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Comments: 105A
Given
how hard it is to express the friend’s nature, Will—beauty’s
“singer” (2-3)—chooses a “classic” approach.
He illustrates his own “blunt invention” with strained conceits
(1, 4, 6) and irregular lines (2, 3) before settling on “constancy”
and the traditional (but “antic”) techniques of an “antique
pen” (8, 10-11) so as to avoid “Incertainties” (9) and
energize his efforts.
The powerful
primal figure of the “dyer’s hand” in the dye suggests
“ink” and objectifies the poet’s isolated self-preoccupation
as he pursues his project; the pun “dire sand” comments on
the swift passage of time (see 6)—in a tantalizing line that seems
a clue about dating the Q texts.
“Incertainties”
that Will “rejects” include aromas (1, 6) and the incorporeal
song of a bird (4), as well as trite conceits, standard poeticisms (1,
4), and halting lines. He associates the antique mode with “constancy”
(7) and links it with such details as “expressed” (8), “crown[ed],”
“assured” (9), “just” (11), “work”
(13), “None else” (14), and “old thing” (10)—but
also, oxymoronically, with “youth” (12) and “alive”
(14).
Figures for
Will’verse (7) include “s[o]ng” and “lay(s)”
(2, 3, 4), “pencil” (3), “invention” (5), and
“blenches” (12), the last suggesting “backward”
glances, inconstancies (see 7, 9), tricks, blemishes, and blank pages.
“Blunt” (5) suggests a dull pen; “antic pen wood”
(8) puns on “crazy, playful writer”; “no pencil”
(3) suggests “invisible writing” and puns “know th’
ancile [i.e., tutelary shield, a conceit I’ve found elsewhere for
letterstring codelines that “cover” multiple meanings].”
Puns about writing include “half expressed” (8); “X-pressed”
as “acrostic printed”; “incertainties know, see round”
(9); “counting” (10); “Just to the time” (11,
suggesting “strict in meter”); and “None’ll see
tome inner, eyed o[f] none alive” (14).
Initial
acrostic plays suggest Southampton, “Southy”—C
/I /The (10-12, downward) and C/I/T/T/T/Tha (10-5, upward).
Scents—gaseous
things—dominate 1 and 6 and link with the pun “over[head]
goes my ballooned invention quiet” (5), an epithet for
the Runes (balloon OED 1634, from It. ballone).
This
variant has some good features that 105B lacks, including topical links
between “marjoram” (105A.1) and “perfumes” (6) and
among “hair,” “blenches,” and a vat of dye.
Comments: 105B
Rune
105 is a strong poem, and 105B seems to me the superior textual
variant.
As in 105A, the opening
here illustrates the truth that nature may be better than the poet at
conveying its own beauty. The B text opens more vividly and gains paradoxical
wit—because “beauty” here indeed becomes its own “pencil”
and “lays” is own truth, forcing the poet back to “constancy,”
to timelessness rather than nature in any concrete form. Bracketed by
colorful singing “roses” (1) and the liquid “dye”
of the poet’s vat (13-14), this animated text stays in the mind
and generates an absorbing image of the poet at work.
Nonetheless,
105B loses some good features, including the association that the other
variant establishes between marjoram (105A.1) and April perfumes
(6) and between stol’n (105A.1) and to constancy confined
(7)—since a theft implies inconstancy.
Alternately,
the “message” of 105B.2-4 might come from the poet’s
own lips, making the rose’s song to him abstract, and having him
put its moral into his own words.
Will
again seems to be addressing his beautiful muse (2, 10), as in
105A and in many if not most texts elsewhere in Q. Because beauty is not
a good publicist for itself (1-4) and catching this friend’s beauty
is hard, Will—as beauty’s “singer” (2-3)—settles
on a conservative approach. He illustrates his own “blunt invention”
with strained or cliched poetic figures (1, 4, 6) and irregular lines
(2, 3) before settling on “constancy” (7) and the traditional
(but “antic”) techniques of an “antique pen” (8, 10-11).
Thus he avoids “Incertainties” (9) and re-energizes his efforts.
As in the A variant, the powerful figure here of the silent “dyer’s
hand” at work—in dye (13-14) that suggests ink—objectifies
the poet’s self-preoccupied isolation as he pursues his hard project.
The concurrent pun “dire sand” (13) comments on the swift passage
of time, as does line 6—a vague, tantalizing reference that seems
to house autobiographical clues. “Dire sand,” especially in
the context of the obliterated Runes, may also suggests the destructive
power of erasure.
