Jove's (i.e. God as the creator of nature)

The biblical text (Genesis 1-3)

defense

mirror

This refers to a character well-known in Greek mythology, Paris (son of the king of Priam); Probably the best known was his elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta, this being one of the immediate causes of the Trojan War. Later in the war, he fatally wounds Achilles in the heel with an arrow as foretold by Achilles’s mother, Thetis. Lanyar is likely here referring to the "Judgement of Paris"

The first of eight poems addressed to court ladies whom Lanyer sought to attract as patrons; such poems commonly preface literary works by male courtier-poets, though usually not in such numbers. These poems are followed by a prose address to her actual patron, the Countess of Cumberland, and the by the prose epistle included here, "To the Virtuous Reader." This first poems addresses Anne of Denmark, James I's queen, patron of writers such as Ben Johnson and Samuel Daniel, and mother of Prince Henry, Princess Elizabeth and the future Charles I.

sign

Lanyar placed this explanation at the end of her volume, not the beginning, as a further authorizing gesture. Invoking the familiar genre of the "dream vision" she lays claim to poetic, even divine, inspiration.

Okay...yeah, there is no way around this. Women are lesser (even if married to drunkards, gluttons, and blasphemers)...they must "fear" their "infidel" husbands.

The text seems corrupt at this point: Corinthians 1.7.4 reads in full: "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife."

he's throwing women a bone here...hey, the heart is nearly as good as the head! Be happy with the heart!

Basically, a woman must accept her subjugation as an inherent truth, otherwise she will be resentful and "expect a time when [she] can may free [herself] and take revenge..."

The apostle Paul.

Once the general premise (the superiority of all husbands) is established, the particular instance (the superiority of a woman's own husband) will logically follow from it.

Interesting parsing of words here.

The author is referencing an earlier part of his treatise here.

Offering a defense of vindication.

This preface introduces a brief satiric treatise appended to A Muzzle, titled "Certain Quaeres to the baiter of women, with confutation of some parts of his diabolical discipline."

Here Speght is arguing, based on biblical precedent, that men and women are both created in the image of God.

Or, "metonymy" - a figure of speech in which a part or attribute of a thing is used for the whole.

This formula was commonplace, perhaps derived (very loosely) from St. Augustine's sermon, "De Adam et Eva et Sancta Maria."

St. Augustine

Genesis 3:7.

This toothless but venomous serpent is discussed in the naturalist Topsell's volume Serpents, though not the quality of hurting only himself.

"Minority" - here she is referring to her own youth (she is 19 at the time of this publication).

This may refer not to an actual image but rather to the omission of what is crucially important.

A schoolboy just learning his Latin.

Revealed your errors and thus disgraced you.

Agreement of the parts of a sentence, according to the rules of grammar.

roving

excrement

The floodgates

Likewise

A common European migratory bird with mottled brown plumage; easily taken in a snare, it was associated with gullibility.

In this context, her "rich and showy clothing and jewelry".

A countryman, one who is uncouth or ill-bred.

A whetstone is an abrasive stone for sharpening knives or other edged tools. The bawdy joke suggests that "everyone" will make use of both the stone and the fair wife.

derisive jeers (ridicule)

Sweatnam evidently relies on his imperfect memory or careless notes. The comparisons he paraphrases are not from Solomon or David but from the biblical Apocrypha attributed in the Book of Ecclesiastics to Jesus Son of Sirach: "I had rather dwell with a lion and a dragon, than to keep house with a wicked woman...As the climbing up a sandy way is to the feet of the aged, so is a wife full of words to a quiet man."

Genesis 2.18: "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help mate for him."

Swetnam has confused several classical myths here. Cerberus, the monster guarding the entrance to Hades was said to have three heads (not two) and Mercury (Hermes, not Hercules) was sent by Jove to release Prosperina. But the twelfth labor of Hercules was to bring Cerberus from Hades to the upper world.

In good time.

