DOCSLIB.ORG

SHAKE-SPEARE the Mystery

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
SHAKE-SPEARE the Mystery Author suggests Queen Elizabeth may he author of Sliak, -pearean plays. Did actor William Shakespeare merely act greatest role for his Qocen'? SHAKE-SPEARE the Mystery A distinguished O .U. alumnus has written a book revealing a scientist's efforts to discover true authorship of plays attributed to Shakespeare . Following account, Chapter 7 of book, reveals his answer. The spelling "Shake-speare" has been adopted by author from original spelling in First Sonnet Folio and other works. By GEOIZGE ELLIOTT SWEET, '27chem, '291ns "I've reared a monument, my own, the foreground of his thought derived from contemporary poets had relatively little More durable than brass, his fellow University Wits ; his classic back- influence on Shake-speare's sonnets, which Yea, kingly pyramids of stone ground was the broadest possible including argues that he was one of the first Eliza- In height it doth surpass. derivations from Sophocles, Euripides, bethans in the sonnet field. Since the Rain shall not sap, nor driving blast Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Darius Phrygius, sonnet fashion reached its peak in the Disturb its settled base, Ovid, Horace, Virgil, Lucretius, Statius, 1590's, it is natural to assume that Shake- Nor countless ages rolling past Catullus, Seneca, Terence, and Plautus . The speare wrote his sonnets before the 1590's . Its symmetry deface. inspiration for his sonnets came principally Therefore, we have an independent indi- I shall not wholly die, some part from Ovid's Metamorphosis, various poetry cation that Mr. Hotson's date of compost- Nor that a little, shall of Horace, and from Chaucer's Roman de tion is correct . Escape the dark destroyer's dart la Rose . As Francis Meres has indicated, ManV interpretations can be put upon And his grim festival ." Shake-speare as a poet was closer to Ovid the sonnets. Some critics view them as al- Ode Epilogue of Horace than to any other writer. A comparison of legorical, some think that they are more Shake-speare's time sonnets with the F,lpi- dramatic than personal, others that they l1AKE-SPEARE did not strive for origin- logue to the Odes of Horace, quoted above, might have been written merely as exer- ality in his sonnets any more than he will show the similarity of thought and ex- cises in the art of composition in the son- did in his plays. In the dramas his style and pression between the two poets. Apparently, net form . All of these various elements SEPTEMBER, 1956 PACE. 9 probably play a part. We will never know search arrived at the conclusion that the Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth ;" just how personal or just how artificial the main body of the sonnets was addressed to a Sonnet48 sonnets are. Since the poet is of necessity a man. Edmund Malone established this hy- "But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are," central figure in a sonnet as he is not in a pothesis as the correct theory and his views and play, the literary detective, while he knows have prevailed down to the present. Ma- "Within the gentle closure of my breast," he is on shaky ground because of the lati- lone was a thorough and competent re- Sonnet 62 "But when my glass shows me myself tude allowed by poetic license, nevertheless search worker on Shake-speare . He it was indeed, is so starved for clues he is bound to specu- who discovered the poaching story of Bated and chopp'd with tann'd antiquity" late on the possible revelations as to the William Shakspere's youth had to be false and poet's character, physical attributes, and because Sir Thomas Lucy did not have a "Painting my age with beauty of thy days" Sonnet 63 identity contained in the sonnets . The lit- deer park until much later. Malone also ex- "Against my love shall be, as I am now erary detective hopes that the sonnets are posed a number of Shakespearean forgeries. With Time's injurious hand crush'd and as personal as E. K. Chambers thinks they o'erworn ;" are by his, "Here are souls that pulse and Sonnet 72 OMEWHERE OR SOMEHOW there appears "My name be buried where my body is" words that burn." to be a misplaced gender about the son- Sonnet 73 The first 126 sonnets are written in ad- "That time of year netsS . Barrett Wendell recoiled at the idea thou may'st in me behold miration of the physical, When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do mental and spirit- of myriad-minded Shake-speare sincerely ual beauty of a "lovely boy." The next hand prostrating himself before a boy patron; Upon those boughs which shake against the twenty-six are principally devoted to con- then reminded himself of Elizabeth Bar- cold, demning the infamous "dark lady" as a rett Browning's Sonnets from the Portu- Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds wanton with sang. a soul as dark as her com- guese; she was six years older than her plexion. The narrative of the "lovely boy" In me thou seest the twilight of such day "lovely boy," Robert Browning. As after sunset fadeth in the west ;" and the narrative of the "dark lady" taken The picture of the "lovely boy" as gen- Sonnet 76 together strike a most discordant note. The erated by expressions in the sonnets is very "Why write I still all one, ever the same, sixteenth century was still the age of chiv- And keep invention in a noted weed, flattering . He is "the world's fine orna- alry. The