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| The first edition of the 4 volume set William Shakespeare's Sonnet Philosophy [2005] is still available. |
THE EMENDATIONSAn analysis of emendations made to the text of the 1609 edition
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LIST OF EMENDATIONS |
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Sonnet
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Line
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As in "Q"
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Emendation
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Comments
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Sonnet 12 Sonnet 13 Sonnet 24 Sonnet 25 Sonnet 26 Sonnet 27 Sonnet 28 Sonnet 31 Sonnet 34 Sonnet 35 Sonnet 37 Sonnet 40 Sonnet 41 Sonnet 43 Sonnet 44 Sonnet 45 Sonnet 46 Sonnet 47 Sonnet 50 Sonnet 54 Sonnet 55 Sonnet 57 Sonnet 59 Sonnet 65 Sonnet 67 Sonnet 69 Sonnet 70 Sonnet 76 Sonnet 77 Sonnet 90 Sonnet 99 Sonnet 101 Sonnet 106 Sonnet 111 Sonnet 112 Sonnet 113 Sonnet 126 Sonnet 127 Sonnet 128 Sonnet 129 Sonnet 132 Sonnet 136 Sonnet 144 Sonnet 153
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line 4 line 7 line 1 line 9 line 12 line 10 line 12 line 8 line 12 line 8 line 8 line 7 line 7 line 7, line 8 line 11 line 13 line 12 line 3 line 8 line 13 line 14 line 9 line 11 line 6 line 14 line 1 line 13 line 11 line 12 line 6 line 9 line 12 line 3 line 5 line 6 line 7 line 1 line 10 line 11 line 9 line 2 line 12 line 1 line 14 line 6 line 14 line 8 line 10 line 11 line 14 line 1 line 9 line 11 line 9 line 6 line 6 line 9 line 14
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or you selfe steeld worth their their guil'st there loss their their their this woes he their naughts their their their their their side nor duly by monument Will where or seeing nature proud end their their fel were blacks stall Our di'd still wish y'are lack mine mynuit eyes their their Spirit made proud morning I sight finde eye
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all yourself stelled fight/might thy thy gild'st thee cross thy thy thy thy woos she thy naught thy thy thy thy thy 'cide no or not dully my monuments will whe'er of seeming Nature 'prived due thy thy tell wear blanks shall One dyed skill with they're latch mine eye minutes brows thy thy spirit mad proved, a mourning Ay side fiend eyes
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(snt 37.6; ADO 3.1.27; RL 56) (snt 61) (snts 3,59) (snts 42,90) (snt142: "wooe") (snt 88, LC 113) (TRO 5.1.44; snts 27,28,43,61) (snts 81,107) (some editors) (Kerrigan) (braiue/brainAYL 2.7.20;oue/oneCOR 4.4.136) (WT 4.4.185: "tell money" (snts15,55,127,140; LC 95, 291) (snts 63,65) (snt 54) (snt 120.6: "y'have") (not all editors) (RL 329,962) (line10: "they" and "their") (snts140,147) (see typographic errors below) (AYL 2.7.149:"mistress' eyebrow")
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LIST OF OTHER TYPOGRAPHIC ERRORS
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Sonnet 6 Sonnet 19 Sonnet 24 Sonnet 33 Sonnet 46 Sonnet 55 Sonnet 69 Sonnet 88 Sonnet 91 Sonnet 122
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line 4 line 3 line 3 line 14 line 4 line 9 line 14 line 1 line 9 line 1
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beautits yawes ti's stainteh freeedom emnity solye dispode bitter Tthy
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beauties jaws its staineth freedom enmity soyle dispos'd better Thy
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The changes from "their" to "thy"
Preliminary comments
A comparison can be made between the use of the words ‘their’ and ‘thy’
in Q and the use of the words ‘then’ and ‘than’ in modern editions. In the
1609 edition the word ‘then’ doubles as both ‘then’ and ‘than’. The word
‘than’ does not appear in Q at all. Instead the word ‘then’ has both meanings.
‘Then’ conveys both the temporal sense ‘at that time’ and the comparative
sense ‘in relation to’. The second meaning corresponds to that of the modern
word ‘than’. So the change in modern editions from ‘then’ to ‘than’, for the
50 or so times that ‘then’ has the comparative meaning, is not an emendation
of the word ‘then’. The ‘then’ to ‘than’ changes are a response not to an error
but to a change in use over time.
A change in use, however, cannot explain the editor’s confusion over 15
occurrences of words ‘their’ and ‘thy’. ‘Thy’ occurs over 200 times in the
1609 edition and ‘their’ occurs over 70 times. So, unlike the ‘thens’, an alteration
of the meaning of the word ‘their’ to ‘thy’ cannot be justified on the
basis of modern usage.
Nor should an appeal be made to difficulties experienced by compositors
in interpreting handwritten manuscripts, or even to simple carelessness
on the part of the compositors. After all, the editors who make the 15 ‘their’
to ‘thy’ emendations tacitly accept that the compositors correctly transcribed
the word ‘their’ from an original manuscript in an overwhelming percentage
of cases. If the compositors were prone to confuse a ‘thy’ for a ‘their’, the
editors do not find fault with the ‘their’ and the ‘thy’ that occur together in
line 14 of sonnet 20 and which they accept as being typeset correctly. There
are also a number of occurrences of the two words in the same sonnet, such
as sonnet 128. Neither does it bother the editors that the supposed ‘their/thy’
errors occur only within Shake-speares Sonnets and not at all in his plays and
other poems.
The emending editors (beginning with Malone in 1780) make the ‘their’
to ‘thy’ emendations because they claim the word ‘their’ has no acceptable
meaning. But, rather than question their own inadequate expectations and
beliefs, they charge the otherwise diligent compositors with carelessness. To
bolster the case against the hapless compositors they then seek out 50 or
more other errors. These commentaries will demonstrate that the whole
charade collapses when the Sonnets are viewed in the light of their inherent
philosophy.
The object of the first group of commentaries, then, is to determine the
meaning of the word ‘their’ in each of the sonnets by applying the
philosophy of the Sonnets. And, as a corollary, it will become apparent why
the editors have so doggedly insisted on the need to emend the ‘their’ to
‘thy’ in only those few cases.
Lord of my love, to whom in vassalageThe emendation is from ‘their’ to ‘thy’ (26.12). In Q the subject for the ‘their’ is the ‘whatsoever star’ (26.9). For most of the ‘their’ to ‘thy’ emendations the subject of the ‘their’ can be found in the same quatrain.
Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit;
To thee I send this written ambassage
To witness duty, not to show my wit.
Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine
May make seem bare, in wanting words to show it;
But that I hope some good conceit of thine
In thy soul’s thought (all naked) will bestow it:
Till whatsoever star that guides my moving,
Points on me graciously with fair aspect,
And puts apparel on my tottered loving,
To show me worthy of their sweet respect,
Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee,
Till then, not show my head where thou mayst prove me.
