{"id":41006,"date":"2020-08-15T12:33:27","date_gmt":"2020-08-15T16:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=41006"},"modified":"2020-08-25T10:40:01","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T14:40:01","slug":"a-new-way-to-look-at-shakespeares-sonnets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2020\/08\/a-new-way-to-look-at-shakespeares-sonnets.html","title":{"rendered":"A New Way to Look at Shakespeare’s Sonnets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Cambridge University Press (2020)<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Just started reading All the Sonnets of Shakespeare<\/em> in PDF format, to be published by Cambridge University Press in September. Edited by Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells, it shows how Shakespeare went about writing his famous 154 sonnets<\/a>\u2014when he wrote them and how he rewrote them. Can\u2019t wait to get the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of reading the sonnets in the numbered sequence of the 1609 quarto, which is the usual way, they examine them in what they believe was their order of composition. This puts a special focus on the considerable tinkering that went into them. They also show how Shakespeare incorporated sonnets, partial sonnets, and sonnet-writing into his plays. Their method yields lovely insights that bring us closer to the man himself and his development as a writer. Illustrating his sense of humor, for example, they cite this satirical incident in “Edward III” (now acknowledged as co-written by Shakespeare):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Edward III (who is married) falls madly in love … with the virtuous (and also married) Countess of Salisbury as soon as he sees her. [He] is so visibly besotted that [he asks] his servant Lodowick to help him write a love sonnet to her. … Edward praises the Countess in extravagant, even comically hyperbolical terms, instructing Lodowick  to call her \u2018Better than beautiful\u2019,<\/em> to \u2018Devise for fair a better word than fair\u2019<\/em>, saying that anything Lodowick may write is exceeded \u2018Ten times ten thousand more\u2019<\/em> by the value of the woman he is praising. Faced with such hyperbole, Lodowick bemusedly enquires \u2018Write I to a woman?\u2019, to which the King replies in exasperation \u2018What think\u2019st thou I did bid thee praise? A horse?\u2019 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Such a well-timed punchline! I laughed out loud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Instead of reading the sonnets in the numbered sequence of the 1609 folio, which is the usual way, the editors of ‘All the Sonnets of Shakespeare’ examine them in what they believe was their order of composition. This puts a special focus on the considerable tinkering that went into them. Their method yields lovely insights that bring us closer to the man himself and his development as a writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":41018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26,18,4,23,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"category-literature","9":"category-main","10":"category-news","11":"category-political-culture","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/all-the-sonnets-of-shakespeare-COVER-180.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-aFo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41006"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41282,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41006\/revisions\/41282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}