Four-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare sonnets
The World of Arts:
Gwen Herat
I always thought a sonnet to be a cross between a set of beautiful
lyrical lines and a poem. It is one of the finest contributions made by
William Shakespeare and accepted in the literature world besides his
spectacular plays. But sonnets are not as popular as his plays and less
read. He created a radiant balance in sonnets even though they were
written by others before his time. This year, the world wakes up to
celebrate the 400th anniversary since the publication of his sonnets.
Thomas Thorpe published Shakespeare's Sonnets in an edition which was
probably not authorised in 1609. In the following year, a pirate volume
of poems called The Passionate Pilgrim appeared under Shakespeare's name
that included poems culled from his plays, versions of Sonnets 138 and
144 and other work that was clearly not his. There are two conclusions
to be drawn from. Firstly, that Shakespeare's sonnets were intended for
manuscript circulation which was not common in that era. Secondly, since
The Passionate Pilgrim included only a couple of his sonnets, they
probably did not exist as a whole sequence.
|
Romeo declares Juliet’s lips a ‘blushing pilgrims’ sharing the
speaking of a sonnet. |
Career
Shakespeare was never far away from the writing of sonnets throughout
his career as a playwright. They appear in some form in: The Two
Gentlemen of Verona, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, All's Well That
End Well and Cymbeline.
However, there are three plays in which the sonnets play a major
role, that is Romeo and Juliet, As you like in and Love's Labour Lost.
While the globe is reflecting on the 400th anniversary of the
publication of Shakespeare's sonnets, elsewhere around the world, the
celebrations are on high key. In Love's Labour Lost, no less than one
sonnets is presented in a writing competition where King Ferdinand of
Navarre attempts to wit and woo over the Princess of France. But it is
in Romeo and Juliet that Shakespeare come out strong and intense.
Romeo's and Juliet's love is as inevitable as the tragic as the
circumstances of its outcome, inevitable as the sonnet form itself.
Pilgrims
Romeo famously declares Juliet's lips as 'blushing pilgrims' when
they fall in love at first sight and at the same tie, share the speaking
of a sonnet at the Capulet's masked ball. Sonnets are crucial to Romeo
and Juliet from the opening chorus; 'Two households both alike in
dignity.' Shakespeare uses literary forms in order to set the scene for
his own imagined space.
Though present in the two quarto versions, the opening sonnet is
absent from the First Folio. Some productions and dramas avoid sonnets
on the basis that it spoil the story. But for Shakespeare, some sonnets
work at a different level especially in plays like Romeo and Juliet.
Some of the sonnets can be associated as romantic love because of their
inevitable genre.
They are poignant when the lovers speak a sonnet on their first
meeting. The outcome of its tragic circumstances in as inevitable as the
sonnet form itself.
Young Orlando in As you Like it, speaks a shortened sonnet of twelve
lines. 'hang thee, my verse, in witness of my love.' He carves
Rosalind's name on every tree and hangs verses of praise of her in the
First of Arden.
But we also witness Shakespeare's arrogance when he denounce the
Petrarchan ideal. On April 6, 1327, in Avignon Petrach saw his beloved
Laura for the first time where a new literary tradition as well as a
love affair was born. Together with Dante, Petrach can be regarded as
the founding father of sonnets.
The unparallel poetic beauty of Shakespeare's sonnets has evoked so
much admiration that no poetic composition of any author or age can come
a striking distance of him.
'I had rather than forty shillings,
I had my Book of Songs and Sonnets here,'...
Merry Wives of Windsor, Act. 1 Scene. 1
'Will you then write me a sonnet in praise of my beauty?'...
Much Ado about nothing, Act. 5 Scene. 4 |
