The Shakespeare Code

It’s best to read ‘The Birthday Sonnets’ Part Eight first.

1590-1591

The rest of 1590 and 1591 was taken up with massive activity at Titchfield and Wilton. Queen Elizabeth had withdrawn Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles – because she didn’t want anyone comparing her reign with others. The Countess of Southampton and the Countess of Pembroke – who both had good reason to dislike the Queen – commissioned Shakespeare to write the Wars of the Roses plays.

These were largely a satire on Elizabeth and the Tudors – and Elizabeth’s old lover, Robert Dudley the Earl of Leicester…..

…..who was the model for Richard III….

Shakespeare got his old enemies, Robert Greene…..

…..and Thomas Nashe…..

Thomas Nashe

down to Titchfield to help him…..

[1591: Plays written by Shakespeare: The Troublesome Reign of King John, The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York, First Part of the Contention, Richard III and Henry VI Part One.]

1591: PLATONIC LOVE

Shakespeare’s next sonnet was a private one to Harry – also to be read by his mother, Mary, Second Countess of Southampton.

19. (20)

A Woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted,

Hast thou the Master Mistress of my passion,

A woman’s gentle heart but not acquainted

With shifting change as is false women’s fashion;

Shakespeare says that Harry’s face is like a woman’s – but with this difference: Harry does not use make-up. His features have been painted by Dame Nature herself.

He then describes Harry as being like both a man and a woman – controlling Shakespeare’s passion as both his master and his mistress. Harry has the soft-hearted nature of a woman – but not the fickle nature of a woman who often changes her lovers. Shakespeare uses ‘feminine’ endings for the end of each line of the Sonnet – ending on two syllables rather than one.

An eye more bright then theirs, less false in rolling:

Gilding the object where-upon it gazeth;

Harry’s eyes are brighter than a woman’s and, unlike a woman’s, do not look at every handsome man that passes by.

The beams from Harry’s eyes are like shafts of gold that gild the person he looks at. (At this time, people thought that beams came FROM the eye, rather than to it.)

A man in hew all Hews in his controlling,

Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.

Shakespeare, by spelling hue as ‘hew’ – and then italicising Hews and capitalising the ‘H’ – plays on Harry’s name and title. Hews is an anagram from Henry Wriothesley, Earl [of] Southampton. Every man in the room looks at Harry and he entrances the very souls of women.

And for a woman wert thou first created,

Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,

And by addition me of thee defeated,

By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.

Shakespeare says that Dame Nature originally intended to make Harry a woman – but as she creted the female Harry, she fell in love with him – just as in Ovid – Shakespeare’s hero – Pygmalion, the sculptor, falls in love with the woman he is carving, Galatea…

But since she prickt thee out for women’s pleasure,

Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.

In order to fulfil her love, Dame Nature gave Harry a penis so he could give pleasure to a woman. Because this was Nature’s intention, Shakespeare wants his love for Harry to be Platonic rather than actively sexual.

Both Shakespeare and Harry were Catholics. The Jesuits actively encouraged homosexual platonic love – especially between young missionary priests. As long as the love was not physical, it was holy.

John Ingram was one of these young missionary priests. On 21st August, 1589, he wrote to his confessor, Father Joseph Cresswell, when he learnt of the death of his ‘intimate friend’ Humphrey Wolsley:

Yet when the news came of his exchange of life with death, I was so overcome and prostrated with grief, that I passed the whole night without sleep. For as often as I tried to fall asleep, so often did I recall to mind Humphrey’s incredible kindness to me and his many good services, so often did I see before me the man to whom I used to turn, in whose company I found peace, in whose sweet intercourse I lay aside all care and trouble. He, he it was who would talk so often and so earnestly about virtue and goodness, about quelling disorderly passions and extirpating vices before they became deeply rooted or further disseminated. From his company, help and advice, I might, had I tried, have gathered richer and more abundant thought. Such, dearest father was our intimacy, such the bonds of our friendship, which, I trust, your paternity heartily approves of, as I am sure that God does.

From this Sonnet it is clear that Harry – who as we learn from later Sonnets – was attracted to men of a class lower than himself – has made a play for Shakespeare. We also learn from Sonnet 104 (Old Order) that Shakespeare was sexually attracted to Harry the very first time he set eyes on him – April, 1590.

However, he had been employed by the Countess of Southampton – who was also attracted to lower class men – to convince her gay son to get married – so a homosexual affair between Shakespeare and Harry would have been counter-productive to say the least. In this Sonnet, which was also intended for Mary Southampton’s eyes, Shakespeare gently rebuffs him.

Harry, who we later learn engaged in cross-dressing, was born into a heavily bi-sexual, aristocratic culture. His hero, Sir Philip Sidney, then dead….

……had written the romance Arcadia which features Prince Musidorus with his:

….fair auburn hair (which he ware in great length, and gave at that time a delightful show with being stirred up and down with the breath of a gentle wind…his face now beginning to have some tokens of a beard….’

And Prince Pyrocles who is…

…..of a pure complexion, and of such cheerful favour as might seem either a woman’s face on a boy or an excellent boy’s face on a woman.

Prince Pyrocles falls in love with Pamela – the daughter of King Basilius – whom John Aubrey tells us – was based on Dorothy Devereux. Her sister in the story – Philoclea – was based on Penelope Rich – who was to become Shakespeare’s leading lady in private performance!

Pyrocles dresses up as a woman – Zelmane – to gain entry into the court .

He looks so beautiful in drag that Prince Musidorus fancies him – and King Basilius falls in love with him!

There is a tradition that the Pembroke family – and Lady Penelope – would act out scenes from Arcadia – and at Wilton there are Arcadian Panels in one of the drawing rooms….

To read ‘The Bath Sonnets’, Part 10, click: HERE