Transcript Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Introduction
2. The Sonnets
2.1 Sonnet 10
2.2 Sonnet 35
2.3 Sonnet 116
2.4 Sonnet 151
3. Conclusion
1.
Shakespeare‘s Sonnets – Still of Topical
Interest?
 Four sonnets concerning ‘love’
→ Eternity of Love
→ Procreation
→ Physical Desire
→ Adultery

All in all 154 sonnets
 First published 1609
 Addressees
→ Young Man
→ Dark Lady

For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any,
Who for thyself art so unprovident.
Grant if thou wilt, thou art belov’d of many,
But that thou none lov’st is most evident;
For thou art so possessed with murd'rous hate
That ‘gainst thyself thou stick’st not to conspire,
Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate
Which to repair should be thy chief desire.
O change thy thought, that I may change my mind.
Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love?
Be as thy presence is, gracious and kind,
Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove.
Make thee another self for love of me,
That beauty still may live in thine or thee.
Addressee → Young Man
 Beautiful → loved by others
 Self-destructive hate
 Speaker wants the Young Man to
change
 Supposed to pass on genes

Reasons to have children have
changed
Topicality: 
A) Adultery
 B) Eternal Love
 C) Procreation
 D) Physical Desire

No more be grieved at that which thou hast done.
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,
Authórizing thy trespass with compare,
Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,
Excusing these sins more than these sins are.
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense—
Thy adverse party is thy advocate—
And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence.
Such civil war is in my love and hate
That I an áccessory needs must be
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.
Addressee → Young Man
 Has cheated on someone
 Feelings of speaker for Young Man are
expressed → excuses his mistake

Being unfaithful is still a common
topic today
Topicality: 
A) Adultery
 B) Eternal Love
 C) Physical Desire

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Description of the concept of love
→ love is not impaired by time
 Author is sure that true love exists

The concept of love has basically
not changed in the course of time
Topicality: 
A) Eternal Love
B) Physical Desire
Love is too young to know what conscience is,
Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove;
For, thou betraying me, I do betray
My nobler part to my gross body’s treason.
My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love—flesh stays no father reason,
But, rising at thy name, doth point out thee
As his triumphant prize—proud of this pride,
He is contented thy poor drudge to be,
To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side.
No want of conscience hold it that I call
Her “love” for whose dear love I rise and fall.
Addressee → Dark Lady
 Speaker is not ashamed of his lustrous
feelings for his mistress
 Considers fleshly desire as normal
→ Speaker claims that mistress has the
same feelings

Physical desire ordinary component
of love
Topicality: 
Topics in general still up-to-date
 Rather provisional than contemporary
 Not afraid to tackle delicate themes
 Today’s values & views are basically
shared

Shakespeare’s sonnets still of topical
interest