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The Date of Shakespeare's Sonnet CVII
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Critics have generally agreed that of all of Shakespeare's sonnets cvii offers the most hope for dating by internal evidence. It runs:
Not mine own fears, nor the propehtic soul
Of the wide world dreaming on things to come,
Can yet the lease of my true love control,
Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom.
The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured,
And the sad augurs mock their own presage;
Incertainties now crown themselves assured,
And peace proclaims olives of endless age.
Now with the drops of this most balmy time
My love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes, Since spite of him I'll live in this poor rhyme,
While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes;
And thou in this shall find thy monument,
When tyrants crests and tombs of brass are spent.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1933
References
1 Massey, Gerald, Shakespeare's Sonnets (London: 1866), pp. 311–314.—Massey perhaps availed himself of a suggestion in Notes & Queries for Feb. 12, 1859, signed J. E. C.
2 Chambers, E. K., William Shakespeare (Oxford: 1930), i, 563.—It is odd that Isaacs, also struggling against 1603, exactly reverses Chambers' argument, saying: “Nun könnte ‘endure’ wohl die selterne Bedeutung ‘erleiden’ haben, wie auch Dryden ‘endure death’ sagt. Niemals aber könnte ein Dichter wie Shakespeare für den Tod ein so ungereimtes, falsches Bild aufstellen wie es die ‘eclipse’.”—Jahrbuch der deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, xix (1884) 262.
3 Once at least each time in allusion to death: “Born to eclipse thy life this afternoon” Henry VI, Pt. I, iv, v, 53; and “By thine own tongue thou art condemned and must Endure our law: thou'rt dead.”—Cymbeline v, v, 299.
4 Cf. Ant. & Cleo., iii, xiii, 154.
5 Library, ix (1929), 383.
6 See Alden, R. M., Shakespeare, (N. Y., 1923), p. 123, and Sidney Lee, William Shakespeare, (1927), p. 168, for summaries of these doubts.
7 Wm. Shakespeare, i, 559.
8 Gray, H. D., “Arrangement and date of Shakespeare's Sonnets,” PMLA, xxx (1915), p. 642.—See Alden, pp. 441–452, for similar opinions by Wyndham, Mackail, Walsh, and Furnival. Among other scholars who have dated the group including cvii after 1600; purely on stylistic grounds, are: Dowden, Sonnets of William Shakespeare (London, 1881), pp. 24, 25; Barrett Wendell, William Shakespeare (New York, 1894), p. 50; E. K. Chambers, Wm. Shakespeare, i, 564; R. M. Alden, Shakespeare (New York, 1922), p. 119; George Brandes, William Shakespeare (New York, 1920), p. 268 ff.
9 Alden, R. M., The Sonnets of Shakespeare (Boston, 1916), pp. 245–249; 441–452.
10 Fort, J. A., Two Dated Sonnets of Shakespeare's (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1925).
11 London Times Lit. Suppl. (Nov. 29, 1929).
12 Library, ix (1929), p. 383.
13 Chamberlin, F. C., Private Character of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1921), pp. 70, 94–101.
14 Cheney, E. P., History of England (1588–1603) (New York, 1926), ii, 101.
15 Chambers, E. K., William Shakespeare, i, 564. See also Year's Work in English Studies, ix, 148.
16 She had been ill between Jan. 12 and 25, 1599, according to the French Ambassador, though she was not even then incapacitated for public business.
17 Sydney Papers, (A. Collins, Ed.) Letters and Memorials of State, Written and collected by Sir Henry Sydney, Sir Philip Sydney, etc. (1746), ii, 114.
18 Sydney Papers, ii, 115.
19 Hatfield MSS. (Historical Manuscript Commission, Calendar of the MSS. of the Marquis of Salisbury at Hatfield House), ix, 302, 428.
20 Hatfield MSS., ix, 277.
21 Letters written by John Chamberlain during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Ed. Sarah Williams, (Camden Soc.), p. 62.—Chambers' other citations merely deal with the rumor of a Spanish invasion and are therefore not examined here.
22 Calendar of state papers, domestic series, preserved in the Public Record Office, Elizabeth, v, 258, 259, 281, 294, 386.
23 Sydney Papers, ii, 119, 125–55; Chamberlain's Letters, pp. 62–70.
24 For this whole subject see N. G. Goodman's able monograph Diplomatic Relations between England and Spain with special reference to English opinion 1597–1603 (University of Pennsylvania, 1925), especially pp. 26–30, 37–39—a work which Sir E. K. Chambers does not seem to have examined, since he mentions it only as cited by Cheney. In March, 1600, Chamberlain reported that the best that was expected was a cessation or truce for seven or ten years (Letters, p. 70). Actually the negotiations at Boulogne (May–July, 1600) reached no conclusion and were soon seen to be futile.
26 Hatfield MSS., ix, ii–iv; Chamberlain's Letters, pp. 60–88.
26 Something should be said, perhaps, of the guess, which could be ignored had it not the support of Brandes, that the sonnet refers to the events of February, 1601, and the failure of Essex's rebellion. Its only justification is in line five; and Elizabeth was hardly eclipsed, even for a moment, by her former favorite's hare-brained attempt. Even in a private poem Shakespeare would hardly have been so lacking in either perspicacity or discretion as to say she was. It is a point worth emphasizing that people were not in the habit of referring to Elizabeth as being in eclipse during her lifetime. The rest of the poem makes no particular sense in reference to the events of the spring of 1601.
