It’s best to read ‘Harry’s Infidelity’ Part 24 first.
1593. Henry Wriothesley, at the age of 20, is nominated for the Order of the Garter – the highest honour in the land.
It helped, of course, being the close friend of the Second Earl of Essex……
…and the ward of Lord Burghley……
But his own merits must have been extraordinary to have been thought of for this honour, and he was later to prove a brave and gallant soldier and knight….
So Shakespeare was completely justified in describing Harry – in the Dedication to Venus and Adonis – as:
the world’s hopeful expectation.
But Harry was starting to make appearances at Court – and the Court was full of vipers, jealous of Harry and out to destroy him.
In this Sonnet, Shakespeare takes up the role of mentor to Harry.
His recent gay activity with lower class young men could play against him.
Queen Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, had brought in laws against ‘buggery’ which Queen Mary had rescinded.
But Elizabeth restored them the year before Shakespeare’s birth, 1563.
These laws weren’t often acted on – indeed there were many gay men in Elizabeth’s Court – but they acted as a threat to those working against Elizabeth.
74. (69)
Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view,
Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend:
All tongues (the voice of souls) give thee that due,
Utt’ring bare truth, even so as foes Commend.
The aspects of Harry that are visible to the eye are beyond improvement: everyone admits that, even his enemies.
Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown’d;
But those same tongues, that give thee so thine own,
In other accents do this praise confound
By seeing farther than the eye hath shown.
Your exterior parts are openly acknowledged to be admirable: but those same people who praise you, rescind that praise when they examine your interior nature.
They look into the beauty of thy mind,
And that, in guess, they measure by thy deeds;
Then churls their thoughts (although their eyes were kind)
To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds.
They investigate the working of your mind and guess its nature by what you do. Then, though they liked your outward appearance, they meanly add the stink of weeds to the beautiful flower of yourself.
‘Eyes’ here can again = ‘genitals’. His detractors, though they condemn him, are attracted to him.
But why thy odour matcheth not thy show
The soil is this, that thou dost common grow.
The reason that there is a contradiction between Harry’s appearance and his reputation is that he is mixing with lower class men and having sex with them.
In this he is like Prince Hal in the Henry IV plays who hangs round with the dubious Poins….
75. (70)
That thou art blam’d shall not be thy defect,
For slander’s mark was ever yet the fair;
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A Crow that flies in heaven’s sweetest air.
Shakespeare says that Harry cannot be blamed for being slandered because that is what happens to attractive people. They are always the object of suspicion – there must be something suspect, people think, about their beauty – the way a black crow flies across a clear sky.
So thou be good, slander doth but approve
Thy worth the greater, being woo’d of time;
For Canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,
And thou present’st a pure unstained prime.
If you stay a good man, praise of you will grow all the greater, for the caterpillar, Vice, loves to attack sweet young buds – and you look innocent and sweet.
Thou hast past by the ambush of young days,
Either not assail’d, or victor being charg’d;
Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise,
To tie up envy, evermore enlarg’d:
You have managed to escape attacks of envy so far – either because no-one has tried to attack you – or if they have, they failed to do so. But even this praise is not strong enough to dispel envy – which grows ever stronger .
If some suspect of ill maskt not thy show,
Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe
Shakespeare claims that Harry could become a potent political force, with many followers, if people didn’t think there was something wrong with him.
Shakespeare’s mind is turning to political action…..
‘Virtutis comes invidia’ – ‘Envy is the companion of virtue’ – was the motto of the Essex family.
76. (95)
How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame,
Which, like a canker in the fragrant Rose,
Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name?
Oh in what sweets dost thou thy sins inclose!
Shakespeare claims that Harry himself makes the shame of his gay promiscuity seem a lovely thing – like a rose, attacked by a canker worm which sullies its beauty. Harry masks his sin with his sweetness – a poison bonbon.
That tongue that tells the story of thy days,
(Making lascivious comments on thy sport)
Cannot dispraise, but in a kind of praise,
Naming thy name, blesses an ill report.
People, who talk about you and speak disparagingly of your affairs with rough young men, cannot attack you because simply naming your name exonerates your behaviour.
Oh what a mansion have those vices got,
Which for their habitation chose out thee,
Where beauty’s veil doth cover every blot,
And all things turns to fair that eyes can see!
Shakespeare describes the delight that vice takes in occupying Harry, whose beauty acts as mask for sin – and transforms ugly things into beautiful things.
Take heed (dear heart) of this large privilege,
The hardest knife ill-us’d doth lose his edge.
Shakespeare warns his lover Harry to beware of the opportunities his beauty gives him to act in a depraved way. The strongest knife will lose its cutting force if used incorrectly.
The knife represents Harry’s phallus – which, if engaged in promiscuous sex, will become diseased and useless.
‘Large privilege’ also suggests that Harry has a large member.
77. (96)
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness;
Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport.
Both grace and faults are lov’d of more and less
Thou mak’st faults graces that to thee resort.
Shakespeare says that some people say that Harry is to blame because he is young – others, because he is lustful. But others say that Harry’s youth is a blessing from God and his sexual activity a ‘sport’ that aristocrats are entitled to indulge in. Everyone, of whatever class, love the blessings of heaven and sexual activity – and you make these lapses blessed by heaven to anyone who sleeps with you.
As on the finger of a throned Queen
The basest Jewel will be well esteem’d:
So are those errors that in thee are seen
To truths translated, and for true things deem’d.
Like the cheap, flashy jewels that Queen Elizabeth uses in her rings – which people think MUST be expensive because she is a monarch – so people think that your lies must be truths because you are so attractive.
Shakespeare cannot resist another knock at Queen Elizabeth, whom he hated. See Sonnet 12. (11)
How many Lambs might the stern Wolf betray
If like a lamb he could his looks translate;
How many gazers mightst thou lead away,
If thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state?
If a wolf could look like a lamb how many lambs he could mislead and kill. Similarly how many people who look at you, Harry, you could seduce if you exploited your sexuality and rank.
But do not so: I love thee in such sort,
As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
Shakespeare asks Harry not to use this power because Harry belongs to him – and any criticism of Harry would be a criticism of Shakespeare himself.
To read ‘Lilies that fester’, Part 26, click: HERE
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