I. Introduction
II. The identity of the Dark Lady and the poet's relation to her
III. TEXT; The
poet's motives and main constructional ideas
B. Initial and Final Letters of Lines (I)
C. Gematric
Values of Whole Sonnet
1
extinct external link is marked in grey .
I. Introduction
Recently
(Nov.2008) a friend of mine, an amateur of numerology, asked me for my opinion
about the riddle in Sonnet 136 introduced in lines 7 and 8:
In things of great receipt with ease we prove
Among a number one is reckoned none.
So far I have been concerned only with
gematrical researches of Latin classical literature which I wrote in German. I
don't know anything about Elizabethan concepts of numerology and haven't found anything
reasonable in internet sources. I first supposed the word none might refer to the cipher 0 so that if you take it away from 10 there is still one (1) left.
And in fact, the figure 10 plays a significant
role in the poem. When I inquired about Shakespeare's mysterious Dark Lady in his sonnets, however, I got some enlightening
ideas which might solve the riddle.
II. The identity of the Dark Lady and the
poet's relation to her
1.
Years ago I bought a book
about the Sonnets by A.L.
ROWSE (published 1973), who was confident to have
eventually established the identity of that mysterious woman as EMILIA LANIER (also
AEMILIA LANYER). She was born about 1569 the daughter of an Italian court
musician, Baptista Bassano. At the age of about 17 she became the mistress of Henry
Carey, Lord Hunsdon, Shakespeare's company patron. After becoming pregnant she
was married off to Alfonso (or
Alphonse) LANIER,
another court musician. Cf.more
about EMILIA
Rowse's
researches were not without faults. Thus the first name of his Lanier was William, not Alfonso. This obvious
error led Rowse to assume the Dark Lady's husband to be a rival William – with
consequences for his interpretations of the sonnets.
Two
other favoured claimants to the illustrious title of Dark Lady are Elizabeth Vernon, later
married to Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton,and Mary Fitton. But
those who patiently follow my line of argumentation required to explain
Shakespeare's intricate art of composition and concealment will once for all
exclude those two respectable ladies from poetic immortality.
2. Shakespeare was under the
Dark Lady's spell although he knew that she had various lovers, perhaps not so
many as Shakespeare's sonnets suggest. He makes no bone about his sexual
fascination. In fact, he indulges in shortening his forename WILLIAM to WILL, thus allowing him to make ample use of equivocal
speech. Beside being a modal verb, will
was understood as
a) sexual desire
b) sexual organ
In sonnet 135, which can be regarded as preparatory for sonnet 136, Shakespeare uses the term will as frequently as 13 times. Unequivocal
sexual speech is contained in lines 5 and 6:
Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,
Not once vouchsafe (grant) to hide my will in thine.
In sonnet 136 will occurs
7 times, in greater variation than in 135:
name |
l.3 |
Will admitted |
|
l.5 |
Will will fulfil |
|
l.14 |
my name is Will |
modal
verb |
l.5 |
will fulfil |
sexual
desire |
l.2 |
I was thy will |
sexual
organ |
l.6 |
with wills, my will |
3. Shakespeare had his
reasons for concealing the lady he was so fervently in love with, and the
literary genre of the sonnet may account for some others. At any rate he
ingeniously succeeded in his purpose.
Concealing speech is to be seen as a
literary device. The poet relies on an implicit agreement with the reader, who
accepts cryptic speech as long as it is wittily accomplished. But Shakespeare
is too good a poet as to ignore one deeper sense of poetry, i.e. to elaborate
some truth for himself, not only to address the reader. This implies that the
poet avoids lingering in a mere realm of phantasy. There is an ultimate
rational logic in the art of concealment, very intricate perhaps, but not
beyond comprehending: concealment is wrapped in riddle.
III. The poet's
motives and main constructional ideas
1.
