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| The four volume set William Shakespeare's Sonnet Philosophy is now available. |
THE EMENDATIONSAn analysis of emendations made to the text of the 1609 edition
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LIST OF EMENDATIONS |
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Sonnet
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Line
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As in "Q"
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Emendation
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Comments
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Sonnet 12 Sonnet 13 Sonnet 24 Sonnet 25 Sonnet 26 Sonnet 27 Sonnet 28 Sonnet 31 Sonnet 34 Sonnet 35 Sonnet 37 Sonnet 40 Sonnet 41 Sonnet 43 Sonnet 44 Sonnet 45 Sonnet 46 Sonnet 47 Sonnet 50 Sonnet 54 Sonnet 55 Sonnet 57 Sonnet 59 Sonnet 65 Sonnet 67 Sonnet 69 Sonnet 70 Sonnet 76 Sonnet 77 Sonnet 90 Sonnet 99 Sonnet 101 Sonnet 106 Sonnet 111 Sonnet 112 Sonnet 113 Sonnet 126 Sonnet 127 Sonnet 128 Sonnet 129 Sonnet 132 Sonnet 136 Sonnet 144 Sonnet 153
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line 4 line 7 line 1 line 9 line 12 line 10 line 12 line 8 line 12 line 8 line 8 line 7 line 7 line 7, line 8 line 11 line 13 line 12 line 3 line 8 line 13 line 14 line 9 line 11 line 6 line 14 line 1 line 13 line 11 line 12 line 6 line 9 line 12 line 3 line 5 line 6 line 7 line 1 line 10 line 11 line 9 line 2 line 12 line 1 line 14 line 6 line 14 line 8 line 10 line 11 line 14 line 1 line 9 line 11 line 9 line 6 line 6 line 9 line 14
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or you selfe steeld worth their their guil'st there loss their their their this woes he their naughts their their their their their side nor duly by monument Will where or seeing nature proud end their their fel were blacks stall Our di'd still wish y'are lack mine mynuit eyes their their Spirit made proud morning I sight finde eye
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all yourself stelled fight/might thy thy gild'st thee cross thy thy thy thy woos she thy naught thy thy thy thy thy 'cide no or not dully my monuments will whe'er of seeming Nature 'prived due thy thy tell wear blanks shall One dyed skill with they're latch mine eye minutes brows thy thy spirit mad proved, a mourning Ay side fiend eyes
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(snt 37.6; ADO 3.1.27; RL 56) (snt 61) (snts 3,59) (snts 42,90) (snt142: "wooe") (snt 88, LC 113) (TRO 5.1.44; snts 27,28,43,61) (snts 81,107) (some editors) (Kerrigan) (braiue/brainAYL 2.7.20;oue/oneCOR 4.4.136) (WT 4.4.185: "tell money" (snts15,55,127,140; LC 95, 291) (snts 63,65) (snt 54) (snt 120.6: "y'have") (not all editors) (RL 329,962) (line10: "they" and "their") (snts140,147) (see typographic errors below) (AYL 2.7.149:"mistress' eyebrow")
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LIST OF OTHER TYPOGRAPHIC ERRORS
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Sonnet 6 Sonnet 19 Sonnet 24 Sonnet 33 Sonnet 46 Sonnet 55 Sonnet 69 Sonnet 88 Sonnet 91 Sonnet 122
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line 4 line 3 line 3 line 14 line 4 line 9 line 14 line 1 line 9 line 1
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beautits yawes ti's stainteh freeedom emnity solye dispode bitter Tthy
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beauties jaws its staineth freedom enmity soyle dispos'd better Thy
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The changes from "their" to "thy"
Preliminary comments
A comparison can be made between the use of the words �their� and �thy�
in Q and the use of the words �then� and �than� in modern editions. In the
1609 edition the word �then� doubles as both �then� and �than�. The word
�than� does not appear in Q at all. Instead the word �then� has both meanings.
�Then� conveys both the temporal sense �at that time� and the comparative
sense �in relation to�. The second meaning corresponds to that of the modern
word �than�. So the change in modern editions from �then� to �than�, for the
50 or so times that �then� has the comparative meaning, is not an emendation
of the word �then�. The �then� to �than� changes are a response not to an error
but to a change in use over time.
