Seminar 3.

The development of English drama and theatre in the second half of the
XVI c.
W. Shakespeare. Sonnets.

1) The development of English drama and thearte in the second half of the XVI
c.:
The Renaissance:
1) Recreating classical models of Rome and Ancient Greece.
2) Awakening after Dark Ages.
3) Belief in spiritual and material enrichment.
Humanism: Supporters of the Humanism considered that people could
achieve earthly perfection. People’s views on life became more optimistic
and they believed that the future would be better than the past.

Printing Press:
1) Invented in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg.
2) Had a profound impact on the efficiency of the printing process.
3) Designed with a special told to quickly create movable typesets.
4) Improved the literacy rate.
The Renaissance literature
- The main forms of literature in the 16th century were the poem and the
drama.
- The famous epic is Paradise lost by John Milton.
- Specific rules for writing certain poetic genres.
- The main goal is to combine truth and beauty.
- Poetry as often accompanied by music.
- The freedom to mix different poetic genres (Edmund Spencer’s Faerie Queen)
English Court life
- The views of patrons had a great influence on the development of art.
- Verbal duels between courtiers were popular and were even written about in
dramas and poetry of the time.
- The development of Renaissance humanism as theme of revival and renewal,
which made this period so famous.
Reasons for the end of the Renaissance.
- The beginning if Purtanism in England which put and end to the pursuit of
knowledge.
- Political problems due to Queen Elizabeth’s inability to give birth to a child.
 Changes in the political and religious structures.
The year 1529-1539 were a turning point for England. King Henry VIII united
church and state and declared himself the head of the Church of England. The
king broke off contact with the Catholic Church and favored Protestantism.
That is, the king or queen were considered the closest people to God.

The Tudors were guided by medieval views of the world, claiming that it
consists of different interconnected stages of being. The whole world was
supposed to be governed by the divine will. In addition, it was believed, that
such an arrangement was beneficial to humans and that this world was only a
temporary period before the transition to the next.

Queen Elizabeth:
- Daughter of Henry VII and Anne Boleyn, the symbol of the Golden Age.
- Was declared illegitimate and experiences and lonely childhood.
- Received a good education
- Was an opponent of religious extremism
- Suspected of involvement in the Sir Thomas Wyatt uprising
- Became a queen in 1558
- Established diplomatic relations with the Catholic Church even though she
was a Protestant
- In 1558, Sir Francis Drake defeated the Spanish Fleet led by Philip and England
was able to control the seas.
Achievements of the Renaissance:
- Famous figures: William Shakespeare, Thomas More, Francis Bacon,
Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Wyatt, George Chapman, Edmund Spences Sir
Thomas Malory ( The death of Arthur – 1470 ) and others
- London became a major city in the world and the English language became
popular.
- Development of theatre and English drama by Shakespeare.
- The invention of printing facilitated the development of new forms of writing.
- Development of science, religion, politics, geography, and art.
University Wits
Group of educated men, associated with Oxford and Cambrigde, who played a vital
role in the evolution of English drama and prose.
Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe from Cambridge; John Lyly,
Thomas Lodge and George Peele from Oxford.
 English Renaissance thearte
Three periods of literature of English Renaissance:
First period – the end of the 15th and the first half of the 16th century.
- The first humanists appeared.
- development of printing (the first printer – William Caxton in 1476)
- the first book published in English – “A Collection of Tales of Troy)
was published in 14 74 in Bruges.
- Thomas More (1478 – 1535) – the most prominent writer of this
period, wrote a book about the ideal society (“Utopia”)

Second period (Elizabethan) – the second half of the XVI century and
the beginning of the XVII.
- Development of literature and the emergence of new literary
forms
- Shakespeare’s influence on drama and theatre.
 The third period – after Shakespeare’s death to 1640 – the period of
literary decline.
 General tendencies in the development of English Renaissance drama.
K. Marlowe’s literary works.
The 15th century also saw significant development in the field of drama
Medieval drama, which had its roots in religious liturgy, evolved and
expanded during this period.
One of the most popular trends in 15th century drama was the
increasing use of vernacular language. While Latin continued to be used
In some religious plays, English became increasingly common, making
the performance more accessible to a wider audience.

Formation of the Ballad genre

The 15th century also saw the rise of the ballad as a distinct literary
form. Ballad, which had their roots in the oral tradition of storytelling in
verse, became an important part of English literary culture during this
period. These narrative poems, characterized by their simple language,
strong rhythm and memorable refrains, often told stories of love,
death, and the supernatural.

The flourishing of English drama and theater in the second half of the
XVI century.
Shift in English literary culture
Rise of the public playhouses
Demand for entertainment
Development of drama
Themes of politics, morality and human nature

General trends in the development of English Renaissance Drama:

- The Rise of Public and Private Theatres
- The professionalism of Playwriting and Acting
- Influence of Classical and Continental Drama
- Exploration of Complex Themes: politics morality, and human nature
- Development of the English History play
Christopher Marlowe (baptized Feb. 26, 1564, Canterbury, Kent, Eng.—died May 30,
1593, Deptford, near London) was an Elizabethan poet and Shakespeare’s most
important predecessor in English drama, who is noted especially for his
establishment of dramatic blank verse.

