Return to Shakespeare's Sonnet 66 |
This sonnet has strong similarities to lines 70-76 of Hamlet's famous soliloquy beginning "To be or not to be."
1.
all these: the following.
2.
as: namely. desert: i.e., those who have merit, as contrasted with "needy nothing" in the next line.
3.
needy nothing: i.e. those with moral and mental emptiness. jollity: finery.
4.
unhappily forsworn: evilly betrayed.
8.
limping sway: incompetent authority.
9.
art: letters and learning. authority: i.e.,political privilege; censorship.
10.
doctor-like: pretending to wisdom.
11.
simplicity: foolishness.
12.
attending: following as subordinate.