A change in use, however, cannot explain the editor�s confusion over 15
occurrences of words �their� and �thy�. �Thy� occurs over 200 times in the
1609 edition and �their� occurs over 70 times. So, unlike the �thens�, an alteration
of the meaning of the word �their� to �thy� cannot be justified on the
basis of modern usage.
Nor should an appeal be made to difficulties experienced by compositors
in interpreting handwritten manuscripts, or even to simple carelessness
on the part of the compositors. After all, the editors who make the 15 �their�
to �thy� emendations tacitly accept that the compositors correctly transcribed
the word �their� from an original manuscript in an overwhelming percentage
of cases. If the compositors were prone to confuse a �thy� for a �their�, the
editors do not find fault with the �their� and the �thy� that occur together in
line 14 of sonnet 20 and which they accept as being typeset correctly. There
are also a number of occurrences of the two words in the same sonnet, such
as sonnet 128. Neither does it bother the editors that the supposed �their/thy�
errors occur only within Shake-speares Sonnets and not at all in his plays and
other poems.
The emending editors (beginning with Malone in 1780) make the �their�
to �thy� emendations because they claim the word �their� has no acceptable
meaning. But, rather than question their own inadequate expectations and
beliefs, they charge the otherwise diligent compositors with carelessness. To
bolster the case against the hapless compositors they then seek out 50 or
more other errors. These commentaries will demonstrate that the whole
charade collapses when the Sonnets are viewed in the light of their inherent
philosophy.
The object of the first group of commentaries, then, is to determine the
meaning of the word �their� in each of the sonnets by applying the
philosophy of the Sonnets. And, as a corollary, it will become apparent why
the editors have so doggedly insisted on the need to emend the �their� to
�thy� in only those few cases.
Lord of my love, to whom in vassalageThe emendation is from �their� to �thy� (26.12). In Q the subject for the �their� is the �whatsoever star� (26.9). For most of the �their� to �thy� emendations the subject of the �their� can be found in the same quatrain.
Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit;
To thee I send this written ambassage
To witness duty, not to show my wit.
Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine
May make seem bare, in wanting words to show it;
But that I hope some good conceit of thine
In thy soul�s thought (all naked) will bestow it:
Till whatsoever star that guides my moving,
Points on me graciously with fair aspect,
And puts apparel on my tottered loving,
To show me worthy of their sweet respect,
Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee,
Till then, not show my head where thou mayst prove me.
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,The subject of the �their� (27.10) is the word �sight� (27.9). Its meaning is consistent with the meaning for the eyes derived from sonnet 14. (For other examples of �sight� in relation to �eyes�, see sonnets 46, 47, 61, 139, 148, and 150.) The �sight� referred to is not the youth�s presence or imaginary image. It is the faculty of sight or, in this case, the imaginative eyesight of the Poet�s �soul�. The �soul�s imaginary sight� remains �sightless� like the Poet�s because of the blackness of the night.
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired,
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind, when body�s work�s expired.
For then my thoughts (from far where I abide)
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eye-lids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see.
Save that my soul�s imaginary sight
Presents their shadow to my sightless view,
Which like a jewel (hung in ghastly night)
Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new.
Lo thus by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee, and for my self, no quiet find.
Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts,The emendation in sonnet 31, while not from �their� to �thy�, is made for similar reasons. The change from �there� to �thee� (31.8) misses the connection between �there� and �mine eye�. The subject of the �there� is �mine eye� (31.6). As in sonnets 26 and 27, the sense of looking into the �eye�, or even being an image within the eye, is crucial. �Their images...I view in thee� (31.13) unequivocally expresses the sense of looking into the youth�s eyes. It is in the youth�s eyes that the Poet sees qualities he no longer sees in his own eye (�mine eye�). The change is unwarranted.
Which I by lacking have supposed dead,
And there reigns Love and all Love�s loving parts,
And all those friends which I thought buried.
How many a holy and obsequious tear
Hath dear religious love stolen from mine eye,
As interest of the dead, which now appear,
But things removed that hidden in there lie.
Thou art the grave where buried love doth live,
Hung with the trophies of my lovers gone,
Who all their parts of me to thee did give,
That due of many, now is thine alone.
Their images I loved, I view in thee,
And thou (all they) hast all the all of me.
