Sonnet 20

Praise and Beauty

Notes

TLN 268archaic vocab
“master mistress of my passion”
A compound title for the beloved: 'master' marks gender (male) and perhaps superiority; 'mistress' is the conventional label for the object of a love poet's devotion. Together the phrase refuses to settle into either category — the youth is both the lord the poet serves and the beloved whose praise he writes.
historical The Fair Youth, the Dark Lady, and the Rival Poet
TLN 269cultural context
“gentle heart, but not acquainted With shifting change”
The poet credits the youth with feminine tenderness but not the inconstancy that Elizabethan convention assigned to women. 'Shifting change' means restless fickleness — the stereotype that women alter their affections capriciously. The youth has the soft heart without the unreliable will.
historical The blazon (and the anti-blazon)
TLN 271archaic vocab
“more bright than theirs, less false in rolling, Gilding the object”
'Rolling' means roving or glancing about — eyes that 'roll' are eyes that dart from one object to another, a sign of flirtatious inconstancy. The youth's eye is brighter than women's yet less prone to wander; it 'gilds' (covers in golden light) whatever it rests on, as sunlight makes things shine.
historical The blazon (and the anti-blazon)