Early years
Marlowe was the second child and eldest son of John Marlowe, a Canterbury
shoemaker. Nothing is known of his first schooling, but on Jan. 14, 1579, he entered
the King’s School, Canterbury, as a scholar. A year later he went to Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge. Obtaining his bachelor of arts degree in 1584, he continued in
residence at Cambridge—which may imply that he was intending to take Anglican
orders. In 1587, however, the university hesitated about granting him the master’s
degree; its doubts (arising from his frequent absences from the university) were
apparently set at rest when the Privy Council sent a letter declaring that he had
been employed “on matters touching the benefit of his country”—apparently in
Elizabeth I’s secret service.
Last years and literary career.

After 1587 Marlowe was in London, writing for the theatres, occasionally getting
into trouble with the authorities because of his violent and disreputable behaviour,
and probably also engaging himself from time to time in government service.
Marlowe won a dangerous reputation for “atheism,” but this could, in Elizabeth I’s
time, indicate merely unorthodox religious opinions. In Robert Greene’s deathbed
tract, Greenes groats-worth of witte, Marlowe is referred to as a “famous gracer of
Tragedians” and is reproved for having said, like Greene himself, “There is no god”
and for having studied “pestilent Machiuilian pollicie.” There is further evidence of
his unorthodoxy, notably in the denunciation of him written by the spy Richard
Baines and in the letter of Thomas Kyd to the lord keeper in 1593 after Marlowe’s
death. Kyd alleged that certain papers “denying the deity of Jesus Christ” that were
found in his room belonged to Marlowe, who had shared the room two years
before. Both Baines and Kyd suggested on Marlowe’s part atheism in the stricter
sense and a persistent delight in blasphemy. Whatever the case may be, on May 18,
1593, the Privy Council issued an order for Marlowe’s arrest; two days later the poet
was ordered to give daily attendance on their lordships “until he shall be licensed to
the contrary.” On May 30, however, Marlowe was killed by Ingram Frizer, in the
dubious company of Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley, at a lodging house in
Deptford, where they had spent most of the day and where, it was alleged, a fight
broke out between them over the bill.
In a playwriting career that spanned little more than six years, Marlowe’s
achievements were diverse and splendid. Perhaps before leaving Cambridge he had
already written Tamburlaine the Great (in two parts, both performed by the end of
1587; published 1590). Almost certainly during his later Cambridge years, Marlowe
had translated Ovid’s Amores (The Loves) and the first book of Lucan’s Pharsalia
from the Latin. About this time he also wrote the play Dido, Queen of Carthage
(published in 1594 as the joint work of Marlowe and Thomas Nashe). With the
production of Tamburlaine he received recognition and acclaim, and playwriting
became his major concern in the few years that lay ahead. Both parts of
Tamburlaine were published anonymously in 1590, and the publisher omitted
certain passages that he found incongruous with the play’s serious concern with
history; even so, the extant Tamburlaine text can be regarded as substantially
Marlowe’s. No other of his plays or poems or translations was published during his
life. His unfinished but splendid poem Hero and Leander—which is almost certainly
the finest nondramatic Elizabethan poem apart from those produced by Edmund
Spenser—appeared in 1598.
There is argument among scholars concerning the order in which the plays
subsequent to Tamburlaine were written. It is not uncommonly held that Faustus
quickly followed Tamburlaine and that then Marlowe turned to a more neutral,
more “social” kind of writing in Edward II and The Massacre at Paris. His last play
may have been The Jew of Malta, in which he signally broke new ground. It is known
that Tamburlaine, Faustus, and The Jew of Malta were performed by the Admiral’s
Men, a company whose outstanding actor was Edward Alleyn, who most certainly
played Tamburlaine, Faustus, and Barabas the Jew.
2) Shakespeare’s life. How did all the facts of his life contribute to making
Shakespeare the most honorable poet and playwright in English literature?
William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor
born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly
celebrated on 23 April (see When was Shakespeare born), which is also
believed to be the date he died in 1616.

Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of
British theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern
Period). Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they
are not all he wrote. Shakespeare’s poems also remain popular to this day.
Records survive relating to William Shakespeare’s family that offer an
understanding of the context of Shakespeare's early life and the lives of his
family members. John Shakespeare married Mary Arden, and together they
had eight children. John and Mary lost two daughters as infants, so William
became their eldest child. John Shakespeare worked as a glove-maker, but he
also became an important figure in the town of Stratford by fulfilling civic
positions. His elevated status meant that he was even more likely to have sent
his children, including William, to the local grammar school.

William Shakespeare would have lived with his family in their house on
Henley Street until he turned eighteen. When he was eighteen, Shakespeare
married Anne Hathaway, who was twenty-six. It was a rushed marriage
because Anne was already pregnant at the time of the ceremony. Together
they had three children. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born six months
after the wedding and was later followed by twins Hamnet and Judith.
Hamnet died when he was just 11 years old.
Shakespeare's career jump-started in London, but when did he go there? We
know Shakespeare's twins were baptised in 1585, and that by 1592 his
reputation was established in London, but the intervening years are
considered a mystery. Scholars generally refer to these years as ‘The Lost
Years’.

