2 limbecks alembics, vessels with long nozzles used in distillation
foul loathsome/diseased/ sinful/black
3 Applying administering (medical sense)
4 saw myself to believed I was going to
6 so blessèd never never so blessed, as happy as possible
7 spheres sockets (eyes are compared to planets or stars, which were thought to inhabit concentric hollow spheres that orbited the earth)
fitted forced out by fits or seizures
8 madding frenzied/maddening
13 content contentment
14 thrice three times
1 befriends me stands me in good stead
3 Needs must I I must of necessity
under … bow bow my head in shame at my wrongdoing
6 hell of hellish
7 no leisure taken spared no time
8 weigh consider
9 remembered reminded
11 tendered offered
12 humble salve soothing ointment of contrition
fits suits
13 that your trespass that trespass of yours
14 ransoms pays for, redeems
1 vile esteemed thought to be despicable, worthless
2 being i.e. being vile
3 just legitimate
so deemed i.e. thought to be vile
5 false deceitful/unfaithful
adulterate impure, corrupt/adulterous
6 Give salutation to greet (knowingly)
sportive blood playful temperament/lust
7 on … spies why are my weaknesses spied on by those who are even more at fault themselves (frailty often implies succumbing to sexual temptation)
8 wills desires/sexual urges
9 that what (I am that I am were God’s words to Moses in Exodus 3:14)
level guess/aim a metaphorical gun
10 abuses misdeeds
reckon count
11 bevel crooked
12 By through
rank foul/diseased/lustful
shown viewed, interpreted
13 maintain assert
14 in … reign prosper in their badness/are supremely bad
1 tables writing tablet, notebook
2 Full charactered completely inscribed
3 idle rank trivial series (of writings in the notebook)/worthless type (of memorandum)
4 date limit
6 faculty power, ability
7 razed erased, obliterated
9 That poor retention i.e. the tables, memorandum book
10 tallies sticks marked with notches (scored) to record a debt
11 to … bold I dared to give them away
12 those … more the notebook (my memory) that holds you more completely (or “retains more of you”)
13 adjunct external aid
14 import imply
2 pyramids obelisks (perhaps suggestive of those built in London to celebrate the coronation of King James I in 1603)
newer might more recent strength/more modern skills
4 dressings … sight dressed-up versions of something seen before
5 dates (lives’) duration
6 foist palm off (originally a term for cheating at dice)
7 born … desire created for our wishes
9 registers records
10 wond’ring marveling
11 thy … lie both records of the past and what we see for ourselves are deceptive
12 Made … haste changing in perspective and significance in accordance with the swift passage of time
14 true faithful (plays on the idea of historical validity as opposed to records and perceptions that lie)
1 my dear love the precious love I feel
child of state product of circumstances
2 for as
unfathered deemed illegitimate, of no fixed identity
4 Weeds … gathered i.e. rejected or valued according to the whims of Time (or the times)
5 accident chance
6 suffers … pomp does not become corrupt as a result of being favored by the great (or “… as a result of fortune and riches”)/does not suffer due to the whims of the great
7 Under … discontent by being imprisoned for political discontent/by being enslaved to dissatisfaction
8 Whereto … calls to which the present times draw people of our sort
9 policy political cunning, scheming
heretic dissident
10 works … hours operates on a short-term basis
11 politic prudent, wise
12 nor … nor neither … nor
fools idiots/dupes/ playthings/laughingstocks
fools of time i.e. those who allow themselves (and their love) to be subject to fashion and change
14 for goodness in the name of goodness, i.e. as martyrs or in an attempt to achieve a good reputation
1 Were’t … me would it mean anything to me if
canopy such as would be carried over a monarch in a public procession
2 With … honouring honoring public displays of respect with my outward appearance (or behavior)
3 bases foundations for statues or memorial monuments
for eternity i.e. to last for eternity
4 Which may refer either to bases or to eternity
5 dwellers … favour those who are preoccupied with ceremony and the favor of the great (or “… with bodily and facial appearance”); dwellers plays on the literal sense of “inhabitants”
6 too much rent too high a price
7 For … savour giving up simple tastes in favor of complex or artificial sweetmeats
8 Pitiful thrivers materially prosperous but deserving of pity (or contempt)/people who prosper poorly
in … spent exhausted by their gazing (on form and favour)
9 obsequious obedient (also “dutiful in performing mourning rites,” a sense that is picked up in oblation)
10 oblation offering (often in a religious context)
11 seconds inferior material
art skill/cunning
12 render handing over
13 suborned informer bribed informant (or witness)
14 impeached accused (often, of treason)
