Sonnet 147

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Sonnet 147

Sonnet 147 in the 1609 Quarto.

Modern Version
My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
Th’uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I, desperate, now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,
At random from the truth, vainly expressed:
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

1609 Quarto Version

My loue is as a feauer longing ſtill,
For that which longer nurſeth the diſeaſe,
Feeding on that which doth preſerue the ill,
Th'vncertaine ſicklie appetite to pleaſe:
My reaſon the Phiſition to my loue,
Angry that his preſcriptions are not kept
Hath left me,and I deſperate now approoue,
Deſire is death,which Phiſick did except .
Paſt cure I am,now Reaſon is paſt care,
And frantick madde with euer-more vnreſt,
My thoughts and my diſcourſe as mad mens are,
At randon from the truth vainely expreſt.
For I haue ſworne thee faire,and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell,as darke as night.

–William Shakespeare

Sonnet 147 is one of 154 sonnets written by English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. Sonnet 147 is written from the perspective of a poet who regards the love he holds for his mistress and lover as a sickness, and more specifically, as a fever. The sonnet details the internal battle the poet has between his reason (or head) and the love he has for his mistress (his heart). As he realizes his love is detrimental to his health and stability, perhaps even fatal, the poet's rationality attempts to put an end to the relationship. Eventually, however, the battle between the poet's reason and his love comes to an end. Unable to give up his lover, the poet gives up rationale and his love becomes all consuming, sending him to the brink of madness.

Structure

Shakespeare's sonnet sequence is made up of 154 sonnets which are written in what has come to be known as "Shakespearean sonnet form" (also sometimes referred to as "English", "Elizabethan", or "Surreyan" sonnet form). Following this form, each sonnet consists of fourteen lines which are divided into three cross-metrically rhyming quatrain and end with a final rhyming couplet. Each of these lines is written in iambic pentameter, which dictates that every second syllable be stressed, beginning with unstressed. One repetition of unstressed/stressed syllables forms an iamb (the root of 'iambic'), and five of these iambs make up one line of verse^[1] ('pentameter' coming from the Greek root 'penta-', meaning five).

Iambic Pentameter Stress Chart:

In his sonnets, Shakespeare breaks from traditional Petrarchan sonnet form by transplanting the volta from its usual position at the end of line eight. The volta, a pivotal point in a poem in which the reader is encouraged to pause and reflect, and after which the tone of the poem shifts dramatically, is instead placed at the end of the final quatrain leading into the couplet.^[2] At the end of the eighth line of Sonnet 147 (where the volta would typically be found), there is a period which signals a short pause, yet the tone is not significantly different in lines nine and ten. However, after line twelve the reader sees a dramatic change in tone leading into the couplet and finally comes to understand that the author is addressing his lady directly—and quite angrily—rather than simply pondering these thoughts to himself.

Context

As a piece within Shakespeare's sonnet collection, Sonnet 147 lies within the Dark Lady sonnets sequence (Sonnets 127-154), following the Fair Youth sequence (Sonnets 1-126).^[3] Placed after the Fair Youth sonnets, which "celebrate a young male love object", The Dark Lady sonnets are associated with a woman of dark physical and moral features.^[4] Unlike the Fair Youth sonnets, which refer lovingly and admirably to the beauty and person-hood of a young male, the Dark Lady sonnets frequently include harsh and offensive language, often including sexual innuendos, to describe a woman who is neither admirably beautiful, or of admirable means or aristocratic status.^[4] By writing about this dark and simple woman, Shakespeare writes in stark contrast to most poets of his time, who often and predominantly wrote about fair, virginal, young girls who were of high social status.^[4] As with the questioned identity of the inspiration for the Fair Youth sonnets, the identity of the original Dark Lady has been disputed and argued for centuries. Unlike the Fair Youth sonnets, however, there is little academic “proof” to back up any proposed female muses, though historical characters ranging from Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway, Emilia Lanier, and even Queen Elizabeth herself have been suggested as potential femme fatales.^[5]

Paraphrase

Exegesis

Overview

Sonnet 147 reveals a paradox within the poet, and perhaps the population at large, between desiring the exact sin or ill which makes one sickly, unstable, or less completely whole as an individual, and knowing the thing you desire, in this case the poet’s mistress, is the very thing causing trouble. Scholar Don Paterson, like many other Shakespearean scholars, have proposed this particular sonnet was in part inspired by an ending passage in The Old Arcadia written by Sir Phillip Sydney, which reads, "Sicke to the death, still loving my disease".^[6]