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,The subject of the ‘their’ (27.10) is the word ‘sight’ (27.9). Its meaning is consistent with the meaning for the eyes derived from sonnet 14. (For other examples of ‘sight’ in relation to ‘eyes’, see sonnets 46, 47, 61, 139, 148, and 150.) The ‘sight’ referred to is not the youth’s presence or imaginary image. It is the faculty of sight or, in this case, the imaginative eyesight of the Poet’s ‘soul’. The ‘soul’s imaginary sight’ remains ‘sightless’ like the Poet’s because of the blackness of the night.
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired,
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind, when body’s work’s expired.
For then my thoughts (from far where I abide)
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eye-lids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see.
Save that my soul’s imaginary sight
Presents their shadow to my sightless view,
Which like a jewel (hung in ghastly night)
Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new.
Lo thus by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee, and for my self, no quiet find.
Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts,The emendation in sonnet 31, while not from ‘their’ to ‘thy’, is made for similar reasons. The change from ‘there’ to ‘thee’ (31.8) misses the connection between ‘there’ and ‘mine eye’. The subject of the ‘there’ is ‘mine eye’ (31.6). As in sonnets 26 and 27, the sense of looking into the ‘eye’, or even being an image within the eye, is crucial. ‘Their images...I view in thee’ (31.13) unequivocally expresses the sense of looking into the youth’s eyes. It is in the youth’s eyes that the Poet sees qualities he no longer sees in his own eye (‘mine eye’). The change is unwarranted.
Which I by lacking have supposed dead,
And there reigns Love and all Love’s loving parts,
And all those friends which I thought buried.
How many a holy and obsequious tear
Hath dear religious love stolen from mine eye,
As interest of the dead, which now appear,
But things removed that hidden in there lie.
Thou art the grave where buried love doth live,
Hung with the trophies of my lovers gone,
Who all their parts of me to thee did give,
That due of many, now is thine alone.
Their images I loved, I view in thee,
And thou (all they) hast all the all of me.
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done;‘Their’ occurs twice in line 8. The subject of ‘their’ is ‘All men’ (35.5). The Poet says that, as much as he forgives others ‘their sins’, he also forgives the young man ‘thy trespass’, ‘thy amiss’, and ‘thy sensual fault’. The sense of ‘compare’ (35.6) is crucial for the meaning of the sonnet. The substitution of ‘thy’ for ‘their’ destroys the original intent.
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud,
Clouds and eclipses stain both Moon and Sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorising thy trespass with compare,
My self corrupting salving thy amiss,
Excusing their sins more than their sins are:
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense,
Thy adverse party is thy Advocate,
And ‘gainst my self a lawful plea commence,
Such civil war is in my love and hate,
That I an accessory needs must be,
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.
As a decrepit father takes delight,The subject of ‘their’ (37.7) is the ‘beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit’ (37.5). The sense is that ‘any, all, or more’ (37.6) of these attributes are each ‘entitled’ in ‘their’ own right (‘parts’) to ‘crown’d sit’ on the youth’s head. The Poet takes his ‘comfort’ (37.4) from this fact but, significantly, makes his ‘love engrafted to this store’ (37.8), where ‘this store’ refers to the relationship of ‘father’ to ‘child’ (37.1-2). The word ‘whether’ (37.5) establishes the distinction. ‘Worth and truth’ (37.4) combine with the above attributes from line 5 and with ‘store’ (37.8) to provide echoes of sonnet 14, as well as echoes of sonnet 11 (11.5), a critical sonnet in the logic of the set.
To see his active child do deeds of youth,
So I, made lame by Fortune’s dearest spite
Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth.
For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
Or any of these all, or all, or more
Intitled in their parts, do crowned sit,
I make my love engrafted to this store:
So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised,
Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give,
That I in thy abundance am sufficed,
And by a part of all thy glory live:
Look what is best, that best I wish in thee,
This wish I have, then ten times happy me.
Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all,The editors change ‘this’ to ‘thy’ (40.7). The subject of the ‘this’ is ‘my love’ (40.5), or the Poet’s mature love. The ‘this’ echoes the ‘this more’ (40.4) which is the love the Poet has in excess of the youth’s immature love. ‘This more’ is the balance of the Poet’s mature love of which the immature youth wants to take ‘all’. The youth is challenged not to ‘deceive’ (40.7) the Poet (‘this self ’) by feigning maturity. He will be ‘blamed’ if he ‘wilfully tastes’ of the Poet’s mature ‘love’ (‘this more’) after ‘refusing’ it (40.8). Because the youth is an inalienable part of the mature Poet, ‘this more’ signifies the mature love of the Poet compared to the adolescent love of the youth. Hence the Poet’s warning that the youth will deceive him.
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call,
All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more:
Then if for my love, thou my love receivest,
I cannot blame thee, for my love thou usest,
But yet be blamed, if thou this self deceivest
By wilful taste of what thy self refusest.
I do forgive thy robb’ry gentle thief
Although thou steal thee all my poverty:
And yet love knows it is a greater grief
To bear love’s wrong, than hate’s known injury.
Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
Kill me with spites yet we must not be foes.
When I most wink then do mine eyes best see,The subject of ‘their’ (43.11) is the ‘mine eyes’ (43.9). Again sonnet 14 is being invoked. In sonnets 27 and 28 the power of thought or imagination could not give rise to anything but darkness to the ‘sightless’ mind. In sonnet 43 it is only when the Poet is asleep and dreaming (43.3) that the ‘shadow’ is transformed, reversing bright for dark and becoming a ‘shade’ that ‘shines so’ (43.8). The Poet asks, in the third quatrain, how night can now seem like day. In a direct reference to sonnets 27 and 28, he recalls that previously his tired ‘sightless eyes’ could only give ‘their fair imperfect shade’ (43.11). In those sonnets he could only see dark in darkness. As in sonnet 27, the change from ‘their’ to ‘thy’ in sonnet 43 is inconsistent with its meaning.
For all the day they view things unrespected,
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.
Then thou whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow’s form, form happy show,
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to un-seeing eyes thy shade shines so?
How would (I say) mine eyes be blessed made,
By looking on thee in the living day?
When in dead night their fair imperfect shade,
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay?
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
The other two, slight air, and purging fire,Sonnets 44 and 45 are a connected pair that consider the four Aristotelian elements, ‘earth, water, air and fire’. ‘Earth and water’ from sonnet 44 characterise the Poet’s mood whilst ‘air and fire’ from sonnet 45 characterise his ‘thought’ and ‘desire’ (45.3) that are with the youth. The ‘fair health’ of the ‘swift messengers’, or the returning ‘air and fire’, restores the Poet’s ‘melancholic’ ‘earth and water’ to the original ‘four’ elements (45.7). So the ‘their’ refers to the ‘swift messengers’ and not the youth. The change from ‘their’ to ‘thy’ in line 12 is inconsistent with the meaning of both sonnets. Some editors alter the punctuation of lines 11 and 12 to make it conform with the interference.
Are both with thee, where ever I abide,
The first my thought, the other my desire,
These present absent with swift motion slide.
For when these quicker Elements are gone
In tender Embassy of love to thee,
My life being made of four, with two alone,
Sinks down to death, oppressed with melancholy.
Until lives composition be recured,
By those swift messengers returned from thee,
Who even but now come back again assured,
Of their fair health, recounting it to me.