This chapter should be preceded by the text in today's and historic
spelling:
1. If thy soul check thee that I come so near, 2. Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy
Will, 3. And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there; 4. Thus far for love, my love-suit, sweet, fulfil. 5. Will, will fulfil the treasure of thy
love, 6. Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one. 7. In things of great receipt with ease we
prove 8. Among a number one is reckoned none: 9. Then in the number let me pass untold, 10. Though in thy store's account I one must be; 11. For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold 12. That nothing me, a something sweet to thee: 13. Make but my name thy love, and love that still, 14. And then thou lovest me for my name is 'Will.' |
1. If thy ſoule check thee that I come ſo
neere, 2. Sweare to thy blind ſoule that I was thy Will, 3. And will thy ſoule knowes is admitted there, 4. Thus farre for loue, my loue-ſute ſweet fullfill. 5. Will, will fulfill the treaſure of thy loue, 6. I fill it full with wils,and my will one, 7. In things of great receit with eaſe we prooue, 8. Among a number one is reckon'd none. 9. Then in the number let me paſſe
vntold, 10. Though in thy ſtores account I one muſt
be, 11. For nothing hold me,ſo it pleaſe
thee hold, 12. That nothing me,a ſome-thing ſweet to thee. 13. Make but my name thy loue,and loue that ſtill,
14. And then thou loueſt me for my name is
Will. |
2.
No doubt, Shakespeare suffered from his infatuation with the Dark Lady,
but first of all, he was deeply in love and admired her. He certainly reflected
on why he was so much attracted to a woman whom he had to share with other men.
Fate itself must have brought them together. Searching for the inner bond of
their souls and bodies, he found identical letters in her name and his: EMILIA and WILLIAM; the Latin plural form MILIA means THOUSANDS.
3. The Latin letter E means out of. The correct Latin form would be E MILIBUS. But
a poet might neglect this incorrectness.
EMILIA was also spelled AEMILIA. If you count the letter A as 1,
because it's the first letter of the alphabet, the Dark Lady's name could be
understood as ONE OUT OF THOUSANDS.
Shakespeare could interpret this
paraphrase of his lady's name in two ways: First, among thousands of women AEMILIA is the one he fell in love with because
she possessed such exceptional qualities. And second, he could see himself as
one AMONG thousands of lovers. But of course, if
you take the A = 1 away from the name, then the amount of 1 is still
included in the term out of thousands,
and besides, the loving poet is still part of her full name A-EMILIA.
4. If this possibility of
giving meaning to the names AEMILIA
and EMILIA is correct, line 6 with the poet's strikingly generous offer has a
preparatory function for the intended riddle:
Ay,
fill it full with wills, and my will one.
The word group and my
will one means plus
my will.
1.
If we find numerology in one aspect of a poem, we may assume to come
across it in others, too. This for example applies to the number of words in
each line:
line |
1 |
2 |
3-5 |
6 |
7-12 |
13 |
14 |
words |
10 |
10 |
|
10 |
|
10 |
10 |
20 |
25 |
10 |
50 |
20 |
The symmetrical structure of word units reveals
two characteristics: lines with 10
words and ratios of 2:1 or 1:2 respectively.
The first edition of 1609 has the two hyphenated word compounds loue-sute and some-thing, which to regard as two words in the first case and one
word in the second should not arouse any bewilderment.
There are 5 lines with 10 words, and another 50 words in lines 7-12. The first two lines and the concluding couplet
correlate to the single sixth line, and 3:6 lines with 25:50 words both comply with the ratio pattern 1:2.
2. In this way the 14 lines are divided up into 5 word units which match the 5 letters of MILIA.
If one adds the line numbers
symmetrically, the result is 15 for each pair: 1+14, 2+13 etc.
15 is the sum of the numbers 1-5. If line 6 is added for a sixth letter, MILIA becomes EMILIA.
3. The Latin word MILIA was an obvious motive for Shakespeare
to avail himself of the Latin letters denoting numbers, here M = 1000, I = 1, L= 50. He realised the correspondances in his
and the lady's name W-ILLI-AM and
EM-ILI-A. So we can conclude that the poet's
structural 2:1 ratio was inspired by double L in his and
single L in his lady's name.
