Theme:      Shallowness
Content:    A criticism of those (or one person in particular) whose values are shallow, material and ephemeral compared to the values of the author that are deep, emotional and eternal. One of the most verbally diverse of the sonnets.

• "Were it to mean anything for me to bear the canopy with all its associated pomp and circumstance, or to lay great bases to last forever, which both prove to be more short-term activities than it takes for such things to fall into ruin?"
• bore the canopy refers to the act of holding up the monarch's canopy at the time of a royal procession. This was an entitlement of nobility.
• The stage directions for Henry VIII refer to a similar event: "Then, under a canopy borne by four barons of the Cinque Ports, enter Anne, the new Queen, in her robe".
• This poem may refer to the Royal Procession of King James I through London in 1604 which Shakespeare is known to have attended. The Master of the Wardrobe's records of 15th. March 1604 lists "Shakspere" among "Players" (i.e. Actors) who were given scarlet cloth to be worn for this procession. "Shakspere" is how William Shakespeare's name was spelled in these royal records, his Baptism record at Stratford Parish Register, his daughter Susanna's Baptism record at Stratford Parish Register, his twins Hamnet and Judeth's Baptism record at Stratford Parish Register, his son's Burial record at Stratford Parish Register, signatures on his Last Will & Testament, his own Burial record at Stratford Parish Register, etc.
• It appears likely that Shakespeare wrote this poem in light of this Royal Procession, looking on the nobility who regarded "bearing the canopy" as a great honour, whilst Shakespeare himself was merely an attendant "Player" dismissive of the pomp of the proceedings.
• With my extern the outward honouring suggests two-facedness on behalf of people who indulge in canopy-bearing: their extern outwardly honouring the subject but inwardly them not feeling that way.
• The theme of time may be alluded to by "hour" in honouring.
• Lines 3 & 4 appear to be inspired by the Book of Common Prayer's "laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may attain eternal life", itself taken from 1 Timothy, 6:19. The author here commenting on the futility of belief in eternal life.
  
• The word For features prominently throughout this sonnet, though it is not obvious why: for eternity...form...favour...For compound...forgoing...for thee...informer. This is curious as it resembles the form and content of Sonnet 25 which: has a similar theme to this sonnet of the author dissociating himself from the indulgences of others who are in favour; also has a very definite structure in associating the letter f with those the author criticises, who are addressed in the quatrains, and not using the letter f atall in the couplet, where the author is solely referenced; also makes prominent use of the word for, like this one.
• The word and sound "or" is also preponderant in this sonnet apparently, via assonance, enforcing the contempt the author has for "bore" the canopy: "bore...honoring...Or...for...more short...or...form...For...forgoing...savor...poor...for...suborned informer"
  
  

• "Haven't I seen those that are held in favour or who are currently on form losing everything by going over the top?"
• Shakespeare draws distinction here between those who are satisfied with simple savour (such as himself) and those who instead spoil the simplicity of what should be enjoyed by compounding what is already sweet. This is strongly redolent of Albany's "Striving to better, oft we mar what's well" in King Lear and especially Salisbury's "Therefore to be possessed with double pomp, To guard a title that was rich before, To gild refinèd gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous excess" in King John.
• Pitiful thrivers is a powerful characterisation of those who bore the canopy and thrive on these events.
• "Pitiful thrivers in their gazing spent" correlates with the Holy Communion section of the Book of Common Prayer that includes: "Which thing ye shall do, if ye stand by as gazers and lookers on them that do communicate, and be no partakers of the same yourselves. For what can this be accounted else, than a further contempt and unkindness unto God". Here, Shakespeare is again found deifying his subject and expressing contempt for those that do not.
• The theme of time may be further alluded to by "hour" in favour and savour.
• The eternity/immortality linkage to 1 Timothy 6 continues via dwellers: "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto".
  
• The author has seen those he speaks of, who themselves are spent in their gazing.

