[In the following excerpt, Witt evaluates the sonnets which focus on the poet's "mistress," or "the Dark Lady, " as opposed to the poems which center around the poet's male friend. Witt argues that while the earlier poems to "the Friend" demonstrate the ideals of "reasonable love, " those to the Dark Lady represent the destructiveness of a lustful, "sensual, " and therefore false love. This negative love, Witt asserts, eventually teaches the poet to appreciate all the more the "beauty" of the true love he has for his friend.]

VIII. Recognition of Beautv (Sonnets 130, 127, 132, 128, 145)

Most commentators seem to agree that Sonnets 127-152 are concerned with the poet's mistress rather than the friend. Also, many agree that the Quarto order of these sonnets is not correct. In fact, more commentators seem to agree on this point regarding the sonnets in this group rather than the sonnets in the first series. The general reaction to these sonnets is that they should tell a story of attraction, disillusionment, and remorse. J. W. Lever thinks that the "lighter eulogies of the Mistress" should begin the series followed by the "Will" sonnets and then the sonnets of "remorse and atonement which seem the only possible ending to the story."¹ Edward Hubler maintains that "if the sonnets are arranged in the order of the events of an ill-starred amour (compliments, invitations to love, consummation, joy, weariness, rejection) it will be found that the sonnets fall nicely into place and that no poem is left over."² James Winny has the opinion that a case for rearrangement of the poems should have "the object of clarifying the developmentof the lover's self-awareness." The groups then would be determined by "the extent of the speaker's respect for the lady and the sharpness of his moral perception. . . ."³

Arranged in such a manner, the sonnets in this series would represent the opposite idea of those in the first series and thus would serve to depict the opposite of the reasonable love of the first series. Numerous commentators have seen at least something of this distinction between the two series and several maintain that to distinguish the two kinds of love is indeed Shakespeare's purpose in the two series. Rafael Koskimies, for instance, says that the sonnets to the dark lady "signify the other end of the scale—the phenomenon of love Platonists call 'sensual love.'"⁴ The sonnets to the young man, of course, signify reasonable love. Northrop Frye sees the same distinction. To him the sonnets to the friend tell "a 'high' story of devotion, in the course of which the poet discovers that the reality of his love is the love itself rather than anything he receives from the beloved." ⁵The two groups, furthermore, present "a contrast of two opposed attitudes to love . . . ," and the mistress is "an incarnation of desire rather than love. . . . "⁶

In stage four the poet apparently alluded to a false woman with whom he had been involved during a period of absence from the friend and with whom the friend also became involved. She represented a different kind of love from that which the poet shared with the friend, and in this experience the poet realized more fully the worth of the friend and of the love which the friend represents. The poet also realized that what he felt for the woman was but a madding fever. But the woman also became the trial or test of the poet's love for the friend in that stage when the friend apparently also became involved with her. The poet, of course, endured the trial successfully and never thought of renouncing the friendship but excused the friend and, ironically, was made more aware of the inward beauty of the friend because of the involvement. The friend was truly repentant which reveals the beauty of his soul and the depth of his love for the poet. The mistress, moreover, was the aggressor, not the friend; thus the poet exonerated the friend and saw him more clearly as the Ideal. Throughout this group of poems in the fourth stage the poet shows his awareness that the friendship or reasonable love is greater and of more worth than the kind of love represented by the woman.

In the second series then Shakespeare develops the episode more fully to make clearer the distinction between the two kinds of love, and the distinction is ultimately the difference between comfort and despair. The poet has been led in the first series upward achieving finally sovereign happiness through his love for the friend. Now Shakespeare dramatizes the poet's descent into despair because of sensual love. The first stage in both series is similar—recognition of beauty. But only the first stages are similar; thereafter the two series go in completely different directions. The first stage, of course, is crucial. The lover may through the exercise of reason ascend the ladder to the highest plane, or he may through following the appetite descend into frustration and despair. In the first series the poet recognizes the beauty of the friend but exercises reason in the first stage and thus becomes an example of Bembo's ideal older lover:

. . . if they [older men] be inflamed with beautie, and to it bend their coveting, guided by reasonable choice, they bee not deceived, and possesse beautie perfectly, and therefore throughthe possessing of it, alwaies goodnesse ensueth to them: because beautie is good, and consequently the true love of it is most good and holy, and evermore bringeth forth good fruites in the soules of them, that with the bridle of reason restraine the ill disposition of sense. . ... .

