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Rune
135 is another in the ambiguous series of 28 visible sonnets
and 28 hidden runes comprising Sets X-XI in the Q project—mostly
focusing on Will’s infamous, riddlic Dark Lady. As I’ve said
elsewhere, my deduction after finding the Runes is that this Perverse
Ms. is principally a conceit for the poet’s printing project, his
“ms.” or “mss. ” and particularly the hidden Runes,
whose “I’s” are “nothing like the sun”
because printed “I’s” are straight and inky
black, whereas the sun is round and light-bearing, more like a typographic
O. As his “Mystery sighs,” the Runes are indeed inky
black (see 1 here).
The
idea of a “perverse female” who has a controlling
medial relationship between the poet and his unnamed friend—his
primary auditor/muse—is apt because the fates of both men are symbiotically
interlinked with this fickle “Ms.” and her “Mystery
Sighs.” Her “well” (a pudendal pun that also suggests
“inkwell”), the inky darkness of her physical features, and
the two-sidedness of her perverse nature are all characteristics that
recommended her to the poet as a suitable metaphoric equivalent for the
writing project he was undertaking. Too, she provides a suitable “female”
cover to mask the homophile odor of the visible Sonnets, which often have
the poet addressing his male friend in tones of deep affection—though
coupled with frustration and implicit criticisms.
Most
Q texts gesture in some way or other toward this unnamed friend.
Here, e.g., he seems to be the “thee” of lines 7-8, 13. All
three figures in the shadowy drama here—poet, mistress, friend—seem
to be “unjust[ified] plotters” needing “excuse”
(11-13).
Rauen
in line 1 is a fairly convincing pun on “Rune.” Among many
latent puns in 1-2 here is “Therefore my ‘Mystery Sighs,’
our Rune, blacked O [i.e., a round, a rune] be....” Like others
in Q, the poem depends heavily on such tedious, suggestive puns as mad/made,
well/will/Will, they/th’ eye, heart/hard/art, knows/nose, and
fold/fhould (see 14). Such puns as Mistress’ Eyes/Mystery
Sighs and plays on “To be...” as a “saw”
that “tickled th’ eye” (see 2) are fully congruent with
more apparent elements in the poet’s game of double entendre. Most
puns of this order distract the mind rather than advancing the straightline
sense of the text.
Typical
puns on writing and printing include these:
1) “Th’
airy form y’ miss,” “I’s,” “mss.,”
“our Rune black,” inkiness;
2) change
their state, suggesting “shift printed forms,” “shift
from sonnets to runes”;
4) speak,
well (see 13);
7) art
(see 11); “Peer, eye fon, mere, tinty, steel boss [i.e., a
protuberance, something embossed] o’ ms. weird (...warty),”
describing inked typebits;
10) number (playing
on “metrics”);
11) plot; “Merdy
th’ inky thoughts you see--our old plot”;
12) knot...unjust
(suggesting “puzzle unjustified,” a printing
term); and
13) “X’s
theme ye allow.” The last line puns, “Of orifice old [suggesting
an O], ‘Dis-pair’ [i.e., hellish pair, Sonnets/Runes] I sold,
G-row [i.e., line 7] made.”
Puns
on Wyatt (e.g., in yet [4, 9], and in the acrostic string WB
= W8 [see below]) complement those on Will as allusive references to sonneteers
of two ages.
Family wit
includes these puns: 3) “Maiden,” “John” [= In./Jn.],
Sue [i.e., Mrs. John Hall]; 3-4) “...Sue, I love to hear her speak,”
linking with such bawdry as “Maiden [Midden = dunghill] John pursued—Anne...”
and “John, position Sue, ‘I’ low to harass...”;
4-5) “Piquèd ‘well’ I know, Anne died obese,
your Anne [= et] Hat. is not…”; 11-12) “Why,
S. Hall (Wise Hall...), think that a several plot?” and “I
Sue see, our ‘Hall’ plot bawdy...” ; and 14) “If
‘O’ [i.e., round, rune] arises, Hall despairs, Hall’d
grow mad!”
