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OMMENTARY
SONNET 58 LVIII
LVIII
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A continuation of the argument of the previous sonnet. The poet accepts the right of the young man to be free and fulfill his own pleasure, and submits with all the humility of a vassal before his liege lord. But here again we are forced to read the words in their opposite sense, and to come round to the view that the youth does not have the rights and privileges that the poet bestows on him. As with all love there is giving and receiving, and the standard of love that the speaker sets himself is so high that it involves total self-abnegation. At the end of the poem the struggle is almost abandoned, and the frank confession is made that he will abide the return of the loved one, though it be an absolute hell of waiting, and he will do his best to avoid blame and censure of the youth, (but probably will not succeed). | |||
THE 1609 QUARTO VERSION
Or at your hand th' account of houres to craue, Being your vaſſail, bound to ſtaie your leiſure. Oh let me ſuffer( being at your beck) Th' impriſon'd abſence of your libertie, And patience tame,to ſufferance bide each check, Without accuſing you of iniury. Be where you liſt,your charter is ſo ſtrong, That you your ſelfe may priuiledge your time To what you will,to you it doth belong, Your ſelfe to pardon of ſelfe-doing crime. I am to waite,though waiting ſo be hell, Not blame your pleaſure be it ill or well. |
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1. That god forbid, that made me first your slave,
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1. That god forbid - may be read in two ways, as a pious wish 'may that God forbid etc.', or with forbid as the old form of the past tense of forbid 'that God forbade me (long ago) etc.'. The God was presumably the God or Goddess of love, Eros, or Cupid, or Venus, depending on which section of mythology the poet wished to appeal to. | |
2. I should in thought control your times of pleasure,
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2. control
= influence; restrict, overpower.
The proximity of account in the next line suggests
an earlier meaning
of 'to check accounts' (OED.v.1.) However Shakespeare nowhere else uses
it in that sense. Cf. Sonn.66: And folly doctor-like
controlling skill.
your times of pleasure = the time that you devote to pleasure. Although the phrase has the rather bland meaning of 'how you please to amuse yourself', there is undoubtedly the dark cloud hanging over it of 'the time you spend in dissipation and sexual infidelity'. |
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3. Or at your hand the account of hours to crave,
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3. at
your hand = in your hand writing;
directly from you, from your hand. the account of hours an account of how you spend your time. Here there is probably a pun intended with whores for houres and a cunt for account. to crave - to request; earnestly desire to have. (That God forbid) that I should crave. The word is often used when associated with servility. As in: I then crave pardon of your Majesty. 3H6.IV.6.8. Humbly on my knee / I crave your blessing R3.II.2.105-6. |
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4. Being your vassal, bound to stay your leisure!
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4. your vassal - your slave. A vassal was a term appropriate to feudalism, when the Lord owned his slaves or vassals. It was less in evidence in Elizabethan times, although land ownership often resulted in the keeping of large numbers of retainers, or servants. The absolute power of the feudal lord over his vassal, though still remembered, was very much a thing of the past. Generally it had been superceded by other more modern forms of economic dependence. bound - used
here in the legal sense of having certain inalienable duties to
perform.
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5. O! let me suffer, being at your beck,
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5. suffer = endure. With further meaning of 'be subjected to pain'. being at your beck - being at your command. to beck was to give a mute command by a gesture. It is cognate with the word 'beckon'. See the following examples: Ah, know you
not the city favours them, The phrase 'to be at
the beck and call of' OED
does not record earlier than 1875. Wyatt's famous poem Madam,
withouten
many words uses the expression : And with a beck
ye shall me call.