At this point an example of gematria should be
suitably anticipated. L is the
initial letter of LOVE whose gematric value is 50. Shakespeare employs LOVE 6 times in an elaborate pattern:
line |
4 |
5 |
13 |
14 |
36 |
LOVE |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
|
There is a parallel ratio of 2:1. Moreover, the sum of the line numbers
is 36 which corresponds to the 4 letters I (I = 9) in W-ILLI-AM and
EM-ILI-A. By the way, the remaining letters also show the 1:2/2:1 pattern: W-AM, EM-A.
4.
Lovers may try to
strengthen their union by intermingling their names. Thus Shakespeare may have
formed the singular form MILLE, giving it a male connotation, and the plural MILIA as its
female counterpart.
5. To sum up, the relevant
parallel elements of the two names consist of 7 letters, 4 I and 3 L, which are at the same time Roman
characters for numbers. Three L total 150,
four I 4, that's together 154, which is the total number of
Shakespeare's sonnets. 154 can be divided by 11,
leaving 14 as the second factor. Thus the Roman
number letter L
for 50 returns as the 11th letter of the alphabet, while 14 is the number of sonnet lines and the letter O in the order of alphabet. The two
factors add up to 25,
which is a main constituent in the arrangement of the 125 words of the sonnet. This brings us back to the
word LO-VE with the same gematric value of 25 for the first and the second part of the word (11+14 – 20+5).
There is still more in
the name LO-VE if the two aspects of
numeric value and number character of the two halves are combined: 25+50 = 75; 25+5 = 30. The two sums add up
to 105
which connects LOVE to the sonnet form of 14 lines, which in
successive addition from 1-14 total 105. The two numbers can
be divided by 15, so their ratio is 5:2. The separation of
LOVE into two halves and the additional count of the number letters accounts
for Shakespeare's ingenious arrangement of words in the 14 lines.
1.
There is no end for lovers to play with names and letters in order to
find unique meanings for their relationships. As to Sonnet 136 gematric practice
may not be strictly proved, but given some probability by plausible findings.
The Elizabethan alphabet consisted of 24 letters:
Lett. |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
H |
I/J |
K |
L |
M |
N |
O |
P |
Q |
R |
S |
T |
V/U |
W |
X |
Y |
Z |
NV |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
2. Let's look at MILLE (48) and MILIA (42) another
time. The first and last letters have together the number value 30. This coincides with the numbers of the first and last two lines
(1+14+2+13). The remaining number value is 60, which provides another 1:2
ratio.
3. The poet's special
attention might have been attracted by the identical groups of letters in WILLIAM and EMILIA. Their number
values are 40+29 = 69 which is the sum of the line numbers 3-5 and 7-12 (45+24). The remaining value 36 is
equivalent to 4 letters I.
The gematric value of NUMBER is also 69, which is a further motive for the
sonnet's theme of mathematic experiment.
Now riddle line 8 deserves a second
look: Between among a number there are two A with the value 1. The gematric value of AMONG is 47, the same as EMILIA's. There is no
further A in line 8. So perhaps the first A of AEMILIA could be taken away from AMONG, which is not only the initial of the word but of the whole
line, and the second A added to MONG(A) = EMILIA. Alternatively the second A, which
stands alone and is between among and number, might be picked
out. No doubt Shakespeare played here fancifully and wittily.
Line 8 is the only one to consist of 28 letters, which is 4*7 to signify EMILIA's gematric value.
If Shakespeare counted the numbers of
verses, he was naturally aware of their complete sum of 105.
Splitted up into 10+5, it shows the well-known ratio 2:1 again.
Furthermore, 1 and 5 are key
numbers for the letters A and E which we have encountered in the words MILLE and MILIA. Above
all, however, the two numbers represent the first two letters of AEMILIA.
4. Shakespeare plays with
four names: WILL (52) – EMILIA (47)
and WILLIAM
(74) – AEMILIA (48). The
first combination consists of 4+6 = 10
letters. The perfect relationship between a loving couple is seen in the notion
of a mirror image. This can be represented by the Roman numeric letters IV and VI. The two letters denote 1 and 5 and thus
again A and E.
