Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/246

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [n s. vn. MAR. 29, im.

So also Wyndham :

" The line then means ' a man in shape all shapes in his controlling.' It states that the friend was the eternal pattern of Beauty. But the type selected for 'Hues,' thanks to contemporary spell- ing, Heivs, enabled the poet to convey something more which was apparent to the person addressed and is not apparent now. Of this I am convinced. But beyond this all is guesswork."

Assuming for the time being the existence of Will Hews, We must remember two facts : (1) Shakespeare repeatedly promised that his friend would be made immortal by the Sonnets. In S. 81 he attaches the promise to his name :

Your name from hence immortal life shall have. This promise has not been kept unless the poems themselves contain some indication of the friend's identity. (2) Shakespeare Was excessively fond of puns and verbal allusions, often of a very far-fetched kind. It has been calculated that there are 1,062 puns in the plays. So it may be worth while to go through the text carefully, looking out for puns, verbal allusions, and references to the meaning of the Word " hews."

From fairest creatures we desire increase That thereby beauty's Rose should never die.

S. 1, 1. 1.

The capital and italics of the Word Rose in the original text seem significant, especi- ally in this exordium. In S. 109 Shakespeare addresses his friend as " My Rose." Wynd- ham thinks that " beauty's Rose " stands here poetically for the Platonic Idea or Eternal Type of Beauty, or at least for the emblem of that idea. Perhaps W. H. was known to his friends as the Rose of Kent, or Devon, or wherever he came from, as Owen Tudor Was called the Rose of Wales, and Edward IV. the Rose of Rouen. At any rate, the Word " rose " in the Sonnets is generally used as an emblem of the friend, and may convey a personal allusion.

How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use.

S. 2, 1.9.

Possibly a verbal allusion in this connexion.

Now is the time that face should form another.

IS. 3, 1. 2.

But if thou live, remembered not to be, Die single, and thine Image dies with thee.

L. 13.

Possibly allusions to the meaning of the word " hew."

Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse The bounteous largess given thee to give?

Profitless usurer, why dost thou use So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live

For having traffic with thyself alone

Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive. Then how, when nature calls thee to be gone,

What acceptable audit canst thou leave ? Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee Which, used, lives the executor to be.

S. 4, 1. 5.

The imagery of this Sonnet is perhaps taken from the parable of the unprofitable servant. The verbal allusions almost amount to puns ; " unused beauty " may be beauty which does not produce a little Hews. Note the emphasis on " thyself >r in 11. 9 and 10.

That use is not forbidden usury

Which happies those that pay the willing loan ; That 's for thyself to breed another thee,

Or ten times happier be it ten for one. 8. 6, 1. 5.

A fairly good pun on use and Hews. Note the emphasis on " thyself " and " thee."

The world will be thy widow, and still weep

That thou no form of thee hast left behind, When every private widow well mav keep

By children's eyes her husband's xhape in mind. Look, what an unthrift in the world doth spend

Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it ; But beauty's waste hath in the world an end,

And kept unused, the user so destroys it. No love towards others in that bosom sits That on himself such murderous shame commits.

S. 9, 1. 4.

This may contain allusions both to the- name Hews and also to its meaning. Note the emphasis on " himself " in last line.

that you were your self ! S. 13, 1. 1. In the first twelve Sonnets the friend is addressed as " thou," and also in the fourteenth. This Sonnet is a positive jingle on the Words "you" and "your," they being employed seventeen times, often with emphasis. The assonance may have sounded pleasant in the ear of a HeWs.

This closes my remarks on the first group of Sonnets, the earliest in date and the most closely correlated. In the other Sonnets allusive Words are more sparsely scattered.

S. 20 : This is the key-sonnet quoted and discussed above, containing the line,

A man in hew, all Hews in his controlling. Note the last line :

Mine be thy love, and thy love's use their treasure. This is almost a pun.

S. 21, 1. 3 : use, not significant.

S. 24, 1. 2 : " thy beauty's form " ,- 1. 6, "your true Image"; 1. 10 ? "thy shape." All these expressions refer to the semblances or hews of the friend in Shake- speare's heart.