speech. It also implies that madness is “might” in a dis-
torted world where mad “slanderers by mad ears
believed be” (l. 12).
The COUPLET carries over the alliterative b sounds of
“bad,” “by,” “believed,” and “be.” It then concludes
with an implied threat that is offered so that the poet
and the Dark Lady may be reconciled. The threat
emerges when the couplet’s lines are read in reverse
order. So long as you “Bear thine eyes straight” (l. 12),
the poet says, I will not descend into madness, and
madness will not cause me to say things that will lead
to your being “belied” (l. 11). The poet would benefi t
from such a threat-induced understanding. But the
Dark Lady would, too, since her reputation provides a
cover that would enable—in an archery-derived meta-
phor—for her “proud heart [to] go wide” (l. 12). Hence
the poet will accept her infi delities as long as, in pub-
lic, she looks “straight” at him and not at others.
See also ALLITERATION; SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM; SHAKE-
SPEARE’S SONNETS (OVERVIEW).
Larry T. ShillockShakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 141 (“In faith, I
do not love thee with mine eyes”) WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE (1599) This SONNET forms a coda
(conclusion) to Sonnet 130, with the poet stressing
that his lover is anything but typical as regards her
beauty. It is usually considered to be one of the DARK
LADY sonnets (which comprise Sonnets 127–152) in
which the poet addresses a mysterious lover—one
whose historical identity has never been satisfactorily
ascertained. As the sonnet commences (following typi-
cal ENGLISH SONNET rhyme structure: abab, cdcd, efef,
gg), the speaker notes that his lover does not possess
any remarkable physical features that attract his atten-
tion, and indeed, he is more likely to fi nd fl aws. Still,
he goes on to emphasize (l. 3) that he loves her emo-
tionally despite any physical defects that others may
observe. Indeed, she possesses nothing that would
make a lover aspire to be her paramour, and in the
third QUATRAIN, the speaker acknowledges that he is a
slave of his heart (ll. 10–11). A hint of masochistic ten-
dencies are refl ected in the fi nal COUPLET, in which the
speaker indicates that his only source of suffering is in
the knowledge that it is illicit and he is thereby pained
in the soul for his breach of societal and religious
mores. At the same time, the speaker seems to relish
the thought of suffering such anguish. This theme of
suffering for the sake of love is expanded in Sonnet
142, which follows in the sequence.
See also SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM; SHAKESPEARE’S SON-
NETS (OVERVIEW).
Joseph E. BeckerShakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 144 (“Two loves
I have of comfort and despair”) WILLIAM SHAKE-
SPEARE (1599) The scenario of this SONNET is a love
triangle, and the speaker is the lover who is getting the
worst deal. He has two loves, “of comfort and despair”
(l. 1), who have the power to “suggest” (or “entice”)
him like “spirits” (l. 2). Calling the two loves spirits
implies that they have supernatural powers over the
speaker, though as the sonnet progresses, it will
become obvious that these powers are both good as
well as evil. The good spirit is identifi ed as a “fair” man
who is an “angel” (l. 3), while the “worser spirit” is “a
woman coloured ill” (l. 4). The juxtaposition of fair
and ill-colored recalls Sonnets 127 and 129, which
focused on a beloved who was a dark-haired, perhaps
even dark-skinned, woman. Since the opposition of
fair/light to ugly/dark was ingrained in early modern
culture, it is not surprising that the “ill-colored” woman
would be described as evil.
In the second quatrain, the speaker expands on the
vile nature of the “female evil” (l. 5). He indicates that
the woman’s aim is to “win” the speaker “to hell” (l. 5).
But this is not a hell in which the speaker will suffer.
That hell is to watch the woman tempt the male
beloved—the speaker’s “better angel”—from his side
and “corrupt” him so that this “saint” becomes a “devil”
(l. 7). Thus, the woman becomes a devil fi gure who
tempts good souls to evil and, ultimately, damnation.
Referring to the male lover as an angel who is tempted
to fall also recalls the Christian creation story in which
evil entered heaven through Lucifer, who challenged
God’s authority. In the subsequent battle, Lucifer was
defeated by the not-yet-incarnated Christ and forced
out of heaven with all his followers. Thus, according toSHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS: SONNET 144 397