story of King Arthur and his That every word cloth almost tell my name, ment," a "beauteous and lovely youth." He Showing their birth Knights of the Round Table and where they did continued to is in his late teens or early twenties, "And proceed?" be the most popular story in England. No thou present'st a pure, unstained prime." Sonnet 89 small percentage of the populace took the "Speak of my lameness, and I straight will He has red or auburn hair, "And buds of story to be history and actually awaited halt," marjoram had stol'n thy hair," The boy is Sonnet 94 King Arthur to return as he had promised. as fair in disposition and mental ability as "They that have power to hurt and will do The Tudors claimed to be descended from he is fair of face, "Fair, kind and true, is all none, Arthur through Owen Tudor, grandfather That do not do the thing they most do show, my argument"; also "Thou art as fair in of Henry VII. Serious writers suggested Who, moving others are themselves as stone, knowledge as in hue." The beautiful youth Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow ; that Queen Elizabeth was the embodiment has a beautiful mother and we have a hint They rightly do inherit heaven's graces, King Arthur and that the Elizabethan of that Shake-speare has known her in her And husband nature's riches from expense ;" Golden Age Age was the of the return of lovely girlhood : Arthur. A poet was expected to sing the The ideas expressed by Sonnets 72, 76, praises of some beautiful lady and by the "Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee and 94 might be guideposts and then again, same token, I suppose, a poetess would be Calls back the lovely April of her prime" ; they might not be. Perhaps Sonnets 72 and expected to dwell on the admirable quali- 76 are hints as to Shake-speare's identity . What is meant by the seventh line of Son- ties of some beautiful boy or beautiful man. Perhaps Sonnet 94 is autobiographical . net 20 : "A man in hue all hues in his con- But here we have a poet singing a boy's From Sonnets 37 and 89 we gain the im- trolling"? Gerald Massey suggests that it praises and throwing mud on his lady. This pression that Shake-speare is lame or has might refer to Robert Devereux, Earl of is certainly a maladjustment. T. G. Tucker been lame some time in the past. There Essex, who had for one of his titles, . decries the lack of "decent taste and ordi- Ewe should be no doubt that the four age son- Herman Conrad for a number of reasons nary chivalry" in most of the "dark lady" nets, 22, 62, 63, and 73 mean what they say selected the Earl of Essex as the "lovely sonnets. in the absence of any contradictory evidence boy." In the Encyclopedia Britannica, K. In 1640 John Benson edited and pub- E. in the rest of the sonnets. Another age son- Chambers mentions this choice of Essex, lished a medley of Shake-speare's sonnets in net, number 138, has not been quoted be- disagrees with the idea, but praises Con- which in some cases he altered the sex of cause it is a member of the "dark lady" rad's work in general. Essex had auburn the addressee by switching the pronouns. sonnets in which we believe Shake-speare is hair. He was born on November 19, 1566, Through the influence of Benson and oth- speaking with another's voice and gazing and would have been twenty in April, 1587, ers, the view was generally adopted that with another's eyes. The age sonnets plain- which would fit the time requirements per- the main body of the sonnets was addressed ly relate that in 1587 Shake-speare was fectly. to a woman. Samuel Coleridge took the middle-aged, perhaps forty or fifty.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Light on the Sonnets
    LIGHT ON THE SONNETS By Michael Brame and Galina Popova At the Second International Congress of Mathematicians that convened in Paris in 1900, the great Goettingen mathematician David Hilbert marked the century’s turn with his famous list of twenty-three unsolved problems. His thesis was as simple then as it is apposite today, that mathematics grows and advances through its attention to and subsequent resolution of unsolved problems. Literary criticism is no different, or if it is, it should not be so, for literary problems constitute its very lifeblood, its raison d'être.1 Viewing literary criticism as motivated by its problems brings out the similarity between it and the empirical sciences, while the history of science amply illustrates that puzzles are often solved as a consequence of embracing a powerful new idea motivating a fresh perspective. The old guard is expected to resist such ideas; they may rant and rave and even seek to vilify the new ideas and their authors, very much as we witness today in connection with the Shakespeare authorship debate. Truly, science advances death by death, and the same may be true of literary criticism. When one encounters a range of problems that cannot be resolved within orthodoxy, a crisis is inevitable. When a new theory or framework is advanced whose effect is to resolve such puzzles by showing that they follow naturally from a bold new hypothesis, real progress ensues and the crisis eventually abates. To illustrate, we will briefly look at three simple puzzles drawn from Shakespeare’s sonnets, beginning with Edward George Harman’s observation made sometime prior to 1925: There are many things about the Sonnets which seem quite irreconcilable with their authorship by an actor of humble origin.
