Sonnet 138 Essay

927 Words4 Pages
Commentary 1. When my love swears that she is made of truth, made of truth = all truthfulness; faithful in love; unable to lie. With a pun also on 'maid of truth', a true virgin. 2. I do believe her though I know she lies, There may be a religious connection in this idea of believing what one knows to be impossible. At about this period the doctrine was advanced that the more preposterous Christian truth was, the greater was the act of faith in believing it, and therefore the greater were one's merits in the eyes of Christ the Redeemer in making the act of faith. Here the lover is compelling himself to believe what he knows (by a sixth sense?) to be untrue, that his mistress is faithful to him. 3. That she might think me some untutored youth, That = in order that, so that. untutored youth = a green youth, without any knowledge of how mature humans behave. Compare Cleopatra's protestations, on looking back over her liaison with Julius Caesar: .............My salad days, When I was green in judgement, cold in blood, To say as I said then! AC.I.5.73-5. 4. Unlearned in the world's false subtleties. unlearned = with no knowledge of, not having studied. The final -ed syllable is pronounced. the world's false subtleties = the ways of the world; the cynical tactics which older people use to advance themselves. Compare sonnet 66, which lists some of the world's false subtleties: Tired with all these, for restful death I cry, etc. 5. Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, vainly = to satisfy my vanity; with futility and stupidity; ineffectually. 6. Although she knows my days are past the best, PP gives: Although I know my yeares be past the best. (See above). In both cases the meaning is clear, and the poet acknowledges that the days of his youth are past. In the Q version the emphasis is
Open Document