This sonnet has strong similarities to lines 70-76 of Hamlet's famous soliloquy beginning "To be or not to be."

1. all these: the following.

2. as: namely.   desert: i.e., those who have merit, as contrasted with "needy nothing" in the next line.

3. needy nothing: i.e. those with moral and mental emptiness.   jollity: finery.

4. unhappily forsworn: evilly betrayed.

8. limping sway: incompetent authority.

9. art: letters and learning.  authority: i.e.,political privilege; censorship.

10. doctor-like: pretending to wisdom.

11. simplicity: foolishness.

12. attending: following as subordinate.