Shakespeare Sonnet 127 “In the old age black was not counted fair”
Sonnet 127 “In the old age black was not counted fair” begins the “Dark Lady” series of the Shakespeare sonnets—the third thematic grouping. The speaker begins by railing against artificial beauty.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 127 “In the old age black was not counted fair”
Scholars and critics have created three thematic categories of the classic Shakespeare 154-sonnet sequence:
The Marriage Sonnets: 1-17
The Fair Youth Sonnets: 18-126
The Dark Lady Sonnets: 127-154
While the “Marriage Sonnets” deserve their label, as the speaker contrives to persuade a young handsome man to marry and produce beautiful offspring, the “Fair Youth Sonnets” remain problematic because there is no actual imagery of a “fair youth” or a “young man” in the poems. Sonnets 18-126, the bulk of the 154, actually reflect the speaker’s spiritual exploration and examination of his dedication to his creativity and writing talent.
The “dark lady” sonnet sequence begins with sonnet 127 and continues through to the final sonnet 154. These sonnets, while clearly containing imagery of an actual dark-haired, dark-skinned woman, may also be read as “dark mood” sonnets.
Sonnet 127 “In the old age black was not counted fair”
In the old age black was not counted fair
Or if it were, it bore not beauty’s name;
But now is black beauty’s successive heir,
And beauty slander’d with a bastard’s shame:
For since each hand hath put on Nature’s power,
Fairing the foul with Art’s false borrow’d face,
Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower,
But is profan’d, if not lives in disgrace.
Therefore my mistress’ brows are raven black,
Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem
At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack,
Sland’ring creation with a false esteem:
Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe,
That every tongue says beauty should look so.
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Commentary on Sonnet 127 “In the old age black was not counted fair”
The speaker begins his musings on his relationship with a woman, whom he will come to disdain, as he examines his own motives and urges. In fact, these poems remain the dark lot of the bunch of sonnets, and likely the designation “dark” refers to moods, attitudes, and personalities rather than skin tone.
First Quatrain: Standards in the Idealization of Women
In the old age black was not counted fair
Or if it were, it bore not beauty’s name;
But now is black beauty’s successive heir,
And beauty slander’d with a bastard’s shame:
The speaker begins sonnet 127 by claiming that in earlier times “black” was not appreciated as “fair.” The statement presents a paradox because “black” as a color is not fair or light; it is dark, and it would have been dark even “in the old age” or earlier times.
But upon reflection and awareness that the term “fair” also means pleasant, attractive, honest, or favorable, the reader understands that the speaker is referring to one or all of those qualities.
The speaker refers to the notion that light-skinned, blonde women were held in higher esteem than dark-skinned, raven-haired women. This fact, of course, simply reflects the part of the world where the speaker resides—in a zone where less sun would encourage less melanin production in human skin and hair.
The object of Petrarchan sonnets “Laura” is described as fair-haired—”The hair’s bright tresses, full of golden glows” in Petrarch sonnet VII— and some of the “dark lady” sonnets protest against the idealization of women found in these and earlier highly romanticized poems.
The speaker thus asserts that although black used to be denigrated, now it is “beauty’s successive heir.” But also “beauty [is] slandered with a bastard’s shame,” when cosmetics are employed to enhance any natural beauty.
Second Quatrain: True Beauty Must Come in an Honest Package
For since each hand hath put on Nature’s power,
Fairing the foul with Art’s false borrow’d face,
Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower,
But is profan’d, if not lives in disgrace.
The standard for “beauty” seems to have lost its naturalness, likely because of the use of wigs and hair dye, rouges, lipsticks, and mascara. A woman using these cosmetics can change her true hair color, and that falseness makes a “bastard” of true beauty, leaving it degraded because of its lack of honesty.
The speaker has shown repeatedly in his earlier sonnet sequence that he is dedicated to truth. Thus it will come as no surprise that he will rail again dishonest beauty tricks. He decries anything artificial, as the reader has encountered in those earlier sonnets, particularly the “Muse Sonnets” 18-126; thus he now wishes to advocate for what is natural and demand that beauty be based on reality not cosmetics.
Third Quatrain: Fake Cannot Reflect Beauty
Therefore my mistress’ brows are raven black,
Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem
At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack,
Sland’ring creation with a false esteem:
The speaker then introduces his lady friend as a raven-haired beauty with dark eyes, and insists that her naturalness is dark, and yet she does not lack beauty. Her beauty represents honesty. Her beauty demolishes that notion that the fake blonde is more beautiful than the natural brunette.
The speaker believes that nature is slandered when attempts are made to crush naturalness into a false concept of beauty. He disdains such actions and will condemn them at every opportunity.
The Couplet: Natural and Untouched Beauty
Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe,
That every tongue says beauty should look so.
The dark-haired, dark-skinned beauties do not mourn to be light-haired and light-skinned because they are able to demonstrate true, natural beauty that makes people realize that all beauty should be natural and untouched. The speaker then asserts that natural beauty is the standard and everybody knows it.
Shakespeare Sonnet 128 “How oft when thou, my music, music play’st”
Sonnet 128 “How oft when thou, my music, music play’st” is purely for fun; the speaker plies his clever creativity as he dramatizes his feigned jealousy of the keyboard on which his lady is playing music for him.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 128 “How oft when thou, my music, music play’st”
In sonnet 128 “How oft when thou, my music, music play’st,” the speaker creates a little drama, featuring his beloved lady friend playing a harpsichord. As he watches, he feigns jealousy of the keys across which the mistress’ fingers press and glide as she performs her music.
Sonnet 128 “How oft when thou, my music, music play’st”
How oft when thou, my music, music play’st
Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway’st
The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,
Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,
At the wood’s boldness by thee blushing stand!
To be so tickl’d, they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips,
O’er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more bless’d than living lips.
Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.
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Commentary on Sonnet 128 “How oft when thou, my music, music play’st”
The likability of this speaker takes a serious hit in this “Dark Lady” category of sonnets. He panders, placates, and demeans himself as he unveils his dramatic—and likely adulterous— relationship with this woman.
First Quatrain: Watching the Woman Play a Harpsichord
How oft when thou, my music, music play’st
Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway’st
The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,
The speaker claims that it is quite often that when he hears and watches the woman play music for him, he notices how her “sweet fingers” move and how she “gently sway[s].” The first quatrain does not complete his statement, but it nevertheless supplies the details that the lady is playing “upon that blessed wood,” and that her music results in “concord that [the speaker’s] ear confounds.”
The speaker sets up the claim with just enough detail to allow his reader/listener to observe only a snippet of the event. By beginning his sentence, “How oft when thou, my music, music play’st,” the speaker creates ambiguity: this construction could be a question or it could an exclamation.
Second Quatrain: A Joyful Exclamation!
Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,
At the wood’s boldness by thee blushing stand!
The second quatrain completes the thought begun in the first quatrain, and the reader/listener learns that the statement is indeed an exclamation: “how oft . . . do I envy!” The speaker is, in fact, dramatizing his envy of the wooden keys of the instrument, probably a harpsichord, upon which his lady friend is playing.
He claims that he envies “those jacks” because they “nimble leap / To kiss the tender inward of [her] hand.” While he stands helpless, imagining that his lips should be enjoying that opportunity, instead of the pieces of inert wood.
Third Quatrain: A Strange and Comical Exchange
To be so tickl’d, they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips,
O’er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more bless’d than living lips.
Comically, the speaker then fashions the image of his lips trading places with the keys on the keyboard. Her fingers are gently gliding over those keys, and he would prefer to have her fingers be playing over his lips. He offers the melodramatic notion that her fingers moving over those “dancing chips” or keys is giving blessings to “dead wood” that he would assign only to “living lips.”
The Couplet: Clever Conclusion
Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.
The speaker then offers the clever conclusion that is it fine for those “saucy jacks” to be “so happy” that his lady is moving her fingers over them, and thus the speaker will accept their happiness, and he tells his lady directly that she can give her fingers to the keyboard, but she should give the speaker her ” lips to kiss.”
A Jolting Experience
Moving from the “Muse Sonnet” sequence to the “Dark Lady” sequence affords a rather jarring and jolting experience. The meditation/rumination of the “Muse Sonnets” creates a tranquility verging on divine peace that becomes so comforting in their masterful execution.
Going from such a nearly divine state of peace to the drama of a lustful relationship with a tawdry woman leads the reader to feel cheated, debased, and haunted. But the cleverness and the craftsmanship of the set of sonnets make their study important and necessary.
After all, the speaker is simply a man who despite his heavenly, God-given talent for creating dramatic literary works retains all of the vices as well as the virtues of being human. Thus his audience must applaud where applause is warranted.
Shakespeare Sonnet 129 “Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame”
Sonnet 129 “Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame” from “The Dark Lady” sequence dramatizes the evils of promiscuity, wherein sexual gratification engaged in solely out of lust results in all manner of trials and tribulations.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 129 “The expense of spirit in a waste of shame”
The speaker in Sonnet 129 “Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame” from the classic Shakespeare 154-sonnet sequence is dramatizing the pit of promiscuity, where copulation engaged in solely out of lust engenders all manner of evil consequences. Exploring the nature of lust, he finds that urge to promote a deceptive behavior that promises “heaven” but delivers “hell.”
Sonnet 129: “Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame”
Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjur’d, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight;
Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad:
Mad in pursuit, and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof,—and prov’d, a very woe;
Before, a joy propos’d; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
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Commentary on Sonnet 129 “Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame”
Sonnet 129 is dramatizing the degradation caused by promiscuity. The speaker reveals that all manner of evil consequences result after copulation is engaged in solely out of lust.
First Quatrain: The Evil Nature of Lust
Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjur’d, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
In the first quatrain of sonnet 129, the speaker describes the nature of “lust” as “perjur’d, murderous, bloody, full of blame, / Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust.” Jesus the Christ described Satan as
a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (KJV John 8:44).
The speaker in sonnet 129 thus echoes the Christ’s description likening “lust” to the devil, or Satan, who tempts human beings, promising happiness but delivering misery and loss.
Worse even than “lust” itself, however, is “lust in action,” or the sex act, which results in “Post coitum triste omni est”—”After coitus, everyone experiences gloom.” (My translation from the Latin.)
Second Quatrain: Lust, the Lower Nature
Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight;
Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad:
The speaker then continues his indictment of lust and its concomitant action. No sooner is the act consummated than it is “despised” immediately. Lust rushes the human mind “past reason,” causing the aroused individual to hate what he actually knows, that as soon as he lets down his guard, he will be made “mad.” By allowing his body to dictate to his mind what he knows intuitively, the person giving in to lust will become “as a swallow’d bait.”
The sex urge is a strong one, implanted in the body to ensure continuation of the human species, but after the human being allows himself to engage in that act without the purpose of procreation, he is subjugating his will to the whims of his lower nature that he is supposed to control. The human mind knows through intuition that sex for sex’s sake is an abomination to the soul. Wasting the life energy for sexual gratification alone is tantamount to torturing the soul.
Third Quatrain: Possessed by a Devil
Mad in pursuit, and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof,—and prov’d, a very woe;
Before, a joy propos’d; behind, a dream.
The sex urge when allowed to arouse the body to action causes the individual to become “mad in pursuit” of gratification; he behaves as if possessed by a devil. The body craving sexual congress moves in a frenzied orgy: “Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme / A bliss in proof,—and prov’d, a very woe.”
The excessive desire that drives the frenzy always results in “a very woe.” What seemed to promise “bliss,” in actuality, discharges only sorrow and remorse. Before engaging in the promiscuous act, the one in the throes of sexual desire feels convinced that that desire is “a joy propos’d,” but after its completion, the dejected one realizes that that promise was nothing but “a dream.”
The Couplet: Knowing Evil, but Failing to Avoid It
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
The speaker is clearly asserting that the human mind is fully able to understand that the sex urge must be eschewed, except for procreation. He, therefore, insists that the whole world is aware of this fact, yet ironically, the human condition continues to replay itself, and in spite of possessing this sacred knowledge that leads to right behavior, human beings often fall pray to the erroneous promise of “the heaven that leads men to this hell.”
Instead of following the advice from the soul and from great spiritual leaders and from great philosophical thinkers who have offered warnings against this depraved act, the weak individual allows him/herself to be lured into this depravity repeatedly.
Shakespeare Sonnet 130 “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”
The speaker in sonnet 130 “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” is playing against the Petrarchan tradition of placing the lady friend upon a pedestal to demonstrate affection.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 130 “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”
The Petrarchan tradition of writing poems to women included exaggeration in order to praise her features; for example the Petrarchan line “Those eyes, the sun’s pure golden citadel” from Petrarchan sonnet LIV is obviously the one that inspires the Shakespeare line “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.”
The speaker in Shakespeare sonnet 130 from the classic Shakespeare 154-sonnet sequence shows that he will not be comparing his love’s feature to natural things and saying she outshines them.
This speaker, instead, will be saying quite straightforwardly that even though his lover does not always compare well with the beauties that appear in nature, he loves her just the same. He is attempting to establish and maintain her humanity above all.
Sonnet 130 “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,—
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
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Commentary on Sonnet 130 “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”
The speaker in Sonnet 130 is playing against the Petrarchan tradition of placing the lady friend upon a pedestal to demonstrate affection.
First Quatrain: Her Features are Not Like Sun, Coral, Snow, or Silk
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
The speaker begins by describing his lady friend’s eyes. They are not at all “like the sun.” That is all he has to say about those orbs, even though much exaggeration in earlier poetry has taken place in describing the eyes of the beloved. But this speaker quickly moves on to her lips, which are again described in the negative: while those lips are red, they are not as red as “coral.”
Moving on to the woman’s bustline, he finds her competing in the negative against “snow.” While snow may actually be white, this lady’s breasts are a shade of brown, as most human skin comes in varying shades from light to dark brown. The lady’s hair suffers the worst comparison.