    [Show full text]
  • Teaching Petrarchan and Anti-Petrarchan Discourses in Early Modern English Lyrics
    www.sciedu.ca/ijhe International Journal of Higher Education Vol. 1, No. 1; May 2012 Teaching Petrarchan and Anti-Petrarchan Discourses in Early Modern English Lyrics Purificación Ribes University of Valencia, Facultad de Filología, Traducción y Comunicación Dpto. Filología Inglesa y Alemana Avda. Blasco Ibáñez, 32, 46010 Valencia, Spain Tel: 34-963-983-004 E-mail: [email protected] Received: December 21, 2011 Accepted: January 9, 2012 Published: May 15, 2012 doi:10.5430/ijhe.v1n1p62 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v1n1p62 Abstract The aim of the present article is to help students realize that Petrarchism has been an influential source of inspiration for Early Modern English lyrics. Its topics and conventions have lent themselves to a wide variety of appropriations which the present selection of texts for analysis tries to illustrate. A few telling examples from Spenser, Sidney, Donne and Marvell have been chosen where the topic of the lady cast as a valuable treasure is variously addressed. Whereas Spenser’s Sonnet 15 of his Amoretti conveys the lover’s confident hope of its possession in a near marriage, Sidney’s Sonnet 37 of Astrophil and Stella portrays his frustration at the idea of being robbed of his cherished jewel by a less worthy rival. Donne’s The Sun Rising extends the image of the valuable treasure to include the lyric I, while removing the traditional Petrarchan opposition between charitas and eros, whereas Marvell’s To his Coy Mistress inscribes his parody of the Petrarchan topic of the lady as unattainable jewel within the carpe diem tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • Sonnets and Epigrams, for Voice and Lute
    Sonnets and Epigrams for voice and lute David Protheroe THE LUTE SOCIETY MUSIC EDITIONS Sonnets and Epigrams for voice and lute by David Protheroe ⒸDavid Protheroe 2019 Typeset by the composer, printed and published by The Lute Society 2019 The Lute Society Southside Cottage Brook Hill, Albury Guildford GU5 9DJ Tel: (+44/)/(0)1483 202159 email: [email protected] website: www.lutesociety.org iii Contents Introduction iv 1. Her golden tresses Edmund Spenser Amoretti: Sonnet 37 2 2. Her name upon the strand Edmund Spenser Amoretti: Sonnet 75. To his future wife Elizabeth Boyle 4 3. The rolling wheel Edmund Spenser Amoretti: Sonnet 18 6 4. False compare Shakespeare Sonnet 130 8 5. Orpheus with his lute Shakespeare Henry VIII Act 3 Scene 1 10 6. Variation Joshua Sylvester 12 7. Epigram: Silus Henry Porter from The Mousetrap (1606) 16 8. Epigram: of Orpheus Edward Guilpin from Skialethia (1598) 17 9. Sevens, or 2,802? Traditional A Dialogue 18 10. Of Cupid Joanna Tyldesley (2016) 20 iv Introduction There is something magical aout the sound of a plucked lute accompanying a voice. The hundreds of lute ayres published by Dowland and others are of course inimitable. I was prompted to compose "Of Orpheus" for a lute song course when Jacob Heringman invited us to bring lute songs of all periods including modern. I also transcribed a favourite Quilter piano song for lute. These suggested to me that the sound world of the lute song would be an apt way to express my own responses to Elizabethan poetry. The poems "Amoretti" is a cycle of 88 sonnets written by Edmund Spenser in 1595, addressed to his future wife Elizabeth Boyle.
