Notes
1-2] the prophetic soul ... come. The concept of the world's prophetic soul is from Giordano Bruno. The meaning of the passage is simply: the prognostications of disaster in the world about me.
3] lease: duration (a legal metaphor).
4] Suppos'd ... doom: Which I have thought doomed to early forfeiture (Tucker Brooke).
5] mortal moon. What is alluded to here will perhaps never be uncovered; usually interpreted as referring to the death or to the climacteric (sixty-third year) of Elizabeth, who was frequently addressed as Diana or Cynthia, the moon-goddess. L. Hotson thinks the reference is to the Armada which was arranged in the shape of a crescent moon. These rival interpretations would suggest widely different and rather improbable dates for this sonnet and others.
8] endless: without foreseen end.
10] subscribes: yields.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: William Shakespeare, Shake-speares sonnets (London: G. Eld for T. T., 1609). STC 22353. Facs. edn.: London: J. Cape, 1925. PR 2750 B48 1609b ROBA.
First publication date:
1609
RPO poem editor: F. D. Hoeniger
RP edition: 3RP 1.142.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/28
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg