JL: Could someone say a little more about what these Sonnets were exactly? Were they ever preformed in some way? Or were they just published? And if so, who was buying them? Did people read them to one another in their parlor or something?
There is lots of speculation about what exactly these sonnets were, and it’s no surprise that the conversation about publication and purpose inevitably turns to audience. “Why did Shakespeare write these sonnets?” turns to “to whom did he write them and why?” The most popular argument is that Shakespeare wrote these sonnets beginning in the summer of 1592 for the earl of Southampton, a man who refused to marry and who stood to lose a lot (money, family, honor, etc.) if he remained single. The argument goes that Southampton’s family turned to Shakespeare to slyly convince the earl to take a wife. (The story of the earl, his life growing up, his status in the community, and his refusal to marry is pretty interesting, but perhaps it’s a story for another day…) There is also evidence that Shakespeare wrote these sonnets when the playhouses had been closed down because of the plague, and he probably would have welcomed the job and the money at a time when other playwrights were struggling to find work.
So what about publication? How did the private sonnets get to print?
Here is what Greenblatt says about the publication of the sonnets: “The first edition of the entire sequence – a quarto volume bearing the title Shake-speares Sonnets – did not appear until 1609. Shakespeare’s name, appearing in very large type, clearly was expected to sell copies…At the very center of the original title page, beneath Shake-speare’s Sonnets, there are the words “Never before Imprinted.” This prominent announcement…implies that the public has long heard of the existence of these poems but has not until now been able to purchase them. For the writing of sonnets, as contemporary readers well understood, was not normally about getting them into print, where they would simply fall into the hands of anyone who had the money and the interest to buy the book. What mattered was getting the poems at the right moment into the right hands – most obviously, of course, the object of the poet’s passion, but also the intimate (and, in the case of Shakespeare and the aristocratic young man, quite distinct) social circles surrounding both the poet and his beloved.” Greenblatt also mentions that as the individual poems started to move from private audience to public circles, printers were eager to print them. In 1599, William Jaggard printed an unauthorized collection of the sonnets called The Passionate Pilgrim. By W. Shakespeare, hoping to make money off Shakespeare’s popularity. Needless to say, only five of the twenty poems in the edition were actually written by Shakespeare…
Okay, speaking of money, it was hard to ignore the monetary overtones in this sonnet. “Small worth,” “treasure,” “thriftless,” “sum my count.” It certainly gives the feeling that if the reader wasn’t convinced by the argument of having children in Sonnet 1, then they would certainly recognize the monetary value of it here in Sonnet 2. Again, if these sonnets were directed at the earl of Southampton, this could make sense since he was about to lose his fortune unless he married.
thanks for this!!
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