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done;�Their� occurs twice in line 8. The subject of �their� is �All men� (35.5). The Poet says that, as much as he forgives others �their sins�, he also forgives the young man �thy trespass�, �thy amiss�, and �thy sensual fault�. The sense of �compare� (35.6) is crucial for the meaning of the sonnet. The substitution of �thy� for �their� destroys the original intent.
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud,
Clouds and eclipses stain both Moon and Sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorising thy trespass with compare,
My self corrupting salving thy amiss,
Excusing their sins more than their sins are:
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense,
Thy adverse party is thy Advocate,
And �gainst my self a lawful plea commence,
Such civil war is in my love and hate,
That I an accessory needs must be,
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.
As a decrepit father takes delight,The subject of �their� (37.7) is the �beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit� (37.5). The sense is that �any, all, or more� (37.6) of these attributes are each �entitled� in �their� own right (�parts�) to �crown�d sit� on the youth�s head. The Poet takes his �comfort� (37.4) from this fact but, significantly, makes his �love engrafted to this store� (37.8), where �this store� refers to the relationship of �father� to �child� (37.1-2). The word �whether� (37.5) establishes the distinction. �Worth and truth� (37.4) combine with the above attributes from line 5 and with �store� (37.8) to provide echoes of sonnet 14, as well as echoes of sonnet 11 (11.5), a critical sonnet in the logic of the set.
To see his active child do deeds of youth,
So I, made lame by Fortune�s dearest spite
Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth.
For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit,
Or any of these all, or all, or more
Intitled in their parts, do crowned sit,
I make my love engrafted to this store:
So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised,
Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give,
That I in thy abundance am sufficed,
And by a part of all thy glory live:
Look what is best, that best I wish in thee,
This wish I have, then ten times happy me.
Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all,The editors change �this� to �thy� (40.7). The subject of the �this� is �my love� (40.5), or the Poet�s mature love. The �this� echoes the �this more� (40.4) which is the love the Poet has in excess of the youth�s immature love. �This more� is the balance of the Poet�s mature love of which the immature youth wants to take �all�. The youth is challenged not to �deceive� (40.7) the Poet (�this self �) by feigning maturity. He will be �blamed� if he �wilfully tastes� of the Poet�s mature �love� (�this more�) after �refusing� it (40.8). Because the youth is an inalienable part of the mature Poet, �this more� signifies the mature love of the Poet compared to the adolescent love of the youth. Hence the Poet�s warning that the youth will deceive him.
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call,
All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more:
Then if for my love, thou my love receivest,
I cannot blame thee, for my love thou usest,
But yet be blamed, if thou this self deceivest
By wilful taste of what thy self refusest.
I do forgive thy robb�ry gentle thief
Although thou steal thee all my poverty:
And yet love knows it is a greater grief
To bear love�s wrong, than hate�s known injury.
Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
Kill me with spites yet we must not be foes.
When I most wink then do mine eyes best see,The subject of �their� (43.11) is the �mine eyes� (43.9). Again sonnet 14 is being invoked. In sonnets 27 and 28 the power of thought or imagination could not give rise to anything but darkness to the �sightless� mind. In sonnet 43 it is only when the Poet is asleep and dreaming (43.3) that the �shadow� is transformed, reversing bright for dark and becoming a �shade� that �shines so� (43.8). The Poet asks, in the third quatrain, how night can now seem like day. In a direct reference to sonnets 27 and 28, he recalls that previously his tired �sightless eyes� could only give �their fair imperfect shade� (43.11). In those sonnets he could only see dark in darkness. As in sonnet 27, the change from �their� to �thy� in sonnet 43 is inconsistent with its meaning.
For all the day they view things unrespected,
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.
Then thou whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow�s form, form happy show,
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to un-seeing eyes thy shade shines so?
How would (I say) mine eyes be blessed made,
By looking on thee in the living day?
When in dead night their fair imperfect shade,
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay?
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
The other two, slight air, and purging fire,Sonnets 44 and 45 are a connected pair that consider the four Aristotelian elements, �earth, water, air and fire�. �Earth and water� from sonnet 44 characterise the Poet�s mood whilst �air and fire� from sonnet 45 characterise his �thought� and �desire� (45.3) that are with the youth. The �fair health� of the �swift messengers�, or the returning �air and fire�, restores the Poet�s �melancholic� �earth and water� to the original �four� elements (45.7). So the �their� refers to the �swift messengers� and not the youth. The change from �their� to �thy� in line 12 is inconsistent with the meaning of both sonnets. Some editors alter the punctuation of lines 11 and 12 to make it conform to the interference.