During his time in London, Shakespeare’s first printed works were published.
They were two long poems, 'Venus and Adonis' (1593) and 'The Rape of
Lucrece' (1594). He also became a founding member of The Lord
Chamberlain’s Men, a company of actors. Shakespeare was the company's
regular dramatist, producing on average two plays a year, for almost twenty
years.

He remained with the company for the rest of his career, during which time it
evolved into The King’s Men under the patronage of King James I (from 1603).
During his time in the company Shakespeare wrote many of his most famous
tragedies, such as King Lear and Macbeth, as well as great romances, like The
Winter’s Tale and The Tempest.

Altogether Shakespeare's works include 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, 154

sonnets, and a variety of other poems. No original manuscripts of
Shakespeare's plays are known to exist today. It is actually thanks to a group
of actors from Shakespeare's company that we have about half of the plays at
all. They collected them for publication after Shakespeare died, preserving the
plays. These writings were brought together in what is known as the First
 Folio ('Folio' refers to the size of the paper used). It contained 36 of his plays,
but none of his poetry.

Shakespeare’s legacy is as rich and diverse as his work; his plays have
spawned countless adaptations across multiple genres and cultures. His plays
have had an enduring presence on stage and film. His writings have been
compiled in various iterations of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare,
which include all of his plays, sonnets, and other poems. William Shakespeare
continues to be one of the most important literary figures of the English
language.

Shakespeare’s success in the London theatres made him considerably

wealthy, and by 1597 he was able to purchase New Place, the largest house in
the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon. Although his professional career was
spent in London, he maintained close links with his native town.

Recent archaeological evidence discovered on the site of Shakespeare’s New

Place shows that Shakespeare was only ever an intermittent lodger in London.
This suggests he divided his time between Stratford and London (a two or
three-day commute). In his later years, he may have spent more time in
Stratford-upon-Avon than scholars previously thought.
On his father's death in 1601, William Shakespeare inherited the old family
home in Henley Street part of which was then leased to tenants. Further
property investments in Stratford followed, including the purchase of 107
acres of land in 1602.

Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1616 at the age of 52.

He is buried in the sanctuary of the parish church, Holy Trinity.
3) Authorship’s debate. Are there serious grounds to state that Shakespeare
did/did not write his works? Watch a movie “Anonymous” (2011) and speak
about the problem of authorship in this film.
There is ample evidence that the William Shakespeare from Stratford-
upon-Avon was the same person who became an actor and playwright. This
includes references to him by contemporaries like Ben Jonson, as well as
official records like the granting of a coat of arms to the Stratford
Shakespeare.- The authorship controversy emerged in the 19th century, with
theories that other figures like Francis Bacon or the Earl of Oxford were the
true authors. This was likely driven by a sense that a humble provincial like
Shakespeare could not have produced such great works.
The evidence strongly supports Shakespeare of Stratford as the author,
including the connections made by scholars like William Camden who knew
the literary scene well. The conspiracy theories lack solid evidence and are
driven more by a desire for a more glamorous or aristocratic author.
The Shakespeare authorship question is the argument that someone
other than William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works
attributed to him. Anti-Stratfordians—a collective term for adherents of the
various alternative-authorship theories—believe that Shakespeare of
Stratford was a front to shield the identity of the real author or authors, who
for some reason—usually social rank, state security, or gender—did not want
or could not accept public credit.[1] Although the idea has attracted much
public interest,[2][a] all but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians
consider it a fringe theory, and for the most part acknowledge it only to rebut
or disparage the claims.[3]

Shakespeare's authorship was first questioned in the middle of the 19th

century,[4] when adulation of Shakespeare as the greatest writer of all time
had become widespread.[5] Shakespeare's biography, particularly his humble
origins and obscure life, seemed incompatible with his poetic eminence and
his reputation for genius,[6]

Supporters of alternative candidates argue that theirs is the more

plausible author, and that William Shakespeare lacked the education,
aristocratic sensibility, or familiarity with the royal court that they say is
apparent in the works.[12] Those Shakespeare scholars who have responded
to such claims hold that biographical interpretations of literature are
unreliable in attributing authorship,[13] and that the convergence of
documentary evidence used to support Shakespeare's authorship—title
pages, testimony by other contemporary poets and historians, and official
records—is the same used for all other authorial attributions of his era.[14]
No such direct evidence exists for any other candidate,[15] and Shakespeare's
authorship was not questioned during his lifetime or for centuries after his
death.[16]

To sceptics, these gaps in the record suggest the profile of a person who
differs markedly from the playwright and poet.[27] Some prominent public
figures, including Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Helen Keller, Henry James,
Sigmund Freud, John Paul Stevens, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and
Charlie Chaplin,

Shakespeare's surname was hyphenated as "Shake-speare" or "Shak-

spear" on the title pages of 15 of the 32 individual quarto (or Q) editions of
Shakespeare's plays and in two of the five editions of poetry published before
 the First Folio. Of those 15 title pages with Shakespeare's name hyphenated,
13 are on the title pages of just three plays, Richard II, Richard III, and Henry
IV, Part 1.[c][58] The hyphen is also present in one

