Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages Antony and Cleopatra As You Like It Hamlet Henry IV (Part I) Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth The Merchant of Venice A Midsummer Night’s Dream Othello Romeo and Juliet The Sonnets The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Twelfth Night Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages T H e SONNeTS Edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom Sterling Professor of the Humanities Yale University Volume Editor Brett Foster Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages: The Sonnets Copyright © 2008 by Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2008 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The sonnets / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom ; volume editor : Brett Foster. p. cm. — (Bloom’s Shakespeare through the ages) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7910-9597-3 (alk. paper) 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Sonnets. 2. Sonnets, english—History and criticism. I. Bloom, Harold. II. Foster, Brett. PR2848.S64 2008 821’.3—dc22 2008012830 Bloom’s Literary Criticism books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Bloom’s Literary Criticism on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com Series design by erika K. 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C ontents q Series Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix Introduction by Harold Bloom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi Biography of William Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Summary of The Sonnets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 List of Personas in The Sonnets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 The Speaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Young Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 The Dark Lady . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The Rival Poet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Three Key Poems from The Sonnets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Sonnet 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Sonnet 64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Sonnet 116 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 CriTiCiSm Through The AgeS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 t The Sonnets in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 1598—Francis Meres. From Palladis Tamia, or Wit’s Treasury . . . . . . . 48 1599—William Shakespeare. Versions of sonnets 138 and 144 from William Jaggard’s anthology The Passionate Pilgrim . . . . . . . 48 1609—Thomas Thorpe. Dedication from Shake-speares Sonnets . . . . . . 49 1640—John Benson. “epistle to the Reader,” from Poems: Written by Wil . Shake-speare . Gent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 vi Contents t The Sonnets in the Eighteenth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 1710—Charles Gildon. From “An essay on the Rise and Progress of the Stage in Greece, Rome, and england” and “Remarks on the Poems of Shakespear,” from Poems . The Works of Mr . William Shakespear, vol. 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 1711—Bernard Lintott. From “Advertisement,” from A Collection of Poems . . . by Mr . William Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 1790—edmund Malone. From “Preface” to The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare in Ten Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 1793—George Steevens. From “Advertisement,” from The Plays of William Shakespeare in Fifteen Volumes . . . , 4th edition . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 t The Sonnets in the Nineteenth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 1803—Samuel Taylor Coleridge. From Marginalia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68 1817—John Keats. From Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69 1821—James Boswell. “Preliminary Remarks,” from The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare, vol. 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 1827—William Wordsworth. “Scorn not the Sonnet” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 1833—Samuel Taylor Coleridge. From Table Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 1842—Henry Hallam. From Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries . . . . . . . .73 1872—edward Dowden. From Shakspere: A Critical Study of His Mind and Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76 1876—Robert Browning. “House” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 1879—Algernon Charles Swinburne. From A Study of Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84 1879—Sidney Lanier. From Shakspere and His Forerunners . . . . . . . . . . . .86 1889—Oscar Wilde. “The Portrait of Mr. W. H.,” from Blackwood’s Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90 1899—Samuel Butler. From Shakespeare’s Sonnets Reconsidered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114 t The Sonnets in the Twentieth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121 1909—Sir Sidney Lee. “Ovid and Shakespeare’s Sonnets,” from Elizabethan and Other Essays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129 Contents vii 1910—George Bernard Shaw. From “Preface” to The Dark Lady of the Sonnets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 1926—Robert Graves and Laura Riding. “A Study in Original Punctuation and Spelling,” from A Survey of Modernist Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 1935—William empson. “They That Have Power,” from Some Versions of Pastoral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169 1953—G. K. Hunter. “The Dramatic Technique of Shakespeare’s Sonnets,” from Essays in Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .186 1964—W. G. Ingram and Theodore Redpath. “A Note on the Dedication,” from Shakespeare’s Sonnets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197 1983—Anne Ferry. From “Shakespeare and Sidney,” from The “Inward” Language: Sonnets of Wyatt, Sidney, Shakespeare, Donne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200 1984—Joel Fineman. “Shakespeare’s ‘Perjur’d eye,’ ” from Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203 1986—Thomas M. Greene. “Anti-Hermeneutics: The Case of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 129,” from The Vulnerable Text: Essays on Renaissance Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231 1991—Bruce R. Smith. “The Secret Sharer,” from Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare’s England: A Cultural Poetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245 1994—Margreta de Grazia. “The Scandal of Shakespeare’s Sonnets,” from Shakespeare Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .262 1997—Helen Vendler. From “Introduction” to The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .281 1998—Jonathan Bate. “Shakespeare’s Autobiographical Poems?” from The Genius of Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .301 t The Sonnets in the Twenty-first Century: A Brief Overview . . . . . . .327 2004—Patrick Cheney. “ ‘O, let my books be . . . dumb presagers’: poetry and theatre in the Sonnets,” from Shakespeare, National Poet-Playwright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .330 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .361 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .377 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .379 s i eries ntroduCtion q Shakespeare Through the Ages presents not the most current of Shakespeare criticism, but the best of Shakespeare criticism, from the seventeenth century to today. In the process, the volumes also chart the flow over time of critical discussion of particular works. Other useful and fascinating collections of his- torical Shakespearean criticism exist, but no collection that we know of contains such a range of commentary on each of Shakespeare’s greatest works and at the same time emphasizes the greatest critics in our literary tradition: from John Dryden in the seventeenth century, to Samuel Johnson in the eighteenth cen- tury, to William Hazlitt and Samuel Coleridge in the nineteenth century, to A.C. Bradley and William empson in the twentieth century, to the most per- ceptive critics of our own day. This canon of Shakespearean criticism empha- sizes aesthetic rather than political or social analysis. Some of the pieces included here are full-length essays; others are excerpts designed to present a key point. Much (but not all) of the earliest criticism consists only of brief mentions of specific works. In addition to the classics of criticism, some pieces of mainly historical importance have been included, often to provide background for important reactions from future critics. These volumes are intended for students, particularly those just beginning their explorations of Shakespeare. We have therefore also included basic materials designed to provide a solid grounding in each work: a biography of Shakespeare, a synopsis, a list of characters, and an explication of key passages. In addition, each selection of the criticism of a particular century begins with an introductory essay discussing the general nature of that century’s commentary and the particular issues and controversies addressed by critics presented in the volume. Shakespeare was “not of an age, but for all time,” but much Shakespeare criticism is decidedly for its own age, of lasting importance only to the scholar who wrote it. Students today read the criticism most readily available to them, which means essays printed in recent books and journals, especially those journals made available on the Internet. Older criticism is too often buried in out-of- print books on forgotten shelves of libraries or in defunct periodicals. Therefore, ix