12. diuers colord flowre: diverse coloured
flower. This phrase simultaneously suggests a single flower of many colours, what gardening afficionados call "variegated," and a bed of flowers of many different colours. |
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13. "hir" and "her": Like capitalization, spelling was not standardized until well after the sixteenth century. | |
14. mantle: a protective garment or blanket. | |
15. you faire flowre: The tricky part here lies in determining the referent of the pronoun, which is to say who is "you"? | |
16. raine: reign. Rule over. | |
Return to Sonnet IIII. |
This page last modified January 16, 2005 |