Notes
1] Tottel's title: "A renouncing of loue."
2] Senec: Lucius Annaeus Seneca (ca. 4 BC-AD 65): Roman stoic philosopher, rhetorician, and tragedian.
4] wealth: well-being in mind (not in money)
5-6] Love is traditionally blind and shoots arrows at or "pricketh" its victims (cf. 12).
8] lever: dearer, more lief or loved.
11] use thy property: "be yourself"; exhibit your distinguishing quality.
14] Me lusteth: I want.
lenger: Middle English comparative of "long."
rotten boughs to climb: proverbial (Tilley B557).
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: British Library Egerton MS. 2711, fol. 13; cf. Richard Harrier, Canon (1975): 114.
First publication date:
1557
RPO poem editor: F. D. Hoeniger, Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RP 1963: I.3; RPO 1994.
Recent editing: 2:2002/4/24
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: abbaabbacddcee