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Comments
This
rune about Will’s creativity and the listening friend’s
response to it likens the poet to a laboring wife or mistress giving birth
to offspring art that the friend fathers but—after advancing (8)
to hear (9) and see (12) it—finds lamentable, something to “moan”
(1) and “curse” (14) over. The pun “that witch I bring
forth” (2) characterizes the bastard Runes and helps explain why
Will’s auditor might finally “add a curse” (14). In
Q’s form curfe, the overlaid eyepun “curve”
suggests something rounded--maybe an eye shape, a written flourish, or
the “female” form the friend has engendered in the speaking
(male) poet. The “curve” may also be a pregnant belly; a smile
(antithetical to a “curse”); a “round” and thus
a rune; or—as we still might say—a surprise ball thrown crooked.
Terms
and puns that suggest labor and child-bearing include
“wife,” “moan” (1); “I am famed [i.e., made
whorish] by that which I bring forth” (2); “Th’ huss,
do I pain and surfeit” (5); “the son” (6); “these
offices” (7), implying wifely duties; “that which [the offspring]
doth say” (9), perhaps just a loud bawl; “if he thrive”
(10); “still shall live” (11), paradoxically suggesting stillbirth;
and “gross panting” (12). “Make” in Will’s
day meant “mate” (see 3). Subtextual phallic wit about the
listening friend’s “awl,” “hard,” and “advances”
add sexual comedy. And Will’s “Pen” is suitably phallic.
A crude eyepun always lurks in Q’s form such, which looks
like fuch (11).
Economic
terms and puns include leased,” “your money”
(1), “worth,” “owes” (4), “offices”
(7), “advance” (8), “thrive” (10), “gross,”
“mite” (12), “more,” “one,” (13),
“be less,” and “add” (14). Terms about eyes include
“look” (1, 7), “perceivest” (3), and “one
of your fair eyes” (13). A “gross painting” (12)—to
which one might “add a curve”—has visual appeal, of
course, and the Sun (6) is the “eye of heaven.”
Because
Q’s “shamed” is an eyepun on “famed,”
line 2 shows the runic capacity of concurrent contradiction, also apparent
in curse/curve (14)—and indeed routine in Q’s printed
forms. Typical examples here of “automatic” puns are wise/wife;
should/fold/fooled/fouled; moan/money (1); love/low
(3); which/witch (4); sun/son (6); say/fey/fay
(9); then/thin; thrive/through (10); shall/fall;
live/low (11); gross/gruff/grows; used/versed/viced/wifed
(12); more/moor; life/leaf; and fair/Sire/sere (13).
Given that s
and f look alike, Q’s form groffe (12) even puns
on “giraffe”! The pun “my pendant, hairy giraffe panting”
(11-12) gains phallic innuendo in context.
The punning joke “There lives more life in one of your
fairies...” (13) may mock effete courtier friends of Henry Wriothesley,
the Earl of Southampton, Will’s only known patron, plausibly “Harry”
or “Southy,” a man who once spent time in The Tower. Overlaid
earl-roasting puns in 13-14 include, e.g., “The Earl I use, m’
whore lies anon, O. If you’re S., Harry S., why, owe [i.e., admit]
Tower be odious. Be laughing, sad, as you rise.” (Any play in Q
on “Riz...” puns on “Wriothesley,” pronounced
“Rizley.”) Southampton is a traditional favorite for the slot
of “Mr. W.H.” (the Earl’s initials reversed) named in
Q’s puzzling dedication, which is signed “T.T.” and
thus implicates Thomas Thorpe, known to be Will’s printing agent.
Q forms play
rampantly on the name Will (see 7), and scholars have already suggested
that “And” in Q may pun on Anne (e.g., see 12). Puns about
Will’s daughter Susannah (Mrs. John Hall) include, e.g., “Used
t’ ill, S. Hall lives if you see her too (11) and “You’re
fair aye, Sue [Q s,/You]...” (13-14). Bitter wit
about Will’d dead son, Hamnet also occurs: e.g., “...dusty,
adieu, aye in Satan think Hamnet S., or th’ Hath-way itched...”(8-9)
and “Fore, eye amiss Ham’t: Bedded witch I bring forth”
(2). “The Son is daily old and new” (6) may cloak a poignant
personal comment.
Anne-berating
wit is typically rampant, keyed here to the pun on “wife”
(1), echoed as “Make [i.e., Mate] S.” in the pun “This
thou perceivest, Witch Make, stale oaf, m’ whore (...Witch S., tail
of Mooress t’ wrong)...”(3). Other examples occur: e.g., “I
am shamed by th’ Hat-witch aye” (2); “Odd, you Anne
see” (in Q’s aduance, 8); “...Hath-way chide,
County Anne S., th’ huss, doughy pain Anne S...” (Q 4-5, where
containes encodes bawdy humor, suggesting “Cunt[y] Anne
S.”); and “Anne, die, be Cast-away...,” a play
on “Hathaway” (10). The telescoped form “You-to-y”
(14)—i.e., “Ut-e-way”—links “Uterus”
and “Hathaway” in a demeaning synecdochic form.
Allusive
puns include “Leafed [i.e., Imprinted] Titus you
hurled. Should Luke end, too? Why? Harmony...” (1); “Of
Orestes, you and I said, ‘Alien, inane [w = IN] dolt’”
(6); “Bawdy Howard, a Limey ordained...”; and “bawdy
whore Ptolemy ardent dost advance” (8). One pun may be about selling
poetry: “Leaf’d, the wise world showed low canto: your money
ever iamb shamed...” (1-2).
