the multicolored costume of a jester, so perhaps alluding to Shakespeare’s acting career)
3 Gored wounded/cut into triangles (resembling the diamond patches of a fool’s motley)
4 Made … new offended old friends or lovers by finding new ones/repeated former sins because of new passions/committed plenty of sins with the new objects of my affections
6 Askance and strangely with a side glance and in an unfriendly way
all above i.e. heaven
7 blenches swervings
8 worse essays trying out worse loves
9 what … end i.e. eternal love
10 appetite implies sexual desire
grind whet, sharpen (as a phallic knife; “to grind” could mean “to have sex”)
11 proof experiments, experiences (i.e. lovers)
try test the worth of/subject to strain, afflict
12 confined restricted
13 next … best you, who are to me the next best thing to heaven
14 most most loving i.e. supremely loving, but perhaps subverted by a slight suggestion of the young man’s own tendency to love many people
1 with Fortune chide rebuke or complain at Fortune
2 of responsible for
4 public means a means of making a living that involves catering to the public (probably a reference to Shakespeare’s theatrical career)
public manners breeds generates (or is generated by) the sort of (low) behavior associated with public life
5 brand criminals (including strolling players, if they were arrested as vagabonds) were branded on the face or hand with a hot iron
6 almost applies to subdued (“my nature is almost subdued”)
subdued To conquered by
8 renewed restored
10 eisel vinegar (i.e. bitterness)
11 No bitterness i.e. there is no bitterness
12 correct correction correct again what has already been corrected
1 th’impression the mark left by the brand of Sonnet 111 (line 5)
2 vulgar base/public
4 So so long as
o’er-green gloss over/grass over
allow praise
7 None … wrong no one other than you has the power to alter my fixed sensibilities either for better or for worse, and I do not have such a power over anyone at all
9 so profound abysm such a deep abyss
10 adder’s sense i.e. deaf ears; proverbially, adders blocked their ears in order to avoid succumbing to the music of the snake charmer
12 how … dispense note how I disregard others’ neglect of me
2 that … about eyesight, which shows me where to go
3 part divide/abandon
4 Seems seeing appears to see
effectually is out in effect is blind
5 heart i.e. inner consciousness
6 latch catch hold of, apprehend
7 his quick objects the living (or “fleeting”) things he sees
8 Nor nor does
9 rud’st or gentlest most uncouth or most well-bred
10 favour appearance/face
12 shapes transforms, remodels
13 Incapable of unable to receive, contain
14 true faithful
untrue deceptive, unreliable
1 Or … whether Is it the case that … or that
crowned with you made into a king by your love
4 alchemy pseudoscience that sought to turn base metal into gold
5 indigest shapeless, crude
6 cherubins angels
7 Creating every bad making every bad thing into
8 beams eye-beams, rays of light thought to be emitted by the eye and to enable vision
10 most kingly like a king (subject to deceptive flattery)
11 what … ’greeing what agrees with (the mind’s) taste
14 doth first begin i.e. drinks first from the poisoned cup itself
4 full intense
5 reckoning time calculating time
whose starts a long relative clause which continues to the end of line 8, but is not followed by a main clause (which may be purposeful or may be the result of “divert” being a misprint for “diverts,” which would then be the main verb belonging to reckoning time
millioned accidents innumerable chance events
6 ’twixt vows between (lovers’) vows and their fulfillment
7 Tan i.e. render unattractive, fair skin be
ing considered a mark of beauty
8 alt’ring changeable
10 Might … say was it not natural for me then to say
12 Crowning seeing as best, privileging
13 Love … babe Cupid, the god of love, was traditionally depicted as a child
then … so so I should not have spoken as I did
14 give … grow attribute maturity to love that was still in its infancy
2 Admit acknowledge, concede
impediments echoes the words of the marriage service in the Book of Common Prayer, where the couple and the congregation are asked to declare if they know of any impediment to the marriage
4 bends … remove is inclined to cease if abandoned by the object of love (or perhaps “is inclined to be unfaithful in response to infidelity from the object of love”)
5 ever-fixèd mark lighthouse, beacon, or landmark
7 star the North (or Pole) Star, used in navigation
bark small ship
8 worth’s unknown value cannot be fully known or measured
height be taken height above the horizon can be scientifically measured
9 Time’s fool the plaything of Time, or subject of its mockery
10 bending curved
compass scope/arc
12 doom doomsday, the end of the world
13 upon me proved I am proved to have committed it (legal language)
1 Accuse initiates legal imagery that continues through the sonnet
scanted stinted, neglected
3 call visit/invoke/appeal (to)
4 bonds physical ties/legal documents
5 frequent familiar, in company/often
unknown minds strangers
6 given … right given away your richly bought right to my time
9 Book record
10 on just proof on top of what can be fairly proved
accumulate pile up (charges)
11 level aim/line of fire/sights
12 wakened hate the hate that my behavior has roused in you
13 appeal legal appeal for a second hearing
14 virtue moral integrity/power
1 Like as just as
2 eager compounds pungent concoctions
our palate urge stimulate our appetite
3 maladies unseen i.e. potential illnesses
4 sicken make ourselves ill
shun prevent
purge use laxatives or emetics
5 Even so in just such a manner
6 frame my feeding adapt my diet (sexual connotations)
7 welfare good health
meetness appropriateness
8 ere … needing before there was any real need
9 policy … assured my stratagem of anticipating and preventing diseases generated actual ill health
11 to medicine into a condition requiring medicine
12 rank of full of/bloated with/diseased by
1 siren a mythical creature, part woman, part bird, whose enchanting singing lured sailors to their deaths (presumably suggests a person with whom the poet has been unfaithful)