Glosses:
Sidney's Astrohil and Stella
1.1: fayne: fain, wishing. Also potential pun on "feign"
meaning to make something up
1.9: stay: support
1.13: trewand: truant
3.3: Pindars Apes: Pindar was a classical Greek poet.
Apes are notoriously imitative. Pindar's apes "ape" Pindar.
4.2: bate: i.e. "bait," trap
4.5: Catoes: i.e. Cato's. Cato, often referred to as
Cato the Censor, was a Roman noted for his stern virtue.
4.8: bit: not the past tense of "bite," but
the part of a horse's reigns that goes in the mouth.
6.2: wot: know
6.5-6: These lines refer to the Roman King of the Gods Jove and some of
his sexual adventures with mortal women, which he often undertook by transforming
himself--in this case into a bull, swan or a golden shower.
6.7-8: A common motif of pastoral poetry, in which a shepherd is really
a king. There's a version of this in Shakespeare's Winter's Tale,
in which it turns out the daughter of a shepherd is really the daugher
of a king.
7.3: beamy: emitting beams of light, radiant
8.1-2: Greece and Turkish: Cupid is
a classical god ("born in Greece") but at the time Sidney was
writing, Greece and Turkey were at war (as these two countries still contest
possession of the island of Cyprus)
8.4: here: England
8.9: beamy: see 7.3
9.2: furniture: A decoration or embellishment (OED,
furniture, 1.b; other related meanings are also possible [see the OED]
, but not the contemporary sense of the word).
9.6: pophir: i.e. porphyry, a red or purple ornamental
stone.
9.12-14: touch: Sidney plays on multiple meanings of
this word, which can mean "touch" in the ordinary sense and
also is short for both "touchstone," a stone on which something
(like gold) is tested, and "touchwood" a wood that easily burns
and kindles fire in other things.
15.1 purling: rippling, undulating; murmuring.
15.2: Parnassus: Mount Parnassus in Greece. In myth home
to the Muses, and hence associated with the production of poetry.
15.8 denisen'd: i.e. denizened. A "denizen"
is "used of things: e.g. of foreign words naturalized in a language,
etc." (OED, "denizen," n. and a., 2c. Definition 2a quite
relevant here as well).
15.9: far-fet: far-fetched
15.14: indite: put in words, or a poem.
18.1: checkes: i.e. "checks," blows (as in
hockey)
18.9: toyes: not "toys in the modern sense, but
trivial things. The word is also used of poems.
21.2: windlas: decoy or ensnare
21.3, 5, 6: that: this word introduces the indirect speech
of the "friend." I.e. you say that I do x... that I do y...
that I do z.
21.5: but if: unless. Plato is associated with learning
virtue here.
23.5-6: I.e., some who know how I was educated in my youth ("spring")
now think I turn to poetry ("my muse") in order to produce something
from that education.
27.5: runour: this is just a misprint for rumour, i.e.
rumor.
27.10: glasse: mirror
37.5: Auroras Court: Aurora is the dawn, so Aurora's
Court is the court in the east. This court is often associated with the
court of Queen Elizabeth.
37.13: patents: documents conferring some kind of right
or privilege; possibly also the qualities of something. Courtiers also
sought from the queen her agents patents giving them profitable monopolies
over various goods to be sold.
37.14: That Rich she is: The woman who was Sidney's "Stella"
(Penelope Devereaux) had married a man whose last name was "Rich,"
and who was seen by more established members of the aristocracy as nouveau
riche (that is, an upstart with lots of money but not from an established
family). This sonnet was not published with the others in the early editions
of "Astrophil and Stella" because of this insult.
41.1-5: Sidney is referring to his participation in a chivalric tournament,
that was also attended by French ambassadors.
41.9-10: My blood from them...: Sidney is referring to
his aristocratic lineage on both his father's and especially his mother's
side.
49.1-14: Many of the words in this sonnet have double meanings related
to manage (line 14), which refers to the stylized training
of a horse.
