| 5. th' old: Meant to be read as a single syllable, "th'old" occupies
only a single metrical foot. Adieu: French for "good-bye." Capitalization was not standardized until well after the sixteenth century. |
|
| 6. dumpish: dull, slow-witted; uninteresting. | |
| 6a. spright: spirit. Hence "dumpish spright" suggests slow-witted or dull spirit, or possibly a spirit that no longer holds any interest for the speaker. | |
| 7. loue: love. | |
| 8. bower: bedroom | |
| 9. dight: To put in order, array, dress, direct, prepare, make ready, or proper. | |
| 10. wanton: unrestrained, extravagant. | |
| 11. deadly power: We are going to have to work on this one together, in class. I suspect the Elizabethan pun of "die" as ejaculation is operative here. Cf. OED, die v1, I.d. "Darts of deadly power" seems likely to be an allusion to Cupid's arrows. | |
| 11a. lusty: joyful, merry, full of sexual desire. | |
| Return to Sonnet IIII. |
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