Lovers like to attribute hair as strands of silk, but this speaker has to admit that her hair is just like “black wires,” and he offers the humorous image of black wires growing out off her scalp.
Second Quatrain: Her Cheeks Have no Roses, Her Breath not Like Perfume
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
The speaker next focuses on his lady’s cheeks and breath. Her cheeks are not like any rose he has experienced, especially the “red and white,” or damasked rose. He has seen those kinds of roses, and he does not see them in her cheeks.
The speaker has delighted in the smells of “some perfumes.” He finds no such delightful perfume smell exhaling with the breath of his lover. He employs the term “reek,” which may likely be misconstrued by contemporary readers because the term “reek” in the Shakespearean era merely meant “to exhale” or “to exude.” Currently, the term describes an odor that is decidedly unpleasant.
Th speaker, however, does not claim that his mistress’ breath stinks; he is merely stating that her breath is not as sweet smelling as perfume. Again, the speaker is merely stating honest, human facts about this woman for whom he maintains affection. He is bucking the notion that exaggerating the beauty of a woman somehow offers her a tribute. This speaker prefers truth over the fiction of hyperbole.
Third Quatrain: No Music in Her Voice and She Walks on the Ground
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,—
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
In the final quatrain, the speaker does what he has failed to do in the first and second quatrains. He admits that he loves to hear his lady friend talk, but he also has to admit that even though he enjoys hearing her voice, he remains aware that her voice lacks the more “pleasing sound” of music. Still, he seems to be making a more positive comparison than with the earlier natural phenomena he employed.
While she sun, coral, snow, silk, roses, and perfume all seemed to shine more brilliantly than the lady’s features, in her voice he has found something about which to state flat out that he “loves.” Then again, he keeps his mistress treading on the earth, that is, she does not walk about as some “goddess” would do.
And even though he cannot attest that a goddess would walk any other way, he can say that his mistress “treads on the ground.” And with that assertion, the speaker summarizes his notion of keeping his tribute to his lady down to earth, truthful in all aspects.
The Couplet: Truthful, Human Terms
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
The couplet finds the speaker swearing that his love for his mistress is as “rare” as the love possessed by those who exaggerate their mistresses’ beauty. He accuses those speakers of lying when they compare the beauty of their ladies to natural phenomena and claim that the lady’s features outshine the sun, or that she has lips redder than coral, or outrageously bright toned body parts.
This speaker is convinced that such hyperbolic rhetoric in attempting to place the loved one a pedestal simply remains at odds with the true comparisons, and ultimately distracts from the focus on her true qualities.
He likely would have preferred to be addressing the positive features of the lady, but he found it necessary to refute the notion of hyperbole before addressing other, more important issues.
The speaker is implying that he looks deeper for beauty. His affection for his friend is based on her individuality as a human being. By describing his lady friend’s qualities in human terms, keeping his rhetoric down to earth, the speaker can still assert the rare quality of genuine affection that he feels for her.
One of the Problem Sonnets
Although this sonnet is grouped with the “Dark Lady” sequence, it seems to prove an anomaly because in many of the others in this group the lady does not merit such positive effusions as offered in the speaker’s claim that his “love” for her is rare.
Shakespeare Sonnet 131 “Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art”
Even as he defends her physical beauty, the beguiled speaker in sonnet 131 “Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art” introduces the notion of the ugly “deeds” of which the dark lady persona proves capable.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 131 “Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art”
The speaker in sonnet 131 addresses the persona that is responsible for this group of sonnets (127-154) being labeled “the dark lady sonnets.” Clearly, the speaker is addressing a person who has a “face” and a “neck,” unlike the supposed “young man sonnets” (18-126), which never offer any evidence of referring to a human being.
The speaker does seem to reveal that she is on the darker complexioned side of the spectrum, but also that she is quite a stunning beauty, whose swarthiness does not diminish her beauty. He implies that she is as beautiful or perhaps more lovely than the standard fair-haired beauty that seems to be the popular yardstick for feminine beauty at that period of time.
Sonnet 131 “Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art”
Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art
As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel;
For well thou know’st to my dear doting heart
Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel.
Yet, in good faith, some say that thee behold,
Thy face hath not the power to make love groan:
To say they err I dare not be so bold,
Although I swear it to myself alone.
And to be sure that is not false I swear,
A thousand groans, but thinking on thy face,
One on another’s neck, do witness bear
Thy black is fairest in my judgment’s place.
In nothing art thou black save in thy deeds,
And thence this slander, as I think, proceeds.
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Commentary on Sonnet 131 “Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art”
The “Dark Lady” sequence focuses on a woman as it continues to maintain an ambiguity as to whether the “dark” refers to her coloring—complexion, hair, eyes— or only to her behavior.
First Quatrain: Beautiful but Cruel
Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art
As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel;
For well thou know’st to my dear doting heart
Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel.
In the first quatrain, the speaker accuses the lady of tyrannical behavior that resembles that of those beautiful women who become cruel because of their beauty. She thinks she has the upper hand in the relationship because she knows that he is captivated by her beauty and holds her in high regard.
The speaker admits that he has a “doting heart” and that to him she is “the fairest and most precious jewel.” Such a position leaves him weak and vulnerable, making him accept her cruel behavior out of fear of losing her. Because she is aware of his vulnerability, she is free to cause him pain with impunity.
Second Quatrain: Conflicted by Beauty
Yet, in good faith, some say that thee behold,
Thy face hath not the power to make love groan:
To say they err I dare not be so bold,
Although I swear it to myself alone.
Even though the speaker has heard other people say that there is nothing special and particularly beautiful about this woman, he continues to think otherwise. He has heard people say that she does not have “the power to make love groan.” According to others, she is incapable of motivating the kind of reaction that other really beautiful woman may engender.
And the speaker does not have the courage to argue with those who hold those negative opinions. Yet even though he will not rebut those complaints to the faces of those who hold them, he “swear[s]” to himself that they are wrong and thus continues to hold his own view as the correct one.
Third Quatrain: Intrigued by Coloring
And to be sure that is not false I swear,
A thousand groans, but thinking on thy face,
One on another’s neck, do witness bear
Thy black is fairest in my judgment’s place.
To convince himself that he is right in thinking his lady a beauty, he insists that when thinking of “[her] face,” he may groan with love a thousand times. He refers to her blackness as the “fairest in [his] judgment’s place.”
The speaker holds the dark features of the “dark lady” in highest regard, despite the prevailing standard of beauty reflected in the opinions of other people who criticize her negatively. As he compares the complexion and hair of lighter skinned women to his “dark lady,” he finds that he remains more intrigued by her coloring.
The Couplet: Beauty Is as Beauty Does
In nothing art thou black save in thy deeds,
And thence this slander, as I think, proceeds.
The speaker then asserts that any negativity associated with blackness results only from the woman’s behavior. Her physical beauty does not contrast in the negative to blondes and other fair-haired women, but her callous and indifferent behavior renders her deserving to the “slander” she is receiving. He will not uphold the ugliness of her deeds, even though he is attracted to her natural, dark beauty.
Shakespeare Sonnet 132 “Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me”
In sonnet 132 “Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,” the speaker dramatizes the dark lady’s “pretty ruth,” likening her “mourning” eyes to the sun in the morning and then in the evening.
Introduction and Tex of Sonnet 132 “Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me”
Addressing his dark lady, the speaker again focuses on her foul disposition, as he wishes for a better attitude from her. He dramatizes her moods by comparing them to sunrise and sunset, and punning on the word “mourning.” He wishes for “morning” but continues to receive “mourning” instead.
Sonnet 132 “Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me”
Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me
Knowing thy heart torment me with disdain,
Have put on black and loving mourners be,
Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain.
And truly not the morning sun of heaven
Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east,
Nor that full star that ushers in the even,
Doth half that glory to the sober west,
As those two mourning eyes become thy face:
O! let it then as well beseem thy heart
To mourn for me, since mourning doth thee grace,
And suit thy pity like in every part.
Then will I swear beauty herself is black,
And all they foul that thy complexion lack.
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Commentary on Sonnet 132 “Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me”
The speaker employs a clever pun—mourning/morning—as he begins to reveal more clearly the dreary nature of this woman with whom he is unfortunately ensnared in an unhealthy relationship.
First Quatrain: The Eyes of Disdain
Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me
Knowing thy heart torment me with disdain,
Have put on black and loving mourners be,
Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain.
The speaker in the first quatrain of sonnet 132 asserts that he loves his lady’s eyes even as they look at him “with disdain.” She wrongs him, and he suffers, but he then dramatizes his suffering by focusing on her eyes, which he claims “put on black and [become] loving mourners.” Her eyes seem to mourn for his torment, yet they continue to gaze at him, or at his pain, with “pretty ruth.”
Second Quatrain: Glorifying the Face
And truly not the morning sun of heaven
Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east,
Nor that full star that ushers in the even,
Doth half that glory to the sober west,
The speaker then asserts that sunrise and sunset do not beautify the land so well as her “two mourning eyes” glorify her face. The second quatrain is only part of the complete thought that continues in the third quatrain. The thought straddles the two quatrains more for the purpose of form than for content.
The speaker has likened the darkened landscape before sunrise to “grey cheeks,” which implies those dark cheeks of his mistress. The sun that is “usher[ing] in” evening is a “full star,” but it offers less than “half the glory” that the lady’s eyes give to her face.
Third Quatrain: The Drama of Mourning
As those two mourning eyes become thy face:
O! let it then as well beseem thy heart
To mourn for me, since mourning doth thee grace,
And suit thy pity like in every part.
The speaker labels his lady’s eyes, “those two mourning eyes,” dramatizing them with a pun on “mourning,” and then punning again in the line “since mourning doth thee grace.”
The pun implies the wish that the speaker projects: he wishes this beautiful creature had the grace of “morning,” but instead she constantly delivers the characterization of “mourning.”
The woman’s eyes mourn for him not out of love but out of the pity she feels for him after she has caused his misery. His humiliation is a cross that he has to bear in having a relationship with this woman.
The Couplet: Looking Past Pain
Then will I swear beauty herself is black,
And all they foul that thy complexion lack.
In the couplet, the speaker again decides to accept the situation and even support the woman for her beauty. Unfortunately, the idea, beauty is a beauty does, eludes this speaker, at least for now. He will continue to look past the pain she causes him as long as he can enjoy her beauty.
Shakespeare Sonnet 133 “Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan”
In sonnet 133 “Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan,” the speaker bemoans that the cruel lady has captured his heart and his alter ego, who creates his poems.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 133 “Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan”
As the reader has experienced from sonnets 18 through 126, the speaker in sonnet 133 from the classic Shakespeare 154-sonnet sequence creates a persona of his soul in order to reflect upon and dramatize the activity of his talent and ambition.
In that section of the sonnets, the speaker variously addresses his muse, his poems, or himself—all of whom are the same entity, the only difference being the differing aspects of the same soul.
In this sonnet 133, the speaker is referring to his Muse-Talent-Soul as his friend, who is being affected by the dark lady’s behavior. This sonnet and the following sonnet 134 are often misinterpreted by claiming that the “he” in the poem refers to a young man who is friend of the speaker, and this friend has betrayed his speaker-friend by sleeping with his mistress the dark lady.
For example, Helen Vendler begins her commentary on sonnet 133 by announcing: “This sonnet of the lady’s infidelity with the speaker’s friend has driven Ingram and Redpath to a diagram and to a comparison with ‘Chines boxes’.”
Vendler continues with this inaccuracy in her commentary on sonnet 134: “Sonnet 134 takes stock of the torment of the affair between the friend and the mistress announced in 133.”
By failing to understand the actual topic of the “Muse Sonnets” as the speaker’s own soul and instead claiming that the target is a “fair youth,” critics and scholars then continue that failure as they encounter the “Dark Lady” subsequence.
Sonnet 133 “Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan”
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
For that deep wound it gives my friend and me!
Is ’t not enough to torture me alone,
But slave to slavery my sweet’st friend must be?
Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken,
And my next self thou harder hast engross’d:
Of him, myself, and thee, I am forsaken;
A torment thrice threefold thus to be cross’d.
Prison my heart in thy steel bosom’s ward,
But then my friend’s heart let my poor heart bail;
Whoe’er keeps me, let my heart be his guard;
Thou canst not then use rigour in my jail:
And yet thou wilt; for I, being pent in thee,
Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.
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Commentary on Sonnet 133 “Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan”
The speaker is bemoaning the fact that the cruel lady has not only captured his heart but also his alter ego, that is, his other self who creates his poems.
First Quatrain: Dark Lady vs the Muse
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
For that deep wound it gives my friend and me!
Is ’t not enough to torture me alone,
But slave to slavery my sweet’st friend must be?
The speaker brings down a curse on “that heart” of the dark lady, not only for making his heart “to groan,” but also for the “deep wound” she causes in both his “friend” and himself. He queries, isn’t it enough that you torment me? must you also cause my muse, who is “my sweet’st friend” to suffer?
The speaker is probably finding his musings invaded with thoughts of the mistress, and because of his intense infatuation with her, he feels his creations are suffering. The complaint resembles the one wherein he would chide his muse for abandoning him, implying that he could not write without her, yet he continued to make poems about that very topic.
Second Quatrain: Triumvirate of Soul
Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken,
And my next self thou harder hast engross’d:
Of him, myself, and thee, I am forsaken;
A torment thrice threefold thus to be cross’d.
The speaker then refers explicitly to the cruelty of the lady for affecting his muse/writing; he claims that she has taken him from himself, and also “my next self thou harder has engross’d.” The self that is closest to him is that triumvirate of Muse-Talent-Soul, which constitutes his life, including his working life.
When the lady disrupts the speaker’s tripartite entity, she causes him to be “forsaken” by everything and everyone: “Of him, myself, and thee, I am forsaken.” And he thus is “torment[ed] thrice threefold.”