Quatrain 1

The first quatrain of the sonnet lets the reader know the poet has been “infected”, in a sense, by his mistress. Though the idea of being “love-sick” has been often idealized and romanticized in modern culture, the way the poet describes his lustfulness and want leads to a more dark reading, almost as if he is a host to some sort of sickly desired parasite feeding on his sense and reason. The poet begins the sonnet by linking and treating love and disease as parallel and intricately linked concepts.^[7] The poet's mistress has planted a sickly fever within the poet, being a type of bodily love and desire, which is causing an illness within him.^[8] His love/lust and wantonness is weakening him to the point where his lust has perhaps taken on its own sort of force and being, much as a fever does, and is now occupying a space in his body.^[8] There also appears a never ending cycle, within the first two lines.^[9] Carl Atkins points out that , "In this author 'longing still For that which longer nurseth the disease' is not idle wordplay, but suggests the patient's sense that this condition is never going to end". It is also important to note that the idea that the poet would "feed" his fever would have been quite contrary in Elizabethan England, as the going knowledge at the time was to never feed a fever, based on the Four Humours medical belief. The common idiom and medical belief of the times was to "feed a cold, starve a fever".^[10]

Quatrain 2

My reason, the physician to my love,

Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,

Hath left me, and I desperate now approve

Desire is death, which physic did except.

His reason, which Shakespeare compares to the only knowledgeable “physician” or mind around, is the thing that offers him a way of easing its mad fever.^[6] The poet's reason can’t bear the fact the poet is so foolish and reckless with his body and mind, and abandons the poet entirely.^[11] David West contends that "Abandoned and despairing, [the poet] he is proving by experience that desire is death."^[11] A reader is left to assume without a doctor, reason, around, the ill and fever affecting the poet are doomed to take over completely, leaving death as the only possible outcome.^[11] Shakespeare seems to accept this inevitable outcome and writes the final line of the quatrain saying “Desire is death”. The final line of the quatrain may hint at a biblical allusion and reference Romans 8:6, where a very similar line appears stating , “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”, correlating with the inference that the Dark Lady is morally dark as well as physically dark, and is darkening her lovers morals as well.^[12]

Quatrain 3

Past cure I am, now reason is past care,

And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;

My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,

At random from the truth vainly express'd;

In the final quatrain, the poet begins to describe his downfall and continuing/ worsening sickness. The line “Past cure I am, now reason is past care,” is a play on an old proverb which is usually read “'past care, past cure' expressing the traditional wisdom, that, if a patient is incurable, care will not help him”.^[11] Many scholars have speculated what exactly the play on the common proverb means, since it is extremely unlikely Shakespeare misused a common and well known phrase. One could read the line as a potential marker for the madness the poet says is taking over his body, becoming so muddled and crazed with the fever, he can not even properly use a common saying.^[11] Scholars W.G. Ingram and Theodore Redpath also propose, "Shakespeare is here not merely reproducing the proverb . . . but playing with it, for . . . he has here inverted it. The case is past cure, because the physician has ceased to care."^[13] To further prove and point out the "frantic-mad" and "random "bablings" of the poet past cure and care, G. Blakemore Evans observes that "The poet's frenzied state of mind is illustrated by the harshly extreme indictment of his mistress in the following couplet."^[14]

Couplet

For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright,

Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

Leading up to these lines, the poet has been merely describing his symptoms and craze to the reader. Once the couplet begins, however, the tone of the sonnet shifts and the poet begins to address his lady, and not fondly as most sonnets would. These final lines could in fact be more evidence for his madness; he has sworn the woman he desires as fair and bright, but is aware she is anything but, comparable only to sin and uncertainty.^[11] David West observes that "The madness is defined in the last two lines, and 'fair . . . bright . . . black . . . dark' all contain moral meanings, The darkness is not simply the absence of light. It is the presence of evil."^[11]

References

Further reading

William Shakespeare Plays Tragedies Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Hamlet Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Sir Thomas More* Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus and Cressida Comedies All's Well That Ends Well As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles, Prince of Tyre* The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Two Noble Kinsmen* The Winter's Tale Cardenio* Love's Labour's Won Histories King John Edward III* Richard II 1 Henry IV 2 Henry IV Henry V 1 Henry VI 2 Henry VI 3 Henry VI Richard III Henry VIII* See also Problem plays Late romances Characters A–K L–Z Chronology Performances Quarto publications First Folio Second Folio Poems Shakespeare's sonnets comparison Venus and Adonis The Rape of Lucrece The Phoenix and the Turtle The Passionate Pilgrim* A Lover's Complaint Life and works Birthplace and childhood home Apocrypha Bibliography Complete Works of William Shakespeare Translations Early editions Editors English Renaissance theatre Family Globe Theatre Handwriting Lord Chamberlain's Men/King's Men The Theatre Curtain Theatre New Place home Portraits Religious views Sexuality Spelling of his name Stratford-upon-Avon Style Legacy Attribution studies Authorship question Influence Memorials Screen adaptations Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Folger Shakespeare Library Shakespeare Quarterly Shakespeare's Globe (replica) Bardolatry Titles of works taken from Shakespeare * Shakespeare and other authors Lost