# The answer is a two-digit number (again)

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth.
Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell,
Will play the tyrants to the very same
That thou among the wastes of time must go.
The point must come soon after when thou viewest,
When squareth it that debt all owe the hour,
And then thine sharpened figure shall be rounded.

Every line is important.

• 42. The two digit number has to be 42. – Aify Mar 27 '15 at 21:05
• @histocrat: How much middle English do you know? :P – Joe Z. Mar 27 '15 at 21:41
• I was going to say "I love the writing style", but since most of the lines are from Shakespeare and the remaining ones aren't really correct Shakespearian English, I can't really credit you for that! ;-) +1 anyway for a good puzzle. – Rand al'Thor Mar 27 '15 at 22:40

As other answerers have pointed out, the first six lines are from Shakespeare's sonnets, numbered 3, 60, 5, 5, 5, and 12. However, I believe that they have been misinterpreting the mathematics.

The point must come soon after when thou viewest,

A decimal point must be placed somewhere near the start of those numbers. With this information alone we can't do anything yet, but supposedly it implies that those numbers must be strung together to create 36055512, and then a decimal point inserted somewhere.

When squareth it that debt all owe the hour,

Then the number obtained by placing that decimal point must be squared, and then the difference from 60 taken of the result. If we square 3.6055512, the result is 12.99999945582144. The difference from this number and 60 is 47.00000054417856.

And then thine sharpened figure shall be rounded.

This simply means "round your result to the nearest integer". This gives us a result of 47.

• It's either that, or the "debt all owe the hour" part is irrelevant and the answer is just 13. – Joe Z. Mar 27 '15 at 23:29
• 13 was the intended interpretation, but I like 47. Great job! – histocrat Mar 29 '15 at 18:22
• I'll edit my answer, then. I guess the "debt" part really was irrelevant. – Joe Z. Mar 29 '15 at 18:31

10

The first 6 lines are from Shakespeare's sonnets:
Sonnet 3
Sonnet 60
Sonnet 05
Sonnet 05
Sonnet 05
Sonnet 12

Sonnet 05 occurs thrice, $3\times5=15$. All those numbers are divisors of 60. The 2-digits missing divisors of 60 are 10,18,20,30.

Those hours, that with gentle work did frame

It suggests that we're talking about hours, so let's exclude 30.

The point must come soon after when thou viewest

It may be a reference to decimal system (based on the number 10), where point means dot or comma.

And thine sharpened figure shall be rounded.

In the number 10 the digit 1 looks "sharp" and shall be rounded.

• On the right track, for sure. Not quite the answer I intended. – histocrat Mar 27 '15 at 19:14

Ok, Just a guess

The first 6 lines are from ShakeSpears Sonnets

Sonnet 3, Sonnet 60, etc

Now from the 7th line, The point must come soon after when thou viewest,

It is indicated by the poem that the actual point of the poem comes right after the first line, which is 2nd line.

Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth.

The 2nd line is from Sonnet 60. 60 min is in one hour

When squareth it that debt all owe the hour,

square(60) = 3600. 3600 seconds is in one hour as well.

Therefore, I think the answer is

60

2.

As leoll2 said, the first 6 lines are

from Shakespeare's sonnets, respectively:

Sonnet 3
Sonnet 60
Sonnet 5
Sonnet 5
Sonnet 5
Sonnet 12

Now the last 3 lines:

The point must come soon after when thou viewest,

The "when thou viewest" is a reference to the 1st line, so

Sonnet 3.

When squareth it that debt all owe the hour,

Square 3 to get 9. "Owe" sounds like "over" (as in division), and "hour" is a reference to line 3 (Sonnet 5). So we divide 9 by 5 to get 1.8.

And thine sharpened figure shall be rounded.

Round the number 1.8 to get 2.

• If histocrat wanted to say "over", the word "o'er" would be perfectly serviceable as a one-syllable version, I think. – Joe Z. Mar 28 '15 at 0:03
• @JoeZ. I only just noticed your answer! (had this one half-written on my screen for ages) +1, I think you've got it. – Rand al'Thor Mar 28 '15 at 0:08
• Thanks. :P (I'm pretty sure I've got it at least 90% right, anyway.) – Joe Z. Mar 28 '15 at 0:17