Third Quatrain: Begging to Keep His Own Muse
Prison my heart in thy steel bosom’s ward,
But then my friend’s heart let my poor heart bail;
Whoe’er keeps me, let my heart be his guard;
Thou canst not then use rigour in my jail:
In the third quatrain, the speaker commands the lady to go ahead and lock him up in “[her] steel bosom’s ward,” but let him be able to extricate his muse from her clutches. He wants to retain control over whatever his own heart “guard[s].” He wants to keep his muse in his own “jail” so that she cannot “use rigour” in that jail.
The Couplet: Confined and under a Spell
And yet thou wilt; for I, being pent in thee,
Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.
But the speaker contends that the lady will continue to imprison him, and because he deems that he belongs to her, all “that is in me,” including that triumvirate of Muse-Talent-Soul, also is confined in her jail and under her spell.
Shakespeare Sonnet 134 “So, now I have confess’d that he is thine”
The speaker in sonnet 134 “So, now I have confess’d that he is thine” descends into a vulgar discussion, lamenting the sexual attraction he suffers because of the lustful lady.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 134 “So, now I have confess’d that he is thine”
In sonnet 134, the speaker again is addressing the dark lady, as he laments her power over his other self. However, this “other self” is not the spiritual persona, not the muse, but very bluntly yet subtly and specifically, he is referring to his male member as “he.” It is quite a common vulgar traditional part of coarse conversation, and both male and females engage in it, often even assigning nicknames to their private parts.
Sonnet 134 “So, now I have confess’d that he is thine”
So, now I have confess’d that he is thine
And I myself am mortgag’d to thy will,
Myself I ’ll forfeit, so that other mine
Thou wilt restore, to be my comfort still:
But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free,
For thou art covetous and he is kind;
He learn’d but surety-like to write for me,
Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.
The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take,
Thou usurer, that putt’st forth all to use,
And sue a friend came debtor for my sake;
So him I lose through my unkind abuse.
Him have I lost; thou hast both him and me:
He pays the whole, and yet am I not free.
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Commentary on Sonnet 134 “So, now I have confess’d that he is thine”
The speaker in sonnet 134 “So, now I have confess’d that he is thine” descends into a vulgar discussion, lamenting the sexual attraction he suffers because of the lustful lady.
First Quatrain: Lower Nature
So, now I have confess’d that he is thine
And I myself am mortgag’d to thy will,
Myself I ’ll forfeit, so that other mine
Thou wilt restore, to be my comfort still:
The speaker complained in sonnet 133 that the lady was imprisoning not only the speaker but also his alter ego, his soul-muse-talent. The speaker’s identity is so closely bound with his writing that even he at times finds distinguishing them unappealing.
The diction of sonnet 134 however cleverly demonstrates that the speaker is referring to his lower nature or his sex drive; thus the “he” referred to here is his male organ. He tells the lady that he has “confess’d that he is thine.” But because the speaker cannot separate himself from this particular “he,” the speaker is also “mortgag’d to [the lady’s] will.”
The speaker’s sexual arousal causes his entire being to respond and bind itself to the lady. The use of financial terms such as “mortgage” and “forfeit” imply and confirm that the speaker is complaining about physical acts instead of spiritual ones.
The speaker says he will “forfeit” himself, his sensual self, so that he will have “restore[d]” to him his other self and his comfort. He implies that giving in to the woman sexually will dilute the urge and he can become calm again.
Second Quatrain: Physical Pleasure
But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free,
For thou art covetous and he is kind;
He learn’d but surety-like to write for me,
Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.
But then the speaker admits that engaging in physical pleasure with her will not free him from her clutches, because she is “covetous.” He knows he will give in to her again. His male member has “learn’d but surety-like to write for me, / Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.” That male organ “write[s]” for or creates in the speaker the motivation that will urge them both to cling to the woman.
Third Quatrain: The Diction of Desire
The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take,
Thou usurer, that putt’st forth all to use,
And sue a friend came debtor for my sake;
So him I lose through my unkind abuse.
The lady will continue to flaunt her beauty to keep the speaker and his male member desirous of her. Again the speaker employs diction that indicates the material, worldly nature of his discourse: “the statute” of her beauty, “thou usurer,” “sue a friend came debtor”—all employ legal and/or financial terms that clearly join the speaker’s conversation to worldly endeavors.
The speaker then admits that he lost control over his base urges “through [his] unkind abuse,” that is, he allowed his attention to fall below the waist. He allowed his attraction for the woman’s beauty to stir in him the desire to satisfy the drives that are meant for the sacred purpose of marriage consummation and reproduction, not mere entertainment.
The Couplet: Lamenting Loss of Self-Control
Him have I lost; thou hast both him and me:
He pays the whole, and yet am I not free.
The speaker then laments, “Him have I lost,” meaning that he has lost control over his male organ. He tells the woman that she possesses both him and his copulatory organ, and while the latter “pays the whole,” punning on “hole,” he is certainly not free but is right there with that body part.
Shakespeare Sonnet 135 “Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will”
Sonnet 135 “Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will” and sonnet 136 “If thy soul check thee that I come so near” both focus intensely on punning the word “Will.” The poet, Edward de Vere, uses the nickname “Will” from his pseudonym, William Shakespeare.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 135 “Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will”
The word “will” here means primarily desire, and because the speaker is addressing the object of his intense sexual desire, he conflates his desire with his pseudonym nickname “Will” with “will” meaning desire into a clever pun.
Sonnet 135 “Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will”
Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will
And Will to boot, and Will in over-plus;
More than enough am I that vex thee still,
To thy sweet will making addition thus.
Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,
Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?
Shall will in others seem right gracious,
And in my will no fair acceptance shine?
The sea, all water, yet receives rain still,
And in abundance addeth to his store;
So thou, being rich in Will, add to thy Will
One will of mine, to make thy large Will more.
Let no unkind ‘No’ fair beseechers kill;
Think all but one, and me in that one Will.
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Commentary on Sonnet 135 “Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will”
The speaker is cleverly punning on his nom de plume William Shakespeare.
First Quatrain: Her Strong Desire
Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will
And Will to boot, and Will in over-plus;
More than enough am I that vex thee still,
To thy sweet will making addition thus.
In the opening quatrain of sonnet 135, the speaker tells his dark, attractive mistress that while many other comely women may have mere wishes, she has a strong wish; she has “Will.” The term “will” carries the idea of desire or wish but with an intention, making it a much stronger wish.
A mere “wish” may never be acted upon, but a “will” probably will. The expression “the will to live” as opposed to “the wish to live” may help in comprehending the difference, that “will” is stronger than “wish.”
The speaker appears to believe that he is flattering the dark lady by informing her she has the same sexual desire that he has, and he also is thus flattering his own ego by telling her that not only does she have the same carnal desire, she also possesses him and his desire. To his mind, she is therefore thrice blessed: she owns her own “will,” she possesses his “will,” and she possesses him, who is “Will” itself.
Second Quatrain: Adding Insult to Flattery
Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,
Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?
Shall will in others seem right gracious,
And in my will no fair acceptance shine?
In the second quatrain, the speaker adds insult to flattery, but at least he frames it as questions: in the first question, he asks her outright for her physical favors. Avoiding euphemism, he asks her to “vouchsafe to hide my will in thine.” He then accuses her of promiscuity, which he seeks to offer as an excuse for his own lechery. He reasons that because she satisfies her “will” with others, there can be no reason that she should not do so with him.
Third Quatrain: Rationalizing the Irrational
The sea, all water, yet receives rain still,
And in abundance addeth to his store;
So thou, being rich in Will, add to thy Will
One will of mine, to make thy large Will more.
Seeking to further rationalize the efficacy of the couple’s wills coming together, the speaker compares their wills to the ocean that is “all water,” and still it continues to accept more in the form of rain. The speaker professes that it is a good thing that “abundance addeth to his store.”
Seeing that the woman is full of desire, and the speaker is full of desire, the speaker adduces that the combination of all that desire can only multiply the advantages to be had by their coming together to satisfy themselves.
The speaker is dramatizing his total immersion in thoughts of the act that he had disdained. He is demonstrating the demonic hold that this worldly “will” has on him and by extension, humankind.
The Couplet: Fumbling About in a Notion
Let no unkind ‘No’ fair beseechers kill;
Think all but one, and me in that one Will.
The speaker closes his request by commanding the woman not to turn him down. He insists that his plea is “fair,” and he believes or pretends to fumble about in the idea that he has been perfectly persuasive in his dramatization of desire.
He maintains that she should “think all but one, and me in that one Will.” He encourages her to think only of the unity of their strong desires as she includes him in that desire.
Shakespeare Sonnet 136 “If thy soul check thee that I come so near”
As with sonnet 135 “Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will,” the speaker continues his word play by punning on his pseudonymic nickname Will, dramatizing his lust for the alluring dark lady.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 136 “If thy soul check thee that I come so near”
In sonnets 135 and 136, the speaker became intoxicated with punning his pen name, “Will.” This section of the sonnet sequence seems to suggest that the speaker has nicknamed his penis, “Will.”
Thus there are at least three wills involved with these sonnets: William Shakespeare, the writer’s pseudonym, the will or desire to write or in the “Dark Lady” section to commit adultery, and the instrument through by the speaker would commit the adultery.
The tongue-in-cheek cattiness with which the speaker has glommed onto the term, “Will,” seems to suggest that his playfulness has gotten the better of him. He becomes willing to say outrageous things, that even though clever, still would render him a scurrilous cad. Nevertheless, the drama must proceed, and thus it does.
Sonnet 136 “If thy soul check thee that I come so near”
If thy soul check thee that I come so near
Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy Will,
And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there;
Thus far for love, my love-suit, sweet, fulfil.
Will will fulfil the treasure of thy love,
Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one.
In things of great receipt with ease we prove
Among a number one is reckon’d none:
Then in the number let me pass untold,
Though in thy stores’ account I one must be;
For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold
That nothing me, a something sweet to thee:
Make but my name thy love, and love that still,
And then thou lov’st me,—for my name is Will.
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Commentary on Sonnet 136 “If thy soul check thee that I come so near”
The speaker continues his exercise in punning on his pseudonymic nickname Will.
First Quatrain: He Is Her Will
If thy soul check thee that I come so near
Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy Will,
And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there;
Thus far for love, my love-suit, sweet, fulfil.
Addressing the voluptuous mistress again, the speaker admonishes her that if her conscience has any qualms about his desire for her, she should tell that unthinking conscience that he is her “Will.”
He is her desire for him, and his name is Will. Because he deems that he is her possession, he concludes that her conscience will understand that he is permitted to be “admitted there,” or into her body.
It is “for love” that he becomes a suitor in order to “fulfil” the desires of the lady—her lust, and his own lustful desires. He is, of course, rationalizing his lust again, but this time focusing more squarely on her own lust than his. He is somewhat an innocent who is merely willing to accompany the lady on her journey to lust fulfillment, he playfully suggests.
Second Quatrain: Will and Desire
Will will fulfil the treasure of thy love,
Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one.
In things of great receipt with ease we prove
Among a number one is reckon’d none:
The speaker then predicts that he, or “Will,” is going to “fulfil the treasure of [her] love,” or simply satisfy her desires. Not only satisfy, but “fill it full with wills,” referring her to the sperm he is capable of leaving inside her vaginal cavity, after having completed his act, which he calls, “my will one.”
The speaker’s penis may be only one, but his sperm contains multitudes. The male penchant for braggadocio has overtaken this speaker in sonnets 135 and 136. His overpowering lust has rendered him a satyric fop. Then he philosophizes that it is always easy to accomplish things from which one thinks one will receive much pleasure.
Third Quatrain: A Token of Lust
Then in the number let me pass untold,
Though in thy stores’ account I one must be;
For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold
That nothing me, a something sweet to thee:
The speaker then concludes that since he has made much sense of his explanation, she should go ahead and allow him to join all the others she has tempted and tasted, even though he will be counted as only one. She should allow him one more bit of wise counsel: even if she will not desire to keep him in her company, she could at least retain one token of him, “a something sweet to [her].”
The Couplet: The Will to Pun
Make but my name thy love, and love that still,
And then thou lov’st me,—for my name is Will.
The token of sweetness, the speaker hopes, will simply be his name. And if his name were James or Edward, the last remark would remain unremarkable in its literalness. But the speaker has gone out of his way to pun the term “will” and to associate it with his name “Will,” driving home the fact that when he utters that term, he is referring to lust, whether his own or hers.
Shakespeare Sonnet 137 “Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes”
Employing the technique of the well-placed question, the speaker in sonnet 137 “Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes” muses on the evil consequences from acting upon what the eye sees instead of what the heart knows to be true.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 137 “Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes”
In sonnet 137 from the classic Shakespeare 154-sonnet sequence, the speaker muses and bemoans the contradictory falsehood that lust engenders between his eyes and his heart. The speaker sees yet he sees not. And through his distorted vision, his heart becomes corrupted. Such a situation cannot remain unattended by this speaker.
His has demonstrated his fealty to truth and beauty as he mused on his special talent in his thematic grouping, “The Muse Sonnets.” His strong desire to remain right-thinking will not allow him to continue to wallow in sense pleasure that leads him into degradation and sorrow.
Sonnet 137 “Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes”
Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
That they behold, and see not what they see?
They know what beauty is, see where it lies,
Yet what the best is take the worst to be.
If eyes, corrupt by over-partial looks,
Be anchor’d in the bay where all men ride,
Why of eyes’ falsehood hast thou forged hooks,
Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied?
Why should my heart think that a several plot
Which my heart knows the wide world’s common place?
Or mine eyes, seeing this, say this is not,
To put fair truth upon so foul a face?
In things right true my heart and eyes have err’d,
And to this false plague are they now transferr’d.