The historical record is unequivocal in ascribing the authorship of the

Shakespeare canon to a William Shakespeare.[82] In addition to the name
appearing on the title pages of poems and plays, this name was given as that
of a well-known writer at least 23 times during the lifetime of William
Shakespeare of Stratford.[83] Several contemporaries corroborate the
identity of the playwright as an actor,[84] and explicit contemporary
documentary evidence attests that the Stratford citizen was also an actor
under his own name.[85]

In 1598, Francis Meres named Shakespeare as a playwright and poet in

his Palladis Tamia, referring to him as one of the authors by whom the
"English tongue is mightily enriched".[86] He names twelve plays written by
Shakespeare, including four which were never published in quarto: The Two
Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Won, and King
John, as well as ascribing to Shakespeare some of the plays that were
published anonymously before 1598—Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet,
and Henry IV, Part 1. He refers to Shakespeare's "sug[a]red Sonnets among his
private friends" 11 years before the publication of the Sonnets.[87]
4) Outline of Shakespeare’s literary evolution: major periods, works of each
period.
Shakespeare’s early writing style indicates “a time of apprenticeship”, showing
“direct debt to London dramatists of the 1580s and to Classical examples than do
his later works,” as well as evidence that he imitated the success of London
theatre in learning the craft. In his earlier works, Shakespeare often wrote in the
genre of the romantic comedy, drawing on the comic works of dramatists Robert
Greene and John Lyly, while developing something new and distinctively
Shakespearean. These works most often were “stories of amorous courtship in
which a plucky and admirable young woman is paired off against her male
wooer.” These works often found a woman disguised as a man as a frequent
trope, including The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice, As You
Like It, and Twelfth Night. In binary terms, Shakespeare’s comedies are often
seen as of the women, while his tragedies focus on men; the women of
Shakespeare’s comedies are often witty, intelligent, assured agents who can talk,
plot, and reason circles around the characters who are men. Shakespeare’s
comedies also tend to feature multiple plotting, in which dominant and sub-plot
emerge, an expert weaving of narrative around thematic centers.
In his career, Shakespeare also developed the genre of the history play; whereas
classical traditions showed precedents for the genres of comedy and tragedy,
Shakespeare’s work with the English history play, “an existential invention [in]
the dramatic treatment of recent English history,” developed this genre anew,
with the editors of the First Folio distinguishing these plays a separate title of
“history”. (Evidence shows that Shakespeare’s first tetralogy, including Henry VI’s
three parts and Richard II, was hugely popular among audiences.) Critics
understand Shakespeare’s history plays as attempting to define the country’s
history “at a time when the English nation was struggling with its own sense of
national identity.” Thus, Shakespeare’s plays—using the second edition of
Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1587) as a source—
adapt history to identify villains and heroes, freely changing dates and events in
their dramatization of emergent nationhood. Shakespeare’s early histories
notably, “end on a major key; the accession to power of the Tudor dynasty that
will give England its great years under Elizabeth.”

Towards the end of this early period of Shakespeare’s career, there are three
plays identified by critics as “problem plays” or “problem comedies”: All’s Well
That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Troilus and Cressida. These plays
evade categorization in their complex treatment of an ethical and social problem,
involving the topics of “revenge, sexual jealousy, aging, midlife crisis, and death.”

Toward the middle years of his career, Shakespeare moved to writing tragic
plays, such as Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra,
which explore revenge, sexual jealousy, aging, ambition, and midlife crisis
respectively. Notable for the range of human emotion and psychology that they
explore, Shakespeare’s tragedies are also deeply concerned with domestic and
family relationships, a departure from classical tragedies which show tragic
protagonists from upper-class or ruling origins in their hubris as powerful figures.
(There are a number of plays which also specifically deal with daughters and
fathers: Othello, King Lear, The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest.)

The romances or late romances of Shakespeare’s career—referring to Pericles,

Prince of Tyre; Cymbeline; The Winter’s Tale; and The Tempest—tell of
“wandering and separation leading eventually to tearful and joyous reunion.”
These plays often feature the supernatural, pastoral or exotic settings,
resurrection, forgiveness and a sense of loss. The Tempest, specifically, is
 sometimes interpreted as Shakespeare’s farewell to theatre, in the figure of
Prospero, a magical manipulator and organizer of action that is compared to the
role of playwright. In Shakespeare’s later years, he collaborated with playwrights
on several plays: with John Fletcher on The Two Noble Kinsmen, with Fletcher on
Henry VIII, and possibly on the anonymously published play, Edward III.
The story of the Globe Theatre starts with William Shakespeare's acting company
The Lord Chamberlain's Men. Shakespeare was a part-owner, or sharer, in the
company, as well as an actor and the resident playwright. From its inception in 1594,
the Lord Chamberlain's Men performed at The Theatre, a playhouse located in
Shoreditch. However, by 1598 their patrons, including the Earl of Southampton, had
fallen out of favour with the Queen. The Theatre's landlord, Giles Alleyn, had
intentions to cancel the company's lease and tear the building down.

