Table of Contents / Related Topics
sirbacon.org
KING JAMES
SONNET NO. 49
Against that time (if ever that time come),
When I shall see thee frown on my defects,
When as thy love hast cast his utmost sum,
Call'd to that audit by advised respects
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass
And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye,
When love, converted from the thing it was,
Shall reasons find of settled gravity;
Against that time do I ensconce me here
Within the knowledge of mine own desert
And this my hand against myself uprear,
To guard the lawful reasons on thy part
To leave poor me, thou hast the strength of laws
Since why to love-I can allege no cause.
Note the repetition of certain words, we find-against that
time, against that time, against that time, love, love, love,
reasons, reasons.
2nd Line. Defects deficiences-want of good qualities.
3rd Line. Cast = reckoned-utmost-last-sum-accounts.
5th Line. Strangely = as if you did not know me.
7th Line. Converted = changed.
8th Line. Reasons-i.e. for converting.
9th Line. Esconce = hides or shelters.
10th Line. Desert = absence of merit.
11th Line. My hand uprear-i.e. like a witness swearing in a
Law Court.
This sonnet appears to be a continuation of Sonnet No.58
and is also addressed by Bacon to King James.
Here Bacon is setting down his thoughts of the time when the
King frowned upon him and passed him by and not greeted
him being advised by an audit of advised respects (the verdict
of the Peers who sentenced him). Bacon writes that he en-
sconces (shelters) himself in this verse, knowing that he is
innocent but had to plead guilty to guard the lawful reasons of
the King because the King had the strength of laws (the right
to do as he pleased) and to desert Bacon without any cause to
do so.
SirBacon.org - Sir Francis Bacon's New Advancement of Learning
