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Sailing
past scatological flotsam (such as “O, Scheisse...”
in 1) and phallic jetsam, one finds in the offing a remarkable poem about
Will’s procedures and frustrations as a writer, with “tan,
sacred beauty” (3) meaning “parchment”—the inscrutable
Q text, a variant of the Perverse Mistress (see 14) that “blunts”
the poet’s purposeful pen. “Tan” suggests hide darkened
from the sunlike friend’s brightness. And darkness rationalizes
such motific conceits as guiding stars (4), blindness (7), oblivion (10),
and prison (12).
Plays on singing (a “wandering
bark,” e.g., is an unpitched yawp) merge with details about
“heavenly” music, writing, and a “sweet [i.e., Sonnets
/ Runes] compound” (13) that’s lively and irrational (see
1), “sick of Will-fare” (6), and wide-ranging (7). Diction
about building and enclosures includes Spheares (7)—a namepun
suggesting “rounds/runes” as well as Globes. The concurrent
long-line pun “...austere ‘S-speare’-sapience eye, T.T.,
ed[itor]” engages Thomas Thorpe, Will’s printer.
Routine “eye-wit”
puns conflate vision with erect “I’s,” “under-eyes”
or testicles, tortured shrieks, and affirmations (“ayes”).
To “sound a kind of meatiness” is, bawdily, “to plumb
a mate.” Misogynistic bawdry includes the pun “Endure th’
itch [= h] below of th’ rolled, aye fecund end” (12),
overlaid on “country” wit that’s akin to some of Hamlet’s
overt puns.
Of two examples
that add scatology to the mix, the first is a wife-berating typographic
joke employing m as an inverted w: “O, Scheisse-quick
object, is Hath-the-[w]ay end, an ‘O’ part serrating you...”
(1-2), and “...beau, iron turds I rune, dirty below oft-heralded
ass, cunt-end fork homme pounds weight of organ, gift ample,
sour...” (encoded in Q 12-14 as ... bo rne toourdes i re,Vn
der the b low oft hralled d is cont ent, Forc om pounds weet; F orgoin,
gf imple sauor,...). Such low wit skews the term compound
sweet in 13 and suggests that the pun “...austere Sphere
is benefitted” (7) has in mind the “O” as a pictographic
orifice, “an O-part” (see 1).
More personal wit about
the Shakespeares includes, e.g., “Hath-the-[w]i...” (1) and
various Anne-puns (e.g., 6, 8, 11) and plays on “Annie,” Will,
and “...speare” (7). The play “Anne, sick of Will’s
heir, found a kind of Meatiness” (6) may pun on “Ham,”
the son named Hamnet, and about Anne’s weight gain and later corpulence.
“Compound sweet” (13) suggests both the twins, Ham
and Judy, with “simple favor” denoting “Sue.”
“T’ Anne S., acred body, be land the sharpest intents”
may point to Will’s 1602 purchase of 107 acres of Stratford land,
and more generally to his acquisition of area property.
“Quick objects”
may mean the Shakespeares’ living children—the “two
raised up live” (Q to raz’d op liu [10])—so
that line 1 may mean that reason has played no part in Anne’s rearing
of the poet’s two daughters—another “compound sweet.”
Other personal puns include “Home, m’ Annie sought oft, her
‘...speare’ is benefitted” (7). Hints about
Oedipus’s blindness (see, e.g., 1, 7) remind us that in his leave-taking
scene before exile Sophocles’ hero also leaves two daughters
behind. One meaning in 14 may be that “...Anne S., acred...,”
keeps the family intact.
Readers who don’t find
such personal speculations intriguing may stick to the more basic job
of ferreting out the poet’s sequential train of thought in the runic
linestring text.
Closing puns in
that her skill (14) include “theatre-skill” and “theatres
kill,” amplifying the “Globe” play in 7.