This told, I joy, but then no longer glad,
I send them back again and straight grow sad.
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war,The editors make four changes from ‘their’ to ‘thy’ in sonnet 46. But the four ‘theirs’ have ‘thy sight’ (46.2) as their subject. The ‘theirs’ refer to both ‘eyes’ of the faculty of sight, as in the plural ‘crystal eyes’ (46.6).
How to divide the conquest of thy sight,
Mine eye, my heart their picture’s sight would bar,
My heart, mine eye the freedom of that right,
My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
(A closet never pierced with crystal eyes)
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him their fair appearance lies.
To side this title is impanelled
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,
And by their verdict is determined
The clear eye’s moiety, and the dear heart’s part.
As thus, mine eye’s due is their outward part,
And my heart’s right, their inward love of heart.
Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view,The ‘their’ (69.5) has as its subject the phrase ‘those parts of thee’ (69.1). That is, the first words of the second quatrain refer to the first words of the first quatrain. ‘Their outward thus’ refers to ‘those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view’ and not to just the ‘thee’ of lines 1 and 3. The meaning of ‘eye’ (69.1) is expanded upon in lines 8 to 11 so that the ‘beauty’ (of thy mind) and the ‘truth’ measured ‘by thy deeds’ invokes the ideas expressed in sonnet 14.
Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend:
All tongues (the voice of souls) give thee that end,
Uttering bare truth, even so as foes Commend.
Their outward thus with outward praise is crowned,
But those same tongues that give thee so thine own,
In other accents do this praise confound
By seeing farther than the eye hath shown.
They look into the beauty of thy mind,
And that in guess they measure by thy deeds,
Then churls their thoughts (although their eies were kind)
To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds,
But why thy odour matcheth not thy show,
The soil is this, that thou dost common grow.
That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,The subject of ‘their’ (70.6) is the ‘sweetest buds’ (70.7) (echoing the ‘ornament of beauty’ (70.3). Again some editors alter the punctuation. They remove the comma from the end of line 5 to the middle of line 6 and put a semi-colon at the end of line 6 to force the sonnet to conform to the emendations to ‘thy’. The reading presented here is consistent with the original punctuation.
For slander’s mark was ever yet the fair,
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A Crow that flies in heaven’s sweetest air.
So thou be good, slander doth but approve,
Their worth the greater being wooed of time,
For Canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,
And thou present’st a pure unstained prime.
Thou hast passed by the ambush of young days,
Either not assailed, or victor being charged,
Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise,
To tie up envy, evermore enlarged,
If some suspect of ill masked not thy show,
Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe.
How oft when thou my music music playst,In sonnet 128 ‘their’ is changed to ‘thy’ twice. The changes involve the phrase ‘their fingers’ (128.11,14). The confusion is over whom ‘their fingers’ belong to. The fingers playing the instrument are the Mistress’ fingers, but the ‘their’ refers to the ‘dancing chips’ (128.10), who are the ‘Jacks’ (128.5,13). That is, the ‘Jacks’ claim possession of the Mistress’fingers as they ‘kiss the tender inward of thy (her) hand’. So ‘their fingers’, the Mistress’ fingers that the ‘Jacks’ desire, ‘walk with gentle gait’over the ‘Jacks or dancing chips’. In the couplet the Poet instructs the Mistress to ‘give them (the Jacks) their fingers’ because he is only interested in ‘thy lips to kiss’. (Note the ‘Jacks’ are capitalised in Q to emphasise their role as the possessors of the Mistress’ fingers.)
Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers when thou gently swayst,
The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,
Do I envy those Jacks that nimble leap,
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips which should that harvest reap,
At the woods’ boldness by thee blushing stand.
To be so tickled they would change their state,
And situation with those dancing chips,
O’er whom their fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more blest than living lips,
Since saucy Jacks so happy are in this,
Give them their fingers, me thy lips to kiss.
Other emendations and changes
The other emendations considered here are based loosely on John Kerrigan’s collations (Penguin 1986). Though Kerrigan rejects around 107 traditional changes he still needs 55 alterations (aside from changes to capitalisation or punctuation) for his reading of the Sonnets. So far 17 changes either from ‘their’ to ‘thy’ or similar changes have been considered. By considering a further 45 or so emendations the intention is to demonstrate that the number of significant errors is low and compares favourably with the textual and typesetting errors evident in many modern texts.
When I do count the clock that tells the time,The emendation is from ‘or’ to ‘all’ (12.4). The change is not warranted because ‘or’ has meanings of ‘formerly’, ‘before’, and ‘now’ (Shorter Oxford Dictionary). ‘Now’ particularly, is consistent with the temporal sense of the first quatrain. Both the previous images, ‘day sunk in hideous night’ and in ‘the violet past prime’, depict a transition from one time frame to another. In the imagery of line 4, sable or black hair is transformed with streaks of white to a silvery shade. The change from ‘or’ to ‘all’ introduces finality to the aging, out of keeping with the previous imagery. Neither can the presence of an ‘all’ in line 7 be used to argue for an ‘all’ in line 4. The second quatrain continues the idea of transition with images of autumn rather than winter. The interference with the meaning of the phrase goes against the sense of the quatrain and of the whole sonnet.
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night,
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls or silver’d o’er with white:
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd
And Summers green all girded up in sheaves
Born on the bier with white and bristly beard:
Then of thy beauty do I question make
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do them-selves forsake,
And die as fast as they see others grow,
And nothing ‘gainst Times scythe can make defence
Save breed to brave him, when he takes thee hence.
O That you were your self, but love you areThe emendation is from ‘you’ to ‘your’ (13.7). The whole of sonnet 13 involves a play on ‘you’ and ‘your’. ‘O that you were your self, but love you are no longer yours, than you your self here live’, begins a dizzy interrelationship between yous and yours that ends with ‘You had a Father, let your Son say so’ (13.14). Only the third quatrain is exempt. In the context of the interplay, the ‘you self ’ and ‘your self ’s’ (13.7) shows the interdependence of the two selves. Sonnet 13 explores the interdependence of persons and persona that is part of the logic of the whole set. To amend ‘you’ to ‘your’ misses the point of the lively interchange.
No longer yours, than you your self here live,
Against this coming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give.
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination, then you were
You self again after your self ’s decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honour might uphold,
Against the stormy gusts of winter’s day
And barren rage of death’s eternal cold?
O none but unthrifts, dear my love you know,
You had a Father, let your Son say so.
Mine eye hath played the painter and hath steeld,The emendation of ‘steeld’ to ‘stell’d’ (24.1) is made principally on the basis of an apparent mis-rhyme with ‘held’ (24.3). As there are a significant number of mis-rhymes throughout the Sonnets, the change to ‘stell’d’ is unnecessary. The references to ‘form’(24.2) and ‘perspective’ (24.4) confirm the meaning of ‘steeld’ as ‘engraved with a steel tool or stylus’. Even though the editors admit that ‘steeld’ has meaning they persist with the change. To emend a word with valid meaning suggests an ulterior motive for making the emendation.
Thy beauty’s form in table of my heart,
My body is the frame wherein ’tis held,
And perspective it is best Painter’s art.