27 For this whole subject of Elizabeth's health, the best secondary reference is Mr. Frederick Chamberlin's The Private Character of Queen Elizabeth. A study of the very full data there presented in connection with the Queen's medical record and an independent checking of most of the available printed sources will show the soundness of Professor Cheney's judgment, “Elizabeth's health throughout her life had been reasonably good. … As a matter of fact she had seldom been ill.” (Cheney ii, 566.) There is no evidence of any illness serious enough to be called an eclipse between 1588 and December, 1602. Her worst indisposition was during December, 1597, when she was obliged to postpone an interview with M. de Maisse, the French ambassador and told him that she could not remember when she had been so ill. (Chamberlin, p. 71.)
28 Cheney ii, 278–282, 557–558.
29 For these claims and the following discussion see Correspondence of James VI of Scotland with Sir Robt. Cecil and others, edited by John B. Bruce, (Camden Society, 1861), intro. vi–xii; “Memoir of Thomas Wilson on the State of England and the Succession,” MS. book, small folio 78 pp. noticed in C.S.P.D. vi, 60; and Bailey, Alfred, The Succession to the English Crown (London, 1879), pp. 100–180.
30 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, viii, 406–408.
31 C.S.P.D. viii, 412.
32 C.S.P.D., v, 229.
33 C.S.P.D., viii, 407, 419.
34 “Report of the Council of State to Philip III on the English succession.” Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, iv, 719–737.—Indeed, the forces before Ostend were strengthened and an effort was made to increase the fleet for an intervention. But Spain was as usual too slow, and Henri IV was probably only amusing himself at the Spaniards' expense.
35 C.S.P.D., v, 423–125.
36 Cheney, ii, 557.
37 “John Petit to Peter Halins, from Antwerp, July 17, 1599,” C.S.P.D., v, 246.
38 C.S.P.D., vi, 180.
39 C.S.P.D., v, 487.
40 “Petit to Hahns, 18 Aug. 1599, June 14, 1600,” C.S.P.D., v, 299.
41 C.S.P.D., vi, 42.
42 Hatfield Letters (MSS.) Vol. 92, No. 130 (2), Cited by Bruce. Correspondence of James VI with Sir Robert Cecil, p. xlvii.
43 C.S.P.D., vi, 176.
44 Cheney, ii, 558.
45 C.S.P.D., v, 524.
46 I have been unable to discover any English almanacs for the year 1603. The Short Title Catalogue which lists five for 1602 and nine for 1604, about the usual numbers, has none at all for 1603. Only the mutilated fragment of a title page in the British Museum may be of that year. Were the usual crop of almanacs suppressed by the privy council or withdrawn by their publishers in a spring when any kind of prophecy was unsafe? It is impossible to say.
47 C.S.P.D., vi, 42.
48 For these foreboding see also S. R. Gardiner, History of England from the Accession of James I, i, 50; Cheney ii, 556–559; and Letters and Epigrams of Sir John Harington, ed. N. E. McClure, (Philadelphia, 1930), “Sir Tohn to Lady Harington 27 Dec. 1602.”, p. 96.
49 Brown, H. F., Preface to Calendar of Stale Papers, Venetian, ix, lxii–lxix.—Scaramelli had no spy system, no special connections at court, and no partisan interest in English politics. But like most Venetian diplomatic representatives he was quick witted and a keen and experienced observer; he seems to have understood English, he had some connections with Italian merchants in London, and he knew that his government would expect the best information he could supply on the course of public events. His letters are particularly useful then as a record of common, informed gossip in the city about public events.
50 C.S.P. Ven., ix, 538–542.
51 C.S.P. Ven., ix, 550.
52 C.S.P.D., vi, 298–300.
53 See also for this alarm Goodman's Court of James I, edited by J. S. Brewer (London, 1839), ii, 53, and Birch's Court and Times of James I (London, 1849), “John Chamberlin to Dudley Carleton,” p. 1.
54 C.S.P. Ven., ix, 555.
55 C.S.P. Ven., ix, 558.
56 C.S.P. Ven, ix, 562.—See also Manningham's Diary (Camden Soc., 1868), p. 146.
57 C.S.P. Ven., ix, 566.
58 See also Manningham's Diary, p. 153.
59 C.S.P. Ven., x, 3, 7; Hatfield MSS., xv, 10, 11, 38; Manningham's Diary, p. 148.
60 C.S.P. Ven., x, 15.
61 Dedicatory Epistle to Authorized Version, first quoted in this connection by Massey in 1888.
62 Gardiner, op. cit., i 57–68.
63 Manningham's Diary, pp. 149–151.
64 Harington, Letters & Epigrams, p. 320, No. 425.
65 Ibid., p. 321, No. 426.
66 Henry Frederick, b. 1594, Charles, b. 1600.
67 For an estimate of Scottish strength and the chances of war in 1599 see a memoir by Cecil's agent, Hatfield MSS., ix, 308–309.
68 Samuel Rowlands, Ave Caesar and God Save the King, 1603.—Reprinted, Hunterian Club, lxvi (1886).
69 See The True Narration of the Entertainment of His Royal Majesty from the time of his departure from Edinburgh till his receiving in London (London, 1603).
70 Speed, John, History of Great Britain (London, 1650), p. 911.
71 Cambridge Modern History, iii, 552.
72 On May 1 Scaramelli wrote to the Doge and Senate, “Rumour runs that peace is made with Spain. Ambassadors coming here include the Spanish.” (C.S.P. Ven., v, 18) and on May 8, “Everyone concludes that his Majesty is for peace with Spain. We all know that he used to say in Scotland that it was a king's duty to govern his people in peace rather than to enlarge his kingdom by war.”—Ibid., p. 20.
73 Honour in Her Perfection, 1624. First quoted in this connection by Sir Sidney Lee.
74 Dugdale, Gilbert, Time Triumphant: Declaring in Brief the arrival of our lord King James in England (London, 1604).—Reprinted in England's Garner, ii, p. 72.