49.7: boss: part of a horse's bridle. The boss is gilt,
or gold covered.
49.9: wand: A stick or switch for urging on a horse.
52.12: demurre: An objection raised or exception taken
to anything. From a legal vocabulary (see OED
"demurrer"1).
59.9: That bosom clip: That chest (bosom) of Stella
hugs (an older meaning of "clip") the dog.
59.10: That lap doth lap: That lap of Stella's does lap
(to enfold caressingly like a child in its mother's lap; to nurse, fondle,
caress; to surround with soothing and shielding care [OED, "lap"
v2, 5) the dog.
59.14: clog: something that weighs you down.
69.9: powre: alternative spelling of "pour"
74.1:Aganippe: A well associated in Greek myth with
poetic inspiration.
74.2: Tempe: The Vale of Tempe was also in Greek myth
associated with poetic inspiration.
74.5: Poet's fury: Not anger, but a kind of wild, divine
inspiration of the poet.
74.6: wot: see 6.2.
81.7, 12: faine: desire.
90.10: laud: praise
90.11: Without: unless
Daniel, "Delia"
1.1-14: Many of the words in this sonnet have double meanings related
to accounting
1.4: playnts: plaints, i.e. complaints (not quite in
the modern sense, but a "love complaint" or emotional plea for
love).
2.2: minerua-like: Minerva was the Roman goddess of
widsom. She was born, without a mother, from Jove's head (he had a headache!)
3.2: Antheames: anthems
3.10: Eglets: young eagles
4.1: Posts: messengers (as in post office)
4.5: limnd: drawn
4.6: depaynt: paint
4.9-12: Daniel is denying an interest in Bays, that is
poetic laurels (cf. "bay leaves"; laurels are originally a kind
of crown of bay leaves from the laurel tree) but instead wants Olive
leaves, the symbol of peace. A Rector is a ruler and
the holy hill is probably Mount Parnassus, home to the
Muses. There is probably a more particular figure glanced at here, but
I'm not sure who.
4.14: steemes: esteems, i.e. praises.
5.1-14: This whole sonnet refers to a story, also used by Petrarch, of
Actaeon, a hunter who saw Diana, goddess of virginity and the hunt, naked
while she was bathing. To punish Actaeon, Diana turned him into a deer,
and his own hunting hounds chased and killed him.
6.11-12: The meaning is hard to get here because pittie
should be understood as an abstract quality like Beauty and Chastity (in
other words, imagine Pity). Thus the paraphrase: "if she had combined
Pity with her Beauty and Chastity, then no one would have heard my love
complaints about her" (i.e. because I would have nothing to complain
about). Note that in courtly love, "pity" means "to satisfy
erotic longing."
11.3: conuart: convert
11.7: merciles: "one" or "woman"
is elided here (a frequent elision in Renaissance poetry). Hence understand
"a merciless one."
12.1: hoouers: hovers
12.12: rowling: rolling (i.e turning like the wheel of
fortune [don't think the game show here, but the medieval and Renaissance
emblem of life's uncertainties; one day you're on top of the wheel, next
day you're down); deigne: grant
36.8: y[c]e: ice. The bracket marks an editor's correction
of a printing error, the omission of the "c."
50.6: I send those ...:We would put a comma after eyes,
to show clearly that "those cabinets of love" describe the eyes
(grammatically speaking, an appositional phrase, like "find the ball,
red and with big letters"), as do the next two lines. The direct
object of send (i.e. what is sent) is in the previous line, "these
tributary plaints."
Spenser, "Amoretti"
1.10: Helicon: A mountain in ancient Greece, said to
be a source of two streams devoted to the muses.
1.2: bale: sorrow
2.3: sithens: from that time on, since
2.4: woxen: waxen, i.e. waxed, i.e. grown (like the waxing
of the moon)
2.7: succour: help, aid
3.14: endite: i.e. "indite": To utter, suggest,
or inspire a form of words which is to be repeated or written down (OED)
4.1: Janus: Roman God of exits and entrances, said to
have two faces (looking forward and behind, from whence we get "January"
as the month of the new year).