For through the Painter must you see his skill,
To find where your true Image pictur’d lies,
Which in my bosom’s shop is hanging still,
That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes:
Now see what good-turns eyes for eies have done,
Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me
Are windows to my breast, where-through the Sun
Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee
Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art
They draw but what they see, know not the heart.
Let those who are in favour with their stars,Most editors emend ‘worth’ variously to ‘fight’ or ‘might’ (25.9). The emendations are driven by the desire to find a rhyme for ‘quite’ (25.11). Because any suggestion is speculative, maintaining the status quo is the sensible option. ‘Worth’ (25.9) does make sense in terms of ‘honour’ (24.11).
Of public honour and proud titles boast,
Whilst I whom fortune of such triumph bars
Unlooked for joy in that I honour most;
Great Princes favourites their fair leaves spread,
But as the Marigold at the sun’s eye,
And in them-selves their pride lies buried,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The painful warrior famoused for worth,
After a thousand victories once foiled,
Is from the book of honour razed quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toiled:
Then happy I that love and am beloved
Where I may not remove, nor be removed.
How can I then return in happy plightThe emendation is from ‘guil’st’ to gild’st’ (28.12). In Q the line reads, when the ‘sparkling stars twire not thou guil’st th’even’. As argued in the comment on sonnet 27, the meaning of lines 11and 12 is consistent with the meaning of ‘guil’st’ as ‘beguile’. ‘Guil’st’ makes sense and involves wonderful suggestivity between ‘swart’, with its touch of malice, ‘twire’, to wink, and ‘guil’st’ in the sense of beguile. ‘Guilest’ has a strong ethical tone in keeping with the Sonnet logic. It contrasts with the sunset sentimentality of the editors’ ‘gild’st’. The change is unnecessary as ‘guil’st’ makes perfect sense. Although editors acknowledge the meaningfulness of ‘guil’st’ they still opt to interfere with the wording of Q.
That am debarred the benefit of rest?
When day’s oppression is not eased by night,
But day by night and night by day oppressed.
And each (though enemies to either’s reign)
Do in consent shake hands to torture me,
The one by toil, the other to complain
How far I toil, still farther off from thee.
I tell the Day to please him thou art bright,
And do’st him grace when clouds do blot the heaven:
So I flatter I the swart complexioned night,
When sparkling stars twire not thou guil’st th’even.
But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer,
And night doth nightly make grief ’s length seem stronger.
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,The emendation is from ‘loss’ to ‘cross’ (34.12). Because of the unusual repetition of the word ‘loss’ at the ends of line 10 and 12 this seems a possible instance of a typesetting error. This view is supported by the occurrence of the ‘loss/cross’ pairing in sonnets 42 and 90. However, in a set of sonnets where the expected is challenged by idiosyncrasies such as a short sonnet of 12 lines in rhyming couplets, a long sonnet of fifteen lines, a rhyme across three lines, a sonnet in octosyllables, a line of 12 syllables, and 2 sonnets in a classical style, a repeated word in the rhyme scheme should not surprise. Though not every editor or commentator makes the change, a considerable amount of energy has been expended by the editors and commentators in suppressing Shakespeare’s consistent challenges to orthodoxy.
And make me travel forth without my cloak,
To let base clouds o’er-take me in my way,
Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke.
’Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break,
To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
For no man well of such a salve can speak,
That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace:
Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief,
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss,
Th’offender’s sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offence’s loss.
Ah but those tears are pearl which thy love sheeds,
And they are rich, and ransom all ill deeds.
Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits,The emendation is from ‘woes’ to ‘woos’ (41.7). In Shakespeare’s poems and plays ‘woes’ is spelt variously as woes and wooes, and ‘woos’ as woes, wooes, and woos. In the Sonnet logic, the Mistress as female does not woo the male. Rather the young male needs to recover his logical relation to the Mistress. The Mistress and the Poet have misgivings over the idealised self interest with which the youth approaches the female. When the youth uses his beauty to ‘win’ or ‘assail’ the Mistress, she becomes ‘woeful’ because he uses his beauty for selfish ends. The youth, flush with self-assurance, will ‘prevail’ with the Mistress despite his ‘sourness’ at her misgivings. Hence the Poet ‘chides thy beauty, and thy straying youth’ because they lead to ‘riot’. The youth breaks a twofold truth: ‘hers’ because he presumes his beauty alone will tempt her, and ‘thine’ (or his own truth) because he does not heed the mature advice of the Poet. The editors’ presumption that ‘woes’ was intended to be ‘woos’ is contrary to the Sonnet logic.
When I am some-time absent from thy heart,
Thy beauty, and thy years full well befits,
For still temptation follows where thou art.
Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won,
Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assailed.
And when a woman woes, what woman’s son,
Will sourly leave her till he have prevailed.
Aye me, but yet thou mightst my seat forbear,
And chide thy beauty, and thy straying youth,
Who lead thee in their riot even there
Where thou art forced to break a two-fold truth:
Hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee,
Thine by thy beauty being false to me.
If the dull substance of my flesh was thought,The emendation is from ‘naughts’ to ‘naught’ (44.13). To understand the meaning of ‘naughts’ it helps to recall that the two sonnets 44 and 45 develop a theme based on the four elements, earth, water, air and fire. The addition of the two elements from sonnet 44 (earth and water) to the two elements from sonnet 45 (air and fire) brings together the four elements of which the Poet’s ‘life is made’ (45.7).
Injurious distance should not stop my way,
For then despite of space I would be brought,
From limits far remote, where thou dost stay,
No matter then although my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth removed from thee,
For nimble thought can jump both sea and land,
As soon as think the place where he would be.
But ah, thought kills me that I am not thought
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But that so much of earth and water wrought,
I must attend, times leisure with my moan.
Receiving naughts by elements so slow,
But heavy tears, badges of either’s woe.
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war,The emendation is from ‘side’ to ‘cide’ (46.9). The change is unnecessary as ‘side’ makes sense as it stands. The meaning from the Shorter Oxford Dictionary is, ironically from Shakespeare, and reads ‘to assign to one of two sides or parties (Shak)’. If a change was made for the sake of modern usage it would not be an emendation but a change in spelling.
How to divide the conquest of thy sight,
Mine eye, my heart their picture’s sight would bar,
My heart, mine eye the freedom of that right,
My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
(A closet never pierced with crystal eyes)
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him their fair appearance lies.
To side this title is impanelled
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,
And by their verdict is determined
The clear eye’s moiety, and the dear heart’s part.
As thus, mine eye’s due is their outward part,
And my heart’s right, their inward love of heart.
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,The ‘nor’ (47.11) is emended to ‘no’ or ‘not’. With ‘either…or’occurring in line 9, the ‘nor’ continues the comparative process, which is implied despite the absence of ‘neither’. The ‘nor’ is consistent with the Sonnet logic where the youth is both a person and a persona of the Poet. In line 10 the youth is both ‘away and present still with me’. He is neither here ‘nor farther from my thoughts’. The emendation from ‘nor’ to ‘no’ or ‘not’ ignores the apparent paradox of the youth being here and there.