    [Show full text]
  • Sir Philip Sidney and Lady Mary Wroth
    Sir Phillip Sidney and Lady Mary Wroth: Navigating the Labyrinth of Love Astrophil and Stella • Based on Sidney’s love for his cousin Penelope Devereaux • Begun approx. 1576 during his courtship of Penelope • Match broken off Astrophil and Stella continued. • She was married (against her will) to Sir Robert Rich in 1581 • Her forced (and subsequently unhappy) marriage only intensified his love for her, although he married Francis Walsinham in 1853 (two years after Penelope’s marriage to Rich) • Published after Sidney’s death in 1591 • Consists of 108 sonnets and 11 songs • Circulated in manuscript in court circles • Astrophil means “Star-lover” • Stella means “Star” A&S: Sonnet #1 Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That the dear She might take some pleasure of my pain, Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain, I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe, Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain, Oft turning others’ leaves, to see if thence would flow Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburned brain. But words came halting forth, wanting Invention’s stay; Invention, Nature’s child, fled step-dame Study’s blows, And others’ feet still seemed but strangers in my way. Thus great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes, Biting my treward pen, beating myself for spite, “Fool,” said my Muse to me, “look in thy heart and write.” A & S: Sonnet #2 Not at first sight, nor with a dribbèd shot Love gave the wound, which while I breathe will bleed, But known worth did in mine of time proceed, Till by degrees it had full conquest got.
    [Show full text]
  • The Tragic Vision in the Fair Youth Group in Shakespeare's Sonnets
    ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 4, No. 5, pp. 941-948, May 2014 © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/tpls.4.5.941-948 The Tragic Vision in the Fair Youth Group in Shakespeare’s Sonnets Fenghua Ma School of Foreign Languages, Jiangsu University, 212013, Zhenjiang, China Abstract—The present paper explores the tragic vision reflected in the poet’s relationship with the fair young man in the Fair Youth group in Shakespeare’s Sonnets. It investigates into the cult of friendship in the Renaissance, and further analyzes Shakespeare’s attitude towards the true friendship. On the basis of the poet’s artistic criteria and his purpose of living, it also examines the causes of the poet’s change in his attitudes, namely, from confidence to melancholy, if not despair. Index Terms—tragic vision, friendship, Fair Youth, Shakespeare’s Sonnets I. INTRODUCTION Although William Shakespeare dedicated his genius chiefly to the stage, he ranks with the foremost English poets of his age for his narrative and lyric verse. In the year of 1609, when a quarto containing 154 poems, entitled Shakespeare’s Sonnets, was issued by Thomas Thorpe, a publisher, perhaps without authorization from the poet, nobody could imagine that this little volume would arouse so much attention from both readers and scholars. Let there be furious debate on identity, date, and order concerning these sonnets, critics tend to agree that “the direction of address of these poems can be established with certainty: the first 126 sonnets refer to and are generally addressed to the Fair Friend, while the succeeding ones concern the Dark Lady” (Dubrow, 1998, p.238).
    [Show full text]
  • Oxford by the Numbers: What Are the Odds That the Earl of Oxford Could Have Written Shakespeare’S Poems and Plays?
    OXFORD BY THE NUMBERS: WHAT ARE THE ODDS THAT THE EARL OF OXFORD COULD HAVE WRITTEN SHAKESPEARE’S POEMS AND PLAYS? WARD E.Y. ELLIOTT AND ROBERT J. VALENZA* Alan Nelson and Steven May, the two leading Oxford documents scholars in the world, have shown that, although many documents connect William Shakspere of Stratford to Shakespeare’s poems and plays, no documents make a similar connection for Oxford. The documents, they say, support Shakespeare, not Oxford. Our internal- evidence stylometric tests provide no support for Oxford. In terms of quantifiable stylistic attributes, Oxford’s verse and Shakespeare’s verse are light years apart. The odds that either could have written the other’s work are much lower than the odds of getting hit by lightning. Several of Shakespeare’s stylistic habits did change during his writing lifetime and continued to change years after Oxford’s death. Oxfordian efforts to fix this problem by conjecturally re-dating the plays twelve years earlier have not helped his case. The re-datings are likewise ill- documented or undocumented, and even if they were substantiated, they would only make Oxford’s stylistic mismatches with early Shakespeare more glaring. Some Oxfordians now concede that Oxford differs from Shakespeare but argue that the differences are developmental, like those between a caterpillar and a butterfly. This argument is neither documented nor plausible. It asks us to believe, without supporting evidence, that at age forty-three, Oxford abruptly changed seven to nine of his previously constant writing habits to match those of Shakespeare and then froze all but four habits again into Shakespeare’s likeness for the rest of his writing days.
