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SONNET 25Let those who are in favour with their stars,Of public honour and proud titles boast, Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars, Unlook'd for joy in that I honour most. Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread But as the marigold at the sun's eye; And in themselves their pride lies buried, For at a frown they in their glory die. The painful warrior famoused for worth, After a thousand victories once foil'd, Is from the book of honour razed quite, And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd: Then happy I, that love and am beloved Where I may not remove nor be removed. NOTES XXV. The poet contrasts his position to that of the courtier whose glory depends on the smile or frown of a prince, or to that of the soldier whose honour and repute are lost through one defeat, after even a thousand victories. But the love between himself and his friend can feel no such reversal. 3. Fortune of such triumph bars. A sentiment to be expressed afterwards more fully. Cf. e.g., xxix., xxxvi., cxi. 4. Unlook'd for. Disregarded and not sought for to receive distinction. 6. The marigold. Cf. Lucrece, 397 seq.: "Her eyes, like marigolds, had sheath'd their light,Schmidt identifies the marigold here spoken of as "the flower Calendula pluvialis." 7. And in themselves. Suddenly all display of glory is at an end, and they become, as it were, the tomb of their own former pride. 9. Worth. The emendations "fight" and "might" have been proposed, or, leaving "worth" untouched, it has been suggested that "quite" (line 11) should be changed to "forth." 4. Perspective. As used here, the meaning of the word appears to be "capability of being looked through." But though this may be the sense immediately intended, there is a reference also to the ordinary employment of the word in relation to pictorial art, whether with respect to the representation of distance, or of a picture so designed as to require to be looked at obliquely. Cf. Richard II., Act ii. sc. 2, line 18 seq.: "Like perspectives, which, rightly gazed upon,5. Through the painter, &c. In the sense mentioned above. But there is probably an allusion, also, to the general necessity of taking the position occupied by an artist in painting a picture, so as to see, as it were, with his eyes. 11. Are windows -- where-through the sun. Notice the additional proof of sincerity. Not only are the friend's eyes windows to the poet's breast, seeing everything within, but the sun himself can look through. 14. Know not the heart. Intimating possibly a suspicion in accordance with the last lines of xxii. How to cite this article:______ Even More...  Stratford School Days: What Did Shakespeare Read? Games in Shakespeare's England [A-L] Games in Shakespeare's England [M-Z] An Elizabethan Christmas Clothing in Elizabethan England Queen Elizabeth: Shakespeare's Patron King James I of England: Shakespeare's Patron The Earl of Southampton: Shakespeare's Patron Going to a Play in Elizabethan London Ben Jonson and the Decline of the Drama Publishing in Elizabethan England Shakespeare's Audience Religion in Shakespeare's England Alchemy and Astrology in Shakespeare's Day Entertainment in Elizabethan England London's First Public Playhouse Shakespeare Hits the Big Time
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