Post by Harry on Jun 6, 2002 22:09:48 GMT -5
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.
This is not the easiest of sonnets to understand. I find I must rely heavily on my favorite authority, The Sonnets, edited by G.B. Evans. It's part of the New Cambridge Shakespeare. I recommend it to anyone wanting a nice volume dedicated to these gems.
The first thing I note is the change of address between the Youth sonnets and the Dark Lady sonnets. The Youth sonnets are addressed TO the Youth. The Poet speaks to him. One imagines the Youth reading the sonnet. The Dark Lady sonnets are ABOUT the Dark Lady, they are not addressed to her. One might wonder if the Dark Lady ever saw her sonnets.
We start off right away with the essential "fact" about the Dark Lady--she is dark. Her hair may be black or brown. Her skin may be somewhat less than creamy white as well. I wouldn't view her as non-English (Jewish or Negro or what-have-you have been suggested). The use of dark or black as a general description of someone with black hair was common in the British Isles. And "fair" meant blond. The automatic assumption that blond means beautiful is why "fair" has taken on its modern meaning--and is the subject of this sonnet.
For the Poet finds his mistress beautiful, despite her coloring (the sonnet implies because of her coloring). The Poet starts by admitting that black has not been considered beautiful. There is a double meaning on "fair" throughout this sonnet. "Fair" means both blond and beautiful. The first line says both that black is not blond (a tautology) and that black is not beautiful.
In the second quatrain the Poet writes about "dark" women using cosmetics to make themselves appear fair (both blond and beautiful). I believe I read this correctly as the Poet saying that this "fairing the foul" (note the Macbeth reference) profanes beauty because dark women thus hide their real beauty in a false fair face.
The Poet's mistress appears, in the third quatrain, to distain such artifice and to show her true dark beauty. Her eyes mourne those who slander creation by trying to appear falsely fair.
In the couplet the Poet says that the Dark Lady's beauty should be the model for all beauty.
I wonder if some of the very negative imagery in this sonnet is the first hint of another Dark Lady theme which we shall see more of: Shakespeare's consciousness that his sexual love for the Dark Lady is sinful (both because he is married to Anne--probably the only female in England not proposed by someone as the "real" Dark Lady--and because the church taught that sex=sin).
A couple of more general comments:
The sonnets are almost like a play where we have only the speeches of one character, and they aren' necessarily in order. The principal characters are the Poet (I prefer this designation to "Shakespeare" because I'm not certain how much we should equate the author with his alter ego), the Youth (perhaps a rich noble patron of the Poet), and the Dark Lady (the poet's mistress). They form a true love triangle--as we shall see. There is also a Rival Poet, but he's a minor character and I don't think we see him in the Dark Lady sonnets.
It's almost as though Shakespeare, in writing his sonnets, deliberately set out to poke fun at sonnet conventions. Other poets write about heterosexual love for beautiful women. Shakespeare writes about love for a beautiful man and sex with a woman whose beauty is non-traditional at best. Though Shakespeare calls her beautiful, one has to wonder if others see her that way.
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.
This is not the easiest of sonnets to understand. I find I must rely heavily on my favorite authority, The Sonnets, edited by G.B. Evans. It's part of the New Cambridge Shakespeare. I recommend it to anyone wanting a nice volume dedicated to these gems.
The first thing I note is the change of address between the Youth sonnets and the Dark Lady sonnets. The Youth sonnets are addressed TO the Youth. The Poet speaks to him. One imagines the Youth reading the sonnet. The Dark Lady sonnets are ABOUT the Dark Lady, they are not addressed to her. One might wonder if the Dark Lady ever saw her sonnets.
We start off right away with the essential "fact" about the Dark Lady--she is dark. Her hair may be black or brown. Her skin may be somewhat less than creamy white as well. I wouldn't view her as non-English (Jewish or Negro or what-have-you have been suggested). The use of dark or black as a general description of someone with black hair was common in the British Isles. And "fair" meant blond. The automatic assumption that blond means beautiful is why "fair" has taken on its modern meaning--and is the subject of this sonnet.
For the Poet finds his mistress beautiful, despite her coloring (the sonnet implies because of her coloring). The Poet starts by admitting that black has not been considered beautiful. There is a double meaning on "fair" throughout this sonnet. "Fair" means both blond and beautiful. The first line says both that black is not blond (a tautology) and that black is not beautiful.
In the second quatrain the Poet writes about "dark" women using cosmetics to make themselves appear fair (both blond and beautiful). I believe I read this correctly as the Poet saying that this "fairing the foul" (note the Macbeth reference) profanes beauty because dark women thus hide their real beauty in a false fair face.
The Poet's mistress appears, in the third quatrain, to distain such artifice and to show her true dark beauty. Her eyes mourne those who slander creation by trying to appear falsely fair.
In the couplet the Poet says that the Dark Lady's beauty should be the model for all beauty.
I wonder if some of the very negative imagery in this sonnet is the first hint of another Dark Lady theme which we shall see more of: Shakespeare's consciousness that his sexual love for the Dark Lady is sinful (both because he is married to Anne--probably the only female in England not proposed by someone as the "real" Dark Lady--and because the church taught that sex=sin).
A couple of more general comments:
The sonnets are almost like a play where we have only the speeches of one character, and they aren' necessarily in order. The principal characters are the Poet (I prefer this designation to "Shakespeare" because I'm not certain how much we should equate the author with his alter ego), the Youth (perhaps a rich noble patron of the Poet), and the Dark Lady (the poet's mistress). They form a true love triangle--as we shall see. There is also a Rival Poet, but he's a minor character and I don't think we see him in the Dark Lady sonnets.
It's almost as though Shakespeare, in writing his sonnets, deliberately set out to poke fun at sonnet conventions. Other poets write about heterosexual love for beautiful women. Shakespeare writes about love for a beautiful man and sex with a woman whose beauty is non-traditional at best. Though Shakespeare calls her beautiful, one has to wonder if others see her that way.