The idea of a mirror is also evident in the
inverse numbers 47 and 74 which add up to 121
= 11*11. The letter L as 11th letter of the alphabet is thus related to the ratio 1:2/2:1. Adding up
the number values of the second name combination (74+48) and appending to it
the sum of the first (52+47), one again gets two inverse numbers: 122 and
221 recalling the 5 lines with
10 words in each.
Of course, WILLIAM and AEMILIA
both consist of 7 letters and so not only fit ideally
together as persons but are also perfectly suited to be dealt with in 14-line
sonnets.
5. There is a last, perhaps
more playful but also significant aspect of inversion: The first and last
letter of the poet's first name is W and M which, as
capital letters, have inverse forms. They could be associated with the initials
of Woman
and
A look at the sonnet shows that W dominates
the first half and M the second:
|
W |
M |
total |
lines 1-7 |
13 |
4 |
17 |
lines 8-14 |
2 |
14 |
16 |
total |
15 |
18 |
33 |
The occurrences of W and M of the
entire sonnet amount to 33, the sum
of 12+21, each half divided up into the nearest
halves of 33,
17+16. The counterpart
letters are in one case adjacent (13+14),
in the second proportional (4:2
= 2:1).
What can the distribution of the two
letters mean? The poet is going to devise a new conception of his relationship
to Emilia. This objective may be symbolized as a way from the first letter to
the last. The W may stand for irrational dependence on female
attraction. What the poet strives for is a new Male self-assertion. EMILIA
on the other hand is, by
female nature, oriented towards the Male principle. In this way the poet has
reached the right order of nature at the end of the sonnet.
Sonnet 136 shows that the basis of true
art is form, even mathematical structuring.
6.
If Shakespeare attributed special importance to the 4+3 parallel and inverse letter groups ILLI and
1. If thy ſoule check thee that I come ſo neere, 2. Sweare to thy blind ſoule that I was thy Will, 3. And will thy ſoule knowes is admitted there, 4. Thus farre for loue, my loue-ſute ſweet fullfill. 5. Will, will fulfill the treaſure of thy loue, 6. I fill it full with wils,and my will one, 7. In things of great receit with eaſe
we prooue, 8. Among a number one is reckon'd none. 9. Then in the number let
me paſſe vntold,
10. Though in thy ſtores account I
one muſt be, 11. For nothing hold me,ſo it pleaſe thee hold, 12. That nothing me,a ſome-thing
ſweet to thee. 13. Make but my name thy loue,and loue that ſtill, 14. And then thou loueſt me for my name is Will. |
|
I |
L |
total |
*11 |
value |
9 |
11 |
|
|
lines 1-7 |
22 |
29 |
51 |
47 |
lines 8-14 |
11 |
12 |
23 |
21 |
total |
33 |
41 |
74 |
|
*11 |
27 |
41 |
|
68 |
The total number of letters is 74, which is the numeric value of WILLIAM and also FULFILL (l.5).
The frequency of the letter I corresponds to the numeric value of LL and L. In
this way the total result is divisible by 11, the numeric value of L.
The result of lines 1-7 divided by 11 is 47,
corresponding to the numeric value of EMILIA. The anologous result 21 for
lines 8-14 leads to the inverse numbers 12/21 by the addition 12+9 = 21.
51 can be seen as the sum of the two
number letters I+L
= 1+50.
Other numbers may be relevant, too, but
I can't attribute them to any meaning.
1. It has become obvious that
Shakespeare associates the letter L with the initial of Love, the basis being the common letters of W-ILLI-AM and EM-ILI-A. He provides five significant concepts to make us
understand his philosophy of LOVE: L:LL = 1:2, WILL, WILS, FUL(L)FILL and the letter I.
2. L is the 11th letter of the alphabet. The two ciphers
11 signify the IDEA of personal love between two equal partners,
especially between man and woman.
