Essay
Assignment 1 - The Sonnets
- Instelling
- Universiteit Utrecht (UU)
Assignment 1 - The Sonnets
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1The Shakespeare Industry
14 September 2020
1712 words
Assignment 1
Biography
What arguments are there that support Anti-Stratfordianism? Name at least two.
Shakespeare was believed to come from Stratford, which was a rural area. Since
Shakespeare grew up in a rural area, there is a possibility that he never attended school and thus
never learned to read or write. It would be impossible for a rural illiterate to become such a
successful playwright as they would not know how language worked as well as having no
knowledge of life at court. A logical explanation would be that the real author was a courtier or an
aristocrat as someone like that would have the knowledge and language skills to write such intricate
plays. The main reason for them not publishing under their own name could be that it was
scandalous for someone of that rank to be associated with the playhouses. Therefore, the original
author could have hired the rural Shakespeare to use his name in exchange for money.1
What reasons are there to reject Anti-Stratfordianism? Name at least two.
Shakespeare was most certainly Shakespeare as there is a paper trail as well as testimonies
from contemporaries that confirm that the Shakespeare from Stratford and the London playwright
were the same person. Shakespeare’s father was the mayor of Stratford, so there is a possibility that
the mayor’s son was able to attend school and thus learn how to read and write as well as being
educated on the world around him. This would explain how Shakespeare had knowledge of the
world and the court life that he used in his plays. Cressy states that “People who formed signatures
are counted as literate; those who made marks in default are counted as illiterate”, this suggests that
Shakespeare indeed was literate as we know that he has a signature (Cressy, 2). Shakespeare’s plays
1 All information used for answering this question came from Paul Franssen’s lecture on September 8th
2020.
, 2
also contain things that refer back to the Stratford area, the fact that the London playwright would
know of such a small place and the surrounding area would suggest that he indeed hailed from
there.2
Sonnets
Would you say the sonnets are a unity? Are there reasons to assume they were written
together? Are there reasons to think they were not written in the order in which they were
published?
The general interpretation of The Sonnets is that they are a story of 3 people, namely the
speaker, the fair friend and the dark lady. The story is about a love triangle between these three in
which the dark lady steals the fair friend from the speaker; the speaker then blames the woman for
stealing his friend and compares her to the devil in Sonnet 144 by saying “I guess one angel in
another’s hell” (Shakespeare Sonnet 144 line 11).3 You can impose the story of these three on most
of the sonnets, but some reject them, this could suggest that The Sonnets were not meant to be
written as a unity.4 The sonnets were published after Shakespeare’s death in The First Folio,
meaning that Shakespeare has had no influence on in which order the sonnets were published; that
suggests that there is a chance that the sonnets were not published in the order they were written in.5
Are the sonnets addressed to a single person or not? For each individual sonnet, is it possible
to determine what the gender of the addressee is?
While most of the sonnets remain ambiguous on who or what the gender the addressee is, there are
certainly poems where the gender of the addressee can be uncovered, like is the case in Sonnet 20,
for example.6 Lines 3-4 tell us that the addressee has all the best qualities of a woman but not the
2 All information, except the quote from Cressy’s article, used for answering this question came from Paul
Franssen’s lecture on September 8th 2020.
3 Information retrieved from Paul Franssen’s Seminar on September 9th 2020.
4 Information retrieved from Paul Franssen’s Seminar on September 9th 2020.
5 Information retrieved from Paul Franssen’s Lecture on September 8th 2020.
6 Information retrieved from Paul Franssen’s Seminar on September 9th 2020.
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