5.2, 10: portly, portliness: magnificent, imposing (-iness
= the state of being those things)
5.6: sdeigne: disdain
9.13: Maker: God (it's worth noting though that "maker"
at this time was also a synomym for "poet")
15.5, 7, 8: loe: lo, i.e. behold (as in lo and behold),
or take notice of. A sort of vague interjection.
37.4: heare: hair
61.1: maker's: see 9.13
61.1-4: The syntax is hard here. The first two lines are the direct object
of "dare" in line 3, which is an imperative verb. In other words:
[You critics] do not dare, in excess of your duty, to accuse of pride
or rashly blame for anything my sovereign saint (that is the beloved)
who is the glorious image of her maker's beauty and the idol of my thought.
61.14: meane: mean, i.e. low (degree = status)
64: lots of names of flowers here
65.2: fondly: foolishly (not, as now,
lovingly)
65.2: loose: lose
68.1: this day: Good Friday. The next lines refer to
the "harrowing of hell," a Christian doctrine that, in some
versions, holds that Christ between Good Friday, the day of his Crucifixion,
and Easter resurrection went down to hell and freed the souls of good
people who died before Christ's coming and the new Christian dispensation
of grace. Protestants (according to Wikipedia) saw the harrowing as symbolic,
a measure of the gift of grace that Christ's sacrifice entailed.
68.14: loue: here a theological concept too. From the
OED, "love" n1. 2: In religious use, applied in an eminent sense
to the paternal benevolence and affection of God towards His children,
to the affectionate devotion due to God from His creatures, and to the
affection of one created being to another so far as it is prompted by
the sense of their common relationship to God. (Cf. CHARITY 1.)
74: In addition to his Queen, Spenser's mother and the woman to whom
he was writing these sonnets, and whom he would marry, were all named
"Elizabeth"! (The "happy letters"
in line 1, of which there are nine [thrice times three], are the nine
letters used to spell the name Elizabeth.)
75.1: strand: seashore
Drayton, "Idea"
1.8: As to how the pole to every place was rear'd: how
all these directions were determined by the pole. Here's
the relevant definiton of this word from the OED: "Either of the
two points in the celestial sphere (north and south) about which as fixed
points the stars appear to revolve, being the points at which the line
of the earth's axis meets the celestial sphere (more fully celestial pole).
Also occas.: {dag}the Pole Star (obs.). Also fig. (poet.): a thing that
serves as a guide"
2.5: on the view: after consideration by a jury (like
a coroner's view)
2.6: quit: acquit. The idea here is that the verdit acquits
the dead, since the dead (heart) couldn't have killed itself.
3.8: arrerage: i.e. "arrearage," indebtedness
49.11: bann'd: cursed
51.6 Essex' great fall: The Earl of Essex, formerly
a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, he led a failed rebellion against her in
1601, and was executed. Tyrone is The Earl of Tyrone,
Hugh O'Neill. An Irish earl, he fought the English in Ireland, but entered
a truce with King James, who succeeded Elizabeth. There is additional
example of the "incertain" change of the times (line 1) in this
line because Essex in 1598 had been sent to fight Tyrone,
and, in a weaker position than he was expected to be, instead negotiated
a truce. The truce angered Elizabeth, and it was this anger that drove
Essex' rebellion. The situation irony here is that the English earl has
become the fallen rebel, while the Irish rebel the peaceful subject of
the monarch (though that peace did not last, either).
51.7-9: These lines mark the succession from Queen Elizabeth to King James,
and the latter's policy of negotiation with the Spanish. The Dutch
are, roughly, the peoples of the modern Netherlands, with whom England
had been allied under Elizabeth.
Barnes
65.1.-4: These lines refer to the shapes into which Jove transformed
himself to have sex with mortal women: a bull (for Europa), the goddes
Diana (for Calisto), and a golden shower (for Danae).