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Commentary on Sonnet 137 “Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes”
The speaker in Sonnet 137 is attempting to work out the disparity between what his eye sees and what his heart tells him is correct. His eye has led him to experience evil consequences.
First Quatrain: Love and Lust
Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
That they behold, and see not what they see?
They know what beauty is, see where it lies,
Yet what the best is take the worst to be.
Instead of speaking to his lady-love directly as he usually does in the thematic group called “Dark Lady Sonnets,” the speaker is revealing the falseness and foulness of her character, as he speaks directly to “Love.” He is employing the term “Love” euphemistically; his drama depicting the relationship between his heart and his eyes demonstrates that he is in reality addressing “lust.”
The speaker appends his first question, as he often does in this kind of musing. He wishes to know what “Love” does to him to make his eyes not see appropriately. He labels “Love” the “blind fool,” as he makes it clear that he is, indeed, the “blind fool.”
He cannot comprehend that his eyes would betray him; he feels that he is aware of what beauty is, yet when he chances to meet this particular woman, he always manages to become bumfuzzled by her physical beauty.
Second Quatrain: Evil vs Good
If eyes, corrupt by over-partial looks,
Be anchor’d in the bay where all men ride,
Why of eyes’ falsehood hast thou forged hooks,
Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied?
The speaker then begs the logic of “eyes” being placed “in the bay where all men ride,” or, he wants to know why should physical appearance to which he has become so favorably drawn render his genitals to flutter in an agitated state. Even more so, he wishes to know why the lie told by his lying eyes is permitted to crook the “judgment of [his] heart.”
The speaker is examining the old riddle of the human tendency to want the exact thing that is not beneficial, the very thing, which after promising much pleasure and joy, will do the human mind, heart, and soul the most damage.
Third Quatrain: Swayed by Outward Beauty
Why should my heart think that a several plot
Which my heart knows the wide world’s common place?
Or mine eyes, seeing this, say this is not,
To put fair truth upon so foul a face?
The speaker continues to muse on these questions: he desires to know why his heart can be moved by a woman who behaves as a contemptible harlot. He wonders why he permits an alluring face that he knows is “foul” to tempt him as if it were a representation of “fair truth.”
The speaker is again supplying answers to his own rhetorical questions, even as he poses them. The conundrum of human behavior always reveals that that behavior swings like a pendulum between evil and good.
His eyes see only the outward beauty, while his mind knows otherwise. But his heart has been swayed by the outward beauty even as it senses that such beauty is only skin deep, and the inner person of this wretched woman is full of deceit.
The Couplet: Bamboozled Error
In things right true my heart and eyes have err’d,
And to this false plague are they now transferr’d.
The speaker concludes that his eyes and thus his heart have been bamboozled; therefore, they become erroneous prone. He leaves the sonnet still distressed in his sickening situation, asserting that his eyes and heart, and therefore his mind, have been afflicted by a disastrous level of falsehood.
Shakespeare Sonnet 138 “When my love swears that she is made of truth”
The speaker in sonnet 138 “When my love swears that she is made of truth” makes a mockery of truth in a relationship, even as he offers a feeble defense of indefensible actions and thought.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 138 “When my love swears that she is made of truth”
Readers familiar with this speaker’s devotion to truth as portrayed in his “Muse Sonnets” may find the falsity on which this sonnet sequence focuses a bit jarring. But if one notes carefully, the poet/speaker is quite aware of his allowing himself to be deceived, and he thus makes it clear that he is obviously just playing along to satisfy his lustful needs that he knows do not represent his higher self.
Sonnet 138 “When my love swears that she is made of truth”
When my love swears that she is made of truth
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutor’d youth,
Unlearned in the world’s false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:
On both sides thus is simple truth supprest.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O! love’s best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told:
Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flatter’d be.
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Commentary on “When my love swears that she is made of truth”
At the same time that this speaker in sonnet 138 is making a mockery of truth in a relationship by offering a feeble defense of indefensible actions and thought, he is still polishing a fascinating drama of entertainment. Likely the speaker in this sequence is more than ever separating himself from the ludicrous milksop he is creating of himself because of this disgraceful woman.
First Quatrain: A WilledDeception
When my love swears that she is made of truth
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutor’d youth,
Unlearned in the world’s false subtleties.
The speaker in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 138 spills forth the bizarre admission that when his adulterous mistress assures him of her fidelity and truthfulness, he seems to accept her word on the issue.
However, he knows she is spewing a bald-faced lie. And the speaker then makes it abundantly clear that he is merely pretending to accept her prevarication. In actuality, he has become well aware that he cannot believe what she says, and he is convinced that she merely deals in deceitful claims.
Nevertheless, the duped lover then confesses to being a liar himself. He would like to have her believe that he is as immature and unsophisticated as any young man. He therefore feigns acceptance of her lies, in order to cause her to accept the pretense that he is younger than he actually is.
Second Quatrain: Age-Old Vanity
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:
On both sides thus is simple truth supprest.
In the second quatrain, the speaker condenses all the prevarication and falsifying on both sides. He has become aware that she is aware that he is not actually a young man. He is not in the prime of his life, so he admits that his pretense remains in vain.
She is not really accepting the notion that he is a young man, anymore than he is accepting that she is a faithful love interest. They both are exaggerating and lying all for the sake of their stupid, licentious, silly game.
Third Quatrain: Deceptive Rationalization
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O! love’s best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told:
In the third quatrain, the speaker attempts to rationalize the deceptions each partner has engaged, as he concocts the absurd notion that “love’s best habit is in seeming trust.” But this speaker is fashioning a character, feigning a belief in what the poet/speaker knows to be false.
The poet/speaker understands the value of truth because he is, in fact, a mature man, who has learned that such pretended “trust” is not trust whatsoever. Such lovers as these cannot ever trust each other, because each is aware that the other is merely fabricating.
Couplet: Pun on a Lie
Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flatter’d be.
Finally, the couplet cannot bestow any hope of correcting this anomaly. It can show only that the relationship between these two counterfeiters is based only on sexual gratification: “I lie with her and she with me.”
The speaker puns on the term “lie.” He has made it quite clear that these fake lovers “lie” to each other, and thus when he reports that they lie “with” each other, he is referring only to their sexual liaison, that is, reposing in bed as sexual partners.
The speaker claims that they are “flattered” by this farcical relationship. But because flattery is not a strong foundation on which to create a relationship, the speaker allows the reader to decide whether that relationship is a sad one—despite the gay glee that they may experience as they “lie” together and then lay each other.
Shakespeare Sonnet 139 “O! Call not me to justify the wrong”
In sonnet 139 “O! Call not me to justify the wrong,” again addressing the “dark lady,” the speaker bemoans and condemns her infidelity, as the tension grows between his desire and his intelligence.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 139 “O! Call not me to justify the wrong”
The speaker continues to allow himself to be made a blithering fool by this woman. She even rebuffs him so that his enemies can insult him. This speaker, who treasures truth, beauty, and love seems to have become a whimpering nitwit because of this woman’s physically attractive body.
The drama that this speaker continues to create reveals more about him than he even realizes. By allowing himself this weakness, he may be putting his own reputation in jeopardy. As a truth-teller, he has certainly lowered his vision by allowing such a despicable creature to control him.
Sonnet 139 “O! Call not me to justify the wrong”
O! Call not me to justify the wrong
That thy unkindness lays upon my heart;
Wound me not with thine eye, but with thy tongue:
Use power with power, and slay me not by art.
Tell me thou lovest elsewhere; but in my sight,
Dear heart, forbear to glance thine eye aside:
What need’st thou wound with cunning, when thy might
Is more than my o’erpress’d defence can bide?
Let me excuse thee: ah! my love well knows
Her pretty looks have been my enemies;
And therefore from my face she turns my foes,
That they elsewhere might dart their injuries:
Yet do not so; but since I am near slain,
Kill me outright with looks, and rid my pain.
Original Text
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Commentary on Sonnet 139 “O! Call not me to justify the wrong”
Addressing the “dark lady,” the speaker bemoans and condemns her infidelity, as the tension grows between his desire and his intelligence.
First Quatrain: Coy Flirting
O! Call not me to justify the wrong
That thy unkindness lays upon my heart;
Wound me not with thine eye, but with thy tongue:
Use power with power, and slay me not by art.
In the first quatrain of sonnet 139, the speaker addresses the “dark lady” pleading with her not to hurt him in such open and offending ways. He prefers that she just tell him plainly what is on her mind, instead of coyly flirting with others in his presence. He does not believe that he should have to excuse and defend himself for feeling the pain she causes by her disingenuousness.
The speaker wants an honest and open exchange between the two; his disposition requires exactitude, but he is discovering repeatedly that this lady is not capable of satisfying his wishes for plain truth.
Second Quatrain: Stinging in an Unholy Alliance
Tell me thou lovest elsewhere; but in my sight,
Dear heart, forbear to glance thine eye aside:
What need’st thou wound with cunning, when thy might
Is more than my o’erpress’d defence can bide?
In the second quatrain, the speaker commands her to tell him that, “[she] loves[ ] elsewhere.” The reader has encountered this complaint in many of the “dark lady” sonnets, and it becomes apparent that her flaw will continue to sting the speaker if he continues in this unholy alliance with her.
In addition to a command, the speaker attaches a question, wondering why she has to “wound with cunning,” and he confesses a grave weakness that renders him a weasel as he whines that the strength of her continued infidelity overtakes his ability to defend himself against it.
Third Quatrain: Engaging His Enemies
Let me excuse thee: ah! my love well knows
Her pretty looks have been my enemies;
And therefore from my face she turns my foes,
That they elsewhere might dart their injuries:
The speaker with sarcasm insists that she would have him excuse her, knowing that it is her beauty, not her fine personality or intelligence that has captured his attention, a turn of events that the speaker knows to be inimical to his best interests. He knows it is her physical appearance that has been his worst enemy.
The speaker then avers that she has engaged his enemies, but he would have her behave in such a way that would allow “[his] foes” to spray their venom somewhere else, and not in his direction.
However, he knows he cannot trust her to listen to his commands and questions, but he seems compelled to engage her despite his desire to save himself from more humiliation and pain.
The Couplet: Throwing up His hands
Yet do not so; but since I am near slain,
Kill me outright with looks, and rid my pain.
The speaker then throws up his hands again in despair, remarking that since he has been nearly vanquished with the pain she has already caused, she might as will continue to stab him in the heart and “Kill [him] outright with looks.” If she can once and for all accomplish his death, at least he will experience the end of “[his] pain.”
Shakespeare Sonnet 140: “Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press”
The speaker in sonnet “Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press” suffers from his conscious denial: he knows the “dark lady” is not true to him, but his infatuation with her causes him to ask her to feign fidelity.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 140 “Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press”
Again, the speaker in this “Dark Lady” sonnet category is fighting a losing battle with this woman. He continues to debase himself by begging her to behave in ways that are obviously quite foreign to her.
Begging someone to fake their feelings for the sake of a pretend relationship cannot but hold despair and loss for the beggar. But until that gloomy time when he can take it no longer, he continues to enjoy his little dramas, which continue unabated, and in reality, he is likely continuing the relationship in order to collect firewood for his burning creativity.
Sonnet 140 “Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press”
Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain;
Lest sorrow lend me words, and words express
The manner of my pity-wanting pain.
If I might teach thee wit, better it were,
Though not to love, yet, love, to tell me so;—
As testy sick men, when their deaths be near,
No news but health from their physicians know;—
For, if I should despair, I should grow mad,
And in my madness might speak ill of thee:
Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad,
Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be.
That I may not be so, nor thou belied,
Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.
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Commentary on Sonnet 140 “Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press”
The speaker is attempting to keep his anger in check; thus he creates a little drama wherein he beseeches his paramour to at least pretend to be civil to him.
First Quatrain: Patience Is Wearing Thin
Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain;
Lest sorrow lend me words, and words express
The manner of my pity-wanting pain.
In the first quatrain of sonnet 140, the speaker, addresses the “dark lady,” insisting that she refrain from straining his patience with her cruelty and disdain. He suggests that if she continues in her hateful actions, he will be forced to lash out at her. Heretofore, he has remained “tongue-tied” and holding his emotions in check for her sake.
If she will not take his advice to be as “wise” as she is “cruel,” his “sorrow” will motivate him to untie that tongue and express his suppressed pain, and he will let loose without pity for her feelings. He reveals that his “patience” is wearing thin and cautions her lest she suffer his wrath. The reader will snicker at these threats, wondering, ‘what is he going to do? talk her to death’.
Second Quatrain: A Sick Man
If I might teach thee wit, better it were,
Though not to love, yet, love, to tell me so;—
As testy sick men, when their deaths be near,
No news but health from their physicians know;—
The speaker, as he remains quite civil, does get in a zinger or two here and there. With a condescending remark—”If I might teach thee wit”— he is implying that she is simply too dull-witted to be taught wit or anything else by him.
If, however, by chance, he were able to teach her to be a smart woman, it would be better that they were not involved as lovers. But because they are engaged in a relationship—however, licentious it may be—he is insisting that she simply must tell him what she means, as he remains unable to comprehend her lies and obfuscating circumlocution.
The speaker then likens his feelings for her to a sick man who can only hear good health news from his doctor. He feels no compunction for admitting that he remains in denial because of his continuing lust for his mistress.
Third Quatrain: Worldly Appetite for Gossip
For, if I should despair, I should grow mad,
And in my madness might speak ill of thee:
Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad,
Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be.
The speaker then tells the woman that he would become mentally unstable if he sank into “despair.” And from that “madness,” he “might speak ill of [her].” He then evaluates the world in general claiming that it has “grown so bad”; it plucks evil from every corner.
The speaker does not want to become a “mad slanderer[ ],” because he thinks that the world would believe him even though he knows he would probably be exaggerating. He is warning her that if he does eventually explode and start denouncing the woman, her reputation will be further diminished because of the world’s appetite for gossip.
