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The Sonnets and Other Poems

Page 28

by William Shakespeare


  293 seeks applies, looks for support

  295 heartens up encourages

  servile powers inferior faculties, base instincts

  powers faculties/troops

  296 jocund cheerful

  297 Stuff up bolster, fill out (with suggestions of penile erection)

  298 pride plays on sense of “sexual arousal, erection”

  300 reprobate depraved, morally corrupt

  302 chamber plays on sense of “vagina”

  will plays on sense of “penis”

  303 retires his ward withdraws its guard

  304 rate his ill reprove his wickedness (by squeaking)

  305 regard caution

  306 The … heard in order to have him discovered, the door makes a grating noise as it opens across the threshold

  307 weasels sometimes kept by households for the purposes of rat-catching

  309 portal door (along with vents and crannies continues the vaginal imagery)

  311 stay stop

  313 conduct guide

  case matter (plays on sense of “vagina”)

  317 glove … needle continuing the sexually suggestive language; both nouns were euphemisms for “vagina” (needle due to its eye)

  318 rushes conventionally strewn over floors

  320 who should one who might

  wanton tricks sex

  321 inured accustomed

  322 ornaments accessories

  324 consters construes, explains

  denial hindrance, refusals

  326 of trial designed to test him

  327 bars divisions on a clock face

  328 let hinder

  330 attend accompany

  331 threat threaten

  332 a more greater

  prime spring

  333 sneapèd pinched with cold

  334 income entrance fee/beginning

  335 shelves sandbanks

  338 heaven sexual bliss

  thought imagination

  340 thing plays on sense of “vagina”

  341 from far from, unlike

  wrought fashioned, made him

  346 foul sinful/dirty (to contrast with fair)

  compass obtain/embrace

  347 And they and that the heavens

  auspicious favorable

  348 starts flinches, recoils

  350 act deed/sexual act

  354 cleared cleaned/declared legally innocent

  absolution forgiveness of sins (not necessarily in a religious context)

  355 hath dissolution dissolves

  356 eye of heaven i.e. the moon

  out extinguished, in darkness

  359 knee … wide an action that anticipates the rape itself

  360 fast soundly

  361 works plays on sense of “copulates”

  362 Who whoever

  364 mortal deadly

  sting phallic connotations

  365 stalks walks stealthily

  367 curtains bed curtains

  close closed

  369 high treason extreme treachery/betrayal of the sovereign, i.e. Tarquin himself

  370 watchword signal to begin an attack

  full very

  371 draw the cloud open the bed curtains (another symbolic anticipation of the rape)

  moon symbol of chastity

  372 as just as, in the same way that

  373 bereaves robs, deprives (us of)

  375 wink close

  376 bright brightly

  378 enclosed closed

  379 darksome prison i.e. behind his eyelids

  380 period end

  382 clear innocent, unsullied/bright

  383 ope open

  league alliance, i.e. Collatine and Lucrece’s marriage

  387 Coz’ning cheating

  388 in sunder in two

  389 Swelling i.e. as if in anger (possible phallic connotations and suggestion of sexual frustration)

  to want his at the lack of its

  391 virtuous monument effigy of a virtuous wife on a tomb; such a figure was commonly presented asleep beside her husband with her head on a pillow

  392 of by

  lewd ignorant/lascivious/wicked

  unhallowed impious, sinful

  393 Without outside

  397 marigolds … light these daisylike flowers close up their petals at night

  402 map picture

  403 life’s mortality human life

  404 Each i.e. life and death

  405 twain two

  408 maiden chaste, faithful to her husband

  409 bearing yoke i.e. weight of a man during sex

  417 will lust

  tired exhausted/feed greedily

  419 azure bright blue

  alabaster white substance used, among other things, in the making of funeral monuments

  421 grim fierce, savage

  423 stay linger, pause

  424 qualified moderated

  425 Slaked lessened

  426 late a moment ago

  427 uproar insurrection, outbreak of disorder

  428 straggling slaves lowly, contemptible soldiers

  pillage plunder, stealing from the defeated enemy

  429 Obdurate hard-hearted

  vassals slaves, inferiors

  fell fierce, cruel

  effecting carrying out

  430 ravishment rape

  431 Nor … nor neither … nor

  respecting considering, heeding

  432 pride arrogance/sexual desire; Tarquin is getting an erection

  onset military/sexual assault

  433 Anon at once

  alarum a call to arms (signaled on a drum)

  434 charge order for attack in which troops bear down on an opposing force

  do their liking do as they please/have sex

  435 cheers up encourages

  436 commends commits, entrusts

  438 make his stand take up position (prior to attack); possible quibble on sense of “penile erection”

