The Sonnets of Shakespeare: Sonnet 52. Edward de Vere unlocks his memories of Elizabeth.

 

52

SO am I as the rich whose blessed key,

Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure,

The which he will not ev’ry hower survay,              3

For blunting the fine point of seldome pleasure.

Therefore are feasts so sollemne and so rare,

Since sildom comming in the long yeare set,           6

Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,

Or captaine Jewells in the carconet.

So is the time that keepes you as my chest,              9

Or as the ward-robe which the robe doth hide,

To make some speciall instant speciall blest,

By new unfoulding his imprison’d pride.                  12

Blessed are you whose worthinesse gives skope,

Being had to tryumph, being lackt to hope.

4. For blunting] —Pooler (1918): lest it should blunt. Schmidt (1874, 5. v.for): i. e. because it would blunt, = that it may not blunt.—With the line Malone (ed. 1780) compares Horace, “voluptates commendat rarior usus,” and Alden (ed. 1916) trustingly repeats him. No such line occurs in Horace, but A. S. Pease has kindly located it for me in Juvenal, XI.208.

seldome] seldom enjoyed

8. captaine] Malone (ed. 1780): Of superior worth.

carconet] carcanet. Malone (ed. 1780): An ornament worn round the neck.— Dyce (Glossary, 1867): A necklace.—Schmidt (1874): Collar of jewels.— Percy Macquoid (Sh.’s England, 1917, II, 116 f.): Carcanets were hanging collars of linked ornamental design set with important jewels surrounded by smaller stones, from which often hung little pendants. ... As they were of considerable value, their use was confined to Royalty and ladies of the Court.

9. chest] Time. Memory. The place in which “ his sweet up-locked treasure” is up-locked.

12. his imprison’d pride] the garment's pride.

Line 13, 14] Lee (ed. 1907): Blessed are you whose excellence is such that your presence brings me triumph, your absence fills me with the hope of a meeting.—Pooler (ed. 1918): [Blessed are you] whose goodness is so great that I can take delight in your presence, and in your absence hope for your return. —GWP: Lee and Poole are both mistaken here, altering the meaning in order to make it fit the man from Stratford. Blessed are you who being near brought (past tense, otherwise the rarely opened memories / poems would not be his carefully preserved connection to her) and being distant (her presence lacked) is so worthy that he may hope to be allowed in her presence once again. This monument poem, like all the others, is written to Queen Elizabeth who once he had and now he lacks.

—Rendall: The more private chambers house the wardrobe for the robes of state, the jewel-case (§§ 48, 52, 65, a figure familiar in the Plays), the cabinet or safe (§ 48) kept under lock and key, which reveal the surroundings of the writer.... The full-length illustration in Sonnet §52 admirably depicts the passion for gorgeous dress and pageantry, which was so marked a feature of the age...

Sonnet §52 may be regarded as a counterpart of §48, depicting the satisfaction that attends on home-return. Among all the Sonnets there is none more opulent in tone and movement, nor any that more confidently assumes equality of state on either side. Peer speaks to peer.

Was Shakespeare Gay? What Do the Sonnets Really Say?

—GWP: There is no satisfaction, here, as per Rendall. Only hope. And the separation has lasted a long time.

—Beeching: compare Sonnet 52 —

'I'herefore are feasts so solemn and so rare.

Since, seldom coming, in the long year set

So is the time that keeps you as my chest,

Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide,

To make some special instant special blest —

with I Henry IV, III, ii, 56 —

My presence, like a robe pontifical,

Ne'er seen but wonder'd at; and so my state,

Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast.

And won by rareness such solemnity,—

—Pooler: Perhaps a continuation of xlviii.

—Butler: 52 Q is a somewhat lame apology for his not having come to see his friend as often as he used to do...

By his system, Butler renumbers this sonnet 72.

—Wilber: Sonnet 52 makes use of a dirty Elizabethan pun in the line "So is the time that keeps you as my chest, Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide, To make some special instant special blest, By new unfolding his imprisoned pride." In those times, “pride” was used as a euphemism for an erect penis.

—Cartwright: By his system, Cartwright numbers this sonnet 53.

—Bray: By his system, Bray numbers this sonnet 32.

Sources:

Alden, Raymond Macdonald. The Sonnets of Shakespeare (1916).

Beeching, H.C. The Sonnets of Shakespeare (1904).

Bray, Denys. The Original Order of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1925)

Butler, Samuel. Shakespeare's sonnets reconsidered (New Edition, 1927).

Cartwright, Robert. The Sonnets of Shakespeare Rearranged and Divided (1859).

Dyce, Alexander. Glossary (The Works of William Shakespeare, vol. IX). London, 1867.

Lee, Sidney. Complete Works of William Shakespeare (ed. 1907)

Malone, Edmund. Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators (etc.) (1821).

Macquoid, Percy. Shakespeare’s England (1917).

Pooler, C. Knox. The Works of Shakespeare: Sonnets (1918).

Rendall, Gerald. Shakespeare Sonnets and Edward de Vere (1930).

Rollins, Hyder. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare. The Sonnets. Volume 1. (1944).

Schmidt, Alexander. Shakespeare-Lexicon (1874, 1875).

Wilber, Jennifer. "Was William Shakespeare Bisexual? Exploring the Bard’s Sexual Orientation" 

https://owlcation.com/humanities/Was-William-Shakespeare-Bisexual-Exploring-the-Bards-Sexual-Orientation

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