Sonnet 130

[Tom Reedy]

My Mistres eyes are nothing like the Sunne,
Currall is farre more red, then her lips red,
If snow be white, why then her brests are dun:
If haires be wiers, black wiers grow on her head:
I haue seene Roses damaskt, red and white,
But no such Roses see I in her cheeks,
And in some perfumes is there more delight,
Then in the breath that from my Mistres reekes.
I loue to heare her speake, yet well I know,
That Musicke hath a farre more pleasing sound:
I graunt I neuer saw a goddesse goe,
My Mistres when shee walkes treads on the ground.
And yet by heauen I thinke my loue as rare,
As any she beli’d with false compare.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks,
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go—
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet by heaven I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

[Lynne]

For those who believe that the Dark Lady was the Queen, and her
darkness was metaphorical, this sonnet should put paid to that theory.
The lady concerned,at least imo, was black haired with brown-ish skin--
certainly not with an English Rose complexion. According to all the
portraits, the Queen was fair-ish haired and skinned.

I do concede that the sonnet itself may be an ironic response to all
the beautiful women sonnets of the time, and in fact might have been
satirizing a a specific poem such as the one below. But there are so
many references to Shakespeare's mistress's duskiness that I believe
she must really have been dark. We may never know who she was, but
it's fun to guess. Any takers?

My guess would be Aemilia Bassano. We don't know for sure that she was
dark, but although she had an English mother, her Mediterranean Jewish
father and uncle were at least once described as "black," meaning
swarthy skinned and dark haired. Rowse believed Bassanio to be the
dark lady, because of her appearance in Forman's diaries. But although
we learn a lot about her from Forman, he never actually says she's
dark. He does mention, however, that she allowed him to come to her
boudoir and feel her all over, but she wouldn't let him halek--code
word of his for intercourse. :)

Here's another sonnet of the time that invites a close comparison to
Shakespeare's.

My Lady's hair is threads of beaten gold;
Her front the purest crystal eye hath seen;
Her eyes the brightest stars the heavens hold;
Her cheeks, red roses, such as seld have been;
Her pretty lips of red vermilion dye;
Her hand of ivory the purest white;
Her blush AURORA, or the morning sky.
Her breast displays two silver fountains bright;
The spheres, her voice; her grace, the Graces three;
Her body is the saint that I adore;
Her smiles and favours, sweet as honey be.
Her feet, fair THETIS praiseth evermore.
But Ah, the worst and last is yet behind :
For of a griffon she doth bear the mind!

Bartholomew Griffin. 1596

PS: Don't like the "breasts as fountains image." Sounds like she was
nursing!

Lynne

[Gary]

I don't get the apparent joke in the concluding couplet.

- Gary

[Lynne]

A gryphon was a mythical monster. So perhaps it's saying that although
lovely on the outside, she's a fiend. But note also the similarity of
"griffon" to the author's name. Could it mean that she is driving
Griffin mad? Perhaps with desire?
>
> - Gary

[John W Kennedy]

Sans further information, he could equally well be taunting a (perhaps hypothetical) would-be rival. (“She’s mine. You can’t have her. Ha! Ha! Ha!”)

--
John W Kennedy
A proud member of the reality-based community.

[Gary]

Ah. 'She doth bear (has) the mind of a griffon.'

I notice, too, that the OED has "vulture" as one definition
of 'griffon'.

> But note also the similarity of
> "griffon" to the author's name. Could it mean that she is driving
> Griffin mad? Perhaps with desire?

Possibly. He's lamenting the fact, whatever that fact may be.

I'm guessing that this poem came from his collection
"Fidessa, More Chaste Than Kind"? I've read a sample
available on the web:

http://www.sonnets.org/griffin.htm#400

Looks as though he was pining away for her, so your guess
would make sense.

- Gary

[Lynne]

Yes, Gary, the sonnet is from Fidessa.

[Peter F.]

Lynne wrote:
>
> We may never know who she was, but
> it's fun to guess. Any takers?

I think that she was a defrocked French nun called either Ide
du Vault or Madame Vallereine. She was employed by Sir John
Harrington as a tutor for his very young daughter at the same
time as a Monsieur Le Doux (whom many Marlovians believe to
have been Marlowe) was tutor to his young son in 1595, and
the two of them apparently had a fairly torrid affair. She
was described by the minister of the French Church in London,
Jean Castol, as being "quarrelsome (hargeuse) and incompatible"
and by Anthony Bacon's secretary, Jaques Petit, who was there
with Le Doux pretending to be his valet, as a whore (putain).

Although it actually played no part in this theory, I was
interested to see only a few weeks ago that Caroline Spurgeon
noted a strong connection between the imagery of 'eyes' in
Shakespeare's work, and the word 'vault'!

Peter F.

> >    As any she belied with false compare.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -