The Place 2 Be: Shakespeare's Sonnets

Critique of Sonnet 91

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS

Theme: What's important to me
Content: A statement of what matters to him compared to the ephemeral interests that matter to others. Very much an echo of the sentiments in other sonnets, especially 25.

Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
Some in their wealth, some in their body's force,

"These are the things that matter to the rich, noble and famous. These are their characteristics that they glory in".

Mid-line eye-rhyme of birth with wealth.

Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill,

An echo of Sonnet 66's dismissive rejoinder to clothes horses: "And needy nothing trimmed in jollity".

Clear identification of these being their ephemera.

Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse;

Continues to distinguish himself from the alliterated pursuits of nobles: their hawks…hounds…horse.

Q1 monotonously drones out the long list of pursuits of others counterpointing the variation and dynamism of the pursuits themselves.

Q1 is the definition of the grammatical positive.

And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure
Wherein it finds a joy above the rest.
But these particulars are not my measure:

Explicit disassociation of himself from such people and their activities in not my measure.

Rhyme of his…pleasure with my measure contrasts the frivolous interests of others with the substance of the author.

All these I better in one general best.

He is measured by something of far greater worth.

Q2 is the definition of the grammatical comparative and superlative (better…best) although here better is used as a verb. The genuine grammatical comparative of better comes in the first line of Q3 thereby linking the 2 quatrains.

Thy love is better than high birth to me,
Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' costs,
Of more delight than hawks or horses be,
And having thee of all men's pride I boast:

What matters to him is his love, not the good fortune of high birth, wealth, expensive clothes, and the sports of nobility. This is the only thing he can boast of compared to other men's boasts.

The Quarto has line 9 as: "Thy love is bitter then high birth to me", presumably "bitter" and "then" being 2 compositor's errors.

Q3 reiterates the principal items of Q1 and in the same order. Although the author cannot boast of these things because he doesn't possess them and isn't interested in them (just as in 25) he can boast of the simple truth of his subject's love.

Possible play on best in boast.

Wretched in this alone: that thou mayst take
All this away, and me most wretched make.

"You are the only thing I have and you would crush me if you left me."

The author explicitly states that he can only be made wretched in one thing alone: the removal of his subject's love.

He doesn't possess the paraphernalia that others do so can't be weakened by their removal. But he is vulnerable as his subject can make him topple from being the best to being wretched simply by withdrawing their love: he doesn't even own what makes him the best - he is at his subject's mercy.

Counterpoint between his earlier Richer than wealth in Q3 morphing to him potentially becoming wretched (play on richer / wretched).

This sonnet appears to be directly inspired by Plato's Lysis in which the merits of friendship are discussed:
"All people have their fancies: some desire horses, and others hounds; and some are fond of gold, and others of honour. Now, I have no vehement desire of any of these things but I have a passion for friends; and I would rather have a good friend than the best cock or quail in the world. I would even go further, and say the best horse or hound."