1. dear love: intense feeling of love.   but: merely.   child of state: child of rank or power; child of circumstance (which is constantly changing).

2. for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd: i.e., to have no parent but Fortune, consequently to be solely under Fortune's control.

4. Weeds . . . gather'd: worthless or precious, as chance dictates.

5. accident: effects of chance events.

6. suffers: alters.

7. the blow of thralled discontent: the blows of Fortune which make one a slave to discontent.

8. Whereto . . . calls: to which (both "smiling pomp" and, in turn "thralled discontent") the present time summons us to accommodate our condition.

9. policy, that heretic: prudent or expedient conduct or action; i.e., the sort of prudence that has no true faith; material self-interest.

10. works on leases of short-number'd hours: i.e., operates with a view to immediate gains.

11. hugely politic: i.e., prudent in the largest sense, since not vulnerable to chance.

12. heat: sunshine; good fortune.

13. fools: victims; playthings.