Unruly, stubborn, willful.

Here he is addressing Lucentio

i.e. "money bags"

"Oh, what an asinine thing this moron is!" (addressed to audience)

She may come up with nine or ten abusive things to call him.

Flotentius was a knight in a medieval poem by Join Gower; he was forced to marry an extremely ugly woman. The Cumaean Sibyl was a mythical prophetess who lived forever. Xanthippe was Socrates notoriously bad-tempered wife.

He's looking for a really wealthy woman...

I have set off in the "maze" (crazy world) to see if I can marry well and make a good life.

"Villain" here (in this scene) is closer to "moron" or "idiot".

You are welcome in my house, my honored Sir Petruchio.

With all my heart, I'm glad to see you.

How is everyone back in Verona?

offended

Lucentio also wants Tranio to try to "woo" Bianca...

Since no one has seen them yet, Lucentio proposes that Tranio impersonate him.

I'll bet we're both thinking the same thing...

Here Tranio addresses the audience directly.

An alternative name for Jupiter.

It's time to buy back your freedom at the lowest possible cost.

It's tough on both of us.

Shall I be treated like a child and told when to come and where to go?

And make her suffer for the words of the other (i.e. Katharina).

The Roman goddess of wisdom (equivalent to Athena).

hit you over the head with a stool

Here they insist they are not potential suitors....

to humiliate me, showing me off like a prostitute in front of potential suitors

Here, he advises the young Lucentio to study what he most enjoys as there is nothing to be gained from studies that we take no pleasure in.

He feels as if he has been drinking from a puddle and now has access to a "deep" body of water (lake, ocean) from which to quench his thirst.

Vincentio is Lucentio's father, a merchant of great renown.

my father's generosity

Christmas skit or acrobatic show

Here Sly means "comedy" - but he has never heard the word before so he mispronounces it.

sadness leads to madness

Your doctors have expressly forbidden me to sleep with you, as there is a risk of your illness coming back.

Here Sly is asking what her name is -- he doesn't realize that "madam" is a title, equivalent to "lord" or "sir".

Thank God I'm cured!

you would say you were being thrown out of some tavern

we are overjoyed to see your sanity restored

A female nymph associated with rivers, springs, fountains and wells.

One of the mortal lovers) of Zeus:

The hounds will make the sky echo with their high-pitched barks.

An Assyrian queen famous for her active sex life.

base desires

your family never visits your house

crazy

a keeper of trained bears (by bad luck or "transmutation")

A cardmaker was one who made tools for working with sheep's wool.

garment

dried fruit

will be a convincing noblewoman

pantry

Basically, informing the Player that the "lord" (Sly) has never seen a play and so his strange behavior should be ignored by the actors (because if they "smile" he will get upset).

a troupe of actors

The trumpet sounding likely means a nobleman has arrived looking for lodging for the night.

Do this--that is, make it convincing--and it will be fun (but only if its is done subtly).

A large jug with a wide mouth - used to carry water and thus for bathing.

erotic paintings

he wouldn't know where he was

And tie up Clowder...(here he gives directions on what to do with each dog - Silver, Echo, etc.)

Give them all a good dinner

Let Merriman breathe, for the poor dog is foaming at the mouth from exhaustion.

An English "peace officer" (usually someone sent out to gather tithings) - in this case, akin to a policeman.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles; here Sly is referring to his "illustrious" lineage.

Here referring to wooden stocks where prisoners are kept.

fix

And to make you fair (or give you insight), I looked blindly on your failings (or pretended to see what I couldn't).

to husband or lover

breaking loving vows to another

past medical care (of me)

I.e. I learn by experience that desire, which rejected reason's medicine, is death.

maintain the sickness

nourishes/takes care of

rubbish/garbage

Let "that" (the body) deteriorate to increase ("aggravate") the soul's riches ("thy store").