One L assigned to one person means that each individual is gifted
with the capacity of love. It further indicates that love is a matter both of
mind and body, spiritual and sensual.
3. While 1:1 refers to the principle of equality, a different
ratio is required to symbolise the specific relationship between man and woman.
Shakespeare chooses a L:LL = 1:2 ratio. It basically suggests a state of unequality
between the two sexes which tends achieve unity by unification.
The question why one L is assigned to the female sex, double LL to males, is rather speculative and should not be
taken too literally. Perhaps one could say that women are the origin of human
life and that their male offspring continue procreation.
4. The term WILL refers to the sexual organ of both sexes. This
means that sexual union is potential love of equally soul and body. The verb
for this unity is FULFILL written in one word.
Sonnet 136
avoids the word WILL for the female sex, but uses the paraphrases
"treasure of thy love" and "things of great receit".
5. WILS with one L obviously lacks the constituent of spiritual love.
The poet refuses to compare his love with his rivals'. Lack of spiritual love
turns the copulative act into mere gratification of sexual lust. The splitting
up of FULLFILL in FILL FULL shows that
there is no real communication between two partners.
6. The Ls in W-ILLI-AM and EM-ILI-A are framed by the letter I, which shows a close relationship to L: It has the value 1 as a number letter and so two ciphers 1+1 mean the same as number 11, which is the position of L in the alphabet. Furthermore, its position on
number 9 of the alphabet makes it a mirror image
of 11 if you write 9 in Roman numbers: IX–XI.
7.
The ratio 1:2 can be
inverted into 2:1 and back again. If both ratios are
written as two-digit numbers, the difference between 12 and 21 is 9 , a space in which the relationship between the
two sexes develops with changing perspectives and impulses . It can be shown as
a movement on the arc of a circle:
|
VII. Analysis and
Interpretation of Contents
1. Emilia Lanier implies four
conflicts for Shakespeare:
– He has an extramarital
love affair with her.
– She is unhappily married.
– He is utterly involved in
love.
– He has to cope with
rivals.
Perhaps without knowing, Shakespeare was
trying the impossible: to give and receive love in perfect unity of soul and
body. He might have been encouraged to do so as he imagined Emilia had never
met with true love before. His self-pride was immensely hurt that Emilia gave
her favours also to other men. When he resigned himself to the inevitable, he
at least wanted to assert his true feelings to his lady.
2. In the first line the poet
imagines that his lady keeps up an emotional reserve towards him. Assuming a real
situation, we may imagine various reasons for her restraint. Shakespeare
himself suggests or pretends that she is disquieted by his sexual
impulsiveness. In fact, Emilia may have feared to get more involved in her
relationship to the poet than she really liked and tried to protect her
personal freedom. Shakespeare tries to assure her that she keeps up false
pretenses (blind soul), but if she is sincere to herself, she must confess that
she truly longs for him (thy will).
As a conclusion, in line 4, the poet
entreats her to grant him a new common experience of love fulfilment.
3. In using the word LOVE three times in lines 4 and 5, he
assures her that the love he is going to give her is ruled by sincere feelings,
not just by sexual desire. He further expresses his ardent emotion of love by
addressing her as "sweet" (noun).
The poet promises to "FULFILL the treasure
of thy love". FULFILL in its
original spelling matches single L in EMILIA and double-LL in WILLIAM,
and written as one word signifies their love as a union of
soul and body. Moreover, the numeric value of FULFILL and WILLIAM are both 74, the number of letters is the same, too.
But this prospect of perfect love
reminds the poet that Emilia gives her favours to other men, too. He cannot
imagine that they are able to love his lady as much as he does. Their motives
are incomparable to his. He feels that Emilia betrays their love if she accepts
the advances of other men, too. He denies them true love. He illustrates this
be inverting FULFILL to two separate words FILL and FULL
with altogether 4
L.
The poet's change of mood is not easy to
explain. Is it a kind of self-punishment to share his love with thousands of
other men? Does he accept the facts about Emilia's character? Is he overcome
with disdain towards his lady?
