Notes for Shakespeare's Sonnet 127


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Shakespeare's
Sonnet
127

1. the old age: the good old days.   black: black hair and eyes.   fair: attractive; light blonde.

3. is black's successive heir: black has succeeded to the title of beauty.

4. beauty slander'd with a bastard shame: (blonde) beauty now suffers the disgrace of illegitimacy (through cosmetics).

5. put on: assumed.

6. fairing the foul: making beauty ugly.   art's false borrow'd face: cosmetics.

9. eyes: i.e., eyebrows.

10. so suited: dressed in the same color.

11. fair: light blonde.

12. Slandering creation with a false esteem: Dishonoring nature with a false reputation for beauty.

13. they: my mistress' eyes.   becoming of: gracing.