directory
home contact

SONNET 83

I never saw that you did painting need
And therefore to your fair no painting set;
I found, or thought I found, you did exceed
The barren tender of a poet's debt;
And therefore have I slept in your report,
That you yourself being extant well might show
How far a modern quill doth come too short,
Speaking of worth, -- what worth in you doth grow?
This silence for my sin you did impute,
Which shall be most my glory, being dumb;
For I impair not beauty being mute,
When others would give life and bring a tomb.
   There lives more life in one of your fair eyes
   Than both your poets can in praise devise.

NOTES

LXXXIII. In close connection with the preceding Sonnet. Shakespeare, in his verses, had allowed Mr. W. H.'s excellences to speak for themselves, despairing of rendering them adequately, and fearing lest he should impair them by eulogy. He had been "dumb" and had "slept."

2. Your fair. Your beauty.

4. The barren tender of a poet's debt. Whatever a poet might offer to pay in the way of praise would be "barren," as not coming up to your deserts.

5. Therefore have I slept in your report. So that you might speak therein for yourself, or, rather, that your beauty might speak.

6. Being extant. Being present in person to manifest your beauty.

7. A modern quill. The pen, most probably, of the rival-poet, the "fresher stamp of the time-bettering days" of lxxxii. To take "modern" in the sense of "trivial" seems to me unsatisfactory both in this place and in Antony and Cleopatra, Act v. sc. 2, lines 166, 167,
"Immoment toys, things of such dignity
As we greet modern friends withal."
The idea, as I take it, is that Mr. W. H. himself, being extant in Shakespeare's verse, proved how unsuitable and injurious was the "gross painting" of his rival.



8. Grow. This word may possibly mean "doth grow as a poet contemplates, and attempts to describe your worth," or the word may allude to Mr. W. H.'s still immature youth. The punctuation I have given is perhaps, on the whole, most probable.

9. Did impute. Probably, by showing favour to the rival-poet.

12. Bring a tomb. Concealing you from view by their lavish eulogies.

14. Both your poets may be taken to imply that Shakespeare had two rivals. But this is perhaps doubtful. More probably the two poets are Shakespeare and his rival.

How to cite this article:
Shakespeare, William. Sonnets. Ed. Thomas Tyler. London: D. Nutt, 1890. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2013. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/83.html >.
______

Even More...

 Stratford School Days: What Did Shakespeare Read?
 Games in Shakespeare's England [A-L]
 Games in Shakespeare's England [M-Z]
 An Elizabethan Christmas
 Clothing in Elizabethan England

 Queen Elizabeth: Shakespeare's Patron
 King James I of England: Shakespeare's Patron
 The Earl of Southampton: Shakespeare's Patron
 Going to a Play in Elizabethan London

 Ben Jonson and the Decline of the Drama
 Publishing in Elizabethan England
 Shakespeare's Audience
 Religion in Shakespeare's England

 Alchemy and Astrology in Shakespeare's Day
 Entertainment in Elizabethan England
 London's First Public Playhouse
 Shakespeare Hits the Big Time


More to Explore

 Introduction to Shakespeare's Sonnets
 Shakespearean Sonnet Style
 How to Analyze a Shakespearean Sonnet
 The Rules of Shakespearean Sonnets

 Shakespeare's Sonnets: Q & A
 Are Shakespeare's Sonnets Autobiographical?
 Petrarch's Influence on Shakespeare
 Themes in Shakespeare's Sonnets





 Shakespeare's Greatest Love Poem
 Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton
 The Order of the Sonnets
 The Date of the Sonnets

 Who was Mr. W. H.?
 Are all the Sonnets addressed to two Persons?
 Who was The Rival Poet?

_____

Sonnet Essentials... Shakespeare's sonnets are written predominantly in a meter called iambic pentameter, a rhyme scheme in which each sonnet line consists of ten syllables. The syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs or iambic feet. An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. An example of an iamb would be good BYE. Read on....

_____

 Shakespeare on Jealousy
 Shakespeare on Lawyers
 Shakespeare on Lust
 Shakespeare on Marriage

 Blank Verse and Diction in Shakespeare's Hamlet
 Analysis of the Characters in Hamlet
 Shakespeare on the Seasons
 Shakespeare on Sleep