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Saturday, January 13, 2024

The Sonnets of Shakespeare: Sonnet 42. Edward de Vere writes a sonnet to Shakespeare.



Sonnet 42.


THat thou hast her it is not all my griefe,

And yet it may be said I lov’d her deerely,

That she hath thee is of my wayling cheefe,                        3

A losse in love that touches me more neerely.

Loving offendors thus I will excuse yee,

Thou doost love her, because thou knowst I love her,         6

And for my sake even so doth she abuse me,

Suffring my friend for my sake to approove her,

If I loose thee, my losse is my loves gaine,                           9

And loosing her, my friend hath found that Iosse,

Both finde each other, and I loose both twaine,

And both for my sake lay on me this crosse,                         12

But here’s the joy, my friend and I are one,

Sweete flattery, then she loves but me alone.


This sonnet is one of the least analyzed of the sonnets. Commentators tend to show confusion or even offense to think that Shakespeare would step aside and give his lover to another man. The following from Hyder Rollins's New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The Sonnets (1944)1 serves here as exemplary.

Anon. (Fraser's Magazine, 1855, LII, 409): This sonnet must be accepted as the expression of a friendship existing in the imagination alone, and thus carried to excess as a species of jeu d'esprit. Even though a man were really guilty of the base pusillanimity of such sentiments, he could hardly have been so destitute of the sense of shame as to proclaim them to the world. — Gregor (Shakespeare, 1935, p. 544) tells us that such superhuman forgiveness as that in 42 must bring forth the deepest loneliness of a spiritual art. This, he adds, is the much-sought-for key to the poet’s psyche, but for me the key opens no secret doors.

There is simply no explanation that serves the Stratford myth. Other attempts (however few) tend to stretch the idea of metaphor beyond the point that it will bear.

Rendall] His dearest friend has been captured by the solicitations of the writer’s own mistress; she holds him in her toils with fascinations, which he himself had found irresistible;...2

To these I add my own comments from Edward de Vere was Shakespeare: at long last the proof (2013)3 followed by a modern prose redaction of the sonnet.

205. Either in late 1591 or early 1592, Edward De Vere will marry Elizabeth Trentham. Trentham was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, though she came from slightly lower on the social scale than most who were selected for the honor. She was widely reputed to be a great beauty. She most certainly was a strong woman who managed Edward’s and the Trentham properties with thrift and expertise, quite capable of delivering either a verbal or a physical buffet should the need arise. It was probably Elizabeth’s choice to move a bit further from the dust and noise of central London, soon after the wedding, to a rental in trendy Stoke Newington some five miles north of Oxford Place in the suburbs.

206. It is quite probable that he wrote the sonnet regarding a lover stolen from him by his friend around this time. As the sonnet points out, all’s well in the end for the friend and he are one. The friend who has stolen his lover from him is William Shake-speare, whose plays she has told Edward she loves.


Edward de Vere writes a sonnet to Shakespeare who[se work] his lover, Elizabeth Trentham, has said she loves.


1

That you have her is not entirely a matter of grief to me,

2

And yet it may be said I loved her dearly,

3

That she has your heart is actually the main reason for this sonnet,

4

A loss in love that touches me more nearly.

5

Therefore, you loving offenders, I do excuse you,

6

You love her because you know I love her,

7

And it is even for my pleasure that she cheats on me,

8

Requiring my friend to accept her love for my sake,

9

If I lose you, my loss is my love's gain,

10

And losing her, my friend has found what I have lost,

11

We both find her together, and both lose her together,

12

And both for my sake lay on me this cross,

12

For here's the joy, my friend and I are the same person,

14

Sweet flattery, and she loves but me alone.

It does bear mentioning that the evidence does not point to Edward de Vere per se as the sonneteer, but rather to an unnamed writer behind the created persona Shakespeare. The title of the sonnet without considering other evidence of authorship would properly be something along the lines of: “X writes a sonnet to his secret alter-ego Shakespeare who his lover, Y, has said she loves.” I supply the names, above, of each party, based upon the vast and growing evidence, in general, pointing at Vere as the author of the plays of Shakespeare.




1   Rollins, Hyder Edward. New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The Sonnets (1944). 119.

2   Rendall, Gerald H. Personal Clues in Shakespeare Poems & Sonnets (1934). 106.

3   Purdy, Gilbert Wesley. Edward de Vere was Shakespeare: at long last the proof (2013). 205-06. https://www.amazon.com/Edward-Vere-was-Shake-speare-proof/dp/1543136257/ 

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