The poet blames Fortune for compelling him into these degrading circumstances, asking the beloved to use their superior fortune and authority to 'chide' Fortune on the poet's behalf.
To scold or rebuke. The poet asks the beloved to scold Fortune on his behalf, appealing to a power that can correct cosmic injustice.
By invoking Fortune, the poet introduces a philosophical framework: he is not a freely choosing agent but a victim of circumstance. Fortune is the Renaissance concept of blind fate, indifferent to merit or virtue. The poet argues his degradation stems from poverty and economic circumstance, not from moral failure. Yet this claim sits uneasily with earlier sonnets' emphasis on the poet's choice and personal agency. The introduction of Fortune reframes the entire sequence as partly a document of material precarity.
The poet asks the beloved to 'with Fortune chide,' positioning them as a corrective force capable of challenging cosmic injustice. The beloved's 'pity' and 'love' are invoked as superior to Fortune's blind, mechanical pressure. This suggests a hierarchy: Fortune operates mechanically on all people, but the beloved operates through conscious grace and choice. The beloved alone has the power to intervene where law and economics cannot. Love becomes the only force capable of redeeming the poet from Fortune's cruelty.
Someone in poverty asking their wealthy partner to help them, framing poverty as a systemic unfairness rather than personal failure—asking for both material aid and validation that the situation is unjust, not the person's fault.