So is it not with me as with that Muse,
Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse,
Who heaven itself for ornament doth use,
And every fair with his fair doth rehearse,
.
Making a couplement of proud compare,
With Sun and Moon, with earth and sea’s rich gems,
With April’s first-born flowers and all things rare
That heaven’s air in this huge rondure hems.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
O let me true in love but truly write,
And then believe me, my love is as fair
As any mother’s child, though not so bright
As those gold candles fixed in heaven’s air.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Let them say more that like of hearsay well;
I will not praise, that purpose not to sell.
.
.
+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
A few notes:
“Muse” in line 1 signifies a poet, rather than (as today) the one who inspires poetry. This possibly places the sonnet in company with several other “rival poet” sonnets of Shakespeare’s.
“Couplement” (obsolete): “coupling” or pairing. It also suggests “compliment,” which at that time signified a formal act of courtesy.
Portrait by Santi di Tito: Coincidentally, the young woman poses in the character of Portia, wife of Brutus. This is the same Portia who appears in Shakespeare's “Julius Caesar” as a virtuous character, destroyed in the turmoil after Caesar makes himself dictator. According to tradition Portia took her life by consuming hot coals; the young woman in the picture delicately holds up a single coal. Because Shakespeare’s Roman plays were originally performed in “modern" dress, not togas, Portia could have looked much like this in the first production about 1599—played, of course, by a boy apprentice actor. Why the painter chose this character to portray I’ve not been able to learn.
*******
Against the ruin of the world,
there is only one defense:
the creative act.
--Kenneth Rexroth--
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