Post by Harry on Jun 22, 2002 23:02:03 GMT -5
So, now I have confessed that he is thine,
And I myself am mortgaged 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 learned but surety-like to write for me
Under that bond that made 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 I am not free.
This may be the first example we have seen in the Dark Lady sonnets of two clearly linked sonnets. This sonnet continues Sonnet 133. Often, as here, the second sonnet in a linked pair starts with a conjunction.
This sonnet uses a lot of legal and financial terms. There are other sonnets that use these terms. Sometimes, it is claimed that Shakespeare had a specialized legal knowledge, but it seems to me that the use of legal terms is more related to the intended sophisticated audience than to any special knowledge possessed by Shakespeare.
There may be a pun on "whole/hole" in the last line.
I think the Poet's attitude in Sonnets 133 and 134 to the other participants in this triangle is in keeping with the Poet's apparent conflict over love versus sex. The Poet's friend, almost certainly the Youth of Sonnets 1-126, is corrupted through sex with the Dark Lady. The Poet has idealized the love between the Youth and himself--a love without sex--and has described his disgust of sinful sex with the Dark Lady. Of course, in this latter day, we would be more likely to see love between two men as more sinful than sex between a man and a woman.
The Poet seems to always blame the Dark Lady, and never the Youth, for their affair. This is, in part, a continuation of the Poet's never-failing forebearance for the Youth's faults, but I also think it is a result of the Poet's idealiation of the Youth as the perfect (sexless) lover and his equating of the Dark Lady with sinful sex.
And I myself am mortgaged 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 learned but surety-like to write for me
Under that bond that made 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 I am not free.
This may be the first example we have seen in the Dark Lady sonnets of two clearly linked sonnets. This sonnet continues Sonnet 133. Often, as here, the second sonnet in a linked pair starts with a conjunction.
This sonnet uses a lot of legal and financial terms. There are other sonnets that use these terms. Sometimes, it is claimed that Shakespeare had a specialized legal knowledge, but it seems to me that the use of legal terms is more related to the intended sophisticated audience than to any special knowledge possessed by Shakespeare.
There may be a pun on "whole/hole" in the last line.
I think the Poet's attitude in Sonnets 133 and 134 to the other participants in this triangle is in keeping with the Poet's apparent conflict over love versus sex. The Poet's friend, almost certainly the Youth of Sonnets 1-126, is corrupted through sex with the Dark Lady. The Poet has idealized the love between the Youth and himself--a love without sex--and has described his disgust of sinful sex with the Dark Lady. Of course, in this latter day, we would be more likely to see love between two men as more sinful than sex between a man and a woman.
The Poet seems to always blame the Dark Lady, and never the Youth, for their affair. This is, in part, a continuation of the Poet's never-failing forebearance for the Youth's faults, but I also think it is a result of the Poet's idealiation of the Youth as the perfect (sexless) lover and his equating of the Dark Lady with sinful sex.