While Alleyn did own the land, he did not own the materials with which The Theatre
had been built. So, on 28 December 1598, after leasing a new site in Southwark,
Cuthbert and Richard Burbage led the rest of the company of actors, sharers, and
volunteers in taking the building down timber by timber, loading it on to barges, and
making their way across the Thames. Working together, the actors built the new
theatre as quickly as they could.
The ground on the new site was marshy and prone to flooding, but foundations
were built by digging trenches, filling them with limestone, constructing brick walls
above the stone, and then raising wooden beams on top of that. A funnel caught the
rainwater and drained it into the ditch surrounding the theatre and down into the
Thames.

The theatre was 30 metres in diameter and had 20 sides, giving it its perceived
circular shape. The structure was similar to that of their old theatre, as well as that
of the neighbouring bear garden. The rectangular stage, at five feet high, projected
halfway into the yard and the circular galleries. The pillars were painted to look like
Italian marble, the sky painted midnight blue, and images of the gods overlooked
the balcony. It could hold up to 3,000 people.

By May 1599, the new theatre was ready to be opened. Burbage named it the Globe
after the figure of Hercules carrying the globe on his back - for in like manner the
actors carried the Globe's framework on their backs across the Thames. A flag of
Hercules with the globe was raised above the theatre with the Latin motto 'totus
mundus agit histrionem', or 'all the world's a playhouse'.
Shakespeare's plays that were performed there early on included: Henry V, Julius
Caesar, As You Like It, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth,
and Antony and Cleopatra. Here the Lord Chamberlain's Men enjoyed much success
and gained the patronage of King James I in 1603, subsequently becoming The King's
Men.

3 periods and 4 periods

THE SONNETS.

1) The genre of sonnet and its rise in English literature;

Thomas Wyatt
The Introduction of the Sonnet
Introduced the Petrarchan sonnet to English poetry: octave and a sestet, with
a rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA in the octave and various patterns in the
sestet.
Introduced themes of introspection, emotional complexity, and the tension
between desire and fulfillment. Laid the groundwork for the sonnet’s
development for Shakespeare.

Henry Howard Earl of Surrey (1517-1547)

The innovator of Blank verse.
Blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter + a flexible and natural-sounding
form.
Translated parts of Vigil’s “Aeneid” into the blank verse.
English sonnet – three quatrains followed by a final couplet with the rhym.
Traditionally, the sonnet is a fourteen-line poem written in iambic
pentameter, employing one of several rhyme schemes, and adhering to a
tightly structured thematic organization. The name is taken from the Italian
sonetto, which means “a little sound or song.” The tightly woven rhyme
scheme, abba, abba, cdecde, or cdcdcd, is suited for the rhyme-rich Italian
language, though there are many fine examples in English.
Sir Philip Sidney (1554- 1586)
The Courtier-Poet
Poet, diplomat and a soldier
“Astrophel and Stella” – consists of 108 sonnets and 11 songs.
Sonnets can be characterized by psychological insight and moral….
 Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
“The Faerie Queene” – (the struggle between Protestantism and Catholicism,
Virtues of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, moral education of the individual),
“Amoretti”, “Epithalamion”,
“Poet’s poet”
Spenserian stanza – nine line stanza consisting of eight lines of iambic
pentameter followed by a single line of iambic nexameter, with the rhyme
scheme ababbcbcc.

2) The peculiarities of Shakespeare’s sonnet.

The second major type of sonnet, the Shakespearean, or English sonnet,
follows a different set of rules. Here, three quatrains and a couplet follow this
rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The couplet plays a pivotal role, usually
arriving in the form of a conclusion, amplification, or even refutation of the
previous three stanzas, often creating an epiphanic quality to the end. In
Sonnet 130 of William Shakespeare’s epic sonnet cycle, the first twelve lines
compare the speaker’s mistress unfavorably with nature’s beauties, but the
concluding couplet swerves in a surprising direction.
154 of Shakespeare's sonnets are included in the volume Shakespeare’s
Sonnets, published by Thomas Thorpe in 1609. They are followed by the long
poem 'A Lover's Complaint', which first appeared in that same volume after
the sonnets. Six additional sonnets appear in his plays Romeo and Juliet,
Henry V and Love's Labour's Lost.
Shakespeare's sonnets generally focus on the themes of love and life.
The first 126 are directed to a young man whom the speaker urges to marry,
but this man then becomes the object of the speaker's desire. The last 28
sonnets are addressed to an older woman, the so-called 'dark lady', who
causes both desire and loathing in the speaker. However, several of the
sonnets, if taken individually, may appear gender-neutral, as in the well-
known 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' from Sonnet 18. The linear,
sequential reading of the poems is also debatable, since it is unclear if
Shakespeare intended for the sonnets to be published in this way.
While he may have experimented with the form earlier, Shakespeare
most likely began writing sonnets seriously around 1592. What is now known
as the Shakespearian sonnet is the English sonnet form Shakespeare
popularised: fourteen lines of iambic pentameter (a ten-syllable pattern of
alternating unaccented and accented syllables). The rhyme scheme breaks the
poem into three quatrains (four lines each) and a couplet (two lines).