Are both with thee, where ever I abide,
The first my thought, the other my desire,
These present absent with swift motion slide.
For when these quicker Elements are gone
In tender Embassy of love to thee,
My life being made of four, with two alone,
Sinks down to death, oppressed with melancholy.
Until lives composition be recurred,
By those swift messengers returned from thee,
Who even but now come back again assured,
Of their fair health, recounting it to me.
This told, I joy, but then no longer glad,
I send them back again and straight grow sad.
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war,The editors make four changes from �their� to �thy� in sonnet 46. But the four �theirs� have �thy sight� (46.2) as their subject. The �theirs� refer to both �eyes� of the faculty of sight, as in the plural �crystal eyes� (46.6).
How to divide the conquest of thy sight,
Mine eye, my heart their picture�s sight would bar,
My heart, mine eye the freedom of that right,
My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
(A closet never pierced with crystal eyes)
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him their fair appearance lies.
To side this title is impanelled
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,
And by their verdict is determined
The clear eye�s moiety, and the dear heart�s part.
As thus, mine eye�s due is their outward part,
And my heart�s right, their inward love of heart.
Those parts of thee that the world�s eye doth view,The �their� (69.5) has as its subject the phrase �those parts of thee� (69.1). That is, the first words of the second quatrain refer to the first words of the first quatrain. �Their outward thus� refers to �those parts of thee that the world�s eye doth view� and not to just the �thee� of lines 1 and 3. The meaning of �eye� (69.1) is expanded upon in lines 8 to 11 so that the �beauty� (of thy mind) and the �truth� measured �by thy deeds� invokes the ideas expressed in sonnet 14.
Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend:
All tongues (the voice of souls) give thee that end,
Uttering bare truth, even so as foes Commend.
Their outward thus with outward praise is crowned,
But those same tongues that give thee so thine own,
In other accents do this praise confound
By seeing farther than the eye hath shown.
They look into the beauty of thy mind,
And that in guess they measure by thy deeds,
Then churls their thoughts (although their eies were kind)
To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds,
But why thy odour matcheth not thy show,
The soil is this, that thou dost common grow.
That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,The subject of �their� (70.6) is the �sweetest buds� (70.7) (echoing the �ornament of beauty� (70.3). Again some editors alter the punctuation. They remove the comma from the end of line 5 to the middle of line 6 and put a semi-colon at the end of line 6 to force the sonnet to conform to the emendations to �thy�. The reading presented here is consistent with the original punctuation.
For slander�s mark was ever yet the fair,
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A Crow that flies in heaven�s sweetest air.
So thou be good, slander doth but approve,
Their worth the greater being wooed of time,
For Canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,
And thou present�st a pure unstained prime.
Thou hast passed by the ambush of young days,
Either not assailed, or victor being charged,
Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise,
To tie up envy, evermore enlarged,
If some suspect of ill masked not thy show,
Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe.
How oft when thou my music music playst,In sonnet 128 �their� is changed to �thy� twice. The changes involve the phrase �their fingers� (128.11,14). The confusion is over whom �their fingers� belong to. The fingers playing the instrument are the Mistress� fingers, but the �their� refers to the �dancing chips� (128.10), who are the �Jacks� (128.5,13). That is, the �Jacks� claim possession of the Mistress�fingers as they �kiss the tender inward of thy (her) hand�. So �their fingers�, the Mistress� fingers that the �Jacks� desire, �walk with gentle gait�over the �Jacks or dancing chips�. In the couplet the Poet instructs the Mistress to �give them (the Jacks) their fingers� because he is only interested in �thy lips to kiss�. (Note the �Jacks� are capitalised in Q to emphasise their role as the possessors of the Mistress� fingers.)
Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds
With thy sweet fingers when thou gently swayst,
The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,
Do I envy those Jacks that nimble leap,
To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,
Whilst my poor lips which should that harvest reap,
At the woods� boldness by thee blushing stand.
To be so tickled they would change their state,
And situation with those dancing chips,
O�er whom their fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more blest than living lips,
Since saucy Jacks so happy are in this,
Give them their fingers, me thy lips to kiss.