The Couplet: Protesting for the Impossible
That I may not be so, nor thou belied,
Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.
The speaker then concludes that if the lady will just keep her eyes on him for a change, he will not have to become this raving madman railing against her. Even if she continues to flirt and carouse with others, if she will just keep her “eyes straight,” in the presence of others, he will overlook the fact that her straight eyes belie her “proud heart” that roams wide.
Shakespeare Sonnet 141 “In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes”
The speaker in sonnet 141 “In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes” taunts the “dark lady,” demeaning her looks, decrying her ability to attract him physically, yet insisting that he foolishly remains in her clutches.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 141 “In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes”
The speaker’s attitude toward the beauty of the “dark lady” has dramatically changed in sonnet 141 from the classic Shakespeare 154-sonnet sequence; until now, he has complained heartily about his bewitchment by the lady’s dark beauty and its fatal attraction for him. Now, he throws all that to the wind. However, sonnet 130 had given a foreshadowing of this attitude.
Sonnet 141 “In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes”
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes
For they in thee a thousand errors note;
But ’tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who, in despite of view, is pleas’d to dote.
Nor are mine ears with thy tongue’s tune delighted;
Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell desire to be invited
To any sensual feast with thee alone:
But my five wits nor my five senses can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who leaves unsway’d the likeness of a man,
Thy proud heart’s slave and vassal wretch to be:
Only my plague thus far I count my gain,
That she that makes me sin awards me pain.
Original Text
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Commentary on Sonnet 141 “In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes”
The speaker is taunting the “dark lady” by demeaning her looks and denying her ability to attract him physically, yet at the same time insisting that he foolishly remains allured by her.
First Quatrain: Not so Easy on the Eyes
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes
For they in thee a thousand errors note;
But ’tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who, in despite of view, is pleas’d to dote.
The speaker addresses the mistress again, telling her that, in fact, she is not really that easy on the eyes, and his eyes detect “a thousand errors” in her appearance. But even as his eyes “despise” what they see, his “heart” loves her “despite of view.” And therefore he is “pleas’d to dote” on her.
This seeming change of heart could merely be a ploy, simply another attempt to halt the woman’s infidelity. He might be attempting to end her hold on him. He knows that she is vain about her appearance as well as her personality.
And thus he is likely attempting to use reverse psychology to encourage her to be more attentive to him. If she comes to believe that he does not actually appreciate her for her looks, he could possibly break off with her before she can break up with him.
Second Quatrain: Not so Pleasing to the Senses
Nor are mine ears with thy tongue’s tune delighted;
Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell desire to be invited
To any sensual feast with thee alone:
The speaker then continues his denigration of the woman’s attributes. He does not even care that much for the sound of her voice. As a matter of fact, he tells her, she does not particularly please any of his senses.
In sonnet 130, he demonstrates how she does not compare favorably with a goddess, but now he notes that she does not compare well with other women. His senses of hearing, touch, taste, and smell are as unmoved by her as his sense of sight is.
Third Quatrain: Reduced to Less Than a Man
But my five wits nor my five senses can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who leaves unsway’d the likeness of a man,
Thy proud heart’s slave and vassal wretch to be:
Despite the negative knowledge communicated to him by his five senses, his “foolish heart” cannot stop itself “from serving [her].” Because he has become her love slave, he hardly still resembles “the likeness of a man.” He is a disgusting human vessel and not a real man at all.
The Couplet: The Pain of Sin
Only my plague thus far I count my gain,
That she that makes me sin awards me pain.
All he receives from this relationship is a “plague.” She motivates him to sin, and all he gets out of it “pain.” He is taunting her, as he feigns his displeasure with your looks, but he is also quite serious as he bemoans the lustful relationship in which he seems to be inexorably tangled.
The speaker’s sense of worthlessness in the face of committing these adulterous sins with this woman is making him see her what she is—a disgraceful trollop. Her qualities, which under more pleasant circumstances might be deemed pleasant or even beautiful, are diminished by the reality of her dark heart and unseemly behavior.
Shakespeare Sonnet 142 “Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate”
The speaker in sonnet 142 “Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate” employs financial and legal metaphors to denounce the sins of the dark lady, as he accounts for his own sins against his soul.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 142 “Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate”
The speaker continues to cajole this woman into treating him with some semblance of kindness. His legal and financial metaphors fit the severity of his tone as well as the dramatic importance of the suffering of his sad heart. He seems to know that a day of reckoning is coming to both of them, as he continues to beg her to abandon her evil ways.
Sonnet 142 “Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate”
Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate
Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving:
O! but with mine compare thou thine own state,
And thou shalt find it merits not reproving;
Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine,
That have profan’d their scarlet ornaments
And seal’d false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robb’d others’ beds’ revenues of their rents.
Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lov’st those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee:
Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows,
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
By self-example mayst thou be denied!
Original Text
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Commentary on Sonnet 142 “Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate”
The speaker in sonnet 142 employs financial and legal metaphors to denounce the sins of the dark lady, as he accounts for his own sins against his soul.
First Quatrain: Sad State of an Affair
Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate
Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving:
O! but with mine compare thou thine own state,
And thou shalt find it merits not reproving;
In sonnet 142, addressing the mistress, the speaker is again complaining about the sad state of their affair. He chortles that his sin is love, a term he uses as a euphemism for lust. Yet as bad as his sin is, the sin of the mistress is worse because she is guilty of just plain “hate,” which he also euphemizes by qualifying the phrase with a sarcastic “dear virtue.”
Then the speaker exclaims, “O!,” and commands her to compare the sins, which he calls their “state” and insists that the comparison will reveal his state superior to hers. At least he can euphemize his lust and call it “love”; she cannot convert hate into love, regardless of her disingenuousness.
Second Quatrain: Accusations
Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine,
That have profan’d their scarlet ornaments
And seal’d false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robb’d others’ beds’ revenues of their rents.
This clever speaker then offers to suggest an alternative scenario: if she concludes the comparison and still prevaricates with her very self-same mouth, it is because her lips have made a mockery of their red decoration. Again, he appears to be accusing her of yielding up herself promiscuously to others: she has “seal’d false bond” with other men, to whom he lies as often as she lies with him. (Pun intended.)
The woman has “[r]obb’d others’ beds’ revenues of their rents.” This metaphoric drama likely is a thinly veiled accusation of prostitution. This speaker seems to be dragging his heart and mind through the mud for this woman, and she still treats him with disdain, which he undoubtedly realizes he has earned.
Third Quatrain: Breaking Spiritual Laws
Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lov’st those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee:
Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows,
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
The speaker speculates that if what she is doing is legal, then his desire for her is also legal. This conjecture is a pretentious way of stating what the speaker already knows: that their relationship is not “lawful.” He is breaking spiritual laws that will keep his soul in bondage, and he knows it.
The clever speaker is sure that she does not know this, because she is bound tightly to worldliness. So he offers his conditional ploy in order to suggest that she should, therefore, take pity on him; after all, there may come a time when she will also long for pity.
The Couplet: The Law of Karma
If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
By self-example mayst thou be denied!
Finally, the speaker asserts that if the woman fails to pity him and remove his pain and suffering in their relationship, she will eventually find herself in the same position he is. She will be denied all pity and comfort as she has denied him. He is admonishing her that her chickens will come home to roost.
Shakespeare Sonnet 143 “Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch”
In an uproariously funny drama, the speaker likens himself to a naughty baby who chases and cries for his mother after she speeds off to fetch a fleeing chicken.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 143 “Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch”
The speaker in sonnet 143 “Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch” uses a complex structure of adverbial clauses to express his notion that as a housewife runs after her fleeing bird (first quatrain), while her infant tries to follow her and wails after her (second quatrain), thus he behaves toward to his dark beauty (third quatrain); therefore, he will make a plea (couplet).
Sonnet 143 “Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch”
Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
One of her feather’d creatures broke away,
Sets down her babe, and makes all quick dispatch
In pursuit of the thing she would have stay;
Whilst her neglected child holds her in chase,
Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent
To follow that which flies before her face,
Not prizing her poor infant’s discontent:
So runn’st thou after that which flies from thee,
Whilst I thy babe chase thee afar behind;
But if thou catch thy hope, turn back to me,
And play the mother’s part, kiss me, be kind;
So will I pray that thou mayst have thy Will,
If thou turn back and my loud crying still.
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Commentary on Sonnet 143 “Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch”
The speaker is likening himself to a naughty baby who chases and cries for his mother after she speeds off to fetch a fleeing chicken.
First Quatrain: A Chase Scene
Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
One of her feather’d creatures broke away,
Sets down her babe, and makes all quick dispatch
In pursuit of the thing she would have stay;
The speaker creates a dramatic scene in which a housewife/mother begins to run after one of her chickens that has managed to escape the coop and is fleeing to parts unknown. The housewife/mother, plops down her infant and quickly speeds off in quest of the chicken.
The first quatrain offers only one complex clause of the complex sentence of which this sonnet is composed. An entanglement of grammatical and technical elements often pops up in this speaker’s discourse, and his dexterity in sorting them out supplies the evidence that his appraisal of his writing talent is not mere braggadocio in the earlier sonnets.
Second Quatrain: Wailing after His Mother
Whilst her neglected child holds her in chase,
Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent
To follow that which flies before her face,
Not prizing her poor infant’s discontent:
The unfortunate child is then attempting to catch the mother and goes wailing after her as she runs after the bird. The child keeps his eye peeled on the mother, who is hell-bent on retrieving the bird. Although the child is heartbroken while the mother runs after the critter, the mother is hardly cognizant of her baby at all, because she so covets recovery of the chicken.
Third Quatrain: Hilarious Dramatic Comparison
So runn’st thou after that which flies from thee,
Whilst I thy babe chase thee afar behind;
But if thou catch thy hope, turn back to me,
And play the mother’s part, kiss me, be kind;
In the third quatrain, the speaker then spits out his comparison: the dark mistress plays the role of the mother, while the speaker portrays “[her] babe.” The woman continues to fly from the arms of the speaker, chasing the affection of other men.
But the speaker, even as he offers his hilarious dramatic comparison, also hopes to soften the woman’s heart by asserting that the mother will eventually return to her babe and shower him with kisses and be kind to him. He is urging the lady to behave similarly towards him.
The Couplet: Punning His Nom de Plume
So will I pray that thou mayst have thy Will,
If thou turn back and my loud crying still.
The speaker has become so enamored of his “Will” pun that he exploits it again in this sonnet. He will “pray” that the woman “may[ ] have [her] Will.” Punning on his pseudonym, he claims he is praying that she achieve her wishes by returning to him.
Whatever she is chasing, whether sexual gratification or vanity of some sort, the speaker tries to assure her that he can fulfill her desires, if only she will “turn back” to him and stop his “crying” for her.
Shakespeare Sonnet 144 “Two loves I have of comfort and despair”
In sonnet 144 “Two loves I have of comfort and despair,” the speaker is examining the ambiguity of human nature, particularly his own: he prefers to be guided by his “better angel” who is “right fair,” but he is tempted too often by a “worser spirit.”
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 144 “Two loves I have of comfort and despair”
The speaker in sonnet 144 from the classic Shakespeare 154-sonnet sequence has become disheartened by his having made many bad choices that leave him in “despair” rather than in “comfort.” He analyzes the two natures that seem to be battling within him, a battle of good and evil, of good angels vs bad angels.
While the speaker seems to be leaning toward believing that his better nature is losing that battle, he does leave open the possibility of the opposite occurrence. Although “doubt” is a painful human condition, at least it is not a positive or declarative state. Doubt may lean toward the negative, but with further evidence, doubt can be changed to understanding and faith.
Sonnet 144 “Two loves I have of comfort and despair”
Two loves I have of comfort and despair
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman, colour’d ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turn’d fiend
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another’s hell:
Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
Original Text
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Commentary on Sonnet 144 “Two loves I have of comfort and despair”
As the speaker examines the ambiguity of his nature, he asserts that he prefers to be guided by his “better angel” who is “right fair,” but he is tempted too often by a “worser spirit.” This common human problem finds a colorful treatment by this clever, muse-inspired poet.
First Quatrain: Dual Nature
Two loves I have of comfort and despair
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman, colour’d ill.
In the first quatrain of sonnet 144, the speaker reports that there are “two loves” residing in his consciousness. The famous German poet/playwright, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, created a similar situation for his Faust, who uttered the words, “Zwei Seelen, ach!, wohnen in meinem Brust,” (Two spirits, alas, reside in my heart.)
This ambiguity continually presents a universal conundrum for the human condition. One wants to follow the path of goodness and morality, yet lustful urges tempt one to commit sins against the soul.
The great spiritual guru, Paramahansa Yogananda, has clearly explained that the strong delusional forces of maya befuddle and misdirect through confusion the human mind. Those forces motivate human beings to think that evil will bring happiness, and that self-discipline will bring misery and unhappiness, and by the time we poor indulgent fools learn the truth, we are usually neck-deep in the sorrow that our ignorance has brought.
Thus the speaker realizes that his better nature, which would bring him “comfort,” is often outflanked by the “worser spirit.” He is then thrust into a situation that evokes in him “despair.”
The “better nature” is masculine and the “worser” is feminine; these qualities do not correspond to human sex or gender in language declension; instead, they refer to the principles that govern the pairs of opposites, which function as the modus operandi of maya or delusion.
Both women and men become plagued with the same problems, and both must solve the problem by the same method that transcends the physical and mental to thus attain the spiritual; therefore, the better nature is “right fair,” while the worse is “colour’d ill.”
Second Quatrain: The Battle of the Angels
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
The “female evil,” if he continues to follow it, will lead him to hell because it causes him to ignore, and therefore, weaken his “better angel.” Instead of becoming a saint, he will “be a devil.” The “foul pride” will overtake “his purity,” if he allows it to happen.
