See also ENGLISH SONNET; PERSONIFICATION; SHAKE-
SPEARE, WILLIAM; SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS (OVERVIEW).
FURTHER READING
Jungman, Robert E. “ ‘Untainted’ Crime in Shakespeare’s
Sonnet 19.” ANQ 16, no. 2 (2003): 19–21.
Peggy J. Huey
Shakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 20 (“A woman’s
face with Nature’s own hand painted”) WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE (1599) While this SONNET may appear
at fi rst to make a straightforward statement regarding
the beloved, a closer look shows just how confusing is
the gender situation presented here. To begin with, the
speaker never identifi es him/herself by gender. There-
fore, the speaker can be either male or female. The
identifi cation of the lover as the Master Mistress of the
speaker’s “passion” confuses the issue as to whether the
beloved is male or female. There is also the question of
what exactly Nature “added” to the beloved that
“defeated” the speaker’s “purpose” in regard to the
lover. This poem may very well have been designed
purposely to be confusing, to make a statement that
love itself is stronger and more important than the indi-
vidual bodies of the lovers themselves.
Throughout the poem, the speaker refers to the per-
sonifi ed “Nature” as the creator of the beloved. While
we may assume that if Nature did it, it is “natural,” and
the way things should be, as the poem progresses we
can see that the speaker believes that Nature is capable
of making mistakes, mistakes that deny him or her
pleasure in love. Lines 1 and 2 describe the lover as
having “A woman’s face” (l. 1) “painted” by Nature.
This phrase suggests that the beloved is as beautiful as
someone wearing cosmetics, but this beauty is totally
natural. But does this image mean that the beloved is a
woman whose face Nature painted, or does it mean that
the lover is a man upon whom Nature has painted a
face that looks like a woman’s? Line 2 does not help us
fi gure this out because it describes the beloved as being
the speaker’s “master-mistress.” How are we to inter-
pret that phrase? Does it mean the beloved is a domi-
nating, masterful woman, or a man who looks like a
woman or has other womanly characteristics? The
speaker does not identify his or her own gender, leav-
ing the following possibilities for interpreting the sce-
nario of these two lines: A male lover has a woman
beloved who is manly or masterful; a male lover has a
male beloved who looks like a woman; a woman lover
has a woman beloved who is manly or masterful; a
woman lover has a male beloved who looks like a
woman. Several critics suggest that this poem is androg-
ynous or hermaphroditic, while others argue for one
reading or another based on what they believe to be
Shakespeare’s “sexual orientation” (a phrase and a con-
cept unknown in the early modern period). A close
reading of these lines allows all four to be possibilities.
Lines 3 and 4 do not help untangle this problem.
The lines refer to early modern ideas of women as hav-
ing both positive and negative qualities, often in the
same individual. A woman was expected to be gentle
but also fi ckle. Thus, the beloved has a “woman’s gen-
tle heart” either because she has been born with one or
because he is unusual in having this characteristic.
Whether man or woman, the beloved’s heart is not
fi ckle or changeable, a negative characteristic a woman
may be born with that a man may avoid because of his
gender. Cultural attitudes also suggested that women’s
eyes were supposed to be bright. Line 5 tells us that the
beloved’s eyes are “more bright” than most women’s,
so bright that the light from them make the person
gazed upon seem to be covered with gold (“gilded,” l.
6). The eyes of the beloved are also “less false in roll-
ing” (l. 5)—that is, less prone to wander and gaze long-
ingly, or lecherously, at other potential love objects.
Again, the lover’s sex is ambiguous. If a woman, she
displays all positive aspects and contains no negative
ones; if male, he possesses all the good female qualities
and none of the bad. The word hue (l. 7) can mean
either “looks,” “complexion,” or “appearance.” Thus,
the beloved either looks like a man—or is a man—
whose beauty is greater than that of all other men or
women. As a result, this beauty “steals men’s eyes” and
amazes “women’s souls” (l. 8). This dominating, manly
beauty, or the male or female beloved, has a powerful
effect on both men and women.
The fi nal QUATRAIN reveals the problem that the
speaker encounters in the beloved. Line 9 tells us that
the beloved was created fi rst, or primarily, “for a woman”
(l. 9). This could mean that the lover is male, having366 SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS: SONNET 20