The Shakespeare Code

It’s best to read ‘Enter the Dark Lady’ Part Eleven first.

1591/2 LOVE IN A TIME OF PLAGUE

25. (130)

My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the Sun;

Coral is far more red, then her lips red.

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun:

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

Shakespeare changes tack. In a Sonnet 23 (Old 132) he has compared Amelia’s eyes to the sun in the morning: now she says her eyes do not resemble the sun at all. Coral is far redder than her lips – and her breasts are not snow-coloured – they are more a dull brown – and her hair resembles black wires. Amelia was mixed race.

I have seen Roses damaskt, red and white,

But no such Roses see I in her cheeks,

And in some perfumes is there more delight,

Than in the breath that from my Mistress reeks.

Shakespeare says he has seen roses with a variegated white and red colour – but Amelia’s cheeks do not resemble them. Her face was dark-coloured. Also perfume is far more attractive than the breath that reeks from her lips.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That Music hath a far more pleasing sound:

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My Mistress when she walks treads on the ground.

Shakespeare adores to hear Amelia speak – but knows full well that music sounds better. He admits that he has never seen a Goddess walk – but Amelia, far more substantial than a Goddess, walks firmly on the ground.

And yet by heaven I think my love as rare,

As any she beli’d with false compare.

In the final couplet, Shakespeare turns the whole argument around. It is not Amelia he is attacking, but poets who use untrue clichés about their loved ones – and ornate and far-fetched imagery. We can see Rector Robert Crowley’s influence here.

Shakespeare is trying to seduce Amelia by insulting her, making her laugh, then leaping at her – exactly as Berowne tries to seduce the dark-skinned Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost.

Shakespeare wrote the play at Mary Southampton’s request: she wanted to ‘heterosexualise’ her son and the whole play is in praise of the love of women – as the Birthday Sonnets are. But Shakespeare hi-jacks the project – and writes a whole play to seduce Amelia – who played Rosaline in the first private performance in the grounds of Place House, Titchfield, in 1592.

Edmund Ironside was also produced around this time – another collaboration between Shakespeare and Tom Nashe. It has a good part for Amelia – Stich’s wife. Edricus says of her:

Thee old hag, witch, quean, slut, drab, whore and thief

How should I know thee, black Egyptian?’

In Sonnet 25.(Old 130) Shakespeare is again challenging Christopher Marlowe’s Hero and Leander:

Many would praise the sweet smell as she passed,

When ’twas the odour which her breath forth cast;

And there for honey bees have sought in vain,

And, beat from thence, have lighted there again.

26. (135)

Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will

And Will to boot, and Will in over-plus,

More then enough am I that vex thee still,

To thy sweet will making addition thus:

Shakespeare says that other women may have exactly what they want – but Amelia must make do with Will. Will = Shakespeare’s name or Shakespeare’s penis – his ‘willy’ – or both. In addition she has more than the usual amount of Will – suggesting Shakespeare’s erection at the thought of Amelia. Amelia also has a ‘sweeter will’ of her own – her own wilfulness and her own pudend. ‘Will’ could mean the female genitals as well – which Shakespeare longs to make an addition to – by penetrating her.

Wilt thou whose will is large and spacious,

Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?

Shall will in others seem right gracious,

And in my will no fair acceptance shine?

Shakespeare states that Amelia has a large pudend – but she refuses to let Shakespeare’s penis inside it. Other people’s penises are attractive – but not his.

The sea all water, yet receives rain still,

And in abundance addeth to his store,

So thou, being rich in Will add to thy Will

One will of mine to make thy large Will more.

The sea goes on accepting all the rain that falls in it – and so, though you have many penises at your disposal, accept mine and make your pudend even larger.

Let no unkind, no fair beseechers kill;

Think all but one, and me in that one Will

Do not refuse any well-intentioned wooers with an act of unkindness. Think all your wooers as one wooer – and that one wooer as me.

‘Think all but one’ is a play on the Southampton family motto: ‘Ung par tout’: ‘All for one’ or ‘All is one’.

Shakespeare is making reference in this Sonnet to Amelia’s status as a courtesan. Her lover, the old Lord Hunsdon, had been with her at Cowdry and Titchfield on the Queen’s progress.

Hunsdon and Amelia were probably put up at Whitely Lodge – at a discreet distance from Place House. That’s why Rosaline is described as ‘a whitely wanton’ in Love’s Labour’s Lost even though she has a dark skin.

But the important information from the Sonnet is that Amelia has NOT given in to Shakespeare.

We know in her dealings with the astrologer, Simon Forman……

…..that she was a prick-tease. She would allow Forman to kiss her all over – but would not finally ‘halek’.

Both this sonnet and the following could have been two very cheeky pieces of ‘performance art’.

27. (136)

If thy soul check thee that I come so near,

Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy Will,

And will thy soul knows is admitted there;

Thus far for love, my love-suit sweet fulfil.

If your conscience chides because I approach you so intimately, swear to your conscience – which is unable to see – that my genitals are your genitals – and conscience knows that every woman must have her pudend. Go at least as far as that in granting my love-suit to you.

Will will fulfil the treasure of thy love,

I fill it full with wills, and my will one.

In things of great receipt with ease we prove,

Among a number one is reckon’d none.

Shakespeare says that he will add to the rich store of Amelia’s pudend – fill it full of penises – and his penis is a solitary one.  Big ‘things’ [pudends] are easy to negotiate – and with so many penises one penis is neglible.

Then in the number let me pass untold,

Though in thy store’s account I one must be,

For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold

That nothing me, a some-thing sweet to thee.

Shakespeare is saying that in the vast throng of Amelia’s clients he will hardly be noticed – although his actual payment for her services must be noted. He asks to have sex with her free of charge – for nothing – as he himself is a nothing, though perhaps something to her.

Lord Hunsdon paid £40 a year for Amelia’s services – £40,000 in today’s money.

Make but my name thy love, and love that still,

And then thou lov’st me for my name is Will.

Shakespeare is asking Amelia to love his name his love – and as his name is Will, it means his penis.

‘FOR MY NAME IS WILL’ – not Edward de Vere or anyone else.

SHAKESPEARE WROTE SHAKESPEARE PLAYS

…….with a little help from his friends….

BUT HE WROTE HIS SONNETS SINGLE HANDED.

28. (141)

In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes,

For they in thee a thousand errors note,

But ’tis my heart that loves what they despise,

Who in despite of view is pleas’d to dote.

Unsuccessful in his wooing of Amelia, Shakespeare changes tack. He now says that he no longer finds her beautiful – in fact, he can detect many blemishes. It is is his heart, not his eyes, that prompts him to love Amelia – and make him besotted with her.

Nor are mine ears with thy tongue’s tune delighted,

Nor tender feeling to base touches prone,

Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited

To any sensual feast with thee alone:

He now claims that her voice is not attractive to him nor is his higher sensibility vulnerable to vulgar gropes. Neither his senses of taste or smell compel him to an intimate session with Amelia.

But my five wits nor my five senses can

Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,

Who leaves unsway’d the likeness of a man,

Thy proud heart’s slave and vassal wretch to be:

But neither his intelligence or his senses can persuade his heart to stop loving Amelia, which leaps out of his body – which is left uncontrolled – to be Amelia’s slave and servant.

Only my plague thus far I count my gain,

That she that makes me sin, awards me pain.

The only benefit from this love-sickness is that Amelia, who makes him, as a Catholic married man, sin in his thoughts awards him as a penance the pain of rejection.

To read ‘Hard to Get’, Part Thirteen, click: HERE