Shakespeare and the Fair Lord - Research Paper Example

 Shakespeare and “The Fair Lord” William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is one of the most dominant writers in the world of English literature and perhaps inarguably the greatest playwrights of the English Renaissance period. He has 37 plays and154 sonnets to his credit that carry his name. His sonnets are extremely popular and represent the many phases of life, written by the poet in different times and in different moods. As Collier and Cook remarks that “It is evident that the sonnets were written at very different periods of Shakespeare’s life…some in youth…some when he was hopeful…and some when he was desponding….” (Shakespeare, Collier and Cook 473). Sonnet is a poem or “A 14-line verse form usually having one of several conventional rhyme schemes.” (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Sonnet). Shakespearean sonnet is characterized by three quatrains and a couplet and is divided into four parts. Each of the first three parts has a length of four lines, each part rhyming differently and forms the quatrain. Its rhyming goes as ABAB, CDCD and EFEF. The fourth part forms the couplet and has an independent rhyming that goes as GH. Shakespeare in his sonnets used the quatrains to develop certain ideas, one in each quatrain, while the couplet at the end was used to give a twist to the ideas presented before, by introducing a completely new idea. Sometimes the couplets also summarized the entire quatrain. As for example, in sonnet number 60, “Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, …….(A) So do our minutes hasten to their end,………………… (B) Each changing place with that which goes before,………(A) In sequent toil all forwards do contend…………………(B) Nativity once in the main of light,………………………(C) Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crowned,……… (D) Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,……………… (C) And Time that gave, doth now his gift confound………(D) Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,………… (E) And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,…………… (F) Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,……………… (E) And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow………… (F) And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand…………(G) Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.”………… (H) (qtd. from Shakespeare’s sonnets). This sonnet talks about the passage of time. The first quatrain talks about, how time goes on like the waves that break upon the shore, a minute being replaced by another as the waves replace each other in a regular sequence. The second quatrain compares life to that of the sun, being born (nativity), then passing to maturity in the noontime and going for the setting that “eclipses” its glory. The third one compares time to an evil that can only destroy and ravage one’s youth and beauty. The couplet at the end fights against time and defies it, to convey the message that the poem will stand against eternity and sing the song of beauty and “worth” of his lover which the time cannot tarnish with its “cruel hands”. This was the basic style that we can see in almost all of Shakespearean sonnets and it gives an eloquent and complex feel to them, making them very beautiful to listen to. It was also an innovation by the poet himself and he used it to perfection, this style of sonnet writing and created an almost perfect chain of sonnets that is unbroken and beautiful in their continuity. His style is of complete naturalness and as Muir points out “This naturalness is due partly to his tact and restraint, partly to his consciousness…..but mostly to the instinct of a practicing dramatist not to stray too far from colloquial speech”. (Muir 88) Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets are on love that are dramatic and seem to tell us a story. There are two distinct phases in this – the Fair Lord Sonnets (the man, whom the poet is deeply in love with) and the Dark Lady sonnets (whom the poet lusts for and hates, both). The Fair Lord Sonnets consists of the poems from 1 to 126 which are addressed towards an unknown man for whom the poet expresses his love. There is a movement in these sonnets as the poet’s affection towards the fair lord keeps on increasing till he is rejected at the end. Of these, the first 17 sonnets urge the fair lord to have a child who will bear his beauty. Sonnet number 1 is a clear representative of this mini-theme of procreation within the main theme of Fair Lord. “From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory: But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes, Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance lies, Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:…” (qtd. from Shakespeare’s sonnets) The first two lines expect the beautiful to pass on their beauty through their children. The following lines implore and argue that the fair lord should not be so cruel as to selfishly keep one’s beauty only for oneself. The second sonnet continues on the same theme by arguing that when the Fair Lord has crossed forty years, will have wrinkles on his face and his beauty and youth will be carried forward by his successor. The theme continues till the 17th Sonnet and in the 18th Sonnet, the poet comes out of this mini-theme and talks about the Fair Lord whose beauty is perfect and ethereal and eternal-“But thy eternal beauty shall not fade” (Sonnet 18, line 9). Another interesting shift in theme is that the poet does not urge the Fair Lord to have a child to carry forward his beauty but wants to immortalize him in his poetry (Sonnet 18, line 12). Scholars are divided as to whether this suggests a veiled homosexual attraction to the Fair Lord. While there are definitely elements of strong attraction towards the Fair Lord, this does not seem to be erotic in nature. In fact, in the last couplet, of sonnet 20, the poet accepts that the Fair Lord is for women’s pleasure and yet maintains that he still will be his love. This seems to suggest a Platonic, asexual love for the Fair Lord. This theme continues in the further sonnets, including sonnet 116, which is a remarkably simple sonnet about love itself and its unshakable resolute form. “O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.” (qtd. from Shakespeare’s sonnets) It talks about the ever-permanence of love and how it is like a guiding star to those looking for a way. As an author tell us, “The conclusion he does come to in sonnet 116 is that love, despite time, is a constant” (Online Shakespeare, About Shakespeare’s Love Sonnets). This theme of Platonic love comes to an end in Sonnet 126. This sonnet is remarkable as it has only 12 lines instead of 14 and acts like a dividing line between the Fair Lord theme and the Dark Lady theme of Shakespeare’s sonnets. In this sonnet, the poet talks of his Fair Lord, the lovely boy whose beauty has arrested time. In the last quatrain, however, the poet talks about the how eventually nature, the sovereign mistress will overpower the beauty of the fair lord and how at the end, even the radiant beauty of the fair lord has to submit itself in front of nature. Main theme of the sonnets 1- 126 thus, comprises of morality, beauty, passing away of youth with time and his love for the fair lord which is too strong for time to ravage and rejection to destroy. References Muir. Kenneth. Shakespeare’s Sonnets. London. Routledge-Taylor and Francis group. 1979. Online Shakespeare. About Shakespeare’s Love Sonnets. Retrieved on 25th May from http://www.onlineshakespeare.com/sonnetsabout.htm Shakespeare’s sonnets. Oxquarry Books ltd. 2001. Retrieved on 25th May 2009 from http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonn03.htm Shakespeare, W. Collier, P, J. Cook, R, H. The Works of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare Society(London). Whittaker and Co., 1843. Original from Oxford University. Digitized 12th September 2007. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Fourth edition. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2003. Retrieved on 27th may 2009 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sonnet Read More