The Sonnets of Shakespeare: Sonnet 108. Edward de Vere to his son, Henry.

 

108

WHat’s in the braine that Inck may character,

Which hath not figur’d to thee my true spirit,

What’s new to speake, what now to register,

That may expresse my love, or thy deare merit?

Nothing sweet boy, but yet like prayers divine,

I must each day say ore the very same,

Counting no old thing old, thou mine, I thine,

Even as when first I hallowed thy faire name.

So that eternall love in loves fresh case,

Waighes not the dust and injury of age,

Nor gives to necessary wrinckles place,

But makes antiquitie for aye his page,

Finding the first conceit of love there bred,

Where time and outward forme would shew it dead.

1. character] Schmidt (1874): Write, inscribe.

3. new . .. now] Malone (ed. 1780) emended to new . . . new

5. sweet boy] The only use of this phrase in the sonnets (but compare my lovely Boy, 126.1, and my sweet'st friend, 133.4).—Horace Davis (in Alden, ed. 1916)

8. [Neil (Ath., Apr. 27, 1867, p. 552) finds here a suggestion that this sonnet was addressed to the poet's son Hamnet; in which he is followed by Goedeke (Rundschau, 10: 407). If this be ingenious, it pales before the suggestion of Mrs. Stopes that the word "hallowed" alludes to the first time the friend was addressed as "Hal," or that of W. Underhill ( N. &Q., 7th s., 9: 227), who regards it as a pun on the name of a supposed W. Hall. The use of the word is due, of course, to the figure of the liturgy in lines 6-7. "Every morning since I began to worship you I have continued to say, 'Hallowed be thy name.'"] — Alden.

9. in . .. case] Malone (ed. 1780): By the case of love the poet means his own compositions. —Beeching: Such is love's fresh case, its state of always being fresh. [This interpretation of Beeching's I think is undoubtedly right; cf. "fresh" in 107, 10, where the word means, not new, but as good as new. Schmidt gives numerous instances of "case" in the meaning of state or condition.] — Alden

10. Waighes] Steevens (ed. 1780) explains as “cares for.” So Schmidt (1875).—Onions (1911): Attaches value to.

11. wrinckles] —Butler (ed. 1899, pp. 246, 250) found here and in 104 evidence of literal wrinkles on the friend’s fair brow.

12. ] —Brooke (ed. 1936): Turns old age into a schoolboy. [Here the meanings of both "antiquity" and "page" are rather curiously disputed. —Schmidt defines the former as "old age," (cf. 62, 10); —Tyler, as "the appearance of the beloved one in that olden time when the attachment commenced," followed substantially by Rolfe; —Wyndham, "the praise of ladies dead and lovely knights" by the "antique pen" of earlier generations. —Alden: Schmidt I think is undoubtedly right; "old age" is the more common Shakespearean meaning, and certainly pertinent to this quatrain. As for "page," Tyler apparently understands it as the page of a book, since he paraphrases " Ever sets before him the appearance," etc.; and he is followed by Miss Porter and Mrs. Stopes, the former commenting, "As of a page in a prayer-book for repetition forever," the latter, "Puts the mark in Life's book, at the old story of first love." I understand Wyndham to take the same view, though he does not make it perfectly clear. On the other hand, Beeching, in paraphrasing, "Love . . . never sees the workings of antiquity, which is always in its rear," seems to imply the image of a page following in the train of Love; (here, unfortunately, one cannot be certain just what is understood by "antiquity"). It argues against the former interpretation that Sh., despite his abundant mention of books, never (unless here) uses the word "page" in that connection, but always "leaf"; with the meaning "servant," on the other hand, it is very familiar. —Alden: I believe, therefore, that the line means simply, "makes old age his servant," instead of yielding it the mastery;

13. 14.] —Dowden (ed. 1881): Finding the first conception of love, i.e., love as passionate as at first, excited by one whose years and outward form show the effects of age.—Pooler (ed. 1918): The meaning may be—finding the first conception of love, i. e. the old love reborn, in eyes that are bright no longer, or it may be more general—finding love as young as ever in those who no longer have youth and the freshness of youth.

—Rendall (ed 1930, p. 252): ...we shall assign Sonnets 108‐125 to the months following the death of Elizabeth in March 1603, and place the termination of the whole series before 1604.

I offer the following prose redaction of the sonnet. Of course, I agree with Samuel Neil that the sonnet is written to Shakespeare's son. Just not the son of the Stratford man. Vere's son was born in 1593 and he had to wonder — given his seriously declining health during the mid to late 1590s — whether he would survive long enough for his son to get to know him. With this for context, the sonnet makes perfect sense. He reflects that his son would know him unusually well through his plays and poems. So then, I assign this sonnet to the mid to late 1590s. No later than 1604.

While I cannot assert the pun Ms. Stopes sees on “hallowed,” with confidence, Vere's son was named “Hal” (Henry). Shakespeare clearly identified with Henry V whose friends in the play call him “Hal.” More than a few critics have suspected a double entendre on the word “page” in line 12, myself among them.

Lines 1-2] What can the brain reveal through ink that I do not leave to you so you may know me?

Lines 3-4] What more could be said, what more written, to express my love or pride in you?

Lines 5-6] Nothing, sweet boy. But still I must repeat my words like reciting prayers.

Lines 7-8] Rejecting no theme for being old. You mine, I yours, even as first I hallowed your name [at your christening].

Lines 9-10] So that love, eternal, remains forever young, does not grow dust-laden or lame with age

Lines 11-12] Nor wrinkled with the passage of years but turns the past into its page [double entendre]

Lines 13-14] finding the first feelings of love bred there when time will bring my body dead.

Sources:

Alden, Raymond MacDonald. The Sonnets of Shakespeare... with variorum readings (1916).

Butler, Samuel. Sh.'s Sonnets, reconsidered and in part rearranged (1899).

Dowden, Edward. 1881. Sonnets of W. Sh. (1881).

Malone, Edmund. Steevens, George. Supplement to the edition of Sh.'s Plays published in 1778 (1780).

Neil, Samuel. (Ath., April 27, 1867, p. 552)

Rendall, Gerald H. Shakespeare Sonnets And Edward De Vere (1930).

Rollins, Hyder Edwards. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The Sonnets (1944).

Schmidt, Alexander. Shakespeare Lexicon (1875).

Stopes, C. C. Sh.'s Sonnets. (1904).

Wyndham, George. Poems of Sh. (1898).

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