(Bk. IV, p. 596)

In the second series, however, the poet is an example of one who is "inflamed with beautie" but who does not "with the bridle of reason restraine the ill disposition of sense. . . ."

At first the poet seems to be following Bembo's advice, and he enjoys the beauty of the woman much in the way Bembo suggests. In Book IV Bembo explains that the lover should enjoy the beauty of the beloved through the senses of sight and hearing because they are the ministers of reason:

Let him lay aside therefore the blinde judgement of the sense, and enjoy with his eyes ye brightnesse, the comelinesse, the loving sparkels, laughters, gestures, and all the other pleasant furnitures of beautie: especially with hearing the sweetnesse of her voice, the tunablenesse of her wordes, the melody of her singing and playing on instruments. . . .

(pp. 604-605)

In the poems of this first group the poet appears to be enjoying the beauty of the woman in just those ways.

Sonnet 130 seems an appropriate poem to begin this section because Shakespeare accomplishes at least two purposes with it. He shows that the poet is "inflamed" with the beauty of the woman, and he again makes clear that he is not writing a Petrarchan sequence. Many, of course, have observed that this sonnet satirizes the conventional description of the Petrarchan mistress. It may, in fact, be a direct response to the seventh poem in Watson's Passionate Centurie of Love.⁷ If so, then Shakespeare no doubt regarded that poem as the epitome of the Petrarchan convention. But Shakespeare's primary purpose in satirizing the convention is perhaps to point up the idea that he is not writing a Petrarchan sequence. In the first series the poet was careful to point out that his beloved was not the false, painted beauty of the Petrarchan poets, and here he again makes clear that the beloved, this time a woman, is something other than the conventional beauty of the Petrarchan poets. The three quatrains all elaborate on this idea. The woman's eyes are not like the sun, nor are her lips red as coral. She is, furthermore, brunette rather than blonde, the conventional beauty. Some perfumes are more delightful than the woman's breath, and music is more pleasing than her voice. In short, she is a woman, not a goddess.

As in the first series, Shakespeare implies that such extravagant comparisons obscure rather than reveal the beauty of the subject. A woman so described appears false; thus the poet will describe his mistress realistically as a woman, not as something never seen on land or sea. As suggested, though, the (perhaps) main purpose in satirizing the convention is to make clear the distinction between the conventional Petrarchan sequence and the poems which are to follow in this series. In the first series the poet was concerned with reasonable love rather than the physical desire ofthe Petrarchan poets. In this series he is concerned with physical desire, but with a difference. The love of the Petrarchan poets was unrequited, and the despair which they express results from not possessing the mistress. Shakespeare does not intend to deal with unrequited love; he intends to dramatize the despair which results from possessing the mistress. In other words, he intends to represent the neo-Platonic opposite of reasonable love, sensual love.

The poet certainly establishes in this poem that he is attracted to the woman or, as Bembo says, inflamed with her beauty. He does not mean for the description to deprecate her. She is not unattractive, at least not as the poet sees her now, but she is human. The portrait is intended as a compliment, of course, as the poet insists throughout the sequence that extravagant praise tends to obscure the beauty of the subject. He tells us in the couplet that she is beautiful to him:

And yet by heaven I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

She is as beautiful as any woman misrepresented through extravagant, and hence false, comparisons.

In 127 the poet continues to praise the beauty of his mistress and to point up the difference between her and the conventional Petrarchan mistress. Formerly, he says, black was not thought beautiful or, if so, was not called beautiful. Now, however, black is the heir by succession of beauty, and what was formerly called beautiful (blonde beauty) is "slander'd with a bastard shame. . . ." He explains in the second quatrain why this has come to be:

For since each hand hath put on Nature's power,
Fairing the foul with Art's false borrow'd face,
Sweet Beauty hath no name, no holy bower,
But is profan'd, if not lives in disgrace.

