V explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Love and Loss

  Lorenzo's determination to confess his love is driven by Isabella's visible suffering from unspoken affection.

• Sorrow and Melancholy

  Isabella's sickly appearance and the metaphor of a young mother's thinness evoke deep melancholy.

Characters to notice

• Isabel

  Isabella's cheek grows pale and thin, like a young mother's, indicating her lovesickness.

• Lorenzo

  Lorenzo observes Isabella's illness and decides to speak his love plainly to comfort her.

Key passages

• “Until sweet Isabella’s untouch’d cheek Fell sick within the rose’s just domain, Fell thin as a young mother’s, who doth seek By every lull to cool her infant’s pain”

  Isabella's once-healthy cheek became pale and thin, like a new mother who tries to soothe her baby's pain.

  Describes Isabella's physical decline due to lovesickness.

• “How ill she is! said he, I may not speak, And yet I will, and tell my love all plain: If looks speak love-laws, I will drink her tears, And at the least ’twill startle off her cares.”

  Lorenzo thinks about how sick she looks and decides he must confess his love directly, hoping it will relieve her worries.

  Lorenzo resolves to openly declare his love to Isabella.