And each doth good turns now unto the other,
When that mine eye is famished for a look,
Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother;
With my love’s picture then my eye doth feast,
And to the painted banquet bids my heart:
Another time mine eye is my heart’s guest,
And in his thoughts of love doth share a part.
So either by thy picture or my love,
Thy self away, are present still with me,
For thou nor farther than my thoughts canst move,
And I am still with them and they with thee.
Or if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
Awakes my heart, to heart’s and eye’s delight.
How heavy do I journey on the way,
When what I seek (my weary travel’s end)
Doth teach that ease and that repose to say
Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend.
The beast that bears me, tired with my woe,
Plods duly on, to bear that weight in me,
As if by some instinct the wretch did know
His rider loved not speed being made from thee:
The bloody spur cannot provoke him on,
That some-times anger thrusts into his hide,
Which heavily he answers with a groan,
More sharp to me than spurring to his side,
For that same groan doth put this in my mind,
My grief lies onward and my joy behind.
Oh how much more doth beauty beauteous seem,The emendation is from ‘by’ to ‘my’ (54.14). In the Sonnet logic truth is always associated with saying or any form of propositional language. Hence the youth’s ‘truth’ is distilled ‘by’ verse. ‘Truth’ is distilled ‘by verse’ just as ‘sweetest odours’ are made from the sweet death of the ‘Roses’. The change to ‘my’ reads personality into the sonnet, revealing an ignorance of the logic.
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give,
The Rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour, which doth in it live:
The Canker blooms have full as deep a dye,
As the perfumed tincture of the Roses,
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly,
When summers breath their masked buds discloses:
But for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwooed, and unrespected fade,
Die to themselves. Sweet Roses do not so,
Of their sweet deaths, are sweetest odours made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall vade, by verse distils your truth.
Not marble, nor the guilded monument,The emendation is from ‘monument’to ‘monuments’(55.1). The change is not necessary for the sake of rhyme as the rhyme scheme of the Sonnets does not demand consistency. A similar mis-rhyme occurs between ‘lies’and ‘eye’ in the couplet of sonnet 153, and in sonnets 81 and 107 ‘monument’ occurs in the singular in association with the Poet’s ‘rime’ or ‘verse’. Ironically, Shakespeare has placed the line ‘Princes shall (not) outlive this powerful rhyme’ between the lines ending in ‘monument’ and ‘contents’. The Poet argues in the 9 alien Poet sonnets that their facility in style and rhyme is inadequate before his ability to articulate the logical content of his ‘rhyme’ or poetry. The deliberate mis-rhyme of ‘monument’ and ‘contents’ is consistent with the Poet’s appreciation that the depth of meaning in his verse is based on more than a tidy rhyme scheme.
Of Princes shall out-live this powerful rhyme,
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall Statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword, nor wars quick fire shall burn:
The living record of your memory.
’Gainst death, and all oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth, your praise shall still find room,
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So till the judgement that your self arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes.
Being your slave what should I do but tend,The emendation is from ‘Will’ to ‘will’ (57.13). The decapitalising of ‘Will’, because the context does not support a reference to the person of William Shakespeare, ignores the rich range of meanings that are associated with the word ‘Will’, particularly in sonnets 135 and 136. ‘Will’ appears as a persona of the author, as a personification of the will, and as the male member.
Upon the hours, and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend;
Nor services to do till you require.
Nor dare I chide the world without end hour,
Whilst I (my sovereign) watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour,
When you have bid your servant once adieu.
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought,
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But like a sad slave stay and think of nought
Save where you are, how happy you make those.
So true a fool is love, that in your Will,
(Though you do anything) he thinks no ill.
If there be nothing new, but that which is,The emendation is from ‘where’ to ‘whether’ (59.11). The emendation means that the word ‘whether’ is repeated three times in lines 11 and 12. The emendation to ‘whether’ invites a comparison between the ‘composed wonder of your frame’ (59.10) that beguiles ‘our brains’ (59.2) and ‘your image in some antique book’. It asks if the youth’s ‘frame’ seems ‘mended’ or is an improvement on the ‘antique image’. The original ‘where’ on the other hand, though referring to the same ‘image’ in the ‘antique book’, asks ‘where’ in the ‘image’ is there evidence that ‘they’ might have been ‘better’ in ‘former days’ (59.12). The doubt as to ‘whether we are mended’ is followed by the question as to ‘where’ exactly ‘they’were ‘better’.
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,
Which labouring for invention bear amiss
The second burthen of a former child?
Oh that record could with a back-ward look,
Even of five hundreth courses of the Sun,
Show me your image in some antique book,
Since mind at first in character was done.
That I might see what the old world could say,
To this composed wonder of your frame,
Whether we are mended, or where better they,
Or whether revolution be the same.
Oh sure I am the wits of former days,
To subjects worse have given admiring praise.
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,The emendation is from ‘or’ to ‘of ’ (65.12). The alteration to ‘of ’ destroys the sense of comparison between ‘spoil’ and ‘beauty’. While the emendation simplifies the meaning of the line, it also takes away the degree of complexity required for an appreciation of the meaning of the couplet. More importantly, it ignores the logic of the truth dynamic in the Sonnets. The logic of the sonnets to the youth determines that his beauty cannot survive the ravages of time and that the Poet’s verse can give him only a limited immortality.
But sad mortality o’er-sways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O how shall summer’s honey breath hold out,
Against the wrackful siege of batt’ring days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong but time decays?
O fearful meditation, where alack,
Shall time’s best Jewel from time’s chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back,
Or who his spoil or beauty can forbid?
O none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
Ah wherefore with infection should he live,The first emendation is from ‘seeing’ to ‘seeming’ (67.6). The role of the eyes in the Sonnet logic determines that when ‘false painting’ is compared to the youth’s ‘living hue’ it is as if it steals the possibility of ‘seeing’ from the ‘dead’. Not all editors make the change but Kerrigan does without explanation. When a word like ‘sinne’ is emended to ‘sin’ or ‘atchive’ to ‘achieve’ or ‘howers’ to ‘hours’ there is no change in meaning, merely a change in spelling. But when words are altered in meaning, especially when the original is full of meaning, the change is presumptuous at best.
And with his presence grace impiety,
That sin by him advantage should achieve,
And lace itself with his society?
Why should false painting imitate his cheek,
And steal dead seeing of his living hue?
Why should poor beauty indirectly seek,
Roses of shadow, since his Rose is true?
Why should he live, now nature bankrupt is,
Beggared of blood to blush through lively veins,
For she hath no exchequer now but his,
And proud of many, lives upon his gains?
O him she stores, to show what wealth she had,
In days long since, before these last so bad.
Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view,The change is from ‘end’ to ‘due’ (69.3). The correction to ‘due’ is reasonable because ‘end’ is a believable compositor’s error that results from an inversion of ‘u’ and the interchange of the ‘d’ and ‘e’. There are a number of examples in Q (and the plays) of the ‘n’ or ‘u’ being mistakenly inverted by typesetters. Even though ‘end’ and ‘due’ are different words with different meanings, this is merely a typesetting mistake involving the same letters.
Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend:
All tongues (the voice of souls) give thee that due,
Uttering bare truth, even so as foes Commend.
Their outward thus with outward praise is crowned,
But those same tongues that give thee so thine own,
In other accents do this praise confound
By seeing farther than the eye hath shown.
They look into the beauty of thy mind,
And that in guess they measure by thy deeds,
Then churls their thoughts (although their eies were kind)
To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds,
But why thy odour matcheth not thy show,
The soil is this, that thou dost common grow.
Why is my verse so barren of new pride?The emendation is from ‘fel’ to ‘tell’ or ‘sell’ (76.7). This seems to be a genuine error. The ‘f ’ in Q gives ‘fel’, which doesn’t seem to have the sense required. The change to ‘tel’ or ‘tell’ or even ‘sell’ (in agreement with spending and spent in line 12) makes better sense and involves a believable typesetting error of misplacing ‘f ’ for a ‘t’ (or possibly a long ‘s’).
So far from variation or quick change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new found methods, and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth, and where they did proceed?
O know sweet love I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument:
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent:
For as the Sun is daily new and old,
So is my love still telling what is told.
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties were,The change from ‘were’ to ‘wear’ is not a true emendation as the words ‘were’ and ‘wear’ are interchangeable in the Sonnets and plays. The modern ‘wear’ is spelt both as ‘weare’ and ‘were’ in Q (sonnets 15 and 55). However, ‘were’ in its modern meaning is also spelt as ‘weare’ in Q (sonnets 127 and 140). The meaning of ‘were’ in sonnet 77 in Q is somewhat ambiguous, with both ‘time’ and ‘waste’ occurring in the octet. If the word ‘were’was meant to reflect this doubled theme then the change to the modern ‘wear’ by the editors removes the ambiguity. The editors change ‘were’ to ‘wear’ (77.3) but leave the mis-rhyme to modern ears of ‘were’ and ‘near’ in sonnet 140. ‘Were’ is consistent with both the double meaning in the sonnet available to the Elizabethan ear and the frequent mis-rhymes in the Sonnets.
Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste,
The vacant leaves thy mind’s imprint will bear,
And of this book, this learning mayst thou taste.
The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show,
Of mouthed graves will give thee memory,
Thou by thy dials shady stealth mayst know,
Times thievish progress to eternity.
Look what thy memory cannot contain,
Commit to these waste blacks, and thou shalt find
Those children nursed, delivered from thy brain,
To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.
These offices, so oft as thou wilt look,
Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book.
Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now,The emendation from ‘stall’ to ‘shall’ in line 11 seems warranted. ‘Stall’ makes no sense in the context. With four ‘st’ combinations in the surrounding lines the potential for error is understandable.
Now while the world is bent my deeds to cross,
Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow.
And do not drop in for an after loss:
Ah do not, when my heart has scaped this sorrow,
Come in rearward of a conquered woe,
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purposed over-throw.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
When other petty griefs have done their spite,
But in the onset come, so shall I taste
At first the worst of fortunes might.
And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,
Compared with loss of thee, will not seem so.
The forward violet thus did I chide,The emendation is from ‘our’ to ‘one’ (99.9). The change from ‘our’ to ‘one’ over-simplifies the meaning of lines 9 and 10. It reduces the sense of personal responsibility and mutual culpability associated with ‘our’ to a process of enumeration from one to three. When it is appreciated that the 15 lines of sonnet 99 provide a reference to 1599, the date of publication of The Passionate Pilgrim in which sonnets of Shakespeare’s were pirated, the significance of the ‘our’ comes clear. As in sonnet 112, sonnet 99 accuses a protagonist of offending the Poet and youth. The Poet is identified as ‘our blushing shame’, the youth as ‘an other white despair’ and the thief as ‘the third, nor red nor white’. The ‘our’ makes rich sense in Q.
Sweet thief whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells
If not from my love’s breath, the purple pride,
Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells?
In my love’s veins thou hast too grossly died,
The Lily I condemned for thy hand,
And buds of marjoram had stolen thy hair,
The Roses fearfully on thorns did stand,
Our blushing shame, an other white despair:
A third nor red, nor white, had stolen of both,
And to his robb’ry had annexed thy breath,
But for his theft in pride of all his growth
A vengeful canker eat him up to death.
More flowers I noted, yet I none could see,
But sweet, or culler it had stol’n from thee.
Oh truant Muse what shall be thy amends,The emendation is from ‘di’d’ to ‘dyed’ (101.2). Sonnet 101 is the last of seven occasions in which the interrelation between truth and beauty from sonnet 14 is considered in the youth sequence. The ‘neglect of truth in beauty di’d’ recalls line 14 of sonnet 14 where ‘Thy end is Truth’s and Beauty’s doom and date’. Then, in line 3 of sonnet 101, the Poet reiterates that ‘both truth and beauty on my love depends’. The sense of finality from sonnet 14 and the repetition of that finality in the first quatrain of sonnet 101 leaves no doubt that Shakespeare intended the word to be ‘died’. The mention of ‘colour fixed’ (101.6) is not a sufficient reason for making ‘di’d’ into ‘dyed’. Sonnet 54 provides a precedent in which both meanings of ‘die’ are used in one sonnet. The editors interfere because they are ignorant of Shakespeare’s philosophy and particularly of the significance of sonnet 14.
For thy neglect of truth in beauty died?
Both truth and beauty on my love depends:
So dost thou too, and therein dignified:
Make answer Muse, wilt thou not haply say,
Truth needs no colour with his colour fixed,
Beauty no pencil, beauty’s truth to lay:
But best is best, if never intermixed.
Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb?
Excuse not silence so, for’t lies in thee,
To make him much out-live a gilded tomb:
And to be praised of ages yet to be.
Then do thy office Muse, I teach thee how,
To make him seem long hence, as he shows now.
When in the Chronicle of wasted time,The emendation is from ‘still’ to ‘skill’ (106.12). ‘Not still enough’ refers to the inadequacy of the ‘divining eyes’ to capture the ‘worth’ of the youth. In the Master Mistress sequence the Poet has consistently argued (particularly sonnet 14) that astrology is not the means by which he evaluates the worth of youth. Youth’s worth is based on the logic of increase and its relation to his ‘eyes’. The difference between poetry and increase means that, though the ‘descriptions’ of old ‘mastered’ the looks of the youth, they are not a substitute for his living potential. The youth’s true worth cannot be captured by ‘Pen’ or ‘rhyme’.
I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
And beauty making beautiful old rhyme,
In praise of Ladies dead, and lovely Knights,
Then in the blazon of sweet beauty’s best,
Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,
I see their antique Pen would have expressed,
Even such a beauty as you master now.
So all their praises are but prophecies
Of this our time, all you prefiguring,
And for they looked but with divining eyes,
They had not still enough your worth to sing:
For we which now behold these present days,
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
In contrast ‘skill’ implies the ancients lacked only adequate divining skill to capture the worth of the youth. ‘Still’ confirms that even if they had those skills they would ‘still’ not be enough to appreciate the Poet’s understanding of natural logic. The presence of ‘skill’ in seventeenth century versions of sonnet 106, in which there are also other differences, suggest that Shakespeare modified the sonnet before publication to more exactly express his logic.
