Shakespeare's 'Sonnet 69.' (poem by dramatist William Shakespeare)

The following lines occur in this form in the 1609 Quarto of Shakespeare's Sonnet 69:

Then churls their thoughts (although their eies were kind) To try faire flower ad the rancke smell of weeds,

(lines 11-12)

These lines have caused difficulty to the editors. In the past the standard way of handling this problem was by putting commas round the churls of line 11, though some preferred to put the commas round their thoughts. The first solution was justified in this way by Booth: 'The commas [i.e. round churls] are not in Q; they are required to provide a subject for add, the verb in line 12. Some editors prefer to put the commas around their thoughts, thus making it apposite to churls, and making churls the subject of add instead of an abusive epithet for "them", the public.'(1) However, this explanation is not very clear. Presumably it means that their thoughts is the subject of add, for it is not normal to have the subject set within commas. If that is the case, it makes it difficult to …