Not Time’s Fool: A Rare Version of a Shakespeare Sonnet Is Discovered

Not Time’s Fool: A Rare Version of a Shakespeare Sonnet Is Discovered

An Oxford researcher found a rare, handwritten variation of one of Shakespeare’s most famous love poems. About 400 years ago, its meaning might have been very different.


“Shakespeare has always been political,” Professor Shapiro said, adding, “People repurposed it in their own day — as in ours — for different political ends.”

This variation — which has a different opening, ending and seven additional lines — reads more as a celebration of political loyalty than romantic love. It may come from one of the greatest upheavals in British history: A fight between royalists (who supported the monarchy) and parliamentarians (who did not). For a brief period, Britain was not ruled by a monarch.

Much suggests that the newly discovered version was a royalist adaptation.

Dr. Veronese discovered the variant in the papers of Elias Ashmole, a supporter of the monarchy who was born in 1617 — the year after Shakespeare died. It was among other politically charged works, which included banned Christmas carols and satirical poems from the 1640s. And it had been set to music by the composer Henry Lawes, which can be found in the New York Public Library.

That alone would have been rebellious: The Republican regime banned the public performance of songs, Oxford said in a news release published on Monday.

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“What was once a kind of erotic, playful love poem,” Professor Shapiro said, had “been repurposed to speak to people in the midst of a civil war — in which their loved ones are fighting and dying.”

Consider the opening lines of “Sonnet 116”:


Let me not to the marriage of true minds

admit impediments; love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds …

The nod to “marriage” might be why it’s a favorite at weddings, said Prof. Michael Dobson, the director of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, who was not involved in the discovery. But the commitment to loving someone forever, just as they are, also resonates.

“It makes an implausible vow of eternal constancy, which is what marriages are all about,” said Professor Dobson, who has “love’s not time’s fool” etched into his wedding band.

The opening of the variation reads as much more righteous — almost scolding — instead of musing.


Self blinding error seize all those minds

Who with false appellations call that love

Which alters when it alterations finds …

Practically, the additional lines were added to create more singable verses, according to Oxford. But in the context of the civil wars, the Oxford release said, “the additional lines could also be read as an appeal toward religious and political loyalty.”

Could the self-blinding error have been the push to leave the monarchy behind? Are the parliamentarians the minds who were making such false appeals?

Professor Dobson noted that the language of devotion is often similar, whether applied to love or politics. “You know: ‘my king — right or wrong — I will die a royalist,’” he said, describing both versions as odes to “eternal, quixotic constancy.”

He said it was not clear whether the poem was a copy of a draft written by Shakespeare or an adaptation written by someone else.

Either way, the discovery shows how Shakespeare’s work found life in the years after his death. For Shakespeare scholars, it suggests that the sonnets had more sticking power than many had once thought.

Shakespeare’s sonnets were published in 1609. The collection barely sold, Professor Dobson said, noting, “The printed copy of Shakespeare’s sonnets was probably Shakespeare’s biggest flop.”

A 1640 version — altered to expunge hints of a male lover — barely caused a ripple. In fact, he said, the sonnets did not become popular until the late 1700s, when interest surged in the bard’s life and Romanticism reigned.

Some scholars had thought that, for the first two centuries, the sonnets were all but forgotten. The new discovery suggests otherwise, Professor Dobson said. “At least one person thought this was a worthwhile piece of work.”

Perhaps, the variation is a sign of what may be Shakespeare’s greatest constant: change. So even if love, at least in “Sonnet 116,” is “an ever-fixèd mark,” the author himself is not.

That, it seems, has always been his power, from the Royalist gatherings of 1600s Britain to the political fights and wedding speeches of today.

美國總統川普加徵關稅【躲得過的英國，躲不過的歐盟】

 

DW 中文 - 德國之聲

【躲得過的英國，躲不過的歐盟】

美國總統川普上週末宣布對墨西哥、加拿大和中國加徵關稅，並表示對歐盟加徵關稅「肯定會發生」，引發了人們對可能破壞經濟增長並推高消費者成本的貿易戰的擔憂。

當被問及英國是否會成為下一個被徵收關稅的國家時，川普表示：「我們將看看事情如何發展。可能會發生在他們身上，但我可以告訴你，這肯定會發生在歐盟身上。」

他補充說：「英國已經越界了。我們會看看……但歐盟真的非常出格。英國有些越界，但我認為這個問題可以解決。但歐盟的所作所為堪稱惡行（atrocity）。」

英國政府發言人回應稱，美國是不可或缺的盟友和密切的貿易夥伴。

「我們有一個公平和平衡的貿易關係，這對大西洋兩岸都有好處。」發言人說。

英國首相施凱爾及其內閣成員自川普當選以來一直稱讚他，強調英國從美國進口了大量商品，並希望在英國經濟已經難以增長的情況下可以避免關稅。

由於兩國統計機構的方法差異，英國和美國都報告了彼此之間的貿易順差。

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