period, it was commonplace that the sun symbolized
masculinity, in opposition to the feminine moon, and
it was often tied to the hierarchy of the monarchy.
Shakespeare follows this convention by having the
lover note how the “sovereign eye” (l. 2) of the “heav-
enly” (l. 4) beloved “Flatter[s] the mountain tops” (l.
2). Alchemy, which was also a frequent topic in the
early modern period, involves the protoscientifi c quest
to transform base materials into gold.
In the second quatrain the “golden” (l. 3) sun, rather
than creating more gold and sharing his love with the
lover, “permit[s] the basest clouds to ride / With ugly
rack on his celestial face” (ll. 5–6). The beloved
“hide[s]” (l. 7) from the lover behind the clouds, “Steal-
ing unseen to west with this disgrace” (l. 8). The exact
form of the “disgrace” that the beloved is suffering
from, which led to the end of the relationship, is not
mentioned in this sonnet. The third quatrain celebrates
the actual relationship when the beloved did focus his
attention on the lover before being “masked” by “The
region cloud” (l. 12). The fi nal COUPLET concludes the
lament by stating that in spite of the beloved’s actions
the lover still loves the beloved.
Sonnet 33 is thematically linked with Sonnet 34
(“Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day”),
which continues to lament the lost relationship through
the use of meteorological imagery. A number of critics
read Sonnet 33 as Shakespeare’s poetic lament over the
ending of his homoerotic relationship with his beloved,
who may have been the earl of Southampton, one of
Shakespeare’s patrons.
See also SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS (OVERVIEW).
Jennifer L. Ailles
Shakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 35 (“No more
be grieved at that which thou hast done”) WIL-
LIAM SHAKESPEARE (1599) Sonnets 1–126 of WIL-
LIAM SHAKESPEARE’s SONNET SEQUENCE are addressed to a
beautiful young man with whom the speaker has a
relationship. Scholars continue to debate the nature of
the relationship—a passionate friendship? a love affair?
a poetic fi ction?—but not its intensity. Sonnet 35 doc-
uments a diffi cult point in the relationship: The young
man has committed a serious transgression, introduced
in Sonnet 34, and followed up in Sonnet 36. Sonnet 35
describes the painful position of a betrayed lover who
remains willing to forgive, but not forget, the offense,
yet who realizes that extending this forgiveness is a
self-betrayal.
Sonnet 35 begins with the reassuring command “No
more be griev’d at that which thou hast done” and goes
on to justify this seeming pardon by showing that
faults are natural: “Roses have thorns, and silver foun-
tains mud, / Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and
sun” (ll. 2–3). We can still take pleasure in a rose or a
fountain if we are careful to avoid the thorns and mud;
we can enjoy the benefi ts of the sun and the moon
while keeping in mind that clouds and eclipses tempo-
rarily mar their beauty. But the quatrain ends with a
menacing shift, noting that “loathsome canker lives in
sweetest bud” (l. 4). A beautiful outward show, which
the young man has in abundance, is capable of hiding
a pernicious disease that destroys from within.
The second quatrain repeats the assurance of the
SONNET’s opening line: All men make faults, the narra-
tor generously claims, but then he suddenly twists the
meaning by shifting the fault from the transgressive
young man to the speaker himself: “and even I [have
made a fault] in this, / Authorizing thy trespass with
compare.. .” (ll. 5–6). The speaker has “authorized”—
allowed by his authority, or written as an author—the
young man’s trespass by comparing it to natural ele-
ments such as thorns and clouds. Rather than identify-
ing the trespass as unnatural behavior—the young man
has the power to hurt and does so willingly—the
speaker has made the sin acceptable by making it as
natural as mud in a fountain or an eclipse of the sun. In
doing so, the speaker has himself been contaminated
by what the transgression really is: a sin, a disease, the
“canker” in the sweet bud. By “salving” (applying a
healing balm, or granting salvation to), the young man
is “amiss,” and by “Excusing [thy] sins more than [thy]
sins are” (ll. 7–8), the speaker has corrupted himself.
The young man’s sins are evil, or perhaps just sleazy—
Sonnet 96 attributes them in part to “youth” and “wan-
tonness” (l. 1)—and the poet, by putting them into
sonnet form and using elegant comparisons, has ele-
vated the trespasses into art.SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS: SONNET 35 371