William Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 mocks the conventions of the showy and flowery
courtly sonnets in its realistic portrayal of his mistress.
Synopsis Sonnet 130 satirizes the concept of
ideal beauty that was a convention of literature and art in general during the
Elizabethan era. Influences originating with the poetry of ancient Greece and
Rome had established a tradition of this, which continued in Europe's
customs of courtly love and in courtly poetry, and the work of poets such as
Petrarch. It was customary to praise the beauty of the object of one's affections
with comparisons to beautiful things found in nature and heaven, such as
stars in the night sky, the golden light of the rising sun, or red roses. The
images conjured by Shakespeare were common ones that would have been
well-recognized by a reader or listener of this sonnet.
Shakespeare satirizes the hyperbole of the allusions used by conventional
poets, which even by the Elizabethan era, had become cliché, predictable, and
uninspiring. This sonnet compares the Poet’s mistress to a number of natural
beauties; each time making a point of his mistress’ obvious inadequacy in such
comparisons; she cannot hope to stand up to the beauties of the natural world.
The first two quatrains compare the speaker’s mistress to aspects of nature,
such as snow or coral; each comparison ending unflatteringly for the mistress.
In the final couplet, the speaker proclaims his love for his mistress by
declaring that he makes no false comparisons, the implication being that
other poets do precisely that. Shakespeare's sonnet aims to do the
opposite, by indicating that his mistress is the ideal object of his
affections because of her genuine qualities, and that she is more worthy
of his love than the paramours of other poets who are more fanciful.
Poetic rhyme scheme The poetic rhyme scheme uses standard
Shakespearean iambic pentameter, following the AB-ABEF-EF/GG poetic form.
Analysis = Sonnet 130 as a satire =
“This sonnet plays with poetic conventions in which, for example, the
mistress’s eyes are compared with the sun, her lips with coral, and her cheeks
with roses. His mistress, says the poet, is nothing like this conventional image,
but is as lovely as any woman”. Here, Barbara Mowat offers her opinion of the
meaning behind Sonnet 130; this work breaks the mold to which Sonnets had
come to conform. Shakespeare composed a sonnet which seems to parody a great
many sonnets of the time. Poets like Thomas Watson, Michael Drayton, and
Barnabe Barnes were all part of this sonnet craze and each wrote sonnets
proclaiming love for an almost unimaginable figure; Patrick Crutwell
posits that Sonnet 130 could actually be a satire of the Thomas Watson poem
“Passionate Century of Love”, pointing out that the Watson poem contains all
but one of the platitudes that Shakespeare is making fun of in Sonnet
130. However, E.G. Rogers points out the similarities between Watson’s
“Passionate Century of Love,” Sonnet 130, and Richard Linche’s Poem
collection entitled “Diella.” There is a great deal of similarity between
sections of the Diella poem collection and Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130”, for
example in “130” we see, “If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head,”
where in “Diella” we see “Her hayre exceeds fold forced in the smallest
wire.” Each work uses a comparison of hairs to wires; while in modern sense
this may seem unflattering, one could argue that Linche’s work draws upon the
beauty of weaving gold and that Shakespeare mocks this with harsh
comparison. This, along with other similarities in textual content, lead,
as E.G. Rodgers points out, the critic to believe that Diella may have been the
source of inspiration for both homage, by Watson’s “Passionate Century of
Love,” and satire by Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130.” The idea of Satire is
further enforced by final couplet of “130” in which the speaker delivers his
most expositional line: “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare, as any
she belied with false compare.” This line projects the message behind this
work, demeaning the false comparisons made by many poets of the time.
= Sonnet 130: Complimentary/derisive nature =
According to Carl Atkins, many early editors took the sonnet at face value
and believed that it was simply a disparagement of the writer’s mistress.
However, William Flesch believes that the poem is actually quite the opposite,
and acts as a compliment. He points out that many poems of the day seem to
compliment the object of the poem for qualities that they really don’t have,
such as snow white skin or golden hair. He states that people really don’t want
to be complimented on a quality they don’t have, e.g. an old person doesn’t
want to be told they are physically young, they want to be told they are
youthful, in behavior or in looks. Flesch notes that while what Shakespeare
writes of can seem derisive, he is in reality complimenting qualities the
mistress truly exhibits, and he ends the poem with his confession of love.
Possible influences Petrarch
Shakespeare and other great writers would reference each other and each
other’s works in their own writing. According to Felicia Jean Steele,
Shakespeare uses Petrarchan imagery while actually undermining it at the
same time. Stephen Booth would agree that Shakespeare references Petrarchan
works however, Booth says that Shakespeare “gently mocks the
thoughtless mechanical application of the standard Petrarchan metaphors.”
Felicia Steele and Stephen Booth agree that there is some referencing going on,
they vary slightly in the degree of Shakespeare’s mockery. Steele feels much
stronger about the degree in which Shakespeare is discounting Petrarchan
ideas by observing that in 14 lines of Sonnet 130, “Shakespeare seems to undo,
discount, or invalidate nearly every Petrarchan conceit about feminine beauty
employed by his fellow sonneteers.” The final couplet is designed to undo the
damage Shakespeare has done to his reader’s faith that he indeed loves his
“dusky mistress.” Steele’s article offers Stephen Booth’s paraphrasing of
the couplet: “I think that my love is as rare as any woman belied by false
compare.” Helen Vendler, who is also referenced in Steele’s article states
that the final couplet would read; “In all, by heaven, I think my love as rare/
As any she conceived for compare.” All three of these authors; Steele, Booth,
and Vendler believe that in this couplet, Shakespeare is responding to
Petrarchan imagery because other sonneteers actively misrepresent, or
“belie” their mistress‘ beauty. See also
Shakespeare's sonnets References