“Incertainties”
that Will purports to reject in both variants include not only
trite figures and lame lines but also aromas (1, 6) and a bird’s
song (4). Terms for his own verse (7) include “s[o]ng,” “lay(s),”
“pencil,” “invention” (2-5), and “blenches”
(12). The last word means side glances and tricks (OED) but, as “blanches,”
also denotes “whitenings” (contrast “a vat of dye”)
and thus empty pages. “Blunt” (5), a pun on “blonde,”
implies a dull pen, and “no pencil” (3) suggests “hidden
writing.”
Other
puns about the Runes include “half expressed” (8),
“…see rune, th’ hymn of elves” (9), and “None’ll
see tome inner, eyed o’ none alive” (14). “Roses standing
on thorns” (1) also stand for the symbiotic Sonnets/Runes. (In Q,
“rose” always puns on “rows” as “lines of text.”)
Other organic puns include “dyed fit- [stanza-]end” (1) and
“lacy stem” (2). One witty “blench” here is that a
thorn (see 1) might be “what …works in …the dyer’s
hand” (13).
“Lay”
(2, 3) and “Philomel” (4) are poetic forms for “song/to
sing” and “nightingale.” “Their” (8) points back
remotely to “roses” and “thy lays” (1-2) while implying
ancient authors, with antique/antic an automatic pun in Q.
Ambiguities
in 9 allow overlaid readings that help effect transition into
the closing sestet. Book-ended by colorful singing “roses” (1)
and the “dye” of the poet’s vat (13-14), this thorny text
stays in the mind for its absorbing image of Will at work.
Sample Puns
105A
1)
Handy butt soft Major rammed; Anne débuted, Sue summery
roamed, fiddling there; Anne-debit’s awesome; Aye Nate, butt soft,
m’ Harry, our homme, had stolen
1-2)
to hell, nadir, sin jetted here; A-row made Shakespeare old, Nate high,
Harry singed; eye deft old knight harassing toothy seer; Why Harry’s
ingot o’ the ear [i.e., earring] that doth th’ high laces
[i.e., ruff] team?
105B
1)
Tarots easier fool John; Th’ Row F is ass-earful yon (John);
thorns [archaic “th” characters]; Row 6 (i.e.,Row
F) has two y’s = thorns]; dyed; the rough ass Circe’ll
lie on, the horny ass; lions the horns did stain
1-2) on
thorny ass didst I, in Dis [the capital of the Inferno] inch to th’
earth a tad (...I did)
105A and 105B
2)
Sing, toothy Harry, t’ Hat, doughty lays; tot herded Atlas’s
team
2-3) my
body eye in open cell, beauteous turd hid, Olé! ass-team
be you t’ eye in open field; thy lacy “stem” bawdy no
pencil be; in “O,” pencil bee
3-4) rude
Italy eye, ass
4) Ass,
feel o’ male in ass; feel o’ m’ hell-lines
4-5) Summer
[i.e., Metricist] S. surroundeth, sin jetted o’er Jews; mer
surroundeth singed Hat.; avenge th’ Tower, ghost, my blond
John
5) The
Tower Ghost, my blond invention quiet [suggesting Southampton; Hamlet,
Sr.]; over[head] goes my balloon’d invention quiet
5-6) you
eye tether, ape wry, leper, some sin (scene) there
6) Th’
rape, our ill—parse you ms., John; th’ red Eve in ass burned;
tunes be earned; perfume scent, Harry hot; hot aye, Venus burned; peers,
you miss interior tunes
6-7) your
Nate (knight) t’ Harry’s whore may veer
7) Tee!
Harry’s whore, my V, arse, took; my verse to Son Shakespeare, Anne,
seize on, find; two cunts tan, sea-son, find (sinned, send, scent); tokens
tan see, yes, unsigned; O, rhymey verse, toucan fit, Anne seize
7-8) toucan,
sit and seize Anne’s end, icy t’ Harry; T’ Harry S.
