Originally posted by AE:
Hi ewrgall,
>> How many a holy and obsequious teare
Hath deare religious love stolne from mine eye,
Here Shakespeare openly says that he gets teary eyed over religious things. My God! Caleb! Why do you have such a problem with this??? <<
This is a good example of an interpretive error which I think you make on several occasions: whenever Shakespeare uses religious terminology, you assume that he is expressing a religious point of view. But Shakespeare uses such terms metaphorically. He is writing within a tradition of love-poetry that conventionally applies religious terms to love situations, Gee, it is obvious you took a college course. partly to indicate the intensity of feelings involved and partly as a subtle mockery of how seriously lovers take themselves. It's not about religion, it's conventional love-poetry.
So let me understand this--no matter how clearly Shakespeare says--"How many a holy and obsequious teare Hath deare religious love stolne from mine eye"---he is not really saying that but meant something else??????
It would be impossible for me to explain the sonnets as a whole on this thread but let me just say that the sonnets contain a variety of different subject matters. One subject was religion. They are addressed to Southampton but are not love (sexual or emotional passion) sonnets. Southampton was Shakespeare's well paying patron and hence got Shakespeare's loyalty(love). The relationship between Southampton and Shakespeare was an old fashioned feudal one. A reciprocal "love" between master and servant. Each had responsibilities to the other---duties and obligations. Since Southampton was young one of Shakespeare's duties (besides being entertaining) was to "teach"--particularly about "character" and "morality". Part of the wit of the sonnets is that Shakespeare manages to "address" the sonnets to Southampton while discussing deeper issues. This bit of wit (nominally warping Southampton into each of the sonnets) has (to modern readers) obscured the true subject matter and purposes of many of the sonnets.
Sonnet 31
Thy bosome is indeard with all hearts,
Which I by lacking have supposed dead,
And there raignes Love and all Loves loving parts,
And all those friends which I thought buried.
How many a holy and obsequious teare
Hath deare religious love stolne from mine eye,
As interest of the dead, which now appeare,
But thngs remov'd that hidden in there lie,
Thou are the grave where buried love doth live,
Hung with the tropheis of my lovers gon,
Who all their parts of me to thee did give,
That due of many, now is thine alone,
Their images I lov'd, I view in thee,
And thou (all they) hast all the all of me
In Sonnet 31, Shakespeare is not addressing Southampton (only a person of monstrous ego could think this sonnet was addressed to him) but the sonnet is sent to Southampton (who had to figure that out--which might have been quite hard for that teenage earl to do). The true addressee is Christ and Shakespeare is making a comparison between the Catholic and Protestant points of view about how to treat the dead. In the Catholic belief one prayed for the dead telling of their virtues, lit candles for them, paid money to have masses said for them---(all "as interest of the dead")---all sort of "buying" their way into heaven. The Protestants believed that nothing that occurred after a person was dead could effect God's judgment. THIS WAS A MAJOR DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS. In this poem Shakespeare, though once a Catholic, now believes as Protestant do. The souls of his friends are in the bosom of Christ. He no longer lights candles for them or prays for them. Instead, like a good Protestant he uses his prayers properly--addressing them to his Savior.
Southampton was raised as a Catholic but after the death of his father became a ward of the Crown. He remained a Catholic through his youth finally "converting" while in the tower for treason. Shakespeare, in this sonnet, is doing a little preaching to his young patron--in a highly intellectual and amusing way. It is a Protestant religious sonnet. At this time in his life, one can be almost certain that Shakespeare (though raised a Catholic) had become a Protestant. (I find it highly amusing that in the first seventeen sonnets Shakespeare continually tells Southampton to marry. Here we find Shakespeare hinting that Southampton should change his religion.)
Knowing a little about the life of Southampton and about the religious issues that wracked Shakespeare's age would enable you to read this sonnet correctly.
ewrgall
[This message has been edited by ewrgall (edited June 04, 2001).]
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