2 fickle glass changeable and unreliable hourglass
sickle hour time for harvesting (i.e. death)
3 by waning grown grown older with the passing of time/increased in beauty as you have grown older
5 wrack wreck, ruin
6 goest onwards move forward in time
8 disgrace shame (at being outwitted by Nature)
minutes kill i.e. destroy the effects of time
9 minion darling, favorite/effeminate man/one kept for sexual favors
10 keep preserve
11 audit final account, reckoning
answered paid
12 quietus discharge of a payment, settling of a debt
render hand over, pay in settlement of a debt
13 ( ) the empty parentheses that appear here in the original 1609 Quarto edition suggest a missing final couplet, but the preceding twelve lines consist of six couplets (unlike the other sonnets), and the poem is complete syntactically; the blanks may be seen as a visual representation of the closure of the sequence addressed to the young man and possibly of his absence/death
1 the old age times past
black this is the first of the “Dark Lady” sonnets, addressed to a dark-haired and/or dark-complexioned woman
fair beautiful/pale
2 bore … name was not explicitly called beautiful
3 successive legitimate
4 beauty … shame what was called beauty is disgraced by being termed illegitimate (or is falsely created through cosmetics)
5 put on assumed (through use of cosmetics)
6 Fairing the foul making the ugly beautiful
7 name good reputation/secure paternity
8 profaned desecrated, treated with irreverence
10 so suited the same color
1
1 not … lack despite not having been born beautiful, achieve (false) beauty through the use of cosmetics
12 Sland’ring … esteem giving natural beauty a bad name by being praised for false beauty
13 becoming … woe looking attractive in their black “mourning”
1 thou, my music you, who are my music (delight, harmony)
2 wood the wooden keys of the virginals
sounds resounds
3 sway’st govern/move rhythmically
4 wiry concord harmony of strings
confounds amazes
5 jacks i.e. keys (in fact pieces of wood fixed to the backs of the keys, carrying the quills that pluck the strings); plays on the sense of “rascals, knaves”
7 that harvest i.e. of kisses
10 chips the wooden keys
13 saucy impudent/lascivious
1 Th’expense the using up, expenditure/the ejaculation
spirit vital energy/semen
waste of shame shameful waste (puns on “waist,” the shameful place where the semen is emitted)
2 lust in action sexual intercourse
3 perjured oath-breaking
full of blame completely blameworthy
4 rude brutal/coarse
to trust to be trusted
5 straight straightaway
6 Past reason illogically/insanely
11 in proof while being experienced
proved having been tried
12 proposed anticipated
behind afterward
dream i.e. a fleeting, insubstantial thing
14 hell plays on the slang sense of “vagina”
1 My … sun comparing eyes to the sun was common in love poetry; the sonnet goes on to mention a number of conventional similes
3 dun gray-brown
4 wires fine golden wires, used for ornamentation (in, for example, headdresses)
5 damasked of the damask variety/ multicolored (red and white)
8 reeks exhales (did not imply unpleasant odors at this time)
11 go walk
14 she … compare woman misrepresented by untrue comparisons
1 tyrannous cruel and domineering
so … art just as you are
3 dear dearly
5 in good faith truly
6 groan with desire/with despair
10 but merely
11 One … neck one following rapidly after another
12 Thy black your black hair and/or complexion
fairest most beautiful/palest
in … place to my mind
14 this slander i.e. the claim (in line 5) that she is not beautiful enough to provoke such love
4 petty ruth small pity
5 morning puns on “mourning”
6 becomes befits, suits
even evening
8 sober subdued in color
9 mourning plays on “morning”
10 beseem befit, suit
11 doth thee grace makes you more beautiful
12 suit … part dress your pity entirely in the same way
14 foul ugly (plays on the sense of “dirty, black”)
1 Beshrew curse
2 wound plays on the sense of “vagina”
4 slave to slavery slave to tyranny, utterly enslaved
5 eye possible vaginal connotations
6 my next self i.e. my friend
harder perhaps suggestive of penile erection
engrossed bought up wholesale, monopolized/ made larger and firmer
7 Of by
forsaken abandoned
8 crossed thwarted, tormented
9 Prison imprison
ward prison cell
10 bail bail out, release
11 keeps guards
his i.e. the friend’s
12 rigour harshness/torture
13 pent imprisoned
14 all … me i.e. and so is my friend, kept in my heart
1 he i.e. the friend of Sonnet 133
2 will resolve/wishes/sexual desire
3 so … mine provided that my other self (the friend)
6 kind generous/courteous/loving
7 surety-like … me to act as my guarantor, to underwrite my debt (and release me)
8 bond legal agreement/ fetter, shackle
fast firmly
9 statute legal entitlement, specifically the agreement that enabled a creditor to retain the debtor’s security (lands, property) if loan repayments were not met
10 usurer moneylender (notorious for charging high rates of interest)