Coded
topical allusions to Southampton (Will’s only known patron,
often suggested as the handsome friend of the Sonnets) also accumulate—in
“ward,” the sea analogue (for Southy had a naval background),
“prison,” and “plot” (7-11)--so that “she”
(12) may suggest Elizabeth I. Line 12 is a Southy putdown: “Bawdy
W., Harry’s whore-face veined: Scheisse you nosed?”
(12). Line 14 houses another dig: e.g., “Foe Rizzy’s hole
did I spay (spy)--Harry S., hole digger, ‘O’-mate.”
“‘To
be...’ saw tickled th’ eye...” (2) alludes to the line
from Hamlet, already an old saw by 1609. (And see the acrostic
code, below.) Q’s To be... (2) overruns the “2B”
gameboard slot (i.e., 2nd element, 2nd row).
Legal
terms vaguely amplify the “document” motif and highlight
diction that links plots, injustice, justification, and determination
of madness. Statute (8) conflates “written text”
and “legal action,” while related legalese include change
their state, (2), possession (3), I swear (5),
Prison, ward (7), seal (9), plot (11), unjust
(12), and excuse (13).
Numerical
wit inheres, e.g., in four (1, 14), two (2,
6), number, untold (10, i.e., “untallied”), several
(11), and “di-S.-pair” (14).
Other
echoic linkages include Therefore/wherefore/For (1,
12, 14); Made/madde (3, 14); Rauen/raine (1, 9); “well
I know” / “well knowes” (4, 13); the end-words so/know/knowes
and vntold/vniust; “to hear her speak” / “says
she” (4, 12); “To be so” / “to be sure”
(2, 5); and the recurring “my heart” (7, 11).
Line 14 ingeniously
uses the gamy clue “G-row” to urge a shorthand interpolation
of the poet’s G-row (i.e., line 7): “For if I should despair,
I should [prison my heart in thy steel bosom’s ward], mad.”
Sample Puns
1)
my mystery-sighs are rune-black; raving; Raven may point
to R. Greene’s “upstart Crow” attack; T’ Harry W.,
our mime aye stirs, fey siren be Jack
1-2) our
raven be jacked opposite ankle
2) Toby
sought eke Lady Wood’s hanged heir; vertical did he ewe hold; Two
be foe to heckle death aye; change their state suggests “shift
printed forms,” “shift from sonnets to runes”; deacon,
get hearse t’ hate
2-3) see
hanged Heir S. t’ hate my Eden pure; see hanged arrested maiden pure;
t’ Hall (the Yule) deacon jetters tied maiden; timid John pursued
Anne in pussy; Maiden purse you tend, in pussy-science old Ovid o’er
her (“oarer”) is piquèd [not well], well in O
3) Mad
John pursue, Anne, t’ John poses, eye on his “O”
3-4)
I own fellatio’s rarest peak; Anne in possession, Sue I
love, to hear her speak; I own solo veto here; in pussy, is Zion so ill?