Sample Puns
1)
Leaf[ed] Titus you hurled, should Luke end, too? wife, whore
old; W., Earl S.; S. Hall, loo-kin too; money
1-2)
cantor, moan for Amos; Amos Ham debated; lo, key, in Tower moan
for aye; eying toy, harmony of O rhyme; moan ever iamb shamed
2)
Fore “I” eye, m’ famed, bitty 8 which I bring
forth; W.H. eye, jabbering forth; I am shamed by th’ Hat.-witch
2-3)
For Ham. S., Ham’t, by that witch, I bring forth this; I bare inch
sore that high is, thou perceivest
3)
Th’ hissed Hooper see you; you Percy used t’ hitch my aches
to hell; my castle of amour is strong
3-4)
Witch, Make S., thy low Moor Shakespeare runed, he worthy of
that is
4)
Howard hoisted ass t’ Hathaway aye, itched cunt, anus (Annie
S.); Th’ warts (words); oft Hat.—aye, Southy, too—itched;
’tis t’ Hath-way shitty, cunty Annie S.; county anus
4-5)
Annie S., th’ huss, (cunty anus thus) do I pee in, Anne deserve(d)
it day by day 5 Thus (T’ us) Dauphin (dolphin) ends your set; Annie
sedes do eye
5-6)
die, bitty f---er (heifer)
6)
Of Orestes, Eunice dallying Anne told; alien window lattice;
Forest; Fore eye, Southy Sun, is daily new, untold; Fon; son; fore-ass,
this honey ass dallying anew, end old; Wendell
7)
These offices soft eye, Southy, willed t’ Luke; Thief;
Th’ sea office is soft, aye Southy, O you wilt; Will it; sauce taste,
howl, t’ loo; Howell 7-8 thou will t’ loo keep you, T.T.
8)
Butt Howard—awl mired (merd, “merdy”) and dusty;
whore Ptolemy ardent dost advance; all merdy, Hindu fit advanced; Beauty,
O, you hard awl, my hard end dost advance; my hard Anne
8-9)
Hindu hoisted wand, Satan thank him not for that; wan (one) seed thin
t’ hanky Hamnet farted
9)
Thin th’ hank [i.e., coil, skein] Hamnet farted, witchèd
oaths aye; earthy twitch hid oath fey
8-10)
awl, my hard, Anne deux [suggesting corpulence] Shakespeare’d
wand seed in—thank him not for that; thank him not for that witch
he doth fatten, aye fatter Annie be
9-10)
…hid ode o’ Satan; Satan eye, shitter (shudder), eye fiend,
abyss t’ awe aye (aye be cast away)
10) The
knave hit Harry, one debases two; Annie B. Cast-away
10-11) to
a ewer—ass, till—is Hall
11)
itch may be anal; You, Shakespeare, ill fall; Hall, Livy see f--k virtue
11-12)
Used “till” of Hall, low, f--k, weird youth, maybe in Anne
died her gross panting, mite be better wifed; land there, grove fey be
11-13)
hate may be anal and t’ Harry gross panting, my jet be better used
t’ harry loose Moor
12) my
jet be bitter, wifed (whiffed); my jet (midge t’) be better versed;
eye rigor of panting
12-13) hear
giraffe panting (mite, baby terse did hear)
13) T’
Harry, Livy is more license—your ass, Harry S.; T’ Harry,
lose some more life (there lives Moor lice) in one of your fairies; sorry
ass; moor olive [scatological?]; Orly see, Onan
13-14) an
onus, you’re Pharisee, out o’ your bawdy ass be laughing,
wan, o’ sewer sour
14) sad,
icy your sea; curve; Your “tower” bawdy, O, use, be laughing,
sad, dick you raise (erase); you to your boat, I owe you subtle f---ings;
Sadducee, you’re fey
Acrostic Wit
The
downward lefthand acrostic code—LFTTT FT BTTY A TY—suggests,
e.g., “Leaf’d fit [i.e., ‘paged stanza’] be tidy,”
“Left T.T. [i.e., Thomas Thorpe, Will’s printing agent] fit
bitty at Y [i.e., crossroads],” “Lofty fit betide (...Betty
eyed). Why?” and “Left fit bitty I tie.” (A “fit”
is a “stanza,” here is the skinny one Will has woven together
down the left side of his main text.)
Variant
readings include these: “Leaf’d T.T. fit bitty, a tie”
(i.e., “Thomas Thorpe foliated and gathered a tiny stanza”;
“Left t’ fit Betty, a tie [i.e., some bit of clothing]”;
and “Left of ‘To be,’ tidy ‘Why?’”
The
reverse (upward) code—Y TAY TT BT FTTT FL—suggests,
e.g., “Y[e] tie, T.T., bitty fit full,” and “Ye tied
‘To be’ to fit, T.T., fool!” The palindromic strings
TFT and TBT encourage similar meanings in both directions.
These two little letterstrings, respectively, encode “tasty”
(with F = S, conventionally, since f looked like “long s”
in print) and “tidy” (since B is an eyepun on 8, with its
phonic value “ate”). Because T can mean “tea,”
a gastronomic motif emerges in these code elements.
The
pair TT always suggests a play on breasts. Here the play links with suggestions
of the terms full, tight, tasty, bit, bitty/Betty, and lift/left—maybe
the left one, as opposed to, say, the right.
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