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NotesSonnet 56 is puzzling because of its seemingly inappropriate placement next to Sonnet 55. In Sonnet 55, the poet's relationship with the young man is steady and secure, but here there is a sudden shift from confidence to deep insecurity as the poet implores "Sweet love" (1) to conquer the lust that is ruining his union with the young man. This analysis of the sonnet relies upon two assumptions: 1) the young man is the poet's lover and 2) that when the poet refers to "sad interim" (9), he does not mean that the young man is away from London, but that he is separated from him emotionally - i.e., they are in a "period of estrangement" from one another due to the young man's promiscuity. Thus the poet is "whipping up the young man's flagging affection. Behind lines 9-12 flickers a reminiscence of the situation of Hero and Leander" (Rowse 115). The situation becomes even more clear when we read Sonnet 57, in which the poet, now very worried about the young man's lustful nature, asks him outright, "Being your slave, what should I do but tend/Upon the hours and times of your desire?....dare I question with my jealous thought/Where you may be" (1-2/9-10).Sweet love (1): addressed not to the friend but to the concept of love itself. wink (6): i.e., shut in sleep. sad interim (9): could mean "period of estrangement" but it could also be referring to the friend's absence from London. Else (13): Q. "As." Else was an anonymous conjecture, later used by White and Rolfe. How to cite this article:______ Even More...  Shakespeare in Old English?
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Blackfriars was the premier playhouse in all of Shakespeare's London. The price for admission was up to five times that of the Globe, and it seated about seven hundred people in a paved auditorium. It was equipped with artificial lighting and other amenities that the other playhouses did not possess, but overall it quite closely resembled the public theatres with its trap doors, superstructure of huts (with wires and belts to hang props and lower actors), inner stage, and tiring house. ©1999-2021 Shakespeare Online. All Rights Reserved.