Shakespeare talks idolatry and mimics religious speeches on Sonnet 105.

Our story continues with a trip to "The London Church"

Sonnet 105

Let not my love be called idolatry,
Nor my beloved as an idol show,
Since all alike my songs and praises be
To one, of one, still such, and ever so.
Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind,
Still constant in a wondrous excellence;
Therefore my verse to constancy confined,
One thing expressing, leaves out difference.
Fair, kind, and true, is all my argument,
Fair, kind, and true, varying to other words;
And in this change is my invention spent,
Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords.
Fair, kind, and true, have often lived alone,
Which three till now, never kept seat in one.

I'm back on my own for this one! Shakespeare is back to his old ways of talking about ageing and beauty.

Our story continues with Shakespeare and Marlowe taking "a break".

Sonnet 104

To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah, yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived:
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred:
Ere you were born was beauty’s summer dead.

Jacob joins me for the last of our series of 4 Sonnets! As well as dissecting Sonnet 103 we also talk about who Shakespeare really was and discuss Elizabeth Winkler's fantastic book about the topic.

Sonnet 103

Alack! what poverty my Muse brings forth,
That having such a scope to show her pride,
The argument all bare is of more worth
Than when it hath my added praise beside!
O! blame me not, if I no more can write!
Look in your glass, and there appears a face
That over-goes my blunt invention quite,
Dulling my lines, and doing me disgrace.
Were it not sinful then, striving to mend,
To mar the subject that before was well?
For to no other pass my verses tend
Than of your graces and your gifts to tell;
And more, much more, than in my verse can sit,
Your own glass shows you when you look in it.

Jacob joins me for our penultimate sonnet in this series of 4! As well as deconstructing Sonnet 102, we discuss distressing story of Philomel and her importance to Shakespeare.

Sonnet 102

My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;
I love not less, though less the show appear;
That love is merchandized whose rich esteeming
The owner's tongue doth publish everywhere.
Our love was new, and then but in the spring
When I was wont to greet it with my lays;
As Philomel in summer's front doth sing,
And stops her pipe in growth of riper days:
Not that the summer is less pleasant now
Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night,
But that wild music burthens every bough
And sweets grown common lose their dear delight.
Therefore like her, I sometime hold my tongue,
Because I would not dull you with my song.

The AI Generation of The Fair Youth: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1meE-QvZMGa_dIeZR_0fxngX-1EOY1bCs/view?usp=sharing

Jacob Fortune-Lloyd joins me again to explore Sonnet 101. It's a dense one so strap in!

Sonnet 101

O truant Muse what shall be thy amends
For thy neglect of truth in beauty dyed?
Both truth and beauty on my love depends;
So dost thou too, and therein dignified.
Make answer Muse: wilt thou not haply say,
'Truth needs no colour, with his colour fixed;
Beauty no pencil, beauty's truth to lay;
But best is best, if never intermixed'?
Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb?
Excuse not silence so, for't lies in thee
To make him much outlive a gilded tomb
And to be praised of ages yet to be.
Then do thy office, Muse; I teach thee how
To make him seem, long hence, as he shows now.

We've hit 100 and to celebrate I am joined by friend of the podcast and esteemed actor Jacob Fortune-Lloyd for the next 4 sonnets! You might have seen him in The Queens Gambit, Bodies or Midas Man. You might even have seen him at the RSC if you like your Shakespeare!

I've attached the link to our AI generated Shakespeare, enjoy!

I got 99 Problems but this sonnet ain't one. .. But it is a little bit weird because it has 15 lines. Shakespeare takes flower personification to the next level.

Our story continues with a trip to Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.

Join me as I delve into the meaning of Shakespeare's Sonnet 98. We discuss Shakespeare's use of the seasons and his particular hatred of winter as well as diving into why he is comparing his lover to spring flowers. Our story continues with Christopher Marlowe's escape of Shakespeare's holiday cottage!