Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned.
Yet he goes on in the old strain of love and praise, though
What's new to speak, what new to register?
In CX-CXI he perhaps laments his own profession as a player; perhaps he refers to changes in his affections. Taking the whole of this and the preceding sonnet together, the second seems the more natural interpretation. In Sonnet CXI, Fortune is blamed
That did not better for my life provide
Than public means which public manners breeds,
Thence comes it that my name receives a brand.
The name of actor was, indeed, branded as no better than that of vagabond, while the play-writers constantly called the players "apes," and "mimics". Here Shakespeare does seem to speak of his profession:—
I have gone here and there
And made myself a motley to the view.
With CXXVII begin Sonnets addressed to a woman, a dark lady, but (CXXX) not very beautiful.
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun.
This may be a mere criticism of the absurd hyperboles of admiration by contemporary sonneteers. In CXXXIII the poet seems to upbraid the lady for taking his friend from him, and through three sonnets this plaint is poured out with obscure puns on "will" and "Will," his name, and—some think—his friend's name. The poet is (CXLIV) placed between "two spirits that suggest me still", One good, is a man; one evil, a woman.