This perceptive speaker understands the nature of duality, and he also understands the strength that that duality exerts over the human mind and heart. His lament is directed to his own nature.
He knows he must discipline himself in order to straighten his ability to continue his journey down his path. He is, therefore, using his knowledge to explain and also persuade his better nature to exert itself against his evil side. By elucidating the nature of good and evil, he hopes to influence his better nature to make better choices in the future.
Third Quatrain: Uncertainty
And whether that my angel be turn’d fiend
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another’s hell:
Because both urges live in the same speaker, he cannot be sure how he will keep the evil urge from overtaking the good one. Perhaps his “angel” will “be turn’d fiend,” but since they both live in him, he can only “guess one angel (lives) in another’s hell.” The two collide, and the one causes the other to live in hell within him.
Although he possesses a certain level of understanding, the speaker remains aware that the evil may still overtake the good. He seems to cede power to the evil side, even against his will. But if he had perfect power along with the fail-proof protection against the evil, he would not have an argument or even the motivation to begin the argument.
The Couplet: A Hopeful Doubt
Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
The speaker seems to end on a sad note. Because the speaker suspects he will never be able to mollify the two parts of his psyche, he will “live in doubt.” Thus the “worser spirit” just might win the battle for his soul.
On the other hand, because at this point he knows he will continue to “live in doubt,” the possibility is left open that the “good one” will be able ultimately to overcome and extinguish the “bad angel.”
At his point in the creation of this thematic sonnet group, the speaker can allow himself the possibility of failure. If he fails, he will still have material for creating his little dramas, and if he succeeds in conquering his licentiousness, he will also remain in possession of a treasure trove of materials that will result in even more colorful and spiritually useful little dramatic sonnets.
Shakespeare Sonnet 145 “Those lips that Love’s own hand did make”
This sonnet may be the weakest of the entire set of 154. The speaker is reaching here, striving to make clever a rather mundane little scenario that falls flat.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 145 “Those lips that Love’s own hand did make”
Sonnet 145 “Those lips that Love’s own hand did make” demonstrates an unfortunate, shallow attempt at cleverness; thus it does not, in fact, accomplish that goal. The speaker simply sounds silly, as he appears to be concocting a situation while recounting a linguistic event with that despicable, dark lady.
The speaker is not directly addressing the woman in this sonnet as he is wont to do. Interestingly, this sonnet is written in iambic tetrameter, instead of the traditional pentameter, in which all of the other sonnets are written, giving a clipped, curt rhythm.
Sonnet 145 “Those lips that Love’s own hand did make”
Those lips that Love’s own hand did make
Breath’d forth the sound that said ‘I hate,’
To me that languish’d for her sake:
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was us’d in giving gentle doom;
And taught it thus anew to greet;
‘I hate,’ she alter’d with an end,
That follow’d it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away.
‘I hate’ from hate away she threw,
And sav’d my life, saying—‘Not you.’
Original Text
Better Reading
Commentary on Sonnet 145 “Those lips that Love’s own hand did make”
This sonnet is likely the weakest of the entire series of 154. The speaker is obviously reaching here, striving to make clever a rather mundane little scenario that falls flat.
First Quatrain: The Cleverness of Incompleteness
Those lips that Love’s own hand did make
Breath’d forth the sound that said ‘I hate,’
To me that languish’d for her sake:
But when she saw my woeful state,
In the first quatrain, the speaker reports that the woman has spewed forth the expression, “I hate,” and he makes the contrast between the lips “that Love’s own hand [had] made,” and the expression of hatred that they pronounced. He reveals that she said these vile words to him even as he had been pining for her.
The speaker then begins to report a turn-around of the lady’s sentiment by stating, “But when she saw my woeful state,” which he leaves for the next quatrain. This construction is no doubt part of his attempt at cleverness by leaving the thought uncompleted.
Second Quatrain: Wiping Clean the Hatred
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was us’d in giving gentle doom;
And taught it thus anew to greet;
The speaker reveals that after seeing his sorrowful expression, she suddenly becomes sympathetic towards him. He makes it difficult to accept his claim that “straight in her heart mercy c[a]me.”
In early sonnets, he has painted her the epitome of evil will toward him, but now he wants to play a little game with words. The reader has to believe the speaker is deluding himself.
But, nevertheless, the speaker claims that she changes her hatred and even chides herself for causing him pain. He would have his listener believe that she is truly sorry for using her tongue “in giving gentle doom.” She, accordingly, wipes clean her earlier expression of hatred and begins again.
Third Quatrain: The Clever Construct
‘I hate,’ she alter’d with an end,
That follow’d it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away.
However, when the woman restates her expression, the same “I hate,” comes flying from her mouth. But, and here is the clever construction of which the speaker feels very proud: she concluded her spiteful remark with one that became mild and natural as daylight following nighttime or like some devil being expelled from heaven and deposited in hell where he belongs.
The speaker seems to understand that no matter what he says to delude himself, beneath the façade he knows the truth: she is surely that fiend whom heaven has expelled to hell. After setting up these contrasts, the speaker waits for the couplet to complete his little twist.
The Couplet: Gullible and Easy to Please
‘I hate’ from hate away she threw,
And sav’d my life, saying—‘Not you.’
The lady then tells him that she does actually hate, but she does not hate him. And he buys into that, or at least pretends to, and thus claims that she has saved his life. He is easy to please at times.
Shakespeare Sonnet 146 “Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth”
The speaker in sonnet 146 “Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth” addresses his soul (his true self), asking it why it bothers to continue to bedeck an aging body, when the soul is so much more important.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 146 “Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth”
As the speaker in sonnet 146 “Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth” has for many years concentrated upon creativity, he has gained awareness that the decaying physical encasement cannot deserve the intense interest and attention that it often receives. The speaker’s goal remains a moving force in his life. He wishes to acquire soul knowledge that is permanent.
Such a lofty goal is the natural result of having lived a life of truth seeking for his creative efforts to fashion important sonnets that sing with love, beauty, and, above all, truth. His constant sparring with his muse and untiring work in his writing have engaged him and placed him on a path to soul-realization.
The speaker desires to rise above the vicissitudes of earthly living to enter into a realm of existence that allows one to know that death can never claim him. He is the soul, not the body, and the soul is immortal, and as he comes to unite with his immortal soul, he can aver that “there’s no more dying then.”
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth
Fool’d by these rebel powers that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body’s end?
Then soul, live thou upon thy servant’s loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more:
So shall thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there’s no more dying then.
Original Text
Better Reading
Commentary on Sonnet 146 “Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth”
The speaker in sonnet 146 addresses his soul (his true self), asking it why it bothers to continue to bedeck an aging body, when the soul is so much more important.
First Quatrain: Fooled by Physical Temptations
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth
Fool’d by these rebel powers that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
In the first quatrain, the speaker of sonnet 146 directs a question to his soul, that is, his own true self: oh, my soul, why do you allow yourself to suffer within this expensively decorated outer body? He is metaphorically comparing his physical body to a building; his outer frame flesh and skin are likened to “walls.”
The speaker is suffering as all mortals suffer, but he is aware that inwardly he is an immortal soul, and therefore, he finds it difficult to understand why he allows himself to be “fool’d by these rebel powers that thee array,” or fooled by the temptations of the physical body.
Second Quatrain: The Temporary Abode of the Soul
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body’s end?
The speaker poses another question with a similar theme: why bother with a clod of clay in which the soul will remain for only a short while? Why spend time, effort, treasure on things for the body, which “worms, inheritors of this excess” will soon feast upon?
The speaker has grown weary of the constant care and adornment of the body, especially the procurement of elegant raiment that serves no purpose and begins to look unsightly when placed upon an aging body. The body is not important; only the soul is essential, and the speaker wants to follow and drive home the precepts that accompany this realization.
Third Quatrain: To Rely More on Soul than Body
Then soul, live thou upon thy servant’s loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more:
Because of the temporary stewardship of the body, the speaker instructs himself to live more inwardly, and let the body learn to live simply and modestly: “Then soul, live thou upon thy servant’s loss, / And let that pine to aggravate thy store.”
The speaker tells himself to meditate on the Divine soul within and pay less attention to the gross outward coat of flesh: “Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross; / Within be fed, without be rich no more.” He needs to be nourished by his spirit and not by his body.
The Couplet: To Overcome Death
So shall thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there’s no more dying then.
If the speaker were to continue to meditate on his true self and study the ways of the Divine Reality, he will be able to outsmart death. Although ordinary folks permit death to overtake them, those blessed ones who unite with the soul become capable of transcending death, as they realize finally that the soul lives eternally: “there’s no more dying then.”
This speaker continues to hold himself to his noble goal, one which remains the natural result of living a life filled with extraordinary creativity while sparring with the muse that he has always found engaging.
Where Is the “Dark Lady”?
Because this sonnet is categorized with the “Dark Lady” sonnets, readers might wonder why there is nary a mention of her or the plight against which the speaker has been struggling in the sonnets leading up to this one.
Remember that the speaker is suffering deeply because of the cruel treatment he has received from a woman who is supposed to love him. Thus far he has complained, accused, and then groveled at the feet of this miscreant. The issue tackled in this sonnet is motived directly by the pain and suffering the woman has caused the speaker.
He is now to the point of wondering if life is even worth living if one has to continue to grovel in pain without end. He is thus trying to remind his own better nature that his suffering is not necessary. And he is doing so by reminding himself that he is an immortal, perfect soul—not the physical body tossed about by delusional senses that lead him into perdition.
Although she remains out the sight in this scene, she is behind it: the “Dark Lady” is directly responsible for the speaker’s mood in this sonnet. She is directly responsible for the deep anguish and troubling sorrows that are motivating the speaker to concentrate on and to continue to seek higher goals than the mere physical. The dark lady is part of the physical, sexual world from which the speaker is now attempting to extricate himself.
Shakespeare Sonnet 147 “My love is as a fever, longing still”
In sonnet 147 “My love is as a fever, longing still,” the speaker is examining and ultimately condemning his unhealthy attachment to the dark lady.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 147 “My love is as a fever, longing still”
Sonnet 147 from the classic Shakespeare 154-sonnet sequence at first appears to be merely the speaker’s musing about his uncontrolled desires for the affection of the mistress, but it turns out that he is actually addressing her as he examines his spurious affair with her.
Sonnet 147 “My love is as a fever, longing still”
My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease;
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
The uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now Reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are,
At random from the truth vainly express’d;
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
Original Text
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Commentary on Sonnet 147 “My love is as a fever, longing still”
The speaker examines and condemns his unhealthy attachment to the dark lady, bemoaning his loss of reason, the result of allowing his lower nature to rule his conscience.
First Quatrain: Still in the Clutches
My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease;
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
The uncertain sickly appetite to please.
In the first quatrain, the speaker confesses that he remains in the clutches of sexual attraction to the woman. He understand that this desire is degrading his health, and thus he labels it a “sickly appetite.” He declaims that not only is this unhealthy hankering a dreadful disease, but that it also continues to feed upon itself, nursing and perpetuating itself, resulting in the horrific situation, in which he finds himself.
Reasoning that his emotional state is eliciting and perpetuating this debased condition, he decides to display his longing in medical terms, using such terms as “fever,” “nurseth,” “disease,” and “ill.” All of these images contribute to causing the patient have a”sickly appetite” that he believes he must discover how to ameliorate.
Second Quatrain: Reason Has Faded
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
The speaker then claims that his “reason,” or medical professional metaphorically his ability to think clearly, has abandoned him. He can no longer think logically, because of his irrational desire to engage in an unhealthy relationship with the slattern, to whom he has permitted himself the sad state of becoming attached.
The speaker says that because of his forgotten ability to reason he is continuing to confuse desire with death. He continues to be aware that his reasonable physician, if he were still communicating with that entity, would still be keeping him aware of the instinct to keep soul and body together.
Third Quatrain: Irrationality Has Stolen His Mind
Past cure I am, now Reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are,
At random from the truth vainly express’d;
The speaker then grumbles that he is beyond help in curing his ailment, and he has also lost his capacity to be concerned about his delusional state. He deems himself, “frantic-mad with evermore unrest.” Individuals who continually allow the sex urge to dominate and contaminate their thoughts discover that it becomes virtually hopeless to put that genie back in the bottle.
The strong force of sex longings overpowers reason, and once aroused, passion aggressively demands gratification. The speaker knows that he has permitted himself to be driven by perverse desires that cause “[his] thoughts” and his even speech to become as frenzied as that of a madman. He discovers that he had become unsteady in his ability to search for truth, a central tenant of his faith and action that had remained his main interest as he creates his art.
The Couplet: Not Loving
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
In the couplet, the speaker begins to find some clarity. He has been addressing his ravings to this woman and is now ready to hurl appropriate accusations at the filthy slattern. He also reveals the exact spot on which his mental health is now shining its light: he made the mistake of believing that the woman was a loving as well as lovely creature.
But her true personality and behavior have revealed to him a monstrous prevaricator, who is incapable of truth and fidelity. Instead of fair and bright, this miscreant’s behavior determines her to be “black as hell” and “dark as night.”
Shakespeare Sonnet 148 “O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head”
In sonnet 148 “O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head,” the sonneteer has come to the end of his ability to explore new themes in his sonnet sequence: he is now rehashing the disparity between what he sees and what is there.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 148 “O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head”
Sonnet 148 has the speaker speculating again about the disparity between his “eyes” and his brain. He avers that his “judgment” has abandoned him because his eyes continue to deceive him: he sees beauty that allures him, but beneath the skin of that beauty lie “foul faults.”
Sonnet 148 “O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head”
O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head
Which have no correspondence with true sight;
Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,
That censures falsely what they see aright?
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love’s eye is not so true as all men’s: no.
