All 5 Uses of
sovereign
in
All's Well That Ends Well, by Shakespeare
- Gracious sovereign
Scene 5.3 *sovereign = a nation's ruler or head of state
- There shall your master have a thousand loves, A mother, and a mistress, and a friend, A phoenix, captain, and an enemy, A guide, a goddess, and a sovereign, A counsellor, a traitress, and a dear: His humble ambition, proud humility, His jarring concord, and his discord dulcet, His faith, his sweet disaster; with a world Of pretty, fond, adoptious christendoms, That blinking Cupid gossips.†
Scene 1.1
- Fair maid, send forth thine eye: this youthful parcel Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing, O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice I have to use: thy frank election make; Thou hast power to choose, and they none to forsake.†
Scene 2.3
- My high-repented blames, Dear sovereign, pardon to me.†
Scene 5.3
- Gracious sovereign, Whether I have been to blame or no, I know not: Here's a petition from a Florentine, Who hath, for four or five removes, come short To tender it herself.†
Scene 5.3
Definitions:
-
(1)
(sovereign) of a person: a nation's ruler or head of state
of a political body: not controlled by outside forces -
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely, a sovereign is a British coin used until 1914.