Notes for Shakespeare's Sonnet 128


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Shakespeare's
Sonnet
128

2. blessed wood: keys of the spinet or virginal.

3. sway'st: governs, governest.

4. confounds: i.e., overcomes with delight.

5. jacks: actually, plectrums, upright pieces of wood fixed to the key-lever that pluck the spinet's inside wires when the outside keys are struck. (In a virginal, the key-lever is fitted with a quill which plucks the virginal's strings.)

6. tender inward: delicate inside.

9. they: my lips. P>13. jacks: actually, plectrums, upright pieces of wood fixed to the key-lever that pluck the spinet's inside wires when the outside keys are struck. (In a virginal, the key-lever is fitted with a quill which plucks the virginal's strings.)