Shakespeare changed the world of poetry not only with his prolific use
of this new form, but also in deviating from what was standard content.
 Instead of romantic fiction, written to an unattainable ideal woman,
Shakespeare writes to a young man and a dark woman, who may or may not
be attainable, and who arouse conflicting feelings in the speaker.
3) Particular sonnet’s analysis: main theme, background, connection to the
preceding and following sonnets, symbols and tone, the images of The
Young Man, The Dark Lady, themes of Recommending marriage: Young
Love, Travel, absence and disgrace Relationship problems; Rival poet and
jealousy; Reconciliation.
The sonnets are traditionally divided into two major groups: the fair lord sonnets (1-
126) and the dark lady sonnets (127-154). The fair lord sonnets explore the
narrator's consuming infatuation with a young and beautiful man, while the dark
lady sonnets engage his lustful desire for a woman who is not his wife. The narrator
is tormented as he struggles to reconcile the uncontrollable urges of his heart with
his mind's better judgment, all the while in a desperate race against time.

The sonnets begin with the narrator's petition to the fair lord, exhorting him to
preserve his beauty for future generations by passing it on to a child. This theme is
developed until sonnet 18, where the narrator abandons it in favor of an alternative
plan to eternalize the fair lord's beauty in his verse. But it is not long before the
narrator's mellifluous depictions of the fair lord's beauty are replaced with the
haunting lament of unrequited love. The narrator grows increasingly enamored with
the fair lord, eventually becoming emotionally dependent upon him and plagued by
the inability to win his heart. The narrator is further distressed by the incessant
passing of time, and he fears the detriment time inevitably will bring to the fair
lord's youthful beauty.

The narrator's emotions fluctuate between love and anger, envy and greed. We find
poignant examples of the narrator's jealousy in the rival poet sonnets (79-86),
where the fair lord's attention has been caught by another. The narrator's fragile
psyche collapses in bouts of self-deprecation as he agonizes over the thought of
forever losing the object of his affection. In sonnet 87, the narrator bids the fair lord
farewell - but his heartache long persists.

The remainder of the fair lord sonnets are characterized by the vicissitudes of the
narrator's emotional well-being. After his parting with the fair lord in sonnet 87, the
narrator grows introspective, waxing philosophical as he begins to probe the very
fabric of love. Throughout these developments we are made privy to the narrator's
mounting apprehension that his time is running short. Finally, in sonnet 126, his love
matured and yet still beautiful, the narrator points out that the fair lord too will one
day meet his doom.

The following sonnet begins the dark lady sequence, the group of sonnets dealing
with the narrator's irresistible attraction to a dark and beautiful woman. Here the
allure is not of love but of lust, and the narrator is torn between his hunger for the
woman and his disgust at the sinfulness of carnal desire.

The dark lady is described as freely promiscuous, the epitome of lustful endeavor.
Drawn by and at the same time repelled by her darkness, the narrator once again
reverts to meditative mind-wandering to cope with his situation. In the end, the
narrator's lust is expressed as an incurable disease, a burning sensation that can
only be quenched, if temporarily, by the eyes of the dark lady.

Fair Lord

Sonnets 1-126 tell the story of the narrator's unrelenting affection for a young and
beautiful man, a "fair lord," to whom these sonnets are addressed. The absence of
explicit identifying characteristics has given way to much controversy over the fair
lord's real-world analogue - if any. Assuming that the sonnets are indeed
autobiographical (an assumption not given credence by some) and that the
characters described therein do in fact have mundane counterparts, two prime
contenders have been put forth for the role of the sonnets' fair lord. The first is Mr.
William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, a patron of the arts. Herbert and his
brother were the dedicatees of Shakespeare's First Folio of works; Herbert was also
born in 1580, and he therefore would have been a young man around the time the
sonnets were likely composed. The second candidate is Mr. Henry Wriothesley, third
Earl of Southampton, to whom Shakespeare dedicated his Venus and Adonis and
Lucrece. Wriothesley was also a patron of the arts and an admirer of Shakespeare's
work. In his 1594 dedication of Lucrece, Shakespeare wrote, "The love I dedicate to
your lordship is without end ... What I have done is yours; what I have to do is yours;
being part in all I have, devoted yours." Note that both of these men have names
that could correspond to the sonnets' dedicatee, Mr. W. H. (Henry Wriothesley with
initials reversed); many critics do associate the fair lord with this Mr. W. H., as the
fair lord appears in the sonnets not only as the object of the narrator's adoration but
also as the financial benefactor of his work.
Perhaps the most intriguing facet of the relationship between the narrator and his
fair lord is the plethora of homoerotic undertones in the sonnets. Scholars are
divided as to whether the narrator's love for his fair lord was purely Platonic in
nature or whether it was in fact something more - something romantic, perhaps
even something lustful. It is well known that homosexuality was a matter of taboo in
Shakespeare's society, which may account for the poet's unwillingness to publish his
sonnets for the public. Meanwhile, some scholars, quite notably A. L. Rowse, deny
the existence of homoerotic undertones in the sonnets, arguing in part that the
culture of the time permitted language between friends that strikes the modern ear
as implicitly sexual. There is a kernel of truth in this statement, though it falls far
short of rationalizing the idolatry and explicit infatuation many readers find in the
poet's words.

