In his Sonnet 130, Shakespeare undermines Petrarchan
ideals by having the speaker compare his mistress unfavorably to the sun, coral, and snow, thus poking
fun at other poets of the age, such as Thomas Watson, who used exaggerated
comparisons with natural elements to describe their fair one's beauty. From
this reversal of the ideal, the reader can see that the speaker considers his
mistress to be imperfect, though he thinks his "love as rare / As any
she belied with false compare." This acknowledgement of the mistress'
imperfection, when seen in context with the more sobering Sonnet 129 about
"lust in action," (especially Ralph Fiennes' take on it) allows for a gloomier reading of Sonnet 130, much like the performance given by Alan Rickman. This tone
marks Sonnet 130 as a continuation of the Dark Lady sonnets, with the insults and
conciliatory couplet therein understood to be the products of mingled self-recrimination
and desire. Shakespeare perhaps writes to describe, not the authenticity of
true love, but the madness of inexplicable desire. He sees the flaws of his
mistress, but he desires her as one would desire a creature of rare beauty, and
so his Sonnet 130 becomes an exploration of his own insensibility.
INSULTING HIS MISTRESS (A REVERSAL)
Poets such as Thomas Watson were accustomed to
following Petrarch's example by using cavalier poetry to idealize the object of
their affections, with blazons cataloging the woman's every feature. Shakespeare does the same thing, but rather than idealizing his
mistress, he describes her many flaws. Salempress contributor Ashleigh Imus
writes that "Sonnet 130 mocks
the exaggerated praise of beauty that flourished in the poetry of Shakespeare’s
time," and that rather than adding to this praise, "the speaker
celebrates his lady as she is, implying his honesty as evidence of a more
credible and authentic love." This reversal can be read as a
playful attack on the poetic traditions of the age, as well as an argument that
meaningful affection has more to do with true attachment rather than physical
appeal, a reading supported by Salempress. But such honesty, so out of
character with the rest of cavalier poetry, and following the grim Sonnet 129,
has an additional interpretation, perhaps as more of a comment on the speaker's
inner turmoil than the ridiculous comparisons most sonnet writers employed.
PROXIMITY TO SONNET 129
The playful insults of
Sonnet 130 form an odd contrast with the bleak Sonnet 129, which talks of
"lust in action" and "waste of shame," an apt description
of the consequences of illicit passion (1-2). Following Sonnet 129, the playfulness
of Sonnet 130 doesn't make much sense, unless one considers the playfulness as
a cover for self-recrimination. With this interpretation in mind, gone are the
suggestions of true love despite aging beauty or even affection made stronger
by the recognition of flaws. Instead, Sonnet 130 seems a continuation of the
theme that passion is inexplicable, unknowable, and dangerous. One reading of the Sonnet is the speaker
listing reasons as to why his love doesn't deserve his affections: "If snow
be white, why then her breasts are dun," "black wires grow on her
head," and "My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground"
(3-4, 12). After this backward blazon,
he proceeds to admit that his attachment is real, despite her many flaws, for
he thinks her "as rare / As any she belied with false compare"
(13-14), in keeping with the idea that desire is unreasonable, but irresistible.
The reader is left to wonder if Sonnet 129's reference to "heaven that
leads men to this hell" is (14), in fact, referring to the pleasurable
company of the Dark Lady, of whom the speaker says in Sonnet 130, "And yet
by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare"
(13-14).
INNER TURMOIL
If the speaker is indeed
the same man who spoke of lust as "savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to
trust" in Sonnet 129, his same lack of trust is evident in Sonnet 130 (4).
Sonnet 130 ridicules the tradition of hyperbolic blazons by listing the less-than-ideal
features of his mistress, yet concludes with a couplet expressing the speaker's
devotion to this mistress. He cannot explain his devotion by comparing her eyes
to the sun, nor does he himself know why he feels so passionate about a woman
with wiry hair and dun breasts, but that makes his feelings no less real. In
Sonnet 129, he knows lust will lead to misery, and yet he risks this downfall
for a few moments of foolish, inexplicable, unintelligible passion with the undeserving woman of Sonnet 130.
I never thought of this as a follow-up to 129, though I should have! You give Shakespeare a definite ulterior motive, and I like that take on it. It's really useful to think of the works as a whole rather than separate.
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