Sample Puns
1)
O, Scheisse, quick, cob; Office queue I see
[suggesting the acrostic codeline]; Hosea seek you, I see cobs to shit
at; see cob Jack shitteth; men; mend; m’ end
1-2)
know bear, decorating you rabid; the theme Indian appeared, serrating
you; I Acts hated, emend no parts; emend no part creating Eve, Rabbett
[see Butterworth 208], aye perfect (a peer-sect befit); serrating every
body; Creating every body a peer-sect beast
2) Reading
Jew rabid appears; rabbi dapper f--ked beast
2-3) bad
a peer-sect be, if Titans agree
2-4)
jury bade a peer’s ass t’ befit Anne’s acred, bawdy,
blond, heavy piston
3) Tense,
acrid, bawdy, blunt this harpist; Anne is assy, red, bawdy, blond, titty
sharp as tents
3-4) pissed-in
tent city sight I, Southy, Host Tar, Tower yonder eye; tent city is t’
Esther towery, wan
4)
It is the Ashtaroth o’ Eve, runed; I tease this tar, too, Harry
W. entering bark; sight Southy’s Tartary wan (wandering jabber)
4-5)
eying Gibbar, jet Hathaway hoisted; drying jib, Ark t’ Hathaway
hoisted; in jabber kidded I, a voice t’ Ed
5) hoist
Ed’s ale to all the winds
5-6)
Ed fellatio-alto [respite] indecent seeks; you Indies end
6) Handy
sikh, kiss Will; Eying disease, quay of Will fair sound—a kind
O’s “meatness”; meat in ass; maiden ass; awful Saracen
Dagon does meet; I see Kiev well, seraph on deacon does “meat”
an ass; aching, do summit nice see
6-7) meet
an ass-fume—Annie’s “O” stout hear; Show half
m’ Annie, aye Southy o’ fatter spheres benefited
7) Hathaway—m’
Annie—eye, Southy; austere asp here has been sighted; oats, tear
soft arras
7-8) to
Dan (Eden), dietary end, heaven, austere S’speare’s been sighted
and died; t’ Ed Anne died—why rant?
8)
I in didie ran to heavenly surety; urine, the venal ease you read, aching;
know leisure t’ ache in; a venal, azure tea aye ken; Handy, eye
Tyre—and the windlass [i.e., indirect route] you’re taking
8-9)
leave you red a keener “O” in my ass
9)
own m’ Israel t’ eye, swear, ass, rail; O, rune misery, ill—’tis
wiry, frail recipes; oar; O-rune—my surrealities—weary, surreal
our space; whore, on my frail tease-wires rail eye subtle itch; W., Harry’s
“rail” errs, pissed ill, itched
9-10) steal
each Torah
9-11)
eye still equator-haze, doubly venal Dis, part in dread
10) Zed
(i.e., Z), O, be-leaf I; Lavinia’ll despair; Live, I own G. Eld’s
part and…make the hymn be horny turd of ire
10-11) his
Pa, our tender “adder” makèd Ham, born to our desire…;
adder maketh amber net, hoards ire
11) End dear
Adair, maggot hymn, born toward ease, I rune
11-12) runed,
ruddy be lusty herald; tardy ass, I rune, dirty below; whore in a Tower,
desire you endured
11-13) Anne
(deride her) maked Ham., born to our desire…
12)
“Ready below” oft heralds cunt-end
12-13) reedy
blows th’ Raleigh tedious cunt-end for compound sweet; In, diverse
hommes, pound Swede’s whore!
13) Fork [i.e.,
groin, utensil] homme pounds, we eat; wit’s orgy ingest
aye (in jest eye), m’ play savor
13-14) laugh
hoarse, hiccup, Southy—to thy supper, pussied Hath.; plays (please)
aver Jacob, Southy
14) Circe
keeps Thetis poor; Sheikh pissed, he taught his peer, pussied Hat., her
skill; this porpoise hatters kill; fetid hearse kill; Europe, oft t’
Hatteras keel
Acrostic Wit
The downward
acrostic codeline—OCT IT AH AOT AVFS—insists
on encoding a date. In fact, the letterstring seems to play with the date
of the defeat of the Spanish Armada (8 Aug. ’88) while suggesting
a specific date and situation in Will’s life during the year
before Q came out in May 1609. Undogmatic decodings include these samples:
“Oct. 8, ’O8, Office [i.e., duty; a locale],” “Oct.,
I t[o] a hot office,” “Oct. eyed, I hate office,” “Oct.,
eye tidy office,” “Octet I hate, a vice,” “Octet,
aye 8 [lines], half-ass[d],” and “Oct 17 [=IT], eye hot office
[suggesting ‘passionate duty’].”
The reading
“O, see T that I halve…” puns about making
a “7” from “T.”
The upward
code—S FV AT OAH AT I T C O—suggests, e.g.,
“Ass, if you ‘8, ’08’ eye,’tis so,”
“Ass feud owe [acknowledge] aye, hated company,” “5
of you eyed aout [F. Aug.] 17 [etc.]. So....,” “S.-feud
owed I to company,” “…I toted (?) company” (as
“I’m carrying the company financially” ), “I to
a hatted company,” “I tow a hated company,” “…to
a ‘Hat.’ed’ country [i.e., Stratford?],”
and “…I, two-witted, coo”—with “To wit”
amplifying “office” as “duty.”
The
down/up hairpin suggests, e.g., “October 8 [17?], ‘08, offices
few, I to a hated [heated, Hat’ed] company,” “…offices
of a toad I take, O.”
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