Shakespeare’s sonnet sequence
● 154 sonnets
● probably most of them written between 1592 and
1594 (plague outbreak and closing of theatres)
● revolve around three mysterious figures:
the fair youth
the dark lady
the rival poet
Petrarch’s angel
woman
Erano i capei d’oro a l’aura sparsi
che ’n mille dolci nodi gli avolgea,
e ’l vago lume oltra misura ardea
di quei begli occhi, ch’or ne son sì scarsi;
e ’l viso di pietosi color’ farsi,
non so se vero o falso, mi parea:
i’ che l’esca amorosa al petto avea,
qual meraviglia se di sùbito arsi?
Non era l’andar suo cosa mortale,
ma d’angelica forma; e le parole
sonavan altro, che pur voce humana.
Uno spirto celeste, un vivo sole
fu quel ch’i' vidi: e se non fosse or tale,
piagha per allentar d’arco non sana.
Sonnet from ‘Fidessa’ by B. Griffin (1596)
My Lady's hair is threads of beaten gold;
Her front the purest crystal eye hath seen;
Her eyes the brightest stars the heavens hold;
Her cheeks, red roses, such as seld have been;
Her pretty lips of red vermilion dye;
Her hand of ivory the purest white;
Her blush AURORA, or the morning sky.
Her breast displays two silver fountains bright;
The spheres, her voice; her grace, the Graces three;
Her body is the saint that I adore;
Her smiles and favours, sweet as honey be.
Her feet, fair THETIS praiseth evermore.
But Ah, the worst and last is yet behind :
For of a griffon she doth bear the mind!
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
sonnet 130
●
●
●
●
●
●
devoted to a mysterious ‘dark lady’
was she real or imaginary?
if real who: Aline Daniel / Emilia Lanyer Bassano / Mary Fitton,...
Did Shakespeare have an affair with her?
Was she single or married?
What was her relationship with the ‘fair youth’ in the sonnets?
Sonnet CXXX
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 damasked, 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.