    [Show full text]
  • Shakespeare's Sonnets the Complete Guide
    Shakespeare's Sonnets The Complete Guide PDF generated using the open source mwlib toolkit. See http://code.pediapress.com/ for more information. PDF generated at: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:37:45 UTC Contents Articles Shakespeare's sonnets 1 Introduction 9 Petrarch's and Shakespeare's Sonnets 9 Dedication and Characters 15 Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton 15 Sexuality of William Shakespeare 21 Emilia Lanier 25 Mary Fitton 31 Rival Poet 33 The Sonnets 35 Procreation sonnets 35 Sonnet 1 35 Sonnet 2 37 Sonnet 3 38 Sonnet 4 39 Sonnet 5 41 Sonnet 6 42 Sonnet 7 43 Sonnet 8 47 Sonnet 9 48 Sonnet 10 50 Sonnet 11 51 Sonnet 12 52 Sonnet 13 54 Sonnet 14 55 Sonnet 15 57 Sonnet 16 58 Sonnet 17 60 Sonnet 18 62 Sonnet 19 65 Sonnet 20 67 Sonnet 21 70 Sonnet 22 72 Sonnet 23 74 Sonnet 24 76 Sonnet 25 78 Sonnet 26 80 Sonnet 27 82 Sonnet 28 83 Sonnet 29 84 Sonnet 30 89 Sonnet 31 92 Sonnet 32 93 Sonnet 33 94 Sonnet 34 96 Sonnet 35 98 Sonnet 36 102 Sonnet 37 106 Sonnet 38 107 Sonnet 39 108 Sonnet 40 109 Sonnet 41 111 Sonnet 42 112 Sonnet 43 114 Sonnet 44 116 Sonnet 45 117 Sonnet 46 118 Sonnet 47 121 Sonnet 48 122 Sonnet 49 123 Sonnet 50 124 Sonnet 51 125 Sonnet 52 126 Sonnet 53 127 Sonnet 54 130 Sonnet 55 134 Sonnet 56 136 Sonnet 57 137 Sonnet 58 138 Sonnet 59 140 Sonnet 60 146 Sonnet 61 150 Sonnet 62 151 Sonnet 63 153 Sonnet 64 154 Sonnet 65 159 Sonnet 66 162 Sonnet 67 163 Sonnet 68 164 Sonnet 69 165 Sonnet 70 166 Sonnet 71 167 Sonnet 72 168 Sonnet 73 169 Sonnet 74 173 Sonnet 75 174 Sonnet 76 175 Sonnet 77 176 Sonnet 78 177 Sonnet 79 178 Sonnet 80 179
    [Show full text]
  • The Moral Use of Platonic Conventions and Patterns of Imagery in Sidney's Astrophil and Stella
    INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • Kenneth J. Larsen Essays on Shakespeare's Sonnets
    Larsen: Essays on Shakespeare’s Sonnets 1 Kenneth J. Larsen Essays on Shakespeare’s Sonnets Larsen: Essays on Shakespeare’s Sonnets 2 In memory of another “MR. W. H.,” my “onlie begetter.” Larsen: Essays on Shakespeare’s Sonnets 3 Introduction Shake-speares Sonnets was entered in the Stationers’ Register on Saturday 20 May 1609; the record reads, 20 Maij Thomas Thorpe. Entred for his copie vnder thandes of master Wilson and master Lownes Warden a Booke called Shakespeares sonnettes vjd. The cost of sixpence would have been normal. The volume’s frontispiece bears the date, 1609, and the place, London, and declares forthrightly, “Neuer before Imprinted.” It was printed by George Eld for “T. T.,” evidently the publisher Thomas Thorpe. The volume appeared with two-title pages, one with the imprint of the book-seller, John Wright, and one with that of another, William Aspley. The subsequent dedicatory page is signed, “T. T.,” again Thomas Thorpe. The dedication is solecistic, a trait of Thorpe’s writing, and is addressed to “MR. W. H.,” whose identity has been the subject of debate and acrimony from Ben Jonson onwards. The publication of Shakespeare’s sonnet sequence came late in the piece: by 1609 the vogue of sequences which had flourished in the 1590s and early 1600s in the wake of Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella sequence had passed. Yet some of Shakespeare’s sonnets were written before 1599, because Francis Meres, when pairing a range of accomplished English writers with Latin precursors in 1598, coupled Shakespeare with Ovid and alluded to “his sugred Sonnets among his priuate friends:” As the soule of Euphorbus was thought to liue in Pythagoras: so the sweete wittie soule of Ouid liues in mellifluous & hony-tongued Shakespeare, witnes his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred Sonnets among his priuate friends, &c.
