Sonnet 133

The Dark Lady: Desire

Notes

TLN 1848archaic vocab
“Beshrew that heart”
'Beshrew' is a mild Elizabethan imprecation meaning 'a plague on' or 'shame upon.' By Shakespeare's time it had weakened from a genuine curse to something closer to 'damn' in mild speech — forceful enough to open the poem with grievance, soft enough to acknowledge the poet cannot truly wish the mistress ill.
TLN 1853archaic vocab
“my next self thou harder hast engross'd”
'My next self' is the Renaissance formula for a closest friend — a second self, another version of the same person. 'Engross'd' means seized entirely; it is also a legal term for writing out a deed in the large formal hand that makes a contract binding and final. The mistress has acquired the friend as absolutely as a signed instrument conveys property.
historical The Fair Youth, the Dark Lady, and the Rival Poet
TLN 1856rhetorical device
“Prison my heart in thy steel bosom's ward”
Lines 1856-1859 build a sustained legal conceit using four interlocked prison-law terms: 'ward' (a prison cell; also legal custody), 'bail' (security that releases a prisoner pending trial), 'guard' (a jailer or keeper), and 'rigour' (strict enforcement of a penalty, without mercy). The poet proposes a formal deal — imprison his heart in the mistress's custody so it stands as surety for the friend's release.