12. diuers colord flowre: diverse coloured flower. 
     This phrase simultaneously suggests a single flower of many colours, what gardening afficionados call "variegated," and a bed of flowers of many different colours.		  
   
13. "hir" and "her": Like capitalization, spelling was not standardized until well after the sixteenth century.  
   
14. mantle: a protective garment or blanket.  
   
15. you faire flowre: The tricky part here lies in determining the referent of the pronoun, which is to say who is "you"?  
   
16. raine: reign.  Rule over.  
   
Return to Sonnet IIII.

This page last modified January 16, 2005