Part 22 (1/2)
CHAPTER III THE SONNETS: PART I
Ever since Wordsworth wrote that the sonnets were the key to Shakespeare's heart, it has been taken for granted (save by those who regard even the sonnets as mere poetical exercises) that Shakespeare's real nature is discovered in the sonnets more easily and more surely than in the plays Those readers who have followedhis plays will hardly need to be told that I do not agree with this assuh to create and vitalize a dozen characters, reveals himself more fully in his creations than he can in his proper person It was natural enough that Wordsworth, a great lyric poet, should catch Shakespeare's accent better in his sonnets than in his dra to Wordsworth's lilish critics have agreed with Wordsworth, it only shows that Englishes of lyric than of drareatest lyrics in the world; but our dramas, with the exception of Shakespeare's, are not remarkable And in that modern extension of the drama, the novel, we are distinctly inferior to the French and Russians
This inferiority e and thought which emasculates all our later fiction; but as that prudery is not found in our lyric verse it is evident that here alone the inspiration is full and rich enough to overflow the lirees with me or not on this point, it may be accepted that Shakespeare revealed himself far more completely in his plays than as a lyric poet Just as he chose his dramatic subjects with some felicity to reveal his many-sided nature, so he used the sonnets with equal artistry to discover that part of himself which could hardly be rendered objectively Whatever is e, but his feivingness, self-pity--do not shoell in the drale What sort of a drama would that be in which the hero would have to confess that when in the vale of years he had fallen desperately in love with a girl, and that he had been foolish enough to send a friend, a young noble, to plead his cause, with the result that the girl won the friend and gave herself to hihter and not sympathy, and this Shakespeare no doubt foresaw Besides, to Shakespeare, this story, which is in brief the story of the sonnets, was terribly real and intimate, and he felt instinctively that he could not treat it objectively; it was too near him, too exquisitely painful for that
At soest of us, and that defeat we all treat lyrically; when the deepest depth in us is stirred we cannot feign, or depict ourselves from the outside dispassionately; we can only cry our passion, our pain and our despair; this once we use no art, simple truth is all we seek to reach The crisis of Shakespeare's life, the hour of agony and bloody shen his weakness found hith--that is the subject of the sonnets
Noas Shakespeare's weakness? his besetting temptation? ”Love is my sin,” he says; ”Love of love and her soft hours” was his weakness: passion the snare that meshed his soul No wonder Antony cries:
”Whither hast thou led ipsy led Shakespeare froive us the story, the whole terrible, sinful, ht have been expected, Englishmen like Wordsworth, with an intense appreciation of lyric poetry, have done good work in criticislish Mr Tyler's work on the sonnets ranks higher than that of Coleridge on the plays I do not mean to say that it is on the sah it shoide reading, astonishi+ng acuteness, and uive to the personages of the sonnets a local habitation and a name, and that unique achievement puts him in a place by himself far above the mass of commentators Before his book appeared in 1890 the sonnets lay in the diuess-work It is true that Hallaht, and had identified Williah-born, handsome youth for whom Shakespeare, in the sonnets, expressed such passionate affection; but still, there were people who thought that the Earl of Southampton filled the requirements even better than Williaht of sur on a hint of the Rev W A Harrison, identified Shakespeare's high-born mistress, the ”dark lady” of the sonnets, with Mistress Mary Fitton, a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth
These, then, are the personages of the drama, and the story is very simple: Shakespeare loved Mistress Fitton and sent his friend, the young Lord Herbert, to her on son that he should commend Shakespeare to the lady Mistress Fitton fell in love with William Herbert, wooed and won him, and Shakespeare had to mourn the loss of both friend and mistress
It would be natural to speak of this identification of Mr Tyler's as the best working hypothesis yet put forward; but it would be unfair to him; it is more than this Till his book appeared, even the date of the sonnets was not fixed; arded them as an early work, as early indeed, as 1591 or 1592; he was the first person to prove that the tihly froiven us the naedy in its proper place in Shakespeare's life, and he deserves all thanks for his illu to this theory fresh corroboration froe to say, Mr Tyler has hardly used the plays, yet, as regards the story told in the sonnets, the proof that it is a real and not an iinary story can be drawn froard as hts in Mr Tyler's work; but in theitself on the reason and satisfying at the same time instinct and sympathy
Let us first see how far the story told in the sonnets is borne out by the plays For a great ether, and believe that the sonnets were nothing but poetic exercises
The sonnets fall naturally into two parts: froh rank and great personal beauty; sonnet 127 is an _envoi_; from 128 to 152 they tell of Shakespeare's love for a ”dark lady” What binds the two series together is the story told in both, or at least told in one and corroborated in the other, that Shakespeare first sent his friend to the lady, most probably to plead his cause, and that she wooed his friend and gave herself to him Now this is not a couess that Shakespeare could be so foolish as to send his friend to plead his love for him That's a mistake that no man who knoomen would be likely to make: but the unlikelihood of the story is part of the evidence of its truth--_credo quia incredibile_ has an element of persuasion in it
No one has yet noticed that the story of the sonnets is treated three times in Shakespeare's plays The first tihtly that it looks to h the incidents which he narrates In the ”Two Gentlemen of Verona” Proteus is asked by the Duke to plead Thurio's cause with Silvia, and he promises to do so; but instead, presses his own suit and is rejected The incident is handled so carelessly (Proteus not being Thurio's friend) that it seems to me to have no importance save as a mere coincidence When the scene between Proteus and Silvia ritten Shakespeare had not yet been deceived by his friend Still in ”The Two Gentlemen of Verona” there is one speech which certainly betrays personal passion It is in the last scene of the fifth act, when Valentine surprises Proteus offering violence to Silvia
”_Val(coo that rude uncivil touch,-- Thou friend of an ill fashi+on!
_Pro_ Valentine!
_Val Thou common friend, that's without faith or love,-- For such is a friend now;_--treacherous ht but mine eye Could have persuaded me Now I dare not say I have one friend alive: thou would'st disprove ht hand Is perjured to the bosom? Proteus, I am sorry I er for thy sake
_The private wound is deepest: tist all foes that a friend should be the worst!_”
The first lines which I have italicised are too plain to be misread; when they ritten Shakespeare had just been cheated by his friend; they are his passionate comment on the occurrence--”For such is a friend now”--can hardly be otherwise explained The last couplet, too, which I have also put in italics, is manifestly a reflection on his betrayal: it is a twin rendering of the feeling expressed in sonnet 40:
”And yet love knows it is a greater grief To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury”
It contrasts ”foe and friend,” just as the sonnet contrasts ”love and hate”
Mr Israel Gollancz declares that ”several critics are inclined to attribute this final scene to another hand,” and to his uess could be wider from the truth The scene is most manifestly pure Shakespeare--I take the soliloquy of Valentine, hich the scene opens, as a Shakespeare's most characteristic utterances--but the whole scene is certainly later than the rest of the play The truth probably is that after his friend had deceived hiain, and that Shakespeare rewrote this last scene under the influence of personal feeling The 170 lines of it are full of phrases which ht be taken direct from the sonnets Here 's such a couplet:
”O, 'tis the curse in love, and still approved, When women cannot love where they're beloved”
The whole scene tells the story a little ht be expected, seeing that Shakespeare's rival was a great noble and not to be criticised freely This fact explains to me Valentine's unmotived renunciation of Silvia; explains, too, why he is reconciled to his friend with such unseemly haste Valentine's last words in the scene are illu foes”