William Shakespeare
The Sonnets
The Sonnets
Most scholars agree that the Earl of Southampton, throughout Shakespeare's life, was the writer's only patron. The Countess of Southampton's third husband, Master
William Harvey, the Earl's stepfather, seems to have been responsible for obtaining Shakespeare's sonnets from the Earl and giving them to Thomas Thorpe. In the 1609 edition of the sonnets,
Thorpe dedicates the works "To the only begetter of these ensuing sonnets, Mr. W. H."
The sonnets are widely grouped into two sequences, the first being Sonnets 1 to 126, written to the Earl, and the second being Sonnets 127 to 154, concerned mainly
with Shakespeare's mistress, the Dark Lady of the Sonnets. Sonnets 1 to 126 explore the writer's love for his patron, the Earl. Some speculation has been voiced that Shakespeare desired a homosexual
relationship with the Earl, but most scholars agree that this argument is largely unfounded. Shakespeare urges the Earl, in the first sonnets, to get married, produce offspring, and continue his bloodline
for the good of the world. Sonnets 127 to 154 lend insight into the relationship between Shakespeare and the dark lady. These sonnets begin with an affectionate tone but become more and more disturbed as
the dark lady becomes involved with a rival poet, most likely Marlowe.
Shakespeare wrote his sonnets using three quatrains and a couplet. The couplet provides the moral or conclusion toward which the previous twelve lines have been pointing. Also
noticeable in the sonnets is Shakespeare's heavy use of monosyllabic couplets. As well, the sonnets lack double rhymes, and most lines are end-stopped (versus being run-ons). Below is a transciption of probably the
most famous of Shakespeare's sonnets.
Shakespeare's sonnets were first published by Thomas Thorpe in 1609. Whether or not Shakespeare agreed to and assisted Thorpe
in the publication of his works is unknown. In Elizabethan England, the author's permission for publication was not necessary. It is doubtful that Shakespeare wished to have his sonnets published.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course un-
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
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