O for my sake do you wish fortune chide,The emendation is from ‘wish’ to ‘with’ (111.1). The emendation creates the impression that the Mistress will be chided ‘with’ fortune or bad luck, a meaning contrary to the Sonnet logic. Rather, ‘do you wish fortune chide, the guilty goddess of my harmful deeds’ questions the propriety to the youth in wanting to blame the goddess (Nature) for the Poet’s abuses. (Stephen Booth retracts the emendation in the most recent edition of his Shakespeare’s Sonnets.)
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,
That did not better for my life provide,
Than public means which public manners breeds.
Thence comes it that my name receives a brand,
And almost thence my nature is subdued
To what it works in, like the Dyers hand,
Pity me then, and wish I were renewed,
Whilst like a willing patient I will drink,
Potions of Eisel ’gainst my strong infection,
No bitterness that I will bitter think,
Nor double penance to correct correction.
Pity me then dear friend, and I assure ye,
Even that your pity is enough to cure me.
Your love and pity doth th’impression fill,The emendation is from ‘y’are’ to ‘they’re’ (112.14). Not all editors make the change. The Master Mistress, as a persona of the Poet, might seem dead to the world but the Poet states his awareness that logically his youthful days can never be forgotten. The change to ‘they’re’ turns the meaning around.
Which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow,
For what care I who calls me well or ill,
So you o’er-greene my bad, my good allow?
You are my All the world, and I must strive,
To know my shames and praises from your tongue,
None else to me, nor I to none alive
That my steeled sense or changes right or wrong,
In so profound Abysm I throw all care
Of others voices, that my Adders sense,
To critic and to flatterer stopped are:
Mark how with my neglect I do dispense.
You are so strongly in my purpose bred,
That all the world besides me thinks y’are dead.
Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind,The first emendation is from ‘lack’ to ‘latch’ (113.6). ‘Lack’ is changed to ‘latch’ to create a perfect rhyme with ‘catch’ (113.8). But it has already been observed a number of times that Q does not demand perfect rhymes on every occasion. The use of the word ‘lack’ is consistent with Q’s acceptance of occasional mis-rhyme.
And that which governs me to go about,
Doth part his function, and is partly blind,
Seems seeing, but effectually is out:
For it no form delivers to the heart
Of bird, of flower, or shape which it doth lack,
Of his quick objects hath the mind no part,
Nor his own vision holds what it doth catch:
For if it see the rudest or gentlest sight,
The most sweet-savour or deformed’st creature,
The mountain, or the sea, the day, or night:
The Crow, or Dove, it shapes them to your feature.
Incapable of more replete, with you,
My most true mind thus maketh mine untrue.
O Thou my lovely Boy who in thy power,The emendation is from ‘minute’ to ‘minutes’ (126.8). There is no need to pluralise ‘minute’ as it makes sense in the singular. ‘Nature’may not only disgrace ‘time’ but also ‘kill’ a ‘wretched minute’. The change to ‘wretched minutes kill’ implies that Nature either kills an indeterminate number of minutes or simply passes the time of day. But Nature kills the concept of time rather than a period of time. Kerrigan not only changes ‘minute’ he also adds capital Ts to Q’s ‘times’ and ‘time’. Kerrigan imagines ‘Nature is in debt to Time’ (p. 63). Rather, the ‘lovely boy’ has time ‘in (his) power’ and ‘Nature’ ‘will pluck (him) back’ and ‘may time disgrace’. ‘Nature’ is the ‘sovereign mistress’ over the ‘boy’ and ‘time’. ‘Nature’ renders ‘her Audit’, as predicted in sonnet 4 (where ‘Nature’ and ‘Audit’ are introduced). Ignorant of the Sonnet logic, editors like Kerrigan misread sonnet 126 out of an inappropriate paradigm.
ost hold time’s fickle glass, his sickle, hour:
Who hast by waning grown, and therein show’st,
Thy lovers withering, as thy sweet self grow’st.
If Nature (sovereign mistress over wrack)
As thou goest onwards still will pluck thee back,
She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill,
May time disgrace and wretched minute kill.
Yet fear her O thou minion of her pleasure,
She may detain, but not still keep her treasure!
Her Audit (though delayed) answered must be,
And her Quietus is to render thee.
( )
( )
In the old age black was not counted fair,Kerrigan’s emendation is from ‘eyes’ to ‘brows’ (127.10). This is a classic illustration of the sort of interference the Sonnets have been subjected to out of ignorance of sonnet 14. It is simply unwarranted. Other editors, including Booth, do not make the change.
Or if it were it bore not beauty’s name:
But now is black beauty’s successive heir,
And Beauty slandered with a bastard shame,
For since each hand has put on Nature’s power,
Fairing the foul with Art’s false borrowed face,
Sweet beauty hath no name no holy bower,
But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.
Therefore my Mistress’ eyes are Raven black,
Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem,
At such who not born fair no beauty lack,
Slandering Creation with a false esteem,
Yet so they mourn becoming of their woe,
That every tongue says beauty should look so.
Th’expense of Spirit in a waste of shameMost editors remove the capital ‘S’ from the word ‘Spirit’ (129.1). This is less an emendation and more an interference with Q’s capitals. The editors ignore the role of sonnet 129 as critical of the institution of the Church, which puts so much faith in an imaginary ‘heaven’ (129.14) that it becomes a cruel ‘hell’ on earth. Shakespeare’s experience of institutionalised excess could be the basis of his uncompromising statement.
Is lust in action, and till action, lust
Is perjured, murd’rous, bloody full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated as a swallowed bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad.
Made In pursuit and in possession so,
Had, having, and in quest, to have extreme,
A bliss in proof and proud and very woe,
Before a joy proposed behind a dream,
All this the world well knows yet none knows well,
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
Thine eyes I love, and they as pitying me,The emendation is from ‘morning’ to ‘mourning’ (132.5). ‘Morning’ first appears in line 5 in reference to the eye of the heavens, the sun. The image is transferred to the Mistress’ ‘eyes’ (132.9). This is consistent with the role of the eyes in the Sonnet logic. The Mistress’ eyes are the basis on which the Poet weighs his ‘love’. His desire to return to her is met with pity, which he recognises as his due. Her ‘morning eyes’ are metaphorically suns that better become the grey cheek of the East. They promise the Poet a maturity beyond his youthful ‘pain’.
Knowing thy heart torment me with disdain,
Have put on black, and loving mourners be,
Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain,
And truly not the morning Sun of Heaven
Better becomes the gray cheeks of th’East,
Nor that full Star that ushers in the Eaven
Doth half that glory to the sober West
As those two morning eyes become thy face:
O let it then as well beseem thy heart
To mourn for me since mourning doth thee grace,
And suit thy pity like in every part.
Then will I swear beauty her self is black,
And all they foul that thy complexion lack.