61.4: coelestiall: celestial
63.10: pappes: breasts
65.8: rewed: i.e. rued, regretted.
Davies, "Gulling Sonnets"
The following abbreviations are used regularly in the printing of these
sonnets:
wch = which; wth = with;
yt = that; ye = the (the
"y" here represents the medieval "thorn," a character
that made the "th" sound)
1.1: Mris: mistress
1.2: Aetna: Mt. Aetna (or Etna), a volcanic mountain
in Sicily
1.4-8: the idea here is that the heavenly powers are still not powerful
enough to overule the power of Fate, and relieve the burdened lover, so
those powers must seek another, miraculos solution.
2.1: Cerulian: a fancy word for "blue"
2.14: scuruy: i.e. "scurvy," both a disease
of sheep, and, more gnerally, something low or gross
3.8: surcease: cease
4.12: snuffers a device for "snuffing" out
the flame of a candle
5.3: iudgmt: judgment; arte:
not as in fine arts, but more like "skill" or "grace"
5.5-9: fancie in line 5 is not love, but imagination.
And it's the imagination of the speaker that the beloved loves him. In
other words, the object of all those "persuade" words is not
the beloved, but the speaker himself, who persuades himself to believe
that he is beloved, etc. In line 9 understand a "so" before
that (as in line 12), meaning "therefore" or
"for this reason" etc.
6.1-14: The idea here is that "love," often represented as
the naked babe Cupid, is being dressed by the writer, who moves through
the sonnet from the head to feet (also imitating the sonnet convention
of the "blazon," in which the writer praises the beloved part-by-part
[as in Shakespeare's sonnet #130 or Spenser's sonnets 15 and 64]).
6.6: doblett: i.e. "doublet," a tight fitting
jacket worn by fashionable men in the Renaissance
6.8: pointes: i.e. "points," ribbons or leather
strings that held up hose or stockings
(referred to in lines 9 and 10) and that were threaded through the Ilet
holes or "eye holes" of line 8.
6.8: yre: i.e. "ire," anger
6.11: flyte: i.e. "fleet" (I think)
9.13: pantofels: pantofles are a kind of shoe (associated
with foreignness of affected fashion)
Wroth
14.5-8: These are a set of impossible conditions that must occur, before
the speaker will be conquered by love (as the speaker worries she will
be in the first quatrain). The irony here, is that most of these impossible
conditions involve the impossibility of freedom from desire.
14.5: phant'sies: fancies, desires
15.8: "but now is quenched in misery."
15.13: The semi-colon is misleading, perhaps a transcription of older
or mistaken punctuation. In any case, read a comma, not a semi-colon there.
22.3: The comma after Loue is misleading. A period would
be better. for means "since" here: Since I
how ever more I worship him (i.e. my beloved), I still receive less favor
(from him).
22.7: Then = Than
22.10: The punctuation at the end of this line should be a period, not
a comma. Wroth frequently elides forms of "to be" in her sonnets
(e.g. "is"). Hence lines nine to ten read: Besides their sacifice
is received in the sight of their chosen saint, while mine is hid as a
worthless rite.
22.11-12: the punctuation at the end of line 11 should be a comma rather
than a period. "Grant me to see where I my offerings may give, and
then let me wear the mark, etc."
23.7-8: The "themselves" of this line are the people in the
first quatrain who like to hunt, hawk, etc. The speaker sits and wonders
how the "dispose of themselves" (i.e. use their time) "voyde
of right," i.e. devoid of right choices about how to spend their
time by leaving true pleasure for poor vanities.
46.5: inuade: find, discover
46.6: a face: not a lover's actual face, but metaphorical
here: i.e. a place (though the metaphor does carry overtones that the
hoped for place of ease might be a human face).
46.8: allay'd: eased
46.12: it: refers to the well
46.13: shee: also refers to the well (all of these final
lines pick up on the figure of the "face" for place above, but
interestingly make the face not the beloved's but the speaker's.)
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