Rival Poet

The next character to whom we are introduced is that of the rival poet, who makes
his first appearance in sonnet 21 ("Stirr'd by a painted beauty to his verse") but does
not become definitively present until sonnets 79-86, where he emerges as the
poet's competitor in the pursuit of his fair lord's affection. Scholars have also
pondered the identity of this rival poet, the debate again ricocheting between two
likely candidates: Christopher Marlowe and George Chapman. Marlowe was
Shakespeare's immediate predecessor as the foremost dramatist of the Elizabethan
era, and it is reasonable to assume a measure of professional rivalry between the
two. Marlowe is also frequently described as having been a homosexual, which fits
conveniently with the rival poet's attraction to the fair lord as an inspiration for his
work. As for Chapman, alleged references in the sonnets to various of Chapman's
writings lead many to believe that he is indeed the rival poet who vies for the fair
lord's attention. In any case, the figure of the rival poet is haunting for the sonnets'
narrator, who feels disdain for his inability to keep the fair lord as his own.
Dark Lady

The final persona in Shakespeare's sonnets is that of the dark lady, featured in
sonnets 127-154. The dark lady's adjective appears to carry both a literal (as in dark
features) and a figurative (as in a dark personality) significance, the latter being
exemplified in her less than scrupulous sexual escapades. The sonnets allude to her
promiscuity: "If eyes corrupt by over-partial looks / Be anchor'd in the bay where all
men ride" (sonnet 137). It has been suggested that the dark lady is a married
woman who engages in adulterous relationships, both with the narrator and with
other men, among whom the fair lord may be included (see sonnet 133). It has also
been suggested that the dark lady is a prostitute of African descent.

Unlike the cases of the fair lord and the rival poet, the question of the true identity
of the dark lady - if there be one - has spawned a very wide cast of candidates. One
historical figure commonly put forth as the dark lady is Mary Fitton, a maid of honor
to Queen Elizabeth, who is known to have had an extramarital affair with William
Herbert; not surprisingly, it is particularly those who believe William Herbert to be
the sonnets' fair lord who also argue the case for Mary Fitton as their dark lady.
Another possibility is the poet Emilia Lanier, who was the mistress of one of
Shakespeare's patrons. Lanier, of Italian descent, was described as having dark
features; her father having been a musician, it is also conceivable that she had some
musical talent, which would align her well with the instrument-playing dark lady of
sonnet 128. Meanwhile, Ian Wilson, a modern-day author, puts forth Penelope Rich
as the one, citing her as "the most famous adulteress of her day." Numerous other
candidates have been named, each with her own particular allure - and incongruity.
Needless to say, the identity of the dark lady, as with those of the fair lord and the
rival poet, will likely remain unresolved.

Shakespeare's Sonnets Themes

The Ravages of Time

Shakespeare's sonnets open with an earnest plea from the narrator to the fair lord,
begging him to find a woman to bear his child so that his beauty might be preserved
for posterity. In sonnet 2, the poet writes, "When forty winters shall beseige thy
brow / And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field ... How much more praise
deserved thy beauty's use / If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine / Shall sum
my count and make my old excuse' / Proving his beauty by succession thine!" The
poet is lamenting the ravages of time and its detrimental effects on the fair lord's
beauty, seeking to combat the inevitable by pushing the fair lord to bequeath his
exquisiteness unto a child. By sonnet 18 the poet appears to have abandoned this
solution in favor of another: his verse. "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see /
So long lives this and this gives life to thee." But the ravages of time return to haunt
the narrator: in sonnet 90, the poet characterizes time as a dimension of suffering,
urging the fair lord to break with him "if ever, now"; "Give not a windy night a rainy
morrow," he writes, pleading with him to end the desperation of hopeful unrequited
love. The theme resurfaces throughout the sonnets in the narrator's various
descriptions of himself as an aging man: "But when my glass shows me myself
indeed / Beated and chopp'd with tann'd antiquity" (sonnet 62); "And wherefore say
not I that I am old?" (sonnet 138). It has also been suggested that the poet implies
that he is balding in sonnet 73, where he writes, "That time of year thou mayst in
me behold / When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang / Upon those boughs ...";
such an interpretation fits well with the idea that Shakespeare is in fact the narrator
of the sonnets, as extant portraits of Shakespeare show the poet to have been
balding in his later years.
Platonic Love vs. Carnal Lust

The divide between the fair lord sonnets and the dark lady sonnets is also a divide
between two forms of interpersonal attraction. While the narrator of the sonnets is
clearly infatuated with both the fair lord and the dark lady, the language he uses to
describe these infatuations shows them to be of disparate natures. The lack of
explicit sexual imagery in the fair lord sonnets has led most scholars to characterize
this infatuation as an example of Platonic love, i.e., a form of amorous affection
bereft of any sexual element. Meanwhile, the dark lady sonnets are replete with
sexual imagery, implying an attraction based largely on carnal lust. The poet seems
to glorify the former while condemning the latter; his heart is at odds with his libido.
If we take the angel of sonnet 144 to be the narrator's fair lord, we see this contrast
clearly: "To win me soon to hell, my female evil / Tempteth my better angel from my
side / And would corrupt my saint to be a devil / Wooing his purity with her foul
pride." It might be argued that this very incompatibility between the two distresses
the narrator most as he learns of their affair.
Selfishness and Greed