If thy soul check thee that I come so near,The emendation is from ‘I’ to ‘Ay’ (136.6). The ‘I’ in Q has its reference in ‘I was thy Will’ (136.2). The change to ‘Ay’makes a mockery of that meaning and the wonderful play on ‘I’, ‘one’, and ‘Will’ throughout the sonnet. The editors alter the punctuation to make it conform to the alteration by inserting a comma after ‘Ay’. While ‘I’ frequently means ‘Ay’ in the poems and plays, the simplistic emendation here is cause for concern.
Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy Will,
And will thy soul knows is admitted there,
Thus far for love, my love-suit sweet fulfill.
Will, will fulfill the treasure of thy love,
I fill it with wills, and my will one,
In things of great receipt with ease we prove,
Among a number one is reckon’d none.
Then in the number let me pass untold,
Though in thy stores account I one must be,
For nothing hold me so it please thee hold,
That nothing me, a some-thing sweet to thee.
Make but my name thy love, and love that still,
And then thou lovest me for my name is Will.
Two loves I have of comfort and despair,The first emendation is from ‘sight’ to ‘side’ (144.6). ‘Sight’ is a significant change from the ‘side’ of The Passionate Pilgrim version. As the subject is the youth (‘my better angel’), the change to ‘sight’ in sonnet 144 is consistent with the reading of sonnet 14, and with ‘sight’ in sonnets 148 and 150. The logic of sonnet 14 with its focus on ‘thine eyes’ is well represented in the Mistress sequence in such sonnets as 140, 141, 142, 144, and 149. The editors’ reversion to ‘side’ of the earlier version denies the deeper thematic meaning of ‘sight’ consistent with the Sonnet logic. The slight misrhyme is also consistent with other instances in Q.
Which like two spirits do suggest me still,
The better angel is a man right fair:
The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.
To win me soon to hell my female evil,
Tempteth my better angel from my sight,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil:
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turn’d fiend,
Suspect I may yet not directly tell,
But being both from me both to each friend,
I guess one angel in an other’s hell.
Yet this shall I ne’er know but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
Poor soul the centre of my sinful earth,The repetition of ‘my sinful earth’ (146.2) occurs with no loss of sense. Instead there is a heightening of effect. In a set of sonnets with other idiosyncrasies such as a 15 line sonnet and a 12 line sonnet, a sonnet with an extra couple of syllables in a line should not seem exceptionable. Only if editors want to view the Sonnets as irredeemably flawed could they want to make so many changes to the original. But this analysis demonstrates that the number of genuine errors in Q is few.
My sinful earth these rebel powers that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? is this thy body’s end?
Then soul live thou upon thy servant’s loss, And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross:
Within be fed, without be rich no more,
So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on men,
And death once dead, there’s no more dying then.
Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep,The emendation is from ‘eye’ to ‘eyes’ (153.14). The change from ‘eye’ to ‘eyes’ removes the erotic suggestion as to where ‘Cupid got new fire’. The fact that ‘my mistress’ eye’ occurs in line 9 of the same sonnet with the same meaning argues against the change. The rhyme of the couplet of sonnet 152 between ‘eye’ and ‘lie’ also has erotic overtones deriving from the ‘bed-vow’ (153.3). The punning play on ‘lie’ and ‘lies’ in the couplet of sonnet 138 prepares for the meaning behind the couplets of sonnets 152 and 153. By contrast, ‘my Mistress’ eyes’ of sonnet 130 relate directly to the logic ‘thine eyes’ from sonnet 14. This is another interference in the logic of the Sonnets for the sake of a tidy rhyme.
A maid of Diane’s this advantage found,
And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep
In a cold valley-fountain of that ground:
Which borrowed from this holy fire of love,
A dateless lively heat still to endure,
And grew a seething bath which men yet prove,
Against strange maladies a sovereign cure:
But at my mistress’ eye love’s brand new fired,
The boy for trial needs would touch my breast,
I sick withal the help of bath desired,
And thither hied a sad distempered guest.
But found no cure, the bath for my help lies,
Where Cupid got new fire;my mistress’ eye.
Summary
As many as 44 sonnets in modern editions have one or more words changed
by the editors. This means that of the 154 sonnets in Q nearly thirty percent
have emendations. Many more changes have been made through the
centuries. Kerrigan lists 107 he rejected before he sanctioned 55 and it is
largely those that have been commented on.
The number of changes required by editors using traditional methods
of literary appreciation implies the 1609 edition was badly edited by Thomas
Thorpe or badly set by the compositors. Or, alternatively, the excessive
number of emendations required by modern editors since Malone suggests
the traditional methods of literary interpretation are inadequate when
confronting Shakespeare’s philosophy. Historically, the weight of opinion has
gone against Thorpe and so against Shakespeare. Thorpe has been accused
of unauthorised publication and the compositors of unprofessional editing,
typesetting, and printing. Shakespeare’s authorship has been variously
doubted and the ordering and number of the sonnets variously corrected.
But, as Shakespeare was alive and well when the Sonnets were published in
1609, it is more likely the need for so many emendations reflects a failure
to understand their meaning.
The above analysis demonstrates the second option is the correct one.
Of the fifty to sixty traditional emendations required by the editors, only
four can be attributed to the compositors. These are ‘end/due’ of sonnet
69, ‘fel/tell or sell’ of sonnet 76, the ‘stall/shall’ of sonnet 90, and the
‘finde/fiend’ of sonnet 144. In each instance only one letter of the word is
involved and each ‘error’ falls into the category of a believable mistake or
oversight. There may be an argument for a change from ‘loss’ to ‘cross’ in
sonnet 34 and from ‘worth’ in sonnet 25. However, because such irregularities
are not unusual in the Sonnets, the status quo holds. There are also
around fifteen apparent spelling mistakes in Q, which do not appear in the
emendations because the meaning of the word is clear. So, when the Sonnets
are read according to their inherent philosophy, the total number of emendations
and spelling errors made by the compositors is about twenty. This is
far fewer than the seventy to well over a hundred emendations and spelling
errors required using traditional methods of interpretation.
The four genuine compositor errors suggest the editors since Malone
have approached the Sonnets with an inappropriate set of expectations. The
changes from ‘their’ to ‘thy’ and all the other changes reveal a preoccupation
not consistent with Shakespeare’s philosophy.
The editorial misunderstanding reveals an ignorance of Shakespeare’s
philosophy. The editors cannot account for his depth of meaning, nor his
particular way of using words and the freedom with which he treats the
norms of prosody. The idiosyncrasies of the Sonnets reveal a studied
casualness by a sophisticated and critical mind that appreciates that real
meaning is not found at line endings or in sonnet styles. Features of the
Sonnets, such as the cryptic numerology of the Dedication added as the set
was nearing finality, suggest Shakespeare was familiar with being misunderstood.
The analysis presented here is based on the evidence and arguments that
appear in Volume 1 of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet Philosophy. When the
evidence of Volume 1 is considered alongside the commentaries on
individual sonnets in this volume, plus the commentaries on the plays in
Volume 3, and the implications of Shakespeare’s philosophy for philosophy
in general in Volume 4, the traditional emendations are revealed to be a
consequence of the application of an inadequate paradigm to the Sonnets.
That Thomas Thorpe and the compositors have been pilloried by the editors
since Malone is one of the great ironies in the history of institutionalised
prejudice.