Since everyone now through the use of cosmetics and other artificial means tries to appear fair (blonde) but succeeds only in looking false and artificial, true blonde beauty has fallen in disgrace and is no longer considered beautiful. Because there are so many false blondes, all are considered to be so. The poet ordinarily associates painting with eloquent or extravagant praise; he, thus, may be attacking the Petrarchan poets here also. Since the Petrarchan poets have represented their mistresses as blonde but have made them appear false and ridiculous by the use of extravagant comparisons, all blonde beauty has suffered and fallen into disrepute. The poet explains in the sestet that such is the reason he has chosen a dark mistress or the reason he pictures the mistress as dark. She is not false; she is not a Petrarchan mistress.

The sestet also emphasizes that the poet is quite taken with the beauty of the mistress:

Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black,
Her brow 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.

The mistress's eyes and brow appear as mourners dressed in black. The poet then gives the idea another turn. They are mourning for those who were not born blonde but who have made themselves appear so and thus slander nature. Yet her black eyes and brow are so charming that everyone now says that she is the example of true beauty. She, in other words, is at least partly responsible that black is now "beauty's successive heir. . . ."

Perhaps Shakespeare chose to emphasize the eyes of the mistress in pointing out how she differs from the conventional beauty because Castiglione advocates black eyes. In Book III of The Courtier the Lord Julian explains that the eyes are "a guide in love, especially if they have a good grace and sweetnesse in them, blacke, of a cleare and sightly blackenesse" (p. 525). At any rate, in 132 the poet again concentrates on the eyes of the mistress and continues the mourner image of 127 but gives it yet another turn:

Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,—
Knowing thy heart torment me with disdain—
Have put on black, and loving mourners be,
Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain.

The poet is attracted to the woman's eyes not only because they are beautiful but also because they look on him with pity knowing that the heart disdains him. This is the reason that they seem to be mourning. The poet suffers pain because at this point his love is unrequited. Perhaps the poet realizes that the look of pity in the woman's eyes may be an indication of hope for him. The Lord Julian explains in Book III of The Courtier that the eyes "oftentimes declare with more force what passi there is inwardly, than can the tongue, or letters, or messages," and later that through the eyes a person "may see as farre as the hart" (pp. 524, 525). Thus the poet may be encouraged by the woman's eyes even though her heart still, seemingly at least, does not admit him.

The woman's eyes, at any rate, are her most attractive feature as the poet says later in the poem. The morning sun does not become the grey skies of dawn better nor the evening star "Doth half that glory to the sober west" as the eyes become her face. It is, of course, the "mourning eyes" which so become her face, and the poet hopes that her heart will also mourn for him:

Oh, 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.

Since mourning causes your eyes to be beautiful (both that they are black and that theylook with compassion on me), let your heart also have compassion and dress it appropriately so that you will be consistent in every part—you will be compassionate in every part and you will be beautiful in every part. The poet will then more firmly assert that black is now "beauty's successive heir":

Then will 1 swear Beauty herself is black,
And all they foul that thy complexion lack.

When the woman becomes beautiful not only in appearance but also in her heart, then the poet will swear rather than merely state that she represents the height of beauty and all who are not like her are ugly and detestable. Complexion implies both coloring and disposition;⁸ thus she must be both beautiful in appearance and compassionate by nature. Others to be considered beautiful must be like her in both respects.

Thus far the poet has followed Bembo's advice and has admired the woman with his eyes. In 128 he seems to be following the advice even further and enjoys her beauty through the sense of hearing as she plays a musical instrument. She is his music, and his ear is confounded (amazed) when she plays music on "that blessèd wood. . . ." The poet's primary intention in this sonnet, though, is not merely to admire the woman as she plays the instrument but to ask for a kiss, and he neatly uses the situation as a basis for that plea. He envies the jacks "that nimble leap/ To kiss the tender inward of thy hand. . . . "His lips, though, should be given that privilege and would be most happy if they were:

To be so tickled they would change their state
And situation with those dancing chips
o'Er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more blest than living lips.

His lips would willingly become like dead wood and literally would change positions with the keys if they could have the pleasure of kissing her fingers. In the couplet the poet uses logic to advance his plea:

Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.