The themes of selfishness and greed are prevalent throughout the sonnets as a
whole, emerging most perceptibly in the narrator's hypocritical expectation of
faithfulness from the fair lord and the dark lady. The poet seems at times to advance
a double standard on the issue of faithfulness: he is unfaithful himself, yet he
condemns, is even surprised by, the unfaithfulness of others. The rival poet sonnets
(79-86), for example, capture the poet's jealousy of his fair lord's having another
admirer; dark lady sonnets 133-134 and 144 do the same, and they may even
include a reference to an affair between her and the fair lord that perhaps was
alluded to previously in sonnets 40-42. (For this reason and others, it is sometimes
suggested that the ordering of the sonnets does not wholly parallel the actual
chronology of the events they describe.) Although the narrator does indeed chastise
himself for his own unfaithfulness, perhaps in reference to his wife, his distress at
the unfaithfulness of those with whom he himself has been unfaithful makes him
out as wanting to have his cake and eat it too.
Self-Deprecation and Inadequacy

Self-deprecatory language frequently appears regarding the poet's various

inadequacies, in particular his ability to keep his fair lord's interest. In sonnet 76 the
poet basically calls himself a bore. He begins, "Why is my verse so barren of new
pride / So far from variation or quick change?" His expressions of inadequacy reach
a pinnacle in the rival poet sonnets, where they transform into pathetic outbursts of
jealousy. In sonnet 80 we read, "But since your worth, wide as the ocean is / The
humble as the proudest sail doth bear / My saucy bark inferior far to his / On your
broad main doth wilfully appear"; in sonnet 84, "Who is it that says most? which can
say more / Than this rich praise, that you alone are you?" The poet's self-
deprecation continues as he blames himself for much of that which he disapproves
of both in the fair lord and in the dark lady. He himself is the cause of their
abandoning him; his will is inadequate for resisting the temptations of Love.
Homoerotic Desire

Although a fair number of scholars argue that the sonnets do not reflect any
intimation of homosexual desire whatsoever on the part of the narrator, others find
sonnets 1-126 rife with homoerotic undertones--at times appearing as explicit
expressions of the narrator's love for the fair lord. In sonnet 20, for example, the
poet expressly laments the fact that Nature fashioned the fair lord with male
genitalia ("she prick'd thee out"). In sonnet 29, the narrator bemoans his "outcast
state," perhaps a direct reference to a homoerotic desire he fears cannot be
accepted by society. Still, just as it is intellectually necessary to confront the idea
that homoerotic desire is prevalent to some extent in the sonnets, it is incumbent
on readers not to let the imagination go astray.

Scholars who accept that homoerotic undertones are present in the sonnets are,
nevertheless, divided regarding what this desire really means. Unlike the sonnets
featuring the dark lady (127-154), the fair lord sonnets contain no explicit reference
to sexual desire; even if the narrator lusts for the fair lord, it is debatable whether
this lust has as its goal any act of sexual consummation.
Financial Bondage
Throughout the sonnets there is considerable imagery of financial debt and
obligation, bondage and transaction. Many scholars are convinced that the fair lord
is not only the object of the poet's affection but also his financial benefactor. Such
speculation has led to the identification of the fair lord with the begetter of the
sonnets, Mr. W. H. Although this argument is difficult to prove, it certainly has its
merits.

In sonnet 4, financial imagery is ubiquitous: "unthrifty," "spend," "bequest," "lend,"

"frank," "niggard," "profitless," "usurer," "sum," and "audit," and more. Sonnet 79
likewise includes "aid," "numbers," "robs," "pays," "lends," "stole," "afford," and
"owes." Support for the hypothesis that the dark lady of the sonnets was in fact a
prostitute comes in part from sonnet 134, where the language includes
"mortgaged," "forfeit," "bond," "statute," "usurer," "sue," "debtor," and "pays,"
although it could also be argued that the narrator is merely describing the dark lady
as a whore out of jealousy of her affair with the fair lord.
Color Symbolism

This theme emerges most palpably in the dark lady sonnets, where the poet's
repeated use of the color black to describe the dark lady's features, both physical
and intangible, ascribes her with the evilness or "otherness" that the color has often
symbolized in the Western mentality. However, color imagery is present in the fair
lord sonnets as well, especially in conjunction with the theme of passing time. In
sonnet 12, for example, the poet draws a parallel between the "aging" of nature
with the aging of human life, opposing "the violet" and "summer's green" with the
silver and white of age. Note, though, that the opposition here is not between black
and white, as might be expected, but rather between color and absence of color, the
latter of which is a product of passing time. The poet dreads both the passing of
time as well as the sinfulness of his dark lady, and it is conceivable that the goal of
his symbolism is to represent that which he fears by that which is without color. This
argument is complicated, however, by sonnet 99, where "purple," "red," and
"white" appear to take on more convoluted roles. Still, it is possible to find
consistencies in the poet's use of color symbolism: all three instances of "yellow" (in
sonnets 17, 73, and 104) are used in the context of passing time, while green is
largely symbolic of youth (such as in sonnet 63).