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THE RIVAL POET OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS

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Who was the Rival Poet referred to in nine sonnets from 21 to 86?

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THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS OF THE SONNETS

One of the many intriguing aspects of Shakespeare's Sonnets is the identity of the principal characters within them, of which there are three:

- The Young Man

- The Dark Lady

- The Rival Poet

Nowhere in the Sonnets are these people explicitly identified and their anonymity has spawned much debate as to who these people could have been. The content of the Sonnets that refer to these people however, undoubtedly show that these were indeed real, living people and not imaginary inventions by the author for the sake of literary exercise.

Many poets of the Elizabethan and Jacobean age wrote verse to others and did not refrain from identifying who they were addressing. Some poems were clearly dedicated to the addressees, such as Spenser's Prothalamion which is dedicated "in honovr of the dovble marriage of the two Honorable & vertuous Ladies, the Ladie Elizabeth and the Ladie Katherine Somerset, Daughters to the Right Honourable the Earle of Worcester and espoused to the two worthie Gentlemen M. Henry Gilford, and M. William Peter Esquyers". And Spenser makes clear that the poem is about the Somerset ladies within the poem itself by punning on their names in the 4th. stanza:

"But rather Angels or of Angels breede:
Yet were they bred of Somers-heat they say".

Where poems were not explicitly dedicated to the addressee their identity could still be found in the poem's verse, such as in Sidney's Astrophel and Stella:

"Doth euen grow rich, meaning my Stellaes name" and

"Rich in all beauties which mans eye can see;
Beauties so farre from reach of words that we
Abase her praise saying she doth excell;
Rich in the treasure of deseru'd renowne,
Rich in the riches of a royall heart,
Rich in those gifts which giue th'eternall crowne;
Who, though most rich in these and eu'ry part
Which make the patents of true worldy blisse,
Hath no misfortune but that Rich she is."

Here, Sidney expresses his dismay at his lover's marriage to another man which made her Lady Rich.

Perhaps Shakespeare's principal characters were left anonymous as they were still living at the time of the Sonnets' publication and their identification would have been problematic for them. But perhaps we can still identify the characters from the material:

THE RIVAL POET

The Rival Poet was the cause of obvious anxiety to Shakespeare. A poet depended on patronage to finance the publication of his works so a rival presents a real threat of loss of income through loss of patronage as well as the professional and personal feelings of rejection, loss of esteem and a competitor being seen to gain favour instead of oneself. The sonnets that refer to the Rival Poet appear to contain sufficient data to enable the rival to be identified:

The Rival Poet who writes verse is first mentioned in Sonnet 21:

"So is it not with me as with that muse
Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse"

and goes on to say:

"Making a couplement of proud compare"

This part of the sonnet is open to several interpretations but it may be explicitly referring to George Chapman's use of English couplet rhymes in his epic translation of Homer's Odysseys:

"The Gods in council sit, to call
Ulysses from Calypso's thrall,
And order their high pleasures thus:
Grey Pallas to Telemachus
(In Ithaca) her way addrest;
And did her heavenly limbs invest..."

The heavenly subject matter of Chapman's verse would appear to correlate with Sonnet 21's:

"Who heaven itself for ornament doth use"

The final line of this sonnet is the most intriguing:

"I will not praise that purpose not to sell."

as it appears to pun in the term not to sell on George Chapman's surname: Chapman was a 16th.Century word meaning "buyer", hence, I will not praise that purpose not to sell could also mean "I will not praise the efforts of Chapman / buyer / not to sell".

The Rival Poet doesn't appear again until Sonnet 78 in which rival poets are cited as having published their verse under the patronage of Shakespeare's patron:

"As every alien pen hath got my use,
And under thee their poesy disperse."

Shakespeare goes on in this sonnet to acknowledge himself to be dumb and have heavy ignorance but has been inspired to excel under the patron's wing. This statement deliberately contrasts with the acknowledged erudition of George Chapman who was a University graduate and who persistently projected his persona as a "man of learning".

In Sonnet 79 the author expresses his deepest anxiety at the threat the rival poses and how it adversely affects his own verse but in Sonnet 80 discloses:

"O, how I faint when I of you do write,
Knowing a better spirit doth use your name"

where spirit may be referring to George Chapman who claimed to be directly inspired by Homer's spirit. Indeed, the nautical theme of this sonnet fits well with the theme of Homer's Odyssey as do Shakespeare's flattering comments about the rival's epic verse.

Sonnets 82, 83, and 84 continue the theme of the Rival Poet but without any apparent material to identify who he is. But Sonnet 85 reverts to the reference to spirit as in 79:

"To every hymn that able spirit affords"

that may be a link back to George Chapman.

Sonnet 86 is the final Rival Poet sonnet, and again the influence of a spirit on the rival features prominently:

"Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write"

Perhaps in an allusion to Shakespeare, in Chapman's dedicatory sonnet to Sir Thomas Walsingham he describes his own All Fools comedy as the "least allow'd birth of my shaken brain". And Chapman makes several spiritual and maritime allusions in his own works that closely resemble the imagery in Shakespeare's Sonnet 86, e.g. The Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron Act 3, Scene 1: "Give me a spirit that on this life's rough sea Loves t' have his sails fill'd with a lusty wind."

Shakespeare goes on to demean the influence of the rival's inspirational spirit/ghost in:

"He nor that affable familiar ghost
Which nightly gulls him with intelligence"

Outside of the Sonnets, there was a group of poets called The School of Night, also called The School of Atheisme in a 1592 reference, that was led by Raleigh and included Marlowe and Chapman. This group is apparently parodied in Love's Labours Lost:

King: "Black is the badge of hell, The hue of dungeons and the school of night And beauty’s crest becomes the heavens well."

Chapman also wrote a verse named The Shadow of Night whose title and subject matter fits in well with Chapman's involvement with this group.

Again, in Love's Labours Lost there appears to be reference to Chapman via the Princess responding to Boyet's fawning praise:

PRINCESS:
Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,
Needs not the painted flourish of your praise:
Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues:
I am less proud to hear you tell my worth
...
Like humble-visaged suitors, his high will.

BOYET:
Proud of employment, willingly I go.

PRINCESS:
All pride is willing pride, and yours is so.

There is particular emphasis on pride and praise in this passage that chimes with the anxiety that those words create in the Rival Poet sonnets. There is also explicit reference to chapmen and in the context of sale showing Shakespeare's further use of the link between the name Chapman and the occupation of a chapman as one who sells as, discussed in Sonnet 21. And the exchange involves the Princess rejecting Boyet's praise just as Shakespeare wishes the Young Man to do in the Rival Poet sonnets. Chapman appears to be personified in Boyet in this play just as Longaville (with a possible pun on Will in his name) appears to be a personification of Shakespeare in this play. There also appear to be references to Shakespeare via will in this dialogue that aggrandise Shakespeare above Chapman. Probably only by coincidence, Chapman published a play called The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron in 1608, (Love's Labours Lost was first published in 1598) and there is a character in Love's Labours Lost called Biron.

Finally, George Chapman did write verse dedicated to the Earl of Southampton who was also Shakespeare's patron.

Although the identity of the Rival Poet is not conclusive, the material within the Rival Poet sonnets and the contemporary activity of George Chapman does, in my view, converge to point to George Chapman being the man.

References: The Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Oxford University Press - W.J. Craig
                  The Reader's Encyclopedia of Shakespeare - MJF Books, New York - Campbell & Quinn

Recommended Website: Complete Works