or my Vere is Edo constant, season find icy
8) eye
satyr antique; eye quip, newelled [suggesting a “woody” post]
half express; Eye “feetier,” antic pen wood [suggesting a
crazy writer], half-expressed; you penult[…imate] half express
8-9)
eye quip, new/old, half-expressed incertainties
9) John
certain is: Know John [W=IN], see rowne, the Massey leaves half-heard;
Insert Auntie S. in ochre rune; eye snow, see runed hymns, elves half
heard; John, sir, tint I (certain t’ eye) snow; Insert Auntie S.,
now see Row N, Anne [et], Ham S, hell we see suffered
9-10) the
missal, you ass, aver, deacon (Dagon) tinging O, holding gold hominy aye
10) Cunt,
engine o’ old, dead angel (angle)
10-11) old
hominy eaten eye you; Oldham (old home) Annie eyed in Age (edge = margin)
of T.T.; m’ Annie eye, tiniest tot had I, minnow, tow-headed (to
wit, hid)
11) Witty
Tommy exchanged the sable inches, gave my art another youth; Lust, loosed,
juiced, Jew-assed; knot witty; mix changed
11-12) my
X [= cross] see, hanged thief blanches, jaw may hurt
12) Jew; my
art; as gome, ye are tan; ass, gummier tenet hear
12-13) my
hard Anne, oather, you’d hit; youth-twat, it works John like the
dyer’s hand, an anal, fit “O”
13) Twatted
whore kissing liked; in hell eye Kyd, E. Dyer [d. 1607]
13-14) twat
I tore, kissing, kicked headier ass, handy nun, elf tome; E. Dyer shan’t
know knell of Tommy, nor I; handy nun’ll see tome, Henry too, anon;
meaner “I” to none, awl I you (ewe);
14) meaner
“I” to none, awl I you (ewe); None’ll see, too, minaret,
O none alive; to minor Eton (Eden), wan, olive; Anne, orating, won olive;
In O’Neill see Tommy, know written “O’Neill” aye
Acrostic Wit
105A
The emphatic
downward codeline—AS BATTTI ICI TT N—suggests
such readings as these: “As Betty, eye kitten,” “A spot
I sit in,” “As bait I cite [line] 10,” “A spate
deciding,” “A sub-attack attend,” “A sub-étiquette
t’ end,” “As bait, T.T., eye Satan,” “I
spot T.T., too, sitting,” “As bait, T.T. teased 10,”
“Ass-bat, T.T. teased 10 [inches],” “A sabbatic eye,
T.T., end,” “A sabbaticate end,” and “Elizabeth
[Assy-Betty] Catherine [Cate’n]” (the granddaughter’s
name?).
The codestring
CITTN seems insistent here, as in 105A. As usual, the superfluity
of TT wit suggests that the poet has his printing agent, Thomas Thorpe,
in mind.
The
upward codeline—NTT I CIIT TT A BSA—might
mean, e.g., “Indicate T.T., a B.S. eye (a titty, aye busy),”
“End ticket [tacit] T.T. apes aye,” “An etiquette,
aye busy,” “Knight [Night, Nate] I cite [sight], T.T., aye
be icy,” “Knight, eye City topsy,” “Nate eye,
seedy, topsy,” and “And T.T. aye cite Absey [ABC’s].”
The
down-and-up code suggests, e.g., “Aye is Betty a-sitting,
enticed, aye busy (eye Bessie).” The up/down codeline suggests “Knight
I sight, a busy ass, batty Satan.”
105B
The
downward acrostic codeline—TS BAT TT I I CITTN—encodes,
e.g., “’Tis bait: eye aye Satan.”
Acrostic
plays suggest not only Thomas Thorpe but also “Southy”—C
/I /The (10-12) and C/I/I/T/T/Tha (10-5, upward)—i.e.,
Will’s patron, Southampton, whose recorded imprisonment in The Tower
may be the subject of a quietly allusive pun and jibe: “‘The
Tower,’ goes my blunt invention quiet” (5). (“The Tower
ghost, my blonde [i.e., pale] invention quiet” varies this pun, making
it seem to allude to Hamlet.)
Other
readings of this codeline include these samples: “‘’Tis
Betty,’ I sigh t’ ten,” “T’ Sabbaths attend,”
“’Tis bait, T.T., t’ eyesight end,” “’Tis
bad, T.T., t’ eye Satan,” “Tee! ‘Sabbatic’
eyed 10,” “Tea Sabbatic attend [I’d end],” “T’
spite T.T., eye Satan [eyesight end],” and “’Tis Sabbatic
Satan.”
The
upward reverse of the 105B codeline—N TT I CIIT TT A
BST—suggests, e.g., “Night [Knight, Nate] teased T.T.,
a beast [abyssed],” “Entity I sight, I be Shakespeare,”
“Knight, taste T.T., abyssed,” “Knight, taste titty,
a bust [...abused, aye bussed, aye best, abyssed],” “Knotty
seed, T.T., I pissed,” “Knight [Night], eye City t’
eye best [beast],” “In T.T. I shit, I pissed,” “Naughty,
shitty, tup [top] Shakespeare [Saint],” and “Knight, aye shitty,
tap Shakespeare.”
The down/up
hairpin suggests, e.g., “T’ Sabbatic Eden, T.T. I sight, a
beast” and/or “…titty I sight, a bust.”
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