have rendered this woman plain or ugly, she is now
considered beautiful because the black is natural.
There has been so much false use of cosmetics to make
unattractive women conform to the standards of fair
beauty that a very natural beauty—one who does not
use cosmetics—is perceived to be beautiful even
though she does not conform to existing social criteria
for “fair” beauty. A “natural” black woman may be
more desirable than an “unnatural” fair one. As a result,
the falsely fair women mourn the fact that they are not
as beautiful as this natural, though black, beauty who
is praised for what she is without cosmetics.
Many puns are active in this sonnet, and they act as
ways not only to convey the poet’s ideas but to com-
ment on social values and ideas. Beauty for women
meant having a fair complexion and being blond. Fair
also means “beautiful” as its opposite, foul, means
“ugly.” Thus, to call a woman “fair” is to comment not
only on her coloring but on her beauty. A woman who
is “blond” can also be referred to as “light,” as in the
color of her hair relative to darker shades like brown or
black. But “light” can also have other meanings. “Light”
recalls “fair” and leads us to consider “beautiful.”
“Light” also calls to mind its opposite, “dark,” both in
color and in lack of light (darkness). So we can see the
development of a binary, an opposition of two words,
phrases, or concepts. On one side is “fair, light, and
beautiful.” On the other is “foul, dark, and ugly.” Add-
ing the colors, “white” is attached to the “fair” side of
the binary and “black” to the “dark” side. It is only a
step away to add “good” to the “fair” side and “bad” to
the “dark” side. Thus we have the potential for black-
white racism encoded in the English language, which,
in the early modern period, signifi ed that “light” and
“white” were good, and “dark” and “black” were bad.
In medieval and early modern religious art, angels were
always white and devils black.
See also SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS (OVERVIEW).
Theodora A. Jankowski
Shakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 128 (“How oft
when thou, my music, music play’st”) WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE (1599) In this SONNET, the speaker
refl ects on the many times when the beloved has played
upon the virginal, a very early version of the piano. Its
keys were called jacks, and they were made of wood. In
line 1, “my music” refers to the beloved, who is music
and who simultaneously produces music, and using
“music” twice emphasizes the beloved’s importance.
The effect is somewhat magical for the speaker, who
hears the mechanism that causes the jacks to coax
music from the “blessed wood” (l. 2) of the instrument
animated by the beloved’s “sweet fi ngers” (l. 3). The
speaker’s ear is confounded, or amazed, by the “wiry
concord” (l. 4) that comes from the interaction of the
lover’s fi ngers and the mechanism of the jacks that
causes them to pluck the virginal’s wires and call up
musical sound.
The sonnet then moves from a long shot to a close-
up of the beloved’s fi ngers. The speaker focuses on the
jacks that are touched by the beloved in the act of play-
ing the instrument. While the wood jacks are com-
pletely inanimate and moved solely by the motion of
the beloved’s fi ngers, the lover, perhaps feeling slighted
by the beloved, hyperbolically imagines that the jacks
are leaping up of their own free will “to kiss the tender
inward” (l. 6) of the beloved’s hand. The speaker some-
what ridiculously envies “those jacks” (l. 5), speaking
of them as human and bold. His “poor lips” should
reap the “harvest” of kisses that the jacks reap. And
while all this musical kissing goes on, the speaker sits
by and “blushes,” embarrassed by the “wood’s bold-
ness” (l. 8).
The third QUATRAIN continues this image and plain-
tively presents the outlandish wish that the speaker’s
“poor lips” would gladly undergo a complete change
to become wooden jacks if they could be assured of
being “kissed” by the beloved’s fi ngers, which “walk
with all gentle gait” (l. 11) over them. In fact, the
jacks, being touched by the beloved, become “more
blessed” (l. 12) than the speaker’s living lips. In the
COUPLET, the speaker moves back from the position of
being envious of the inanimate jacks to tell the lover
to “give thy fi ngers” (l. 14) to them, but give “me thy
lips to kiss” (l. 14). This sonnet presents a picture of a
lover so insecure, yet so enamored of the beloved,
that he would do anything to attract her attention,
even going so far as to become a thing, rather than a
person.392 SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS: SONNET 128