Sonnet 58

Love from Afar

Notes

TLN 799cultural context
“made me first your slave”
The poet speaks in the language of feudal subjection: 'slave' and 'vassal' (line 802) are the two lowest rungs of the medieval social hierarchy. A vassal held land from a lord in exchange for loyalty and service; a slave was bound without any reciprocal right. By opening the sonnet with both terms the poet places himself at the furthest possible remove from the beloved's freedom.
historical The Fair Youth, the Dark Lady, and the Rival Poet
TLN 805archaic vocab
“patience, tame to sufferance, bide each check”
'Sufferance' means passive endurance of pain or injury — suffering accepted without complaint. 'Tame to sufferance' means patience that has been broken in, like a horse, until it can no longer resist. 'Bide each check' means to endure each rebuff or reproof without striking back. Together the three phrases describe the complete dismantling of any instinct to resist.
TLN 807historical topical
“your charter is so strong”
A 'charter' was a formal royal or legal document granting specific rights and freedoms to a person or institution — the Magna Carta being the most famous English example. The poet says the beloved holds a charter so absolute that he may do whatever he wishes and even pardon himself for the harm he causes. The legal metaphor makes the beloved's licence both official and irresistible: it is not mere willfulness but a royal grant.