Sonnet 140

[Harry]

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.

This sonnet continues with the theme of the lover despised of Sonnet 139. Here the Poet asks his mistress to be kind by pretending not to distain him. The third quatrain threatens that the Poet may go mad and start to write ill of the Dark Lady--and a mad world may believe him. The last line seems, to me, a reference to the many lovers of the Dark Lady and a request that she not look at them.

[Ganymede]

This sonnet feels desperate. The author has been reduced to threatening the Dark Lady in order to get even the semblance of love from her. While his threat is a real one, it also shows what little power Shakespeare seems to have over his Dark Lady. His only real power is over words, which he can manipulate as he likes to either favor or malign his subject. However, the Dark Lady has power over Shakespeare, seductive power. He seems to feel stronger for her than he for him, and that gives her power and makes him vulnerable. He knows he cannot force her to love him, so he desperately asks her to at least pretend to care for him, and hide her disdain. Otherwise he will do the only thing he can: write about her, tell mad lies about her, in a sonnet.

This sonnet is also interesting because it points to Shakespeare's control over his subjects' image as projected in his sonnets. He could be telling lies, but the mad world will still believe it, for we simply don't know any better. What we take for slivers of truth could simply be mad slanders written by a bitter lover. Very interesting.

[Harry]

Interesting insights. Love through the looking glass. Which side is reality and which illusion? But, of course, this is true for all poets--all artists. We know their subjects through their eyes. How much of what we see is the artist?

I am reminded that, in Shakespeare's plays, we have several historical persons whose powerful portrayal by Shakespeare has forever colored our perception of them. Richard III and Macbeth come to mind. The historical record is less damning of both men. They were not the monsters portrayed by Shakespeare.

Joan of Arc escapes Shakespeare's damning pen only because her fame outside of England and her eventual canonization have proven stronger than Shakespeare's pen. That, plus his portrayal of her isn't his best.