    [Show full text]
  • Shakespeare's Sonnets: a Critical Study
    ================================================================== Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 Vol. 19:12 December 2019 ================================================================ Shakespeare’s Sonnets: A Critical Study Appalal Abdulgaffar Attar (Ph.D.) Lecturer College of Sciences and Arts, Almethnab Qassim University, Saudi Arabia [email protected] ================================================================== Abstract William Shakespeare needs no introduction to the scholars of English generally, and poetry especially. As a sonnet writer, he penned 154 sonnets which became extremely popular among the readers of all the ages throughout the world His sonnets are measured a continuation of the sonnet tradition that swept through the Renaissance from Petrarch in 14th-century Italy and was finally introduced in 16th- century England by Thomas Wyatt and was given its rhyming meter and division into quatrains by Henry Howard. With few exceptions, Shakespeare’s sonnets observe the stylistic sort of English sonnet—the rhyme scheme, the 14 lines, and therefore the meter. But Shakespeare’s sonnets introduce such significant departures of content that they appear to be rebelling against well-worn 200-year-old traditions.[2] Instead of expressing worshipful love for an almost goddess-like yet unobtainable female love- object, as Petrarch, Dante, and Philip Sidney had done, Shakespeare introduces a young man. He also introduces the Dark Lady, who is not any goddess. Shakespeare explores themes like lust, homoeroticism, misogyny, infidelity, and acrimony in ways in which may challenge, but which also open new terrain for the sonnet form. Shakespeare's Sonnets are some of the most fascinating and influential poems written in English. Keywords: Shakespearean sonnets, Italian model, Theme of love, compensation and separation, Wyatt and Surrey’s style, Youth-hood.
    [Show full text]
  • A Psychiatrist's View of the Sonnets
    A Psychiatrist’s View of Shakespeare’s Sonnets by Eliot Slater Editor’s Note: In 1969 Eliot Slater published a substantial article on the Shakespeare Authorship Question in the journal of psychiatry Anais Portugueses de Psiquiatria. The first half of the article is available on the website http://eliotslater.org. The second half of the article, in which Slater focuses on the Sonnets and in particular what he – as an eminent psychiatrist – sees in them, has never been reprinted. The text below picks up where Slater is summarizing the reasons why he finds the Stratfordian position unconvinc- ing. [ . ] he Stratfordian case has persisted largely by default, just because it is so generally adhered to. It has not been my purpose to prove that William of TStratford did not write the works of Shakespeare but merely to show that it is possible that he did not – that there are rational grounds for doubt – and above all, that in view of the arguments that can be raised on both sides, the only appro- priate attitude is an open-minded one. If we wish, as we should, to make a scientific approach to the range of problems with which Shakespeare and his works confront us, we must not assume a certainty of the authorship as our basic premise. This is a question that has to be solved by research, not first answered by an act of faith and then used as an axiom to guide or to misguide. In scientific work, hypotheses are valued according to their heuristic potentialities. The Stratfordian hypothesis has been very fully exploited; it has led to solutions of some questions of a varying degree of satisfactoriness, and it has proved incapable of providing any acceptable solution of some other questions.
    [Show full text]
  • Courtly Love and Companionate Marriage in the Poetry of Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser
    Quidditas Volume 32 Article 10 2011 “Mutual Comfort”: Courtly Love and Companionate Marriage in the Poetry of Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser Amanda Taylor University of Minnesota Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rmmra Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, History Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Renaissance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Taylor, Amanda (2011) "“Mutual Comfort”: Courtly Love and Companionate Marriage in the Poetry of Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser," Quidditas: Vol. 32 , Article 10. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rmmra/vol32/iss1/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Quidditas by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Quidditas 172 “Mutual Comfort”: Courtly Love and Companionate Marriage in the Poetry of Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser Amanda Taylor University of Minnesota The interaction between courtly love poetry and the development of companion- ate marriage has received little critical attention. Rather, critics of courtly love poetry focus on authorial ambition and self-presentation. This paper explores how the revision of the courtly love genre in the poetry of Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser participated within the societal transformation toward com- panionate marriage. The individualized female characters in their poetry shatter courtly stereotypes, but the relationship options presented either fragment the sequence, as in Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella, or enable it to drive forward to completion, as in Spenser’s Amoretti and Epithalamion.
    [Show full text]