The high level of ambiguity in the third quatrain is thought to be deliberate and intended to derail a simple reading of a conventional sonnet with questions of who is being referred to. The confusion begins with the phrase "to please him", which at first glance may seem to refer to the fair youth — a young man who appreciates flattery. That idea is supported in the rival poets group, where the poet appears to resist the young man's insistence on being flattered. The poet feels that his position in the young man's favor has been overthrown by rival poets, who have succeeded only because they flatter, whereas the poet prefers to write "in true plain words" (Sonnet 82, line 12). The sorting out of the ambiguities, causes the reader to consider a possible interpretation of the fair youth as a flattery-craving tyrant.