Grant me a greater privilege than the keys enjoy—allow me to kiss your lips.

The neo-Platonists, of course, allowed kissing as Bembo explains in Book IV of The Courtier. In order to please her lover the woman, he says, "may also lawfully and without blame come to kissing. . . . " This is lawful because, he continues, "the reasonable lover woteth well, that although the mouth be a parcell of the bodie, yet is it an issue for the wordes, that be the interpreters of the soule, and for the inwarde breath, which is also called the soule." Thus "a kisse may be saide to be rather a coupling together of the soule, than of the body" (p. 607). So the poetmay still be following the course of reasonable love in desiring a kiss from the woman. Kissing, however, is dangerous for the sensual lover as Bembo warns in the same passage: "For since a kisse is a knitting together both of bodie and soule, it is to bee feared, lest the sensuali lover will be more enclined to the part of the bodie, than of the soule" (p. 607). The poet in this poem may be inclining more toward sensual love than reasonable love. The poem seems at least to suggest that he is as he wishes to kiss the "tender inward" of her hand and that his lips would be "so tickled" as the keys. This is, after all, the crucial first stage in the relationship, the stage in which the lover can incline in either direction. The poet has thus far been attracted by the woman but has admired or enjoyed her beauty only through the sight and hearing, the proper ways for the lover who is guided by reason. In this poem, though, he seems to be inclining in the other direction and longing to possess her beauty as a sensual lover. The poem thus serves as a transition into the next section where the poet indeed becomes the sensual lover, forsaking reason altogether. The poem also begins to point up the difference between the two relationships. In the first stage of the friendship the poet greatly admired the beauty of the friend and enjoyed that beauty through the senses of sight and hearing (Music to hear), yet he never expressed any desire to touch the friend or to kiss his hand or lips. This poem then becomes the turning point in the relationship with the woman. The poet rather than exercising reason as he did in the relationship with the friend begins to incline toward sensual love and the subjugation of reason.

If 145 is by Shakespeare and if it is intended as a part of the sequence, it should be placed at this point. The poet continues to concentrate on the woman's lips as in the previous poem but here shifts his thought from kissing her lips to the words which her lips utter:

Those lips that Love's own hand did make
Breath'd forth the sound that said 'I hate'
To me that languish'd for her sake, . . .

The woman has been portrayed in Sonnet 132 as disdaining the poet, and certainly he could be thought of as languishing as he asks her to have pity on him. For these reasons, at least, 145 is appropriate here, but it also represents a turning point. The woman in this poem does apparently show compassion for her lover:

But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was us'd in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
'I hate' she alter'd with an end
That follow'd it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away:
'I hate' from hate away she threw,
And sav'd my life, saying—'not you'.

The woman still disdaining the poet and on the verge of denying any feeling of love for him suddenly takes pity on him and changes her mind in mid-sentence. Her statement implies, of course, that she is now willing to give in to his pleas, and so the poem also serves as a transition to the next section.

The poet has admired the woman's beauty, but whether consciously or no has come to desire the physical possession of her beauty. She, moved by his suffering, has given in to his importunings and has indicated a willingness to return his love in the way that he wishes. This relationship, consequently, cannot ascend to a higher level. The poet after being "inflamed with beautie," does not "with the bridle of reason réstraine the ill disposition of sense. . . ." No goodness then can ensue from this relationship; it can lead only to despair.

Notes

¹The Elizabethan Love Sonnet, 2nd ed. (London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1966), p. 174.

²The Sense of Shakespeare's Sonnets (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952), p. 38.

³The Master-Mistress: A Study of Shakespeare's Sonnets (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1968), p. 92.

⁴ "The Question of Platonism in Shakespeare's Sonnets," Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 71 (1970), 268.

⁵ "How True a Twain," The Riddle of Shakespeare's Sonnets, ed. Edward Hubler (New York: Basic Books, 1962), p. 38.

⁶Ibid., pp. 51-52.

⁷ Patrick Cruttwell, The Shakespearian Moment: And Its Place in the Poetry of the 17th Century, Modern Library Edition (New York: Random House, 1964), pp. 18-19.

⁸ Ingram and Redpath, p. 304.