put’st … use lends out everything/makes herself entirely sexually available
11 sue pursue for payment/ woo
came debtor who got into debt
12 my unkind abuse cruel mistreatment I have received from you/my unkindness toward him (having got him into debt)
13 hast plays on the sense of “have sex with”
14 pays the whole pays the whole debt/satisfies her sexually (whole puns on vaginal “hole”)
1 Will the sonnet plays on various meanings of the word: Will Shakespeare/wishes/ sexual desire/male or female genitals
2 to boot in addition
overplus excess
3 vex harass (with sexual demands)
still yet/constantly
4 To … addition contributing to your desires with my own/filling up your vagina with my penis
5 will … spacious desire is unrestrained/ vagina is wide
6 vouchsafe condescend, agree
will in thine penis in your vagina
7 right gracious most attractive
8 in … shine no favor be shown to my will (all senses)
11 rich in Will rich in your (sexual) desire/in total possession of me (or another lover called Will)
thy Will the man called Will whom you possess/your (sexual) desires/your vagina
12 One … mine a (sexual) desire of mine/my penis
make … more increase your vaginal capacity or your sexual desire/make your lover Will’s penis erect
13 Let … kill do not be unkind, do not kill courteous or attractive wooers
14 all … Will of all your lovers as one person and of me as your only William/only desire/only penis
1 check rebuke
come so near implies sexual intimacy (come may play on the sense of “orgasm”)
2 blind Cupid, Roman god of love, was traditionally depicted as blind or blindfolded
Will this sonnet continues the wordplay on Will Shakespeare/wishes/sexual desire/genitals
3 admitted there acknowledged in your soul/allowed in your body
4 for love out of charity
love-suit loving request, request for sex
5 Will William/William’s penis
fulfil fill up
treasure … love vagina
6 fill … one i.e. have sex with as many men as you want (fill yourself up with penises) and make me one of them
7 receipt (vaginal) capacity
9 untold uncounted/unspoken of
10 thy store’s account the list of your possessions (i.e. lovers; account puns on “cunt”)
11 For … me consider me insignificant
hold embrace
so provided
12 nothing me worthless thing that is me
something suggestive of “some thing,” i.e. penis
13 Make but only make
still always
1 blind refers to Cupid, god of love, depicted as blind
3 lies plays on the sense of “deceives”
4 what … be think the worst is the best
5 corrupt … looks damaged by looking with too much partiality
6 bay vaginal harbor
ride anchor their ships/have sex
9 several plot separate, private plot of (vaginal) ground
10 wide … place promiscuous vagina, open to all men
11 Or or why should
not not so
12 To … place so that they see beautiful virtue in such a v
ile appearance
14 false plague unfaithful disease of a woman (an image suggestive of venereal disease)
1 made of truth all fidelity (made puns on “maid”)
2 lies plays on the sense of “has sex with other men”
3 That so that
4 false subtleties deceitful tricks
5 vainly in vain, pointlessly/foolishly/out of vanity
7 Simply foolishly, naively
credit believe
9 wherefore why
unjust unfaithful
11 habit usual behavior/dress, guise
seeming apparent
12 told counted/spoken aloud
13 lie fib/have sex
14 flattered pleasantly deceived
3 Wound … tongue tell me of your infidelities, rather than demonstrating them with your wandering gaze
4 Use … power employ direct force (not cunning)
art cunning, deception
7 might power
8 o’erpressed overburdened
bide stand, endure
10 pretty looks charming (or cunning) glances/attractive appearance
1 press perhaps suggestive of peine forte et dure, the process by which a person who refused to plead guilty or innocent to a crime was pressed with heavy weights until s/he either spoke or died
4 pity-wanting pain pain that lacks (or craves) pity
5 wit wisdom
7 testy fretful
8 know hear
11 ill-wresting world world that is prone to interpret everything in its worst sense
13 so i.e. believed when I slander you
belied defamed, slandered
14 Bear … straight look straight ahead (at me)
go wide i.e. wide of the mark (like a misaimed arrow)
2 errors moral defects
4 in despite of regardless of
6 base touches vulgar caresses
8 sensual feast banquet of erotic pleasures
9 five wits intellectual as opposed to sensory powers, defined as common sense, imagination, fantasy, estimation, memory
11 leaves … man i.e. leaves me ungoverned, the mere appearance of a man
12 vassal servile
13 plague disease (of love; connotations of venereal infection)
14 awards me pain i.e. makes me suffer now (thus lessening the penitential pain I will have to suffer after death); pain is also erotically suggestive, however
1 dear precious
2 sinful i.e. lustful
4 merits deserves
6 profaned committed sacrilege on
7 sealed i.e. with a kiss
8 Robbed … rents deprived others of their rightful dues in bed, i.e. through adultery
9 Be it if it is