  440 scale mount, ascend/attack with ladders

  442 must’ring assembling in preparation for battle

  cabinet private room, i.e. mind/heart

  444 beset surrounded, besieged

  451 ghastly terrifying/ghostly, pale

  sprite spirit

  452 grim aspect stern appearance

  453 taking situation/agitation

  454 heedfully attentively

  455 supposèd imagined

  458 winking with eyes closed/blinking rapidly

  459 Quick-shifting rapidly moving, changing

  antics grotesque figures

  460 shadows illusions

  forgeries fictions, inventions

  462 daunts subdues, overwhelms

  464 ram battering ram

  465 citizen i.e. of Lucrece’s besieged body

  466 Wounding … death i.e. with furious pounding against her rib cage

  467 bulk body

  that so that

  withal with it

  469 breach gap in fortifications caused by a sustained bombardment (a vaginal image)

  471 parley trumpet summons to negotiation with the enemy

  heartless disheartened, lacking courage

  473 alarm sudden attack

  474 by dumb demeanour silent expression

  475 urgeth asks repeatedly

  476 colour pretext/military insignia

  480 loving tale tale of love

  484 chide scold, rebuke

  486 will purpose/sexual desire/penis

  abide endure/await

  488 Which refers to his will

  490 newly bred revived once more (erectile connotations)

  491 crosses troubles, afflictions

  493 think the honey know that such sexual sweets are

  494 counsel deliberation/prudence

  496 Only he hath he has solely

  502 ensue follow

  504 infamy shame, disgrace

  505 shakes brandishes

/>   Roman blade phallic connotations

  506 falcon puns on falchion

  507 Coucheth causes to hide

  508 Whose refers to the falcon

  mount flies up

  509 insulting insolent, scornful

  falchion curved sword

  511 bells attached to straps around the legs of birds that were being trained

  513 deny refuse

  514 destroy kill

  520 mark target, object

  522 blurred tainted

  nameless having no legal right to a name (as the father is unknown)

  523 obloquy disgrace

  524 trespass sin, fault

  526 rest remain

  secret friend lover

  529 For … enacted is deemed permissible/becomes enshrined in law

  530 simple herb or plant used for medicinal purposes

  compacted mixed

  534 Tender my suit grant my request

  535 device measure, contrivance/heraldic emblem

  537 wipe mark (either from a blow or lash, or from the brand with which slaves were marked)

  birth-hour’s blot a birthmark

  538 descried observed

  540 cockatrice basilisk (a mythical reptile whose gaze could kill); slang term for a prostitute

  541 rouseth up himself with connotations of penile erection

  543 hind female deer

  gripe vulture or griffin (a mythological creature, part eagle, part lion); plays on sense of the verb, i.e. “grip”

  544 Pleads plays on the legal sense

  545 gentle noble

  546 aught anything

  549 doth get is created

  550 pitchy black

  their biding where they hang

  551 their present fall i.e. the imminent storm

  552 unhallowed wicked, profane

  553 Pluto god of the classical underworld; he was notoriously ill-tempered but so charmed by Orpheus’ musical skill that he allowed him to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, from the underworld as long as he refrained from looking at her as they made their way back; unfortunately, as she called to him, Orpheus turned around and she was lost again

  winks shuts his eyes

  554 dally toy with her/delay

  555 holdfast tenacious

  556 vulture folly predatory madness

  557 gulf stomach/appetite

  558 admits allows to enter/acknowledges/concedes the validity of

  559 penetrable i.e. really effective, moving

  plaining lamentation, complaints

  560 harden with phallic connotations

  565 puts … place does not pause in the usual places

  period full stop

  566 accent speech

  568 conjures him by appeals to him in the name of

  Jove supreme Roman god

  569 gentry the quality of being a gentleman

  570 untimely ill-timed, inopportune

  571 troth loyalty, honesty, good faith

  573 borrowed i.e. guest’s

  retire return/military retreat

  574 stoop yield, submit

  576 pretended offered

  577 Mud soil, muddy (an image suggestive of staining the vaginal fountain with semen)

  578 Mar spoil

  thing may play on sense of “vagina”

  579 aim intention/marksman’s aim

  shoot plays on sense of “ejaculation”

  ended completed and goal-achieving (plays on sense of “in the vagina”)

  580 woodman huntsman (plays on sense of “womanizer”)

  581 strike plays on sense of “have sex with/rape”

  unseasonable out of season

  586 heave remove

  587 movèd emotionally affected/ physically displaced

  590 wrack-threat’ning shipwreck-threatening

  597 shape appearance

  602 everything i.e. including their passions

  603 be seeded ripen, mature

  605 hope expectation (of being king)

  outrage violence/rape

  608 vassal actors lowborn who perform such deeds

  609 hid in clay buried, hidden

  610 for out of

  611 happy fortunate

  still always

  feared revered, held in awe

  612 With … prove you will necessarily have to put up with sinful offenders because their actions match your own

  614 thy will remove change your mind/abandon your intentions

  615 glass mirror

  618 lectures lessons

  620 warrant authorization

  621 privilege grant immunity to

  622 back’st support

  laud praise

  623 bawd pimp

  624 command military authority/self-control

  626 iniquity sin, injury to another

  627 brood offspring (of iniquity)