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6. The imprison'd absence of your liberty;
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6. Although the meaning is fairly clear, the grammar of these two lines (6-7) defies analysis. The meaning of this (including the above line) is approximately 'Let me endure, since I am at your command, the self imprisonment that falls on me due to your absence, and as a result of your enjoyment of your own liberty'. As SB points out, absence cannot be imprisoned, so a logical reading of this line is hardly possible. It is the necessity of conveying the ideas in a limited space that creates the compression of thought. Imprisonment calls up the opposite idea of liberty, which the youth enjoys. But the pain and suffering is caused by the loved one's absence and infidelity, which metaphorically imprisons the poet in the dark world of his own tortured reflections. Liberty also carries the idea of wantonness and libertinism, which is at the forefront of the poet's mind. | |
7. And patience, tame to sufferance, bide each check,
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7. Several
interpretations are suggested of
this line, which all tend in the same direction because of the basic
meaning
of the words. The general sense is probably 'And in addition my
patience
will school itself to permit your charter, and I will endure each
restraint
you impose on me'. However the meaning may be altered depending on how
one
reads tame to sufferance, and to a lesser extent on
how the line
is punctuated. tame could be taken as a verb
governing patience,
or as an adjective, or as connected directly to patience giving the
hyphenated
adjective patience-tame. sufferance may
be the undergoing
of pain, or the granting of permission, the latter meaning being
brought
more to the forefront because of the legal language connected with charter
which follows. Another likely interpretation is therefore 'And having
patience,
which is mild and schooled to endure suffering, [I will] put up with
each
restraint [which you impose] without etc.' bide each check = endure each restraint. bide is now only used in the phrase to bide one's time. Here it means to endure, or to put up with. As in : Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm. KLIII.4.28-9. check = restraint on one's liberty, an obstruction, a rebuff, a military repulse. Perforce against all checks, rebukes, and manners, I must advance the colours of my love MW.III.4.79-80. The word seems originally to come from the game of chess and putting a king 'in check', and from military usage. |
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8. Without accusing you of injury.
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8. accusing - this introduces the legal terminology of the next four lines. Apart from his determination to endure patiently all wrongs (which are not wrongs) the poet will not accuse the youth of mental cruelty for the reasons which follow. | |
9. Be where you list, your charter is so strong
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9. where
you list = wherever you desire
to be. to list is an obsolete verb, meaning to
desire or to wish.
(OED.v.(1). 2.b.) It is more often used in an impersonal construction,
as
in 'wheresoever it listeth him to go' meaning 'wherever he wishes to
go'.
charter = a legal document, a permit granted by the appropriate authorities. The word originally meant a leaf of paper, and by transference came to mean the legal document written on that paper or parchment. The Great Charter is a term used for the Magna Carta signed by King John in 1215 at Runnymede, defining the rights and privileges of the barons. Shakespeare uses the word in connection with privilege in Richard III. Then, taking him from thence that is not there, You break no privilege nor charter there. R3.III.1.53-4. |
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10. That you yourself may privilege your time
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10. privilege your time = grant to your own free time the privilege to do what it chooses. Thus, grant freedom to yourself to do as you will when you choose. Shakespeare uses the word privilege as a verb three times in all: ...he took
this place for sanctuary, Such
neighbour nearness to our sacred blood
Wilt thou be
glass wherein it shall discern
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11. To what you will; to you it doth belong
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11. To what you will = to do as you please (with your time). 'What You Will' is the secondary title of 'Twelfth Night', and there may be some hidden connection. will - here, as elsewhere, is suggestive of sexual desire and license, and given the surrounding references to liberty, charter, privilege and self-doing crime it inevitably bears that secondary meaning. | |
12. Yourself to pardon of
self-doing crime.
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12. A strong charter would no doubt make a baron or Lord unassailable in the courts, and he would be in a position to pardon himself of any and every crime. In reality the hearing would not even reach the courts and the pardon would be granted before the summons was drawn up. | |
13. I am to wait, though waiting so be hell, | 13. I am to wait = I must wait, I must attend upon your wishes. though waiting so be hell = though waiting is such hell. The unusual construction also allows the meaning 'though waiting in these conditions is such hell'. | |
14. Not blame your pleasure be it ill or well.
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14. blame
= reproach, rebuke; accuse.
Cf. : I cannot blame thee for my love thou usest; But yet be blamed, if thou thyself deceivest Sonn.40. your pleasure - the word pleasure is innocent enough in isolation, but the suggestion that it might be ill, i.e. evil, no good, illicit and a sexual betrayal is enough to condemn it. |
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First line index | Title page and Thorpe's Dedication | Some Introductory Notes to the Sonnets | Sonnets as plain text 1-154 | Text facsimiles | Other related texts of the period |
Picture
Gallery |
Thomas Wyatt Poems | Other Authors | General notes for background details, general policies etc. | Map of the site | Valentine Poems |
London Bridge as it was in Shakespeare's day, circa 1600. | Views of London as it was in 1616. | Views of Cheapside London, from a print of 1639. | The Carrier's Cosmography. A guide to all the Carriers in London. As given by John Taylor in 1637. | Oxquarry Books Ltd | |
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