CVII : 107 : It has been pointed out (Leslie Hotson, Mr W.H. page 272) that Psalm 107 has as its theme perils at sea:

They that go downe to the sea in shippes, and occupie by the great waters,
They se the workes of the Lord, and his wonders in the depe.
For he commandeth and raiseth the stormie winde, & it lifteth up the waves thereof.
They mounte up to heaven, & descend to the depe, so that their soule melteth for trouble.
They are tossed to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and all their cunning is gone.
Then they crye unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distress.
He turneth the storme to calme, so that the waves thereof are stil.
When they are quieted, they are glad, & he bringeth them unto the haven where they would be.
Let them (therefore) confesse before the Lord his loving kindenes, and his wonderful workes before the sons of men.

Moon : the mortal moon : the moon was considered mortal because it died (disappeared) every lunar month. There is also possibly an allusion here to Queen Elizabeth I, who was referenced in various ways in the poetry of the day as, for example, Diana (the Virgin Huntress associated with the Moon), though it has to be said that these references were usually laudatory and certainly did not point out the Queen's mortality, a subject about which she was very sensitive. Still, the fact that there is a parallel is clear, and as the sonnets do not appear to have been written for public consumption and, in the event, were not published till six years after the Queen's eventual death in 1603, hypersensitivity from the poet as to what the Queen might think about what he was possibly referencing was not necessary. Nor does the sonnet hold any of the base sycophantic motives of other laudatory poetry targeted at the Queen and her coffers. The poem is clearly not targeted at the Queen, but simply uses her and the lunar eclipse as points of reference, a sort of poetic geography, which serves to enrich the poem, placing it both historically and psychologically in the rich fabric of the poet's personal experience and the common experience of the time.

On the basis of this identification of the 'mortal moon' with Queen Elizabeth I, the sonnet has been dated at 1588, the year of the Spanish Armada, when the queen 'endured her eclipse' ie survived the threat of the Armada. 1588 also happens to be the year of a full lunar eclipse, and the year for which there had been prognostications of fateful, world shattering events, most particularly ascribed to the mathematician 'Regiomontanus' and described in a pamphlet 'concerning prophecies, how far they are to be valued or credited... devised especially in abatement of the terrible threatenings and menaces peremptorily denounced against the kingdoms and states of the world this present famous year 1588, supposed the Great-wonderful and Fatel Yeare of our Age' by Dr John Harvey. The whole thing was glossed later by Harvey's brother, Gabriel Harvey in his poem 'Gorgon' with the line 'The wonder was, no wonder fell that yeare', a sentiment that seems perfectly in accord with lines 5 and 6 of the present sonnet.

It has to be said, however, that lunar eclipses occurred and dire events were predicted at other times in the period during which it is possible that the sonnet was written.

The Moon has also been thought possibly to refer to the Armada itself, which approached England in the shape of a crescent moon, for tactical purposes. But in this case, it is difficult to see how the word 'mortal' applies, and the strange juxtaposition of associations involved (mortal / human / body : moon / armada / ships) seems a very unkind comment on the poet's ability.

The poem has also been dated to coincide with later lunar eclipses, but the strength of the overall association of 'mortal moon' with Queen Elizabeth I seems to preclude this, not to mention the clear association of 1588 with dire prognostications of doom in the mind of the people of the time, and, of course, the subsequent relief felt when these prognostications turned out to be untrue, strong emotional moments in the national psyche which seem to be memorialised in this quatrain.

The early date also seems to accord with the rather simple emotions expressed and the formality of that expression, which is entirely traditional: my poetry will immortalise you and is more lasting than monuments of brass. There is none of the complexity of often conflicting emotion found in the later sonnets which chronicle highly personal and specific events which form part of a tangle of emotional involvement, though perhaps it could be argued here that the poet has overcome these problems and now views things from a calmer perspective.

Endured : Perhaps most simply read as 'borne' with the implication of survival, which is, of course, also implicit in the concept of the waxing and waning of the moon, but  'endured' has also been interpreted as 'undergone' or 'suffered', ie meaning that the queen has in fact died. This reading makes a rather contradictory movement of thought between this clause and the next, where the predictions of the augurs are described as false. Had the Queen in fact died (suffered her eclipse), the predictions of the augurs surely could have been shown to have some substance precisely in predicting this calamitous event.

A case can, however, be made that the meaning of the couplet is that the Queen has died (endured her eclipse), an event which happened in 1603, and that those who predicted problems with the succession (the sad augurs) have been shown to be incorrect. The waxing and waning of the moon could be read as a beautiful symbol of the succession of monarchs: one monarch dies, but another monarch is born, except for the fact that the moon has such strong female connotations that the simile sits very uneasily on James I (the succeeding monarch).

The late date of 1605 does, however, accord well with lines 7 and 8, where incertainties 'crown' themselves assured, a neat reference to the coronation and succession of James I in 1603, perhaps, and 'peace proclaims olives of endless age' which readily fits with the peace concluded in the Treaty of London with Spain celebrated in August 1604.

Predictions of doom and lunar eclipses can also be associated with 1605.

Olives : the olive branch is, of course, a symbol of peace. The word 'olive' is also associated with 'Olivia' the name by which Queen Elizabeth was flattered in Shakespeare's play 'Twelth Night'.

Subscribes : death agrees with (subscribes to) what I am saying.

Insults : from Latin ‘insultare’ to dance over, trample on or mock. The ‘speechless tribes’ have no verses to immortalise themselves or their loves.