IndexFirstLines

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Shakespeare’s Lost Sonnets: A Restoration of the Runes
by Roy Neil Graves, Professor of English
The University of Tennessee at Martin

An Index to the First Lines of the Runes

           This index may be useful because readers in time may come to recall some runic numbers by their first lines. Collectively, these are the 155 lines comprising the 11 sonnets that initiate the sets. (The number is 155, not 154, because Sonnet 99, initial in Set VIII, has 15 lines, not 14— triggering aberrational A and B variants in that set, and different openings for Runes 99A and 99B.)

           Locating all of his runic openers inside just 11 overt texts laid a particular set of constraints on the poet—also otherwise much constrained, of course—and had predictable effects on both the cycles that Q houses: The lines of the first sonnet in each set, even the interior lines, were all under pressure to say something that would admit development into a new train of thought; but if all 14 of a first-sonnet’s lines sounded like opening pronouncements or separate lead-ins, that sonnet text would suffer choppy disconnection and might seem to disintegrate. A main upshot of this tension, I think, is that the Runes often open as if in medias raes—compounding their riddlic features. Comparing the runic line-openings with the first lines in the Sonnets (cf. Booth’s first-line index, pp. 574ff.) shows, e.g., that the Runes are much more likely than the Sonnets to open with coordinating conjunctions that imply logical continuation, especially “And…,” “But…,” “For…,” “Nor…,” and “Yet….” (“Nor,” reversed, puns on “rune.”) One rune even opens with “Therefore….” This pattern of first lines that seem to start halfway around the track rather than at the starting line allies in the Runes with the many pre-positioned pronouns and implicit but unstated subjects—features that seem to emerge from the same set of necessary technical constraints at work in Q. In summary, then, the Sonnets typically open with clearer and more straightforward assertions than the Runes do.

           Notably, few runes start with “O…,” the most common rhetorical opener in the Sonnets. (Perhaps loading up the first-sonnet texts in the sets with “O’s”—as Will, e.g., loads up Runes 61, 69, and 79—would’ve created an excessive kind of overt bathos.) Too, the Sonnets are much more apt than the Runes to start with “How…,” an opener that may effectively trigger either a question to explore or an assertion to pursue. Openings with “When…” seem almost equally popular in both of Q’s linked genres.

           Technicalities of the Megasonnet scheme dictate that most of the lines in Q that are already familiar as first-line titles for sonnets are not equally salient in their runic locales. The 11 initial lines in the sets are the only ones that, in a given case, can concurrently initiate both a sonnet and a rune. A few of these 11 lines ring familiar—including “When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” (Sonnet 29.1, Rune 29.1)—but most do not. Because Sonnet 29 is so well known, all 14 runes that its lines engender seem to begin their race for public recognition with a leg up.

           The items below appear as regularized and edited first-line component of runes. In a few cases, the first word of an edited line is a pun on the Q form (e.g., “Whore…” as a pun on Q’s “Or…”), so that that pun displaces the line in an alphabetized sequence. In such cases, I’ve entered that line twice, using both the overt and the punning forms of the opening line element, to help readers locate it. A few edited first-lines from Set VIII show small variations in their A and the B contexts; here I select the edited form that goes with the rune number that’s listed first in sequence below—all B variants, as it happens.

