Robert Stonehouse
2005-01-02 21:42:46 UTC
35
What may words say, or what may words not say,
Where truth itself must speak like flattery?
Within what bounds may one his liking stay
Where Nature doth with infinite agree?
What Nature's counsel can my flames allay
Since Reason's self doth blow the coal in me?
And ah! what hope, that hope should once see day,
Where Cupid is sworn page to Chastity?
Honour is honoured, that thou dost possess
Him as thy slave, and now long needy Fame
Doth even grow rich, naming my Stella's name.
Wit learns in thee perfection to express;
Not thou by praise, but praise by thee is raised:
It is a praise to praise, when thou art praised.
1. What can be put into words, or what cannot be said,
2. in a case where the plainest truth has to use expressions
that normally count as flattery?
3. What limits can be set to love
4. when the natural beauty of the beloved, and infinity, are
one and the same?
5. What advice from Nature can reduce the fire of love in me
6. when scientific observation is only the bellows that
blows my fire hotter?
7. Alas! What hope is there, that what I hope for may become
real
8. when the god of love has sworn homage as a servant to
chastity?
9. Honour himself receives honour from being
10. your slave, and Fame, after long starvation,
11. becomes rich, when he mentions the name of Stella, whom
I love.
12. From you, intellect takes lessons in how to express
perfection:
13. you are not elevated by praise: praise is elevated by
you;
14. writing praises itself deserves praise, when you are the
subject.
Line 1. A word has meaning because it distinguishes one
thing from another. A word that applies to everything has no
meaning. I think this underlies Sidney's problem in writing
about Stella, when it seems to him the there is no limit to
what can be said.
Line 7. A birth metaphor, I think. The thing hoped for comes
into the light of day as a baby does - or as here is unable
to do so.
Line 10. I do not understand why Fame is spoken of as
'needy', impoverished. Were there especially few famous
people when Sidney wrote? Does he intend to confuse 'fama'
(report) with 'fames' (hunger)? (That would be below his
level of Latin literacy.) Perhaps Fame is impoverished
simply because it has not yet heard about Stella?
Line 11, 'rich, naming my Stella's name'. An oblique
reference to the name of Lady Rich. There are clearer
references in other places.
Lines 12-14. A three-line sentence, with the last two lines
rhyming. Is it mere coincidence that Shakespeare's sonnet 35
ends with such a sentence? I suspect such coincidences with
Sidney are common in Shakespeare.
What may words say, or what may words not say,
Where truth itself must speak like flattery?
Within what bounds may one his liking stay
Where Nature doth with infinite agree?
What Nature's counsel can my flames allay
Since Reason's self doth blow the coal in me?
And ah! what hope, that hope should once see day,
Where Cupid is sworn page to Chastity?
Honour is honoured, that thou dost possess
Him as thy slave, and now long needy Fame
Doth even grow rich, naming my Stella's name.
Wit learns in thee perfection to express;
Not thou by praise, but praise by thee is raised:
It is a praise to praise, when thou art praised.
1. What can be put into words, or what cannot be said,
2. in a case where the plainest truth has to use expressions
that normally count as flattery?
3. What limits can be set to love
4. when the natural beauty of the beloved, and infinity, are
one and the same?
5. What advice from Nature can reduce the fire of love in me
6. when scientific observation is only the bellows that
blows my fire hotter?
7. Alas! What hope is there, that what I hope for may become
real
8. when the god of love has sworn homage as a servant to
chastity?
9. Honour himself receives honour from being
10. your slave, and Fame, after long starvation,
11. becomes rich, when he mentions the name of Stella, whom
I love.
12. From you, intellect takes lessons in how to express
perfection:
13. you are not elevated by praise: praise is elevated by
you;
14. writing praises itself deserves praise, when you are the
subject.
Line 1. A word has meaning because it distinguishes one
thing from another. A word that applies to everything has no
meaning. I think this underlies Sidney's problem in writing
about Stella, when it seems to him the there is no limit to
what can be said.
Line 7. A birth metaphor, I think. The thing hoped for comes
into the light of day as a baby does - or as here is unable
to do so.
Line 10. I do not understand why Fame is spoken of as
'needy', impoverished. Were there especially few famous
people when Sidney wrote? Does he intend to confuse 'fama'
(report) with 'fames' (hunger)? (That would be below his
level of Latin literacy.) Perhaps Fame is impoverished
simply because it has not yet heard about Stella?
Line 11, 'rich, naming my Stella's name'. An oblique
reference to the name of Lady Rich. There are clearer
references in other places.
Lines 12-14. A three-line sentence, with the last two lines
rhyming. Is it mere coincidence that Shakespeare's sonnet 35
ends with such a sentence? I suspect such coincidences with
Sidney are common in Shakespeare.