4)
I loved O, a rare ass-peek; I low t’ O’Hara here; I rehearse
pee, kettle lacking, O; eye low Edo, airier is peak; I, Jove, to Harry
here speak, ye too’ll aye know; Harry here is piqued, yet well; well
[pudendal] suggests inkwell, Will, will
4-5)
I know wand to be azure that is not saucy
5)
aye snot falls
5-6)
if you read “Hat., eye snot of Hall,” seize weary ass, th’
hose, too; see if we erased hoofed woe [suggesting Satan]; if Hall, seafarer
aye, stows 2, my horny inches, ass become thy face; knot of Hall Caesar
eased; a few eye erased O, see, too, Homer nighing
6)
runing, I speak o’ meaty sauce; woe, mourning “eyes” become
tough ass
6-7) this
ass-prison, my art (heart); a stuffèd woe, my horn-inches be Commedia’s
aspiration (aspersion) merdy; inches’ commeatus [i.e., passage]
eye, see peer’s “O” in my art (in merd)
6-8) see,
homme, this aye-surprising merd in this teal bow of homme’s
warty, destitute O
7) hissed
ill (eel) be O-foam’s word; wry, fon merit joined hefty eel
7-8) warty
statue teased High Beauty; foamy sword, the ass tight you teased (taste)
8) Th’
estate you diced; howl, T.T., ache
8-9)
T.T. accedie eye, awl white, a writer (rider) see
8-11)
eye, too, tasty bodied Howell, T.T., ache to have eel-water, yet receive
ass-rain, fiddle, then, in the Anne-umbrella, Tommy, pay sevenfold dues
9) The
sea, all white; turd, our icy “I” use, runes till; the seal
(this eel), watery otter see; our anus till; eye Lydian (leaden, Lytton)
Indian, umber lady (laddie) maybe; eye tirrit wreck Eve’s reign
9-10) till
the nightie, an homme bare; the 19 homme[’]s bare
lady maybe halve in two; rune is tilting, aye, Knight Hen, you may be
real t’ me, pacing t’ hole
10) the nine
[the number, phallic, scatological] let me pass [in line 10]; an homme
barreled may be heaven to hold
10-11) Tommy
pays fine t’ hold Wife Hall (wise Hall) demure; old weasel dim ye
hear, T.T.
11) Merdy
th’ inky thoughts you see—our old plot; Waffled merd thin Kate
hid, a few see, herald plot; a few see herald plowed; aye see you our
awl (Hall) bloody; Hat. aye several plowed
11-12) my
heart (art) thinketh a tough, visceral, bloody butt wears whore
12) you to
Harry S. whore, fey Essene ought fasten, aye; Harry’s whore says
fee—not she—is unjust; saucy, note Scheisse unused;
t’ Harry’s whore-face veined, Scheisse you noosed (knifed,
nosed)
12-13) is
Venus to let? Shakespeare’ll Tommy X; Venus’d lady makes you
see theme ye love well; aye you fiddle Tommy
13) see you
fit Ham, my love; I Himmel well know, ass; my Lowell kin owe;
Tommy excused Emilia welliking [i.e.,hardy]
13-14) my
low well-noise fore aye fizzled; in O we suffer, I fizzled; welliking
O we suffer
14) Rizzy’s
hole did I spay (spy); Fore eye fist holed (I fist hold) deaf pair eye,
fold grow mad; holed groom add; eye assault, G-row mad; for if I S.Hall
“dis-pair,” eye S.Hall grow maid; I should Jerome add; deaf
Paris hauled grommet; Paris, hold grommet D; Forest eisell disappears,
Hall, dig remedy; Rome add
Acrostic Wit
The
downward acrostic code, with its pair of TT letterstrings, seems
to have in mind Will’s printing agent, Thomas Thorpe, the previously
identified “T.T.” of Q’s dedication and title pages.
The code—T TMI A APT TT WB LF—suggests, e.g., “T.T.,
my aye-apt T.T., wobbly is [F=S],” “T., Tommy, ape T.T. to
belove,” “T., Tommy, apt to ‘be-leaf’,”
“Titty may be t’ T.T. VV [VV = sagging breasts]-belief,”
“Titty, maybe two, be-leaf,”and “Tee-tee! Maybe T.T.’d
white leave [i.e., space on the page (B=8)].” The codestring WB
= W8 may encode Wyatt, Will’s predecessor as sonneteer. Thus “T’
Tommy I aped Wyatt leaf” is a possible decoding.
The
upward (reverse) code—F LB WT TT PAA IM TT—suggests,
e.g., “Half-pound, weighty pay, eye amt. (...I empty),” “Half-pound
wit (tee-tee!), pay ’im, T.T.,” “Half-pound, 10, to T.T.,
pay I aye empty T.,” “Fool bawdy be empty,” “Fool
be W., T.T., tip ’im, T.T.,” “Half-pound wit T.T., pay
one mite. Tee!” and “Fool be witty, pay him, T.T.” This
cluster of meanings suggests a general focus on the economic bargain that
Will and his printing agent struck—whatever it was—in the
process of getting the Q ms. printed.
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