Meanings: 1) Your expense 2) The thing you were responsible for (i.e., the body).

i.e. until she infects him with venereal disease

Meanings: 1) vanity 2) sexuality

tempt me constantly

Shakespeare was 35 or younger when he wrote this sonnet (it first appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599).

again, multiple meanings - an obvious sexual pun in this context.

i.e. utterly honest or faithful

consent

Multiple meanings here: 1) wishes 2) carnal desire 3) the male and female sexual organs 4) one or more lovers--Shakespeare included--named Will.

This is one of several sonnets punning on the multiple meanings of this word.

misrepresented

This didn't have the same derogatory meaning at the time - just means "emanates" here....

An anti-Petrarchan sonnet. All of the details commonly attributed by other Elizabethan sonneteers to their ladies (e.g. Spenser's Amoretti) are here denied to the poet's mistress.

"a bliss during the experience"

The word order here is inverted and thus obscures the meaning. Lust, when put into action, expends "spirit" (life, vitality; also, semen) in a "waste" (desert; also with a pun on waist) of shame.

Their place in the order of things

The harmony from the strings that overcomes my ear with delight.

Keys of a spinet or virginal.

nevertheless possess the appearance of beauty

Shrine. The next line suggests that natural (unpainted) beauty is now discredited.

I.e. a face slathered with cosmetics

declared illegitimate

Beautiful; usually equated with blonde hair and coloring. "Black" in this context means dark-haired which was equated with ugliness at this time.

surrender

settlement

destruction

Remember here that "glass" always means "mirror" - this case "fickle" because as the subject ages, the appearance changes.

The star's value is incalculable, although its altitude may be known and used for navigation.

A sea-mark like a lighthouse or a beacon.

From the Anglican marriage service: "If either of you do know any impediment why ye may not be lawfully joined together..."

whet

in this context, trials of worse relationships

i.e. "coldly" or with reservations

fidelity

"Gored" - wounded, pierced.

jester/fool

wasted away

Perhaps referring to the peace treaty signed with Spain by Elizabeth's successor, James I, or, if the sonnet refers to the time of Elizabeth's 63rd year, to an earlier treaty between England and France.

The "mortal moon" is probably a reference to Elizabeth I; her "eclipse" could be either her death (March 1603) or, perhaps, her "climacteric" year, her sixty-third (thought meaningful because the product of two "significant" numbers, 7 and 9), which ended in September 1596. The sober astrologers ("sad augers" here) now ridicule their own predictions ("presage") of catastrophe, because they turned out to be false.

I.e., can yet put an end to my love, which I thought doomed to early forfeiture.

This sonnet refers to contemporary events and the prophecies, common in Elizabethan almanacs, of impending disaster.

Because ("for") they were able only ("but") to foresee prophetically.

persons

And in varying the words alone by inventiveness is spent/expended.

theme

variety

"songs" - remember Marie de France's "lais"?

In this case, "god of melancholy"

magnificent in many colors

such dismal mood

Spring, which has engendered the lavish crop ("wanton burden") that autumn is now left to bear.

I.e., when I was gone

Even if it lives and dies in apparent isolation (unpollinated).

they do not squander nature's gifts

seem to do or seem capable of doing

appearance

i.e. when you realize your error

based on error

overestimating

i.e. returning to you

expired

value

Double meaning: expensive and beloved.

in reality

tactfully says nothing

bottomless

On your broad waters does boldly appear...

impudent boat

as well as

a rival poet

get discouraged

Death's weapon - like "Time's Scythe" referenced in several poems above.

Share, participation. "In this line" - i.e., in this poetry.

Cruel. Hamlet says, "this fell sergeant/Death is strict in his arrest." (5.2.278-79).

Choked by the ashes of that which once nourished its flame.

The part of the church where divine service was sung.

repeat

The bell was tolled to announce the death of a member of the parish--one stroke for each year of his or her life.

destructive power

Since there is neither....

It is you, my other self, for whom I praise...

perfect

pleasing

Digs parallel furrows (i.e. wrinkles)