Christian thought, devils are fallen angels. The woman
corrupts the angel beloved by “wooing” (l. 8) him
with her “foul pride” (l. 8). This is not a casual choice
of phrase. “Foul” echoes the ugliness of the woman’s
ill color mentioned in line 4, and pride is the fi rst and
worst of the SEVEN DEADLY SINS. This is the sin that
caused Lucifer to rebel against God and be cast down
to hell and renamed Satan. It is also the sin that
caused Adam to eat the forbidden fruit and be cast
out of paradise.
The poem’s fi nal six lines present the speaker as
caught in time, unable to do anything about the situa-
tion until some defi nite action occurs. He does not
defi nitely know, at this point, whether the angel
beloved has already been “turned fi end” (l. 9), although
he suspects that he has (l. 10). The speaker cannot
know the truth because both the man and the woman
are away from him and they are “both to each friend”
(l. 11). This means that both the man and the woman
have left the speaker and become lovers themselves. In
fact, the speaker suspects that “one angel [is] in anoth-
er’s hell” (l. 12). That is, the woman could have suc-
ceeded in tempting the angel man to hell, though in
this line the description probably means that the man
is having sexual intercourse with the woman; he is in
her “hell,” or vagina. Although this is an image that tor-
ments the speaker, he can never know for sure what
has occurred. He will “live in doubt” (l. 13) until “my
bad angel fi res my good one out” (l. 14). Probably, the
angel man will remain with the woman until she
throws him out, or until he catches a venereal disease
from her. Syphilis, which was indicated through a ter-
rible burning sensation, was endemic in early modern
England and there was no cure. The speaker, then, is
in “limbo” until the liaison between the woman and
the angel man is over.
See also SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM; SHAKESPEARE’S SON-
NETS (OVERVIEW).
Theodora A. JankowskiShakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 146 (“Poor soul,
the center of my sinful earth”) WILLIAM SHAKE-
SPEARE (ca. 1599) Sonnet 146 is a poem in the
ancient tradition of the body-and-soul dialogue or
debate, a subject that was common for writers in WIL-
LIAM SHAKESPEARE’s time (see SIR PHILIP SIDNEY’s Arcadia
[1590] and ASTROPHIL AND STELLA [1591] and Bar-
tholomew Griffi n’s Fidessa [1596]). However, this SON-
NET demonstrates a broadening of the debate in
showing the interreliance and importance of both body
and soul. Sonnet 146 is unique in that unlike the other
DARK LADY sonnets, which advance the narrative in
some way, this poem, like Sonnet 129, does not con-
cern the mistress or the friend, but instead discusses
the speaker’s generally negative mental state in relation
to the sins of the body and fate of his soul.
In Sonnet 146, the speaker addresses the soul,
enclosed in the sinful body, which permits the body to
indulge itself while the soul pines and suffers. Why
does the soul expend so much energy on a body, a
“fading mansion” (l. 6) whose time on earth is so short?
Will the body, weakened by sinful excess, merely be
left for worms? The soul should instead prepare itself
for heaven (“buy terms divine,” l. 11) by feeding itself
and letting the body starve. The soul will feed on death,
and death will feed on the body. Eventually the soul
will kill death itself, and there will be no more death
(i.e., eternal life, ll. 13–14).
The body-and-soul debate or dialogue can be found
in one form or another in most ancient literatures,
including Egyptian, Greek, and Hebrew, as well as
medieval English literature, and it generally traces its
roots back to St. Paul’s letters in the New Testament.
This debate was also thought an effective way to
frighten people with the prospect of eternal damna-
tion. Typically, the address is praise or complaint from
the body to the soul or the soul to the body, or an
argument about which is most responsible for their
fate. However, for Shakespeare the confl ict between
body and soul is a more complex interaction between
the body and soul, one that implicitly allows for the
individuality and autonomy of self-governance and
responsibility. Unlike in many other debates, Sonnet
146 shows that the body and soul are codependent
and equally responsible for a person’s general spiritual
health. The speaker’s problem is apparent, but it is, by
and large, solved internally. The absence of an implicit
condemnation of the body, which is so common in
medieval discussion, indicates an elevation of the body
to an autonomous and therefore responsible and valu-
able position.398 SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS: SONNET 146