A	Rune number
All days are nights to see till I see thee	55
And all in war with time for love of you	27
And, beauty slandered with a bastard shame.	130
“And buds of marjoram had stol’n thy hair”	104B, 105A
And, darkly bright, are bright-in-dark directed.	46
And, like unlettered clerk, still cry Amen!	90
And look upon myself and curse, my fate	32
And mock you with me after I am gone	84
And, nights’ bright days when dreams do show thee me	56
And, only herald to the gaudy spring	10
And, precious phrase (by all the muses filed.	88
And tender churl mak’st waste in niggarding	12
And that which governs me to go about	114
And, too, his robb’ry had annexed thy breath	108B, 109A
And to the most of praise add something more	94
And, trouble-deaf heaven, with my bootless cries	31
And were their brave state out of memory	22
As he takes from you, I engraft you new	28
A third, nor red nor white, had stol’n of both	107B, 108A
At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack	137
A vengeful canker eat him up to death	110B, 111A
B
Beauty’s profaned (if not, lives in disgrace)	134
Being your slave, what should I do but tend	57
But as the riper should by time decease	3
But for his theft in pride of all his growth	109B, 110A
But is [Beauty’s…] profaned (if not, lives in disgrace)	134
But let your love even with my life decay	82
But like a sad slave stay and think of nought	67
But my five wits, nor my five senses, can	149
But now is black, beauty’s successive heir	129
But sweet or color, it had stol’n from thee	112B
But that is in my thought whose love to you	95
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes	5
But ’tis my heart that loves what th’ eye despise	143
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee	45
By looking on thee in the living day	52
C
Cheered and checked ev’n by the self-same sky	20
D
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope	35
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee	150
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse	81
Doth part his function, and is partly blind	115
F
Fairing the foul with art’s false borrowed face	132
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed	34
Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel	6
For all, the day they view things unrespected	44
Fore they in thee a thousand errors note	142
For if it see the rud’st or gentlest sight	121
For it no form delivers to the heart	117
For since each hand hath put on nature’s power	131
For [Fore] they in thee a thousand errors note	142
For thy sweet love, remembered, such wealth brings	41
From fairest creatures we desire increase	1
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate	40
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell	74
G
Give warning to the world that I am fled	73
H
Haply I think on thee, and then my state	38
Hearing you praised, I say, “’Tis so, ’tis true!”	93
Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem	136
His tender heir might bear his memory	4
Holds in perfection but a little moment.	16
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessèd made	51
How would thy shadow’s form form happy show	48
I
I all alone beweep my outcast state	30
If not from my love’s breath, the purple pride	100B, 101A
If thinking on me then should make you woe	78
I have no precious time at all to spend	59
Incapable of more, replete, with you.	125
In faith I do not love thee; with mine eyes	141
In my love’s veins thou hast too grossly died	102B, 103A
In polished form of well-refinèd pen	92
In the old age, black was not counted fair	127
I think good thoughts, whilst other write good words	89
L
Least the wise world should look into your moan	83
Like to the lark at break of day arising	39
M
Making a famine where abundance lies	7
Me for my dumb thoughts speaking in effect	98
More flowers I noted, yet I none could see	111B, 112A
My most true mind thus maketh mine untrue	126
My tongue-tied muse in manners holds her still	85
N
Nay, if you read this line, remember not	75
No longer mourn for me when I am dead	71
Nor are mine ears with thy tongue’s tune delighted	145
Nor dare I chide the world. Without end hour	61
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought	65
Nor his own vision holds what it doth catch	120
Nor services to do till you require	60
Nor taste nor smell desire to be invited	147
Nor-tender feeling, to base touches prone	146
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour	63
O
Of bird, of flower, or shape which it doth lack	118
Of his quick objects hath the mind no part	119
O, if, I say, you look upon this verse	79
Only my plague thus far I count my gain	153
Or [Whore…] if it were, it bore not beauty’s name	128
Our blushing shame, another white depair	106B, 107A
P
Pity the world, or else this glutton be	13
R
Reserue their character with golden quill	87
S
Save where you are (how happy!) you make those	68
Seems seeing, but effectually is out	116
Sets you, most rich in youth before, my sight	24
Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind	113
Sland’ring creation with a false esteem	138
So true a fool is love, that in your will	69
Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower	133
Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells	99B, 100A
T
That every tongue says Beauty should look so	140
That I in your sweet thoughts would be—forgot	77
That “she” that makes me sin, awards me pain	154
That then I scorn: To change my state with kings	42
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die	2
That this huge stage presenteth, nought but shows	17
The crow or dove, it shapes them to your feature	124
The forward violet thus did I chide	99A
The hand, that writ it (for I love you so	76
The lily I condemnèd for thy hand	103B, 104A
The most sweet favor or deformed’st creature	122
The mountain or the sea, the day or night	123
Then others, for the breath of words, respect	97
Then [Thin…] the conceit of this inconstant stay	23
Then, thou whose shadow shadows doth make bright	47
Then you shall hear the surly, sullen bell	72
Therefore my mistress’ eyes are raven black	135
The roses fearfully on thorns did stand	105B, 106A
Thin the conceit of this inconstant stay	23
Though Words come hindmost, holds his rank before	96
Though you do anything, he thinks no ill	70
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament	9
Through, heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay	54
Thy proud heart’s slave and vassal, wretch-to-be	152
Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel	8
To any, sensual feast with thee alone	148
To change your day of youth to sullied night	26
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee	14
To every hymn that able spirit affords	91
To the clear day, with thy much clearer light	49
U
Upon the hours and times of your desire	58
V
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease	21

W
When I consider everything that grows	15
When in dead night, they’re fair, imperfect shade	53
When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes	29
When I perceive that men, as plants, increase	19
When I, perhaps, compounded am with clay	80
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see	43
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so	50
When you have bid your servant once adieu	64
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment	18
Where wasteful, time debateth with decay	25
Where you may be, or your affairs, suppose	66
Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells	101B, 102A
While comments of your praise, richly compiled	86
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you	62
Who in despite of view is pleased to dote	144
Who leaves unswayed, the likeness of a man	151
Whore if it were, it bore not beauty’s name	128
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope	33
Within thine own bud buriest thy content	11
With what I most enjoy contented least	36
Y
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising	37
Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe	139

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