  628 office role and responsibilities

  629 patterned by with the model of

  636 infamies disgrace, shameful acts

  637 askance turn aside

  638 heaved-up raised

  639 relier dependant/quality on which you depend

  640 exiled majesty’s repeal the return of the dignity and greatness you have banished from yourself

  641 flatt’ring false, delusory

  642 respect respectful consideration/dignity

  643 eyne eyes

  644 state regal status/ condition

  646 swells with phallic connotations

  let hindrance, obstruction

  650 salt sovereign i.e. the sea

  655 blood nobility/bloodline

  657 hearsed buried, entombed

  659 these slaves i.e. the petty ills

  666 vassals subordinates owing allegiance

  669 coy gentle

  670 despitefully cruelly/contemptuously

  671 rascal groom lowborn servingman

  672 doom fate

  677 seized fastened its claws upon; the Latin for “to seize” is rapere, the etymology of “to rape”

  678 white fleece i.e. nightclothes

  controlled smothered

  679 fold plays on sense of “sheep pen” (an image maintained by pens)

  680 nightly linen bedclothes or perhaps a smock (though Elizabethans usually slept naked)

  684 prone eager/horizontal/evilly disposed

  685 could weeping if weeping could

  689 league union

  692 rifled plundered

  694 gorgèd crammed with food

  695 Unapt unready

  696 balk refuse

  698 surfeit-taking overindulging

  701 bottomless conceit limitless imagining

  702 still imagination silent thought

  703 receipt what he has received

  705 pride state of sexual arousal

  exclamation protest

  707 jade worn-out horse

  710 recreant cowardly, fainthearted

  712 The … proud humanity being arrogant/the penis being erect

  713 there i.e. in the flesh

  revels makes merry/has sex

  when that decays when such pleasures subside/when the erection is lost

  714 remission pardon, release from debt

  717 doom judgment, sentence

  721 spotted princess i.e. Tarquin’s morally blemished soul

  722 subjects i.e. will and passions

  724 mortal deadly/human

  725 thrall a slave

  727 prescience foreknowledge

  controllèd still always (in theory) controlled

  728 But i.e. but even

  733 spoil sexual plunder (Lucrece); with connotations of damage

  perplexed afflicted

  734 load of lust emotional burden and repercussions of his lust/semen

  739 desperate in a state of spiritual hopelessness (thought to precede suicide)

  740 faintly flies flees in a cowardly manner

  741 exclaiming on blaming, crying out again
st

  743 heavy convertite sad penitent

  744 castaway one who has been abandoned

  747 scapes moral transgressions, sins

  open lay disclose, reveal

  749 cunning brow sly, crafty countenance

  750 think not but can only think

  752 would … be they wish to remain always in darkness

  755 grave engrave (with connotations of death and burial)

  761 close enclose

  762 spite reproach, outrage

  765 register record/registrar

  notary recorder

  766 Black stage possibly refers to an Elizabethan practice of draping the stage with black for the performance of a tragedy, although the evidence for this is fairly slight

  fell savage, cruel

  767 chaos the formless void from which the ordered universe emerged

  blame blameworthiness, guilt

  768 defame dishonor

  770 close-tongued secretive/silent

  773 Muster assemble for war

  774 proportioned … time i.e. the regular passing of day and night (so that night may be prolonged to conceal shame)

  776 wonted usual, customary

  777 Knit draw closely together

  778 damps fogs, mists

  ravish carry off by force (the word could also, of course, mean “rape”)

  780 life life-giving properties

  781 arrive arrive at

  noontide prick the dot of noon (marked on a sundial)

  786 silver-shining queen i.e. the moon, symbol of chastity

  distain defile, dishonor/cause to look dim

  787 handmaids i.e. the stars

  791 palmers pilgrims who had been to the Holy Land, signified by the carrying of a palm leaf

  793 cross their arms a conventional posture of grief

  795 pine suffer

  798 wasting … moans transitory memorials to permanent grief

  799 foul-reeking “reeking” meant “steaming, smoking” in the period; sense of “smelling” was not yet active

  805 sepulchred entombed

  806 object a sight, spectacle

  811 cipher read, decipher

  812 quote observe, notice

  my loathsome trespass the vile shame done to me, the abhorrent breach of my person

  815 deck adorn

  816 couple link (plays on sense of “unite sexually”)

  817 Feast-finding minstrels musicians looking for feasts at which to play and sing

  tuning my defame making a song about my dishonor

  818 tie oblige

  819 I Collatine i.e. how I wronged Collatine

  820 senseless reputation reputation for lacking sensuality

  822 theme for disputation subject of debate

  823 branches … root i.e. Collatine’s family tree will be destroyed (branches plays on sense of “divisions of an argument”)

  825 clear innocent

  attaint stain of dishonor

  828 Crest-wounding damaging the family crest (may also suggest the pain of cuckoldry: the husband of an unfaithful wife was supposed to grow horns on his head)

 

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