It is at this point that he comes across
the idea of trying a new start for his love by punning on the lady's name A-E-MILIA.
4. In line 7 the poet speaks
of "things of great RECEIT" in a double sense: he thinks of the
numeric dimension of MILIA and
connects it to EMILIA's "treasure of love", room
perhaps for many lovers. RECEIT should also be understood literally, not only
metaphorically, as receiving is the main constituent of female nature. It's by
receiving that a woman can give from the treasure of her love potential. The
word "things" is later resumed by "nothing" (l.11,12) and
"something" (l.12).
It's the poet's intention to make the
notion of sexual desire on his part disappear so that the lady's initial
apprehensions as to sexual advances she might perceive as indecent are
dispersed. He is ready for a new unconditioned round of their love relation.
5. Lines 11 and 12 present
another example of inversion:
For nothIng hoLD Me
hoLD that nothIng Me
The four Latin number letters, which can
be arranged to the word MILD, have
as a result the inverse number 1551. The
letter equivalents of the inverse numbers can again relate to the two name
forms of his lady: AEMILIA and EMILIA. In a jocular way the poet might say: If you reject
me as AEMILIA, accept me again as EMILIA.
Hidden in 1551 is the prime factor 11 which can be equated with the letter L for LOVE.
The Latin word NIHIL for
NOTHING has the number value 50 that is
rendered by L. The number letters IIL mean 52, which is the numeric value of WILL. The three number letters are contained
both in EMILIA and WILLIAM so that a certain awareness of nothingness would
suit both lovers. Besides the word components MILIA (42) and MILI
(41) have the same numeric value as NOTHING
(83). This establishes a common basis between both persons.
From an internet
source I take
the information that NOTHING and SOMETHING "were slang terms
for sexual organs". It makes Shakespeare's intention clear: Sexuality
should not be separated from personality, it is an expression of mutual
acceptance, estimation and affection which stem from the centre of a person's
nature. The poet wants to say: My sexual organ is identical with my personal
self: Regard my organ as being my own self and what I am like as a person, I am
alike when having intercourse with you.
The phrase "a something sweet to you" serves two purposes: It explains
the meaning of preceding nothing, and
it indicates the beginning of sexual activity as a result of vivid imagination.
The word sweet is repeated from line 4. If the poet's
organ is sweet to her, it's the same as if she called himself sweet as, in
fact, he has called her before.
6. The last two lines sum up
what has become clear before already: Love takes its origin from the spiritual
nature of a person. A person's name represents everything he or she is like. So
the poet calls upon his lady to see his person first and take sexual
relationship as an authentic expression of his person. And he furnishes
irrefutable proof of it: His name is Will and so is the name of his male organ.
The phrase
"and love that still" means "go on loving that". The word
"that" resumes the meaning of "that nothing"
from the preceding line, just as "my name" takes up "me".
7. A concluding word should
be. We mustn't forget that Shakespeare addresses his beloved lady in the
sonnet, so he composed it for her.
EMILIA was not just a loose harlot, but
an educated woman, who wrote poetry herself. The poet and she certainly took
pleasure in having lively and witty conversations and also playing fancifully
with their names. There is no reason why Shakespeare should not have sent the
poem to Emilia. And she was intelligent enough to solve the riddle.
The formal devices employed in the poem
might give encouragement for further studies about the Dark Lady, with a chance
to confirm her as Emilia Lanier at last.
After intensively studying the sonnet,
I'm inclined to believe that Shakespeare's original was carefully copied. If
so, we may state the rare case that a poet uses different spellings for the
same word in order to express certain meanings that could be associated with
those differences. In Sonnet 136 there are two occurrences of different
spelling: fullfill – fulfill; will – wils.
There seems great probability, that
Shakespeare was familiar with gematria. Whether he had ideas about the meanings
of numbers in general, I dare not say, though. Too little historic information
is known or available about numerology and gematria at the Elizabethan Age.
People seem to be more interested in mysterious kabalistic knowledge than in
clear mathematical logic.
Written:November 2008