How can it? O! how can Love’s eye be true,
That is so vex’d with watching and with tears?
No marvel then, though I mistake my view;
The sun itself sees not till heaven clears.
O cunning Love! with tears thou keep’st me blind,
Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.
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Commentary on Sonnet 148 “O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head”
The sonneteer has come to end of his ability to explore new themes in this group of sonnets: he is now rehashing the disparity between what he sees and what is there.
First Quatrain: Deceptive Eyes
O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head
Which have no correspondence with true sight;
Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,
That censures falsely what they see aright?
In sonnet 141, the speaker begins by telling the mistress that because he sees many flaws in her outward beauty, he does not hold affection for her by looking at her. And in sonnet 148, once again, he is broaching the subject of the deception of his “eyes”: what he sees does not correspond to with the reality of what is actually there.
He then conjectures that if his eyes are seeing correctly, then his discernment is gone, leaving him unable to distinguish right from wrong, error from accuracy, moral from immoral. In sonnet 141, he blames his lack of discrimination on his “heart,” while in sonnet 148, he simply condemns his ability to think clearly.
Second Quatrain: False Eyes
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love’s eye is not so true as all men’s: no.
The speaker continues to examine the possibility that his eyes simply do not see what is before him. He again tries to rationalize his feelings by comparison to what others think.
If his “false eyes” see correctly, and his lady is truly “fair,” then others have to be sitting in false judgment. However, if what he sees is, in fact, tainted, then his eyes are “not so true as all men’s.” He then reinforces the negative that he has come to believe with the simple negation, “no.”
Third Quatrain: Troubled Eyes
How can it? O! how can Love’s eye be true,
That is so vex’d with watching and with tears?
No marvel then, though I mistake my view;
The sun itself sees not till heaven clears.
The speaker then questions—”How can it?”—which he extends for clarification, “O! how can Love’s eye be true, / That is so vex’d with watching and with tears?” Reasoning that because his eyes are troubled by what he sees the woman do and then by the fact that he cries tears that blind his vision, he compares his eyes to the “sun” which “sees not till heaven clears.”
By using his reason, he has determined that he could not possibly be seeing his mistress in all her reality because not only is his heart lead astray but his very eyesight in literally distorted from the real tears he sheds over the strained relationship.
The Couplet: Blinded by Tears
O cunning Love! with tears thou keep’st me blind,
Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.
The speaker sums up his situation by craftily laying the blame at the woman’s feet: she deliberately keeps him blinded by tears, so that his normally “well-seeing” eyes cannot detect her “foul faults.”
Shakespeare Sonnet 149 “Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not”
In sonnet 149 “Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not,” the speaker poses six rhetorical questions to the “dark lady,” still attempting to find out her reason for the constant cruelty she metes out to him who adores her so.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 149 “Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not”
Sonnet 149 from the classic Shakespeare 154-sonnet sequence is composed of a set of six rhetorical questions—a literary device in which the question contains its own answer. For example, a paraphrase of the the opening question might be, “Are you really able to claim that I do not love you when you see me acting against my own best interests by continuing this ruinous relationship with you?”
As a statement: Even though you claim that I do not love you, you can see that I act against my own best interest by continuing this ruinous relationship with you. Likewise, the second question is: “Don’t you understand that for you I debase myself with self-cruelty?” And its implication is: “You well understand that for you I debase myself with self-cruelty.”
The sonnet then continues with four further rhetorical questions. The speaker fashions his complaint into questions in order to add emphasis to their meaning, which is the function of all rhetorical questions. The couplet caps the series with a heavily sarcastic command.
Sonnet 149 “Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not”
Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not
When I against myself with thee partake?
Do I not think on thee, when I forgot
Am of myself, all tyrant, for thy sake?
Who hateth thee that I do call my friend?
On whom frown’st thou that I do fawn upon?
Nay, if thou lour’st on me, do I not spend
Revenge upon myself with present moan?
What merit do I in myself respect,
That is so proud thy service to despise,
When all my best doth worship thy defect,
Commanded by the motion of thine eyes?
But, love, hate on, for now I know thy mind;
Those that can see thou lov’st, and I am blind.
Original Text
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Commentary on Sonnet 149 “Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not”
Attempting to ferret out the dark lady’s reason for the constant cruelty she metes out to him, the befuddled but still clever speaker now concocts his drama by posing six cleverly worded rhetorical questions to the slattern.
First Quatrain: Groaning and Complaining
Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not
When I against myself with thee partake?
Do I not think on thee, when I forgot
Am of myself, all tyrant, for thy sake?
The first two rhetorical questions of sonnet 149 appear in the first quatrain and may be paraphrased as follows: 1. Are you really able to claim that I do not love you when you see me acting against my own best interests by continuing this ruinous relationship with you? 2. Don’t you understand that for you I debase myself with self-cruelty?
Throughout this “Dark Lady” thematic group of the sonnet sequence, the speaker has continued to groan and complain about how he is kinder to the woman than he is to himself.
He continues to swallow his pride and hand over his own thoughts and feelings to a supercilious woman who spurns him and abuses him and then audaciously insists that he does not hold affection for her.
Second Quatrain: Sacrificing for Mistreatment
Who hateth thee that I do call my friend?
On whom frown’st thou that I do fawn upon?
Nay, if thou lour’st on me, do I not spend
Revenge upon myself with present moan?
Rhetorical questions 3, 4, and 5 continue in the second quatrain, and may be paraphrased as follows: 3. Have I not estranged myself from all those who have spoken ill of you? 4. Are you not aware that I scorn anyone who scorns you? 5. And as you look at me with disdain, do I not berate myself for your sake?
The speaker is confessing that he has sacrificed other friends for her sake. And he even scolds himself after she makes him think that he is to blame for her disagreeable treatment of him. He wants to make her realize that he has been willing to surrender not only other friends, but also his own self-interest for her sake.
Third Quatrain: Self-Hate and Low Self-Esteem
What merit do I in myself respect,
That is so proud thy service to despise,
When all my best doth worship thy defect,
Commanded by the motion of thine eyes?
The final question comprises the entire third quatrain. A paraphrase might result as: 6. When you see me under the spell of your wondering eyes, how do you think I should have any self-esteem left when I virtually hate myself in order to serve your blundering ways?
The speaker has become desperate to understand the betrayal of trust and appreciation he feels he deserves after remaining dedicated to serving this deceitful woman’s needs. He knows he has degraded himself while allowing his senses to rule him instead of his balanced mind.
The Couplet: Seeing What Is Not There
But, love, hate on, for now I know thy mind;
Those that can see thou lov’st, and I am blind.
In the couplet, the speaker seems to throw up his hands telling the woman to go ahead and hate him if she must. But at least he finally knows what she is thinking. He adds a final, sarcastic jab: anyone who thinks that you can love is fooling himself, and yet I consider myself the deluded one.
Depending upon how one reads the last line, another interpretation is also possible: the speaker wishes to contrast himself with those men that the “dark lady” would love; thus, he claims that she loves only the ones who “can see,” and therefore, she cannot love him, because he is blind.
Shakespeare Sonnet 150 “O! from what power hast thou this powerful might”
The speaker of the “dark lady” sonnets has become addicted to this form of poetic rhetoric, employing it often, posing four questions in the quatrains of sonnet 150 “O! from what power hast thou this powerful might.”
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 150 “O! from what power hast thou this powerful might”
In sonnet 150 “O! from what power hast thou this powerful might,” again the speaker poses questions to the mistress, and again they are questions that only he can answer. The form of questioning is merely a rhetorical device and is not concerned with gathering answers from this person, who he knows would not have the intelligence to answer anyway.
Sonnet 150 “O! from what power hast thou this powerful might”
O! from what power hast thou this powerful might
With insufficiency my heart to sway?
To make me give the lie to my true sight,
And swear that brightness doth not grace the day?
Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill,
That in the very refuse of thy deeds
There is such strength and warrantise of skill,
That, in my mind, thy worst all best exceeds?
Who taught thee how to make me love thee more,
The more I hear and see just cause of hate?
O! though I love what others do abhor,
With others thou shouldst not abhor my state:
If thy unworthiness rais’d love in me,
More worthy I to be belov’d of thee.
Original Text
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Commentary on Sonnet 150 “O! from what power hast thou this powerful might”
The speaker of sonnet 150 “O! from what power hast thou this powerful might” knows that the “dark lady” would not have the intelligence to answer any of the questions he poses to her. Why does he ask them? As most rhetorical questions do, they function to emphasize the answer they imply.
First Quatrain: Two Questions
O! from what power hast thou this powerful might
With insufficiency my heart to sway?
To make me give the lie to my true sight,
And swear that brightness doth not grace the day?
The first quatrain contains two questions: where does it come from, this force you exert to cause my heart to bend to your wishes? He adds that even though she possesses this “powerful might,” he labels it “with insufficiency” making it known that he understands how lame her power really is.
The weakness of her power reveals ever more clearly how wretched the speaker has become from all of his attention paid to this unworthy woman. He knows she can only do him harm, weaken his resolve to live a moral life, distract him from his previously stated goals of the pursuit of truth and beauty. His outbursts cause his sonnets to resemble a confessional, but instead of dumping his sins onto a priest, he crafts them into works of art.
His second question asks how she has the power to make him see what is not there. His sight becomes so distorted that he has not the ability to aver that the sun shines. Her ability to attract him to filth closes his eyes to all else that is good, clean, and bright.
Second Quatrain: Turning Everything Disgusting
Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill,
That in the very refuse of thy deeds
There is such strength and warrantise of skill,
That, in my mind, thy worst all best exceeds?
The third question takes up the entire second quatrain: how is it that you have the muscle to cause everything to turn disgusting and with “such strength” to cause “my mind” to believe that the worst things you do are better than the best that can be done.
The speaker, at this point, becomes nearly mad with a confused brain. Knowing that the woman is immoral, yet feeling without power to struggle against the attraction he maintains for her, he can only moan and complain bitterly in sonnet after dramatic sonnet.
Third Quatrain: Distorting His Feelings
Who taught thee how to make me love thee more,
The more I hear and see just cause of hate?
O! though I love what others do abhor,
With others thou shouldst not abhor my state:
The final question takes up the first two lines of the third quatrain: “who taught thee” how to distort my feelings? The more he experiences her harmful ways, that is, the more he experiences the things he knows he should hate, the more he appears to love her, or be attracted to her.
Although he seems to love what other people, who think with clarity, hate, he admonishes that her she should not agree with the others who find his own state of mind hateful. He seems always to be telling her what to think and feel, knowing his advice never exerts any influence on or awareness in her.
The Couplet: The Uncomprehending
If thy unworthiness rais’d love in me,
More worthy I to be belov’d of thee.
The speaker then sums up his rhetorical questioning with a strange remark: since this shady woman, who is lacking worth, has influenced him to be attracted to her, somehow it seems to follow that he is “worthy” of her love and affection. If the woman were capable of understanding such logic, not even this small brained strumpet would agree with such a sham conclusion.
Shakespeare Sonnet 151 “Love is too young to know what conscience is”
The speaker is studying the nature of “conscience” and “lust” and dramatizes the effect of lust on his other self that rises and falls through conscienceless motivation. He concocts one the ugliest images to appear in literary works—one that degrades him as he gives in to its lust.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 151 “Love is too young to know what conscience is”
In sonnet 151 “Love is too young to know what conscience is” from “The Dark Lady Sonnets” of the classic Shakespeare 154-sonnet sequence, the speaker is offering a clear comparison between the dictates of the flesh and the dictates of the soul. He reveals his awareness that certain bodily functions are capable of waylaying moral judgment.
Sonnet 151 “Love is too young to know what conscience is”
Love is too young to know what conscience is;
Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove:
For, thou betraying me, I do betray
My nobler part to my gross body’s treason;
My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love; flesh stays no further reason,
But rising at thy name doth point out thee
As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride,
He is contented thy poor drudge to be,
To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side.
No want of conscience hold it that I call
Her ‘love’ for whose dear love I rise and fall.
Original Text
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Commentary on Sonnet 151 “Love is too young to know what conscience is”
When the speaker fails to follow his intuition of truth, he falls victim to lecherous urges that blemish his soul. His stick of flesh pointing to the object of its lust takes his mind in the wrong direction.
First Quatrain: The Euphemistic Love
Love is too young to know what conscience is;
Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove:
The speaker asserts in the first line of the first quatrain of sonnet 151 that lust remains too immature to arise to the knowledge of wisdom that leads to proper behavior. He is again employing the term “love” as a euphemistic metaphor for “lust.” In the second line, he avers that “love” now employed literally and “conscience” are virtually identical, as “conscience” and soul are identical.
The speaker then puts forth the rhetorical question, what sentient human being is not cognizant of the fact that “conscience” is activated by love? But he knows that the “gentle cheater” does not know this. This physically beautiful woman does not possess a beautiful mind.
Thus he suggests to her that she not try to prove his flaws, for she might find that she is guilty of the same faults that he is. Of course, he does not believe this. He is winding down his relationship with her because he knows it has no future.
Second Quatrain: Relationship between Body and Soul
For, thou betraying me, I do betray
My nobler part to my gross body’s treason;
My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love; flesh stays no further reason,
The speaker then accurately describes the relationship between body and soul as well as between himself and the dark lady. When she betrays him, he follows and betrays his “nobler part” which is his soul. His “gross body” or physical body commits treason again his soul, every time he allows himself to be seduced by this woman.
The speaker reports that his soul tries to guide him to the right thing that he should do; his soul directs his body to act in ways that “he may / Triumph in love.” But “flesh stays no further reason.” The flesh is weak and succumbs even when the mind is strong.
Third Quatrain: Stick of Flesh
But rising at thy name doth point out thee
As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride,
He is contented thy poor drudge to be,
To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side.