• After the 2 questions posited in the first 2 quatrains, this quatrain answers forcibly with No, rejecting association with those so shallow as to indulge in the meaningless pomp of bearing the canopy. This rather echoes the line "But these particulars are not my measure" of Sonnet 91 where the author again draws distinction between what he and others value.
• This whole quatrain is one of repeated rejection of the sentiments of the first 2 quatrains: No...not...knows (phonetic of "no")...no.
• The author pledges obsequity to his subject, contrasting with the obsequity displayed by the pitiful thrivers.
• Mid-line prefix rhyme of obsequious and oblation.
• "And take thou my oblation" also correlates with the Holy Communion section of the Book of Common Prayer that includes: "O God our heavenly father, which of thy tender mercy didst give thine only son Jesus Christ, to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption, who made there (by his oblation once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world, and did institute, and in his holy Gospel command us to continue, a perpetual memory of that his precious death, until his coming again". This again deifies the subject and draws on the poet's desire to perpetuate the memory of the subject via his verse.
• The theme of time may be further alluded to via seconds.
• The author draws further distinction between the pitiful thrivers' ostentatious display with his own state of being poor but free.
• And again, contrasting the servile relationship between the pitiful thrivers and their subject to whom they pay too much rent, with the relationship the author has with his subject which is one of mutual render and one-to-one.

• Evidently, this sonnet is addressed with defiance to an individual in particular who apparently holds a position of authority and is surely one of the senior people associated with the Royal Procession: thou suborned informer!
• The target of the author's anger who bore the canopy has now morphed to being suborned.
• informer is italicised and capitalised in the Quarto, providing significance to whoever the informer was.
• Possible pun on soul, as in the author being sole and alone, contrasting with the seconds of Q3 whom the author does not identify himself with.
• The comparative of the previous mores resolve to the superlative of most.

This sonnet has striking correlation with Iago's opening statements in Othello, Act 1, Scene 1, in which he prepares with Roderigo to inform Brabanzio of Desdemona’s secret marriage to Othello:

Iago: "O sir, content you.
I follow him to serve my turn upon him.
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly followed. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time much like his master’s ass
For naught but provender, and when he’s old, cashiered.
Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
Who, trimmed in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,
And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
Do well thrive by ’em, and when they have lined their coats,
Do themselves homage. These fellows have some soul,
And such a one do I profess myself—for, sir,
It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
Were I the Moor I would not be Iago.
In following him I follow but myself.
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so for my peculiar end.
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, ’tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at. I am not what I am."

This sonnet is also reminiscent of the sentiments expressed in a part of The Funeral Elegy written in 1612 and attributed to Shakespeare:

Blood, pomp, state, honor, glory and command,
Without fit ornaments of disposition,
Are in themselves but heathenish and profaned,
And much more peaceful is a mean condition
Which, underneath the roof of safe content,
Feeds on the bread of rest, and takes delight
To look upon the labours it hath spent
For its own sustenance, both day and night;
Whiles others, plotting which way to be great,
How to augment their portion and ambition,
Do toil their giddy brains, and ever sweat
For popular applause and power's commission.
But one in honors, like a seeled dove
Whose inward eyes are dimm'd with dignity,
Does think most safety doth remain above,
And seeks to be secure by mounting high:
Whence, when he falls, who did erewhile aspire,
Falls deeper down, for that he climbed higher.
Now men who in a lower region live
Exempt from danger of authority
Have fittest times in Reason's rules to thrive,
Not vex'd with envy of priority,
And those are much more noble in the mind
Than many that have nobleness by kind.
Birth, blood, and ancestors, are none of ours,
Nor can we make a proper challenge to them,
But virtues and perfections in our powers
Proceed most truly from us, if we do them.
Respective titles or a gracious style,
With all what men in eminence possess,
Are, without ornaments to praise them, vile:
The beauty of the mind is nobleness.
And such as have that beauty, well deserve
Eternal characters, that after death
Remembrance of their worth we may preserve,
So that their glory die not with their breath.
Else what avails it in a goodly strife
Upon this face of earth here to contend,
The good t'exceed the wicked in their life,
Should both be like obscured in their end?
Until which end, there is none rightly can
Be termed happy, since the happiness
Depends upon the goodness of the man,
Which afterwards his praises will express.