Theme:      Pity me
Content:    A self-pitying lament on the author's poor fortune that goes on to identify the author's occupation as a publicly known actor, and by way of this sonnet, an accomplished writer. The grave in which the authorship myth of an affluent, fortunate, covert nobleman can be laid.

• Poor fortune is blamed for the author's predicament, echoing the sentiments of 25, 29, 37 & 90.
• The subject is apparently sympathetic to the author's deeds being harmful to his reputation.
• for my anticipates fortune which in turn is succeeded by a return to for my.
• The double occurrences of for my echo the many doubling of letters, words and phrases in this sonnet, as in 43, 88, 89 & 90. Perhaps a figurative means of coupling the author with the subject.
• A preponderance of words beginning with th open 3 of this quatrain's lines and course through the rest of the sonnet.
• public means and public manners are clear allusions to acting identifying theatre as the author's principal occupation: in the author's own words in lines 3 & 4, fortune has provided him with no better means of earning a living - a statement entirely incompatible with an affluent nobleman.
• The last line of Q1 is the only one that fails to explicitly refer to the author via my but self-reference is hidden in means.

• The author is branded by his lowly profession in the theatre for which he is publicly known and by way of this poem is also obviously an accomplished writer.
• Doubling continues with Thence, th and the explicit and hidden me's.
• The reference to dyer's hand has bizarrely led some to speculate that Sir Edward Dyer had some hand in Shakespeare's works rather than its obvious meaning of the author's name being stained by his lowly occupation.
• Pity me then is the central plea presented here in Q2 and in the Couplet.
• The penultimate line of Q2 is the only one that fails to refer to the author via my or I.

• Possible pun on the author's name in the double uses of I will and willing.
• eisel means "vinegar" and reflects the subsequent bitterness.
• Repeat of ink in drink and think.
• The better of Q1 morphs to bitter in Q3.
• The double penance is reflected in the double use of bitter/bitterness and correct/correction and doubling is also echoed in the two similes' use of like in Q2 & Q3.
• The last line of Q3 is the only one that fails to refer to the author via my or I.

• Distinctive use of the term ye (only used once elsewhere in the sonnets and in that case in the plural) to rhyme with me and thus link the author to the subject.
• Pity me then repeated as the central plea.
• Both lines in the couplet refer to the author via I and me and also rejoin the author with the subject who was only previously referred to in line 1.

Players [Actors], I love yee, and your Qualitie,
As ye are Men, that pass time not abus'd:
And some I love for painting, poesie,
And say fell Fortune cannot be excus'd,
That hath for better uses you refus'd:
Wit, Courage, good shape, good partes, and all good,
As long as al these goods are no worse us'd,
And though the stage doth staine pure gentle bloud,
Yet generous yee are in minde and moode.

A copy of Microcosmos survives with the handwritten note against line 1 of "And some I love" and the initials "W.S." and "R.B.", i.e. William Shakespeare and the actor in Shakespeare's company of actors, Richard Burbage.