The speaker completes the clause from the preceding quatrain, “flesh stays no further reason, / / But rising at thy name doth point out thee / As his triumphant prize.” Referring to his penile erection that occurs “at [her] name,” he makes a joke at the woman’s expense: she is a “triumphant prize” for this stick of flesh that is pointing at her. This depiction remains one of the ugliest and most repulsive images in English literature.
Continuing his penile reference, the speaker abandons himself to a full characterization of his male member, stating that the organ takes pride in its function and that “He” feels pleased just to be the woman’s “poor drudge.” “He” is happy to erect himself for her sake and remain limp beside her at other times.
The Couplet: Whole Self vs Stick of Self
No want of conscience hold it that I call
Her ‘love’ for whose dear love I rise and fall.
The speaker then declares that his male member has no conscience, and while his mind and consciousness are in the grip of lecherous strain, he mistakenly calls the lust he feels for her “love,” which he places in single scare quotes: ‘love’.
For her “dear love,” the speaker claims he “rise[s] and fall[s],” cleverly suggesting a parallel between his whole self and his other little flesh stick of self that also rises and falls at her behest.
Shakespeare Sonnet 152 “In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn”
Sonnet 152 “In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn”is the final sonnet that directly addresses the “dark lady”; it is quite fitting that it closes with the same complaint he has long issued against the woman.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 152 “In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn”
In the first line of sonnet 152 “In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn” from “The Dark Lady Sonnets” in the classic Shakespeare 154-sonnet sequence, the speaker commits the grammatical sin of a dangling participle: “In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn”—the prepositional modifying phrase “in loving thee” requires that element modified be “thou.” That modification, however, makes no sense.
The speaker is not saying that the addressee, the dark lady, is loving herself. The proper modified element is “I,” which appears in the clause “I am forsworn.” The grammatical constructions of this poet are nearly pristine in their correct usage. He, no doubt, is relying on the second line to clear up the misunderstanding that his dangling participle causes.
Sonnet 152 “In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn”
In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn
But thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing;
In act thy bed-vow broke, and new faith torn,
In vowing new hate after new love bearing.
But why of two oaths’ breach do I accuse thee,
When I break twenty? I am perjur’d most;
For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee,
And all my honest faith in thee is lost:
For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness,
Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy; And, to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindness,
Or made them swear against the thing they see;
For I have sworn thee fair; more perjur’d I,
To swear against the truth so foul a lie!
Original Text
Better Reading
Commentary on Sonnet 152 “In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn”
The speaker concludes his “dark lady” subsequence by issuing the same complaint with which he began the sequence. While the two final sonnets—153 and 154—remain technically part of the “Dark Lady” thematic group, they function differently, and sonnet 152 is actually the final sonnet to address the lady directly.
First Quatrain: Legalese and Love
In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn
But thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing;
In act thy bed-vow broke, and new faith torn,
In vowing new hate after new love bearing.
As he has done many times before, the speaker resorts to legal terminology as he continues winding up his dramatic study of his tumultuous relationship with the dark lady.
He reminds her that she already knows he has sworn to love her, but then he adds a paradoxical statement, “But thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing.” She broke her vow to be sexually faithful by bedding other men, and then she broke her vow to love him by telling him she hates him.
Second Quatrain: Lost Faith
But why of two oaths’ breach do I accuse thee,
When I break twenty? I am perjur’d most;
For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee,
And all my honest faith in thee is lost:
The speaker then poses the question, why should I blame you for breaking two vows when I break twenty? He claims that he is “perjur’d most” or that he has told more lies than she has. He claims that, on the one hand, he makes his vows only to “misuse thee.” Yet on the other hand, all the faith he has in her “is lost.”
Third Quatrain: Bestowing Unmerited Qualities
For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness,
Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy; And, to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindness,
Or made them swear against the thing they see;
It turns out that the speaker’s “oaths” held the noble purpose of giving the woman all those qualities that she lacks: love, truth, constancy. He has attempted repeatedly to elicit from her “deep kindness” all of these noble qualities. By showing her how to trust, he had hoped she would become trustworthy.
In addition, the disheartened speaker had hoped to enlighten her by opening her eyes to more decent ways of behaving, but he ultimately found himself lying to himself, trying to convince his own eyes that what they saw was false, that he pretended for the sake of his misplaced affection for this woman.
The Couplet: Swearing and Lying
For I have sworn thee fair; more perjur’d I,
To swear against the truth so foul a lie!
The speaker has many times declared that the woman was “fair,” and he now admits that such swearing made him a liar. He committed perjury against truth by swearing to “so foul a lie.”
The conclusion of the relationship is achieved through the implied finality of the legalese terminology that denounces for the last time the source of falsehood and treachery. His final admission allows him to leave the relationship, knowing that truth in on his side.
Shakespeare Sonnets 153 “Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep“
Sonnet 153 “Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep” alludes to Roman mythology through the characters of Cupid, god of love, and Diana, goddess of the hunt.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 153 “Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep“
The two final sonnets 153 and 154 are nearly identical; 154 is essentially a paraphrase of 153. They differ from the other “dark lady” poems in two main ways: they do not address the lady directly as most of the others do, and they employ use of Roman mythology for purposes of analogy.
Sonnet 153 “Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep”
Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep
A maid of Dian’s this advantage found,
And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep
In a cold valley-fountain of that ground;
Which borrow’d from this holy fire of Love
A dateless lively heat, still to endure,
And grew a seething bath, which yet men prove
Against strange maladies a sovereign cure.
But at my mistress’ eye Love’s brand new-fired,
The boy for trial needs would touch my breast;
I, sick withal, the help of bath desired,
And thither hied, a sad distemper’d guest,
But found no cure: the bath for my help lies
Where Cupid got new fire, my mistress’ eyes.
Original Text
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Commentary onSonnet 153 “Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep“
Sonnet 153 alludes to Roman mythology through the characters of Cupid, god of love, and Diana, goddess of the hunt.
First Quatrain: Carrying a Torch
Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep
A maid of Dian’s this advantage found,
And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep
In a cold valley-fountain of that ground;
In the first quatrain of Sonnet 153, the speaker, who is still the same speaker smarting from his unsatisfactory love affair with the dark mistress, dramatically alludes to the Roman god of love, Cupid. In this little drama, Cupid falls asleep leaving his torch unattended. One of Diana’s handmaidens sees Cupid asleep and steals off with his torch, which she tries to extinguish by dipping in a cold-spring pool of water.
The speaker, in addition to exposing yet again his suffering at the hands of his dark mistress, is dramatizing a myth wherein medicinal hot springs is created. His clever portrayal also employs an analogy between the Cupid torch and his own physical and mental torch of love. The expression “to carry a torch” for someone after the breakup of a romance comes from the mythological Cupid with his torch.
Second Quatrain: From Cold to Hot Springs
Which borrow’d from this holy fire of Love
A dateless lively heat, still to endure,
And grew a seething bath, which yet men prove
Against strange maladies a sovereign cure.
The Dianian nymph, however, was unsuccessful in extinguishing the torch’s flame, but the spring takes on the heat, transforming its cold waters into a hot-springs bath that people henceforth would use for curing physical ailments.
The waters are heated by the powerful “holy fire of Love,” and a “seething bath” continued in perpetuity, “which yet men prove / Against” all manner of physical illness; they come to the baths to seek “sovereign cure.”
Third Quatrain: Allusion to Explicate Delusion
But at my mistress’ eye Love’s brand new-fired,
The boy for trial needs would touch my breast;
I, sick withal, the help of bath desired,
And thither hied, a sad distemper’d guest,
In the third quatrain, the purpose of the little Cupid-Diana drama becomes apparent. The speaker is dramatizing his own “holy fire of Love,” that is, his obsessive lust for his mistress. When he sees his mistress, or even just “[his] mistress’ eyes,” his own “Love brand,” that is, male member becomes “new-fired” or aroused to sensual desire.
If the little god of love were to touch the speaker’s breast with his torch, the speaker would again become love sick, as he always does, and he would hurry to the hot springs that Cupid’s torch had created to try to be cured of his love-sickness.
However, the speaker asserts that he would be “a sad distemper’d guest” at the baths resort because he is always in a melancholy funk through the ill-treatment he suffers at the hands of the dark lady.
The Couplet: No Help
But found no cure: the bath for my help lies
Where Cupid got new fire, my mistress’ eyes.
Unlike others who might have experienced a cure at the medicinal hot springs, this speaker, unfortunately, “found no cure.” Referring to his male appendage as “Cupid” now, he claims that he could get help only from his “mistress’ eyes,” those same pools that always stimulate him to the passionate lust of coital arousal.
Shakespeare Sonnet 154 “The little Love-god lying once asleep”
Paraphrasing sonnet 153, sonnet 154 “The little Love-god lying once asleep” pairs up with its predecessor to bring down the curtain on this drama of unfulfilled love (“lust”) between speaker and mistress.
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 154 “The little Love-god lying once asleep”
Shakespeare sonnet 154 “The little Love-god lying once asleep” is the final installment in the “Dark Lady” thematic classification, as well as the final sonnet in the 154-sonnet sequence.
Because sonnet 154 “The little Love-god lying once asleep” is essentially a paraphrase of sonnet 153, it, therefore, bears the same message. The two final sonnets keep the same theme, a complaint of unrequited, scorned love, while dressing the complaint with the gaudy clothing of mythological allusion.
Again employing the Roman god, Cupid, and the goddess Diana, the speaker achieves a distance from his feelings—a distance that he, no doubt, hopes will finally bring him some comfort.
In most of the “dark lady” sonnets, the speaker addresses the mistress directly or makes it clear that what he is saying is intended specifically for her ears. In the last two sonnets, the speaker does not address the mistress; he does mention her, but he is speaking now about her instead of directly to her.
He is now withdrawing from the drama; the reader senses that he has grown weary from his battle for the lady’s love and attention, and now he just decides to make a philosophical drama that heralds the ending, saying essentially, “I’m through.”
Sonnet 154 “The little Love-god lying once asleep”
The little Love-god lying once asleep
Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,
Whilst many nymphs that vow’d chaste life to keep
Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand
The fairest votary took up that fire
Which many legions of true hearts had warm’d;
And so the general of hot desire
Was, sleeping, by a virgin hand disarm’d.
This brand she quenched in a cool well by,
Which from Love’s fire took heat perpetual, Growing a bath and healthful remedy
For men diseas’d; but I, my mistress’ thrall,
Came there for cure, and this by that I prove,
Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love.
Original Text
Better Reading
Commentary Sonnet 154 “The little Love-god lying once asleep”
Paraphrasing sonnet 153, sonnet 154 pairs up with its predecessor to bring down the curtain on this drama of unfulfilled love (“lust”) between speaker and mistress.
First Quatrain: Grabbing the Torch
The little Love-god lying once asleep
Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,
Whilst many nymphs that vow’d chaste life to keep
Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand
In the first quatrain, the speaker alludes to the Roman mythological god Cupid, saying that the god is sleeping, and his “heart-inflaming brand” or torch is lying by his side. Along come “many nymphs” or handmaidens of the goddess of the hunt Diana; one of the maidens grabs the torch.
Second Quatrain: A Thieving Virgin
The fairest votary took up that fire
Which many legions of true hearts had warm’d;
And so the general of hot desire
Was, sleeping, by a virgin hand disarm’d.
The speaker claims that the maiden who steals Cupid’s torch is the “fairest votary.” He reports that the fire from this torch had caused many men to fall in love, and he emphasizes that now the torch is stolen by “a virgin” while the little love god lies fast asleep.
Third Quatrain: Cool the Flame, or Heat the Water
This brand she quenched in a cool well by,
Which from Love’s fire took heat perpetual, Growing a bath and healthful remedy
For men diseas’d; but I, my mistress’ thrall,
The maiden carries the torch to a “cool well” and tries to put out the flame, but instead she succeeds in heating the water. The hot water becomes widely thought to possess health-giving powers “for men diseas’d.” The speaker then asserts that such is not so for him in his “mistress’s thrall.”
The Couplet: Still no Cure
Came there for cure, and this by that I prove,
Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love.
When the speaker goes to the bath famed for “healthful remedy,” he finds that there is no cure for him. Love can heat water, but water cannot cool love. What can the speaker do now? There seems to be no resolution for his predicament.
However, the likely implication from the two final sonnets is that he must simply walk away from her. He must avert his eyes from the object that arouses his lust. Instead merely stating that he must leave her, he leaves her by employing the mythological allusions in the two final sonnets that themselves have essentially left her.
In the two final sonnets, the only mention of the woman is in the phrases “my mistress’ eyes” in sonnet 153 and “my mistress’ thrall” in sonnet 154. The speaker is focusing on the physical attributes and that fact that they have enthralled him. Thus because of his sick status which nothing can cure, he has no other alternative than to simply say—or strongly imply—I’m through.
Cupid’s Torch vs Bow and Arrow
The speaker’s choice of Cupid is obvious for the god’s representation of love, but the speaker also focuses on the “torch” instrument instead of the more common “bow and arrow.”
The choice of torch is obvious as well, as the speaker has often euphemistically referred to his aroused copulatory organ at the sight of the dark lady. The speaker exaggerates his lust by dramatizing its ability to heat water, while water lacks the ability to cool his lust.
The focus on the “torch” is also significant because the speaker’s relationship with the dark lady is based on lust, not love. Cupid’s bow and arrow suggest that falling in love happens after Cupid has aimed his arrow at a target’s heart. But it is not the speaker’s heart that craves the dark lady; it is his penis—his “torch” that he carries for her.
Whenever the speaker has employed the term “love” in the “Dark Lady Sonnets,” he employs it euphemistically for “lust.” The heart loves, but the penis lusts. And that state of affairs must be ended, if the speaker is to endure as a complete human being, capable of meeting his challenge of creating literary works of truth, beauty, and love.
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